Hey friends so for those that don't know yet I am home and around. But I still need to work and finish up my blog and get the last bits of stories up. By the end of January I should be doing really well for getting the last of the stories up online. Even more exciting would be hanging out with me and getting live versions. Some of these stories are already posted, but more are to come! Get excited and start being keen to hear more stories.
Cheers!
Andrew
Friday, January 14, 2011
Back Packing Part 2
Hey Friends so I am seemingly very poor at posting when I say that I am going to post on the internet, But anyways I will keep on posting blog posts throughout the tail end of December when I get back into SA but I will be writing them While I am on the Road. Currently I am in Bulawayo, but more on that in a later blog post.
Anyways so from Jeffery’s Bay I booked a ticket on the Baz Bus (the ‘Backpacker’s’ Bus). My honest opinion about the Baz Bus is that it is very expensive, but rather efficient. It is basically the 5 Star option for Backpacking transportation. And you pay the rate on it as well. I choose to use it for one hop because it was going to make my transportation really easy to do to get from Jeffery’s Bay to Cape Town (about 13hrs trip...). Anyways it was a really enjoyable relaxing leap across the country side. I was able to read, stretch out and have a wonderful relaxing trip going across the southern coast. I met alot of backpackers along the way (who hopped off and on at various points along the route one of the reasons why the Baz bus Can be an effective means of travel in SA for a backpacker.). I arrived in Cape Town (after 12 hours in that luxurious bus with some sight seeing along the way, like the world’s highest Bungee jump where we watched someone jump off) around 9pm. I got into the hostel dumped my stuff off in my dorm room (nice and quiet for the first night! As I was alone), grabbed a pint of a micro brewed beer, and got oriented to where things are in Cape Town.
My First day in Cape Town I went to Table Mountain. I walked all the way from my hostel early in the morning to get to the cable car, and then decided when I got there that I would rather take the cable car than hike up the mountain. On my way up to the cable car I was passed by two women jogging in the same direction as myself. The Cable Car is just amazing the floor spins 360 degrees around so that you can see the city and the mountains and everything. I got to the top and wandered around and over to the highest point of the mountain (which was much more quiet than the area around the Cable Cars). As I was walking in that direction I met the same two women who were jogging and they had jogged straight up the mountain along the same path that I had considered going up. Their time was just over an hour (It would take about 2.5 hours to hike it). I was rather impressed. If you wonder why this is a big thing just check out the photos on Flickr of Table mountain that I took.
The rest of that day I got into one of my really bad habits. Impulse book buying. This is particularly bad when I buy books that I figure I can’t get at home that are rather nice looking and also new. I ended up with 4 books that day. Later on that week I got another 2 (they were books of Poetry so nice and small), and then Sunday I picked up two books used from an Anglican Book Shop. 8 books in total. (which I am more than willing to lend out to people. In January you can ask about what books I have and I can lend books in your direction.).
Anyways My next couple days in Cape town were pretty chill low activity days. One day I spent doing museums, which I had a lower fee to pay to go in because I am a South African Student (R5 vs R15 for non students). So I hit up the South African Museum (a Natural history museum I was hoping for History but @ R5 I don’t mind that sort of mistake), The National Gallery (a wonderful Art Museum, it had a display of Town Ship Art work, and an Amazing Photography Exhibit), The Museum of Slavery (which had an interesting exhibit on Nelson Mandela, Political Cartoons by Zapiro as well as showing the history of slavery in the Cape). An exhibit in the Cathedral of St. George (about the protests that happened around 1989), and a museum about district 6 (A zone that was highly interracial until the Apartheid Government decided to make it into a white only district, and evicted and demolished the entire neighbourhood out into townships separating familes (If you had a parent that was Black, and a parent that was Coloured (Inter-Racial, Coloured is what they say in S.A., the Children would end up in a Coloured township with the coloured parent, but the black parent would be in a black township) which was extremely powerful).
The Next day In cape Town we picnicked in the Bar in the hostel, and I helped out a fellow Canadian who needed cash and had misplaced her passport, so she deposited money to my account and we took out the money from my account for her. We got to hangout which was really cool and she took me to some of her favourite local spots in Cape Town.
My Sunday in Cape Town I spent the day by going to church at the Cathedral and hanging out in the park. It was really intriguing. The Church was very HIGH church vibes (with alot of incense, and ceremonial sorts of stuff). But it was really cool to see how they integrated the languages of Cape Town into the service (Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English) by having one reading in each, singing, praying through all three. It was just amazing! After service there was a reception for the crew of the SA Algulhas ( a team heading to Antarctica that was blessed during the service) where I met one of the crew members, heard more stories about when he was at Varsity and remembered when a group of protesters got trapped near the cathedral and retreated into the cathedral for safety, and the Dean of the Cathedral at the time stood up and condemned the police officers (1977ish) and was thrown in Jail for that night with the rest of the protesters. It reassured me that the cathedral and that church had been committed (and still is committed) to justice. Also I happened to get a free Lunch! (Who ever said there is no such thing really didn’t know how to find free food!).
Monday I flew back to Durban and then taxied up to PMB. Where I posted up that last blog post.
Next up you will find out about the Road Trip with John and other amazing friends from NCF. Great times, and great stories to share!
Peace and Blessings!
Andrew
Anyways so from Jeffery’s Bay I booked a ticket on the Baz Bus (the ‘Backpacker’s’ Bus). My honest opinion about the Baz Bus is that it is very expensive, but rather efficient. It is basically the 5 Star option for Backpacking transportation. And you pay the rate on it as well. I choose to use it for one hop because it was going to make my transportation really easy to do to get from Jeffery’s Bay to Cape Town (about 13hrs trip...). Anyways it was a really enjoyable relaxing leap across the country side. I was able to read, stretch out and have a wonderful relaxing trip going across the southern coast. I met alot of backpackers along the way (who hopped off and on at various points along the route one of the reasons why the Baz bus Can be an effective means of travel in SA for a backpacker.). I arrived in Cape Town (after 12 hours in that luxurious bus with some sight seeing along the way, like the world’s highest Bungee jump where we watched someone jump off) around 9pm. I got into the hostel dumped my stuff off in my dorm room (nice and quiet for the first night! As I was alone), grabbed a pint of a micro brewed beer, and got oriented to where things are in Cape Town.
My First day in Cape Town I went to Table Mountain. I walked all the way from my hostel early in the morning to get to the cable car, and then decided when I got there that I would rather take the cable car than hike up the mountain. On my way up to the cable car I was passed by two women jogging in the same direction as myself. The Cable Car is just amazing the floor spins 360 degrees around so that you can see the city and the mountains and everything. I got to the top and wandered around and over to the highest point of the mountain (which was much more quiet than the area around the Cable Cars). As I was walking in that direction I met the same two women who were jogging and they had jogged straight up the mountain along the same path that I had considered going up. Their time was just over an hour (It would take about 2.5 hours to hike it). I was rather impressed. If you wonder why this is a big thing just check out the photos on Flickr of Table mountain that I took.
The rest of that day I got into one of my really bad habits. Impulse book buying. This is particularly bad when I buy books that I figure I can’t get at home that are rather nice looking and also new. I ended up with 4 books that day. Later on that week I got another 2 (they were books of Poetry so nice and small), and then Sunday I picked up two books used from an Anglican Book Shop. 8 books in total. (which I am more than willing to lend out to people. In January you can ask about what books I have and I can lend books in your direction.).
