Our African Travel Adventure (Part IV) - Home Strecth

Our African Travel Adventure (Part IV) - Home Strecth



(from before, but i forgot to post it)

Now, i dont know if your allowed to classify all of a 23 hour bus ride as a 'home stretch' but

in terms of the entirity of our journey, it definately was. im sitting here now, at 2pm on the 18th

as one of the last passenger on this bus. nearly everyone has gotten off, but were on untill

Livingston Zambia, the second last stop. now with only an hour left, this 23 hour section has been

the longest section, but to be honest, by now, were all too used to this. this bus again, traveled

mostly through the night, so rather uneventful. untill recently, about an hour ago, we arrived at the

Zambian boarded. our bus was greated by swarmes of zambaian dudes, all holding only the fattest stacks of

cash i have ever scene. as i found out quick enough about kwatcha and the classic exange scam.

so when they asked, we just said 'No, no, dont want any.' but i was holding the soccerball, again i said

no money, but i do have this.. (held up the ball, and they all smile. i rushed through immigration and

got the sketchest of visas. and was out playing kick-ups with all the hustlers right outside the boarder

crossing. real good time. when someone messed up, everyone would laugh. when someone would do a nice

move, everyone would clap and cheer. more and more would join in, and at this one point, i was

juggling the ball, then BAM. Hit by a car. nothing serious or anything, it just backed into me,

but it did make me drop the ball. but best part of all, every single on of them yelled at the zambian

driver, and asked how i was. no one laughed at me, no one said it was my fault. it was as if i was one

of them after about 20 minutes of soccer. in conclusion, if this is what all of africa is going to

be like, im going to like it, alot.

k. back to the bus ride. for the last hour. virtually everyone is gone, and Thomas our bus attendant,

come to our upper deck, we greeted him, and he pulled out a deck of cards and asked if we would like to play. so we played, we chatted,

and that brings the story to now, nearing the end of our travel, thomas does these trips all the

time, excet with one difference. thomas isnt allowed to sleep. yikes. so our trip has been surprisingly

nice. i dont know why i was expecting torture, but it really wasnt. so in the last 3 days, weve

flew back in time by 8 hours. sat on a plane for 14. the first bus was 12 hours. and the second

one was 12 more. we spent a day in Windhoek Namibia, and a last bus trip for 23 hours. and this is how you get to Zambia.

ps. so theres one last story that happened on either the first or second bus, that i have to mention. It was in talking to

an african dude, and the hecticness of travel. he was telling us about a phrase they have in africa like it means 'no problem'

he siad in the language of afracanns it's 'Hakuna Matata' and it means not to worry. we asked him if hes ever scene lion

king? he shrugged and said nope. we all fought to hide our laughter. eventually we moved on and so did this guy

but i will definately remember that conversation for the rest of my days, what a wonderful phrase.

..when we arrived at the YWAM base in Livingston, the very same day they had a guest leaving for

Jo-burg. i remember because that is where we flew into before 47 hours in those busses. oh

and the other reason i remember is becase her fight time to johanasburg: 2h 07mins. this is

how we learned some of the disadvantages of being a poor missionary over a wealthy tourist.

this was my first

interaction with a local so thinking back is intresting. i was shocked then when he just

came up and started asking our names and talking. but as i add this to the blog

almost a week later, ive talked with hundreds of people. and have come to learn that

in this nation, you can say hi to anyone and just stop on the steet to talk. such a wicked

culture. so welcoming and friendly. but at the same time, the

can say hi to anyone and everyone is willing to talk.

