Pictures!

Mini Derek Fisher

Beard a month ago

Beard 2 weeks ago

All taken by my friends

Taken by yours truly

view from Table Mountain

explanation of the cloud, or tablecloth, often spilling over table mountain

Table Mountain- 4-18

Saturday, we were scheduled to climb Table Mountain.  Table mountain is an amazing mountain that looks over all of Cape Town.  Our bus arrived at the foot of the mountain in the morning, and we were met with incredible winds.  We were advised by rangers, a policeman, and other hikers that we should not attempt the climb.  Table Mountain is one of the top death causing mountains, but a small group of us were determined to face the winds nonetheless.  And I justified that most of the deaths were from cliff climbers, not trail hikers.  This “fact” seemed vaguely familiar to me as something I had heard, but it is likely that it was completely fabricated by my subconscious.  But it was good enough for us and we were even more intent on climbing.  Then our semester coordinators told us climbing the mountain was not an option because it was too unsafe.  Plan B was to go downtown, and from there everyone could split up to shop, go to the beach, etc.  After driving into town, me and 7 others immediately hopped into a taxi and went straight back to the mountain to climb it anyway.  And we did.  Our motivations of the morning were even more magnified by rebellion: not only against being told we may not do it, but against being told we were not capable of doing it.  It was definitely a hard hike.  It was very long and tiring, but we were pretty safe the entire time, and we ultimately climbed the trail in much less time than it was marked to take.  The summit was beautiful.  Our soreness and tiredness was obliterated inside the shadow of our desire to frolic.  And frolic we did.  We frolicked around the huge summit and all the way back down the mountain while thoughts of friendship and badassery danced in our heads.

Travel Week- pretend this was posted 4-16

This past week we drove all the way across South Africa, from Pietermaritzburg to Cape Town.

We stayed in six different hotels along the way, and because the entire drive was along the coast, most nights were spent hanging out on the beach.

On Sunday we were in Port Elizabeth, and it happened to be the day of the South African IronMan triathlon.  The beach part of Port Elizabeth looked more like a level in Tony Hawk video games than any place I've ever seen.  My good friend Derek and I have missed playing basketball this entire semester, and we often talk about how nothing sounds better than playing a game of basketball.  Derek and I walked up to an empty swimming pool and I looked up and saw a basketball rise above the roof of a building and hit a backboard.  My involuntary response was to ecstatically yell a swear word or two, and we were both running towards the court immediately.  We came around the corner to see a group of guys playing ball.  We asked if we could get in, and we kicked off our flip flops and played an hour of ball in our bare feet and beach clothes.  Oh boy did we dominate.  It was so awesome, and despite the new blisters on our feet, we felt so refreshed.

The following day we went bungy jumping, at what is apparently the highest jump in the world.  On the platform, music was playing and everyone was dancing, which created a great distraction before the jump.  The jump was so amazing and surreal.  It was oddly peaceful, and if it weren't for all the blood rushing to my head, I wouldn't have minded hanging there all day.

We arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday which happened to be my birthday, and we had an awesome two days of exploring the city.

Internet has been sketchy, so I haven't been able to blog in a month.  These next two blogs were written a couple weeks ago, but I'm just able to post them now.

End of Service Sites

I am now done with my time at Walk in the Light.  Tonight we stay in a Zulu Village, then safari Monday through Wednesday, then off to Cape Town on Saturday.  I can't believe there's only a month before returning home.

We finished the house just in time and it was so stinkin satisfying.  I haven't finished processing my past month of work, so I may post more later about what I learned from it.  Here's a couple things I've been thinking about the last few days.

First thing, I'm starting to really enjoy change.  For the last two years, every set of four months has been completely different.  I have lived in 4 different places and so many changes have occurred even when the place where I lived had been the same.  But sometimes I think I might be too used to change.  During class, I was counting down the days to service sites.  During service sites, I was counting down the days to Cape Town.  Now, both flew by, and I'm looking forward to going home for summer.  I love it here.  And I love it at home.  I want to go home, but I also want to stay.  I enjoyed service sites, but I was still looking forward to the next thing.  Sometimes, I think I count down the days until the next thing for no reason other than the fact that a next thing exists.  I don't really like that.  Being an incredibly adaptable person is awesome, but I don't know if it's worth it if it means missing out on good stuff going on in the present.

