Participant Blogs

During our whole time in Morocco I was thinking ahead to our next country: Mauritania. One thing bugged me: the visas. It was possible to get our Mauritanian visas in Rabat, Morocco, but according to the Mauritanian embassy in South Africa we would be able to get it on the border. Knowing of the disconnect that so often exists between embassies and border controls I wasn't entirely comforted. Especially since it was Mauritania, the border was in the middle of the Sahara and I had read stories on the internet of guys coming up against the fluctuating rules at that...

1.Thou shall eat all that is set before thee. 2.Thou shall not bribe. 3.Thou shall hurry up and wait. 4.Thou shall use the toilet which is available for thee. 5.Thou shall not have any personal space and thou shall create space where there is none. 6.Thou skin shall spell US Dollars even though thou art from South Africa. 7.Thou shall have thy passport ready at all 500 000 police checks in every country. 8.Thou shall develop an identity crisis since thou art born in Africa but not considered African. 9.Thou shall love bread with all thy heart. 10.Thou shall love...

  Dear Friends,We are on the last stretch, heading homeward! We just completed the ministry time on Zanzibar and will start our trip down to SA in the next two days.The last few weeks God has been reminding us as a team to finish strong and has given us the scripture from 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."We know, with His grace, we can finish well.While on the island Anna-Marie visited us. She was of great encouragement to the whole team and also came to facilitate the...

  We stood for no less than 10 minutes when a big 18 wheeler truck pulled up. That first day in Kaffrine things were looking tough for us but now it was happening fast!   We ran over to the truck and the driver was more than pleased to give us a lift. In fact he wanted to buy us breakfast as well. We couldn't believe it. A lift and food- truly a miracle. We sat at a roadside café enjoying a traditional African breakfast: very sweet tea and some white bread with butter.   Of course a truck is...

 Left: Johan testing our Mauretanian driver's sunglasses on the trans-sahara trip.   Left: Planning our Sahara trip.  Left: Our driver and some of us. Late the 1st day.   Left: The craziness of Saint-Louis Senegal.                

  (This article has valuable insights on thinking about money in general but also has a number of specific references to those who are privileged to work for an NGO/Church/Missions organisation and need to raise monthly support.) As a missionary or volunteer one of the thorniest issues usually represents itself in the question of personal income. Where will I live and what will I eat? The idea of asking other people for money can come across odd, and granted, can be very tricky and sensitive. Some think it is difficult to raise support- and yes, it can have its challenges....

Finally the time came for the three different expeditions to each depart on their own adventures. Our first destination was of course Casablanca, Morocco, from where we would start making our way down to Cameroon in Central Africa. Along the way we would make longer stops to serve missionaries in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon.   From Nigeria we flew horizontally across Africa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from where we continued on our southward journey to South Africa.   Our introduction into Morocco was hectic. After flying through the night we were looking forward to some rest at our...

Mozambique/ Zanzibar Journey

Phase One

I've always liked and preferred Land Cruisers. We owned one once and in my dreams I always see myself driving a Land Cruiser through Africa.

Yet, such is God's irony, and humour, that he sent me on a mission trip with a Land Rover. The vehicle I was taught to fear.

After spending the night in the unknown small town we squeezed into another uncomfortable taxi and travelled to the closest big town of Bamenda. There we had to wait a full day at the bus station before we could catch the night bus to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Yaounde was only 373km away, and the road seemed ok, but it took most of the night to get there. By now the team was increasingly tired and our patience started to run thin. When we were surrounded by a few drunk men on the bus who ended up sleeping all...

Its the 12th of January and Basecamp 2009 has started! Explore Africa divided up into two teams and together with the other ten small teams of North- and Southbound, started to explore Jeffreys Bay in an amazing race.  We had to take variuos pictures at different places as allocated on our task paper.  The finishline is in sight and and Explore Africa Team 1 is going strong. Only ten more cars to wash and a tasty snoek to braai!   Go Explore Africa!