Our African Travel Adventure (Part III) - Through the Night and a Day in Namibia

After a 12 hour bus trip to upington, we got off for half an hour, just enough time to strech
our legs, move our luggage and grab some nice traditional african food, KFC. hungry enough to
crush a 20 pack myself. the food hit the spot more than ever and we were straight to our next bus
for another set of 12. this one again was not so bad at all. through the night from 7pm to 7am
slept as much as possible, and crossing the Namibain border at around 12 was intresting enough.
the security virtually non existant compared to crossing into the states, but at least, its a
stamp on the passport. theres really not much else worth mentioning about the bus ride because
we basically woke up at our destination. (which funny enough was on Rev. Micheal Scott St.)
and we departed the bus. But now its 7 am. and were in the country of Namibia. what to do? i should
mention that we were in Windhoek the capital, so it was a big city with malls, banks and shopping
centres. just at 7 nothings open. especially not in africa. we found a park close enough
to the bus station, and strangly enough it was one of the most beautiful parks i have ever scene.
rivaling central park, (not as big obviously) but almost as nice, for life of me i couldnt
figure out why. We set up camp near the Koi pond. we played cards near the gazebo, i took a nap under
a tree and read my bible in the garden. and after all this, i knew exactly why this park was
the way it was. City Workers, dressed in blue overalls. it seems as tho just about every Namibian
male either is a security guard outside of every store, sells newspapers or phone cards on the
street, or works for the city. and the park was swarming with them. So starting to think i really
like this country, we left the park around 1 to go the mall and get some lunch. we were each given
N$ 70 (namibian dollars) for the whole day.so for lunch and dinner to buy for, raf and i found
a grocery store and this is when i was SURE i liked Namibia. we bought: a loaf of bread (N$6),
jar of peanut butter (N$6), 2L bottle of coke (N$7), big bag of doritos ($N8), Box of MIlo cereal
($20), 2L of milk (N$20), and 9 apples (N$2 each). so for under 90 Namibian dollars each we had about
7 bowls of cereal each for lunch and 11 peanutbutter sandwiches to split for dinner, with
pleanty of snacks for the bus. so for all of that food, the N$90, that comes to about $10.50 USD.
this is africa. with the rest of our day, we went to a sketch interent cafe, picked up our luggage,
and played kick ups outside the bus station. best of all we were there early, so that meant
first dibs on final bus ride.

Our African Travel Adventure (Part II) - Jo-Burg to upington.

12 hours through the Kalahari desert. our day started at cedric's house at 4 am. that
sounds rough, but still functioning on aussie time, its almost noon. ate some leftover
spaghetti for breaky and at the train station by 530. while colin was sorting out the tickets
josh and I met a guy called Siezway and had an awesome chat with him. he was off to durban,
us Zambia. with our tickets sorted out, we went to find our bus for our long, cheap as bus ride.
your probably picturing a hot old rickity white bus, four to a seat, crammed, with the old
african women holding her chicken. because to be honest, thats what i was expecting. But no,
we boarded this deluxe double decker sleepliner. Rivaling any in Canada, i had a first class
size seat, abundant leg room, and a 360 degree panoramic upperdeck window view. We did do the
expected for a 12 hour bus ride. ate snacks, snoozed, ipod, and i did memorize
all the teams and what group they will be in for the worldcup.
but there were a few nice unexpected things also. when we found our seats on the bus
we were all seated togeather, EXCEPT anna. she was beside a stranger. a white african guy.
but after only 2 minutes we find out he also is a missionary named Dion and even knows YWAM. turnes out
sitting beside this guy for 12 hours was one of the most benifical things ever. he didnt stop
giving us tips about life in africa. how to keep away the mosiquitoes, what to eat, what to do for
water... basically 12 hours of that type of thing. we also exchanged some stories of our own
about the great white canada. also even at a rest stop, he bought us all a coke. this bloke
was great. so as our bus arrived in upington, my expectations for what it was going to be
like were smashed, and after our second leg of travel the spirits were still high and were all
feeling great!

ps. i dont know how i forgot to incorperate this into the post, but during our busride we
looked out the window at different times to see wild antalope, ostriches, camels, springbucks
and wildabeasts. this is africa.

