Mick Duncan, a bible study, from Surrender '06

Mark 10:17-25 The Rich Young Man

Luke 9:57-62 The Cost of Following Jesus

Luke 14:26 The Cost of Being a Disciple

"Who here will give a chapter of their lives away, just a chapter, and go and live amongst the poor and the needy? Be it in New Zealand, be it in Australia, be it in Bangkok, be it in Manilla, be it wherever; who here will give a chapter of their lives away?

So I've asked that question for nigh on 30 years and invariably, during the coffee breaks, and the lunch breaks, I get people who come up to me and they say "Mick, look I like the question, you know I like what you're saying... but I just got married" or "I've got little kids" or "I've got my career that I've just launched out on" or "I've just bought a house" or "I've just got this, or I'm just doing this"

When these people trot out these things, I say to myself that this person in front of me has a non-negotiable in their life; this person in front of me, they have allowed their non-negotiables to now call the shots in their lives

These people in front of me, have separated these non-negotiables from the hard sayings of Jesus; these non-negotiables they now rule this persons life

This person now has the issue with idolatory in their lives, but they can't see it; they have a blind spot. And if they choose not to see it, they have a love of darkness (John 3:19)"

How dare I...

I've just finished another chapter in Phil Yancy's "What's so amazing about grace?", and out of many, many incredible points he makes in that chapter, there was one that took me back a bit; Christian gays

I have to admit my instinctive reaction was to immediately (even in all my liberalness) regard this as a contradiction in terms; "Christian" gays? That's just not possible...?

It went into a short but (for me) insightful look into the a church for gay people, and after my seconds of ungraceful thought, and further reading, it hit me

What gives me the right to consider gays any less righteous than me!! For ALL have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God; not for SOME have sinned a little bit and don't fall that short... I have SINNED and deserve rightfully an eternity shunned by Him

So what then is the difference between a church filled with us sinners, and a church filled with gay sinners; can we legitimately call a church like Hillsong a church any closer to God than a gay church?

How then, can I dare think that anyone of us is any less of a sinner, than someone who struggles with homosexuality

T-minus 11 days...

... to the City Romp!! A quasi-Amazing Race that 12 of us will be playing on the 14th Oct; it's taken a lot of wrangling and a lot more e-mails, but it seems to be slowly coming together, and the team pages have gotten me psyched, as they're pretty fun... :D

China Chickens

City Seekers

It looks like it might be a lot of fun, and for a good cause too (The Burnet Institute):
By participating in the Romp you’ll be helping to raise money to fund medical research and public health programs that will benefit people across Australia and overseas. We work on a range of diseases like measles, HIV, hepatitis, malaria and TB; breast, ovarian and prostate cancers; as well as diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The state of the world... or at least nate's head...

I don't know quite what to make of it all.

The night in segments:

1) Tonight was the end of the local charismatic church conference, and it ended with a good message that really hit home for me about the core of the gospel; about how we, as Kaiwin would put it, are "dirty, rotten sinners", and we all fall short of the glory of God

2) As one would expect a very triumphant closure to the conference then came about, with high praise; a celebration of sorts, lots of noise, loud, loud music, lots of movement

3) Then contrasted with a bit of an aimless drive around the 'burbs, by myself listening to the BBC reports about the incredible situation in Burma; of hearing over the scratchy AM airwaves of the incomprehensible strength of the Burmese, in the face of a corrupt government, in the face of massively violent retaliations, standing up not for themselves, but for their nation. Of movements around the world rallying support for the embattled peoples, on a huge global scale


4) And then getting home, and reading in "What's so amazing about grace?" about incredible acts of grace throughout history, the very strength (and not weakness) of grace, and how grace, perhaps moreso than violence, can dramatically change history

Add all of that up, and you get something that doesn't quite fit into a nice neat package that is easily digestable and regurgitable, and I'm sure a large part of it is just my own lack of comprehension skills, rather than an enormous complexity of thoughts, but it's a little confusing / challenging / provoking nonetheless...

