Indian Ocean!!!

From the Caves the paintings from hundreds of years ago!

Indian Ocean!

Last Saturday I didn’t have a chance to blog about our time at the Indian Ocean which cannot be forgotten since it was a fantastic day. In the morning for my Intercultural Communication Class we went to an Indian town called “Umzinto”. It was a fun couple of hours being able to walk around and talk to people. I specifically enjoyed being able to go into a mosque and meeting shop owners.

Kathryn and I

After our trip at Umzinto we went to the beach for the afternoon! I don’t know what it was, but it was SO comforting to be back at a beach. The Indian Ocean was so powerful and so blue! Right when we arrived we jumped into the waves and they pushed us over. I specifically took a few steps in where it was barely ankle deep, a big enough wave came and it flipped me and dragged me across the sand. Talk about embarrassing moment! After the beach we had a bry (BBQ) with an Indian youth group. We had to move where our bry was because we were next to a lot of drunk African guys that were giving us trouble (this tends to happen when you travel with a group of 44 Americans…). I got to ride in the “boot of the buckie” (the bed of a truck) to our new site which I thought was going to be only a few minutes away. It ended up being MUCH farther than I thought and they went really fast! I felt like a dog in the back of a truck. It was awesome!!

This week was pretty uneventful. A LOT of homework and studying. Sadly, I left our window open though and a guy saw a lot of monkeys in our room and jumped in after them. The monkeys got our chocolate, snacks, ripped the package of my UNO cards, and spread the medications and tampons across our floor. Silly monkeys!

            Friday was Heritage day for South Africa-sort of like an independence day in the states. A bunch of places are closed and people don’t have work. We celebrated by playing volleyball, having a bry (BBQ) and watching Invictus. I especially enjoyed being able to play volleyball although I may have been a little too competitive. J

This Saturday our excursion was to the Giants Castle. When we originally left Pietermaritzburg, it was rainy and a fogged in mess, not a pretty day for a hike. However, once we drove two hours we broke out of the fog and into a sunny valley!

            I was in the first group that was able to do the hike up and then go straight up into the caves. I really enjoyed the hike, I felt like I finally saw the “Africa” I had envisioned. There were beautiful valleys, animals, rocks that looked similar to “pride rock” and amazing views. I walked with a group of girls that had a particularly good time climbing up the rocks.

View on the hike!

            Once we got up to the caves I realized I had no idea what to be prepared for. I was expecting us to walk into caves with headlamps on, but it was quite different. A guide walked us up to the caves and there were two specific spots where we were able to view the paintings. The first spot showed an example of what the people would have looked like working and living in the caves. It was fascinating to see the black on the walls from fires hundreds of years earlier. I enjoyed seeing the paintings as well. It was hard to understand our tour guide and he said very little to us, but what I could read off of the plaques helped greatly. The second room the paintings were even clearer and we could get even closer to them. As I understood, the room was the “holier” room and it showed a medicine man with warriors or hunters around it. The pictures were made out of animal blood mixed with fat so that we still are able to see the paintings in the year 2010. Overall I thought it was a very interesting trip. I enjoyed being able to finally witness areas of land that we have read about.

Climbing Pride Rock

            The rocks and area surrounding it looked very similar to the red rocks found in Sedona. After we explored the caves we were able to go down to the creek and hop rocks while the other group went to see the caves. This was a very comforting experience because it made me feel like I was back at Oak Creek in Arizona hopping rocks with Beth and the cousins. This creek was very clear without fish (SCORE!) and the only animal I saw was a frog that leaped over my foot and went swimming. We had fun standing in the little rapids and trying to stay standing up.

Monkey on the loose!

            We enter into midterms next week, crazy to think that it’s possible we are half way through our academic semester. I really look forward to the community engagement sites. I have been involved in a chapel committee that gets to plan our Monday student chapels. It’s been really fun to continue leadership in a church after this summer.  My hip has been hurting this week more from my running, I have taken a rest on it so that it can heal. Next week I am looking forward to going on a safari!