The Incredible Travel Adventure Here (Part I) - The Flight

5 am. Bright and early. we started our day today by packing up all our life for 2 months into a van, saying goodbye to our home, and most sad-en-ing-ly (probably a real word?) we said bye to the 15 or so people we have been doing life with for the past 4 amazing months. after that, we got to the airport. It was a breeze, security - cake. and the wait wasnt much. basically what im saying is finding myself in seat 32 A, with snacks above head, and the tv infront of me, all systems appeared to be go. the personal tv was amazing, tv shows, movies and gaming. raf and i played multiplayer battleship against each other for hours. and the Man vs. Wild episode was mind blowing. also i bought and brought along my world cup magazine and a book. and of course the classic gameboy. basically what im getting at was entertainment was not an issue. actually, it was almost when i looked at the 'time to destination' that i read it as "only 7 h 3o mins left" as opposed to "still 7 h 30 mins" ok so i would also be remiss not to mention the food. i know people talk about air plane food: this that, this that... but really. it was superb. i had a chicken roast with potatoes for lunch and a beef goulash stroganoff for dinner. it really makes me understand why raf has been holding that grudge from when i didnt wake him for food on the way to australia. in fact, im almost on his side now. but those were beauty AND it only gets better. after the flight it was about 2 am australian time, but really on 3 pm in S.A. where we landed. andddd that means... dinner soon! we got back to cedric's (an amazing guy were staying with, id go on more about him but really not time) youll hear later forsure. and we ate an amazing spaghetti dinner. Nothing sets up an amazing day like two dinners. so the craziest part of it all ( as i gotta wrap up, running out of internet time) is i was so entertained in the 14 hours of plane travel that my ipod currently sits at 95%. i didnt even have to use the ipod charger, that every seat was fully equipped with. so yes amazing flight and thankfully safe travels. im just hoping for more of the same with our next couple days.

Z-Team

Well tomorrows the day. we leave for Johannesburg south africa on may 15^th. Im incredibly excited but just as anxious. Raf and i met a lady in Byron that live in Lusaka Zambia for 3 months, and in her word its was the hardest three months of her life. despite that, let me correct myself. Im 70% excited, 30 anxious. We have known our team for a while now, its raf and i, josh deeks from England, alli from Alberta, Kristen and anna from America, and colin ross our leader, from Scotland. Because were going to Zambia we have kind of adopted the name “the Z team” and going along with that we all have “Z” nicknames. Raf is Zoro, myself Zeus. Josh is Zebidee and colin Zachius but zac for short. Were still working on names for the ladies, but im almost positive anna’s going to be Zantac haha. Were all pumped. But theres still plenty to do tonight. Its gonna be a good one. Im stoked as.

this is our team:

Cheers mates.

So i just got a hair cut 5 minutes ago

its about 2am, Aachel Apple from the other DTS just gave me a haircut. we borrowed some clippers, found some scissors, and i just crossed our fingers. worst case senario she messes up, and i leave for africa in two days, concerningly, this gave her way to much relief, and she went to town.

clip clip buzz later.

heres my hair cut.

.....but more importantly:

brothers for life ha.

Byron Bay Beach Ministry

For our last 2 days in Byron we had set up beach tournaments. We have been talking about these beach tournaments to everyone in Byron that we got to know. On Thursday we had a soccer tournament and Friday was volleyball. Basically, what happened was we just rocked up to the beach, brought our bbqs and nets, set em up. And waited for some people. I set up brackets for both tournies, 16 teams. And just slotted people into teams as they came about. Some teams came because we talked to them in the past few days. Or, the just happend to be on the beach, found out what the commotion was about, and wanted in. And of course we included everyone. This is what the bracket looked like:

The first day we had soccer, the winning team was a group of 3 english guys and 2 french guys. They called themselves Liverpool. My team, the “tough guys” lost in the semi’s but considering the circumstances, i was cool with that. And for volleyball i did the same scheduling and this time raf and anna’s team won. They paired with a French guy Niko (who played on tough guys with me the previous day) and this dude from germany.

Both days were a massive success. this was me and jord presenting the coveted trophy and prize.

We in total had about 120 players between volley and soccer, and gave away hundreds of hamburgers and pancakes. So many people came up and personally thanked us, and almost everyone was keen to know about ywam and why we were doing this for everyone. Byron bay is essentially all backpackers coming through, and on beautiful days everyone hits the beach. So basically Byron bay beach ministry – genius.