Sunday night

Some part of me wishes I had photos from the night, but for the most, I think I’m content with the specialness of the moment being captured solely in the hearts and minds of those there that night

A life highlight, one that leaves me wondering how such things occur; are they purely happy hap stance, where the right combination of people, in the right temperaments and the right frame of mind are sitting around the right shaped table? Or is it possible for these to be brought about on a regular basis… were we subconsciously subscribing to the ethos of Credo Café, of spirituality, sociality and food-iology?

At this point you might be trying to figure out what wondrous occasion I encountered that night, what momentous event had come to pass…

To which I would answer, t’was verily the simpleness of an ordinary meal, with the perfect company, willing to lend themselves in banter and humility to produce sparkling conversation…

Whilst the recent camp would most probably be the highlight of recent events for most, the dinner was for me, by far the most extraordinary

A bit of a rant...

I’ve been so hesitant in posting again, as I really wanted to have sat down and been able to encapsulate my South Africa, to at least have penned a closing blog post, signing off on an incredible adventure

Over a month has come and gone, and I still haven’t felt all that much closer to being able to capture it all in a neat sound byte; perhaps it’s my inability to comprehend it at a higher level at this point in time, or just the lack of creativity within the realm of English phrasing that restricts me in being able to capture it’s essence…?

I mused, sitting on the veranda of the YDC as the sun set, how surreal the experience would all seem after having returned; the ironies of living with 7 (at one time) European girls, fighting bush fires, being uniquely Chinese, working always with Zulus, banging around in the back of a beat-up diesel ute (or “buggy” as they call it), how dream-like it would seem when I was once again back in Melbourne…

And now, slowly after 4 weeks of gradual immersion into the corporate world, in almost diametric opposition to where and what I was doing little over a month ago, it’s still hard not to get hung up on it a bit :P The ongoing act of internal reconciliation between these quite divergent paths has been confusing to say the least…

But slowly, with gentle and sometimes not so gentle prods from significant people in my life, my family, viki, mikey, ange, k, the resies, YFCers and world vision, my ‘life picture’ after the last year and a half almost starts to make a semblance of sense… of hope and goals that I’m passionate about...

I still feel so far away from getting a life-balance that I’m happy with, or one that even remotely balances everything I’ve been lucky to experience and learn. But with prayerful commitment of everything I’ve done in the past to the past (and not live or dwell on past glories; Eccl 7:10?), and a hopefully God-sensitive resolution to plug into the now, I’m going to concentrate on being the best I can be, in Him, in this season, for where He’s placed me

A story refreshed

Today I went to church literally down the street, a few houses down from the YDC

As I rethink through the experience, the irony only now hits me; the church's name is Pietermaritzburg Christian Fellowship, or as they abreviate it, PCF :S

It's a church made out of the old Pietermaritzburg prison, the prison which Gandhi was held when he was here, which is pretty cool

Worship was an interesting experience, where the first song (though unknown to me) was in English, the second in Zulu (which is becoming a more familiar sound to me) and the third in Afrikaans, which was simply bizar

The message, was about 'suffering', which I'm always interested in hearing about from the different biblical perspectives out there

Surprisingly (I know, I'm a cynical bastard :P) the message was sound and good, with important distinctions in the detail of points

I took notes, but the one thing that stuck out for me the most, was an analogy I'd heard many, many times before

The story goes that a womens study group had come upon a passage in Malachi 3:3, which refers to God as a refiner and purifier of silver

Not familiar with the process, one of the women volunteered to research the process, to report back to the group the next meeting

So she visited a silver smith (not sure if that's the term for them, it was just the one the speaker used), who showed her the process

It involves the placement of the silver in the hottest part of the flame, to burn away the impurities

Now at this point, I was like, yeah, yeah... I mean I'd heard it, and even sung about it like a billion times over

But the story continued, and I learnt some interesting new bits

If the piece is left in the flame for a moment too long, it is destroyed; therefore, the silver smith eyes are ALWAYS focussed on it when it is in the flame

Why then is it, in times of hardness, we (or at least I), think we're alone...

But the bit that really got me, that cut straight to my core was how the story ended

At this point, the woman then asked the silver smith how he knew then, when the silver was ready

"That's the easy part. It's when I can see my reflection in it"

How much is enough?

During lunch in the park, a little white girl came up to our group, and up to me (I'm guessing as I was the only non-Zulu, and therefore the least scary) and handed me a 100rand note!! She then wordlessly trotted back off to her (I think mother)

We found out that the mother had seen us, figured out what we were about, and wanted to give the money to us

I was pretty encouraged, and gave the money to the workers

The next day (today), I found out that the money was going to be split between the workers (from Masukwana), rather than going to the organisation itself

My initial emotional reaction was of a little outrage; the money was for the organisation! For the kids!!

It hadn't been just the workers that'd decided, it was something the whole department (and program co-ordinator, who's a really good guy) had decided

I then talked to Mathilde about it, and how I thought it was really strange (wrong), but then she put it in context for me; in a country where a car costs just as much (after conversion) as it does in Australia, these workers, these full-time youth workers, get 550rand a month; converted, that turns out as $AUS100, a month

I then figured... oh... ok... yeah, maybe an extra 33rand (or less than $AUS6) to each of them isn't a complete evil :S

Masukwana Museum Visit, Thurs, 5 Jul

Encouragingly, the street team seemed to have enjoyed something about me, cuz they demanded I come back on the Thursday to bring the same kids on their museum trip

So, I wondered down to the office again to meet them, but this time we had the van drive us to pick them up

And there they were, all waiting, and all dressed up in their best clothes; it was heartbreakingly cute; some where in plaid cotton shirts, buttoned all the way up, others in their nicest (cuz they were clean and didn't have holes) jackets

But you could still see the gaps; you could still see the dirt encrusted, sockless feet showing in their school shoes (if they were lucky, the only pair of shoes they had), holey t-shirts (but still their nicest as they were clean) showing under the jackets

The museum itself was pretty ordinary, but the kids were so, so excited; afterwards we took them to a park, where we let them play on the equipment as we assembled a veritable feast of a hotdog, a packet of chips, a few lollies and two biscuits; to them, a sumptous, incredible treat
. And to see a bunch of 3-13 your olds clap their hands together, say a grace that was "God bless this food forever and ever, Amen!"... too cute, far too cute

And then, back in the van, back to Masukwana

I'd been seeing and interacting with kids from this context all the while since being here, but always at L'Abri

I knew that L'Abri was to be a special, rare, out-of-context meeting for them, but to see just HOW out-of-context, I think, is something one has to experience to properly appreciate...?

Dunno

All in all, a heart-checking last few days

Masukwana, Wed, 4 Jul

With only a day of rest (Tues), I decided to join one of the street teams on Wed

After meeting in the morning at the YFC office, we walked down to the Masukwana township, a slum area if you will, of stick shelters, one running water tap between 50 houses and no electricity


There we ran a morning kids programme, of basic comprehension and games

Even now, it's hard not to be a little emotional when thinking about it; kids, from 3-13 years old, utterly and completely adorable, who have so little

Shoes, if they have them at all, that are broken and many sizes too big

I sat on the dusty, dusty ground, with a pair of 3-5 yr olds climbing over me and playing with my cap that I'd put on one of their heads

Later one of the workers told me that one of the 4yr olds, one I'd shared my bottle of water with, was currently eating out of bins, as there wasn't a reliable or secure home or food source

And coming from a Western context where it can be normal for kids to be getting super computer video game consoles, to see the utter enjoyment these kids got from the luxury of a 10c balloon...??? A 10 CENT balloon - flipping heck...

