Thursday, October 28, 2010

Week 9 – “All the things I knew, but I didn’t know…”

Hello, friends. Thanks to everyone at home for all the love and prayers and support that’s gotten me here… and extra bonus points for y’all who are taking the time to read my weekly thoughts….

Last week, I went with Suzanne to run an errand down to the Waterfront of Cape Town. I’d heard a lot about this touristy area and had seen some of it from the Red Bus Cityseeing tour we went on on my birthday weekend. On this errand, I got to see more of the Waterfront up close: the big harbor, the oceanside hotels, the fancy shops. I don’t know how old the buildings were or weren’t, but they all looked shiny and glamorous and new. Typical wealthy beach vacation area. From where I was standing, it looked very Western; it reminded me of Rehoboth, Delaware or the casino strip in Gulfport, Mississippi… but wait, this is Cape Town.

Suzanne and I stopped in at the Cape Grace, one of many hotels of its kind in the area, and walked into the lobby. It was gorgeous – beating out the glitzy Gulf Coast casino in its beauty and décor (American friends, please do not underestimate the glamour of the shiny new post-Katrina casinos). Also, while it was decorated with a mural of an old map of Cape Town, the décor also seemed Western to me, reminding of the homes my aunt would decorate in South Mississippi. Anyway, Suzanne stopped at the desk to take care of what she needed to take care of and I got a glimpse at the guestbook – the latest twenty-or-so visitors to leave their names and addresses. On the two visible pages, I saw a listing from Germany, one from France, a couple from the UK, and then a whole bunch from all over the United States. Not one person in that book was from South Africa.

You know that expression “how the other half lives?” Well, I know someone here who phrases it much more honestly; “how the other one-percent lives.”

Music: Darius Rucker -  Charlestons, SC 1966 & Sugarland - The Incredible Machine

Currently reading: The Mind of South Africa by Allister Sparks

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Week 8 - “A heart that beats - an incredible machine made of blood and love and hope and lust and steam calling…”

Some habits are easier to break than others. While I do not anticipate or desire any changes to my caffeine habit (mmm English Breakfast tea), I know that this habit would be a hard one to alter (hence why I travel with tea – seriously). Here’s a habit I figured would be harder to break: associating October with autumn and associating 25 degrees with cold. Just in case you forgot, that’s my way of reminding you all that the seasons are reversed down here, so it’s spring soon-to-be summer. While I’ve gotten used to this idea, it does seem strange to think Temperatures range from the cool upper-teens to mid-twenties; it’s classic mid-spring weather, only it’s in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. Anyway, now that we’ve got that exciting little tidbit out of the way…

One of the more exciting pieces of news of the week is that I started up a new Bible Study. Now, in addition to Wednesday evenings at UCT, I also will have a Tuesday Bible Study at the Cape Town campus of CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology), which is just down the road from where I work at the ASF office. I’ve participated in many Bible Studies, and each has been different and informative in its own way. In the days of ECM BrewHaha Bible Studies in Newark, we were lucky to make it through a chapter a week, but through the discussions we had each Monday when we gathered for lunch, we learned a lot about life. Since I am still learning myself, the approach I’ve taken to leading Bible Studies has been the method where (one of the students or) I read a passage aloud and then, I ask them to share a word/phrase/verse that stood out to them or rose a question. If I can think of good questions while I’m preparing for Bible Study, I’ll ask those, but mostly I want to be more of a facilitator than some sort of instructor (as we would say in English Ed courses - a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage :-) ). I was a bit anxious leading my first Bible Study at CPUT – especially when twenty-five students showed up, but the approach I selected seemed to work really well. We made it through less than a chapter-and-a-half of Jeremiah (I chose Jeremiah because I love love love the first chapter with the verses where Jeremiah is called), but there was energy and discussion and debate. Almost all of the students spoke up and got involved! It was so exciting. The Bible Study I’m running at UCT is much smaller with less debate, but it provides a more intimate setting for our discussions of Esther, which leads to a very different set of questions that still seem to overlap with the Jeremiah discussion in the strangest of places. Thanks and blessings to everyone back home for all of your love and prayers and support. I feel so blessed to be here, but I do miss you all. (PS – I LOVE mail, in case you were wondering…)