Anyways My next couple days in Cape town were pretty chill low activity days. One day I spent doing museums, which I had a lower fee to pay to go in because I am a South African Student (R5 vs R15 for non students). So I hit up the South African Museum (a Natural history museum I was hoping for History but @ R5 I don’t mind that sort of mistake), The National Gallery (a wonderful Art Museum, it had a display of Town Ship Art work, and an Amazing Photography Exhibit), The Museum of Slavery (which had an interesting exhibit on Nelson Mandela, Political Cartoons by Zapiro as well as showing the history of slavery in the Cape). An exhibit in the Cathedral of St. George (about the protests that happened around 1989), and a museum about district 6 (A zone that was highly interracial until the Apartheid Government decided to make it into a white only district, and evicted and demolished the entire neighbourhood out into townships separating familes (If you had a parent that was Black, and a parent that was Coloured (Inter-Racial, Coloured is what they say in S.A., the Children would end up in a Coloured township with the coloured parent, but the black parent would be in a black township) which was extremely powerful).
The Next day In cape Town we picnicked in the Bar in the hostel, and I helped out a fellow Canadian who needed cash and had misplaced her passport, so she deposited money to my account and we took out the money from my account for her. We got to hangout which was really cool and she took me to some of her favourite local spots in Cape Town.
My Sunday in Cape Town I spent the day by going to church at the Cathedral and hanging out in the park. It was really intriguing. The Church was very HIGH church vibes (with alot of incense, and ceremonial sorts of stuff). But it was really cool to see how they integrated the languages of Cape Town into the service (Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English) by having one reading in each, singing, praying through all three. It was just amazing! After service there was a reception for the crew of the SA Algulhas ( a team heading to Antarctica that was blessed during the service) where I met one of the crew members, heard more stories about when he was at Varsity and remembered when a group of protesters got trapped near the cathedral and retreated into the cathedral for safety, and the Dean of the Cathedral at the time stood up and condemned the police officers (1977ish) and was thrown in Jail for that night with the rest of the protesters. It reassured me that the cathedral and that church had been committed (and still is committed) to justice. Also I happened to get a free Lunch! (Who ever said there is no such thing really didn’t know how to find free food!).
Monday I flew back to Durban and then taxied up to PMB. Where I posted up that last blog post.
Next up you will find out about the Road Trip with John and other amazing friends from NCF. Great times, and great stories to share!
Peace and Blessings!
Andrew
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Hey a brief update
Hey friends!
So sorry for not having posted for the last couple of weeks it has been a bit hectic with travelling. Anyways I want you to know that I am fine, alive, and well. Tonight I am heading to Vic Falls, and throughout the next couple of days I will be continueing to blog on my laptop (so that when I can post stories they will be a long ways after writing them but you will get a bunch of them).
Anyways as for how my time is wrapping up here in Southern Africa (As I am in Zimbabwe) I should give people ample warning that I will be arriving in Early January! (That is as firm as you will get out of me sorry friends).
Basically it is my hope to leap back into life in a smooth and effective manner that will ensure that I don't go through culture shock really hard core. That probably sounds a bit odd but here is the dealeo. I have been away for 5.5 months learning in a different way, living in a different way, hanging out with different people, and just basically in a different culture. Also over the past 5 months each of you my friends has also changed. You have been changed by your experiences and friendships, What movies you watched, who you bumped into.
Now don't get me wrong but in essence the difference that is created between N.American Culture, and S. African culture, and my N. American Friends, and my S. African friends is going to take me time to experience well. It is my hope to do that effectively.
So since I am travelling in early January to return home, it is my hope to be able to arrive entirely at the same time to Canada. That would be ideal, but the reality is that I may arrive in Body at one moment, my luggage 3 days later, my heart a few weeks later, and my mind some where in between. Basically that makes a firm arrival date exactly Early January. So this means that I will be getting in touch with you guys for when I am keen to hangout and meet up. You may see me around London, and I may be attending classes, but There may need to be a good deal of processing time to ensure that I gather myself together. Don't worry too much about if I will do it I am setting aside ample amounts of time on both sides (of my travels) to review over my blog, my journal, and my experiences. During this time I might get in touch with you, I might want to be alone for the entire time. I will see what it is that I need.
Anyways, I will see you in Early January, but before then you will be heraing ore stories from me in the coming weeks!
Lots of Love from Zimbabwe!
Andrew
So sorry for not having posted for the last couple of weeks it has been a bit hectic with travelling. Anyways I want you to know that I am fine, alive, and well. Tonight I am heading to Vic Falls, and throughout the next couple of days I will be continueing to blog on my laptop (so that when I can post stories they will be a long ways after writing them but you will get a bunch of them).
Anyways as for how my time is wrapping up here in Southern Africa (As I am in Zimbabwe) I should give people ample warning that I will be arriving in Early January! (That is as firm as you will get out of me sorry friends).
Basically it is my hope to leap back into life in a smooth and effective manner that will ensure that I don't go through culture shock really hard core. That probably sounds a bit odd but here is the dealeo. I have been away for 5.5 months learning in a different way, living in a different way, hanging out with different people, and just basically in a different culture. Also over the past 5 months each of you my friends has also changed. You have been changed by your experiences and friendships, What movies you watched, who you bumped into.
Now don't get me wrong but in essence the difference that is created between N.American Culture, and S. African culture, and my N. American Friends, and my S. African friends is going to take me time to experience well. It is my hope to do that effectively.
So since I am travelling in early January to return home, it is my hope to be able to arrive entirely at the same time to Canada. That would be ideal, but the reality is that I may arrive in Body at one moment, my luggage 3 days later, my heart a few weeks later, and my mind some where in between. Basically that makes a firm arrival date exactly Early January. So this means that I will be getting in touch with you guys for when I am keen to hangout and meet up. You may see me around London, and I may be attending classes, but There may need to be a good deal of processing time to ensure that I gather myself together. Don't worry too much about if I will do it I am setting aside ample amounts of time on both sides (of my travels) to review over my blog, my journal, and my experiences. During this time I might get in touch with you, I might want to be alone for the entire time. I will see what it is that I need.
Anyways, I will see you in Early January, but before then you will be heraing ore stories from me in the coming weeks!
Lots of Love from Zimbabwe!
Andrew
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Backpacking: the First bit of two weeks-ish
So yeah I left off with me heading off to hit the road to start travelling and I am sorry for not having posted another post since the last post I sent out. Anyways I am alive and well in Cape Town (not that there should be any doubt on the first one anyways.). And I have had a wonderful re-experiencing of backpacking here in South Africa in particular.
