Thunder Storms, Essays, and on looking like "Jesus"

Hey friends!
So a short blog post to take my mind off of writing papers and doing real work for today.

So recently in PMB the weather has gotten really wonderful. Most days we have been getting a little bit of rain, and then other days we hit 40 degrees Celsius. Today was an amazing thunderstorm during class. So we were in Masculinities and the sky just got darker and darker. by about 11:40am it was pouring down rain, and I even saw hail. At least the rain is making things greener. Most of the time I get pretty lucky with rain and thunderstorms. I am in class and it clears by the end, or I catch just the tail end of the storm. Other times like one evening a while back while I was in the LAN sending some e-mails and chatting with some friends I noticed it started pouring down like crazy. My one friend said that he would pray that the rain would fall like mad for a short period then stop so i could walk back dry (as I didn't have a plastic bag for my laptop...) and it did.

Anyways today I was surprised by an essay for masculinity. Basically we arrived in class and the first thing we recieved was an assignment due in one week for his essay of our masculinity course. It also just so happens that the date was the same as my Theology of Transformation Exam. So putting it all together into one crazy weekend and couple days of writing I am going to be busy. I have finished off the other three papers that were due around this weekend (and I will be submitting them all tomorrow) and then I just have to make a solid start on this masculinity paper and get it done by the end of Friday night so I can have 3 full days to study well for Theologies of Transformation (factoring in a Sunday Sabbath!).

I guess the last thing to share is that I have recently been called "Jesus" by a lot of people. It may have to do with me having my hair down and my beard long, and wearing a white sweater. Just to highlight it, two of my friends from theology saw me in the library from a distance and yelled out "Its Jesus" and I turned around and shared a good laugh today. More surprisingly is when strangers do it. Today when I was out getting milk, and juice (for essay writing) A group of Car Guards made the comment, "Hey Man you look like Jesus!" The ensuing conversation was good and hillarious as they were making fun comments like: "I thought it was the second coming and I was about to be judged!" Unfortunately my mind often goes towards saying that I probably don't look like Jesus. I remind people quite often that Jesus was a Jew. He was Middle eastern, and probably didn't look like a very white German Canadian who wears Birkenstocks, a white comfy sweater, and comfy pants. But I appreciate a good compliment when I get one.

Anyways I have wasted enough time this evening distracting myself from reading Augustine from a masculinities perspective. Back to the world of working on essays!

Cheers!

On my Pace of Life

Dear Friends!

I am super glad that today is a Sabbath day for me! It is so nice to take a break from the “hectic-ness” of work all the time. So surprisingly my time here in PMB is flying by. Crazy to be honest, I have one last week of classes and I have 6 Assignments left, of which only 2 are due by Friday and one is due the Monday after Halloween. I have two essays to write on Masculinity, and one Take home exam plus exams to study for. It is funny that when I tell people they ask if I am stressed out or assume that that makes me feel like everything is hectic. I guess for me I am not too worried about these things.

Perhaps the difference for me is how I pace out my life. I have for a little more than a year now been actively choosing into a Sabbath pattern of living. Basically I take one day out of every seven to not to do work. I put it aside for various reasons. I guess the two biblical reasons apply best, one being that God stopped to rest on the seventh day to enjoy his creation, and the other being that I rest because God is a god who liberates from oppressive labour, let me explain how each works out for me.

Firstly God is a god who liberates from oppressive labour rests entirely on the notion of the Exodus where the Israelites were freed from a 7-day a week, 365 (or 355 lunar year) day a year way of work. God heard their cries, and saw their oppression. For me, I wasn’t created for 7 days of work a week. Work often times at that point becomes an IDOL that is served, and that IDOL of Work is oppressive and crappy. Even in studying theology (reflecting on God and the World and all of life) I run the risk of turning my work as a student into an IDOL to worship. Basically I stop for a day to de-throne Work as an IDOL from the place of worship. In stopping from work (when I could gain 24 hours extra to be productive) to rest I necessarily need to trust in God to provide for me in the other 6 days, and because I am choosing 6 days to do work, that one day is a day to be in God’s presence.

Secondly because God as a creator stopped for a day to rest and enjoy his creation, I as well should stop to rest. So I spend the day doing things which allow me to enjoy his creation, like going to worship with a church, or sending e-mails( or writing blog posts like this). I can cook a meal and enjoy the cooking, or spend time in scripture just reading, or spend time in prayer just reflecting and enjoying God’s presence. I can hang out with friends and just enjoy my time with them, or I can take the time to go for a walk. Sabbath is a celebration day, a day of resting and enjoying with God all the things that he does. For me I Sabbath in this way and it dethrones work by building up a Sabbath of Shalom that is in service to God and therefore also worship to God.