i LOVE Wednesdays

during the lecture phase Wednesdays are special. just the greatest. we wake up at a reasonable time. have a little worship, a little class, a little lunch a little work duties, a little weekly sports and a little dinner. that would be classified as a good day in my book already. but 7 oclock rolls around. and i get really really pumped. we play our indoor soccer on Wednesday. we finished the league undefeated. and undisputed champ ha. but its not just about that. winning sure was good but we really got to know all the people there. i particularly got to know our ref. i guess for the first couple of weeks I wore my Greek team soccer jersey so he asked me if i was greek because thats where he was from. that open a conversational door and i really got to start talking to him. we'd chat a bit every week. and to be honest i even think he favored our team when he was reffing ha. he called me Wayne Gretzky obviously because i was Canadian. so throughout the weeks i got to know him and he told me that he was coming to toronto and montreal for his honey moon. so i wrote him up a list of things to do and even gave him my contact info. even tho hes probably 40 somthing, i think it would be more than rad to meet up in niagara falls. anyway moving on... by far, my favourite part of then night then comes now. i have a group of friends who show up at the sportlink around 9 30 and we play ball. at first we met so random. i was watching these other guys play and i just started talking to the guy beside me, not even know he played ball. turns out mike is crazy good at basketball and weve played ever week since. it started out to be just basketball on wendsdays and i would meet up with these guys. and we would play. but it turned into sick friendships we would then go out for drinks after. shoot pool. (the pic is mike and his girlfriend)

and grab a bite. these dudes were great and im gonna miss yall in africa. but ill meet up with them when i get back a play some ball no doubt.

this team is virtually pro.

so im writing this Wednesday blog because ive been meaning to for the past few wednesdays. but especially because tomorrow is the last wednesday of my lecture phase, as a matter a fact. its my last wed in australia for a couple of months... tomorrow were having a man night. no ladies allowed. well see how this goes. i just gotta run off now, were gonna toss out some prayers for africa.

catch ya on the flip.

cheers.

City Sydney.

this all happened on our way home from Byron bay. to give us relief from another 25 hr. straight van ride, we stopped over in sydney,which is approx half way.

we stayed at Jayne's church, and her islander family cooked us just about the most delicious dinner i have ever eaten. so we stay the night there. spent it playing mostly euchre with the addition of yet another Internet run at a macca's this time. so we spent the night, and woke up early the next morning in hopes of making our way to the hillsong church in the city. OUTRAGE. we got lost, like severely misplaced from where the church was in the hills and we didn't make it on time. i so so regret not making it to the service. but, luckily, raf and i are traveling when we return from Africa and well be on our own, so we can make a better effort to get there. however the day took a slow disappointing start, but it was, by no means lost. we started off in the harbour at the opera house and harbour bridge and not gonna lie, their kind of as cool as the hype.

oh let me back up for a second. this day happened to be last Sunday- Mothersday. so jordo matty raf and i invented a game to talk to the most mom's. i wont go into details on the scoring system but lets just say this picture captures the winner and the runner-up (myself's) effort in this game.

ok so back to our adventures. we walked around the town, and found an apple store similar to that of the one in NYC. so we went in and they have it set up that "customers" can use row upon row of macbooks. with Internet!!! so this gold mine did our ywam crew well. adding to the number of creative places ive used Internet, raf and i used this one to meet up with two friends that we have in Sydney. we fb'd dev and justin and waited out side the apple store and played another invented game. this one was called: 'girlfriend or daughter?' and unfortunately too many were way too close to call. so after the people watching was done, the time had come to meet up with our friends, we found devin kelly and justin nicole on pitt st. (a pretty rad street downtown) and found a nice place, and had a drink that overlooked the harbour.

it was way to cool to catch up with these guys here in aus. they were telling us all about the Hillsong college and the stuff that their up to in Australia. and we plan to meet up with em again as we travel back up the coast when we get back from africa. so that was way to cool, but they had too take off, so we headed back to the opera house (our meeting place) a little early to wait for the rest of our dts and be back on our way. ....and that is when this happened:

yep, thats Raf and I. and note the security guard by the grey car, who was conveniently just out of sight. im pretty sure that this act made us into several Asian tourists photo albums.

It was quite a great day,

... oh i just remembered one more thing worth adding before i wrap up. in Australia they have this thing at MacDonalds called a family dinner box. meant for a family, but just perfect for me and my mate Vidar. it was 10 bucks each, so only 20 in total. and to myself got: a big mac, a small fry, a cheeseburger, a small coke, another small fry, chicken nuggets and a medium strawberry triple thick milkshake. Beautiful. you can literally feel your arteries hardening.

then we were back on the road for a dozen hours or so. i got sick. big surprise.

