Hamba Ekukanyeni Complete

Today was a tough day, and for multiple reasons. Last night, because I was catching up on my blog, I stayed up until 12:30, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but with a 7:00 wake-up, and constant daily manual labor, I was shot. So I was irritable. Not a good place to be in today.

Here’s some of the things that irritated me today (I’m fully aware that plenty of these will be exaggerated. All in good fun. And they definitely seemed horrible at the time.)

-          The most irritating thing that happened today: the same thing that has happened often. People who weren’t willing to work hard. And I understand that I should allow them to take breaks because I can’t control it, but today was the last day and I wanted to finish for Maybis. When other people weren’t acting like they wanted to finish, I was getting frustrated.

-          I was the best with the wheelbarrow because that’s all I’ve been doing (and these are not my words. These are the words of the people I was working with). That’s been my job. Of course, there’s always someone who insists that they want to take the wheelbarrow for the workout of it. This is frustrating because I know that the most effective and productive thing is to have me at the wheelbarrow, and the selfish, surface-level reason of “working out” isn’t good enough for me. Sorry, I’m working for something better than that.

-          It was incredibly hot today. Another 35 degree day.

-          Someone stole my water. At the house, the water isn’t safe for us to drink because we’re not used to it, so I brought two water bottles down. Someone stole my second, so I was done with my first by 10 (because I was rationing it) and didn’t have anything to drink again until after 1.

-          I didn’t take a break. Not only did I not take a break, but there were people around me that were constantly breaking. Not that it’s new, but I’m so damn tired of being the only one who wants to finish anything (generalization, of course) and  who is willing to sacrifice by being tired.

-          Pictures piss me off. Because as soon as the cameras come out, everyone taking a break starts to work hard until they go away. Pictures of people working are more important than finishing anything, and that is pure and simple bullshit. I thought the people here would be better than that; I didn’t think people went on mission trips for the sake of telling people they went on mission trips anymore. I thought the work here wasn’t for selfish reasons, such as “this would make a great profile picture.”

-          I’m really irritated right now.

-          The people I was working with didn’t understand that because we had two piles of dirt we were making into mud, the most effective way to do it was to make one pile into mud, and then as we were transporting that down, make the other pile into mud, and repeat. No one would start on making a new pile until the old one was gone, leading to periods of inactivity and plenty of frustration.

-          People were complaining about irrelevant things. My irrelevant things were slightly more relevant than anyone else’s, so their complaints frustrated me.

-          I can’t emphasize the breaks issue enough. It was frustrating.

-          Apparently girls either (a) have never used a wheelbarrow (b) don’t have any common sense, or (c) both of the above. No one understood that a wheelbarrow pivots at the front, the only part of the thing on the ground, and to make a turn the person has to walk wider than the turn. The people applying the mud (all girls) could not get out of my way. I had to ask them to move and direct them where to move every single time I went down to the house (Literally, every time. I don’t remember one time I didn’t have to direct someone to move.)

-          At one point, my schedule was: carry the wheelbarrow of mud to the house, wait for people to move, tell people where to move, wait for people to move, dump the mud, return up the hill to the backyard where the mud was, drop the wheelbarrow, pick up a shovel, fill the wheelbarrow alone or with one other person, and repeat the process. All while at least 3 people sat in the hole and watched me.

-          It took us an extra hour to finish the house

-          People wanted to leave the house without finishing on the last day

All these things just stoked my fires of irritation today, and it has been a raging bonfire for hours now. So with that off my chest, let me give you an emotionally unbiased recap of my journey today.

At Walk in the Light, I was the first person to start. I’m always the first person to start. The same people in the back ended up working there within the first 15 minutes, so we picked up where we left off. We had a pretty good system most of the time. We would churn out mud faster than anyone could put it on the house, so we had to wait for them to need mud sometimes (another frustrating thing). By 10 my water was gone, which was frustrating and dehydrating, but you make do with what you can, so I got over it. I worked hard all morning and didn’t take a break, making me really tired.

Storytime, resuming biased viewpoint: There was one time where I came down with the mud, and I was about to enter the house, but there were women working on the mud right over the doorway on a ladder. I asked them if they could move for 15 seconds so I could dump the mud inside so others could work, because they needed mud soon. They told me that I could wait, and they would move “just now.” For those of you who have never been to South Africa, “just now” is not a good thing. If you hear someone say “just now,” be prepared to wait up to a week for it. Just now has no urgency. “Now now” means instantaneously, but I was pretty sure I heard “just now” from the ladies and I was taken aback. They’re so damn selfish that they can’t move a freaking ladder out of the way so others can continue the work on someone else’s house. So after 2 minutes, I asked them again, and the woman said (with attitude. Of course. Because I’m obviously the one who is being frustrating right now as there are people 10 feet away from me needing what I have), “We will move just now. We need to finish this.” The only reason they “needed” to finish that was so they wouldn’t have to move the ladder again. Laziness. After 5 minutes I asked again, and they just told me to wait. At sometime around 7 or 8 minutes, they finally moved out of my way, and I was back out of the house after dumping the mud in less than 15 seconds. I could have made 3 trips at least in the time it took them to move. That was frustrating because I couldn’t say anything to them, because they were the leaders, the experts. Some experts they were, can’t even assign time.

Resuming unbiased viewpoint: We eventually finished the house at 12:30, when we had been aiming for 11:30. It was great to get it done, and after pictures we headed out to a brai. That’s a barbecue, but South African style. It was really great actually; it started with us going to a nearby butcher and buying meat. After the buying of the meat, we placed the meat on grills in a big area and cooked our meals as we sat at tables in the area. It was a fun time, and the food was so delicious. It really got me pumped for all the times I’m going to grill this summer. I had some solid conversations, including getting to know Kate a little better. Kate’s not a student, but she’s going on the safari with us and to Cape Town because she has connections, so it was cool to get closer to her. Especially because I’m sure I’ll spend time with her on the safari time. The atmosphere of the brai was incredible, with relaxing music playing and a chill vibe going. It was definitely a time worth imitating. This was the second time this week I had the opportunity to experience a more real South Africa, and this one was almost as great as before (more white people here = negative, great brai = positive).

After that, we headed back and the women hung out with the gogos while the guys just sort of hung out. There were some kids like there always are, and Sihle and Baby J were both there, so that was fun to talk to them. They’re really great, and I have enjoyed getting to know them. To recreate all the conversations would be impossible, but they were great. I gave Sihle a hard time about javelin, and had him show me how he threw when he competed in it. It was great to joke around with him, and I’m trying to find something awesome to get him as a birthday present. His 21^st birthday is coming up the day we leave, and he’s never had someone who will buy him presents, so he’s going to spoil himself this birthday and I would love to as well. We also taught Baby J to dunk, which is impressive when you consider he’s never played basketball before and is probably 5’7”, but not as impressive when you consider the rim was probably 8 feet tall. It was so difficult for him that it was hilarious. After this, we played soccer with the kids again, and that was fun. Then we hit the road to bring our last day at Walk in the Light to a close.

It’s weird, knowing I won’t be back there in the same position again. I won’t be at Walk in the Light leading anything anymore, or building a house, and I probably won’t see most of the kids again. Right now, I’m not sad about it though. I’m more excited that I’ve finished such a great chapter, and excited to get some rest. I’m exhausted.

After we left, we came back and played a pick-up game of soccer. It was fun and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After soccer was dinner with my D group, when we finally spent the 700 rand we were assigned at the beginning of the semester. It was delicious, and good to be with people I care about. And irritating, but that’s just because of the place I was in at the time.

After D group, I planned chapel. Singlehandedly, because I knew what we could do that would be perfect. The team put off planning it too long, and I had to step in 12 hours before it started to make a plan, but we are set for chapel tomorrow. After I planned it, I had to seek out and personally approve the idea with each member of the chapel team because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was taking over. I found everyone within reason, and only missed about two of the people. Now that that’s taken care of, I returned to my room and blogged this out. Now I’m going to bed for sure because I’m exhausted, and my relaxing recovery night quickly turned into a night of blogging and barely 8 hours of sleep. I love you all, and I really hope you enjoyed reading about Walk in the Light. And when I finish class tomorrow, I’ll be done with all but one of my classes! Woo!

