Sawubona,
I left you off about a week and a half ago and let me say that it has been quite a busy time for me...
Tuesday of last week Marten and I went up to L'Abri to join a camp for 7th grade boys going to Skaba. This was my first time actually staying at Skaba as well as my first camp with this age group. The hike to the camp was long and trying for many of the boys; some even breaking down and crying at some of the more difficult points. I found myself coaching the guys on at several points and I cannot say I had an easy time of it. Over all the hike was a positive experience for all though and the boys really got to see some nature. We even passed a Puff Ader on the trail which is one of South Africa's most poisonous snakes.
The camp itself was quite challenging and the hike was only a taste of the battles that I would face. I was finally thrust into the role of a facilitator at that camp and I believe that I had one of the more difficult groups. I am also quite inexperienced in facilitating discussions and such though I do have some experience leading children so as far as facilitating the actual activities I think I did pretty well. But getting the boys into discussion and getting them to focus was quite a challenge for me. I had a couple boys who were particularly testy but I think I managed to finally get through to them by the end of the camp. It was just what I needed though and I was really able to draw on everything I have learned. By the end of the camp, we could see a lot of growth in the group and that was the greatest reward for me.
Thursday afternoon Marten and I arrived home and found out that the Irish would be arriving around dinner time. So I quickly finished moving rooms and prepared myself for our new house mates. Steph, Richy and Inez arrived later than we expected and immediatly immersed themselves into our household dynamics. It has been quite fun living with them, especially Richy. Someone last night mentioned that it is really nice to see the developing "guy love" amongst us four males. I know I really do enjoy having other guys around and being not so outnumbered by the females.
This week I have been helping Aerin to paint two murals at the mission she works at. Marten helped us on monday and tuesday and we have been quite a good team. Infact we are making plans to continue to paint murals at various locations in the coming weeks. Now the first mural is finished and if I may brag it looks quite fantastic. It is a scene of a handful of African animals including an Elephant, lion, wildebeast, impala, zebra and more. Now Aerin and I are working on a magical sort of tree with lots of faces in it which we plan to finish tomorrow.
So now you are up to date. I will be in touch again soon.
bye for now
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Hey Everyone,
Another week has come and gone already and here is what I've been up to...
Monday the four of us L'Abri people left for the bush. We spent quite a while running errands around town but eventually made it up to camp late in the afternoon. After a quick lunch we grabbed some trail blazing tools and hopped in the back of a pick-up with one of our supervisors, Sya. Our destination, Skaba; the back to basics bush camp in a remote part of the L'Abri wilderness. Our task, to prepare a trail for cutting. We got out of the truck in knee high grass on top of a mountain with a truely amazing view. After marking out a new trail along a ridge, Sya took us around Skaba a bit to show us some highlights of that particular area. The most interesting thing was this massive strangler fig tree that you could crawl up inside of. (The center of a Strangler is hollow because it grows around another tree and when that tree eventually dies, there is nothing left inside.) After climbing around inside it we headed back to base camp do to a rapidly appoaching storm.
Tuesday we made the long hike back to Skaba to clean in order for a group that was staying there on thursday. This was an all day affair and ended with us hiking back in the pooring rain. Little did we know this rain was part of a huge tropical storm taking place somewhere in central Africa and would prove to be the bane of the week. The rest of the day we spent hanging out around the main site.
Wednesday morning we awoke to more rain. Indeed, this storm would last for about 48 hours straight with no stopping. We were also informed that morning that Sya's wife had just passed away do to a post op infection in her brain. This meant that our boss would not be around for the rest of the week and with the rain, our work plans at Skaba were shot. So Wednesday became about killing time. We played risk, indoor soccer, and whatever else we could find. That night we watched Brazil destroy Italy in an international friendly soccer match.
Thursday we cleaned the main site in preparation for another camp taking place this weekend. The remainder of that day was spent like Wednesday.
Though I was originally supposed to work the camp this weekend, I was picked up Friday to head back to Maritzburg because another one of my bosses decided to give me some time off. It was kinda of strange to be back home but also kinda of nice to be dry and warm and relaxing for a change. Saturday was Valentine's day, and we were doom fogging our house again to finish off the remainder of the roach population so Aerin and I went out for the day bowling and to a movie. That night we hung out with the non-L'Abri portion of our house. It was actually a very nice day.