Meeting Prince Buthelezi

Head Pastor of organization at mic, Michael Cassidy behind, Prince on far right

Today we had an incredible opportunity to be able to meet Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi who is President of the Inkatha Freedom Party and just under the Zulu King. Let me explain some background information on African Enterprise. Azusa Pacific University’s campus is partnered with the African Enterprise campus and therefore daily there are new groups going in and out of the area. If you google Africa Enterprise, you can begin to understand how important of a place this was during the Apartheid and how important Christian leaders from that time period were from African Enterprise. I could write a paper on the importance of African Enterprises so in short I will leave it at that this is still a well known place where conferences go in and out of and it is famously known as a place of reconciliation. One of the “big names” of AE is Michael Cassidy who if you ALSO google will begin to realize how important of a Christian man he has been. He is most famously known for putting together a prayer conference around the time of the 1994 election which should have been very violent and very eventful, but through a miracle (which many connect to Michael Cassidy’s prayer conference) it was a peaceful turn of power. Michael Cassidy is a completely humble man who is the retired CEO of AE and last week came and spoke with us. All of this background information leads up to that today there was a large conference held on campus with the “Christians for Peace in Africa”. This organization was bringing delegates and journalists from all over the country of Africa. Unfortunately, due to government tensions, about 40 delegates could not get a visa to get into South Africa. Yesterday Gloria one of the staff informed us that the Zulu prince would be coming today to make a guest appearance for a speech. At the time we were told we would be unable to see him so I joked with my parents last night of hiding in the bushes. However, today, a few of us went up to Michael Cassidy who we had met last week and asked if we would be able to fill the seats of the delegates who were unable to attend to be able to listen to his speech. He agreed, helped us work with our professors to get us out of class from 4:30-6:30 and I was able (alongside of many classmates) to go hear, meet, and see the Prince Buthelezi. 

Prince at mic, Michael Cassidy sitting on right

            This experience was far more important then I could have imagined. When we entered the women began chanting a song in Zulu which was a call and response song. Everyone rose and we waited as he was greeted. I was in the third row away from him, he was a short man with gray hair who barely peered over the microphone, someone said he is 81 years old. We were each given a copy of his speech, which I hope to share with anyone in the future, but the important part was understanding how important his role in the Apartheid was, he worked closely with Mandela however with a Christian stance. His Christian stance is very against violence, being that he has direct Zulu descent (which are famously known as warriors) and his stand to not use violence has created him as a politician who has been pushed to the side. Much of his story has been turned around by media, and he his hated by many in South Africa. At the end of his speech, they gave time for an open mic specifically where people could make comments and ask questions (this was specifically geared towards us college students). Many people from Africa talked about the lies that they knew of this man and how changed they felt after his talk. I wish I could write what his speech was like but it is hard to articulate. It was heart felt, he obviously has experienced many hardships, he has suffered with his people through the apartheid and he has been brought out of that time by being hated by his own people for trying to make peaceful decisions. Looking into his eyes, you see pain. He is a humble man, one that takes no credit for the amazing things he has done. He was gracious, kind and took time to talk to us and shake our hands afterwards. He was a man of VERY high stature, guards and the whole deal, however, his guards were not pushy, in the room but not even next to him. 

APU group with Prince in middle

            Two things to send home was a question asked by one of our students. She asked how as Americans can we assist South Africa. His response was in two ways. His first was in prayer for leaders. He went onto explain that there is still a lot of problems in South Africa, but more specifically violence all over the world. He told us how important prayer is to the South Africans after the prayer conference. The prince also went on to explain how tragic AIDS and HIV is in South Africa and Africa as a whole. He personally has lost two children to it, but he explained that compared to other families that is barely any. He ended with saying his favorite verse in Zulu and English, “Be still, know that I am God.” I don’t know if I could still find God in situations he has been through, and got a taste of what forgiveness, reconciliation and grace means.

If I were a Zebra....

 

Sawubona!

This week has been a very overwhelming yet exciting week. I can’t believe how quick yet slow days move here.

Monday we started classes and we haven’t stopped running sense! The problem is we are fitting 14 weeks of school into 6 weeks. Therefore, we are reading what seems like the whole continent of Africa! I have NEVER experienced this intense and overwhelming amount of continous class and reading. We don’t have a ton of class, but the days we do have it are long periods.