Mt. Warning

So obviously if youve read the post below this you would know that yesterday was a quite eventful day. I already reached a level of tiredness that resulted in eviction from a bar. So the next morning, what do we do on our day off? Rest? Never. We climb a mountain. Mt. Warning is a Mountain that you can see from all over the surrounding region. The peak is well above the cloud line, and to be exact the summit is 1,100 Metres. We left the base at 9, got to the mountain at 10 and set off about 10 minutes later. The hike is a steady incline for the majority. This is the view from halfway up

and when you reach about 1 Km elevation. The last 100 meters is a literal rock climb up. They have a chain in place to make it easier, but of course we didn’t use it. From the top, the sight was amazing. Hes some photographic proof. We also took a series of photos that we fixed into a panoramic shot, but unfortunately i cant upload it to blogger. So yes, we all made it to the top, safe and sound. And ate a well anticipated lunch. According to our friend who lives here, it takes an average person 2 hours to hike it. Our fit crew did it in 1 (we took breaks a photo opportunities: pythons, gnarley trees and lookout points)

This is us at the summit.

but it was mostly passing people the whole way up. this photo is on a tree hanging over a steep decline. (and i only bother to add that because i know how much my mom loves when i do things like this)

Also according to Erika, They say it takes an average person 1.5 hour to descend. This is where our story gets interesting. As soon as we got back down the steep chain part, four of us. Colin, Jordan, jon and I decided to run it down. The run turned into a race, which turned the running into sprinting, and the stairs into leaps, and the tree trunks into hurdles. Long story short- We sprinted the entire way down. In 18 minutes! This was quite possibly the most physically exerting thing i have ever done. Which adds to why I am very proud of this result. And not to brag, but as a comparison point the Byron dts also “ran” down and they were proud of their 34 minute time. Granted they are not a sports dts, and they don’t hail the scrapes we do from sprinting so recklessly and wiping out a time or two. But in my opinion. It was more than worth it. So back to the story, the four of us get to the bottom. Extremely pleased with ourselves and elated that the treachery is over. And that we made it, for the most part, unscathed. So we to off our shoes, followed the creek of the path to a little spot with a trickling waterfall where we could just sit, chill and put our feet in the water. So we had a chat in this picturesque setting for about an hour or so as we waited for the rest of our mates to return. And when they did and lacey came and found us that when the ‘not fun’ began. We all tried to get up about the same time and all got instantaneous leg cramps. My quad cramped first forcing my leg to go straight stiff. So i punched behind my knee to bacically get it to unlock, ...and that when the hamstring cramp came. For the four of us this was basically a scene of utter disarray and agony. The moaning mixed with the laughs at the irony of the circumstances made for quite an interesting situation. We all decided we better tough it out and force our way back to the path before we could lterally not move. So we made it back, to the van safe and sound, attempted to stretch. Failed to stretch, and left for home. That was the end of that adventure but luckily enough, the beginning of another one.

*pause story*

During our dts we have come to an unstated agreement, you see a hitchhiker, you pick him up.

*Resume story*

So one the way home, driving through the mountain valley of wallahwimbie what do we see? A hitchhiker. And As Nabsi the 50 plus shaggy hippie is getting into our van we had no idea what to expect. But as we chatted with him we were way surprised and totally intrigued with all he was on about. We learned that he, like steve and Woodstock move in here 73’ but the rad thing was, it was only when he moved here did he find the Lord. He was telling us about the 20 acres of land he owns out in the mountains, and we asked him if he has a house there? He proudly said nope, but he built a shed, with no windows or doors, and he lives in that. He also told us that he shares his shack with birds and snakes, possums and wombats. so basically hes homeless, but rockin out on life. Someone asked him if he was afraid of getting bit by a snake (reminded of the python we saw earlier) and his response was 100% biblical. He brought up the time when paul was bit and the venom had no affect on him because he had gods protection. About this time, his stop was nearing so we pulled over and he got out, we prayed for him and he was off. With still a 4 mile walk into the mountains ahead of him, we wish him all the best and that was the first and last time we’ll ever see that man. All in all the day was a great success.