So Tuesday morning after I had finished my exams I hopped into a minibus and left for the downtown part of PMB to get the first of the long-distance minibuses needed to get to Coffee Bay. So that first lift was my most comfortable of the day but also the shortest. So from PMB I went to Mthatha where I rather quickly got onto another minibus heading towards Coffee Bay. After a quick transfer I was finally enroute to Coffee Bay. Yet that makes it sound rather simple and easy, like an nice simple drive to Toronto to London. The reality of it was that I was busy doing ‘minibus yoga’ all day long. Basically my body because it wouldn’t fit comfortably with my bag on my lap or with another three people in the back seat, had to be contorted to fit in properly. One leg up on the wheel well, the other somewhere close by, one arm forward around my backpack holding it in place the other arm forward grabbing onto the hand hold on the roof. (I will show you at some point it looks hilarious!). Anyways so a full days worth of travel doing one position of Minibus Yoga all day long took about 8 hours (Almost 9 but I take off the hour of waiting for buses to be filled) and cost me only: 147 ZAR which is about 20$ Just amazing how cheap transportation is. But then again you also pay for comfort which I didn’t really get around to paying for properly! (This is true about most of my time travelling through south Africa. It is physically gruelling so I tried to avoid back to back hops as much as possible unless other factors were driving me.)
So in Coffee Bay I stayed at a wonderful hostel that had amazing atmosphere and a wonderful vibe to it. It was really an organic feeling sort of place with Yoga lessons (which I took one of), vegetable juices (which I also tried), close to the beach for surfing (Which I did), and just a wonderful place. In the evenings they alternated between drumming lessons (which I got the chance to do 2 of), and their band (a drumming band). Also in the evenings there was generally a bonfire and some of the staff even did fire dancing. While I was there some evenings the party really got hopping but even with a bit of partying it still had that laid back feeling to it.
Coffee Bay itself was an interesting town. It seems like a town that is extremely reliant upon backpacker tourism and fishing but fishing much less then the backpackers. As such (I don’t know if this is a result of the backpackers or of other things prior) there is a large and open drug trade scene. I got approached more times by youth on the street asking me if I wanted marijuana or shrooms. It was just crazy how open they were about it. Other than that the town is really quiet in the day time. Most travellers hit the beach or sleep off the night’s partying (which isn’t too good for an early riser like me where I was up most mornings around 7) but I spent my time there just chilling, resting and taking good care of myself. I read, spent time meeting travellers, journalled a bit, surfed, ate vegetable curry, and had a wonderful time.
The Next stop was East London (which I was warned against and told that I should go to Chintsa instead of by the manager of Bomvu...). So another lengthy day of travelling and I arrived and it was a rather large urban center. Not the nicest looking of towns though. So I walked through town and went to the hostel on the furthest edge of town, my number one choice for my time in East London. But the problem was they were full up with people. At least they were helpful in pointing me to another backpackers. I listened to their advice hoping that I would find a backpackers with other backpackers there that was perhaps a little bit more chilled out. Little did I know that I arrived at a ‘hostel’ that really didn’t have a good atmosphere at all. I was the only backpacker there and then there was an underwater hockey team. I had to sign an indemnity form for my stay. The beds were so perfectly made that an army sergeant would have problems to be angry with the state of the rooms. They had quiet hours from 8pm until 8am. They didn’t have music in the background. It was perhaps one of the loneliest nights I have had in South Africa. (...and that is why I should have gone to Chintsa instead) Because I was so lonely I decided that I needed to leave before it became a really bad experience for me.
So I decided to get to Jeffery’s bay (Hopping past a stop in Port Elizabeth because my booking there wasn’t until Monday and this was a Saturday I was heading to J-Bay). I went to this hostel called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a very important concept. It means a sense of Community (or ‘I am the community’). This sense of community results in a responsibility to those in community with you, and as you find yourself feeling responsible to that community then you start to treat the community as yourself (hence the ‘I am the community’ (I feel that isn’t an ample descriptor of it but still one way of expressing it)). Anyways that was what the backpackers felt like; a community. Though a quiet backpackers, it was probably the ideal backpackers for me. There were people there that where open and friendly and just willing to welcome people in. There were those moving out the next day (after I arrived) yet still were willing to chat and hangout. There were those permafixtures who had been travelling on and off for either 5 years (in the case of this one Aussie) or 3 and a half (in a brit). Hearing their stories and how they travel (basically working for a couple months when their money runs out at a hostel or a bar, and then hopping on the road again) was just amazing. Needless to say that I stayed there for three days because I fell in love with that hostel.
It just was the right sort of place to be for so long. So even though I really didn’t get up to much around town. I had one of my best stays there. I went to an Anglican Church on Sunday morning, Read away the rest of that day, hung out with Joe and Sara, Monday we went into town and they showed me around to all of the surfing factory stores, I went to the beach with them and just watched the waves (it was very flat...) and contemplated going swimming (Decided not due to jelly fish), built a sand castle Taj Mahal, and yeah just an amazing weekend of good free fun.
I guess I am going to curve off my writing because I could keep on going but I should get breakfast into me and post this because there are alot of stories to put up.
Anyways the next time I will post will either be tomorrow night (in PMB) or Monday (in PMB). I am returning to meet up with John and friends to head on a Road Trip! Please be praying for us to have safe journeys!
Thanks!
So Tuesday morning after I had finished my exams I hopped into a minibus and left for the downtown part of PMB to get the first of the long-distance minibuses needed to get to Coffee Bay. So that first lift was my most comfortable of the day but also the shortest. So from PMB I went to Mthatha where I rather quickly got onto another minibus heading towards Coffee Bay. After a quick transfer I was finally enroute to Coffee Bay. Yet that makes it sound rather simple and easy, like an nice simple drive to Toronto to London. The reality of it was that I was busy doing ‘minibus yoga’ all day long. Basically my body because it wouldn’t fit comfortably with my bag on my lap or with another three people in the back seat, had to be contorted to fit in properly. One leg up on the wheel well, the other somewhere close by, one arm forward around my backpack holding it in place the other arm forward grabbing onto the hand hold on the roof. (I will show you at some point it looks hilarious!). Anyways so a full days worth of travel doing one position of Minibus Yoga all day long took about 8 hours (Almost 9 but I take off the hour of waiting for buses to be filled) and cost me only: 147 ZAR which is about 20$ Just amazing how cheap transportation is. But then again you also pay for comfort which I didn’t really get around to paying for properly! (This is true about most of my time travelling through south Africa. It is physically gruelling so I tried to avoid back to back hops as much as possible unless other factors were driving me.)
So in Coffee Bay I stayed at a wonderful hostel that had amazing atmosphere and a wonderful vibe to it. It was really an organic feeling sort of place with Yoga lessons (which I took one of), vegetable juices (which I also tried), close to the beach for surfing (Which I did), and just a wonderful place. In the evenings they alternated between drumming lessons (which I got the chance to do 2 of), and their band (a drumming band). Also in the evenings there was generally a bonfire and some of the staff even did fire dancing. While I was there some evenings the party really got hopping but even with a bit of partying it still had that laid back feeling to it.
Coffee Bay itself was an interesting town. It seems like a town that is extremely reliant upon backpacker tourism and fishing but fishing much less then the backpackers. As such (I don’t know if this is a result of the backpackers or of other things prior) there is a large and open drug trade scene. I got approached more times by youth on the street asking me if I wanted marijuana or shrooms. It was just crazy how open they were about it. Other than that the town is really quiet in the day time. Most travellers hit the beach or sleep off the night’s partying (which isn’t too good for an early riser like me where I was up most mornings around 7) but I spent my time there just chilling, resting and taking good care of myself. I read, spent time meeting travellers, journalled a bit, surfed, ate vegetable curry, and had a wonderful time.