Reaching the end

This morning started off with a bang. Woke up at 6:45, and talked to Ryan on skype. Refreshing conversation, the first one I’ve had with him in 10 weeks. It was great to catch up, and I saw his roommates Shane and Pat as well. After that was breakfast, which was normal. We left for the service sites and got there, did a devotion to start and then headed down to the house.

Once we got to the house, we started right up with the mud on the house. In the back, Carmen, Matt, Melinda, and I were working hard all day, and we needed some sort of entertainment so we heard Carmen’s life story. It was great, the third life story in as many days, and this led to plenty of conversation about Christianity, theology, other religions, philosophy, and huge questions. A great conversation that we all walked away from in a state of contemplation. We finished almost all the walls, and tomorrow we will be done with that for sure. It was another productive day, despite the fact that it was 35 degrees (that’s really 95 degrees) and humid.

We took a nice walk up the hill, and Matt and I stormed up it in less than 20 minutes, which is easily a new record. Matt even sprinted up part of it. We ran into a child named Tabizwe, and kidnapped him to take him across the street to Walk in the Light. Lunchtime led to naptime, and when I woke up I had been asleep for an hour. I woke up just in time to play the part of the man who was mugged in the Good Samaritan story. The translator (Snesh) was interactive, so the students had to respond about the story and it was the best story time so far. The other reason it was the best story time so far was because I was in it.

Story time led to games, and the first game was goats and the fence. They sure do love that game. Next was relays, which was disorganized and great, because everyone believed they won. One of the relays had everyone standing with their legs spread, and the person crawling through their legs to the front of the line. When it was my turn, I was army crawling just to fit below them, and 2 different kids both decided it would be funny to sit on me as I was going through. It was crazy and I’m pretty sure my team won. The next game was tag, which quickly fell apart into kids doing whatever they felt like. I found a kid with a Frisbee, and we played for a little bit. Two of his friends joined us, and while at first I was trying to teach him a forehand, by the end I gave up and just played around and did things he thought was cool, such as throwing the disc through my legs or bouncing it off the ground. They loved it when I bounced it, so I taught them how to bounce it and they loved me. They thought I was the coolest person ever, and I loved it. When I had to go, I told them to practice and they promised they would. Then I got in the vehicle.

Today was a hard day to leave because it’s the second to last day, and the last day with the kids. I won’t see most of those kids again, and I was doubting that I had any influence on them, and I was sitting in the bus as we were about the leave. The kids lined the sides of the bus and were saying bye to us, so I opened the window and stuck my hand out to wave. Teb, one of the first children I met, came up and gave me a high five. I said, “Bye Teb,” and he responded with “Bye Mackenzie.” I had no idea anyone there knew my name, so this was so surprising. After he said that, Mongolisa echoed with “Bye Mackenzie,” and then everyone in that group of 10+ kids yelled “Bye Mackenzie.” When I was questioning whether I had made a difference at all, and they all yelled my name when they were saying bye, that opened my eyes to the opportunity we had and the impact we were making. It was such a great experience.

We left and came back to AE, and we showered, I blogged, and then we went to dinner. It was basically quality time at Project Gateway, which was an old prison. They took us on a “haunted” tour, which was really fun, and basically the same as the tour we took before except there was Mitch, John, and Rachel waiting in an old cell waiting to scare us. I knew it was coming (because I’m crafty and manipulative) and it still scared the crap out of me when Mitch jumped out and grabbed Zach. Sophia ran all the way down the stairs and out the door when it happened. It was frightening knowing it was coming. We had a delicious dinner of Debonairs Pizza, which is the second time I’ve had it this week and I was selfish and hoarded 8 pieces for myself and I don’t regret a thing.

After we got back to AE, Colton, Destiny, Shelli, Alison, Heather, and I all played a quality game of Quelf. It was the first time I had played in a while, and it was so much fun. I always got the cards to do things, such as building a fort, writing a poem, or creating a Halloween mask. Everyone won (especially Shelli, because she won the final competition) and it was great. And now it’s bed time, in preparation for the final day at service sites tomorrow. Weird, right?

Now this isn’t really about my feelings, but I feel like I would be lying if I didn’t include anything about my feelings. It’s a really weird place to be. I’ve been away from America for a complete 10 weeks now, and I’m missing home a bit. I’ve been working at this service site for 13 days so far, and I only have one day left. Two days into it, it felt like I had been working forever, but now I feel like I just started. The time flew by. While I was looking forward to every day and enjoying each one, I feel like I was sort of looking past it. This was the time period that I had been looking forward to for so long, and while I feel like I experienced plenty, have seen a lot, changed, and made an impact, I’m not ready for it to be over. I’m not ready to not see any of those kids again. I’m not ready to not play soccer with Spay again. My heart breaks for him, because I know he’s from an alcoholic father who beats him regularly. So this joyful kid I see running around (despite the fact that he can be a total brat sometimes) is going to continue to be beat long after I leave. Is there anything I can do? No. Unfortunately, there’s no action I can take that would save Spay from this fate. And I hate it.

It’s not that I feel like I’m abandoning them, because I knew I couldn’t save them. I’ve always known I can’t save them. The problem that I have is that I can’t do anything. I’m leaving these people to their fate, and think that by building a house I can make everything right when that’s not the way things work; things will continue just as they were before I got here long after I leave. But Maybis will have a house.

Maybis will have her house and her garden. Teb will have his Frisbee. Spay will have his soccer. Mongolisa will be at Walk in the Light. There are so many lives that I’ve impacted, and whether or not I can see the change tangibly, I have done something. As those men said to PJ while he was walking down the hill, we’re making a huge difference just by being here and the town is different while we’re around. These people who feel unimportant and neglected are having people come from over 10,000 miles away just to spend time with them. If that doesn’t make an impact on them, I’m not sure what will.

I’m so glad that my worksite was Walk in the Light. Not to badmouth any other worksite, but I really loved mine. I loved everything about it, from the soccer with a child who is just as good as me to building to naptime to running down a road with dozens of kids chasing me. I got the lasting effect I wanted, which will come from the house and gate and garden and time spent in Maybis’ yard. I know that, regardless of how people’s memories are, that house is going to stay strong, and I know that I made that tangible, concrete impact. I formed relationships with people that are my age as well, such as Sihle, Alfred, Tash, Baby J, and Snesh. I’m even friends with some on Facebook! But I formed relationships with people I can relate to but who are so different from me despite the similarities. And I got to work with the kids, which was the fun part. And it was surprisingly more fulfilling than I thought it would be, especially today when I heard them remember my name. I think that will have more of an impact on me than anything else. I had the opportunity to visit people in their houses, and to see what their living situations were. I’m grateful for every part of my worksite, and if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. It was all great.

Looking back, I know I made a difference. It’s just hard to prepare to leave, when I know that I haven’t solved all their problems. I knew I wasn’t their savior coming into it, but it’s hard. It’s much easier to see someone suffering when they’re just a no-name to you; the instant they become real, it becomes difficult. And to me, there are now 50 kids who are really suffering in Haniville. I know there’s more, but I can see the faces of the children that are deprived of love, put through abuse, have HIV, or are destined for crime because of the poverty they’ve been raised in. Before, they were children. Now, they’re the children I’ve come to love, and the children that it hurts me to see hurt. It’s hard, but they’ll get through. I know I need to trust in God with this, and that’s what I’m going to do with all this. Because it’s all I can do.

I hope this doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s hard to leave, but it’s normal. It’s natural. I would rather leave now with this pain than to have continued not knowing these children. And I’m grateful for every second I’ve had so far. And I’m grateful for every second I have left.

I'm behind.

Sorry I missed yesterday. When soccer calls…

Yesterday was a long day. It started the way every one does, sleepwalking through breakfast. After breakfast we went to the worksite, and I did the same thing I’ve been doing so far: wheelbarrowing mud so the people lining the walls could put the mud up. There were 6 in the back and around 10 on the walls, and the time flew by because we were listening to Matt tell his life story. It was a great story, and led to some quality conversation for the 3 ½ hours of shoveling, hoeing, and wheelbarrowing. After that was lunch, where everyone got ready for their 2 hour naptime. While this happened, I slipped away with Ally and Meghan. This is where I get rebellious, so mom, you’re not allowed to read this.

