South Africa 2011-2012

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!