History

South Africa is drenched in history. Ruggedness and wildness roll through the earth. Highways twist through bubbling, babbling port towns. Crushed spirits lay low beneath vast sprawls of rambled shacks. It's a land of contrasts – mountains and savannas, townships and suburbs, blacks and whites – as if apartheid shook the earth, and half of it crumbled.

From 1700-1800, the Dutch and English settled in South Africa, fighting with the natives and with one another. As a general trend, the English bullied the Dutch, who bullied the indigenous blacks. By the 1900’s, the English controlled the port locations, the Dutch settled in the northeast, and the blacks were pushed into tribal reservations.

Flash forward a century to 1948. The Afrikaans (originally Dutch) take the political majority, and create apartheid laws to increase their power and status to equal that of the British. They separate the country into white, black, and colored, citing Hitler’s ideology and theology of racial superiority. Blacks are relocated to their “homelands,” stripped of citizenship, required to carry a “pass book” at all times.

The African National Congress (NAC) contests the apartheid, but the government brutally deals with activists, opens fire on public protests, and imprisons many NAC leaders on Robben Island. These political prisoners study and conspire from there, and one of them – Nelson Mandela – becomes president of the NAC and an icon of freedom. 

South Africa finally cracks in 1990, after a worldwide trade embargo. President Klerk announces that he is in favor of democratic elections and drafts a new South African constitution. Nelson Mandela is elected as South Africa’s first black president in 1994.

In 1999, Robben Island is set apart as a World Heritage Site. 

We went there last Wednesday. 

 Robben Island

 Prison Hallway

 Prison Corridor

 South African Coast

Pray for:

-Safety in the townships tomorrow

-The Lord to speak clearly to me and to the BOH staff about whether I should return in January.

Neighborhood Photographs

I took a walk around the property to take some pictures, and then had fun playing around with the exposure and coloration. I'm itching to get Paint Shop Pro back on my PC so that I can do more! Anyways, here are the good ones:

Lynx Vineyard (our neighbor)

Spring Flowers

Funky Tree Trunk

A Swing Set

Driveway

Beautiful, isn't it? :)

Pray for:

-The team, who are driving back from the airport as I write this!

-Pray for healing - there's a pain in my back, right between the shoulder blades. Ouchie. :(

Outings

I’ve been quite the tourist in the past couple of days, which means that I have pictures! Hooray!

On Friday, I went to the ice skating rink with Maia (who teaches at the Academy) and the Academy students. The students had never been to an ice rink before, and Maia is from Canada, the land of hockey, so it had to be done. 

 Falling Students

Me and Maia

We all left the rink very sore - the students from falling on the hard ice, Maia and I from holding them up and lugging them around.

On Saturday morning, I went to an international marketplace to grab food and explore with the staff. There were yummy treats from just about everywhere, and I sneaked in a few shots before the crowds came. Here are my favorites:

Frying Dutchman

 Bathrooms

 Pinstems

 Ceiling Umbrellas

As for my food, after an unfortunate discovery that I do NOT like buckwheat, I settled on a Greek lamb kabob. It was a shame, because the crepe looked very promising. Oh well.

Unfortunate Crepe

That’s all for now. The team from Community Covenant Church comes tomorrow night! (So soon!?!)

Pray for:

-The team’s schedule got changed at the last minute, so pray that they adapt quickly to the new one.

-Now that I’m a bit more adjusted, pray that I slide into the rhythm of planning and coordinating their visit. I need to get a better feel for the business side of things, and this is my chance to do it!

First Impressions

I'm in South Africa!!! It's been two full days, and in no particular order, here are some of my first observations:

I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but I can’t get over how beautiful it is here. We’re in wine country, near the mountains, and the flowers have started to bloom because of all the rain. If the weather were any better, I’d sit outside all day and read. I hope we put a hammock up somewhere soon.

People go out of their way to care for one another. The academy staff will walk over to personally invite me to dinner, and this morning one of them brought muffins for us. At the Retreat Centre, Bill often calls Debbie his “lovely bride,” even now that they’re at the age of having grandchildren. There is meekness and sincerity in the way people speak. Kindness, joy, and love are noticeable. I hope this rubs off on me.

Other fun tidbits:

1. "marrows" = zucchini; "cellophane" = saran wrap.

2. The government takes pride in the fact that SA's roads are immaculately paved.

3. At the supermarket, fruit should be weighed at the fruit weighing station, not at the checkout. They will look at you like you're an idiot and make you go back if you do it wrong.

4. The meat of choice for lions is human flesh. They like the salty flavor.

5. Celsius. Liters. Meters. Grams. Rand. Everything is measured differently.

More soon - hopefully pictures!

Pray for:

-A good night’s rest.

-The team-building activities I’ll lead tomorrow.

Top 7

Since it's been so long since my last post, here’s a “Top 7” of what I’ve been up to in the past few weeks:

#1. Scrambling to finish well at CCC. I made a welcome binder for Melissa, who will be taking over the college ministry this fall. It’s gigantic and I’m extremely proud. Also, not to bore you, but I did a much-needed 3-year review of the college ministry budget, posing recommendations for the upcoming financial year. Yay! I can handle money!!! :)

#2. Saying goodbye to the VanLentens, who I’ve been staying with all summer long. This meant a lot of really entertaining “quality time” moments with the kids. Most notably, I made cake batter cookies with Eric and Jazzy. The recipe calls for 1 box of cake mix, ½ cup of oil and 2 eggs - it’s about as easy as it gets. But then we added mini marshmallows as a special treat, which at 375˚ ended up melting onto the cookie sheets as a sort of superglue. A half an hour later we had cookie crumbs all over the kitchen, and a stack of very broken (but very tasty!) cookies.

#3. Getting a nasty cold. Ick.

#4. Playing a life-size game of Tetris with my Honda Fit and my boxes of junk. That is, packing up and moving out. Jazzy danced around me with suggestions of where to put things. She wasn’t the least bit helpful, but it was still adorable.

#5. Getting a nasty coffee-deprivation headache to go with my nasty cold. Double-ick.

#6. Recovering from said cold and headache by being a complete couch potato. A special thank-you to Hugh Laurie, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen, my mother, and the makers of TP and ibuprofen.

#7. Now that I’m better, some laundry, some packing, and… dare I say it? Target! :D

The next time I post something, I will be in South Africa!!!

Pray for:

-Safe travel & rest

-Speedy adjustment to the culture & time