Ps. As i post this almost a week later, i can still feel it in my legs from running down that mountain. Verdict: way worth it.

One Day in Byron

Today we have a day off and it couldn’t have come at a better time because we had a pretty crazy day yesterday. We are staying at old nev’s church in Byron, so we went to the service in the morning and watched nev jammed out for worship, which never disappoints. As the message they discussed the social injustices going on in northern Uganda. And man, it was rough. I sometimes forget about emotions, but when a topic like child soldiers and senseless massacres is being discussed, they get tugged pretty hard. So we had quite a while debriefing what we talked about and prayed for the nations. After that, we decided to hit up the Byron bay beach and set up a bbq. The beach is massive for backpackers, quite a crazy beach. Youll no doubt hear me talking more about this place because thats where we plan to do most of our ministry. So we set up the bbq. and the volleyball net. And let the games begin. Now obviously, soon as you toss up a bbq and a vball net. The people come by the heaps. We played volleyball which some people from france and spain. Meanwhile some of the others had a soccer game with some aussie. We handed out some burgers and hit the waves with some of the people we met. Around 5 we had to pack up, because we were heading to church again. We got told about this crazy rad hippie church called New Earth Tribe. Had no idea what to expect going in, and even when I got in and saw the set up and the outfits, my expectations were even more far out. But honestly, for the 4 hours and 20 minutes we were there, it was awesome. They did worship, like nothing else. we worshiped for 3 hours-singing 4 songs. Everyone packed up the front, in front of the pillows dancing and jumping, just going for it. The message was really good too, basically what I took away from it was how you perceive God determines how you relate to him. She really explained it all about relationship, rather than religion. And thats what its gotta be about I reckon.

Then we decided to go into town to find a place to watch the football, we watched the first half at this beach bar, and then they shut. So we found somewhere else still open. We went to a hotel next to watch the second half. Now, this is where the story gets eventful so try and keep up. We were on these mad comfy couches, and im sorry, but i was absolutely exhausted from the day, so i fell asleep. I half wake up to the security guy telling me its time to go home, and to get out. So in my half sleep haze i guess I just agreed with him and walked out with him. Everyone was still sitting around me, oblivious the situation but they did watch me walk out, and they were like what did he do? Laura asked me where i was going as i was being walked out, and i guess i wasstill out of it. I turned to they guard and mumbled “but everyones still here” not making my case any better. I found myself out the door. Iwasnt until then and i got hit by the fresh air, did i fully come too, and understand the situation. He must have thought I was drunk off my face. (because as you may learn, isn’t that rare for visitors of this town) falling asleep on the couch and my half comprehendable mumbles didn’t do a good enough job convincing him otherwise. So now, by myself, outside, late at night. I ensured the rest of my mates to just stay and enjoy the game. and i was off for a strool. At this point, I was happy with the situation. And coulnt have been bothered to even go back to a couch. So in my journeys, I met four girls that gave me a slice of pizza, ran into the infamous white dog that wanders the streets of Byron that weve seen a few times before (including that same day, when it came into the service at new earth tribe. Continueing i bought candy from this guy named jarieff at a store. And then ran into Jordan and raf! They were with this guy named jye. Jye was unfortunately, way off his face. He claimed to have lived in Byron for 108 years. And also that he was, 36, 28 and 19 years old. And to be honest, it could have been any of those. ..well maybe not 108. So we continue on with them. Then the three of us ditched Jye while he was distracted by a pack of girls. Walked the beach, and then we again parted ways. Raf and jord stayed at the club. I headed back to the hotel, as im walking up to it, all my friends walk out. Perfect timing, but awful result. Chelsea won 2 – 0. We got in the van. Drove home. I made a bed. Goodnight. The end.

Also...Today matty and vidar went skydiving. Ive seen the video proof. And according to matty the feeling of getting sucked out of a plane is the feeling of when your stomach goes in your head, times a billion million. This brings me to my next subject, If anyone would like to pay for me to fall out of a plane at 14 000 feet. It would be my pleasure. Now really, the end.

Tribe Time

I wrote this back while we were staying in Fingle but like all the other ones am only getting to post it up now.