I guess it is a beautiful liberating thing that shifts the pace of life from being hectic, and having adopted a Sabbath day I guess I start to get a Sabbath attitude towards living. To not allow myself to be worried about work and productivity. (Even though it still often happens, and I celebrate when I get to be productive but if I am not sometimes I might just need to do something different to rest and enjoy). I guess here is where I challenge my friends back at home:
Give Sabbath a Try. Take a chance to rest and break the oppressive power of work. Yes it is Mid-term month, and Yes it is essay writing season. Take a day, and Stop! Breathe and know that God is who he is. Rest and enjoy his creation, Rest and reflect on him for a full day. Give it a try and see what comes out.

Anyways Today I am resting and relaxing, tomorrow I am back to classes and paper writing but I will be refreshed and well rested. Happy weekend and I hope you have a wonderful day to rest and relax!

Cheers!

the Ujaama Consultation Week!

Dear Friends,
I have been trying to figure out how best to summarize this past week for you in a blog post. I have been playing around with posting notes, thoughts, a paper, or something like that to describe it but I think it is best to leave it as a story.

So Tuesday Night I went with some friends from my Theologies of Transformation class to see a lecture by Allan Boesak. He gave a lecture at the Ujaama 21st anniversary on “The Theological Underpinnings of the Empire” which probably sounds rather intimidating at first look, but basically it analyzed our current global political climate and asked the question what we are dealing with. He identified that we are dealing with a global empire. It is an empire that is dominated by Neoliberal Capitalist Ideals, dominated by free-market economy based democracy, and that worships the idol of the ‘holy’ Individual (Or perhaps Mammon, or perhaps, the ‘great and almighty’ ‘I’ or any other Ba’al that we can consider). The Empire is best known as the USA but I would extend it to being the empire of the G8/G20, We are unfortunately unable to identify a singular tyrannical emperor, but we can see that it is an Oligarchy that is dominating the empire, with Leaders, Ideologies, Corporations, Countries, Businesses, and Financial Institutions controlling and protecting its own interests. It is a power house of culture, ideas, and all outputs, it imports the foreign for its own consumption yet exports its own version of the foreign to dictate how the world culture should be. It is no different than the Roman Empire, It has the Pax Americana, the state worship of ideologies, co-option of religions, it has an altar that sacrifices for the sake of the economy. A super exciting lecture that identified deeply what we are dealing with, yet at the same time it was lacking. It lacked a theological reflection of what we need to do and work towards as theologians.

As for me, it left me feeling like the theologians present for the most part were like the nation of Israel at the time of Gideon. Just ‘OMG there is an oppressive empire, they are dominating the life of our churches, and our people, and they will never be removed.’ Unlike Gideon these theologians (I am perhaps overstating the fact in using all of them but I am going with the problem that I saw) are just willing to complain about the idols, and the empire but not want to do anything. We need theologians who like Gideon are willing to build an Altar to the LORD and name it “The LORD is SHALOM”. Theologians who would take the second Ox of their father and tear down the pole built to Ba’al and then sacrifice the ox on the altar. We need theologians who are willing to challenge the systems of the Empire that are built up. Perhaps Kairos Documents are one example, but when recognizing the evil of the Global Empire I think we don’t dream bold enough to flip the system on its head. Perhaps like Dr. Roderick Hewitt brought up we need to be The Church that is willing to be controversial and name imperial systems for what they are. A Church that would call each other out on bad ideas that support the oppressive system of Neoliberal economics. A Church, that would be THE CHURCH, the Kingdom of God present in the world. I would take it a step further and argue that we need to have THE CHURCH and say that the Institutional church is not necessarily the CHURCH, that THE CHURCH exists inside of the Institutional church, and that it exists also outside. THE CHURCH adopts a model of Eschatology as it’s principle knowledge of how to live life. It accepts the KINGDOM OF GOD, instead of the EMPIRE OF THE WORLD. This is central to the message of the Jesus of the Gospels. And this needs to become the central message of our churches today.

Wednesday Morning I went to a session (with the same students) to see a presentation on the KAIROS DOCUMENT (check it out on the Ujaama website: ujaama.ukzn.ac.za ) and actually got a presentation on the KAIROS DOCUMENTS hearing about the Kenyan Kairos, and the Zimbabwean Kairos. Super cool! It was amazing to hear some of the original co-signers of the Kairos document talk about how and why it was created, and then reflect on how much further Kairos Palestine has gone, as they make a strong call to Love the enemy, and hate the oppression. So good!

Friday Morning I went to the student session where students shared reflections on the issues that were presented. It was alright, there were two students in particular who provided beautiful insights on the current issues of the times. One Identified that there is an idolatry in our broader society of the values and principles of Neoliberalism (part of his thesis that he just finished), the other identified that we need to live and actively seek a prophetic message that can reach all people in our communities. I was hoping to ask the question of what is the alternative and how do we get rid of the idolatry in our society and what do we go towards.

