Our itinerary and Glossary

By Ben (Finally!)

Sorry that this is my first post for South Africa. Its not that Alicia is experiencing more than I am, but simply that I am a very slow typer.

Here is our basic itinerary so that you can pray for us as we go:

July 31- August 15 Cape Town, South Africa.
Highlights- Aug. 5 Ben speaking at the evening service at Calvary Sanctuary.
August 8 Alicia is speaking for National Women's Day
Aug. 10-11 Ben is giving several seminars of drug abuse, youth ministry and family in Hanover Park- a sub-economic area.
Aug. 10 Ben and Alicia leading youth group for Calvary Sanctuary (The Church that is hosting us.)
We will also be visiting squatter camps, farming projects, and runaway teen shelters; and seeming the sights around the Western Cape.
August 15 Fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg, SA (Where it actually snowed two days ago. Everybody here is freaking out!)
Aug. 16 Bus from Jo-berg to Manzini. Swaziland
Highlights- In Swaziland we will be staying with a woman named Jabu who works with PACWA doing AIDS prevention and education. This will be very different from things in SA. We don't really know what to expect. We do know that there will be a large youth conference, and that I will be speaking.
Aug. 20 Bus from Manzini to Durban
We will be taking backpackers busses, and staying in hostels. We've heard that these are quite safe (Mom). Durban is where Gandhi praticed law before he started his world changing career of not eating.
Aug. 22 Bus to Port Elizabeth (There was a major flood here yesterday, but things should be better by there time we are there.)
Aug. 23 Bus to Cape Town.
Aug. 30 Depart for home.
Highlights- Seeing each one of your beautiful faces again.


Now for a brief glossary to aid in reading the rest of this blog:

African Renissance - The hope that the best days of this continent are at hand, and that there is a revolution afoot that is being led by Africans for Africans. They looking inward for hope and sings of progress, not to the West or East. Neither are they looking to the South for that matter. (Sorry Antarctica.)

Community Development- The stragegy and idea behind rehabilitating whole communities in poor areas in a holistic way. Development is more than giving a man a fish, but teaching a man how to fish, and teaching him how to teach his neighbors how to fish. It is more than pulling people our of a rushing river, but it involves heading up stream to stop whatever is causing them to fall in. Christian may translate this word "transformation." What would that make Developing Nations? Hmm.

apartheid- The South African governments policies of racial discrimination and segregation that is one of the primary roots of the suffering that people still encounter. Especially blacks and coloreds.

Colored- Having both black and white background. (It was only the "pure" whites who had any benefits under the apartheid system.)

Nelson Mandela - Not a communist.

Stupid- Not sleeping the night before I left. (For Ben, not for Alicia)

Afrikaans- The white people of Dutch and British decent and their language.

Xhosa- Pronounced (click you tongue) hosa. The prominent African tribe here in the Cape and their language.

Raand - The money of SA equal to about $6.75

Sorry that I use so many parenthesis. (Actually I'm not sorry at all!)

The First Lessons

By Ben

There is so much to say! I am learning so much, I feel like a child who has stumbled on a whole new world. I may have to spend a few hours filling in details when I get home, but here are a few lessons that I have am learning:

Lesson #1 - Denial May Be a River in Egypt, but Jetlag is a Torrent Running through My Brain.
Day One Staying up all night turned out to be a stupid, stupid idea. I did not sleep much on the plane, and was too tired to read or write. South African Airlines has the best food I've ever had on a plane. We watched House of D with Robbin Williams, and I cried a lot - it was embarrassing.

Lesson #2- Building is Important

Day One Several times tonight the men have discussed something that I know nothing about - construction. Our luggage decided to have some tea with a old friend in DC and missed our flight to South Africa. Our hosts were immediately generous. Pastor Theo (Esme's Husband) took me to see Anthony (who is exactly my size), his solid church member and first convert in the area. Anthony built his own house, and it is beautiful. I could see the pride in his face as Theo and I admired his house and listened to his tell us story of how he was going to fix his roof. Construction is not Anthony's trade (though it may have been during the apartheid years, when all the white collar jobs were reserved for those whose skin would match the color of their collars.) not is it Theo's or Ashley's or Jeremy's or Chris's; but they all know a lot about construction and they all have either built their own houses or repaired them. Construction seems to be a crucial part of a man's role and character. (From Day 6) Chris is a minister who wanted to build a nice house for his family, but his small salary was prohibitive. He saved his money for years to buy a small parcel of land, used almost all second hand and donated materials and slowly but surely built his wife a dream house.
It is interesting that we pay people to do the work that gives these South African men such joy, purpose and satisfaction.
(From Day 3) We heard about an Irish entrepreneur who is buying up land in the squatter camps and teaching and paying the men in the camp to build apartment buildings that they can then live in. This not only provides homes for those in grinding poverty, but also gives the men satisfaction, purpose and an employable skill. This project is one of many innovative forms of development happening on South Africa.
American men have become so specialized, knowing and working in their own fields of expertise alone (I am a minister who know little about pluming, law, or aquatic basket weaving); while most South Africans (women too!) are truly jack of all trades- rennisance men. Perhaps this African Rennisance is close at hand.

Stellenbosch

By Alicia

First I must apologize for yesterday's blog- I didn't hav much time so I just spat out evrything that we saw. There was little conclusion- I hope that I gave you enough info for you to be able to come to some conclusions on you own, as I hope you would anyway.