Yesterday was the funeral for Sya's wife. It was my first Zulu funeral and only the second funeral I have been to in my entire life. The service lasted about two hours and was a mighty big celebration. Very different from the often times somber mood of a Western style funeral. Though they were all christian, we really got a glimpse of how traditional beliefs and practices are incorporated into their modern day religion. The most striking example of this was when the five preachers there commanded the evil demons out of anyone sick at the funeral in mighty and stoic voices. Of course, I guess there are Christians in America who do this too but it was still very interesting to me and still very African. Then EVERYONE went to the cemetary for the burial. After a prayer and such was said, all the men helped to bury the coffin with shovels and this took about an hour. Meanwhile the women sung songs. Now I forgot to mention the part when the opened the casket. First let me say that seeing dead people always creaps me out quite a bit. But also let me say that the funeral services here don't give the same attention to detail that they do in America. The eyes were partially open which was actually disturbing beyond belief and you could see that the face was deffinately starting to decay. Also before the casket was able to be buried, they had to use a bucket to drain water out of the hole. Trust me, you don't want to know what that water looked like. So that was my African funeral experience, and boy was it an experience.
So today is my last day off because I'm back to work early tomorrow morning. Update you soon.
peace
Another week has come and gone already and here is what I've been up to...
Monday the four of us L'Abri people left for the bush. We spent quite a while running errands around town but eventually made it up to camp late in the afternoon. After a quick lunch we grabbed some trail blazing tools and hopped in the back of a pick-up with one of our supervisors, Sya. Our destination, Skaba; the back to basics bush camp in a remote part of the L'Abri wilderness. Our task, to prepare a trail for cutting. We got out of the truck in knee high grass on top of a mountain with a truely amazing view. After marking out a new trail along a ridge, Sya took us around Skaba a bit to show us some highlights of that particular area. The most interesting thing was this massive strangler fig tree that you could crawl up inside of. (The center of a Strangler is hollow because it grows around another tree and when that tree eventually dies, there is nothing left inside.) After climbing around inside it we headed back to base camp do to a rapidly appoaching storm.
Tuesday we made the long hike back to Skaba to clean in order for a group that was staying there on thursday. This was an all day affair and ended with us hiking back in the pooring rain. Little did we know this rain was part of a huge tropical storm taking place somewhere in central Africa and would prove to be the bane of the week. The rest of the day we spent hanging out around the main site.
Wednesday morning we awoke to more rain. Indeed, this storm would last for about 48 hours straight with no stopping. We were also informed that morning that Sya's wife had just passed away do to a post op infection in her brain. This meant that our boss would not be around for the rest of the week and with the rain, our work plans at Skaba were shot. So Wednesday became about killing time. We played risk, indoor soccer, and whatever else we could find. That night we watched Brazil destroy Italy in an international friendly soccer match.
Thursday we cleaned the main site in preparation for another camp taking place this weekend. The remainder of that day was spent like Wednesday.
Though I was originally supposed to work the camp this weekend, I was picked up Friday to head back to Maritzburg because another one of my bosses decided to give me some time off. It was kinda of strange to be back home but also kinda of nice to be dry and warm and relaxing for a change. Saturday was Valentine's day, and we were doom fogging our house again to finish off the remainder of the roach population so Aerin and I went out for the day bowling and to a movie. That night we hung out with the non-L'Abri portion of our house. It was actually a very nice day.
Yesterday was the funeral for Sya's wife. It was my first Zulu funeral and only the second funeral I have been to in my entire life. The service lasted about two hours and was a mighty big celebration. Very different from the often times somber mood of a Western style funeral. Though they were all christian, we really got a glimpse of how traditional beliefs and practices are incorporated into their modern day religion. The most striking example of this was when the five preachers there commanded the evil demons out of anyone sick at the funeral in mighty and stoic voices. Of course, I guess there are Christians in America who do this too but it was still very interesting to me and still very African. Then EVERYONE went to the cemetary for the burial. After a prayer and such was said, all the men helped to bury the coffin with shovels and this took about an hour. Meanwhile the women sung songs. Now I forgot to mention the part when the opened the casket. First let me say that seeing dead people always creaps me out quite a bit. But also let me say that the funeral services here don't give the same attention to detail that they do in America. The eyes were partially open which was actually disturbing beyond belief and you could see that the face was deffinately starting to decay. Also before the casket was able to be buried, they had to use a bucket to drain water out of the hole. Trust me, you don't want to know what that water looked like. So that was my African funeral experience, and boy was it an experience.