But I had to go instead to class, as my lecturer was leaving (and I got a lift with him and the guest lecturer for the class back to the varsity). Anyways so Dr. Clint Le Bruyns gave a lecture on his Mzwandile Memorial Lecture that he gave the night prior but going into more details in some regards. Interestingly the lecture focused on the interrelationship between faith, the economy, and work. Which was just wonderful as we got discussing how the Economy isn’t a neutral body, but has values and beliefs and ideologies which drive it, and then how faith interfaces with those values (and can and should bump against those values) in the world of Work. Basically we eventually got talking about how we embody these values in our theology but also in our lives. We need to be working on how to become people who live out our theology.
Then Friday afternoon we had another lecture for industrial mission as we dealt with issues of food sovereignty. In it we examined a variety of responses (not that one is more important than another, they just respond to the problem as we see it) to the issue of Hunger. First we looked at Charity(CARITAS): the notion of providing relief and solving the immediate problem of hunger, the lack of food. Second we investigated Community Development (Service (Diakonia)): How do we solve hunger by empowering and enabling individuals to produce or grow their own means to access food, this involves dealing with the capacity of a community to access food by way of their own skills and abilities. Third we looked at Policy and law making (TORAH): in particular this seeks to have the governments implement the issues surrounding food rights that are in their constitutions. Finally we looked at the idea of working to make democratic movements (JUBILEE,): How to mobilize communities to gain and transform the systems of society which enforce hunger and lack of food. (In brackets are the Biblical ideas that help to illustrate the ideas theologically). This takes the response for food away from the old adage “Give a man a fish, and he will be full for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will never be hungry again.” But deals with the realities of asking the tough questions like “Why is it illegal to fish in the river?” and “Who owns the fences that are blocking us away from the river?” and beyond that to “Who is polluting the river so that we can’t even eat the fish we catch?” Dealing with food issues involves creativity and a mixture of all four of those concepts especially when we realize the depth of the issues.

Anyways the reason why I talk about all the stuff I learned is to share with you the crazy excitement of the week. Basically after almost each of these moments all I could do was bounce around and get more and more excited about the possibilities of the work that I can do as a theologian. I dreamed dreams, shared my excitement, and worked out the issues that I had and thought about where it needs to go, and how it needs to go from here. This is the sort of stuff that makes me glad I have had experiences which allow me to dream alternatives and that I don’t have to be limited. It makes me glad that I am a theologian (so I can dream the impossible alternatives due to an impossible starting point in how I work as a theologian). Super Exciting!
Unfortunately I am going to be hitting a hectic time of heavy work, I have about 2 weeks left of classes, and three till my first exam. And a whole bunch of papers and reflections to write. You might have to forgive me if I don’t blog for the next couple of weeks but know that I am working on writing papers and what not (After my first exam I will be able to have a bit more space to breath!)

Cheers!