And then in the afternoon we conducted 'home' visits, which in this case meant visiting the older kids where they begged and slept; one 'home' was simply the freeway intersection, and the other a basic concrete alcove

NACCW, Fri-Mon, 29 Jun-2 Jul

I was already dreading this particular camp as it loomed; with most normal camps having numbers between 15-70 people, and usually going for at most 3 days (Fri night - Sunday arvo), this was always going to be a ball buster

The NACCW, or the National Associationa of Child Care Workers, camp came up with 150 people, from Fri MORNING - MONDAY arvo, and we were allocated the number of staff that would normally run a camp of 100 :(

And because the fires had wiped a cabin out, the staff were short of beds and a few of us had to scrounge for a different berth of some sort each night

After a late night on Thurs, the camp staff and I departed for L'Abri at 7:30am, and spent the entire day preparing the site and working with the campers as they arrived from all over the country, representatives from each of the 9 provinces AND visiters from the USA

We were only able to finally hit the sack @ 12 that night (after we'd found spare berths (for that night only)), only to have to get up again @ 4am to start preparing for Saturday morning breakfast, and this sleeping pattern persisted for the entire camp :(

Needless to say, the staff scrambled for hourly naps at every spare moment!

As hard as it was, there were many brilliant moments of the camp; the big field games they ran were fun, incredibly colourful and musical

They brought up with them a collection of at least 15 Jambees (dunno how to spell it, those African drums?), and every night around the camp fire there was African drumming (in South Africa! Now that's pretty cool :P) and dancing kids; incredibly festive

And on Sunday night, they each presented a cultural item from each of the provinces, complete with elaborate and decorative traditional costume, the delegates from the USA even did some rap for us, and some pretty cool 'stepping' (which apparently is some Southern thing)

Came out of it pretty proud of making it through such a gruelling schedule, and feeling blessed to have been able to experience a snapshot of the different cultures in South Africa

Needless to say, I slept damn well Monday night back @ the YDC :S

Preparations, Thurs, 28th Jun

With two days to recover from a rather intense Monday, I sorta jumped right back into the breach on the Thursday

In preparation for a huge camp on the weekend, we shopped for and brought up two stuffed full trailer loads of food and equipment, which only constituted half of what was going to be needed

Unloading sacks of flour, rice, re-arranging the pantry to fit it all and throwing away old things constituted the day, a pretty full working day

Later that night we went out for dinner, as it would be the last night we would be together (as Emilie was leaving back for Belgium after being here for 3 months)
, and it was a really nice change of pace... a rare time of just chilling out, not having to worry about preparing dinner and simply enjoying the last moments of that particular group

Noice :P

Monday night, 25 June

Now this was one bizarre night. After a full, long day at L’Abri, and having gotten back to the YDC, showered, fed and quite nicely settled for the night, I then got a call from Rod at about 8:30pm

He asked me if I could open the gate for him in the following half hour or so, as he needed the L’Abri ute to bring the tractor tire back to the site, as there were big fires occurring around the neighbouring area, to which the tractor was required to haul the fire fighting cart; He asked if I wanted to I could follow him up, at which point my curiosity was well and truly piqued

I got changed back into my dirty work clothes from the day and jumped into the ute when Rod arrived; at that point the fires were reported by the site staff to be at the edge of the far boundaries of the site, and not of critical concern, so we drove around town to try and find a place that was open that could fix the slow puncture in the tractor tyre

Half an hour later, another call to the site staff revealed entirely different results; the fire had violently changed tack, jumped, and one of the cabins already lost. This in itself was confusing... I mean... ‘lost’... they couldn’t possibly mean it’s gone...???

At that point, we then started immediately for L’Abri. As we got closer to the Karkloof mountain ranges, within which L’Abri is situated, we began to pass large, spot fields of fire, which was eerie

These sporadic fields became more and more frequent as they turned into forest areas, closer to L’Abri, exponentially increasing in ferocity and intensity as we drove on

So much so, that we could not simply get anywhere near the site on our first attempt



We went back a little further down to wait it out, together with other tractors, utes and water carts from neighbouring properties; a tractor appeared shortly after, with a large cattle trailer full of fire fighters

Fire fighters, being an ALL elderly female group, armed with garden hoes!! It was quite an amazing site, and I tried to take a photo of it, and being night, I thought to use a flash and this was the result


The air was simply filled with ash; it was not possible to be outside the vehicle for any longer than 5-10mins. Gale force winds (later reported by the news), violently shaking the ute, folding entire sugarcane fields right in half, as if they were merely blades of grass. Sugarcane just does not bend like that; here we were, in the middle of mountain ranges, experiencing winds far, far stronger than any I’ve experienced on Australian coasts. With such incredible winds fanning the flames, the Fire protection officer of the region was found later to have said “You cannot fight this fire. You can only manage it and try to save lives.”