The Next stop was East London (which I was warned against and told that I should go to Chintsa instead of by the manager of Bomvu...). So another lengthy day of travelling and I arrived and it was a rather large urban center. Not the nicest looking of towns though. So I walked through town and went to the hostel on the furthest edge of town, my number one choice for my time in East London. But the problem was they were full up with people. At least they were helpful in pointing me to another backpackers. I listened to their advice hoping that I would find a backpackers with other backpackers there that was perhaps a little bit more chilled out. Little did I know that I arrived at a ‘hostel’ that really didn’t have a good atmosphere at all. I was the only backpacker there and then there was an underwater hockey team. I had to sign an indemnity form for my stay. The beds were so perfectly made that an army sergeant would have problems to be angry with the state of the rooms. They had quiet hours from 8pm until 8am. They didn’t have music in the background. It was perhaps one of the loneliest nights I have had in South Africa. (...and that is why I should have gone to Chintsa instead) Because I was so lonely I decided that I needed to leave before it became a really bad experience for me.
So I decided to get to Jeffery’s bay (Hopping past a stop in Port Elizabeth because my booking there wasn’t until Monday and this was a Saturday I was heading to J-Bay). I went to this hostel called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a very important concept. It means a sense of Community (or ‘I am the community’). This sense of community results in a responsibility to those in community with you, and as you find yourself feeling responsible to that community then you start to treat the community as yourself (hence the ‘I am the community’ (I feel that isn’t an ample descriptor of it but still one way of expressing it)). Anyways that was what the backpackers felt like; a community. Though a quiet backpackers, it was probably the ideal backpackers for me. There were people there that where open and friendly and just willing to welcome people in. There were those moving out the next day (after I arrived) yet still were willing to chat and hangout. There were those permafixtures who had been travelling on and off for either 5 years (in the case of this one Aussie) or 3 and a half (in a brit). Hearing their stories and how they travel (basically working for a couple months when their money runs out at a hostel or a bar, and then hopping on the road again) was just amazing. Needless to say that I stayed there for three days because I fell in love with that hostel.
It just was the right sort of place to be for so long. So even though I really didn’t get up to much around town. I had one of my best stays there. I went to an Anglican Church on Sunday morning, Read away the rest of that day, hung out with Joe and Sara, Monday we went into town and they showed me around to all of the surfing factory stores, I went to the beach with them and just watched the waves (it was very flat...) and contemplated going swimming (Decided not due to jelly fish), built a sand castle Taj Mahal, and yeah just an amazing weekend of good free fun.
I guess I am going to curve off my writing because I could keep on going but I should get breakfast into me and post this because there are alot of stories to put up.
Anyways the next time I will post will either be tomorrow night (in PMB) or Monday (in PMB). I am returning to meet up with John and friends to head on a Road Trip! Please be praying for us to have safe journeys!
Thanks!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Good Braais! (Thanks to Emily for the Pun!)
So this last week was filled with all sorts of Good Braais and goodbyes. Anyways here is the brief story of the last week of school:
So the last week was a highly unproductive week for me. I was busy relaxing reading chilling, sorting myself out for traveling etc... I should have been studying more for my Biblical Studies Exam but for whatever reason I found myself not feeling any pressure for it. Anyways instead of studying hard I chilled, spent my days resting chatting with friends (thanks friends!) and sort of sorting out my room and cleaning.
Thursday I had my first braai of the week (Braai=BBQ but south African style) with the other exchange students from Denison Residence. They didn’t wait for the charcoal to get going (it took its time... I guess we north Americans don’t have braaiing in our blood?). Eventually after we used up almost an entire pack of fire starters to try to get the charcoal burning we had finished all of our cooking and had eaten our fill anyways. But it was awesome to chill and grill with friends.
Friday Night was another wonderful night this time we were celebrating Hillary and Nonto’s 21st Birthdays (Sort of Belated for Hills and very belated for Nonto). Anyways so we got together with their church friends and had a braai at the Diggs. It was a wonderful night to hangout with people and learn how to be patient with the process of braaiing and getting it started well. It was a wonderful night with lots of laughs and good times. We even sent one of the pastor’s daughters (from Church on the Ridge she was young like 5 or 6 I would say) to the hospital during the evening. She was being pulled around on a beanbag chair through the house at high speeds and clunked her head on the doorframe. And well she started bleeding from her forehead. They took her to the hospital just to be sure but all they did was give her a band-aid and sent her on her way. But still a very enjoyable night to spend with Nonto and Hillary and other friends.
Saturday was exam day: I forgot to set my alarm the night prior because it was late the night prior, but I still woke up before 7am like i was hoping. It was just really a crappy way to wake up when I wasn’t sure what time it was and if I had overslept because I had need of taking time to study that morning. I had breakfast with Kate and Mendisa at 9am and that lasted until almost 11:30am. The tail end of it they were busy swapping music and I studied during that time which was nice. It was great to be able to finally spend time with Mendisa. Mendisa is a drama student in her Masters program at the UKZN. Kate and I both know her through NCF church and Cell group in particular. The unfortunate bit about it was that Mendisa was super busy and our schedules never really clicked so her and I didn’t get much of a chance to hang out.
Anyways after breakfast I went back to my dorm grabbed the specific notes I had needed for my exam and ran to the LAN to send some emails and message some people really quick. Then I went to Kara Nichas for lunch (Biriyani Tub with Curry for 5.50R like 0.70$ just amazing! I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but yeah, AMAZING!). And with my lunch and notes I found a bench in the shade (Because it was ridiculously hot that day like 37+ degrees) and did some prep work for my exam which was about to start at 2pm.
Anyways the Exam went well 4 essays in 3 hours, but the best thing about it was that we had access to a Bible. Wow was that ever a huge help! Anyways so I finished about 30min early and was happy to be done with it so I left the exam and was finally done!
Saturday night was Braai number 3 with friends from Holy Trinity Church (The Bible Talks People). It was just amazing to be able to chill out with people braai one last time hang out, watch Jumanji, and to be able to relax after my exam. Super good and it was wonderful to meet some people from the classics department and other friend circles that were brought together by a braai.
Anyways Sunday was a day that started good byes for me. Sunday at Church on the Ridge (possibly my last time) wasn’t too bad, it made me really wish though that I had committed myself to that church a bit more throughout the semester but I still learned alot from the other churches as well. That Afternoon I did Lunch with Margaux, Hillary, and Nono after church which was cool, and then after that I chilled out with Margaux at the diggs swam, chatted, chilled it was nice. In the evening I went to Holy Trinity for one last worship service there. It was so nice to be able to worship with friends from TBT and others from that church. I said good bye to Ant and Kim Carr (the staff of TBT in PMB or ex-staff as they are moving to Durban now for ministry there), and also to Anabel and Savio, and a couple of other people from there as well.
Monday was a day where I sorted out my payments that I owed to the school, and after that I packed up my luggage. I left it in my dorm room locked up in the cupboard, because I have the dorm room at varsity until the 9th of December. Which is wonderful. That afternoon I said a handful of goodbyes to people from the varsity (exchange students mostly) and then I got a relatively early night’s sleep.
Tuesday morning I said goodbye to kate (as she was up studying for an exam early) and then I hit the road to start travelling (more on that later.).
Anyways I guess I should run through my emotions rather than just the actions. I guess part of me is still in a high degree of disbelief of the reality of saying good bye to these people. It feels like I have such a long time left in South Africa that I can’t be really saying good bye. There are probably going to be (and have been) three sorts of goodbyes that I will say to people. There will inevitably be those brief “Cheers and Safe travels” sort of goodbyes. This first type is not a heavily emotionally attached sort of goodbye. Basically it works out to being just a very easy good bye because well these are the people I know by name, might have spent a wee bit of time with, but really not too close with. The second type of goodbye is the next step up. This is the sort of good bye that has the reality of yes we have gotten to know each other more than just in passing, and has the desire to have spent much more time with them. This one so far has left me with the longing to have experienced deeper and closer relationship with them, and that will probably get a bit lost with time and distance but there was potential. Yes it is sad and tough to say goodbye like this but if I try and put in some effort with long distance friendships something may come out of these. The Last one I haven’t had to many of thus far this trip. They are the deep friendships that are going to have much more of a difficult time being distant from each other. Saying goodbye to Kate was like this. We have made and arranged to stay in touch with each other. I think for me the emotional reality of this one will set in when I am doing these goodbyes to the really close friends close to when I am heading home. Basically this will be difficult in and around the end of December when I say Goodbye to John, and Ryan, and Margaux, and Duncan. Those sort of friendships are ones which I hope to maintain (also like Kate and Minnie among others) which I will be sad about the distance, but at the same time I will learn how to use that sadness as a drive to improve long distance friendships with these people. They are the sort that I will be calling when I am doing the work of processing, or will be in conversation with over emails frequently I hope. Perhaps even road trip to visit the ones who are close enough to go to.
Basically I am going to keep on working on that long distance communication thing. I know that I will probably fail at it about a month or two in to the return to Canada, but at the same time I will be working on being persistent and patient with these friends so that I can figure out how to be in better communication.
Anyways I will be posting this blog asap and it will probably come with another post quick on its heels. Cheers!
Andrew
So the last week was a highly unproductive week for me. I was busy relaxing reading chilling, sorting myself out for traveling etc... I should have been studying more for my Biblical Studies Exam but for whatever reason I found myself not feeling any pressure for it. Anyways instead of studying hard I chilled, spent my days resting chatting with friends (thanks friends!) and sort of sorting out my room and cleaning.
Thursday I had my first braai of the week (Braai=BBQ but south African style) with the other exchange students from Denison Residence. They didn’t wait for the charcoal to get going (it took its time... I guess we north Americans don’t have braaiing in our blood?). Eventually after we used up almost an entire pack of fire starters to try to get the charcoal burning we had finished all of our cooking and had eaten our fill anyways. But it was awesome to chill and grill with friends.
Friday Night was another wonderful night this time we were celebrating Hillary and Nonto’s 21st Birthdays (Sort of Belated for Hills and very belated for Nonto). Anyways so we got together with their church friends and had a braai at the Diggs. It was a wonderful night to hangout with people and learn how to be patient with the process of braaiing and getting it started well. It was a wonderful night with lots of laughs and good times. We even sent one of the pastor’s daughters (from Church on the Ridge she was young like 5 or 6 I would say) to the hospital during the evening. She was being pulled around on a beanbag chair through the house at high speeds and clunked her head on the doorframe. And well she started bleeding from her forehead. They took her to the hospital just to be sure but all they did was give her a band-aid and sent her on her way. But still a very enjoyable night to spend with Nonto and Hillary and other friends.
Saturday was exam day: I forgot to set my alarm the night prior because it was late the night prior, but I still woke up before 7am like i was hoping. It was just really a crappy way to wake up when I wasn’t sure what time it was and if I had overslept because I had need of taking time to study that morning. I had breakfast with Kate and Mendisa at 9am and that lasted until almost 11:30am. The tail end of it they were busy swapping music and I studied during that time which was nice. It was great to be able to finally spend time with Mendisa. Mendisa is a drama student in her Masters program at the UKZN. Kate and I both know her through NCF church and Cell group in particular. The unfortunate bit about it was that Mendisa was super busy and our schedules never really clicked so her and I didn’t get much of a chance to hang out.
Anyways after breakfast I went back to my dorm grabbed the specific notes I had needed for my exam and ran to the LAN to send some emails and message some people really quick. Then I went to Kara Nichas for lunch (Biriyani Tub with Curry for 5.50R like 0.70$ just amazing! I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but yeah, AMAZING!). And with my lunch and notes I found a bench in the shade (Because it was ridiculously hot that day like 37+ degrees) and did some prep work for my exam which was about to start at 2pm.
Anyways the Exam went well 4 essays in 3 hours, but the best thing about it was that we had access to a Bible. Wow was that ever a huge help! Anyways so I finished about 30min early and was happy to be done with it so I left the exam and was finally done!
Saturday night was Braai number 3 with friends from Holy Trinity Church (The Bible Talks People). It was just amazing to be able to chill out with people braai one last time hang out, watch Jumanji, and to be able to relax after my exam. Super good and it was wonderful to meet some people from the classics department and other friend circles that were brought together by a braai.
Anyways Sunday was a day that started good byes for me. Sunday at Church on the Ridge (possibly my last time) wasn’t too bad, it made me really wish though that I had committed myself to that church a bit more throughout the semester but I still learned alot from the other churches as well. That Afternoon I did Lunch with Margaux, Hillary, and Nono after church which was cool, and then after that I chilled out with Margaux at the diggs swam, chatted, chilled it was nice. In the evening I went to Holy Trinity for one last worship service there. It was so nice to be able to worship with friends from TBT and others from that church. I said good bye to Ant and Kim Carr (the staff of TBT in PMB or ex-staff as they are moving to Durban now for ministry there), and also to Anabel and Savio, and a couple of other people from there as well.
Monday was a day where I sorted out my payments that I owed to the school, and after that I packed up my luggage. I left it in my dorm room locked up in the cupboard, because I have the dorm room at varsity until the 9th of December. Which is wonderful. That afternoon I said a handful of goodbyes to people from the varsity (exchange students mostly) and then I got a relatively early night’s sleep.
Tuesday morning I said goodbye to kate (as she was up studying for an exam early) and then I hit the road to start travelling (more on that later.).
Anyways I guess I should run through my emotions rather than just the actions. I guess part of me is still in a high degree of disbelief of the reality of saying good bye to these people. It feels like I have such a long time left in South Africa that I can’t be really saying good bye. There are probably going to be (and have been) three sorts of goodbyes that I will say to people. There will inevitably be those brief “Cheers and Safe travels” sort of goodbyes. This first type is not a heavily emotionally attached sort of goodbye. Basically it works out to being just a very easy good bye because well these are the people I know by name, might have spent a wee bit of time with, but really not too close with. The second type of goodbye is the next step up. This is the sort of good bye that has the reality of yes we have gotten to know each other more than just in passing, and has the desire to have spent much more time with them. This one so far has left me with the longing to have experienced deeper and closer relationship with them, and that will probably get a bit lost with time and distance but there was potential. Yes it is sad and tough to say goodbye like this but if I try and put in some effort with long distance friendships something may come out of these. The Last one I haven’t had to many of thus far this trip. They are the deep friendships that are going to have much more of a difficult time being distant from each other. Saying goodbye to Kate was like this. We have made and arranged to stay in touch with each other. I think for me the emotional reality of this one will set in when I am doing these goodbyes to the really close friends close to when I am heading home. Basically this will be difficult in and around the end of December when I say Goodbye to John, and Ryan, and Margaux, and Duncan. Those sort of friendships are ones which I hope to maintain (also like Kate and Minnie among others) which I will be sad about the distance, but at the same time I will learn how to use that sadness as a drive to improve long distance friendships with these people. They are the sort that I will be calling when I am doing the work of processing, or will be in conversation with over emails frequently I hope. Perhaps even road trip to visit the ones who are close enough to go to.