We’ve been told plenty of times the taxi service is unsafe, and we aren’t supposed to use them. With that in mind, we followed Ally (she came to study a couple semesters ago, and planned to come over winter break but never went back to America so she’s working with us at Walk in the Light) to a taxi (a van with room for 12 comfortably but regularly fitting around 15) and took the half hour ride into town. While I love that I’ve been in South Africa this whole time, I’ve never been in the real South Africa the way I was yesterday. Walking the streets, the only white people were the two I was with, and I wasn’t followed by a mob of Americans. We just went for ice cream, and McDonalds was out so we had KFC’s cones. They were delicious and after we grabbed them we headed back with the taxi service. It was so interesting to see that, and drive through the townships and interact with the people from the townships. Just sitting on the taxi and being surrounded by the conversation was an entirely new experience. We got back around 2 hours later, and I just sat around with the guys as the girls spent time with the go-gos. The time led into a game of soccer, as it always does, and then we headed back to AE.

After we got to AE, we played soccer with the new ball we purchased and I killed it. Honestly, I did really well and it was so much fun. I can’t wait until I get back to AZ and play soccer with my friends to prove to them how great I am. It will be so good.

We stopped for dinner, and after dinner I planned to skype Ryan. Turns out, I can’t translate time and was off, so I skyped Phil instead. Best unexpected conversation I’ve had in quite some time. I love that man.

After that we set up The Fighter and watched that. Still a great movie. After that I went right to sleep to get ready for a long day again. And that led to today, but I have to go because it’s time for our dinner event. I’ll be back soon! Love you all.

The Final Stretch

Today we began our final week. It’s weird really, having been here for such a short time but being almost done. We’ve done plenty, but there’s so much more that could be done. We woke up and went through breakfast like we always do, but I was a little more energized than normal. We headed out to Walk in the Light and did a devotion as we always do. We headed down to the house that we always go to, and started work there like we always do. Today we had the big task of starting with the mud on the house. It was very involved for some people, and not so involved for some people. I was in the back of the house (on the part that we spent so much time leveling in the past) digging holes and making mud. The mud that we made was thrown into a wheelbarrow and moved down to a place where people could use it by slapping it on the house. We finished 2 of the outside walls and one of the inside walls, and started on a third outside wall. We got plenty done, because we spent all day at the house. We didn’t have any afternoon plans with people, so we worked hard all day. I’m getting some solid blisters on my hands from moving the wheelbarrow. Today I worked all day without a shirt, and I’m barely getting sunburned at all. On the way back I was dropped off at the mall with Riley, Matt, and PJ, so we could pick up a soccer ball for the field that we could keep track of. After that we hung out and watched rugby while eating ice cream in the food court. After the mall run was dinner, which was followed by an Afrikaans class. In Afrikaans I decided I’m going to learn German this summer. It would be great to be fluent in that someday. After that major life decision, I finished my journal for last week so I can turn it in tomorrow. Now I’m about to go to bed to get over 8 hours of sleep. This should be a great night. And tomorrow I’m planning on knocking out even more of that house. Only 3 days left of this wonderful experience. 

A Weekend Off

This weekend was pretty crazy. Saturday morning I overslept, and Colton woke me up on the way out the door to tell me we were leaving for paintball. I skipped breakfast and pretty much slept the whole bus ride there. When we were there I had a wonderful time, because it was my first time ever paintballing, and it was incredibly enjoyable. I shot multiple people in the face, and only got hit 3 times. My Kill/Death ratio was impressive. After that, we enjoyed a lunch and I took a nap before a soccer tournament. My team wasn’t the best team I’ve ever played on, but we had fun. Because we weren’t very good, I got to play striker alone, and when I played striker alone I got to try crazy moves to get by people and throw up crazy shots which almost went in multiple times. It was really fun.

Our soccer games ended when we lost the ball in the surrounding foliage, as they often do. To remedy this we finally got a new soccer ball today that I’m incredibly excited about. After the games ended, we enjoyed dinner and I skyped the family real quick for some wonderful conversation. Dinner was also great, and after dinner we partook in a movie by the name of “Hook.” It was perfect because we had just watched Peter Pan last weekend, so we were familiar with that before the movie. We watched Hot Rod after that, because it’s also a great and hilarious movie. I came back to my room and hung out for close to an hour before I realized the Butler Florida game was intense and I could stream it online. Tyler and I watched the last 5 minutes of regulation and overtime of that game, which was awesome. Then we streamed the entire UofA Uconn game. It was great to share this experience with a fellow Arizonan, because we stayed up until 3:30 watching that game, but went to sleep depressed.

Sunday morning I slept in past church, and we were planning to go to the dam. It was overcast, so instead we had a braii which was delicious and I ate so much meat. After the brai we watched the Bourne Identity. That was fun and a great movie. After the Bourne Identity we watched the Bourne Supremacy. By this time I was tired of watching movies and wanted to do something, but no one else wanted to do anything so I watched the movie anyways. After the movie we went to a church in the evening to hear Reg speak, where he said some interesting things but nothing surprising or groundbreaking. We returned to AE to watch the Bourne Ultimatum, which I was so over Jason Bourne by this time because I wanted to do anything but watch a movie. So Riley, Zach, and I played poker while streaming the VCU Kansas game and watching the Bourne Ultimatum. It was a great combo, and after the game I went to bed. A great weekend, despite the irritation at how many movies we watched. And for the first time in South Africa, a relaxing weekend. 

3 weeks already completed

Today was the longest day ever. Or at least the longest day of service sites. By far.

Last night, 8 of the guys went out to eat at Mug & Bean. It was a delicious dinner, and seeing as I had 2 enchiladas before my glorious (and cheap) dagwood burger, I haven’t been that full these last two months. Topped that off with an ice cream cone (with real ice cream, not froyo!) and made it the best food-related evening up to date in South Africa. And it was great to just get to the mall and hang out with the guys for an evening again. We met a guy named Josh who worked at a Christian bookstore who knew we were American and guessed we were with APU. He was fun, and it was nice to talk to him for a little bit. After that meal, I was exhausted so I came back to read and sleep by 10.

I woke up at 2:15 in the morning to register for classes, because they didn’t take into account my time difference. Fortunately, I got all the classes I wanted to register for, so I tried to fall back to sleep. It took about an hour, but I was out and woke up at 7 for breakfast like I do every day.

After breakfast (which they had the wonderful salsa I love so much with my egg and sausage sandwich I make – this sounds much better than it tastes), we headed to work sites, loaded up some rocks in the truck and headed down to the house. Our goal for the day was to place the rocks in the wall of the house (which consists of an outer and inner layer of mesh fence the cement blocks fit inside), in between the branches that are holding the wire in place. There will be pictures soon enough so you can see how far we’ve come, but for now you’ll have to make believe.

So that was the goal for the day; unfortunately, it is very time consuming while allowing very few people to actually work on it. So I didn’t work on the house once. In the morning, we only had about 12 of our 20 people, so most of us worked on the house. Being one of the others, I leveled the garden area again, filled tires with dirt (they had been filled quickly before, so I made them more stable to stand on for the porch), cleared out the dead grass from the garden, and fixed the gate. The gate was my pet project, and I spent plenty of time on that (before it was permanently open, so it wouldn’t keep goats out of her garden. Now it will.) before I finally finished. We went to lunch in between, and right after lunch I had a delicious fried Zulu bread meal that was so damn good! We had different plans for the day than normal, 10 of us returned to work on the house. This is the time I used to finish the gate and spend some time just sitting around enjoying the afternoon Haniville environment. We finished all of our work by around 4:30, so we headed up to a dinner that some of the other students and the go-gos had cooked together!

We enjoyed the dinner with the go-gos, the senior youth, and each other. The sticky rice, grits, chicken, and Zulu bread were all remarkable. The ox guts were not in the least bit delicious. I mean, the taste wasn’t too bad. It was very salty, but not bad. The smell was terrible, and the texture made me want to throw up. The stomach was interesting, but the intestine part tasted like pure fat. It’s still not sitting too well with me, 2 hours later. It tasted what I imagine calamari tastes like, but I don’t remember what it tastes like so I’m not sure. The go-gos left right after dinner, and we just hung out with the senior youth for some time. We danced and sang and played games. I taught some of them the Macarena and they taught me another dance that has no name but involves quite a bit of kicking. I’ll probably forget it by the time I return to America, but for now, I know it! We left after the games and returned to AE over 11 hours after we left, for the most exhausting service site day so far.