Music: My favorite band, Sugarland, just released a new album The Incredible Machine <33333 – “Little Miss” just might be my new theme song, but the whole country/rock album is definitely worth some attention.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Week 7 – “Come down to the river. Come and let yourself in. Make good on a promise to never hurt again…”

I had to double check my previous entry to be sure that I have in fact been here seven weeks. Yowza. I’m not sure if I have much that’s new and totally mind-blowing to talk about (except for that last thing I’m gonna mention)...

I’m still enjoying all that I’m doing in my work at the ASF office. Plans for the chaplains’ retreat are coming along quite nicely. My other big project, compiling the history of ASF, is also going well, but based on the piles of papers and the rate that I get through them, I think it may be a year-long effort for me to get through everything. The commute’s more tiring than the actual workday; it’s not troublesome in any way – just long enough to be tiring between the walking, the train, and the taxi. It’s never boring though. At least once a week something worthy of a story happens.

For instance, let’s talk about taxis. Every day, I go to the row of taxis between the KFC and city hall and find the one going to Omah (I just learned how to pronounce that; I’m not going to pretend that I can spell it) by asking one of the dozen-or-so regular drivers. Taxis have to be full (or have been there 20-40 min – sometimes with me on board waiting that long) before they can head out and drop off passengers at their respective locations. Last week, I was in a taxi (think – 12-passenger van) with sixteen people. Standing room only. A seventeenth almost boarded, but she said “I don’t want to die today.” I almost cracked up as we rode along. It’s the kind of thing that I might have found stressful when I first got here – but no longer. Then, there was the day I got on the taxi just as it was leaving; it was like Christmas. No wait at all. Anyway, this is part of my daily commute, and I’ve been here long enough that more and more of those drivers are starting to recognize me (as the well-camouflaged tall white American girl that I am, haha I know). I walk up and they say “Ooma!” and point me towards the right taxi in the line-up.

Even more exciting than this taxi business (haha) was last Friday’s 7:15am Eucharist at the cathedral (if you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you’ll remember that this would be St George’s in Cape Town). There have not been too many times I’ve gone to church that early, nor have there been (geekfest Star Trek and Stargate conventions aside) more than a handful of times that I’ve been starstruck (no pun intended). What do these things have to do with eachother, you ask? Well, check this out; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was celebrant in all of his awesome Desmond Tutu glory. We exchanged the peace.

There was something like 75 people there , crowded into the chapel on the side of the main part of the cathedral. I think at least 2/3 were visitors (most visiting from the Semester-at-Sea ship) and at least half it seemed were American; Desmond had people introduce themselves if they were visitors. Three other people in the room were from New Jersey. Sadly, they left too quickly for me to talk to them, but I do remember where they were from. The man was an Methodist pastor from Princeton and the two women were from Plainfield, a town over from where I grew up and a few blocks from my home parish. Again, Cape Town doesn’t always feel too far away.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Week 6 - "Letting go & holding close to all the things that mean the most..."

This past week, Cape Town bid farewell to the YASCer before Amanda and I: the fabulous Emily Beel. I was sad to see her go, but wish her the best is all she does. I was talking to Emily during her last days, and it was interesting to see her at the end of this journey Amanda and I are just starting.