For you academic types (my parents and the Monsons) I will go into details about class. I am taking Intercultural Communications from a colored professor, Clive Lawler. (Colored means he has one Indian and one white parent). This class is actually pretty interesting and very useful for being in a country I know very little about! I also find it applicable in my time in Mexico and so although reading 200 pages by Thursday was NOT my idea of fun, at least it is something that I will be able to apply in my futures. My second class is Life and Teachings of Jesus which is from Reg (White professor-dutch mom british dad). Reg is the “head” figure of this whole program. I have only ever had one other professor in college at this point that I respect and love to the point as Reg. Thank goodness that Reg is my bible professor and in fact for once not making me angry about bold statements that APU can make at times about the bible! Reg is extremely intelligent and I just pray that I can soak up some of his knowledge about the Bible. We also have a seminar time which meets later in the week which splits us up into groups of 5, someone has to do this large paper over things they have researched (which is the downside) but Reg is there helping answer questions. This week we discussed Jesus’ resurrection and I saw that story in a totally new light. When we talked about the persecution Christians would have felt at the time it meant something new to me after talking about the Apartheid since the day we stepped food on South Africa’s soil. Our History and Culture Class is being lectured by Reg but our actual professor is Quinton (Who met us in Joburg) and will finish the course with us in Capetown. Until then we have a common string of a lot of reading and some reflection papers!One night a week we are able to go to Zulu class which is IMPOSSIBLE. Goodness, I thought Spanish was hard until I walked into this class. I have trained my tongue to role r’s and in Zulu you make different click sounds for c,q and one other letter. The only thing that is saving me is that vowels are said similar to Spanish. Moral of story, anyone who can speak zulu I have tremendous respect for. I want to be able to do simple sayings for our work site but that’s all I am interested in. My final class is Theology online which could not be any harder. I have never read so much and realize now why I have never taken an online class, you need to go to class! Thankfully a lot of us are doing this together in efforts of passing the class and helping to understand. I am a people person and therefore need a professor and discussion. I am trying to remind myself that school is not EVERYTHING and I need to enjoy Africa. I will enjoy it a lot more once this class is done and I get to do service projects. We will continue with Community Engagement and History class through the semester but most of these classes are completed in 5 weeks! This week we signed up for committees to be apart of. I signed up for activity committee to plan events and also chapel committee to help plan our monday student chapel.

            Monday we were able to visit one of our service site options. For four weeks we will be able to volunteer in one of four sites. Monday we saw Gateway, which is a school and women rehab who have been beaten or need to be treated because of HIV aids infection. I loved the site because I love kids and a school naturally drew me in, I don’t know what I will end up doing though, it’s way too early to decide. Put me at any work site in Africa and I will be happy so whatever ends up happening for me is fine.

            Most mornings this week we have been running at 6am in the game reserve which has been such a treat. We have yet to see the zeh-bra (yes, pronounce that the African way) but we are on the hunt! We have ran super early, gone at walks near dusk, they are tricky animals which everyone but kat and I have managed to see!

            This week the boys in the chalet next door caught a HUGE HUGE spider that they named “Crackin”. This spider was put in someone’s lunch box which I saw as no problem until yesterday when Kat and I were minding our own business doing a yoga work out tape and suddenly we heard our door open. The boys were plotting to release Crackin into our chalet. After a massive chase sequence we thought we had gotten rid of the boys forever. However, if you look on facebook you will see a video of them releasing Crackin into our desk drawer during dinner and our chalet mates (We also call them our RA, they are seniors and kinda like our older sisters) Christina and Emily are screaming. Let me just say, revenge is in the working.

            Tonight was "girls night"-34 of us piled into a room. We drank hot chocolate, painted nails, and watched a movie. So fun! We head to Durbin tomorrow for Intercultural Communication to SWIM IN THE INDIAN OCEAN and to go through an Indian Village.

Struggles:

I am convinced that the cars are driving on the wrong side of the road

Showers-they go hot and cold

Weather here! One day it is 100 degrees, the next is freezing and rainy!

Theology. Ugh.

Being focused when I want to go sit by a waterfall, go run on a hill!

