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!
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