The Christmas season here has been fun and, as expected, completely different from Christmas at home. On Monday 12/20 two other volunteers and I went to a “Carols by Candlelight”, an event at a park, on blankets, by candlelight, put on by the local Lion’s Club (similar to the Rotary Club). It was part performance and part communal singing of Christmas carols. There were clearly a lot of tourists in attendance, and more retired folks than young people, but it was still a lot of fun.

On Christmas Eve all the volunteers went to the house of the couple who started Give a Child a Family (the Woodhouse’s) to celebrate a Swedish Christmas (“julbord”) with them! The Woodhouse’s invite the volunteers to their house on Christmas Eve every year, though this year even more members of their family were present than usual, so together I think there were twenty-six of us. The food, a mix of Swedish and South African, was spectacular, with nothing too outlandish (the most unusual food was pickled fish; delicious, I might add). After eating and reading the Christmas story, we played a game involving rolling dice to determine the order in which we got to take a present (we had all been instructed to bring one gift worth R50, or about $6.25, to the gathering, so everyone got one gift). There was some singing of Christmas carols, and before long it was time to go to a Lutheran Christmas Eve service at the church of our friends, Anna and Ross (a Swedish couple who met when they were both volunteers at GCF). After that was over we went to their house for julgrot (a kind of rice pudding Swedes eat on Christmas Eve), more games involving throwing dice to see who gets which present (we had each brought a gift for this too), and my favorite piece of Swedish culture yet: Kalle Anka. An article in slate.com describes this tradition this way:

“Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." Or as it is known in Sverige,Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas."

Kalle Anka, for short, has been airing without commercial interruption at the same time on Sweden's main public-television channel, TV1, on Christmas Eve (when Swedes traditionally celebrate the holiday) since 1959. The show consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting about a dozen Disney cartoons from the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s, only a couple of which have anything to do with Christmas. There are "Silly Symphonies" shorts and clips from films like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Jungle Book. The special is pretty much the same every year, except for the live introduction by a host (who plays the role of Walt Disney from the original Walt Disney Presents series) and the annual addition of one new snippet from the latest Disney-produced movie, which TV1's parent network, SVT, is contractually obligated by Disney to air.

Kalle Anka is typically one of the three most popular television events of the year, with between 40 and 50 percent of the country tuning in to watch.” .....

I found it to be a highly goofy and entertaining show! It did make me miss Christmas programs that are sort of classic in the U.S. like “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, but I’ll have a chance to watch that again soon enough.

On Christmas Day we just went to church in the morning and had the Christmas Party for the children at Give a Child a Family right after that, which basically consisted of Santa (one of the female volunteers) giving all the children their presents. They were very excited. One of the volunteers also made a movie with pictures and videos of all the kids, which we showed to them that evening, and they were, as you might imagine, wild about seeing themselves on video, so much so that at its conclusion they demanded to see it again. Other than that it was a very relaxed day, marred only by the fact that we had no internet that day and so none of us could Skype or talk to our families. Internet continues to be sketchy here so if I say I’m going to talk to you at a certain time and don’t show up online then, it’s because I don’t have internet, not because I’ve forgotten or found something better to do! (I mean really, what would I rather do than talk to one of you lovely people?)

This week SDC and the Co-op are closed, which means I’m at GCF this whole week making myself as useful as possible (working in the kitchen, with the children, etc.). Back to work next week!

A great article that explains a little more about SDC and the project I'm involved with:

http://www.siyavuna.org.za/profiting-from-organic-farming-farmers-weekly-article/