Tonight will probably be a movie and poker, and tomorrow we get to sleep in! I’ll probably be sleeping until 8, which will be a welcomed break and rest. Tomorrow morning will be paintballing until around 2, then afternoon fun and games including a giant slip-n-slide and soccer. The evening will be night games, and Sunday will be church in the morning, followed by a nice lake day for lunch. We’ll leave around 5:30 and go to a church where Reg is speaking about the problem of evil and what it means, and after that we’ll be back at AE for dinner and for bed before a final 4 day push to finish the house. Should be a busy, yet also relaxing, weekend.

In striking contrast to yesterday,

today was cool. Overcast all day with a nice breeze, it was a beautiful way to work.
It took us a while to get going. We didn't get started at the house until 10, when we're normally going by 9:15 at the latest. Despite the late start, we got plenty done. Finished leveling in the back, and created a porch for the house by leveling the area with tires and extra dirt. The extra dirt came from the back, which meant plenty of wheelbarrowing. Guess who spent the most time wheelbarrowing: me. Guess who spent just as much time shoveling as anyone else: me. Here's how it happened.
I grabbed a shovel and would help the two other people with shovels fill up my wheelbarrow. There were 5 people with hoes standing around, occasionally moving the dirt into piles. I shoveled the wheelbarrow full, then dropped the shovel and moved the wheelbarrow to the front porch, where I would dump it for them to move around. Then I moved the wheelbarrow back to the back, where I picked up a shovel and led the charge of filling it again. It was a little frustrating, because I was doing more work than anyone else because no one else was willing to shovel, but it wasn't too bad. I didn't get mad at anyone today, so I'm just grateful that I was able to push myself as hard as possible without expecting others to do the same. That's the first time that's happened these past couple of weeks.
After building a porch, leveling the back, and building steps out of bamboo, we headed up for lunch. lunch was great as we were all exhausted. Instead of a nap today, like I normally would, I chose to first talk about soccer and then play soccer. Riley and I played 2 on 2 soccer with two of the Zulu kids who were there, and we were playing at about 90% because they were good enough. We would let the occasional pass through or not score the open goal, but they were so good. The girls went with the go-gos (grandmothers) and the guys just hung out with Snesh, Sihle, Spay, and a kid who I didn't know. It was great to talk to Snesh and Sihle, and we gave the two kids so much time to play soccer and wrestle and tickle fight. It was a relaxing and rejuvenating afternoon. Now, I'm going out to dinner for the second time this semester, and it's going to be great and relaxing to get away from campus for the evening. I'm looking forward to it. After that, maybe man time? Which will likely consist of smoking pipes and playing poker in a "haunted" (abandoned) house that has about a mile hike to get to. Should be an awesome evening.
And I can't wait to blog about tomorrow, with all that we have in store. I love you all!

Over halfway already?

Today was the hottest day thus far. It’s 91 degrees, and that’s at 6 in the evening. With that being said, we split up the teams today, and only half the team was at the house, so we didn’t have time for breaks. The work I did was intensive, and after we cut down bamboo and finished the garden (finally), we moved to digging a trash pit in the backyard. I have a new respect for Stanley Yelnats and the rest of the crew from Holes, because that was an incredibly difficult and draining endeavor.

For lunch, we had peanut butter and jelly, with an apple, a bag of chips, and water. Which means I had two peanut butter and jellies, two apples, two bags of chips, and two waters. The lunches aren’t as filling after a long day of work as you are led to believe by the AE staff.

After lunch was naptime, where I fell asleep on a mattress nearby and woke up covered in sweat. It took me a good hour before I recovered from that nap, and by that time it was game time with the kiddies again. For the lesson that I sat through and didn’t participate we did Noah and the Ark. They were moderately involved in that. They were incredibly involved in the games though.

They didn’t start out as incredibly involved, but they got going. The first game was goats and the fence, where the entire group of 40 or so hold hands to make a circle around 5 “goats”. The goats try to get out of the circle, and the “fence” tries to keep them inside. It’s great because the goats always get out, so everyone feels like a winner!

They weren’t particularly interested in this game, but that happens. The next thing was relay races. We had 5 teams who all competed, and they weren’t too excited to start. But the leaders (Me, Logan, Paul, Matt, and Riley) and Colton, the coordinator, were able to pump them up real quickly by being excited.

The next game was duck duck goose, and they lost interest in it quickly. Their favorite was what we ended with. Red Robot Green Robot. Stoplights are called robots here, so that’s essentially Red Light Green Light. They loved it last week when we played, and PJ led it today. He was a great leader. He ran around so they were chasing him, but when he turned around they had to stop. He eventually took off down a road and they all followed him. I felt like I was watching the Pied Piper run off with all the children.

Except this Pied Piper came back with them and we hopped on a bus back to AE. Now a relaxing night before doing it all again tomorrow!

Relatively uneventful day

I hate to say that about a service site, but it was. We worked in the 35 degree heat (Centigrade, of course) for 3+ hours in the morning, and did some quality leveling/garden building/house framing. It was productive, but not too eventful; I did carry on some great conversations and was frustrated by some people not working so hard again, but we got plenty taken care of.
For the afternoon, the men didn't come and the women were doing manicures, so the guys really just ended up hanging out with the 5 kids who came, and playing soccer and sitting around. One proactive guy (Colton) repaired a swing like a champ, but most of the guys didn't do much. Now we're hanging out for the evening, watching a movie and recovering, and hopefully doing more tomorrow.
Sorry this is such a short post: There just really wasn't anything to blog about and I have plenty to do. Hopefully I can tell more stories about tomorrow than about today!

Touring South Africa!

This weekend was all about the battlefields. I heard about it before as an incredibly boring trip that had great food.

The food was great, I’ll give them that.

Seeing as I am a fan of history, I knew I just may like this trip more than some people who had gone before. The hard part was the driving – We drove for 5+ hours on Saturday, and drove for even longer on Sunday. The first stop was at Blood River.

Blood River was an intense place. In the battle, the Boers lagered (or circled) their wagons for defense, and waited for the Zulu force to attack. There were 20,000 or so Zulu warriors attacking these people, whose families had already been slaughtered by the Zulu. There were 470 Boers. The Boers fought with muskets, while the Zulu only had their short stabbing spears. While the muskets took a long time to reload, the Boers funneled the Zulus through certain points in their lager, causing their numbers to be worthless. 3000 Zulu were killed, and only 3 of the Afrikaners were injured, while none died. We went to the Boer site, but there was a site for the Zulu dead right across the river (There are memorials for both sides at most of the battle sites, because both people groups still inhabit the areas and they realize the importance of human life, regardless of ancestry).

We reenacted the battle. I was a Zulu. I killed a couple Boers.

After more driving, we ended up in Dundee, which is a city. We stayed overnight there, so after we pulled in at 4, we had plenty of free time. I was blessed with my own room (which at first seemed like a bad lonely thing, because I was the only guy with his own room, but after I compared our rooms, I lucked out. They didn’t even have bathrooms in their rooms), so I had that privacy for the first time in a while. When walking around the village, I found a street was called McKenzie Street. That was exciting. Then we walked a different direction and found a street called Smith Street. So we realized we had been at the intersection of McKenzie and Smith! We were so excited we walked all the way back to get a camera. Then when we went to take a picture, we realized someone had torn down the sign for Smith Street at the intersection, so while we were at McKenzie and Smith, there’s no picture to prove it. I was disappointed.

Dinner was incredible. Best meal I’ve had in South Africa. Great pork, great chicken, and the bobotie was so damn delicious. That bobotie made me fall in love with native South African food.

I turned in for an early night, finished Water for Elephants (great book), watched some Pitch Black (on the TV that I had and none of the other guys did), showered (once again, only guy with a shower), and slept. When I woke up early, I watched Cricket and showered again.