Lesotho Part 3

Hello Friends yet again!
It feels so odd to be writing two blog posts one right after another. But here it goes (I do need to get you up to date!).
I realized that last night I wasn’t very descriptive about the bus stops or taxi ranks. So I guess that I should explain something a bit more about the process of travelling. So in South Africa and Lesotho most towns have a place where there are minibus taxis that you can catch to take you to where ever you need to go (almost...). So for the most part you could arrive in this huge lot that is filled with people, and minibus taxis. Then surrounding the area is alot of street vendors. The Minibuses for the most part have a sign in the front window that points you in the right direction (at fancier taxi stands there are even signs pointing in the right direction). For the most part Kate and I would just ask someone to point us to the correct taxi (generally a driver or someone just standing around a Taxi). It made transfers pretty easy. The worst part about travelling using Minibus taxis was that the longer the distance the slower they would fill up. Take for example going from Pietermaritzburg to Kokstad which is about an hour and a half away it took us about the same length of time to fill up the taxi. The problem is that the taxis would leave when they were full. Another thing about the taxi rank is that it is like a street market. When we were in Maseru catching the bus to Semonkong (which we waited on for an hour and a half before it left) we tried to see what all you could purchase. I will see how I do with a list of stuff that I could have bought: Food stuff: Bread, apples, oranges, bananas, fried fish, fried chicken, pap (Maize based starch), pop, juice, water; Stuff for a home: knives, rat poison, dish clothes, towels; Personal stuff: Razors, Electric razors, combs, brushes, earings, necklaces, sunglasses, medicine, vitamins, handkerchiefs, rosaries, stickers (of a very white Jesus for a little bit I thought it was me in a robe ; ) ), ; and even toys, hats, and anything else under the sun. For the most part they would walk around and sell stuff into the windows. Other times they would come onto the bus and walk up and down the aisle and sell their goods. Just hectic.
Anyways back to the travelling stories. So we left Semonkong on Friday morning (Hey it is crazy how fast time flies when you are telling the story I think I was even surprised by the fact that it was Friday when we left Semonkong) and we took a bus all the way back to Maseru. This time we sat right at the back. Which was just hilarious as we felt like kids all wanting to sit at the back of the school bus for the bumps. Well sort of, the bumps actually resulted in airtime and I swear that I was a good foot off of the seat of the bus at times. We arrived in Maseru and we knew exactly where we needed to go so when our bus arrived at the bus stop (on the one end of town near by the Lesotho Durham Link (LDL)) we hopped into a cab and gave the driver directions. The thing we didn’t do was negotiate a price as to how much it would cost us. When we arrived the taxi driver told us 40 Rand. We were both shocked and surprised as this was the first time that someone had tried to take advantage of us simply because we were white. Luckily we both knew that it would normally cost 4.50R to get to town from LDL so we told him that he was ridiculous but (we recognized that we weren’t sharing the taxi with other people) so we gave him 20R. We checked back in for the night at LDL before deciding that we needed to ask around to find out about getting a bus to get to Mokhotlong and the Sani Top the next day. Luckily we arrived around noon (we left really early from Semonkong), so we walked into town to stretch our legs (after a 5 hour bus ride all morning). We asked around the bus stop and found out the time for the bus, and eventually we asked about how to get to Teyateyateng (aka TY). We wanted to go there because it was a weaving town where they make all sorts of hand weavings.
So we took a minibus taxi to TY and hopped off in town to go for a good wander. We were trying to follow a sign to get to Setsoto Design Gallery which had a workshop that we could look through, and a shop where we could buy designs as well. So we walked through town, way down the street. And eventually (after turning back at least once and then pushing down even further) we arrived at another sign which worked out well for us. So we went down the road and arrived at the workshop. When we came in we got a tour of the workshop and watched the woman weaving. It was beautiful! Some of the designs were huge and custom ordered. Check out the website (I haven’t checked it out but if you are intrigued: www.setsotodesign.com ). They also paid the woman fairly for the work that they did, gave them reasonable hours, and even used locally grown and raised Mohair (Goat Hair) that they would comb, spin, dye and dry themselves hiring only locally. Then we finished our factory tour with a stop in their gift shop which had all sorts and sizes of weavings. I bought a small sized place mat (for easy of transportation as I already had a blanket that was big and bulky). It was really amazing. They also sold a variety of other goods from locals and local NGOs, like a bracelet that I got for Emily from the GRO Collective (www.grofoundation.org). They apparently encourage eco-sustainability, reward local creativity, and produce jewlery. The bracelet is made in Lesotho and paid an artisan to make it as well as giving access to social empowerment programs. Check them out!
So we hopped another taxi back to Maseru (45min without traffic) so that we could try to get to the Internet Café and get some dinner in town. But we hit traffic as there was horrible construction. We ended up walking through town trying to get to a section on the map that had both an Internet cafe and a restaurant but got a bit turned around with the lack of road signs. (Very helpful Maseru, thanks). That night we had pizza which was just wonderful. We were at first confused as to how you could have a pizza with Russians on it. So we avoided the pizzas with Russians, and I got a Hawaiian pizza (yum pineapple which is just coming into season here!) and Kate got a pizza with honey mustard and meats on it (which was surprisingly tasty!). After that we cabbed back to our hostel (for safety rather than walking that far at night). At the hostel we made popcorn and sat and just chatted for a bit and there were many more people around LDL so we were able to spend some time chatting with some of the other travellers. One guy we met was in Lesotho for a week before heading to a Atmospheric Physics conference at U Cape Town. He was from a French Island near Mauritius (I think...). Another guy was busy cooking up Russians in the kitchen (which we found out were a type of sausage) and he was a Kiwi I think. Then there was another French man who was in Maseru trying to do some freelance photography work with the police department in the field of Human Trafficking in the factories. And then there was Seth and Julie, an American couple headed in the same direction as us. They had found out about different times for the bus then we had found out, so we went with the earliest bus time to be on the safe side and we decided to share a taxi with them to get to the bus stop together.
