Faith Adventures: “Legally Blonde in Africa”

The title for this entry comes from an email that I received the day I left for my canoeing adventure. A friend of mine shared my previous blog update with her friend…and her friend replied, “That sounds like it could be a movie…Legally Blonde in Africa.”

The trip on the whole was far better than I ever imagined. I kept looking for funny stories that I could write about, or adventure mishaps of a city girl in the outdoors…but to be honest I realized that I am much more cut out for this than I thought!

We left early Sunday morning, September 28th for our nine hour drive to our base camp, just over the Namibian boarder. Our 60 seater bus soon filled up with 6 leaders and 28 teenagers. I was surrounded by new faces that were soon to become friends. Out of all those young people only one guy had thought to bring CDs along so our music selection became VERY limited as we rocked out to Linkin Park! Caroline and I nicknamed this guy the “Music Nazi” (we had many names for kids) as he controlled the music, and unfortunately I was sitting directing under a speaker so after our long journey I was convinced I had become deaf. It really was a great group of teenagers that ranged between 8th- 11th grade, and from a variety of high schools in Cape Town.

On arrival we had to set up our sleeping areas, there were a handful of kids that brought tents, but you would be proud to know that I slept in the open with a shared ground sheet (tarp), my camping mat and a sleeping bag! (Overall I slept great except for the few occasions I woke up to find I had slid right off my mat and tarp…its amazing how you slide around in sleeping bags…especially on ground that slightly declines!) Bright and early in the morning we had to begin packing for our canoe departure. Each individual was given one bucket for their personal belongings, a shared bucket with your ‘paddling buddy’ for your sleeping bags, and also a shared cooler for drinks. A friend of mine who had been before also advised me to bring a smaller bucket to keep at my feet for snacks, camera and sunscreen…this became my “handbag”. Its always amazing in the end at how little we need, I wore my swimsuit and a sarong during the day and long bottoms and a fleece at night.

Caroline and I decided that we were going to be canoe partners…many of the teenagers paired up with friends, so we thought why not brave it together. The four days that followed on the river pretty much took the same form: Up early with the sun, breakfast by the fire, pack up camp and onto the river…canoe for 3 to 4 hours, which often included some rapids, then stopped for a lunch break later in the afternoon, and after a rest we would get on the river for a few more hours before our evening stop…then we would unpack and try to get organized before the sun went down and everything went pitch black (we had no moon!). In the evenings I often wore a head lamp (yes me!) to get ready for bed. The stars were AMAZING! What a gift it was to be in a beautiful location, with a clear sky, no moon, just FULL of stars. Gods Glory was so evident.

After our first day of paddling I was extremely sore, especially my fingers and arms! The weather overall was fantastic but that first day, after lunch, we hit lots of wind that blew towards us with great force…thus we had to paddle twice as hard to get anywhere! Well my fabulous canoe buddy and I made it! We definitely were a great pair and even got down the largest rapid Sjambock on the second day without capsizing…and are proud to say we never capsized the whole time! Ok…to be honest there was more than one occasion where we almost capsized…and the time we accidentally went down backwards…but I’ll leave that to your imagination!

Overall the trip was marked with great laughter! I probably laughed more on this one week trip than my whole time in South Africa combined. Laughing is truly medicine to the soul! One of the other leaders was a guy named Brett Anderson. He is a youth pastor at another church in Cape Town, and came to be the speaker….but he is also a stand up comedian and does ‘theater sports’ on the side. He had such a dry sense of humor that EVERY thing that came out of his mouth made Caroline and I giggle. One afternoon we were waiting to go down a set of rapids one canoe at a time…and one of the canoes ahead of us had capsized and had hit another canoe in the process. So there was a big back up and about ten of us ended up waiting at the top for nearly a half hour until the muddle below was cleared. Brett in his no stop humor kept making jokes and creating songs having to do with the situation…and Caroline and I were laughing so hard that we couldn’t keep it in. In front of everyone we jump out of our boat into the water to quickly relieve ourselves…yes in front of the group! Over the week the teenagers also made us laugh…I realized that when they are trying to be funny they are rather annoying, but when they are just being themselves, they are hilarious! There are surprisingly many similarities from working with Preschoolers and High Schoolers!

On the third night I was asked to share something from my ‘faith journey’ at our evening session around the campfire. As I thought and prayed about it that morning it became evident that I was meant to teach on the things Jesus is teaching me right now…not something I necessarily learned in the past. I ended up talking to the kids about identity and what we find our significance in. I challenge them not to find their worth in what they do or what they are involved in…but in who they are in Christ, keeping Jesus the foundation of their lives…for his love is never ending or conditional. I told them that if they could learn the truth of this at a young age it would save them years of pain. How often do we look to relationships, friendships, grades, jobs, and material objects to define our worth…especially in high school!

Well, now I’m back in civilization and I get asked the question…Would I do it again?…and the answer is a big YES!...However, at the moment I’m enjoying my cozy bed, warm shower, real coffee and a glass of wine in the evenings (no sundowners on the river with a bunch of teenagers!) I wonder what’s next? I’ll keep you posted….

On the ride home one of the girls said to me, “I don’t think I have worked my upper body muscles like this in months,” I smiled and said, “I haven’t worked my upper body muscles like this in my ENTIRE LIFE!”

Oh by the way...we paddled 75k in 4 days...pretty good for this city girl!

A few pictures: