for all this I am grateful

So a lot has happened in this last month!
After all that diligent work, I successfully finished my first quarter of courses! Wahoo! So the moment after I turned in my last paper, we took of to the central part of the Drakensberg Mountains to a camp place called Injisuthi. It was absolutely gorgeous!! These pictures don’t do it justice. We stayed for two nights and three days in a cabin or what they call a chalet. It was simple and clean and extremely nice. We did all our own cooking and they powered off the generator by 10pm, so we got lots of well needed rest. In the central Berg is also where the rock paintings are. We took about a 4 hour hike out for our viewing. It was pretty neat. Courses for the second quarter started right away, or we would have stayed there for at least a week. It was amazing!

The last weeks have been fantastic. It seems that with every passing day I begin to like it here a bit more. I am feeling much more adjusted and settled in. Anna and I moved to a new flat at the beginning of April. We live with Karina and her six year old son Matty. Drew, Greg, and Nolan live in the flat above us. It’s wonderful to have people around. We have a lot of meals together and help provide motivation for each of us to get our work done.
I have also been embraced by a beautiful church here. It’s lovely. The folks are extremely warm and inviting. I am grateful. Furthermore they are very supportive of me as pastor invited me to preach the sermon the last two Sundays. It was a beautiful and affirming experience.





Going to the Berg for some R&R!
me, Anna, Jim and Drew







this is when Drew's car broke down... ah, shame.
we were about 10k from the camp site. but everything worked itself out.








Hanging out beneath the rock paintings






Absolutely Gorgeous!

everyday life stuff...

for those of you who are curious, here is what I am doing today: I woke up at 7am after six and a half hours of sleep, ate oats with lots of Cinnamon and natural chunky peanut butter...mmm. I made a salad with tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese to take with me for lunch along with an apple and banana. The walk to school took 40 minutes today, a bit longer than most days. Anna and I were going at a leisurely pace and enjoying a refreshing morning after a night of rain.
Now I am in my 6x6 study office sitting in my red plastic chair, surrounded by articles that I have yet to read and others that will give me good direction. I am currently writing a paper on the post-WWII development strategies of Mexico. Until I turn it in next Tuesday I will be spending a lot of time in this little office. I do have fun pictures of all you family posted and also of scenic places in California, so my walls are nice to look at and it is not claustrophobic. sometime around 7pm I will go home to a bowl of supper yummy borche soup that I made on Sunday and then study for my economy exam that is scheduled for Friday. this means that tomorrow I will get up and do much of the same.
I am sustained by the friends I am making and the anticipation of completion of school work.
Life is beautiful.

Easter Weekend

Anna, Alicia and I woke up super early to attend the Diakonia Good Friday service. This picture is of a choir singing on the steps of City Hall after the flowering of the cross toward the end of the interdenominational service. We arrived at 5:30am and the service went until about 8:40 am. It was the earliest I have ever left a 3 hour church service. We had a great time. The procession from the convention center to these steps on city hall was done in complete silence and in the rain. It was quite an experience focused on 'who is my neighbor'. Here in South Africa, they take Good Friday off as a public holiday, which they also label 'Human Rights Day'. This service spoke beautifully about the connection between the two occasions. It was pretty powerful. There were approximately 1,500 people in attendance.


Happy Happy Easter! (on Sunday)
Easter was amazing! It was truly the best day I have had in months. The whole day was life-giving. The whole weekend was full of good times building up to this day. Our friend Alicia, a scholar studying in Grahamstown came to visit us for the holiday. And for the first time since my arrival, I put aside all my school work to explore the city that I live in, and had a great time hanging out with friends. It was fantastic! We enjoyed many amazing meals both as restaurants and a Mexican fiesta that we prepared for my host family. Chips, salsa and the works. It was delicious! Also, I went to the beach several times. Sand between the toes is one of the best sensations ever.
These are several friends who came to the Easter feast on Sunday afternoon. From left to right: me, Drew, Anna, Ciriaque, Matt, Pilou, Emefa, and Alicia. There ended up being 16 people who came. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, salads, deviled eggs and lots of yummy desert! It was a fantastic time.