So today is my last day off because I'm back to work early tomorrow morning. Update you soon.
peace
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Greetings,
This week I have decided to do something a little bit different than I have been doing. Rather than break my week down day by day I am going to give a brief overview as I did with my vacation because I would like to spend some time talking family dynamics. You see, the house is going through some changes and I need to do a bit of complaining but I am also thinking it might be interesting because it is a subject that I haven't really touched on in a while.
So this week our two new dutch roomies arrived. They are Sjoert (Stewart) and Marten. I think in my past post I messed up their names quite badly. Most of this week has been spent hanging out with them and showing them around PMB. We have played alot of Risk because Marten is a huge Risk fan and I cannot tell you how excited that makes me because I am always looking for people to play with as well as people who share my passion for the game. We also went out to dinner last night. So that, in a nut shell, was my week.
Ok, so now to talk about the "family". Anne has strongly taken on a parental role in the household in the past couple months and it has cast her in a very different light to me. In fact I even noticed myself missing Rose this past week which is something I never saw coming. But Anne has been particullarly difficult for us English speaking Americans to deal with. Now in the past couple weeks she has very much distanced herself from the rest of us and almost never does activities with our group. She has become increasingly selfish in the house itself and even threatened to move out when the three Irish come here. Anne also has been speaking as little English as possible as of late. This is something she knows greatly offends me because it was becoming a problem with others in the house before and I have mentioned on several occasions. Now the other day we were talking groceries as a group and all of a sudden she stops midsentence and starts speaking Dutch. Even when the other Dutch people spoke English in response to her, she continued in Dutch. At dinner she doesnt even speak English at all except if she wants Aerin or myself to pass something. So I'll stop by complaining about Anne now that that is off my chest but let me continue with the rest.
Annalies and Esmeralda are actually sisters and they are also the oldest people in the house. Though they are quite quiet they are very friendly and easy to get along with. I cannot say that I have any problem with them at all infact except to say that Esmeralda and I sometimes dissagree on how to do things. This is not even a problem though. Their personalities are actually very like my own because they are flexible and easy going enjoy some quiet time to their selves.
Now the two new Dutch guys have brought a new spark into our house. Though Sjoert is much more low key than Marten, they are both a lot of fun and love playing games. Aside from the Risk, we had a 10 o'clock cricket match in our hallway. We have also invented several ball games with them that we play in our living room. Let me tell you I didn't realize how much I missed having other males around until they were introduced back into my day to day life. And let me also say that the women are adjusting quite well. That is too say, all except Anne. She utterly refuses to take place in anything with them other than a quiet conversation (in Dutch) unless she is the one coming up with the activity. Apparently the ball games are too much for her or something.
Ok, so to wrap this up quickly we have Aerin and Thirza, the two youngest females. As a result they are always goofing off with one another and frequently get into laughing fits. They are currently working on their six packs together. I cannot really say anything more because they are the two constants in our household.
Ok, so that is done and I am actually really starting to get low on time. I will be gone to work in the bush bush at L'Abri from tomorrow until next Sunday so it will be a little while until you all hear from me again. I hope your coming week is good.
To my dad, I am planning on calling you next Sunday so be prepared.
To the rest of you, Sala Kahle!
This week I have decided to do something a little bit different than I have been doing. Rather than break my week down day by day I am going to give a brief overview as I did with my vacation because I would like to spend some time talking family dynamics. You see, the house is going through some changes and I need to do a bit of complaining but I am also thinking it might be interesting because it is a subject that I haven't really touched on in a while.
So this week our two new dutch roomies arrived. They are Sjoert (Stewart) and Marten. I think in my past post I messed up their names quite badly. Most of this week has been spent hanging out with them and showing them around PMB. We have played alot of Risk because Marten is a huge Risk fan and I cannot tell you how excited that makes me because I am always looking for people to play with as well as people who share my passion for the game. We also went out to dinner last night. So that, in a nut shell, was my week.
