Just Over the Hill {Friday, March 6}

Some things just get lost in the whole cross-cultural experience. This has been a great source of entertainment for me.

Yesterday we had an AWESOME opportunity to visit the BEACH!! We went to two nearby schools and finished our day earlier than normal. Rev. Louwrens family was going to the beach and they wanted us to come along. Okay, you don’t have to pull my arm for that. It’s funny because as soon as you hear beach you know what you’re getting into. You drive, park, pull out your towel and lay out. I can do that.

I should’ve known better. So it starts out interesting as we have to park in someone’s backyard … the beach is just over the hill the locals tell us. We’ve got all of our towels, cameras, water bottles, the whole I’m an American tourist deal in tow. We run down the first sand dune and climb the top of another. We get to the top, and everyone is cracking up saying “you’ve GOT to be kidding me!!” We see the beach… like 5 miles away through what looks to me like Michigan sand dunes/African bush/Sound of Music. Suddenly beach day has a Survivor twist to it. The best part was the Pit Bull – Rotweiller dog that led us the entire way to the beach.

The beach was gorgeous. We had to swim across several bays, to sand bars, and then swim around into the Indian Ocean. It was crazy. I think I was driving everyone crazy with my broken record of “I cannot believe we are doing this. Did you ever think you would go to the Indian Ocean??? Oh my gosh. This is so cool.” Our group of 15 was, for the most part, the only people there. The Indian Ocean is rough! We went out in the waves and they were crazy. We also got to do some snorkeling in the bays and saw some pretty cool fish and a few polka-dotted eels. Ew!