Easter Sunday was all-around fantastic. We had a true sunrise service at the church I have been attending, Morningside Community Church of the Nazarene. We were set up on the lawn and the sun came up streaming through the trees. It was quite nice. The service was followed by two baptisms and then also a fish braai (bbq). It was fabulous, right out of the book of John.
We all lounged around for an additional 3 hours talking and enjoying each other's company. It was my ideal way of spending the morning. Church was followed by a fantastic trip to the beach where we enjoyed milkshakes and further conversations. Then I spent the early part of the afternoon preparing and roasting 2 small chickens, our oven was hardly big enough, but they turned out absolutely phenomenal! Moist and falling off the bone. We hosted a huge Easter potluck at Drew's flat, which will be above the flat that Anna and I move into next week! Hooray! With this move we will be much closer to town and in walking distance to many things. Rumor has it that there is also a running club that meets across the street, so I will definitely have to check that out.

pap makes friends

In the aftermath of a couple extremely trying weeks and following few breakdowns I have received beautiful reminders of the sheer goodness of life. It’s been a great weekend!

Pap. That’s what they call it here. It’s a corn meal dish most similar to what we would call grits, and very filling. I gave Siriaque and Emma a lift home yesterday (yes, our car is finally working. And better yet, the man who sold it to us paid the repair bill! Wahoo). So after hanging out in an area called Davenport with most of our classmates from the Development studies program, I volunteered to give lifts. I had been wanting to see the campus residences, aka ‘the res’, so what better time to check it out. While I anticipated a short tour and some small talk, I ended up staying for two and half hours. The turn of events was that the entire time Siriaque was devising a whole scheme to host us which included him sneaking off to the kitchen to prepare pop for both Emma and I. It was a fantastic time and a delicious meal. I told him I would return once a week, minimum, to prepare a good African meal together.
On a full stomach, I rejoined the group that I left in Davenport in an area just to the north called Morningside. We went to the infamous ‘Florida Avenue’. This is supposedly the street where everything worthy of happening happens. It has all the cool restaurants and clubs and is probably one of three places in town that stays open later than 10pm. We went to Taste of India to celebrate Ariel’s birthday. There were six of us there who have been absolutely amazing to me in this time of transition and in living out all the questions that our classes present to us. I was really glad to be there in that moment. The Bar 1 chocolate cake is amazing, with rich fudge icing. A perfect ending to any day.
Saturday and Sunday were fairly productive days in writing a paper for my economics course and studying for an exam in sustainable community development. It was wonderful to be at church Sunday morning where I continuously meet new friends. This week came with the promise of a cooking exchange. I will get to teach them how to make tortillas while they teach me how to make delicious curry...yum.

Cape Town

Cape Town is beautiful! Here are some photos of our super fun weekend. Anna, Drew, Valerie and I traveled to CT for a Rotary orientation weekend and spent several additional days enjoying the life of a tourist. We went all over town, to the green market, hiked parts of both Lion's Head and Table Mountain. It was fantastic!

Me and Desmond

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Overlooking the city Lion's Head

A fantastic time drumming

Anna, Drew and I having a great time

Hanging out in a vineyard for a Sunday afternoon braai

firsts...

I got into the front seat of the right hand side of the car yesterday, put the clutched in and revved the engine. Using my left hand I put the gearshift into first gear, but when trying to put the turn signal on, I ended up sending the windshield wipers across the front of the car, for the indicator is now located to the right of the steering wheel, not the left…I pulled out slowly and hesitantly into the left lane of an empty road. Hugging the curb on the left hand side, from some innate fear of the divider being on my right, we eventually made it onto the open highway and around town. Whew! Success! My first time driving on the left hand side of the road! And in the car of what will become the shared purchase of my amazing roommate Anna and I. It is a 1997 iridescent green Hyundai Sonata. It’s a full sized car, which looks like a big boat compared to other miniature cars on the road here. The deal maker of this purchase is that the guy offered to buy it back from us in December. How great is that.

Other firsts of this last week include: my first ride in a combie, a South African Taxi/ VW bus that ‘safely’ took us into the centre of town. My first public bus and regular taxi ride. I went to the herb market of traditional healing. I also had my first taste of a Bean Bunny, a half loaf of bread hallowed out and filled with beans and vegetables in a spicy curry sauce. It’s a Durban Specialty and quite nice. I attended my first South African Braai last weekend! The beautiful arrangement of salads and meats was amazing. I was impressed. There were about 30 people who gathered at Alethea’s home, all of us somehow connected to Rotary. There are 4 of us who are current scholars from the states and about 5 previous scholars who have remained in South Africa to finish their dissertation and continue working. I must admit that my favorite part was dessert. The meringue pie was divine!

