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