Basically I am going to keep on working on that long distance communication thing. I know that I will probably fail at it about a month or two in to the return to Canada, but at the same time I will be working on being persistent and patient with these friends so that I can figure out how to be in better communication.
Anyways I will be posting this blog asap and it will probably come with another post quick on its heels. Cheers!
Andrew
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sani Pass
Hey friends so I am going to break up the events of the last week a bit to keep the reading length down a wee bit. So right now you are getting the post about the Sani Pass. Later on (tonight or tomorrow night even) you will get a second post.
So Friday Afternoon we (Kate, Jasmine, Elizabeth and I) hopped into a taxi to head down to the taxi rank to get to the Underberg. So we arrived downtown and asked around about where we needed to go to catch a taxi to get to the Underberg. So we walked to the farthest taxi rank that any of us had been to. We got in the taxi and slowly it filled up with people. (Us being 4 made it fill up rather quickly). Anyways they started the engine and as it was idling waiting to get going it sounded a wee bit off. Sort of like it was skipping a beat of the engine as it was firing. So we got underway and slowly but surely we pulled off to the side and we had to start the engine again. Then a second time we had the same problem but it wouldn’t start up again. As we waited for them to try, they decided to call another taxi to take us to the Underberg. (Unfortunately this was after being there for a while waiting...). So we got to stand on the road side and watch a herd of cattle cross the highway, and wait around for a second taxi.
Eventually it arrived and everyone was very relieved so off we went to the Underberg. We got there and called for a lift to a number that was given to us by the lodge we were staying at that evening. And the guy didn’t have a taxi at the time but was on his way towards the lodge and offered us a lift in his pickup truck. So the four of us tossed our bags in the back and we went in the truck bed to go to the lodge. It was a beautiful drive. (see the pictures of the clouds on the mountains taken just outside of our lodge for the reason why on my flickr).
That night we planned out our next day as we discussed with the manager of the lodge about what she thought was possible. We figured that our best bet was to hike up the pass and back down in the same day having lunch at the Chalet due to the lack of available accommodation for us that evening. So with that as our plan we were working on how to get a lift to the border crossing. Luckily Krzyz (Chris), a guy in the room next to us over heard our problem and was wondering if he could accompany us for the hike during the day. Luckily he had a car that could get us to the Border.
So the next morning we got up for 6am and left around 6:30am. We arrived at the South African Border (where we had to leave the car because it is a 4-wheel drive only pass) and started hiking around 7am. It was a beautiful morning to hike up. Also since we started early enough we missed the crazy traffic on the way up the pass. It was just beautiful hiking see the photos as my words can’t quite describe it. We made it to the top by about 9:30am and we were thoroughly exhausted. We had hiked 11.2Km and the majority was uphill. But it was beautiful and worth the walk.
At the border crossing as we were stamping through they were busy off to one side working on the butchering of a lamb which made me think: ‘Hey maybe lamb for lunch would be nice’ (Just kidding friends...). Anyways so we walked over to the lodge and flopped out on a couple of picnic tables looking over the pass and just rested for about 30min. By about 10 we poked our head inside the Chalet and looked around and then chilled out on some couches for another 30min. The kitchen hadn’t opened by the point in the morning so we decided to go for a walk around the area and hiked out along the cliffs. The best way to describe the Sani Top is that it is a very flat area at the top of South Africa (Again see the photos) and the pass is basically this valley that drops down from the town of Sani Top. It was truly stunning.
As for lunch we had it around 11:30 starting off with a pint in the chalet pub. Yup the highest pub in Africa! (Finally!). It was such a pleasure as we chatted with the owner’s brother and shared some stories with him. For lunch I had their famous ‘Mountain Sausage’ which was very delicious. It came with a little salad (a piece of lettuce and two tomato slices) and a potato (half really that was boiled) but it was a delicious meaty lunch (I stole some vegetables from other people’s plates).
After lunch we hiked back down the pass which was a bit slower progress (it felt like) but with less rest stops. The problem with hiking down was that it was a loose gravel and dirt road that is pretty steep so as we were walking we would start sliding with the gravel under our feet. That was the tough and gruelling section of the hike but we were overjoyed when we arrived back at the South African border crossing. Then we found out that Chris was heading back to PMB that same evening. Such a blessing so we asked if we could get a lift with him back to PMB and he agreed. So wonderful.
Basically it was a wonderful weekend trip tiring and exhausting but so amazing. It was a good chance for me to get to know both Jasmine and Elizabeth a bit better as well as to meet an awesome guy like Chris. It was a very chill study break as well. Also I did get to do one of the ists that I had missed once upon a time during the last time I was in Lesotho. Finally the Highest pub in Africa!
Cheers eh!
So Friday Afternoon we (Kate, Jasmine, Elizabeth and I) hopped into a taxi to head down to the taxi rank to get to the Underberg. So we arrived downtown and asked around about where we needed to go to catch a taxi to get to the Underberg. So we walked to the farthest taxi rank that any of us had been to. We got in the taxi and slowly it filled up with people. (Us being 4 made it fill up rather quickly). Anyways they started the engine and as it was idling waiting to get going it sounded a wee bit off. Sort of like it was skipping a beat of the engine as it was firing. So we got underway and slowly but surely we pulled off to the side and we had to start the engine again. Then a second time we had the same problem but it wouldn’t start up again. As we waited for them to try, they decided to call another taxi to take us to the Underberg. (Unfortunately this was after being there for a while waiting...). So we got to stand on the road side and watch a herd of cattle cross the highway, and wait around for a second taxi.
Eventually it arrived and everyone was very relieved so off we went to the Underberg. We got there and called for a lift to a number that was given to us by the lodge we were staying at that evening. And the guy didn’t have a taxi at the time but was on his way towards the lodge and offered us a lift in his pickup truck. So the four of us tossed our bags in the back and we went in the truck bed to go to the lodge. It was a beautiful drive. (see the pictures of the clouds on the mountains taken just outside of our lodge for the reason why on my flickr).
That night we planned out our next day as we discussed with the manager of the lodge about what she thought was possible. We figured that our best bet was to hike up the pass and back down in the same day having lunch at the Chalet due to the lack of available accommodation for us that evening. So with that as our plan we were working on how to get a lift to the border crossing. Luckily Krzyz (Chris), a guy in the room next to us over heard our problem and was wondering if he could accompany us for the hike during the day. Luckily he had a car that could get us to the Border.
So the next morning we got up for 6am and left around 6:30am. We arrived at the South African Border (where we had to leave the car because it is a 4-wheel drive only pass) and started hiking around 7am. It was a beautiful morning to hike up. Also since we started early enough we missed the crazy traffic on the way up the pass. It was just beautiful hiking see the photos as my words can’t quite describe it. We made it to the top by about 9:30am and we were thoroughly exhausted. We had hiked 11.2Km and the majority was uphill. But it was beautiful and worth the walk.