So as you may know or not, we stayed in an aboriginal community, and every day we had time with some of these real rad aboriginal dudes. The idea was, that they would just show us and teach us a little bit about their culture and history for a couple hours in the aft every day. It turned into easily the best part of everyday. And we got chances to do some real wicked things that we would, or could never otherwise do. The first day for tribe time, they took us for a walk down our beach. As well as up a path that led to a lighthouse and sea cliff.

[ocean spray pic]

We would stop at different points and gather and the guys would tell us a traditional aboriginal story. For example we saw a dolphin from the lighthouse point, and they told us a tale about Gewonga a warrior hero that was turned into dolphin when he killed one in anger. The story would take quite a while to recite in full, but the neat thing about every story was that they had a very evident moral and lesson to be learned. So as we continued walking, they would show us the indigenous plants that were cool to eat. And which trees were good for what. (for example, which tree was the best for making spears, which we did for tribe time the following day.

[spears pic]

Also they showed us a cave on the beach, that may have gone otherwise unnoticed.

[cave pic]

Finally for the first day on tribe time we caught and killed dinner. aka. A wild turkey. Over.

MardiGrass in Nimbin.

Ok this is quite possibly the craziest day I’ve ever had. i do my best setting the scene. Ok lets start with the who what where when why. Basically its a culmination of hippies and weed enthusiasts from all across the world. What: its a town of 357 (according to the Australian government) but that most due to the fact that hippies don’t generally work harmoniously alongside the government. Theyre just not registered but theyre there. And believe me theyre definitely there. So this town of technically 357 was filled with over 9,000 people all as a political statement to the government in favour of legalizing marijawana smoking and selling. Their big demonstration was at 4:20 pm when they paraded a giant inflatable joint and everybody lit up when the clock struck 4:20. And even as they were counting down..10..9..8 they were throwing joints into the crowd so that everybody could be a part of it, and i think at about...7...6 i got hit in the head with an already rolled joint. Shocking. Who would have thought being hit in the head with a joint could somehow be part of a ministry? This brings me to why we were there. Working along side the Byron bay DTS were helping out with one of their main events every year. They all really have a passion for Nimbin because of its proximity to Byron, as well as the fact that what nimbin really needs, especially the people gathered for the weed festival, is to experience the love of god. So ya, thats what we were there to do. Go out, meet people and show them some love. We set up a free bbq where we cooked pancakes and made chi tea, just as an easy way to show the people that were here to serve them and it often resulted in them asking the question why are we doing this? Which perfectly opened the door for us to explain to them about ywam, our school and just talk about god, however we felt led. The bbq was a god time, and raf and i became master pancake chefs but we also had some cool experiences walking around at night. For example matty and i took a stroll and we see Jordan obviously already talking to these two guys. So we go over to join them. now i only wish I had a picture, but you need to understand these guys. They were i would say, in their mid 50’s the one was named steve, the other, Woodstock. Fully decked out in hemp clothing, steve had dreads, Woodstock a ponytail. Neither wore shoes and between the two of them they were sharing 3 joints. We had a killer convo with the guys, talked for quite a while. We learned that they moved to nimbin in 1973 which is the year that all the hippies moved in. And that is when nimbin and Byron changed from farming community to a hippie one. (who i assume still farm, just a different plant if you know what i mean. ) also Jordan later told me that Woodstock believed in the spiritual, but steve wont have it. So as they were walking away, Woodstock ask if we would pray for steve, which i thought was real rad. Anyway all in all, it was a crazy, interesting, exciting day. Thats all for now

Peace out.

spear making, sea kayaking and the most easternly point in Australia

again this is a post from days back but im just tossin her up now. these events happened in fingal, the ocean, and by the lighthouse at byron bay. one day for tribe time joel called up his friend who owns a kayaking school. he brought down his kayaks on a trailer and we gave it a whirl. this is me and jon. the self proclaimed experts. the waves were choppy as on this day, and their were several near death experiences. but no fatalities, so an all in all success in our books.

its always a good day when no one drowns. then a new day, and another tribe time.

on Thursday we made spears. some successful, but most an utter failure, this was the beginning stages. its quite a process to fashion a fine spear, but when your a virtual aboriginal warrior like myself, its same ol same ol. We in the wilderness use these spears to hunt wild turkeys and stingwrays in the ocean.