After more driving Sunday morning, we ended up at a place called Isandlwana. It was a really cool looking mountain, where a ridiculous battle took place. The British commander, Lord Chelmsford, didn’t take the Zulu seriously, and a giant Zulu force routed the British for what was known as the worst loss in battle by the British up to WWII. We got to enjoy that place a little, and then drove to Rorke’s Drift, which was also intense. I think this was my favorite site, just from the imagery I got and the camaraderie I know the men must have experienced. After running from Isandlwana, the 150 troops that made it the many miles to this point fortified their defenses at this two-building area. They defended the garrison during a 12 hour attack that was a constant barrage of the 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu soldiers who followed them. There were some incredible stories of valor from this one, and 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded at this battle (more by a single regiment for one action than any other battle in England’s history). It was really interesting to hear the stories. When the Zulus finally ceased their attack and returned to their lands, the British soldiers only had 900 of their 20,000 rounds remaining after the mission.

It was really moving and interesting to hear all these different battles, from points of view from all these different warriors. We heard one focused on the Boers, one on the Zulus, and one on the British. It was a refreshing way to see all of the members in the war as equals, and not “good guys” or “bad guys.”

We drove back on Sunday, and that took probably 4 hours from Dundee where we had lunch. I spent over 10 hours on a bus this weekend for sure. We watched Remember the Titans, Peter Pan, The Blind Side, and the beginning of Mulan this weekend.

It was great to spend time and talk to people on the bus, but as soon as I got back I was ready to be done. I spent a solid 3+ hours working on journals I should have been doing weekly for service sites, and finished most of those before going to bed.

Today was a day filled with class. Nothing significant, just class. There is literally nothing noteworthy that happened today. I played with paper dolls with Shelli. I listened to what all the other service sites are doing. I talked to Francis and I think he likes me (Francis is our awesome teacher).

Tonight will consist of plenty: hopefully a movie will be on that list. I have a reflection paper to write that will be easy because I've already written this blog. I have plenty of other little things to do, but I think I'll have time after dinner to just hang out. I need a rest before we're back at it at service sites tomorrow.

Almost halfway through?

Unfortunately any plans to eat out last night didn’t happen, so we had the same lasagna we have eaten every week since we’ve been here. To be honest, I would love a little variety in the food here. Or at least more regularity with the menu items I prefer. But you can’t have everything you want, so I’ll just get over it. After dinner last night, there was plenty of conversation after a chapel meeting, and then I watched a movie with 10 people crammed onto two beds’ space. It was tight and cramped and hot, but you make sacrifices for the ones you love and V for Vendetta. Halfway through the movie I left because I was tired and just went to journal/blog and hang out. It was honestly a really frustrating night for me that I’m still getting over.

But as soon as this morning came around, I sleepwalked through breakfast yet again. Service sites started out the same as they have been the whole time, with nothing exactly new involved. After carrying bamboo pieces down a large hill (probably 10 minutes of walking) we got to work fortifying the steps of the garden. Took care of that real quick because we didn’t have our foreman and just tried to reinforce it for Tuesday when our foreman will be there, and then got to work on the back of the house. It had a giant mound of sand when we started, probably 3 feet tall and a quarter of the yard wide, and we were supposed to level it out. To make things even more difficult, the backyard has a steady grade, meaning we worked on it steadily for 3 or so hours and still haven’t finished. And when I say “we” worked on it steadily, I don’t really mean we. There were people who were working the whole time (me), there were people that were working regularly with breaks thrown in, and there were people who watched for the last hour or more. And I wouldn’t be as frustrated by this if it didn’t happen every damn day with the same damn people. But I know that I can’t control that, and it’s really something I need to let go. And while I was working, there were 2 other people I was carrying on great conversation with. It started with ridiculous questions such as “If you were a steak, how would you be cooked?” and went to “What do you like most about yourself” after we asked “If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change?” It went really deep, and I learned plenty about the people I was talking to. The only problems were that we were working in such close quarters with people around us that people were constantly listening and chiming in. In fact, the conversation was commandeered a couple times by more controlling personalities; when the conversations were hijacked, we just reconvened at a different location after the commandeering parties were self-sufficient with their conversation. It was a frustrating thing, but yet another thing I’m learning to deal with, and the conversations I did have made it all worthwhile.

After that we drove up the hill and grabbed lunch. Lunch was great, with a great conversation coming in the form of ideas of a Bible study we could have with the senior youth, who are 17-24 year olds from Haniville. We got some solid stuff put together, although I did feel a little discouraged trying to motivate people who would rather sleep than actually plan anything. After we got that taken care of and out of the way, Riley and I went outside to hang out with kids while others stayed inside and slept. I’m really having trouble with the fact that people are willing to travel halfway across the world to do service, but when they finally get there, they are too self-consumed to do anything more than lean on a hoe while they talk or sleep instead of spending time with the very people who they came to spend time with. In the 2 HOURS that we had after we planned (not counting the 1 hour of lunch already out of the way), probably 10 people actually came outside to spend time with people they only have 2 more weeks to even see. Meaning half of the entire group stayed inside because they would rather sleep or talk to people they have 24 hours to talk to every day when we live in the same damn location. While I was blessed with the ability to spend over 2 hours playing barefoot soccer with little kids, while making them laugh and enjoying my time with them, there were people that didn’t move from the chairs they laid down on originally.

The youth group came at around 4, and we convened then. There were only 9 of them, so we played a couple of name games, and then zip-bong, and then did the short devotional we had planned. We asked them questions to get a better feel for them, and they asked us a couple questions. It was a fun little “get to know you” experience, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. We left incredibly late, 2 hours after we left yesterday and after almost 10 hours at the site. When we got back, it was time for dinner and a toga party for 3 people’s birthdays. We celebrated, followed by a little dancing, but the funk that I’m in caused me to not enjoy the dancing so much. I did enjoy the small food fight, however. I only ended up with a little icing on my beard, but a couple people got quite into it. It was crazy.

And now I’m exhausted, probably going to bed soon, and ready for a long weekend. We leave tomorrow morning at 8:30 for a tour of the battlefields of South Africa. We have 4 hours of driving one way tomorrow, are staying overnight, and 4 hours of driving back on Sunday. The tour is supposedly really boring (thanks to Allie, who works at Walk in the Light and studied this semester a year ago), but the best food on the trip. And I’m confident that the people can make it fun, so I’m not worried about it at all. Should be an exhausting weekend though. I will keep the updates flowing Sunday night, and hopefully they’re all good. Thanks for the prayers everyone!

Already 5 days done?

Yet another day of work completed. Today was uneventful, but full of stories nonetheless. After 3 episodes of Community last night, I got some good rest and sleepwalked through yet another early breakfast. As I was getting ready to go out, Baba Philip gave me a saw, and I discovered I was to stay behind to chop down bamboo for the garden we’re building. Because the garden is sloped, we had to make steps, which look great. The thing is, we had nothing to keep these steps in place, so this morning we were to cut down 12 trunks of bamboo that were the equivalent of 5 saw lengths, so they could fit in the van to be transported. We decided the best way to do this would be to cut down the three tallest and straightest trunks of bamboo, and cut them into shorter pieces. The first one was quite a task, but we got it taken care of without any major difficulty. The second one, after we discovered the way to take care of it, was supposed to be even easier. We got through the trunk with relative ease, and I had to kick it off the stump to get it to fall. The thing is, when it fell, it was long enough to stretch across the street and get caught in the telephone wire. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to wrestle this giant bamboo tree out of an active telephone wire without causing the wire to break and electrocute everyone in the area. We finally got it out, and were more careful with the next selection we made. We chopped all 3 down by the time Baba returned with the van, and loaded the 12 trunks into the van and took off after an hour and a half of manly work.

When we got to the service site, we found out no one was working on the house because of the fact that it was possibly going to rain today, and we weren’t supposed to work when it was raining or something (still a little foggy on the reasoning there). We really just moved a bunch of sand from one site to another for the 2 hours we were there. That half of the morning was incredibly unproductive from the point of view of service for Walk in the Light. That half of the morning was incredibly productive from the point of view of talking about hypothetical situations with Logan and great food with Allie. After that, we headed over to eat lunch, and talked about plenty of things, including personalities and love languages and human diversity. Really, today was the best work site day for conversations thus far.

After food and a nice nap, Riley and I played a 2 on 2 game of soccer with Spay and Sihle. Spay is a constant fixture in the afternoon, and after he woke me up with three solid steps on the crotch region and I took a couple minutes to recover, the game started. It was fun and great, and Sihle is a very talented soccer player. Everyone here is a very talented soccer player it seems.