At the border crossing as we were stamping through they were busy off to one side working on the butchering of a lamb which made me think: ‘Hey maybe lamb for lunch would be nice’ (Just kidding friends...). Anyways so we walked over to the lodge and flopped out on a couple of picnic tables looking over the pass and just rested for about 30min. By about 10 we poked our head inside the Chalet and looked around and then chilled out on some couches for another 30min. The kitchen hadn’t opened by the point in the morning so we decided to go for a walk around the area and hiked out along the cliffs. The best way to describe the Sani Top is that it is a very flat area at the top of South Africa (Again see the photos) and the pass is basically this valley that drops down from the town of Sani Top. It was truly stunning.
As for lunch we had it around 11:30 starting off with a pint in the chalet pub. Yup the highest pub in Africa! (Finally!). It was such a pleasure as we chatted with the owner’s brother and shared some stories with him. For lunch I had their famous ‘Mountain Sausage’ which was very delicious. It came with a little salad (a piece of lettuce and two tomato slices) and a potato (half really that was boiled) but it was a delicious meaty lunch (I stole some vegetables from other people’s plates).
After lunch we hiked back down the pass which was a bit slower progress (it felt like) but with less rest stops. The problem with hiking down was that it was a loose gravel and dirt road that is pretty steep so as we were walking we would start sliding with the gravel under our feet. That was the tough and gruelling section of the hike but we were overjoyed when we arrived back at the South African border crossing. Then we found out that Chris was heading back to PMB that same evening. Such a blessing so we asked if we could get a lift with him back to PMB and he agreed. So wonderful.
Basically it was a wonderful weekend trip tiring and exhausting but so amazing. It was a good chance for me to get to know both Jasmine and Elizabeth a bit better as well as to meet an awesome guy like Chris. It was a very chill study break as well. Also I did get to do one of the ists that I had missed once upon a time during the last time I was in Lesotho. Finally the Highest pub in Africa!
Cheers eh!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Lesotho Take 2: Who would of Knew?
Sorry for the Bad Grammar for the title but it is a great play on the sounds and I couldn’t resist word play like that!
Anyways so I am sitting at almost a week and some change before I hit the road and my studies draw to a close here in PMB. So I thought it would be good to give a brief update before the weekend.
So I finished off two more courses worth of work. One Take Home exam and one Essay done this week and I totaled about 7500 words in the course of 2 days! I feel like a bit of a champ (not being cocky but probably the truth is I feel like a marathon runner, Excited about the accomplishment but exhausted by the effort).
The Take home exam fell on Tuesday this past week the same day as cell group. Take home exams here are different than those I have received at Western in this past year, they are a 24 hour marathon. So the expectation laid out for us in class was that in the 24 hours we were expected to read broadly and write clearly. I hope that I did that. So that morning I woke up to try and get myself some breakfast and have a cup of coffee to start my day off well. I go to the fridge where I was keeping my milk and I opened it up and it didn’t feel any cooler than the room outside. So I checked the milk and it was definitely sour. So I tossed it out, and had my coffee without milk that morning. I then met up with a group of students from BIST 310 and plotted out how we were going to tackle studying for the final (We got given 12 Questions that might be on the exam for our NT section of the course, so we decided to each prep 5 questions and share our prep work, over 5 people we cover each question twice giving us a huge amount of detail to study off of!). I was busy complaining about my 24 hour exam that was starting in 30 min, and how my milk went bad so I wasn’t going to have the easy drinking coffee as a fuel for the night time push. Alice decided that she would buy me milk so that I could have my coffee. We separated up the questions and I went off to start my exam.
I started off well. I looked over the question sheet, and planned out the exam, grabbed the readings I thought I might have found useful, and went off to the Library. I spent the morning working on just reading Globalization Texts, and then I went and grabbed lunch. At this point I was feeling pretty comfortable about the direction and the pace I was going. After lunch I started into theology texts, (Liberationists, Economics and Faith, Feminist Theological Economics etc...) and that was when things started going slightly sour. At first I couldn’t find a table to work at in the Library so I went down a floor and found an open space. Then I found the texts more basic than and nowhere nearly as helpful as those of the Globalization scholars. Anyways, I finished up at the Library and went back to my dorm to start writing (At about 2:30/3pm). I grabbed a shower to refresh myself and then I settled into the couch and started writing. I got done the first question (of four) and started into the second. By 6pm I had eaten dinner, and the day before I had made the decision that I was going to go to cell group. Here is where things started to pick up and get better.
At cell group we combined two cell groups to form one big group for a larger session on Worship. Which was just enjoyable! As we worshiped I was able to relax and just gain some very positive energy from God and the people there. Afterward I was dropped off near my friend’s house in the pouring rain to hopefully grab some milk. Unfortunately she didn’t answer her cell phone, so I was left standing in the rain outside of her Diggs. Luckily a guy pulled up in his Car and was waiting to be let in through their gate so I went in after him and hollered in the window of their diggs hoping to get Alice’s attention. I got the diggs mates attention instead but they gave me the bottle of milk that Alice had purchased for me. Super thankful! Anyways so I got a lift back to my Residence sort of... Denison is a large complex of blocks, and well I live about equally distant from both entrances as is possible. So I had to run through the rain and puddles back to my dorm to get back to my take home. I got back and I had a shower, and energized by having worshiped and warmed up by the shower I settled in for the evening of writing. I pushed myself and got through the final three questions of the exam on only one cup of coffee. And I got to bed at 1:30am (and got a solid 5.5hours of sleep! Especially compared to that of other people in my class...). I had written 19pages at 1.5 spacing 12pt Times New Roman including my cover page and Bibliography and I felt really good about that.
The next morning having finished all of that all that was left was to do a quick read over and then print it off. So I did that and submitted it in. As I submitted the other students of the class rolled up around 9am with all of their horror stories of staying up till midnight sleeping till 2:30 and getting back to work at 2:30, or starting the exam @ 7:30pm. I guess I felt blessed by God and my decision to actively take time to value worshiping him. It is odd that even though having pushed late into the night, and had a very roller coaster experience of the day that in spending time with God and people in worship that I could just receive rest and energy in abundance. That rest and energy (even though i was jumping and worshiping with my full self) must have come from God. I guess it is part of that dethroning the Academy that I do with choosing to prioritize rest and events where I can gather with people around God. It is helpful for me, and I find that in those times, the best thing I can do is to value those activities and hold onto them for the same reason that I do them, to be and have time set aside for God in my week. I guess I am very like Luther in the fact that I agree with him when he suggests that on a normal day he spends an hour in prayer, and on a busy day he can’t afford to spend less than three hours in prayer before the day starts. (By the way if you are reading this and think that it is ridiculous and there is no way you can be as productive, or if you read about my pace of life and you think, ‘yeah right’ then you should probably consider choosing into it... Just saying that if you believe God to be good, then you might also believe that the 10 commandments are kind of important and well this happens to be a positive command within those rules, so consider it!)
Anyways also on Wednesday I had a wonderful Chat with my friend Thomas (Fr Thomas) over coffee after we submitted our exam. It is interesting to share my story of theology and to be able to share my passion of why and what I do with him. It is also cool to hear his perspective on theology as he is a priest in the Indian Orthodox Church (Think ancient church like the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, like 4th Century split off from the Church, not like the Russian Orthodox Church (11th Century Split)). Anyways other than that on Wednesday I was exhausted and pushed my way through one last paper (Quite literally pushed my way through, I am not happy with how it turned out), but I am glad that it is finished.