Yesterday our friend Jeremy took us to Stellenbosch. It is a univeristy town about 45mintues away. It is beautiful. It's so funny being in towns where most of the buildings are older than the United States. All of the nice, new buildings are also built in an older, more ornate architectural style. As Ben put it "they haven't been ruined my the 80's shiny glass decor yet." We had some time explore city center (South African for downtown) and get coffee and treats for a snack.

We then went to the University to hear Jeremy lecture. He is a doctorate student in the theological college at the University of Stellenbosch. He lectured to a class of second year students about Stewardship. I think that is has changed my view of that word, and the concept it represents, permanently. Notes from the lecture worth noting: "Jesus was a steward of God's grace." Chew on that for a minute. If Jesus had kept any of that grace for himself, there would have not been any salvation. Doesn't God ask us to have this attitude toward eveything? Even my shoes are God's, loaned to me- that I should take care of them well, until he needs them again. I must continually be seeking God's will to see if He would have me give them back to "Him" by giving them to someone in need of them. Another quick thought- what does it mean to be a steward of your mind? Intelligence, knowledge, training, schooling...

The thought of coming here, studying Theology for a few years and working with Jeremy in the squatter camps is something that Ben and I have been throwing around. Jeremy is studying towards a community development degree (a degree that only exists in African and South Americn Universities). He has a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and passion. It would be great to learn from him. I would love to come back to Denver and start to change communities from the ground up after spending time here doing that with Jeremy.

Here's the kicker- we stopped by the admissions office while at the University yesterday. They were a bit apologetic about how much the cost of one school year was- somewhere between $10,000-13,000 Raand. For those of you who don't have an international monetary conversion chart in your head, that's about $2,000/year. Hah! For all of my Johnson & Wales friends out there, imagine how much one year at JWU could buy you here! I guess the same goes for my CU friends, especialy out-of-staters (Emily!). Stellenbosch is also an internationally respected University, by the way.

Last night we were able to eat dinner in the home of a family from the congregation. Great food and lots of laughter. We are feeling at home here.

Just for fun

In South African English:
flat= apartment
faculty=college (as in I was in the Arts & Sciences college at CU)
every other word is Afrikaans

People drink coffee ALL THE TIME. You would love it Kevin. They laughed at us I mean, really laughed a lot) when we only ordered water at a restaurant.

They only tip 10% at restaurants. We made some waitresses really happy the other day with our standard American tip (and we're usually generous on those!)

Squatter Camps

By Alicia

Finally! We are able to connect with you! The past three days have been a whirldwind- it feels like we've ben here for weeks alroeady. The people at Calvary Sanctuary the curch who is hosting us, are so wonderful that we feel right at home.

We are staying in a room above the offices at the church. The church is a whole compound with three large buildings, complete with 2 german shepherd guard dogs (I don't care what Ben says- they are the scariest dogs. Ever.)- so don't worry moms and dad, we sare safe and protected (by the 2 scariest dogs. Ever.)

Yesterday Jeremy, the young adult pastor (meaning he works with people in the congregation ages 20-40!), took us around to several different projects he's working with. It seems that most people in ministry here are involved in many different projects affecting many different areas the need attention and improvement. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a much more holistic approach than specializing in one thing, like so many of us (Americans) do.

We started the morning at a distribution center where Jeremy usually picks up food to take the squatter camp (you'll hear about that soon). The woman who runs the dist. center said they pick up from several local donators and then give food out to 45 local projects. Later when I asked Jeremy about it, he said that she's never been to any of the projects, including the swuatter camp.

The squatter camp is the most prevelant remain of apartheid. Most colored (non-white) and black (Khosa) were well below the poverty line before apartheid ended, so the squatter camps have been around for awhile. Once the white, Afrikaaner gov't decided they didn't want to live in the same neighborhoods with blacks, they kicked everybody out of their homes and bulldozed entire communities. Look up "District 6" online. If you don't already know about it, I really recommend that you do.

We went to the 6th street squatter camp in Kensington. For those of you who have been to Mexico, think dump. Rows of houses, bulit out of anything they could find. The winter rains have been non-stop until today, so most everything was in mud- sometimes a foot of mud. Jeremy estimated that there were 75 families living there. Picture a small room (for those of you who have been to our apartment, think the size of our kitchen). Add 4 family members, a bed a parafin wax stove (very dangerous b/c if one catched on fire, the whole camp is gone) and a small table. Then live there for more than 10 years. It seemed that the only way the men could make money was to sell drugs. Boys leave school at young ages. Young children have no mental stimulation.

It started to downpour while we were there so a family invited us in and we talked with them. They asked Jeremy (he knows everybody there) if he could maybe arrange for a dumpster to be put at the perimeter of camp. People in the nearby neighborhoods would come buy and just dump junk/ dirt/ whatever in camp rather than paying to take it to the dump. They thought this might help them keep the camp clean.

The saddest part of our time there was Jeremy telling us about all the churches that come and bring food, some do church services- they just pull up to the edge of the camp, interact for a few minutes and then leave. Jeremy has a dream to start hosting men's and women's groups, a day care center where the moms from camp could also work (maybe even get certified to be a day care worker in the process), job training, etc.- a holistic approach to healing a sharing the gosple. The churches aren't interested in helping at all.

We covet your prayers. We think of all of you often.