On Wednesday, I met this kid whose Zulu name I can barely say, yet alone spell, but his English name is Patrick.  He was about 13 years old, and he spoke great English and was very articulate.  We just sat and talked for 20 minutes and it was awesome.  We asked each other about our homes and families.  I felt one of those weird connections to Patrick like we could've been really close, and I kept thinking about how I wish I would have met him earlier.  I'm really sad that we didn't meet until my second to last day at Walk in the Light.  I've been thinking about Patrick a lot.  I don't know what to make of it.  So many people, after mission trips, talk about the one kid that sticks with them, but I would have expected that to be due to a consistent progression of a friendship, not one 20 minute conversation.  I wonder if Patrick will live in the township his whole life, or if he'll go off and do something amazing, or if we'll ever see each other again.

If you want to boost your athletic confidence, go to a country where they don't play basketball and try to teach your new black friends how to dunk.

just doing our part in the exchange of increased cultural understanding

Derek: Do you guys do that’s what she said jokes here?

Sihle: No, what did she say?

Derek: It’s hard to explain.  You know, if someone said ‘this is hard,’ you would say ‘that’s what she said.’

Sihle:  (chuckles)  Oh I see. So.... Wow, that took a long time, that’s what she said.

Derek: Exactly, you should say it all the time, and everyone will think you’re the funniest guy ever.

Sihle:  Okay. Lets go stand with that group of girls and you guys can set me up for a that’s what she said.

Service Site So Far

Tomorrow is the last day of week three.  We are well over halfway through our service sites.  So crazy ridiculous.  And you don't even know what I've been doing because I've been doing a terrible job at keeping my blog updated.

Typical Day at Walk in the Light:
8:00am- leave campus
8:30-9:30- someone leads a devotion, prayer and such, walk into the township
9:30-1:00- work on the house we're building, home visits, various other miscellaneous tasks
1:00-2:30- lunch, hangout time, nap, plan the remainder of the afternoon
2:30-4:00 or 5:00- Activities with community members depending on the day.  Games, songs, soccer, prayer, Bible studies, and talks with little kids, old ladies, or 17-24 year olds.


The first few days of working were challenging because much of the work was so similar to my job last summer.  I didn't feel like I was doing anything too special.  The relationships with the people in the township are what have made me really grow to love the ministry of Walk in the Light and the town of Haniville.  There are so many amazing people.  Building the house has been awesome, and I'm loving the visual results at the end of every day (both with the house and the joyfulness of the lady we're building it for).  However, building the house has been the most tangible of our work, but for me, it has not been the most satisfying.  What has been truly humbling and meaningful for me has been our encouragement of the people already making a difference in the community.  Last Friday, we met with the 17-24 year old youth group and talked to them about their work in the community, and it was amazing.  They are so passionate and motivated, and they are full of ideas and the energy to match.  I don't know what my expectations were previously; I don't think I believed we could change and entire community in 3.5 weeks, and if I did, I'm an idiot.  We are building a house for a family and that will change their life for the better, but the big changes in the whole of the community will be the work of the amazing people we first met last week.  I believe these changes will come from people my age, Snash and Tash and Alfred and Sihle, with a little bit of hip-hop and lots of prayer and love.

Two telephone related lessons

1.  When cutting down huge pieces of bamboo, be careful that they fall in a direction in which they will avoid crashing down on telephone lines.

2.  Reader, hopefully you know how to play telephone.  Well, telephone is way funnier when played in spite of a language barrier.  A four-click Zulu word became gibberish immediately, and "Jonah and the Whale" became "to know is the way."  And "I choose you, Pikachu" became "Jesus is a penguin."

A brief update on the past week

This past week was filled with lots of planning, stress, and work, but it ended so great.

Monday through Wednesday we had our community engagement class for 7 hours each day.

Thursday we finally started at our service sites.  We only had two days which wasn't quite enough to start a large project, so we pretty much just did yard work and manual labor type stuff.  Tomorrow we will start building a house, and we will begin to be more involved with the people in the township.  The first two days weren't very eventful, but I can tell the next three weeks will be awesome.

Earlier in the week i found out that I got an RA position in the upperclassmen apartments for next year.  I am very excited to room with my good friend, Dan.  I also figured out my schedule for next semester which is such a huge relief.

On Saturday and Sunday, almost all the guys and a few girls went to Durban.  Durban is such an awesome beach town, and it was so nice to be away from campus for two days.  We had all been getting cabin fever pretty badly, and a weekend away did us all well.  We spent lots of time at the beach, found a pretty good Mexican restaurant, bought some awesome stuff at a really cheap market, got stuck in possibly the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen, and went to a sports bar to watch South Africa come back to upset India in a very exciting cricket game.