Ok, so now to talk about the "family". Anne has strongly taken on a parental role in the household in the past couple months and it has cast her in a very different light to me. In fact I even noticed myself missing Rose this past week which is something I never saw coming. But Anne has been particullarly difficult for us English speaking Americans to deal with. Now in the past couple weeks she has very much distanced herself from the rest of us and almost never does activities with our group. She has become increasingly selfish in the house itself and even threatened to move out when the three Irish come here. Anne also has been speaking as little English as possible as of late. This is something she knows greatly offends me because it was becoming a problem with others in the house before and I have mentioned on several occasions. Now the other day we were talking groceries as a group and all of a sudden she stops midsentence and starts speaking Dutch. Even when the other Dutch people spoke English in response to her, she continued in Dutch. At dinner she doesnt even speak English at all except if she wants Aerin or myself to pass something. So I'll stop by complaining about Anne now that that is off my chest but let me continue with the rest.
Annalies and Esmeralda are actually sisters and they are also the oldest people in the house. Though they are quite quiet they are very friendly and easy to get along with. I cannot say that I have any problem with them at all infact except to say that Esmeralda and I sometimes dissagree on how to do things. This is not even a problem though. Their personalities are actually very like my own because they are flexible and easy going enjoy some quiet time to their selves.
Now the two new Dutch guys have brought a new spark into our house. Though Sjoert is much more low key than Marten, they are both a lot of fun and love playing games. Aside from the Risk, we had a 10 o'clock cricket match in our hallway. We have also invented several ball games with them that we play in our living room. Let me tell you I didn't realize how much I missed having other males around until they were introduced back into my day to day life. And let me also say that the women are adjusting quite well. That is too say, all except Anne. She utterly refuses to take place in anything with them other than a quiet conversation (in Dutch) unless she is the one coming up with the activity. Apparently the ball games are too much for her or something.
Ok, so to wrap this up quickly we have Aerin and Thirza, the two youngest females. As a result they are always goofing off with one another and frequently get into laughing fits. They are currently working on their six packs together. I cannot really say anything more because they are the two constants in our household.
Ok, so that is done and I am actually really starting to get low on time. I will be gone to work in the bush bush at L'Abri from tomorrow until next Sunday so it will be a little while until you all hear from me again. I hope your coming week is good.
To my dad, I am planning on calling you next Sunday so be prepared.
To the rest of you, Sala Kahle!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
hello hello,
How's it my people! Its been another week so here I am to fill you in. Not a whole lot this time I'm afraid.
I think I left you all on Wednesday so I'll begin with Thursday. Aerin and I went to go see the new movie Australia. The rest of the night was quiet I believe and we were just relaxing with our house mates before our busy weekend.
Friday we made our preperations to leave that evening for L'Abri as soon as the Durban guys arrived for our YDC camp. My favorite part was preparing a roach massacre. You see the roach problem which we though just might be under control was suddenly escalating and we were finding record sized roaches in our house. One was big enough even to make Thirza scream (she has never screamed in SA) as it ran over her foot :P. But we sealed away all our food, shut up the house, and as we left set off three cans of Doom Fogger in various locations around our house. We arrived at L'Abri pretty late in the evening to a house that had no running water. This made for an interesting camp I must say. We had a late dinner and sat around the fire before retiring to bed.
Next day we were up at 8:30 even though there was talk of sleeping in because the new Durban volunteers are insane. By 10:30 we were off on a hike to swing fall fore mentioned in previous posts. We actually spent quite a while down there and then returned for lunch. There was debate about what to do with the afternoon activities and half the durban group ended up dissappearing so the rest of us decided to do some team building activities from our camps. Thirza and lead the group, with some help from a couple L'Abri guys, in the "Web," the swinging tires and the "electric fence." Then we showered and had a Briaa and sat around the fire again.
Sunday we were up early again and headed out for boulder fall which I have also mentioned before. This hike (always an adventure) was more adventureous than anyone could have anticipated. For starters, the river was quite swollen and the current was two or three times as fast. At some points I was well up to my chest in water. There were also parts of the trail flooded or completely blocked by trees and vines which had fallen in the last week or so. Nevertheless, it was a great hike. The Durban guys left right after lunch but we being much more African in PMB took our time and bummed around until 5. We were all beat by the time we got home and pretty much crashed. This was also when we began discovering the first roach corpses.