..And then this happened in byron. well actually nothing actually happened, we just went. in byron bay, their is a light house on a pier that claims the title of 'the most easternly point in Australia. what is the significance you may ask? well im still trying to figure that out for myself.

The whole reason we were there is because we went to this pier to pray over the city of byron and pray blessings upon everybody traveling through and that we would interact with in the days plans of soccer and volleyball tournament. and some of us guys went on a journey of our own afterwards. obviously hoping the fence, ( ive come to realize things are always cooler when you go past the fence) we discovered this spot. 'the most easternly part of the most easternly point in Asutralia.'

cheers mates. were going to africa in two days.

Even Worse.

So now, again in the hunt for internet i find myself back at the secret location revealed to me by my friends from Estonia. Only this time, I find myself on the curb. Alone. And In the dark. And now i quite miss the comfort of a hippy van and interesting accents. But alas, i have internet. The only possible way for me to bring these posts to you, and keep and contact with my dearly missed friends and family. So basically, ill also just say for the blog, i cant upload everything all tonight, but as i do, ill just put it under the date it happened, or close to as possible. So i wont show up on the top. Basically just saying you may have to scroll down a bit. but apparently if you have a mac, scolling is just soooo easy.. so i don’t even feel bad at all.

Anyway heres me at the moment- A little lonely, and a little scared, but happy enough to be on the good ol’ interweb.

Rain Forest Rock Slide.

So today. Tribe time was a good one, we went with joel and kaleb to this national park with a beautiful hiking path. but whats even more beautiful is only found off the path. so thats of course where we went. they took us off the path, past the warning sign,

over the fence and upon one of the most incredible things ive ever seen. a fresh water pool, in the rain forest. with a rock slide about 50 meters down the way. we cliff jumped into the pool,

jon being the most reckless, leading the way and jumping the extra high tree, we eventually moved on the the rock slide. colin, our fearless leader lead the way. anddd.... nearly died. having watched that everyone got way to spooked. but after a minute or two matty got nuts enough too. and here he is:

and my feature presentation, after have already gone, i put my waterproof camera to the test. i figured shooting down a rock slide off a mini waterfall into a rock pool surrounded by jagged rocks couldn't be a better place to start. so here it is: enjoy.

jon has the biggest ca hones...

The never ending quest for the almighty internet.

this post i am writing now is not going to be long.

and its mostly and explanation. but i havent had internet for the last 5 days. and even the week before that it has been too slow to either post or upload. so heres whats up.

now i feel like as im writing this its like some sort of urgent message because im just trying to type it out as fast as i can, since the internet has been so dodgy its had for me to believe i have found a sufficient source. but for the time being, i think i have. and the explanation of where and how, is quite an interesting one.

currently i am at a secret internet location, given to me and jordan by two girls today. we are sitting in a hippie combie van. (in the back on a mattress) from 1982. the van is spray painted tie die, and it belongs to these two girls. They are from Estonia, and have been traveling through aus for 8 months. its just the four of us, me, jordan, Estonian girl # 1, and Estonian girl #2. and were sitting parked on the side of a street, with the lights off. Outside of someones house who has neglected to lock their wireless access. Thank you foolish resident of 423 Abby St.

And this is how i am communicating to you right now. Furthermore i have many post to upload, just haven’t been able to. and still dont think i can now, but I felt this urgent message was a priority. Now I need to respond to as many emails if I still have time left. I also have more to add about the internet topic, but i just add it later.

Bye for now keep your fingers crossed this int holds up.

Ps. Its 1:21 am.

pps. i hope they didnt read my screen right now, or else thats embarrassing.

I cant make a title that doesnt give it away so this is the title.

soo..this all happend during our stay in Fingle heads. The boys toilet was being terrorized by a rather giant spider. we were peeing in fear for too long, so we decided to take action. raf grabbed a weapon, i my camera. together got an audience. and here you are:

raf kills a spider

and then, this happens. turn up the vol and listen closely to fully understand why in the world.

ya...just...ya.