Finding a Zehbra

Not snuggling with the cat's here, they are very cute kittens

I am exhausted all the time-I literally go to bed at 10 and think it's late

Esto es Africa!

 

Yebo! (“Hello” in Zulu)

I have safely arrived in Pietzmaritzburg South Africa at our African Enterprise Campus and it has been a whirlwind of a trip thus far. We left at 1:45am September 7^th and proceeded to go to LAX. From LAX we flew to Washington DC, DC to Dakar Senegal to fill up our tank, and Senegal to Johannesburg. By the time we arrived in Jburg I had no idea what day or time it was. I slept well on the airplane so the travel time was not as terrible as I thought it would be for a restless 20 year old.

Freedom Charter Memorial-10 Pillers 1955

Once we got to JBurg we were greeted by Quinton who would be our professor in Capetown but had met us in JBurg to begin our History and Culture Class. Quinton happens to have been one of my dear friends from Oregon Allie Low’s professor last fall when she was in Capetown and thus it felt SO nice to have someone who knew someone important to me while in my first few days in Africa. Our group loved Quinton and I can’t wait to see him again in Capetown. Quinton helped us get situated, got us on a bus to our hotel, got us dinner and to bed promptly. Our CLC’s (community life coordinator) Reagan and Janet also met us. Reagan and Janet live with us throughout the trip and are like our RD’s or someone that is always around for us to ask questions too and to help us organize things. Janet is 22 and Reagan is recently married.

The next day we headed to Apartheid Museum in JBurg. It was amazing! Allie had told me that it would be interesting, but I didn’t realize how good it would be. Sadly, Kathryn, Janelle and I somehow missed the MAIN exhibit and spent two hours in the side Mandela exhibit. However, I still learned a ton about him and I found it so interesting. I had always understood that Mandela was an incredible leader, I had not understood however, how incredibly educated he was.

Apartheid Museum-Johannesburg South Africa

From there, we took a tour of Soweto with our tour guides Cindy and Alaina who are from Soweto (black township). We learned SO much information about the area and we were able to see Mandela’s house that he stayed at before he was put into jail and for eleven days once he was out of jail. I was intrigued by how simple of a house he had in the middle of a street/township.

After our tour of Soweto we were able to run by the soccer stadium from the 2010 world cup. It was huge!

September 9^th was a travel day for us. We flew from Johannesburg to Durbin and then took a bus to Pietmaritzburg. Let me just say, I would be fine with never traveling that much again! I still feel a little confused on meals, what day it is, when to sleep but that may also be because they run us hard! Once at our campus in Pietmaritzburg, we were assigned to a chalet. The chalet has four rooms, two bedrooms, and a little sitting area. Once on campus we jumped into orientations and moving in. We jumped in so quickly that we have hardly had time for anything else.

Prayer Chapel on Campus

This morning we woke up and went straight to class to begin our history and culture lectures. The difference about our lectures here and normal lectures is that the history of South Africa is FASCINATING. South Africa truly has had so many changes even in the last 16 years and our professor Reg is so educated and has literally lived through the changes. Reg is a professor that is more like our Dad, and is called “Papa Reg”. He is so kind and makes learning not seem like a chore. Perhaps the best part though is that we learn about things and then go and see them. Today for example we learned about where Gandhi was first kicked off the train because he was Indian and riding in first class which sparked his want for equality in both India and South Africa. Something that would after his original dream would continue as a problem in SA for 100 years.

Current Struggles

-Tea time at 10 and 4 is fantastic, however Kat and I cannot resist the Chocolate muffins and cookies-they literally melt in your mouth (We plan to implement this back at APU, everyone needs a social break!)

-Opening our Chalet’s door-the key is impossible and we have to lock and un lock so that monkeys do not invade

-Remembering that I am in minority!

-Knowing that I am going to have schoolwork and homework

-Monkeys that surround you and make Kat and I scream as we are trying unlock our chalet door

-Not having showers that work in our chalet, they are fixing that!

Kathryn and I's Room

-Remembering that in fact WE have the funny accents and weird names

-Exhaustion and Altitude

This has been a fantastic experience so far and I am so thankful to be here although it was tough to leave APU. I feel thankful for all the encouraging notes friends gave me as I left and have sent me so far.