Mandela, Meat, and Rugby

Baby, it's COLD outside! I kept hearing South Africans talking about the winter that was coming but it has been so warm that I thought we were going to get lucky.  But this morning the weather just snapped and it turned cold!  It's been so beautiful- sunny everyday with a high of 70 degrees, low of 50's.  But today, we woke up to weather in the 30's and a high in the upper 50's.  Thankfully it's sunny.  Our house doesn't have central heat so we have to rely on warm clothes and space heaters/heated mattress to keep us warm at night/early morning.  However, I was just informed that there will be a power cut in the city tonight, so no electricity from 10pm - 6am for us! The guest house staff just brought me candles.  :)
We have had a busy couple of weeks since I last updated and only have two more weeks here!  The longer we stay, I feel it will be harder to want to leave.  We really are enjoying our time here and feel so thankful that we are getting this opportunity.  Below are some pictures of what we have been up to.

A visit to Soweto and a tour of Nelson Mandela's home, the day he was put in the hospital.

 Kids on Mandela's steps- Evie loved learning that his first wife's name was Evelyn.

After touring his home, we ate at a local Sowetan restaurant called, Wandie's Place.  It was a cozy place that resembled the way people live and dine.  We were serenaded by an incredible woman which was a lot of fun too!  The kids loved it because they got to try jello for the first time! (Funny that we came all the way here to try jello for the first time.)

 Our family in Soweto

 Jimmy, Chad, Rodney, and Mike at Wandie's

 This is a photo of Evie and William watching some kids dancing outside of the African Craft Market.

 Rugby Game! 

 We all had a lot of fun at the game- Evie and William had never been in a huge stadium 

before so they loved all the excitement!

Go Lions!

 Evie and her fun friends, Sam and Michaela!

 Every street corner people sell things at your car, so Chad bought me this fun African flower before our date night with Tim and Naia Byrd.  Tim and Naia have become great friends. 

A huge statue of Nelson Mandela.

 Here Michaela, Danielle, and I visited with Sli and Mandisa in their dorm while they made flapjacks to sell in order to raise money for the Joint Winter Conference that is coming up this weekend 

(June 15-17).  The JWC is in Magaliesburg with 3 other Universities.  

 Here are two amazing girls that we got to spend the day with that are very interested in learning more about spiritual things! Pray they attend the JWC with us!

 Sweet Evelyn and Thandi holding hands after church!

William and Thandi playing at a park

Here is Evie and Thandi at Carnivore, a fun restaurant where they bring you 

all sorts of African meat to eat.

Karlie and Carly getting adventurous with me as we tried new foods!

 Carvers bring the spears holding the meat from the fire and carve the cuts of 

your choice directly onto your plate.

 I love Evie's face as she watches him cut me some meat!

 Playing at Bambanani! So thankful for this place!

The girls after our Friday Discipleship Group time.  This was at a cute little place called Cuppa Cafe.

And to update about William...we ended up giving up the big boy bed and bought a pack n play type bed for him to use the last month we were here.  It's made a HUGE difference!  We are all sleeping better and we will give the bed to the Zulu family (Zwai and Zee) when we leave!