We played for half an hour or so, and then we went to meet with the women. The men never came, so all boys and girls were gathered to hang out and play games with the women. There were about 10 of them, and they were very timid when the guys first came into the room, but after a couple of minutes and games and songs, they started to loosen up a little. One of the girls read a passage that Sihle translated to start, and that didn’t garner much response. So we sang “Aleko Ofana NoJesu” again, as it seems to be the only Zulu song we know. After that game we played a game of Zulu/English Telephone. The Zulu words were always full of clicks at the beginning, but by the end there was maybe one. The English ones were even worse: “Jonah and the Whale” turned to “To know is the way” and “I choose you Pikachu” (PJ decided they would know what Pikachu was. They didn’t.) eventually became “Jesus is a Penguin.” This game was followed by a ninja game that basically comprised of making fun sounds, a game called “bong-zip,” and Jigalo. They all were fun and hilarious, especially bong-zip with one of the small old women. She was indescribably hilarious (I would describe how funny she was but I’m still not sure why it was funny).

That led to now, where I’m blogging before my shower as I do every day. Tonight we may go out to eat for Saint Patrick’s Day, but that’s still up in the air because we didn’t give enough notice to the drivers. Tonight will probably consist of an Irish movie to celebrate, along with some journaling and maybe some poker. Who knows?

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone!

After a long day of work with tools.
Before a crazy zombie attack in Haniville.
3/15/11

The old house, after Colton and I removed the roof, but before it was torn down. The new one will look similar to this, except much cleaner and with more love. 

Lunchtime/naptime. It's crazy how quickly 2 hours
goes by when you're sleeping.

Me with (from left by heads) Mongolisa (or Little Derek Fisher who calls me "Mackennick"), Teb, and Spay (the constant presence at Walk in the Light/suspect who landed 3 solid shots below the belt to a sleeping Mackenzie today.

I know I just finished a post

But this is also post-worthy. It's post-worthy because it's remarkable, and the first time this has happened in 4 or 5 weeks.
I sat down after dinner to work on a 5+ page paper, having not done any of the reading yet. This paper is due tomorrow at midnight, and I got started on it at 6:30. I was finished and emailed it in by 8:05, having written a complete 6 pages. I remembered so much of what we talked about in class the other day that I didn't need to do the reading, and I was able to pound it out looking at my notes. It's a total blessing because for the first time, I'm only slightly behind on work! I have a journal due on Monday from this and last week that I haven't started yet, but that's all I have left to do! And with 9+ hours of worksites a day, taking into account that the worksites are manual labor and exhausting, I finally have time to myself without anything on my plate.
So I'm going to watch a couple of episodes of Community and make some more progress on Water for Elephants, before I get some solid sleep tonight to prepare for tomorrow.
I'm in a great place right now.

Day 4

Today we experienced productivity. After a great night last night watching The King’s Speech (which was good, but I was expecting it to be a little better. Not disappointed, but I still think The Fighter was better), and then right to sleep, I woke up early yet again. Woke up at 7:15 and hung around long enough to get dressed, grab my lunchbox, and find out that Bayern Munich blew a 2 goal aggregate lead in the Champions league to Inter Milan, which allowed Milan to advance to the semifinals and left Bayern clawing for a spot in the league next year. Now all my hopes for the Champions League rest on Tottenham, and no one really believes they’re going to win. That was the headline of the slow start to my day. I sleepwalked through breakfast, and headed out to Walk in the Light. We started by taking a walk through the township again, straight to the house we’re working on. All the clearing we did yesterday really paid off, and we saw how clean and fresh it looked today.

Today we took care of a lot of work: we finished clearing out the back behind the house, completely destroyed the mud house, but piled the mud to reuse, and cleared out the front of the house. Not only did we clear out the front of the house, we actually made giant steps for a garden, so now Maybis can take care of business when she goes to plant. It’s looking great.

I’m trying really hard, but my pride is getting the best of me. I’m becoming irritated with the people who don’t work. It’s not their fault, because there’s only so much that can be done, but I find myself working really hard and being very frustrated. And I’m not even working for any other reason than to take care of these things, so I shouldn’t let what anyone else is doing irritate me, but I haven’t been able to control that. Hopefully I can get my pride out of the way and see who I’m actually doing this for.

After that was lunch, which included an hour long nap and soccer with Spay. We planned, and then, at 2:30, the kids came. We planned for 10-30 kids, but there were at least 50, probably more. It was an hour of soccer for the boys and an hour of singing and dancing for the girls, followed by storytime. We reenacted David and Goliath, with a translator of course, and the kids didn’t seem too involved. They were involved when we sang “Aleko Ofana NoJesu” (There’s no one like Jesus) and Father Abraham, and then we started the games. They loved Simon Says, and loved a game with goats and a fence even more. There were people inside the circle made up of everyone else, and they just had to get out of the circle. The favorite was Red Robot Green Robot (They call stoplights robots here), and things got intense. I got to lead Goats and the Fence, and the final round of Red Robot Green Robot. As soon as the kids got next to me, I turned around and took off running, and was chased by 30+ Zulu children a distance of close to 200 or 300 yards down a dirt and grass road. It was intense. That was the end of the day with the kids, but today’s work was what I wanted it to be all along. We got to do the manual labor, which makes me feel like I’m making a lasting difference in the village. After the manual labor, we got to rest before we spent 2 hours with the youth of the village, which was fun, and is fulfilling because we’re making a difference in the kid’s lives. It’s the perfect arrangement if you ask me. I’m already looking forward to tomorrow.

There’s one kid who bears a striking resemblance to Derek Fisher, and his name is Mongolisa. He’s a small guy, and the sweetest kid you will find at WitL. On top of all that, no matter how many times he asks my name and I respond “Mackenzie” he repeats it back as Mackennick. So apparently my name is Mackennick. 

Day 3 at Service Sites

Yesterday was a long day, plenty of class and other things. In the evening we went to a jazz concert, where we were pointed out by the orchestra leader as also being from America. So we went to South Africa to see a jazz band from Boston. They were really good though, and it was a great environment. Followed by talking and hanging out to bring in a friend’s birthday, it was a quality evening.

Today, the morning started at service sites. While feeling a little tired from staying up til one (a normal bedtime for me in SA is 10), I was ready to take on the site. From the beginning, we drove straight to a house we’re demolishing/rebuilding and got to work. The house is a mud house, and it’s behind a cement house. It belongs to a woman whose husband died 2.5 years ago, and she became an alcoholic. She’s also the mother of the pastor of a nearby church. The pastor’s name is Alfred, and he’s a sweet and wonderful guy. So to start, we had to clean up the surrounding of the house with trash, which was pretty disgusting. The smell that normally comes out of trash cans after a rain? That was multiple locations in the yard. Of course, most of the people avoided those locations, so the duty fell to me and two girls. Seeing as I was the only guy, I was responsible for carrying the garbage to the street to dump it. It’s the second straight day at service sites I almost threw up, which is pretty impressive considering I’ve only thrown up once in the last 10+ years.

So after clearing out that fun little section, it was our job to clear out the weeds. Once again, the weeds were thick and up to our chests, so we got right to work. Our work every day has been clearing out that high grass to create space for people to grow food. So today, our whole day was literally clearing out room for a vegetable garden before lunch. It was tedious, but there were sporadic interactions with Zulu people from nearby. In fact, there was one man walking by as I was taking a break in front of the house, so I said “Sawubona” (hello). His sheepish response of “yebo” (Yes, hello to you as well) was interesting, so I said unjani (how are you). He responded with Ngiyaphila (I am fine) and I said Namigiyaphila (I am also fine). But apart from this generic interaction, he seemed to be really uncomfortable, so I walked out and shook his hand, the natural “African” shake. He said “Thank you” and continued to walk away. I was blown away that I provided anything that I deserved to be thanked for, and I think this was the realization point for me: just being there is providing a great service to these people. I’ve known it for a while, but now I have a story to tell that illustrates it. He thanked me for shaking his hand, and I think it was because he didn’t expect to be acknowledged by me. He didn’t think that he was important enough, but by just shaking his hand, I made him feel important. I’m from America, and I came 10,000 miles, and I have the time to shake his hand. The idea that I have that type of ability, that I’ve been blessed with the possibility of making someone’s day so easily, makes me want to just walk through the townships and talk with people all day. I’m getting more comfortable.