I got to hear another awesome sermon at Gates of Praise today; it went something like this. Many of us, after we “get saved” (or however you want to describe what happens when we choose to follow God; for many, myself included, it doesn’t happen this way) enter a period of contemplation and even complacency where we are basically reveling in our blissful new state and waiting for God to work exciting things through us. This state, however, shouldn’t be, and isn’t, the end of our journey. While our Christian walk must happen from a place of rest, if our contemplation doesn’t lead us to action, we need to reexamine our rest! All true prophecy involves action (James 2:17: ”Faith without works is dead.”). In order to acquire this power to rouse ourselves to action, we must only claim the inheritance that’s already ours in Christ, but that the devil keeps trying to convince us doesn’t belong to us; in doing so we must remember that the devil only has as much power as we give him. Throughout this sermon I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes: “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis). It’s often very hard for us to act according to our full powers in God because we’re afraid of how painful the resulting changes in our lives might be, or because we simply don’t understand or believe that we have so much power at our disposal. This balance between rest and action, and (regarding the latter) not underestimating what we can do in Christ, is, of course, a lifelong struggle. I continue to be impressed with this church’s messages of action outside the comfortable boundaries of the church walls; clearly it’s important to go to church if we are committed to walking with God, but what we do in church on Sunday mornings is never going to be more than the starting point for that commitment.

On a lighter note, I had a fun experience in Swedish culture yesterday when we went to the house of a Swedish couple (former volunteers and friends of POR) to celebrate St. Lucia, generally celebrated on December 13th (see link below for the history of this holiday). All the volunteers (including Adam, the one guy) wore white dresses, and the women wore tinsel on our heads and around our waists, though I wore holly because I got to be St. Lucia! We walked into the room with lit candles singing St. Lucia songs in Swedish (I had a cheat sheet) and then repeated the performance for a German couple across the street. I can only imagine what any South African who saw us must have been thinking; five young white people dressed in white robes and tinsel and carrying candles is certainly an unusual sight!

http://www.newsweden.org/luciahistory.htm

Recently, after a few key people agreed to this plan, I decided I’m going to stay with Siyavuna for another three months and not work with Give a Child a Family at all. I’ll still live at GCF for a total of six months, as planned, but I won’t be working with the children. Instead, I’ll get to learn more about Siyavuna, both their day-to-day operations and their model for growth and development into new communities. I’m thrilled with this; I’m really looking forward to being a part of this organization’s groundbreaking (literally) and marvelous work. Helping poor South Africans in rural areas (many of whom have very few legitimate job options) learn how to grow organic produce and sell it seems like a fairly obvious way to help them become more self-sufficient and less poor, and indeed there are many South African organizations that teach poor rural people how to farm, but there is actually only one other organization in South Africa that teaches people how to farm and gives them a venue to market their produce. In an area of South Africa as fertile and tropical as the South Coast, where many crops can be planted all year round, this seems like an idea whose time has come. During the second half of my time here I’m hopefully going to be involved with replicating this system in other communities, so I hope I’ll have learned enough by then to be a genuine help in such an endeavor.

On November 24th and 25th the female volunteers took part in a seminar called “The Question” which has different versions for men and women. It consisted of a series of recorded talks given by Craig Hill, a pastor in Colorado Spring, CO. The sessions centered around your identity in God, who you should let define your identity vs who you actually let define said identity, etc. The seminar had many useful insights on relationships and ample chances for ministry and counseling regarding how each of us got to be the way we are (our families and such). It wasn’t the kind of seminar I would’ve chosen to take part in voluntarily, nor was it something I think I particularly needed; in fact, I didn’t agree with the premise of many of the things about women and men that the seminar assumed. However, I got something out of it and I definitely think doing it in this group resulted in us getting to know each other better.

Another significant thing (for me) that happened recently was getting to go to the annual Christmas Dinner at Gates of Praise, the church by GCF I’ve been attending, on November 25th. The church was transformed with decorations, the food was great, and afterwards there were a few performances: hip hop dances, a Christmas drama performed by my home group (we started practicing two days before the dinner), and....a Sacred Harp song that I taught a few of the South Africans and performed with them! I have no words for how awesome that was. It’s safe to say a great night was had by all.

In general, the Christmas season here is marked by increasingly hot weather (call me crazy, but I miss St. Olaf winters something awful) and a huge number of tourists. Since Margate is a major tourist destination in general, but especially during the holiday season, many of its shop/restaurant owners depend on the tourists that flock here in November-January to make a living. In addition, the stores here go as crazy as American stores do in the Christmas decorations, Christmas music that starts in mid-November, Christmas merchandise, and other things I’d somehow hoped were confined to American consumerism.

