Day 4 - July 18th - Sunday

Three big things happened today: church, Project Canaan tour, and team orientation. Church was held on the property of Project Canaan in a little open air straw roof chapel that we dedicated this morning. A lot of different people talked and two groups sang, but the main speaker was a man named Vusie (VOO see). He was twenty two years old when he contracted AIDs from a girl who gave it to him deliberately. This is his eighteenth year of living with it. It's a miracle that he is even alive today! He is married to another HIV positive, and two of their three children are the same. today he thanks God that he got AIDs because through it he learned about forgiveness (by forgiving the girl who gave it to him), acceptance (by gathering with groups of other HIV positive/influenced people, who are generally treated as lepers by society), and hope (through learning about the hope found in Jesus and sharing it with others like him). The tour afterwards was very long and dusty, but very interesting and a lot of fun. Project Canaan was started only a year ago, and as we stood in a huge valley and scanned the horizons surrounding us, we were informed that what we were looking at was only ten percent of their land. In the land rover, it takes an hour and a half to drive from one end of the property to the other. They are planning on constructing a home for volunteers to live in temporarily, a home for abandoned or orphaned babies, and a place for their caretakers to take a break and rest. They're also starting a coffee plot so they can make profit for the land. The most fun part was catching a ride in a safari truck thing - we were going uphill on a slightly steep incline, and there were three "water bars" or dirt speed bumps on it, so the trucks had a really hard time getting up there. We had to stop about a third of the way up and wait for two other trucks to attempt to make it up the hill. After several tries, they eventually had to unload all their passengers and go up to the top, then reload. Our driver was a little more persistent and decided to take a "running start" to get us all up the hill while still in the truck. I was sitting in the second of three bench seats - on the OUTSIDE left of my row - and it was AMAZING! Think Indiana Jones. Lots of bumping, rocking, and tilting... it was almost as good as Thunder Mountain at Disneyland!

(For pictures of everything I mentioned and a little more info on some parts, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=194294&id=630849426&l=4a12305dc2)

Team orientation happened back at the hotel before dinner, so I got to meet and hang out with all the amazing people on Team 21! I already knew two of our team members - Dana Mays (my friend from school, who was actually the reason I went on this trip) and her mom Eve. The other five people I had never met before. Our team leader is Pete Wilkerson; he and his wife Julie have been on trips with Heart for Africa multiple times, and this time they brought along their fourteen-year-old son Kyle. We also have a woman named Sandra Mann and a man named Elliott Moon; although Elliott is with a band that is playing for Litsemba, so he won't get to be with us very often because of rehearsals. Can't wait for tomorrow - our first day at the church!