Battlefields and Walk in the Light

Today I finished my theology paper that is due at the end of the semester which means a student has to annoyingly figure out how to complete a paper while doing service sites and experiencing the last few weeks in Africa. Not a fun combination so I am excited for it to be nearly finished.

On our adventure through town!

Last weekend we went on a Battlefield Tour. It was quite interesting but more exciting was the bus we took! It was a comfy bus that teams in High School get to take to state. It included extremely comfortable seats, a TV for movies and a lot of space for 44 of us. We drove about four hours and then began making stops. The Battle’s are pre-apartheid but essential to understand for what occurs many years later in Africa. It has to do with the Bour’s, British and the Zulu. Essentially, we were able to understand what we have been learning in our history of South Africa class that will be continued in Cape Town. They were eerie places to visit where a lot of blood has been shed. My favorite story is where 70 Zulu men are trapped inside of a hospital and 4,000 Zulu men are attacking from the outside. These are also interesting monuments because they were built during the African rule to glorify white’s accomplishments against the Zulu. Post apartheid their have been monuments made to “equally” glorify the Zulu side of the story, but quite frankly it’s still very splitting of the country. I was frustrated to be another white tourist since there was only white people visiting the site. It’s hard to explain some of the underlying tones present at each of the battlefields However, that night we got to stay in the cutest little hotel! It had unique rooms that were all different and creative. It was a bed and breakfast from the 1800’s I believe and therefore had a very homey feeling. We basically filled up the entire hotel and so it was a very fun afternoon of exploring all the nooks and crannies, secret passages, variety of rooms, reading, and exploring the little town we were in. That night however was by far the best as it was the “Ask Reg Anything” session. Every semester, the group gets about 4 hours to ask “Papa Reg” any question and he will answer anything and everything. I have a deep amount of respect for Reg and it was incredible to hear what he had to say about life, relationships, moments in his life and advice for our futures.

Pretty and I

The septic tank of death!

Our team in the hole

This week was a very intense week on site for Walk in the Light. How it works is that Monday we had a day in our Community Engagement class. We do a lot of reflections and each group has to go up in front and talk about where they are struggling. It’s a great debrief session and a good way to hear about every team. I try hard to hear from someone from each team every night at dinner but it is also difficult to process and also debrief. As a whole my week had a very difficult Thursday Go-Go session (time with the Grandma’s). Overcoming a unsuccessful and hard week for us from LAST week was our goal THIS week. That we did VERY successfully. Monday night I spent time with another girl on our team and our Zulu professor to really figure out what to do during our Go-Go bible study that is twice a week (on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons). I was slightly weary presenting to our group on Monday night but the ideas worked with our community engagement goals and having a plan for the next two weeks was very helpful. Tuesday when we got on site we also had a great new job to dig a five foot hole for  a septic tank. There also needed to be a twenty foot long trench that was 4 feet deep coming out of the hole. It became quite the task as originally we did not have anything to measure the tank with, no axes to break soil with and a ton of bricks and hard soil to get through. We continued it the rest of the week and by yesterday after many sore muscles and weary diggers, we finally finished the hole (we think, Bruce was not technically there to approve). The tank is for the care center that we are helping to create. The nurses from our campus have designed a plan for patients to come in a building that was not being utilized. Our team therefore has been cleaning it out, taking the trash to the dump, pulling up carpet, washing walls, laying cement and finally painting the center. It has been a lot of work but once the tank is dug that center will be finally used. It has come together very well and has been a complete joy in the process. This week I was able to go visit the first girl that will be put into the care center. She has AIDS and lives in complete poverty. Every morning people from Walk in the Light take her to clinic but besides that she has no visitors and her family does not take care of her. She is just about my age and when I saw her she was laying on a bed. She looks very similar to a girl who has a very extreme eating disorder. I could see the bones on her legs and chest and she had a gaunt face. She barely could use her wrists properly and it smelled nauseatingly of urine and dead animals. I sat with her for awhile and between my broken Zulu and her broken English we were able to pray together and I was able to talk to her for a few minutes. It as heart wrenching because all she wanted was someone to sit on the floor with her, hold her hand and to feel loved. I am sure there are thousand of other girls my age who live the same way every day who I will never be able to meet, pray with or love on for five minutes. What that means for the world and how to move past that thought I am still processing through.

Our group with the senior youth

We have continued to bond well with the senior youth. Our goal is to have the senior youth who are our age help lead with the Go-Go’s for after we leave. Pretty a girl who is 24 and has a 5 year old son who I have bonded with well is who I would really like to take over. The guys who are our age also always hang around and are really great to use during the Bible Studies to help us translate what we are trying to say in Zulu. It was a really encouraging group this week and I am going to feel very sad with next week as we wrap up the service part of the trip.

The high light of our week was Thursday with the Go-Go’s when our group prepared a 3 part harmony version of “In the Jungle”. It included us getting the Go-Go’s to play drums and tambourines. We got the women dancing and it turned into a 20 minute session of singing in English and Zulu. It was one of the more incredible 20 minutes that I have had in Africa blending two cultures together. It was all filmed by Pretty on my camera and I am going to try to post it.

This is why I want to be a teacher...

People are getting antsy for our trip to Cape Town that starts next Sunday. I would like this time to never end and I am going to feel an immense amount of sadness leaving what we consider “home”. However, I am counting down the days until tacos and hamburgers with puppies at my feet to pet!