The volunteers got back this past Sunday from a nine-day trip through KwaZulu-Natal. It was out first week of leave (we get one week of leave every three months) and most all of our plans went smoothly! We got to do things like go to Shakaland (the home of King Shaka, former King of the Zulu Kingdom), see numerous animals in the game parks imFolozi/Hluhlue, go on a boat tour in St. Lucia, and camp and hike in the Drakensburg mountains. It was a lot of fun, and a great bonding experience for the seven of us volunteers too! We took entirely too many pictures, and rest assured mine will be on facebook soon. The volunteers will be going on another week-long trip in early 2012, but I might opt out of that as I’m going to be getting some time off when my parents come visit. Dates aren’t set yet but that will presumably happen in late January or February - stay posted!

I’ve had some crazy and memorable experiences with Siyavuna lately: getting the vegetable truck stuck in a ditch, processing 40 kg of onions only to have the customer refuse them, arriving at a collection point and finding that the door to the building was locked (it was raining), and riding in the back of the vegetable truck while it was full of vegetables (quite a bumpy ride). I’ve also been seeing how issues such as coming up short on money when selling, farmers’ insistence that we buy produce from them that isn’t up to our standards, and farmers’ attempts to sell their produce with another’s card are handled. More routine things I’m getting used to include selling Siyavuna vegetables at the Rotary Club Flea Market that happens every Saturday, loading and unloading at the container where the vegetables are kept at night, helping to get local restaurants interested in buying from us, and, in general, driving: on ill-kept, narrow roads, on steep hills, in the rain, with a truck full of vegetables, on the left side of the road, while looking out for everything from goats to taxis to little children. Who knew working with vegetables could be so thrilling?

Us volunteers have also gotten to do some fun/informative things as a group recently like go on a community tour (though ideally that would’ve been done earlier), visit an AIDS hospital called Genesis (which works closely with GCF), and spend a weekend in Durban. The community tour was led by a social worker at GCF who took us through some of the townships and rural areas and explained to us a lot about Zulu culture and life in the rural areas. Many of the cultural differences were things that would’ve been really helpful to know earlier, but late is certainly better than never! Our trip to Durban was great; we got to see the Juma Masjid Mosque (the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere), the Victorian Street Market (a famous Indian market with souvenirs galore), gorgeous beaches, and uShaka, an enormous aquarium with fish of every kind, dolphin and seal shows, and, of course, more shopping. It was great fun.

I also got my picture in the local paper recently: some women showed up at the first collection point on Wednesday (two and a half weeks ago) and talked to us a bit before taking some pictures, buying some vegetables, and generally causing complete confusion. Soon I hope to have the entire article up on here.

Sorry for all the lists! Maybe next time I’ll have more deep thoughts.

It’s been a quiet week here in Margate, South Africa...well, not really. Life is never quiet here, or at least, not for long. I’m learning (though I sort of already knew) that keeping quiet is generally not in the nature of Africans. I’m continuing to learn about communication styles here, or, more often, lack of communication.

This week we had more sickness among the volunteers; when working with the children it’s very easy to pick up any and every illness they have. I’m now the only volunteer who hasn’t been sick once. We were going to go to the Oribi Gorge Swing this weekend to get our lifelong fill of adrenaline, but that didn’t happen because of the sickness; one has to be healthy to have the capacity for that kind of courage! This weekend we also had a water leak problem in the volunteer house that left us without water for most of the weekend, and we didn’t have internet at the house from Thursday night until Tuesday afternoon. These things have all been resolved, though!

Working with Siyavuna is always an interesting time. While vegetables are not my passion per se, the opportunity that gardening presents to these women (and indeed, they almost always seem to be women) is a real joy to be a part of. I’m getting better at quality checking, keeping details straight, etc., but one of the hardest parts of working here is proving to be turning down produce that’s unacceptable for selling. One isn’t supposed to take or pay farmers for produce that we know won’t sell, and farmers have been trained before (and get mentored while) they grow, but often they still bring in such produce in the hopes of getting money for it. There’s usually at least a little bit of produce from each farmer that we can’t pay them for. You have to be consistent in what you’ll accept, but sometimes it’s hard not to feel guilty for not taking something, since the money they could have gotten from a couple kgs of bananas of onions is desperately needed extra income. It’s one case where guilt isn’t helpful; you have to be firm and help make sure the farmer knows why something was rejected so that their farming can improve. It’s still always hard to watch their disappointment. Conversely, though, when a farmer has done well and has lots of quality produce to sell, their pride in what they’ve done is very evident and is a most beautiful thing to see.