I feel so cultured and awesome...

I just watched so much cricket.  And better yet is that I now understand most of it.  The world cup is going on and South Africa is doing awesome.  My past two hours were spent with a bunch of guys watching the cricket world cup, eating food, playing pool, and watching youtube videos of people raising lions.  I'm feeling a very odd combination of sophisticated and manly.  I'm not sure if I want to charge at a castle with my chariot led by bears mounted with rocket launchers, or if I want to grab my pipe, scarf, peacoat, monocle, and a glass of wine and sit by the fire in a huge chair to read some Thoreau.

It's weird having to plan real world things here

At least I'm not having four skype interviews every week for summer jobs like a lot of other people here.
However, my summer job plans and such are indeed quite up in the air.

I find out if I get an RA position in 3 days!
Academic advising starts in 3 days as well and registration for next fall is at the end of the month.
The class times and professors for next semester are now posted so I looked through those and wrote down all my potential classes.  I still need one general education class (theology), two more youth ministries classes, and nine more english classes before graduation.
Some great news I figured out today:
If I don't add a screenwriting minor and if I CLEP out of Spanish, then I can study abroad again as long as I take at least 6 units of English abroad, and I could still graduate a semester early.

Gooo

One of the girls had some hair dye left over, so now my beard is an exquisite shade of auburn.

32 days without shaving and 8 days without showering

Durban

Yesterday was awesome.

We were in Durban all day.  First we went to a water park, then the beach, then a professional rugby game.  It was awesome to finally do something purely for fun.  Most of our trips are educational things that are interesting, but I really needed a day of fun for the sake of fun.

I'm getting pretty tired of classes.  On most days, nothing too special happens.  I usually go from class to class to reading books to writing papers to sleeping.  All the days blend together.  I wanted something beautiful today, but I couldn't quite find it.  Today was a day in which I wanted to tell, and play a role in, a story that's meaningful, but I couldn't find the time before my 5 hour class that took me right to bedtime.

I'm telling myself that it will get better, and I know it will.  In just two weeks I'll be doing something meaningful––building houses and playing with children and visiting homes.  Then the stories will begin, beautiful and terrible, about laughter and sweat and AIDS and poverty and hope.

Today we hiked in the Drakensburg Mountains

In case you're a little rusty on your Afrikaans, Drakensburg means dragon mountains.  If that's not awesome enough, half of the hike looked like Braveheart and half looked like Lord of the Rings (Apparently, they actually did some set modeling for Lord of the Rings in those mountains).  It was so unreal.  We hiked up to some Bushmen cave drawings that were pretty rad.  Of course, we did a little humming of some songs from Lord of the Rings along the way.  On our way back, we were pretty tired from killing orcs and stealing treasure from Smaug, so we decided to stop and chill in the river for a while.


When we got back to campus we had dinner and 7 of the guys watched the Patriot on a projector.  It was awesome.  We need to do man things more often.  All this estrogen has seriously been wearing on all of us (not a joke).  In case you didn't know, our group is made up of 11 guys and 44 girls.  So seriously, we're all pretty drained and irritable.  I love several of the girls here, but I wouldn't mind a couple weeks without seeing a single female.  So, rant over.  We need to do man things more.  Here's some pictures!

Sometimes people think I'm ridiculous when I tell them about the Lord of the Rings stuff I want at my wedding

But yesterday, my art teacher said "Logan, I think those are really cool ideas.  My wedding dress was custom made, based on Eowyn's dress that she wears when the fellowship first goes to Rohan."

A quick little Zulu lesson

Awuzungidlula means 'you shall not pass.'  We specifically asked our teacher how to say this.

Musani ukuchita izingane means don't spill babies.  We learned some nouns and verbs and I figured this out all on my own.  Then I drew a fun picture.  Sometimes I forget how funny I am, but I always remember.

Things to be excited about...

My beard is coming in nice, my hair can kinda be put in a ponytail, I have a V-neck tan line

More Pictures

If you look closely between Paul's legs you may be able to spot the baby's head

Slip N Slide!

The guys!

Sophia got a great picture of Mr. Blue Balls

Solid Day

I went from one thing to the next all day. Today I:

went to two classes, bought some honey rum pipe tobacco, finally skyped with my parents, took a shower for the first time in 5 days and conditioned my beard, watched a bit of Lord of the Rings, read a little of The Old Man and the Sea, and now I'm going to bed at 9:30.  Tomorrow we are going to one of the top 5 beaches in the world!