The next morning (another ridiculously early morning 5:30am getting a cab from LDL to town) we hopped on our last big bus to get us as far as Mokhotlong (a town in the North East of Lesotho). Which was a very relaxed and long bus ride, we went around the northern side of the country and stopped in Oxbow for a rest break (at Afriski the place to ski in Africa!). We made it to Mokhotlong mid afternoon and started trying to ask if we could get as far as the Sani Top that night. Unfortunately it was a no go. So we set out trying to find a place to stay for the night. The guide book had several options (most of which were out of town or rather expensive) but had one option called GROW which had dorm rooms for people to stay at. We asked how to get there and wandered way down the road and found GROW and asked there if there was any room for the night. Unfortunately there was no space at all. But they did point us to a guest house a bit further back from the road. So we walked down and asked there about a room. They took us to a beautiful rondavel (with some 8 Beds anywhere from queen down to a single) and they started negotiating a price with us. Seth (being very practical and quick talking unfortunately for him) was very eager to go and find a cheaper place to stay (they were trying for 180R per person), but they were very insistent that we were just talking and that we need to talk about a price before we leave, (that wasn’t very good negotiating Seth) and the older woman preferred when I was talking because I would chat slower and more clearly then Seth (no offence meant). She eventually agreed to let us pay 500R for the four of us (at 125R) on the promise that we would tell other people about her guest house, but in all truth it was a wonderful place to stay and a very comfortable night. A very welcoming family and helpful for my learning of some Sesotho phrases like thank you (Ke Bua). Anyways that night we tried to find a restaurant in town but with no luck. So we ended up getting soup to make from hot water and had a wonderful night hanging out with each other. So if you ever end up in Mokhotlong and need a place to stay go to GROW and then ask for directions to the Boikhethelo Guesthouse and Catering, your choice B&B Accomodation in Mokhotlong Town.
The next morning we were up bright and early to catch the first minibus taxi to the Sani top. Unfortunately we had to wait for several hours before leaving to get to Sani Top. Yet at the same time we got to enjoy a beautiful morning in Mokhotlong. It was clear and crisp and enjoyable a perfect day! And then during the morning I got all sorts of strange looks about my blanket, and I was even taught by one man how to wear it properly I just need to get a big safety pin for it. One older man in walking through the bus stop on his way to town decided that he would come and say good morning to the four of us. He came over and shook all of our hands and said good morning to us. And then he asked where we were from and reshook all of our hands when he found out we were from the states and Canada!
Eventually the Minibus taxi got going and it was just going so slowly. For almost an hour and a half we were driving at less then 5km/h. (I was sitting in the front seat). And eventually we pulled over and turned the minibus around and we all got out because the engine was getting too hot. They asked around for water (and eventually went down for a big bucket of water from the stream) and poured it over the engine to cool it off. Luckily the engine block didn’t crack or anything but shortly we were back on our way at a really solid pace back towards the Sani Pass. We arrived and who did we see just getting out of Customs? None other than the Israeli Couple! We got our Lesotho exit stamps and then hopped back into the taxi to head down the Sani pass (Which was just so stellar and beautiful) and got stamped back into South Africa. From there the Taxi took us to the Underberg where we knew we could get a taxi to PMB, at least we thought it would be easy. The taxi that we had transferred onto was waiting to fill it up before it left to go to PMB and we knew it would take a bit more than an hour and a half to get back to PMB. The worst thing was we were a pretty full taxi but they would send us until we were full. Eventually they left with two spaces (which were filled up quickly on the road) after much complaining from passengers hoping to get as far as Durban. Luckily we got underway and had a stressful fretful ride into PMB. Kate and I were busy conspiring about what we could do for Seth and Julie to help them out. So we invited them to come over and spend the night in our dorm rooms. We took them with us back to Scottsville and gave them a place to stay in our dorms (Actually just Kate’s dorm as I had 8am class on Monday). But they cooked us dinner that night which was just wonderful.
Yeah that is my trip to Lesotho, the mountain kingdom. Pretty exciting and epic all things considered. God was really good in providing for both Kate and I during the trip. It was a good experience for the two of us to grow together as friends. We met some pretty cool people, did some pretty cool things, learned a couple of good lessons on how to travel and how not to travel in Africa. And were blown away by the hospitality of people we met. On a whole for a deeply impoverished country we found a huge beauty that isn’t just in the scenery and the freedom of the land, but a beautiful and helpful people. In fact it was only in the urbanized centers that we ran into the most problems with people trying to scam us because we were white. In fact after having heard from people a lot of questions about why anyone would ever travel through Lesotho like that for a week using local transit I think there is a horrible stereotype that goes with poor countries. ‘That Lesotho is not safe’ or ‘That you are going to get mugged in Maseru’ or fill in the blank with the assumption. For the most part they were hospitable, warm, kind and compassionate, and it is just stunning to see a country that has almost no fences, and to see herdsmen along the side of the road. It is truly a beautiful and untouched part of Africa by travellers I really think more people should try to get to Lesotho, it is a very different flavour to South Africa, yet is so cool. As for safety, really you could be mugged in downtown London Ontario and get killed there. Really you need to realize that it is just about being aware of your surroundings and not putting yourself into dangerous situations (like walking through downtown Maseru at night). Anyways I will hopefully get to blogging more experiences later on this week!
Peace and Blessings!