Another challenge is that it is impossible to know how much work there will be to do when you arrive at a collection point to pick up vegetables from the farmers Siyavuna has trained in one particular area. (There are a total of seven collection points, each with a specific time and day that the farmers know in advance. The farmers choose the location of their collection point; they are always in some central location, usually a humble church buildings or an old store.) Since there are no quantity restrictions, farmers are free to bring as much or as little produce as they have for selling, and often the number of farmers who show up at a collection point from one week to the next varies tremendously. The average transaction is about R50, or $6.25, so not that much.

I got to go to my first Siyavuna Co-Op board meeting today (Tuesday, November 1st). These happen every month and are attended by representatives from each of the Farmers Associations, the Co-op manager, the general manager and project manager of Siyavuna, a couple advisers, and me, who got to take minutes. I had a moment of deja vu when we arrived at the location of the meeting and I realized I had been there before: Marjorie Jobson, my connection who told me about Siyavuna, took my St. Olaf group here as part of our January 2010 study abroad trip.

The religious experiences here continue to be interesting. The sermons at the church here (Pentecostal/charismatic nondenominational) are totally different from Orthodox ones, and Lutheran ones, for that matter. If I may say so, the sermons at this church tend to be more stream-of-consciousness and are almost entirely composed of scripture and how it directly applies to our daily lives, whereas Orthodox sermons, in my experience, tend to be more focused on history, church teachings, the lives of saints, and only occasionally on how the teachings of the day relate to how we should act. Lutheran sermons that I’ve heard tend to inhabit something of a middle ground; they’re certainly Biblically-based but also focused on how we understand scriptures when dealing with common issues in our lives. I don’t mean to degrade or promote any of these styles as being better than any other, but these are some things that I’ve noticed as patterns in these three very different styles of preaching I’ve learned to appreciate.

A really great message I heard here was by a guest speaker at church this past Sunday. He talked about cultivating meekness in our relationships: living at 80% and not 100% of our capacity as opposed to trying to do everything all the time. This gives us breathing room so that we’re not constantly in debt to someone because we’ve double-booked ourselves or spread ourselves too thin. He was definitely speaking from a place of one who knew what it was like to struggle with this sort of pride (and really, who of us hasn’t struggled with it?). His style was so concise, and he held everyone’s attention so well, that I was surprised when I realized he’d been speaking for over 45 minutes. Long sermons can be anywhere from painful to soul-restoring, and this one was definitely the latter.

I really like how the people in the church here are so comfortable praying openly for each other. Frequently in church and in the small groups they’ll tell each other things that they feel God wants them to hear: “I feel God is telling me to to tell you -----”. This it taking some getting used to; it seems awfully presumptuous to say what a certain person needs to know from God, but it’s an awesome thing to be looking out for each other in that way and to be so engaged in each other’s lives.

Something I’ve learned to feel comfortable disagreeing on, which I can see I will be explaining quite a bit here, is my belief, or lack thereof, in getting “saved”. Most of the South African Christians I’ve talked to so far speak of the moment they got saved as the turning point in their life, which makes sense as they believe it is the event that will allow them into heaven upon their death. This makes no sense from an Orthodox perspective, though, since we believe (I think?) that one’s commitment to follow Christ must be renewed every day, and there’s never one point at which you’ve arrived. I think it must be some combination of both; that one must commit at some point to following God and not living simply for oneself, but that growing in faith is continual process that is never complete as long as one is alive. There also seems to be the belief here that those who have God in their lives should be the happiest people around. I’m honestly not sure what I think about that; it’s one thing to have hope in your eternal future, but we shouldn’t pretend to be too sure what this holds, and in any case, let’s be honest: life on earth is not always a picnic.

I certainly am very blessed, though.