We just ate mopane worms

Living with a fairly small group of people, many of whom I don't know extremely well, has been interesting.  Apparently I'm pretty sarcastic.

Beard-8 Days

pictures

World Cup Stadium in Jo'burg

Waterfall on our campus.  The clearing at the top has a volleyball net

The chalet I'm staying in

Our soccer field and dining hall

Morning Jog Trail

The Sun is out, and so are the Monkeys!

Today is the first rainless day since we've been here, and the monkeys are everywhere.

One girl who was sleeping with her window open last night woke up to a monkey perched on her nightstand!

At breakfast, a monkey walked into the dining hall, jumped onto a table, and took a mouthful of peanut butter.  I got up from my table all the way across the room and chased it away while flapping my arms.  Once outside, it jumped up on a roof and turned to look at me; peanut butter was all over its face and it kept licking its mouth the same way dogs do when they have peanut butter.... idiot.

Best Dream Ever

This doesn't really have anything to do with being in Africa, but I can't not share it:

I had 2 or 3 dreams last night that combined Lord of the Rings, Call of Duty:Nazi Zombies, X-men, Harry Potter, Halo, the Hunger Games, and Pokemon.

First, I was in the Nazi Zombie level, but I was killing orcs instead of zombies, and I was wolverine.  I kept punching Uruk-hai in the throat and my claws would shoot through their neck.  Then I had the phoenix feather wand and the elder wand in one hand and was throwing death eaters all over the place.  Then I was in a one man space ship with a Battle Rifle that shot grenades.  Below me, Spartans were fighting with Machamps and mutated wolf-dogs were jumping extremely high at my ship as I shot at them.

Classes

Classes have now been going on for three days and I have had all my classes at least once.  We have class so much, and I'm already starting to get tired of it.  However, all this class will be well worth it when we're done in 6 weeks and have 7 more weeks of much less academic awesomeness.

Intercultural Communications- Somewhat interesting, but I'm predicting the 5 hour class on Wednesdays will be dreadful.

Art- Awesome. Professor is such a sweet lady.

Zulu- Awesome

History and Culture of South Africa- Awesome

Life and Teachings of Jesus- Amazing.  I've already learned a bunch.  My professor is brilliant, his accent sounds a little like Michael Caine, and when he walks by you get a good whiff of old book smell.

In South Africa, stop lights are called robots.

6am Run

This morning 8 of the 11 guys went for a run on the reserve.  It was raining, but we didn't wear shirts anyway. We saw a few Impalas and got within 10 feet of 6 zebra; some of the zebra even ran alongside us.  

Finally Here

After 29 hours of traveling and moving forward 10 time zones, we finally made it to Johannesburg.  We spent two nights there, and we spent our full day touring around Soweto.  Today we flew from Jo'burg to Durban, and then drove to Pietermaritzburg.  For the next 10 weeks, we will be staying at the African Enterprise (AE) conference center.  Where we are staying is so beautiful, it's ridiculous.  All the buildings are on green hills and we are surrounded by waterfalls, mountains, a game reserve, jungle, and dozens and dozens of monkeys.

I am so glad to be unpacked and finally settled in somewhere.  Our first night in Jo'burg was the first time I've slept on a bed in two weeks.  Even though we're at AE, being here still feels very much like summer camp.  I feel like I'm only here for a week so it will be crazy when it really sinks in that I'm here for months.

I'm loving everything so far, and I'm so stoked!

I just shaved!  And we are leaving in 3 hours!  My face will not look like this again for several months.

A Beard Named Nelson

I'm not going to shave this semester.

A couple guys and I are going to try to take a picture of our beards' progression every day for the whole 4 months.  In this blog, I will write about my adventures and experiences in Africa, and once a week or so I will post a picture of my beard.

I am going to name my South Africa beard Nelson, after Nelson Mandela.  Except, instead of fighting for the end of apartheid and the end of segregation between black and white, this Nelson will be fighting for the reconciliation between me and true manhood potential.

intshebe ukukhula means beard growth in Zulu.

Soon!

I'm back at Azusa, sleeping on my friends' couch.  I'll be here for a short 9 days before flying to Africa.  It's crazy that it's coming up so soon.  Me going to Africa has been a for sure thing for 5 months, and i can't believe it's only a few days away.