After the trek back (and I mean trek, it’s quite a walk up that hill), we grabbed lunch and ate together. The lunchtime quickly turned into naptime; you would be amazed at how tired you can get after pulling weeds for 4 hours in the African sun. A solid half hour nap for me, until I woke up and started playing soccer with Spay, the child I played with last week. It was fun, but we had to do work soon: playing soccer with spay and Alfred (Pastor from before), Snesh (a guy working at Walk in the Light), Wilfred (a Dutchman working at WitL for 8 months now), and another man whose name I never caught. The game was great, and we played for at least an hour, probably closer to two. We ended up with everyone just sitting down together because we were exhausted from the game, and we started talking. I sat next to the one person whose name I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to admit it and never asked his name. We had great conversation anyways: he asked what sports I played, and I told him baseball. He was surprised and said I looked like a basketball player. I asked him about his sports history, and he said he only played soccer. He was really good when we played earlier, so I pressed the soccer issue. I asked who his team was in the South African Soccer league, and he told me it was the Kaiser Chiefs. We talked about that for a little, and then I asked who his European team was. He told me it was Manchester United. I was able to give him a hard time about that, because Steven Pienaar, the captain of the South African team Bafana Bafana, plays for my Tottenham. It was great to talk to him about something that we had in common, and made me super glad I know the South African sports scene well enough to hold a conversation. We talked a little about Cricket, because South Africa is playing Ireland right now. It was so easy to connect to him when we started talking about sports, and we talked for a little.

Then two other kids walked up, and I hung out with Spay and Teb (?) and another kid whose name I didn’t catch. They’re bringing their friends tomorrow and we’re doing some sort of a Bible Story presentation for them, with games and more. After hanging out with them, and playing soccer, basketball, and pushing them on the swings, we had to head out. It was a great day, and there was so much more relational activity at the worksite than there had been in the past. I’m really looking forward to the next week of work.

After getting back, I showered and now have blogged as well. After dinner in 15 minutes, I’ll be going to The King’s Speech with Logan and Riley and some other peeps. I really want to see the Fighter again, but it’s not playing at the right time this week, so we’re stuck with the movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture. Damn.

The only thing is that I am remotely worried about is that I have a 5 page paper based on reading I haven’t done yet due on Thursday. I’ll hopefully get some of that taken care of tonight, and finish the rest of it tomorrow. I’m not too worried, because the classes here have been a total breeze thus far, and I have no doubt this class will be easy. So I’m not worried, I just need to do it. I’ll finish it, don’t you worry mom.

This has been a great start to the week, and I’ll try to get some more info down tomorrow after sites! I love you all, and thanks for keeping up with me!

2 Days of Service Sites Down,

It's time for a break. What's the gameplan? Go to Durban, and hang out there for the night. Everyone was headed out to a market in Durban on Saturday, which is an hour and a half drive, and headed to a market in the same area on Sunday.
Putting our heads together, some of the guys decided it would be great to stay the night in a hotel in Durban, so that we wouldn't have to do that 3 hours of driving, and would get to hang out and get more of a feeling for South Africa than the feeling we get at AE (To be honest, African Enterprise is its own little world, so we don't get much of a feel for the real "Africa" when we're on campus). So we did. 10 of the 11 guys decided we would split 2 rooms, and got the rooms for about 170 rand a night (about 25 dollars). So we did. After a successful day shopping at the market (there is an incredible feeling of empowerment that I get when I successfully barter with someone), we were dropped off at our hotel. I've never felt more comfortable when I was more out of place. A group of 20+ college students (There were girls from our group) walked into a nice, beachfront, highrise hotel with no suitcases or baggage other than backpacks, wearing trucker hats and board shorts, and dirty and sweaty and loud from a day at the market, speaking with accents (according to the South Africans). But we checked in and went up to our rooms, and while I felt out of place in an outrageously nice hotel (that was the cheapest we could find), it was a welcome change. We flipped the tv on to discover South Africa was playing India in the Cricket World Cup! It's a big deal here, so we watched a little bit. India scored 263 runs in the first two wickets, so South Africa looked like they were in trouble, but they were somehow able to hold India to 33 runs in the last 8 wickets, and didn't even use all 50 overs. So that was a pretty remarkable display in the second half of the inning. Then all the guys headed down to the beach and met up with the others who had been down there, and partook in various beach-related activities, such as catch with a frisbee and body-surfing in the warm, Indian Ocean water. I was stung by jellyfish probably 5 times, which was exciting because I had never been stung before! They were so small that it just stung for like 5 minutes and then it felt fine, but it was hilarious to hear someone randomly start yelling out in pain in the ocean.
So we headed back up to the hotel for showers and watched more cricket. The Proteas (South Africa) were batting well, but at an incredibly slow pace. They were scoring about 4.5 runs per over, but when we stopped watching, they needed about 9 runs per over to catch up before they reached to designated number of overs (basically a pitch limit). Things weren't looking good for South Africa, so we decided to walk over to Florida Street to grab something wonderful to eat. On the way over there, we saw the game on in a sports bar we were passing, and checked the score. South Africa had 18 runs needed to tie, and 14 bowls left. A tall order, but possible nonetheless. It was incredible they had even made it that close. So when they had 6 pitches left they needed 13 runs, meaning they were almost done, when they got back to back boundaries worth 4 and 6 runs. They ended up winning, and this game was an elimination game for them, because they needed to win to get out of pool play. We watched the end of a Cricket World Cup game we were deeply invested in while we were in a sports bar in South Africa, and it was one of the more remarkable games in the history of Cricket.
After that, we invested in some Mexican food, and I got the carne asada burrito I have been craving for almost two months. It was everything I remembered it being. Most satisfying meal I have had in recent memory. Then it started raining, and while at first we moved under the roof of TacoZulu, we ended up out in the street watching the lightning storm. It was incredible. The sky was completely lit up 1/3 of the time, and it was a constant flashing. It looked like a strobe light. Enjoying the weather was great. So we just hung out and enjoyed the rest of the night, and walked back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
We woke up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise, because never have I ever had the opportunity to watch a sunrise over a large body of water, and I don't know when I'll have the chance to ever again. So we watched it a little bit, but there were clouds covering the horizon so we didn't see too much actual sunrise. But the company was superb and the experience was great. After another couple hours of sleep, there was check-out at 10, followed by all-you-can-eat-buffet breakfast (which was welcomed because of the lack of food the day before). Then it was hit the beach for the entire day until 4, when we drove back to AE and showered. So that's Durban, and that's the real Africa experience away from AE I've been looking for.
After that, Jenny and I (co-D group leaders) went to dinner with other leaders Colton and Olivia, along with Reagen and Liselle, our D group supervisor/friend and his wife. It was a great delicious dinner and we talked about D group and figured some stuff out. So the relaxing recovery weekend I was looking for after two days of service sites? Got it. Check that one off the list. Mark it down. Count it. Taken care of.
Firsts:
- stung by a jellyfish
- read on the beach by the indian ocean
- bartered down the price on something I really need
- watched a cricket game
- understood a cricket game
- watched a televised rugby game
- watched a cricket game in a South African sports bar
- ate Mexican food in South Africa
- stayed at a hotel out of the country
- stung by multiple jellyfish
- watched an awesome cricket game in a South African sports bar
- walked Florida Street on a Saturday night
- fell asleep on a South African beach