South Africa continues to be beautiful and interesting. At times being here seems almost too easy, and at other times everything seems to take much more energy than at home: driving, communicating, shopping, using a cell phone, drinking water, etc.

The people who buy the produce from Siyavuna Development Centre (the brand is called Kumnandi) appear to be very diverse. The whites who buy the produce seem to be genuinely interested in it for its quality and are by no means buying it out of pity. It is interesting to see manifestations of a sort of generosity or “white guilt”, if you want to call it that, however; often the white people who buy Kumnandi produce will tell use to keep the change. (The most someone has left us in change so far was R84.00, or $10.51. To put that in perspective, we’re currently selling bananas for R7/kg and onions for R8/kg). If “white guilt” leads white South Africans to such random acts of generosity, then all the better, but of course that’s not enough by itself. In my experience, though, when privileged people make such relatively small sacrifices for those who are much less privileged, they tend to feel more or less absolved of their guilt.

The fact that POR is a Christian organization which has some expectation of volunteers making time for spiritual activities has turned out to be a good thing for me. I didn’t think I wanted to volunteer with a religious organization, but then again, I didn’t think I wanted to go to a religious college, and then I ended up being one of those Oles (aka St. Olaf students) who majors in religion and goes to chapel every day. It seems to be something I can’t get away from. I am enjoying the religious opportunities here: groups of volunteers go to church together most Sundays, and we’re also sort of expected, though not technically required, to go to home group meetings (smaller groups within the church) on Wednesday nights from around 7:00-9:00 pm. These church experiences and home group meetings have been interesting. The church next to POR (Gates of Praise International Church) is most definitely the Pentecostal/charismatic sort, and never lacking for passion and enthusiasm, though probably not how I would want to worship all the time. Already I’ve sometimes left home group meetings with my head spinning, and I can tell there will be many interesting discussions with these new church friends in the months to come.

A lot of friends have asked, understandably, about the ethnic diversity in South Africa, languages spoken, race relations etc. Here in KwaZulu-Natal the most common African language is Zulu, and most of the white people speak Afrikaans, though there are also whites who speak English as their first language. There are eleven official languages in South Africa, with most South Africans (it seems) speaking more than one. There is an incredible income gap in South Africa (the country has the highest, or second highest, Gini coefficient in the world) and I’m continually shocked at the handful of fancy houses in the undeveloped areas. In few places is it so normal (though it is not really normal) to be in a rural area that gives one the feeling like one is on the edge of the earth, and then to be in a mall not unlike one that would be found in the U.S. 20 minutes later. Needless to say, the potential for misunderstanding between people here is tremendous. I feel like I have to make a constant effort to communicate myself clearly here because most of the people I talk to here speak English as a second (or third) language, and also because most South Africans have a picture of Americans that is mostly or entirely derived from TV and movies and is often very stereotyped.

One of the hardest things for me to get used to here, culturally, has been “African time”. The things that seem to consistently run on time are planes, buses, church, etc. However, when you’ve made a plan with someone to meet at a certain time, any time up to half an hour after you agreed to meet is fair game. I can be very obsessive about following schedules, so this continues to be quite an adjustment for me. Of course, the time difference between here and home has been an adjustment too; since South Africa is six hours ahead of U.S. eastern time, finding a time to Skype with people back home can be complicated.


We’ve been having time for fun in addition to the work-related activities during the week, which is great, though I generally want to spend as little money as possible. So far I’ve gotten to go on a hike, to one of the beaches, shopping (shopping centers here are as extensive as any western country, for better or worse), to a Crocodile Farm, to the houses of some friends of POR/former volunteers, and out for food/drinks a couple times. The kinds of activities that I’m really excited about doing here, though, are cultural/historical things like music, museums, etc. I’m not sure how much of those sorts of things I’ll get to do here in Margate, but I’m pretty set on going to a concert in December with the Drakensburg Boy’s Choir and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (see link below). Experiences like that one would make the entire trip here worth it for me, if that turns out to be as awesome as it sounds.

http://dbchoir.info/index.php/choir/festivals/christmas-in-the-berg

That’s about all that’s on my mind this week. As usual I’d love to hear from any and all of you.

collecting/weighing/packaging vegetables with Siyavuna

my Swedish housemates (fellow volunteers) and I

selling Kumnandi (Siyavuna) vegetables in front of the Good Health Shop - where we sell every Friday

Hi friends!