I guess I need to return to the title where I might have insinuated that I am going back to Lesotho. Well this weekend some friends and I are going to try to hit up the Highest pub in Africa in addition to hiking up to the Highest Peak South of Mt. Kilimanjaro. So it is back to Lesotho with me, and Back to the Sani Top! It will give my new Backpack a good test run, (I finally downsized to a nicely sized 50L backpack) before I hit the road.
I guess I am going to end this post here and keep it shorter than 2500 words, but I would love to hear stories from anyone back at home. If you are sitting there thinking: ‘Oh surely he can’t mean me,’ I mean you in particular. If you are sitting there thinking: ‘What stories?’ Send me an e-mail about life, the universe or anything. It is really special to me to receive e-mails, stories etc... I guess since I am coming back in Early January that I will be seeing you guys and I would love to have some Idea about what is going on in your lives as well.
Cheers!
Anyways so I am sitting at almost a week and some change before I hit the road and my studies draw to a close here in PMB. So I thought it would be good to give a brief update before the weekend.
So I finished off two more courses worth of work. One Take Home exam and one Essay done this week and I totaled about 7500 words in the course of 2 days! I feel like a bit of a champ (not being cocky but probably the truth is I feel like a marathon runner, Excited about the accomplishment but exhausted by the effort).
The Take home exam fell on Tuesday this past week the same day as cell group. Take home exams here are different than those I have received at Western in this past year, they are a 24 hour marathon. So the expectation laid out for us in class was that in the 24 hours we were expected to read broadly and write clearly. I hope that I did that. So that morning I woke up to try and get myself some breakfast and have a cup of coffee to start my day off well. I go to the fridge where I was keeping my milk and I opened it up and it didn’t feel any cooler than the room outside. So I checked the milk and it was definitely sour. So I tossed it out, and had my coffee without milk that morning. I then met up with a group of students from BIST 310 and plotted out how we were going to tackle studying for the final (We got given 12 Questions that might be on the exam for our NT section of the course, so we decided to each prep 5 questions and share our prep work, over 5 people we cover each question twice giving us a huge amount of detail to study off of!). I was busy complaining about my 24 hour exam that was starting in 30 min, and how my milk went bad so I wasn’t going to have the easy drinking coffee as a fuel for the night time push. Alice decided that she would buy me milk so that I could have my coffee. We separated up the questions and I went off to start my exam.
I started off well. I looked over the question sheet, and planned out the exam, grabbed the readings I thought I might have found useful, and went off to the Library. I spent the morning working on just reading Globalization Texts, and then I went and grabbed lunch. At this point I was feeling pretty comfortable about the direction and the pace I was going. After lunch I started into theology texts, (Liberationists, Economics and Faith, Feminist Theological Economics etc...) and that was when things started going slightly sour. At first I couldn’t find a table to work at in the Library so I went down a floor and found an open space. Then I found the texts more basic than and nowhere nearly as helpful as those of the Globalization scholars. Anyways, I finished up at the Library and went back to my dorm to start writing (At about 2:30/3pm). I grabbed a shower to refresh myself and then I settled into the couch and started writing. I got done the first question (of four) and started into the second. By 6pm I had eaten dinner, and the day before I had made the decision that I was going to go to cell group. Here is where things started to pick up and get better.
At cell group we combined two cell groups to form one big group for a larger session on Worship. Which was just enjoyable! As we worshiped I was able to relax and just gain some very positive energy from God and the people there. Afterward I was dropped off near my friend’s house in the pouring rain to hopefully grab some milk. Unfortunately she didn’t answer her cell phone, so I was left standing in the rain outside of her Diggs. Luckily a guy pulled up in his Car and was waiting to be let in through their gate so I went in after him and hollered in the window of their diggs hoping to get Alice’s attention. I got the diggs mates attention instead but they gave me the bottle of milk that Alice had purchased for me. Super thankful! Anyways so I got a lift back to my Residence sort of... Denison is a large complex of blocks, and well I live about equally distant from both entrances as is possible. So I had to run through the rain and puddles back to my dorm to get back to my take home. I got back and I had a shower, and energized by having worshiped and warmed up by the shower I settled in for the evening of writing. I pushed myself and got through the final three questions of the exam on only one cup of coffee. And I got to bed at 1:30am (and got a solid 5.5hours of sleep! Especially compared to that of other people in my class...). I had written 19pages at 1.5 spacing 12pt Times New Roman including my cover page and Bibliography and I felt really good about that.
The next morning having finished all of that all that was left was to do a quick read over and then print it off. So I did that and submitted it in. As I submitted the other students of the class rolled up around 9am with all of their horror stories of staying up till midnight sleeping till 2:30 and getting back to work at 2:30, or starting the exam @ 7:30pm. I guess I felt blessed by God and my decision to actively take time to value worshiping him. It is odd that even though having pushed late into the night, and had a very roller coaster experience of the day that in spending time with God and people in worship that I could just receive rest and energy in abundance. That rest and energy (even though i was jumping and worshiping with my full self) must have come from God. I guess it is part of that dethroning the Academy that I do with choosing to prioritize rest and events where I can gather with people around God. It is helpful for me, and I find that in those times, the best thing I can do is to value those activities and hold onto them for the same reason that I do them, to be and have time set aside for God in my week. I guess I am very like Luther in the fact that I agree with him when he suggests that on a normal day he spends an hour in prayer, and on a busy day he can’t afford to spend less than three hours in prayer before the day starts. (By the way if you are reading this and think that it is ridiculous and there is no way you can be as productive, or if you read about my pace of life and you think, ‘yeah right’ then you should probably consider choosing into it... Just saying that if you believe God to be good, then you might also believe that the 10 commandments are kind of important and well this happens to be a positive command within those rules, so consider it!)
Anyways also on Wednesday I had a wonderful Chat with my friend Thomas (Fr Thomas) over coffee after we submitted our exam. It is interesting to share my story of theology and to be able to share my passion of why and what I do with him. It is also cool to hear his perspective on theology as he is a priest in the Indian Orthodox Church (Think ancient church like the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, like 4th Century split off from the Church, not like the Russian Orthodox Church (11th Century Split)). Anyways other than that on Wednesday I was exhausted and pushed my way through one last paper (Quite literally pushed my way through, I am not happy with how it turned out), but I am glad that it is finished.
I guess I need to return to the title where I might have insinuated that I am going back to Lesotho. Well this weekend some friends and I are going to try to hit up the Highest pub in Africa in addition to hiking up to the Highest Peak South of Mt. Kilimanjaro. So it is back to Lesotho with me, and Back to the Sani Top! It will give my new Backpack a good test run, (I finally downsized to a nicely sized 50L backpack) before I hit the road.
I guess I am going to end this post here and keep it shorter than 2500 words, but I would love to hear stories from anyone back at home. If you are sitting there thinking: ‘Oh surely he can’t mean me,’ I mean you in particular. If you are sitting there thinking: ‘What stories?’ Send me an e-mail about life, the universe or anything. It is really special to me to receive e-mails, stories etc... I guess since I am coming back in Early January that I will be seeing you guys and I would love to have some Idea about what is going on in your lives as well.
Cheers!
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