Last Saturday, the day before Emily left, I went with her and Suzanne to this place in Salt River called the Old Biscuit Mill. From the outside, it didn’t look like much…at first. Inside, it is a wonder. In addition to being filled with wonderful, artsy, colorful little shops, there is a huge tent of decliciousness. In honor of Saturday morning, they do a kind of flea market (hence the magical food tent). The food tent was definitely the most exciting. There were tons of venders selling all different kinds of things. Not only were there your basics of coffee, tea, cookies, and produce, but other things you could find included: quiches, cakes, tarts, samoosas, pies (meat as well as fruit), thin crust pizza, smoothies, cupcakes, pasta/rice mixes, omelets, potato pancakes (with a wide choice of toppings), wine, liquor, beer (they even had Boston lager), and that’s just what I can remember. It was pretty epic. I settled on a mixed berry smoothie and a lamb pie, which was essential lamb and seasoning baked in a warm flaky crust which surrounded it on all sides. It was kind of like eating a lamb-filed croissant; I’m not sure that description captures the full degree of deliciousness that this pie was though. For dinner later, I picked up a few little quiches. They have this flavor of quiche that’s seems quite common here that I haven’t seen before in the US: butternut and feta. It is rather magnificent.

Another weekend highlight was the church service at St Paul’s in Rondebosch. Sunday evening, I attended the University of Cape Town (UCT) service there. It’s always a wonderful way to spend a Sunday evening, and I enjoy my time with the students. What made this particular Sunday evening a bit different was the fact that I was speaking at the service. In lieu of typical sermon, I spoke about my experience in campus ministry throughout my years at Delaware and on how incredibly crucial that journey was in getting me here today.

My sixth week here has been a good one; let me tell you a little bit about my daily life here. Monday through Friday of every week I’m in the Anglican Students’ Federation office 9ish (depending on public transit) until 4. I work on lots of different tasks there, but right now, my focus is getting everything ready for the chaplains’ conference in late November (Thanksgiving week). A new project for me this week is a Bible study; last night was week one of four of my Bible study at the Ansoc (Anglican Society… aka campus ministry) house at UCT. We’re studying Esther, a short book with one of the more interesting women in the Bible and a mysterious lack of mention of God or prayer. In our first evening, we made it all the way through chapter five; anyone who remembers ECM’s BrewHaha Bible study will understand why I’m astounded by that kind of progress in one hour. Over the course of the hour, I saw found connections to Jafar from Aladdin (Haman reminds me of him), Rataxes from Babar (I initially thought of him because when I heard the name Xerxes, I thought it was him, but I’ve since remember that the evil rhino’s name was Rataxes and not Xerxes – silly me) (Why do I even remember this stuff?), & Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (Haman wasn’t content to just go to dinner with the king and get what he wanted; he had to kill Mordecai because he considered Mordecai an unpleasant sight on the palace steps. It’s similar to Gaston, who couldn’t just make another play for Belle; he had to rile up an angry mob and “kill the beast.” Gaston’s only better than Haman because Gaston got a rockin’ musical number, but in the end both villans meet dramatic, untimely ends). I’m not sure exactly what it means that I’m making all these connections to cartoons rather than the wide body of work that I’ve read as an English major. I would like to believe that it means I think outside the box, but I’m not entirely convinced. Oh, one more thing – anyone ever see the crazy religious stuff going on in Battlestar Galactica (the new one)? It’s not just the names, or the fact that the good guys are polytheists, while the “evil” cylons believe in one true God… Anyway…

So a goodbye, a flea market, some amazing food, work, a Bible study, and my crazy pop culture connections. That’s the week in review, folks. Thanks again to everyone whose love, prayers, and money have supported me on this journey. I’ll close with a few interesting current events I saw on SABC News last night:
  • Yesterday, Charlie the Smoking Chimp died. While it is very sad that a chimp would get addicted to cigarettes, if you Google this guy and check out some of the pictures, you’ll see why I think the footage of him is absolutely hilarious. For the record, he wasn’t trained to smoke; he picked up the habit from zoo visitors. To think, all these year people have been worrying about zoo visitors feeding zoo animals. Despite his struggle with nicotine, Charlie lived to the ripe old age of 52, which is quite impressive for a chimp. 
  • Rhino poaching is a big problem and has made headlines recently.
  • The rand (South African currency) is getting stronger. When I got here, 1 USD = R7.25. Two nights ago, it was 1 USD = R6.86
  • The SA government is considering expunging the record of ex-convicts after a few years of being out of jail, since these former prison inmates often struggle to find jobs. 
  • Since we’re talking about headlines, I’ll finish up this post with one of personal interest.