Lesotho Part 2: Maseru Take 1 and Semonkong

All righty, so I think that I left off the last story of my trip to Lesotho with myself and Kate hoping on a mini bus taxi in Mphaki and heading on our way towards Quthing. So we arrived around 10:30ish in a town or a cross roads nearby to Quthing. Where we were informed we could go and see Dinosaur foot prints!!! (Super exciting eh?) So we wandered back up the road after getting directions to the foot prints. We walked and eventually we saw a sign on one side of the road saying Dinosaur Footprints. So we went on in and got shown some petrified dinosaur foot prints in the rock. They were small little foot prints, maybe about 4-5inches long and there were loads of them. Really cool! The guy who showed us the foot prints said that they had only recently been protected (1999) as a find but they were in amazing shape. Unfortunately I have no clue (and nor did the employee) know which dinosaur made the foot prints. They had only a few small fossils of bones in their guest shop. But I did see real dinosaur foot prints and I have the photos to prove it!

After that Kate and I hopped into a minibus heading to Maseru and we got the most comfortable seats ever! We got the passenger seats in the front of the minibus! (I found it so very comfortable, Kate preferred a seat where her bag would attach her in for sure, I liked the view and leg room!). We arrived in Maseru after driving through (What must have been) the flattest part of Lesotho. It was beautiful and filled with farming land. In Maseru we started the effort of working on finding a place to stay. Most of the time the Lonely Planet Guidebook is up to date and has amazing maps that make it really easy to find a place to stay. I Kind of wish that this guidebook was a bit better for Maseru (or that Maseru would have better road sinage...). Anyways there is a story behind all this bitterness. So we wandered around the taxi stands looking for a cab to take us to Maseru Backpackers and Conference Centre. Which we thought would be easy enough to find (provided that we even had a map and everything!). So we asked around at the taxi stand (This was after Kate and I had discussed about asking people). We ended up finding a very eager young man who wanted to take us there. We asked him to get us to a taxi so that we could take a cab to get to this location. And he wanted to walk us to a taxi. We went with him on a bit of a city tour. He took us towards another taxi rank where we asked a driver if he knew the directions to get us to Maseru Backpackers and after looking at the map he gave us directions towards a guest house in that general direction. So this guy we had leading us was very eager that we would give him some money for helping us find the location. And we were really not in too much of a bargaining position. Eventually we found our way towards some characteristic road intersections that we (Kate and I) used to figure out where we were on the map. The guy that we had was leading us in the wrong direction and I was convinced that we needed to go the other way. So I stopped us and said (quite strongly) that I believed that the road we needed was back the other way. So we went back and walked along for a while, before we got frustrated enough with our friend (who was insistent that I was heading the wrong way) that we gave him 15 maloti to thank him for his help. After this we wandered down the road a ways before realizing that the Backpackers that we were looking for wasn’t quite as close as we thought it was. So we walked back as we had seen a wonderful military base thinking we could ask for directions there. After a while we had 3 military guys all trying to decipher the Lonely Planet map and one tried to call the phone number (and called the wrong number). But luckily a fourth guy who knew about the place but under the name Lesotho Durham Link was able to confirm that it was just down the road a ways. So we walked all the way down the road, way past where we had earlier been and walked down a dirt road way to Lesotho Durham Link (Which was just wonderful). So we checked in for the night (each of us getting a separate dorm room (we really lucked out with having separate rooms!) and paid that afternoon so that in the morning we could have an early departure. That evening we were both hankering for a good bite to eat (we had survived on Nuts and fruits for the last almost 36-40 hours). So we went out and flagged down a cab and asked the driver and the other passenger for advice for a place to eat. The passenger (assuming that because we were white that we wanted the best restaurant in town) pointed us to the luxury hotel and casino Lesotho Sun. We arrived and asked about the costs and we decided that we didn’t really want to pay for a ridiculous meal. Instead we got taken (at no different cost then we had negotiated) to a mall where we were able to go to Spur. Spur is an interesting restaurant for Canadians in the readers it is like Kelseys meets a bit cheaper style of roadhouse grill food, (For USA read TGIFs). The thing about it is that it is always a very interesting experience with the decor. It is sort of Western style theme but it meets the western style theming with a mixture of diverse native American decorations. Just very mix-matched. That was fine though as we got a good greasy bit of meat that also had fries.

That night we crashed back at the LDL(Lesotho Durham Link) and woke up early (and well rested) ready to travel on towards Semonkong. So we got to the bus stop for about 7am thinking that we would catch the bus on time. But that wasn’t quite how it worked out. We got onto the bus and sat for a while. (Unfortunately we didn’t make a wise seat choice and picked the wheel to sit on so we had to cramp our legs up for the ride). Fortunate for me they took my bag and tossed it on top of the bus! It was always a blessing to not have to have it on my lap (70L is way too big for southern Africa. It may work well for Europe and the States but not for cramped busses... I am probably downsizing for December). The Bus ride was just stunning. We bumped along (I think that is a great term to describe it) dirt roads up and down and in between mountains. Just stunning! We had a brief stop at about halfway to rest and stretch and to go to a store. Kate and I were among the last people off of the bus and we thought we had enough time to make it to the store and back. We ended running to get on the bus before it left! But we got on and made it all the way to Semonkong. When we arrived in Semonkong we met a guide from Malealea lodge who was there at Semonkong to run a fishing trip and he offered to walk with us to get to the Semonkong Lodge. We walked through the local town and it was just beautiful. Obviously not a rich community but an agriculture dependent community, as we walked past small herds of sheep and cattle. On our way down into Semonkong Lodge (the lodge is nestled into a valley!) we saw a group doing Abseiling lessons. Abseiling is rappelling down a cliff. It is really cool. We arrived at the lodge, checked in, and got given a tour of the facilities and settled into our beautiful Rondavel dorm room. (space to sleep 6 with a fireplace to keep us warm at night, a hot shower and a big 5 gallon jug of water!)

