Africa #5 ~ Morning in South Africa

An alarm goes off at 6:30.  Brittany jumps out of bed, turns on the light, and does cartwheels up and down the long space between our bunks while singing, "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory..." Lauren sits up a few minutes later and says, "Good morning, everyone!  The King is enthralled with your beauty!"  Mikaela shakes Lacy and tries to get her to wake up.  There are a few squeals as bare feet hit the cold floor.  Hairbrushes, toothpaste, socks, Bibles, coats.  At 6:50, Gwen and I walk out the door early to run across the field and back before sitting on the cold, hard ground.  A little before 7, the others follow and everyone finds a place to have their quiet time for an hour.  The red sun rises over the hills in the distance.  Some walk through the field, some sit quietly, some dance.   The air puffs out of our mouths in little clouds of steam.  At 7:50, we walk to another building and stand outside, waiting for everyone to arrive.  We say the Declaration of a World-Changer, pray, and, at 8:00, we walk through the sliding glass door single file with hats off, saying good morning and thanking the ladies for breakfast.  We sit down and eat our porridge, oatmeal, or eggs with our daily toast covered in butter and apricot jam.  Each table asks Gurt for more toast and, when we thank him, he says "Pleasure!" in his South African accent.  When breakfast is done, we return to our dorm to grab everything we need for the day.  Water bottles, pens, Bibles, Gospels of John, cameras, hand sanitizer.  At 9:00, we board the bus and head out to Diepsloot, Kya Sand, or Msawawa.  This is morning in South Africa.