Day 2

The only bad part about today is that there's only 12 days left on site!
Last night was intense. There was awesome South African thunderstorms that hit, and it was a great environment to do anything except for write a paper. That was frustrating, because writing a paper is exactly what I was doing all night. I didn't get to bed too late, but I still only got six and a half hours of sleep.
The wake-up calls don't get any easier after the first week. They actually get harder. I've slept past 7:30 one time in the last 56 days. And that one time I slept until 8. Today I woke up at 7 like usual, and prepared for Walk in the Light.
Walk in the Light began with a devotion, as it will every day. Today, Colton and I led with the first devotion of our time in South Africa. It was about Proverbs 16:3-4, and committing ourselves to God on this trip, and trusting him with the good and bad things we experience. It was a great start to the day.
7 of us started out by going on home visits. We were the first group that did the home visits, and we walked around with Pendile and met some of the people from the village. Apart from the utter poverty in the village, there was so much that my eyes were opened to. There is regularly trash burning on street corners because that's the easiest way to get rid of it. There's a dump in the middle of the village that is just covered with garbage and smells horrible from the constant burning. The houses are small, and incredibly difficult to cool on hot, humid days such as today. All around, Haniville would be an incredibly tough place to live.
When talking to Pendile, I found out that probably 90% of the community is HIV positive. 90%! That means that of the hundred or so people we passed while walking around for those hours, only 10 weren't HIV positive. The shock at the poverty quickly changed to shock at the HIV rates. We met three people while we walked around and went on the house visits with Pendile, and they were all nice, but quiet. Pendile had to urge them to go get their ARV's, which is the medication for those who are HIV positive (they take away the effects of the victim while they are being taken, but once they are stopped being taken, the victim is worse off than before. These are lifetime drugs). Then we met a man on the street who we weren't visiting but seemed like a fun guy. His name was Klaronfana, and he claimed he was the next Denzel Washington when he found out we were from right next to Hollywood. After visiting other people and discovering that literally everyone with a TV in Haniville watches Tyra, we visited Pendile's house. She had beautiful tile floors, wonderful countertops, a great microwave, two solid couches with comfortable chairs, and things that we would have never seen in any other living space. This is because she works with Walk in the Light, meaning Bruce (the director) taught her how to save. So many people in Haniville simply live hand to mouth, and spend as much as they earn, that poverty is a constant thing for them.
After Pendile's house, we visited a diabetic whose pinky toe on his right foot had rotted off. I've never seen anything like it, and I couldn't watch. When we prayed for him, I was fine, but I had to stand outside while the bandage was off and being replaced. Pendile was taking care of him, and he seemed grateful, but it was obvious he was in a lot of pain. Then we visited another man whose name escapes me, but he was the most joyous man I've ever seen. He was confined to a bed by a stroke four years ago, but apparently reads his Bible and prays regularly. His face lit up when we walked in the room, and after we prayed for him we sang a song. The only Zulu song we know, which is "Aleko Ofana NaJesu," Or There's No One Like Jesus. He loved the song, and was such a genuinely happy guy that I couldn't help but be happy in there.
These visits gave me motivation. We were gone for at least 3 hours, and they seemed like they took forever, but we interacted with so many people. The only thing I wanted was to be able to help in any way possible, which is what I got to do later.
After lunch, I returned to the work from yesterday, the manual labor. Same as before, but today I found out we're clearing area so a garden can be planted to provide more food for the people from that area. That was even more motivation.
But the manual labor was rough, and I'm running low on sleep as it is. No naps, working outside in the sun all day for two days straight, I need some rest. Fortunately, I get to sleep in until 8 again tomorrow!
Now that it's the weekend, there are some great plans. Trip to Durban with everyone tomorrow morning, but when everyone leaves, 10 of the 11 guys are staying in a hotel, and going to the beach Sunday morning. Sleeping in, getting some rest, and just recovering together. I'm so incredibly excited for this, just a relaxing beach night on our own in South Africa for the first time. I'm going to get some rest, but I'll be on again soon. So long!

Day 1 knocked out!

I decided to jump right on this, because I know what happens when I don't. I got back a half hour ago from a long hot day at Walk in the Light. It's basically a community center-type thing, but they're relocating to a new location. They serve a village, and serve people of all ages (the original draw for me: only site of the 5 that doesn't primarily work with children or teach business principles I don't know). Today, we had the 6 guys begin by cleaning out a closet, and then tidying up the area around a building: destroying weeds, grass, bushes, and the occasional tree. To be completely honest, I think we took care of an amazing amount of work in a short time span. Working outside, with a 15 minute lunch break, we started around 9:45 and worked through 2 or so.
While this was great, it was only because we knew we were helping. There wasn't anything particular fulfilling in an African sense about the work we were doing; there wasn't anything I would travel around the world to do. At around 2, I met a child named Sandili (? We just called him San). He was with Wailana, but Wailana felt guilty about not helping do work, and I was tired of manual labor, so I started playing with him. For the next hour and a half, I played the greatest game of frisbee (with the lid of a bucket), 3 on 2 soccer (this kid is gifted), penalty kicks in soccer, wrestling, a little netball, and even got the "frisbee" thrown at me a couple times. So much fun!
While there are children at AE that absolutely drive me crazy, and I don't want to spend all my time around children, I had a blast playing with this guy.
After that, I spent a good half hour organizing clothing and putting them in bags to hand out at a later date. We didn't finish the job, as there was plenty to do, but we got plenty taken care of and had to leave. It was so hot in that room, but we took care of business while we were in there.
All in all, it was an incredible productive day, but I am disappointed at the lack of contact I had with South Africans. The staff were awesome, but most of them were either from Holland or America. I really enjoyed it, and I've been warned to not be discouraged because we will get to interact with people.
In talking to Ally, someone on staff who is a previous APU student who studied abroad on this trip, I mentioned that I was disappointed that I've been here for 7 weeks but could have been in an isolated area of America because I was dealing mostly with Americans, and never leaving. She said it's normal to feel that way, and that if I really wanted to experience Africa she would be willing to show me some cool places sometime. And I am so interested in getting to see the real Africa, that's really what I'm looking for. So if I become bold enough, then I just may get to experience it!
And today I found out who my RAR is, so I now have a roommate for next semester. Things are just looking great! Now I need a shower, nap, and dinner before I can start the next 6 pages of that Bio paper. Here's to a great day! We still have 13 days on site left!

I must apologize again.

I knew it wouldn't be easy. I've been so busy lately, and haven't sat down to blog. But, it's time to cut the losses. I think I made it up to February 19th in my updates, and I am sorry. I'm really sorry to everyone trying to follow me, so let me summarize real quickly. The excursions we've been on lately have been things such as visiting a market, going zip-lining, and more fun experiences. I've been on a safaris, seen giraffes, rhinos, water buffalos, bok, and so many other animals. I've played water rugby, which is basically get the ball to the other side of the pool with no rules. I've had ticks on me, been covered in dozens of leeches, been attacked by foliage while in a moving vehicle, and played soccer on a secluded paradise field, making use of natural bamboo for goals and boundaries. I feel like, if this was a vacation at a resort, it would be incredible. Despite the fact that I don't have many things I've come to rely on - Mexican food, cell phone, unlimited internet usage, Ultimate Frisbee, ice cubes, a car, my family, or even hot water for the first month and a half. Despite all these things, this has been a great vacation.
I've also been busy with schoolwork. When you jam a full semester of classes into 6 weeks, you're going to be busy, especially come time for finals. That's what was controlling my life lately. As soon as I finished my final final, I took a day off, and now I'm behind on a 10 page 1.5 spaced paper due Friday. I'm exhausted and wiped out. I've spent 23 hours in class in the last 60 hours. That's not including the time spent planning my D group, working on homework, sleeping, planning chapel, running chapel, and playing soccer (I'm addicted). So I haven't really had free time.
So that's pretty much been the past 3 weeks. I'm busy now, but I've been busy and I'll be just fine.
2 Significant things:
1. I'm going to be an RA. I was selected as an RA for a freshman hall in Trinity, the dorm I lived in last year. I'm so excited about it because this is what I've been planning on doing for 3 years or so. This is the position I wanted, and I wasn't too optimistic about it when I looked at some of the other people who applied for it. I honestly think this position was the most sought after position, and only 10 people, 4 guys, are RA's in this dorm. That's so exciting!
2. Tomorrow service sites start. I'm serving at Walk in the Light, which is the site I wanted to serve at. There's plenty of things to do there, but we'll probably be focused on doing manual labor such as building houses, and spending time with the community. I wanted it because it's the only one that doesn't directly work with kids, and I don't feel like that's what I'm here to do. But tomorrow, my real purpose for South Africa starts. I love the idea of vacation, and support it totally, but I didn't come here to experience a resort. I don't even feel like I'm in South Africa yet, because we've been so isolated here. But now, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to serve, and spend time with people I've never met before. I'm ready to actually start doing what I came here to do. I'll try to keep up with this, because this is important stuff I'll want to reflect on. I figure I can neglect the surface-level "I did this" stuff when I have to choose something to leave out. Tomorrow should result in reflection. Hopefully I won't be too exhausted/consumed by the amount of work I have.