Kate and I just settled in and rested for a bit before talking about which activity we would like to do. After weighing in the Cost and time commitment of the Abseiling (Which was 800 R or so and 2 days in the lodge...) we decided that it would make more sense to go horseback riding for a day instead. So we decided to walk into town and find a grocery store so that we could make a lunch and our breakfast for that day. We had a wonderful wander through the streets and there were all of these shack shops that were painted in various flags for the world cup, so cool! That evening we ate dinner at the lodge which was just deliscious and so good to eat a proper meal. and Then that evening, two friends whom we had met in Maseru at LDL arrived to spend the night. They were an Israeli couple who had just finished their mandatory military service and were travelling from South Africa to Ethiopia in the course of 8 months. They shared our dorm room which was just wonderful! So we had a good chance to hangout and chat with them for a good bit of time. The Next morning Kate and I were both up nice and early so that we could make breakfast and lunch for when we were heading out on the horses. We then went and met our Guide for our horse ride. Please do note that this was my first solo ride on a horse and I think I learned quite a bit. We went up and out into the rural country near Semonkong and rode our horses to the Waterfall where we sat and just enjoyed looking at it (and even saw the same group of abseilers as the day before start abseiling down!). From there we rode even further into the country and went out past a lot of really beautiful picturesque rural communities. They were little communities that had some farm land, and flocks surrounding the area near the homes. Just beautiful. We then climbed up a mountain and sat and had a bite to eat next to a couple of spiral Aloe. (please see the photos on flickr!)

Unfortunately I had a really stubborn horse. He would stop at random, mark his territory, and try to go his own way. Luckily I learned really quickly to click at him and kick him to get him to move (though he really didn’t like to get moving...). That was frustrating but still a lot of fun. We ended up nice and saddle sore so by about 2pm when we arrived we were just stiff and ready to stop and rest for the rest of the day. The Israeli Couple that we had met were just about to head back towards Maseru that same day and invited us to join with them in their car. But Kate and I after discussing what we wanted to do decided that we just wanted to have a chance to stop and rest for an afternoon (to be able to stop travelling and just to rest.). So we turned down their offer and just stayed put for the afternoon. I spent some time in the area near the river just journaling and resting there by the river. Kate had a nap.

After that we took another walk into town to find some lip balm (for chapped lips) and to find myself a blanket (A Basotho Blanket). So we walked to the same grocery store that we had been at the night before to find lip balm, and in the same shop I found a beautiful Basotho Blanket (It is blue and black and has corn on it!) on sale as well!

That night we spent back at the Lodge, and had dinner (before realizing that we wanted to pay off our bill that night! And making one of the employees open up the office for us). For dinner that Night I had a saddle of lamb with apricot filling. It was really tasty and really fatty. Unfortunately that night I didn’t sleep very well as I had a horrible problem with a bad stomach cramp that kept me running to the washroom every 20 min or so. Eventually it passed but I still took an Imodium to settle my stomach before hitting the road again.

I guess I am really behind on how far I need to be on blogging about travelling so I am going to hopefully get it all up to date before tomorrow night. But so you have an idea of what has been happening/is going to be happening this week. Tomorrow night I am going to see Allan Boesak give a lecture on the Theological Underpinnings of Empire (He is a key figure in South African Theology). Which is super exciting for me as I have read only a little bit by him and it is stellar theology. Other things that have gone on... This past weekend being Thanksgiving was very tough for me. I realized Saturday how much I was missing people back at home. And that was my experience of the weekend in particular. But I have been hearing from some friends and that is always wonderful when I hear stories (and can also share more stories!).

Sorry about the length (If you made it this far I see that you slugged through the lengthiness of my writing) but it is a part of my spiritual heritage that I am in touch with! My Lutheran Preacher heritage which makes me long winded.

Anyways Peace and Blessings!

Lesotho Trip: Part 1

Hello Friends so I am going to try and keep my Lesotho posts down in word count to make them manageable while getting them up quickly this week. This is going to be in addition to my 2500-5000 word count this week, so hopefully I will keep it short and sweet.

