08-12-08

Normally when a team comes to Bethesda, they have a free day the Saturday before they leave. Well the Saturday before we leave will be a busy day for us because there is a confrence open to pastors in community to raise awareness about the ministry going on here at Bethesda. So we needed to be here for that. So we had our free day early. We drove about an hour to get to Hartebeesport. This is an open market where you barter for the souveniours you'd like to buy. We both had experience with bartering from our previous missions trips, but that is not even comparable to the bartering here. If you looked at a particular item for more than a moment, and certainly is your were to touch something or pick it up, the shopkeeper would be bagering, begging and following you to buy that item. They start off by giving you their best offer (which was 2 o3 times the actual price) and it was typical to offer half or less than half of the storekeeper's best offer. You then had to barter and eet somewhere in the middle (they would literally beg you for more money for the item saying it was to feed their children). If you didn't take the offer, they would follow you or they would tell the next shop over what you were looking for. It was mind boggling. We were able to purchase some suveniors and gifts for people (shhh don't tell them!).

After a morning of bartering, we drove another hour to Pilanesburg. This is a nation game reserve. It was so beautiful, and the nicest/wealthiest area we have been to in S'africa (it is a tourist area). We went on a game drive in a big canvas covered jeep. It was much better than the zoo back home. The animals roam free in their protected natural habitat. We saw monkeys, giraffe, ostrich, hippo, rhino (with a baby!), elephant, zebra, impala, wildebeest, an eagle, an owl, a couple lions, hartebeest,waterbuck, tsessbe, springbok, bushbuck, sable antelope, and eland...to name just a few. It was absolutely amazing and breathtaking to see God's magnificent creation. It was pretty crazy getting to go on a lion hunt just as the sun was setting, but we did find them which we were so excited about.

Before we left the game park, we got to try some authentic African cuisine. We sampled crocadile, ostrich, and "african big game". It was all excellent, this is coming from both Andrew AND Kate (she really did like it!). It was already late before we started our two plus hours back to Bethesda....the trip ended up being much longer. We got lost and turned around on the way back, it doesn't help to be on the correct road, see a sign for the city we are going to and then take three lefts to get to the correct road. In Andrew's way of thinking, the third left would head you in the exact opposite direction of where you wanted to be headed. Either way, we finally made it back to our road 45 minutes later and was on our way. We just had a little extra time to fellowship with the Cryan's (who took us to all these places) and it made for a little shorter night of sleep. The day was a great adventure, and we hope that the pictures will turn out.