On driving and running out of gas in the middle of the night in a strange continent:

So driving is a past time of Matt's in the states, Matt loves to go and have a nice trip into the country and enjoy God's creation. Here it is a little different. As we said before, we practiced the Saturday we went for a hike and did ok for our first times. Matt drove in the hills and in Franschhoek and Leslie drove in Stellenbosch. We took our time and just got the feel of it with no particular place to go.
Then came Monday. We were told that we had to go to Stellenbosch by ourselves, in traffic and be there early in the morning. We were flung on the unsuspecting victims of the South African roadways. Luckily there were no casualties but one woman did lose a hand bag and we gained a hood ornament. Just kidding, but we have had some very interesting experiences in the cars here.
We ran out of gas two nights ago going up hill at 11:40 PM on our way home before curfew at midnight! We tried to turn around and start to coast back down the hill but didn't make it and had to stop in the middle of the down hill lane before we hit a ditch. Quickly we jumped out of the car to try and push it away from the ditch but because of the way the turn was banked, we couldn't make it budge.
Cars were zooming by us and we were blocking a lane of oncoming traffic. We had to act fast. So Matthew, using his super human strength lifted the back of the van and set it down facing the way we had come. Or we just kind of turned a little more and missed the ditch. Either way, we started back down the hill.
It was about 5 miles of coasting, 10 minutes of prayer and more then a couple of deep sighs before we reached a gas station within our coasting distance. It was a close call but not as close as the one we had today.

But it is late here and we want to keep you reading our blog so we will save that for another update.

Goodbye for today and God bless,


Matt and Leslie

Wow it has been a roller coaster.

We have received Xhosa names, learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road, got lost in the wrong side of town twice, listened to stories of hope, peace, sadness and great joy. We have led groups for orphans, worked on the academy and have gone on a tour of Robben island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. So lets start at the beginning (I am going to try to do a new post for each story).

Our names:
Igama lam ngu Kwezi! (q-way c) We were helping out one of the orphan support groups and the wife of the pastor, Llulama, said that we needed to get some more supplies. So Leslie and I went with her to the store (which was an experience in itself) and helped carried the supplies. We were on our way out and she asked if we had Xhosa names yet. We said that we didn't and so she looked at me and said, "Your Xhosa name is Kwezi." I said thanks but had no idea what she meant by it. Later it was explained to us that the people here give us new names. Leslie was given her name later that day. It was also explained to us that it was very unique to receive our names the way we did. Mine means Bright morning star, which is a name that has not been given to a staff before and Leslie's is the female version of the same name. Having names that are similar is also very rare. We were told that it means we look like we are perfect for each other. Very cool!


We love you,

Kwezi and Nokwezi

P.S. I am sorry I can't send any pictures yet. I am not able to get the camera to work, but I will keep trying.

We just wannt to say that we have been very busy and are going to try to relate some of our adventures in this evening so keep checking. Hopefully we will have pictures for you.

We love you all,

Kwezi & Nokwezi (our Xhosa names)

Driving on the wrong side of the road!! This week we have been learning how to drive so that we can get around on our own. Matthew has done great, today is Leslie's turn.
Weekends are free time and yesterday we went hiking outside of Franschhoek in the pouring rain. The mountains are beautiful and look like the Scottish Highlands. At one point the fog was so thick we lost site of the car!
It has been beyond anything we could have imagined. The beauty, the need, the love of the people and the presence of God. Very cool!
We hope to post some pictures soon but we forgot to bring our cable so it might take a while.

We love you all,

Matt & Leslie