Its official, I am a UKZN student now! Hooray! And I hope that by the time you are reading this I also have a student ID card. Obtaining this will make all lose ends complete. Upon arrival and well into my first module course, a week long course on Sustainable Development Feb 4-8, I realized that the structure and overall format of the course of study I had applied for, Master of Community Development, was not exactly what I was looking for. It would have yielded 4 weeks of class this entire year! While there was a slight hesitation, contemplating all the amazing travel adventures I could go on, I decided that I had to change my program. So last Tuesday I applied and was received into the Master of Development Studies. This course is quite opposite in its rigor and demand. We started coursework on Wednesday and have already read hundreds of pages and turned in our first think piece paper. The program requires six, 8 week modules and a dissertation. The courses I am enrolled in for this quarter are, Sustainable Development, Economics of Development and Economic Development Problems and Policies. Other courses that I will have this year include: Poverty and Inequality, Informal Economy, Globalization and Development and Research. I am very excited and motivated. On average we have class 4 days a week. There are about 25 people in the program who are all quite fantastic. It is a rich and diverse setting with students from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burundi, Cameroon, Norway, France, India, and of course the US and South Africa. The camaraderie between students is fun and inviting. We spend many of our break periods together in addition to socializing on the beach or at restaurants.

I have attended Calvary Church of the Nazarene in Pinetown the previous three Sunday’s I have found a beautiful community in them. They are a small congregation that meets in a community building about 20 minute drive from my house. Thankfully there are folks who live in my neighborhood who are able to give me a lift every week. It is nice.

Overall life is pretty great. My Rotarian hosts are extremely hospitable. We eat together every Thursday night. 7pm is news and wine/juice, followed at 7:30 is some sort of amazing curry concoction. Meals are delicious. Both Anna and I have a vegetable palate and love to prepare fun creations. The ingredients here are fresh. In fact, I can’t wait to get to the farmer’s market that they have every Saturday. Anna moved in last weekend. She’s fabulous. Not only do I appreciate the company of living with her, Anna and I have an appreciation for many of the same things in life and God and will be able to sojourn together throughout the year. And I must mention, Drew continues to live in the flat over the garage. He is from Orange County and adds a lot of fun to our mix. The three of us are in the same program and get along quite well. We all, Anna, Drew, Valerie and I are headed to Cape Town on Wednesday. Should be fantastic.

And now for a picture: This is Anna and I with Rotary District Governor Richard Fisher and his wife on the left at Rotary Alumni event in PineTown on Saturday.

RAIN

I had a most fantastic walk home this afternoon. The sky opened up and poured down rain. Rather than speed up, I intentionally slowed down to take in the pungent aromas and vibrant landscape. Rain was running like veins down my arms pumping life into my being. My hair was plastered flat to my head. The temperature had not dropped below 80* even at night and with high humidity it is draining. Thankfully not as sweltering as KC last summer, especially as my fridge here keeps as cool as ours did there.

I have completed 3/5 of the seminars for my first module course in Sustainable Development. There are 10 of us; half of us are full time students and the others are working professionals. What is amazing about this is not the fact that I have been here 8 days and completed the majority of my first module, but that I have almost completed it and don’t have any additional information about my program or how to officially become a registered student! They tell me that they will have orientation sometime later in the semester…helpful. In the mean time I continue to wait in lines, track down people, obtain signatures, and go round and round. Most days I find all this rather amusing. As long as they don’t fret I see no reason to do so either.

Last Tuesday at 9:50 pm my flight arrived in Durban, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I couldn’t have asked for a better journey here. All my luggage arrived, all my flights were ahead of schedule and I never had to wait in line. It was amazing. I was greeted by John Ferguson who proudly displayed a large Rotary sign for me to locate him. His wife Maggie is most delightful. I am currently renting a flat that is attached to their house. It is a furnished two-bedroom apartment. Anna, another Rotary Scholar, will move in this weekend. Drew, a third Rotary scholar lives in the flat upstairs. It is good to have friends nearby to live in these transitional times.

Like most things new and in countries unfamiliar, all things have been a maze to navigate. I finally obtained a cell phone a couple days ago. Mostly I wait to figure out how to obtain internet access. Because I am not a registered student, I have no privileges on campus and with all things technological there are exorbitant fees for access and one must wait for the right deal. I remain hopeful and confident that all things will continue to work out.

All is well. and I am especially mindful of the goodness of creation and all around me as we head into this season of Lent.