Yesterday everyone was back to work except for Thirza and I so we went to the Game (a store kind of like Walmart) to buy some extra hangers and then came here to the internet cafe. But the internet was reallly slow so alas, that is why I am here again today. When everyone was home from work I went grocery shopping with Esmeralda and then I came home and started cooking while everyone else moved furniture to make room for our new house mates. The girls really liked to point out the reversal of roles that was taking place. I had no choice but to be a good sport about it. I am of course, greatly outnumbered.
Today I waited around for our two new dutch guys who finally arrived around 1. They are Steven and Mathew and they are really really tall. Aerin who was home early from work and I gave them a tour and then let them settle. I then talked with them for a while and they seem to be pretty cool guys. Finally some fellow males though just when I was really getting used to being the only guy. As much as I am sad to have to split up my L"abri Schedule with them, they seem cool enough.
Well thats about it. I think it was more than I expected but its not that much. Its going to start getting colder here for the next couple days which is a nice break from the heat we've been having. I think I'm going to be walking home in the rain. Oh well, nothing new there. Its either wet or blistering outside.
Bye for now.
How's it my people! Its been another week so here I am to fill you in. Not a whole lot this time I'm afraid.
I think I left you all on Wednesday so I'll begin with Thursday. Aerin and I went to go see the new movie Australia. The rest of the night was quiet I believe and we were just relaxing with our house mates before our busy weekend.
Friday we made our preperations to leave that evening for L'Abri as soon as the Durban guys arrived for our YDC camp. My favorite part was preparing a roach massacre. You see the roach problem which we though just might be under control was suddenly escalating and we were finding record sized roaches in our house. One was big enough even to make Thirza scream (she has never screamed in SA) as it ran over her foot :P. But we sealed away all our food, shut up the house, and as we left set off three cans of Doom Fogger in various locations around our house. We arrived at L'Abri pretty late in the evening to a house that had no running water. This made for an interesting camp I must say. We had a late dinner and sat around the fire before retiring to bed.
Next day we were up at 8:30 even though there was talk of sleeping in because the new Durban volunteers are insane. By 10:30 we were off on a hike to swing fall fore mentioned in previous posts. We actually spent quite a while down there and then returned for lunch. There was debate about what to do with the afternoon activities and half the durban group ended up dissappearing so the rest of us decided to do some team building activities from our camps. Thirza and lead the group, with some help from a couple L'Abri guys, in the "Web," the swinging tires and the "electric fence." Then we showered and had a Briaa and sat around the fire again.
Sunday we were up early again and headed out for boulder fall which I have also mentioned before. This hike (always an adventure) was more adventureous than anyone could have anticipated. For starters, the river was quite swollen and the current was two or three times as fast. At some points I was well up to my chest in water. There were also parts of the trail flooded or completely blocked by trees and vines which had fallen in the last week or so. Nevertheless, it was a great hike. The Durban guys left right after lunch but we being much more African in PMB took our time and bummed around until 5. We were all beat by the time we got home and pretty much crashed. This was also when we began discovering the first roach corpses.
Yesterday everyone was back to work except for Thirza and I so we went to the Game (a store kind of like Walmart) to buy some extra hangers and then came here to the internet cafe. But the internet was reallly slow so alas, that is why I am here again today. When everyone was home from work I went grocery shopping with Esmeralda and then I came home and started cooking while everyone else moved furniture to make room for our new house mates. The girls really liked to point out the reversal of roles that was taking place. I had no choice but to be a good sport about it. I am of course, greatly outnumbered.
Today I waited around for our two new dutch guys who finally arrived around 1. They are Steven and Mathew and they are really really tall. Aerin who was home early from work and I gave them a tour and then let them settle. I then talked with them for a while and they seem to be pretty cool guys. Finally some fellow males though just when I was really getting used to being the only guy. As much as I am sad to have to split up my L"abri Schedule with them, they seem cool enough.
Well thats about it. I think it was more than I expected but its not that much. Its going to start getting colder here for the next couple days which is a nice break from the heat we've been having. I think I'm going to be walking home in the rain. Oh well, nothing new there. Its either wet or blistering outside.
Bye for now.
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