Anyways Lesotho trip:
Monday morning Kate and I got up early, (well her way earlier then me...) I set my alarm for 6 am but it wasn’t turned on so I slept until about 7:10 (when we were hoping to be on our way out of Scottsville) when Kate hollered into my window, ‘Hey are you ready!’ and I got up about as quick as I could, and I was packed and out the door in 30min. (I figured I was doing really well...). We walked through campus and stopped by an ATM to take out cash for travelling with. We then hopped on our first minibus taxi to get from here in Scottsville to the City Centre. When we arrived at the taxi stand we asked around as to whether or not we could get to Kokstad from Durban or from Pietermaritzburg (it turned out easy to do from PMB). We got pointed towards another taxi rank that was in a building (like a parking garage), and we found our taxi really quickly (it was roughly 8am by this point in time). We arrived and there was only one person in the taxi ready to go to Kokstad, so we waited until the taxi filled up (it was a minibus taxi if I call something a taxi it means minibus, and a cab is a car taxi). It took almost 2 hours to get the minibus full. (talk about a long wait... but we had worse during our trip). By the time we got to Kokstad it was around noon, and we pushed our way onwards to get to Matatiele. It was a really easy transfer (we waited maybe 5min before the taxi left). From there we arrived in Matatiele at a larger taxi rank. There we had to ask around for directions to help us find another taxi to go as far as Qacha’s Nek. (The Q is clicked represented by a ! in phonetics, so it is !acha’s nek but if you can’t click you can always just say it like a q or a k). The taxi that we hopped into was a pick up truck which made for an interesting experience. The Pickup truck left when it was really full. We had 12 people in the truck bed (which had benches around three sides) and it was covered. The 12 people all had various things in it that they were taking with them (Kate and I had backpacks) other people had huge long packages of bulk ‘cheesies’, I think there was a roll of flooring, other food stuff, luggage, and loads of people. It made for a very odd ride, (I chatted a little bit with an older man that was beside me). But we bumped up a very rough road into the mountains, and we got further and further up, we saw less and less people (and signs of civilization). We arrived eventually at the border crossing which was just in such a beautiful place. Nestled in the mountains and there was very little in terms of fencing around the border. But stunning. Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures (an SLR stays closed and away during and around borders, it is an easy way to get arrested for Espionage, not that I am a spy or anything, just photography is dangerous like that). So we got an exit stamp from South Africa then found our way to the Lesotho side using a cab, and got Lesotho entry visas. From there we went into the town of Qacha’s Nek, and tried to find another taxi to get us to Quthing (!uting (The ‘th’ is pronounced t). Unfortunately we couldn’t get all the way there, but a ‘helpful’ local put us onto a taxi that would get us ‘close’. Kate and I tried to find out where it was going but we didn’t stop to ask each other questions about where we were going to stay, how we were going to sleep, where we were going, and consult each other on opinions about this. We sat and just were a bit frustrated once we realized that we were going to end up in God-knows-where and eventually we arrived at the end of the line. Mphaki (as we found out during our ride). We were blessed truly. What happened next when we arrived I can only describe as God sending an angel to provide and protect us. A woman in front of us realized that we were ending up in a place we didn’t know, without a place to stay. Amazingly she spoke really solid English, and was able to get in touch with the Matron of the house stays in town. She then convinced a Taxi driver to go with us to get us to pick up the Matron and find us a house to stay in. They then went to a wonderful guesthouse (which had water (Very significant)) and they showed us in (after discussing with the owner of the house if it would be ok to use the house for us). We ended up having beautiful rooms with amazingly comfortable double beds. And separate rooms as well. The next morning we woke up and it was trying to rain, but it blew past really quickly that day. And the woman who helped us get set up met us on her way to work (She worked for the municipal government) and took us to the Ministry of Agriculture where we met with the matron and paid for our night (120 rand for the two of us). She then waited for us until the next taxi arrived heading towards Quthing. Just a huge and amazing blessing. We didn’t even get her name, but we were blessed incredibly. It is just amazing how God can provide in the worst of settings and make a crappy evening change and turn into a beautiful home stay.
(For those of you who are secularists I know that you would probably argue that it was happen stance, and hospitality, and that is an option, I prefer seeing God at work in people’s lives, just a theological stance and view. Plus Angels in the biblical tradition aren’t divine spiritual beings until after exile into Babylon, for prior writers of the Hebrew Scriptures they would have viewed angels as Messengers of God (Mal’ach in Hebrew) that could be either divine or human. )
Also as an aside a random story for you from the road; While we were waiting in the General store in Mphaki we met a police officer in the grocery (I think she may have been slightly enebriated because she wasn’t making much sense, and was a bit odd... but very friendly hard to tell). She introduced herself to us and pointed out that she was a police officer, and would be able to help us. She then told us that we should come and visit where she lives so that she could show us caves where the San (bushmen) lived. Also she would show us where another local tribe lived at one time that was a tribe of cannibals. That was when we suspected that she wasn’t fully sober. She also made some comments about wanting us to try and get her a boyfriend from both Canada and the States (So that she could choose one and go to that country to live). Just a funny random person, wonderfully friendly and wonderfully welcoming, just perhaps a wee bit tipsy...
Anyways that is the first day in Lesotho, just some brief thoughts on the country: It is frickin’ beautiful. All I could say was holy $#!% when we first drove into and through the country. On the drive from Qacha’s Nek to Mphaki we were just stunned by the beauty. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take pictures as my backpack was on my lap and my camera was under my legs. But it was stunning. Just rolling mountains, that are covered in grass, the landscape was just open and free flowing with no fences. The Road and the Electric/telephone wires seemed out of place as we drove through. It was like a time warp. We drove past shepherds, and other herdsmen with their flocks and herds, they had their Basotho blankets, and just made it so calm and tranquil. The habitations we drove past were mostly rondavels (in the country side) and they formed up beautiful little villages. Just stunning and amazing. Mphaki was just stunning as well. We had a beautiful view and it was just a tiny town on the highway between Qacha’s Nek and Quthing.

I guess I should give a brief preview of the next couple of days: The trip followed along the plan for the most part. I unfortunately didn’t get to do either of the ‘Highests’ but you will hear why later. We met up with some wonderful other backpackers. I practiced my French, and was able to learn a wee bit of Sotho.

More posts later this week!
Blessings and Peace!