Now that I’ve been here a week I think I owe everyone an update of life in South Africa, so here it goes. I’ve never done a blog before and am honestly a bit leery of them. To me it has always seemed presumptuous to assume that people want to read all about your life. Granted some people’s everyday lives are so incredible that it makes sense that they would have a blog (though such people are generally not the types to broadcast what they do for anyone to read about) and some people are so glamorous and gorgeous that people are interested in reading their blog even if the contents thereof is actually very dull. Since I don’t really think I fit into either of these categories I’m going to try my best to hold your interest in describing my current life in this wonderful country.

It’s been a crazy week. After arriving on Saturday in the late afternoon (October 8th), going right to a barbecue with the other volunteers (“braii” is the Afrikaans word), and going to church and on a long hike/picnic/sight-seeing tour on Sunday, my first week began. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.     

I’m staying in the volunteer house at Give a Child a Family, aka The Place of Restoration, in Margate, South Africa, in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The POR is a place where orphans and vulnerable children from this area stay until a secure foster family can be found to place them in. The POR has been around since 1992 and was founded by a Swedish couple, Basil and Monica Woodhouse. Over the years it has become recognized as a best practice model for care of such children. Because the founders are Swedish, many of the young people who come to volunteer at the POR are Swedish. This particular group is entirely Swedish, with the exception of me (there are six of us girls and one guy). Their work consists of rotating between the various areas of the POR that need helping hands including the nursery, the primary school (older children attend local schools), the kitchen, etc. Some of the volunteers also work with another organization that grew out of POR and which POR still supports: Siyavuna Development Centre. It is here that I will actually be working until the end of the year, since POR doesn’t need new volunteers until then. Siyavuna was created in 2010 as a project of POR, and they still use some of POR’s office space, but they are now a separate organization. Siyavuna works on projects in Southern KwaZulu-Natal to teach poor rural farmers how to farm organically, and then to market what they sell to earn some extra income. That would seem to be a common type of organization in South Africa, where unemployment is extremely high, but there are actually hardly any organizations in South Africa that teach people to farm and also give them the tools and skills to market what they sell (there are, however, many organizations in South Africa that simply teach people how to farm).

In any case, this week I got to participate in the regular traveling to rural communities that Siyavuna does to help collect the vegetables from the farmers who have gone through Siyavuna’s training and have agreed to participate in the program. We pay them for their produce on the spot (after quality-checking and weighing it) and then resell it according to current mid-range retail prices. There are several locations where we sell during the week: a flea market, outside a shop called The Good Health Shop (a supporter of Siyavuna), and outside a chicken farm, where you can buy every chicken part imaginable (and even live chickens if you want to slaughter them yourself). Until the end of the year I’ll be working with and learning from Siyavuna in the hopes of later being able to help replicate their model elsewhere in South Africa with the help of the connection who told me about these organizations: an amazing South African woman called Marjorie Jobson.

I also had a few orientation things to do this week, like take the driving test (learning to drive on the left side of the road in a stick-shift car has been fun, shall we say), meeting most of the employees at POR, and spending some time in the foster care training agency located near POR. I’m getting used to the schedule here, which is very much a reflection of POR’s religious (Christian) roots. The period for devotions every morning (from 8:00 - 8:20 am or so) is quickly becoming the highlight of my day - prayers, announcements, Scripture readings, and Zulu women singing hymns in Zulu in a manner that could only be described as Sacred Harp-like. (If you don’t know what Sacred Harp singing is, ask me later and I’ll gladly fill you in.) There’s a church next door to POR which the volunteers usually go to (though there are many other churches in the area too - no Orthodox ones though) and there are also small groups within the church that meet once a week. I actually feel sort of overwhelmed with opportunities for spiritual growth and development, which really isn’t a problem at all. Overall I am doing well and I think I will be useful and engaged (read: very busy) during my time here, which is really all I could ask.

Thank you all for your interest in my adventure! As usual, comments and questions are most welcome.