After awhile of waiting the tractors and trucks went up again in another attempt, which we followed



The video ends about a third of the way to L’Abri, as we had to stop, jump out and move a tree that had fallen onto the road, which we found ourselves doing 3-4 times on the way up, with some trees still on fire

Continuing on we drove passed raging fires on both sides of the road; on the side of one section of the road there were large log piles awaiting for pick up, but now engulfed in superheated (blue tinged) flames and showering us in thousands and thousands of glowing embers, in a fascinating display. We had to drive all the more faster through this part, as it was just too hot

Eventually we make it to the L’Abri driveway, and what a difference to the early reports of non-event at the site; the driveway itself was lined with increasing flames and as we hurtled the ute down it, we could not access one of the roads as the fire was constantly leaping across it

This part was such a blur; we crash stopped the vehicle right outside the main cabin, where all the staff were assembled outside already; a man came running up to the car yelling that we needed to evacuate immediately; 4 guys bundled into the tray, 2 women, and infant and 1 guy into the back seats and three of us in the front, and having not even stopped for 5mins we were hurtling back up the flaming driveway again

At the point of the road we had to stop, as the fires on either side were just too intense to continue, and here we waited for 20-30mins

After it appeared that one road seemed to subside a little, we drove out of the ranges, again having to jump out 3-4 times to move objects littering the road, seeing every now and again the burnt remains of a animal

We drove the some of the staff into town, and then headed back to the site
This was a few hours later, and with my limited personal experience of fires on this scale, I’d thought for some reason that they’d have heavily extinguished themselves by then. We came across this sugarcane fire at an even earlier point in the road



The video ends at the point where we pull up to a guy that seemed to be co-ordinating the efforts there, and asked if we could get to L’Abri. He very politely and calmly said that he wouldn’t recommend it as “they were getting ready to run” themselves. I thought that was an odd thing to say (calmly as well), when I then looked around and noticed people were sprinting to their vehicles, frantically turning them around and driving them towards us, with those not attached to vehicles simply sprinting

At the flurry of activity we hastily chucked a u-turn too, pulled back and moments later that position was engulfed in flames

Eventually we made it back to the site to find the workshop, two garages of all the tools and heavy machinery, and the adjoining shed of wood material up in flames

We gathered that one of the gas tanks had already let go, and the drums of fuel, before we’d gotten there, as the heavy garage doors had buckled outwards

This part was a bit of a blur too; the tractor with the water cart was positioned right in front of the workshop in flames, unable to move without the front tyre, me and Rod frantically worked to get that tyre onto the axle, all the while hearing a remaining gas tank within the workshop only a few metres away still expelling its contents into a building completely on fire

Needless to say, Rod’s comments saying that as long as we don’t hear the gas making ‘popping’ noises we were ok did little to assuage my worries

We eventually got the wheel on and bolted, the water cart functioning and, after an already long day at L’Abri, at three in the morning we started to fight this fire, eventually getting the best of it after an hour by half past four, and after making sure the rest of the site would be ok, got back to the YDC at half past five in the morning

According to the news the following day the winds were measured at 100km/h by late afternoon, fanning flames up to 60 metres high, and at one stage around 200 fire fighters battling to contain a fire that was leaping in 500-metre “steps”

And somewhere in the middle of all of that was a little Asian dude in a diesel ute :S

Monday, 25 June

Went up again to L’Abri for the day to continue work on the sleeping platform, though this time by myself; since we’d taken all the materials down previously, I spent the day clearing parts of the ground and digging holes for the supports

The digging part took quite awhile, as I had to go through copious tree root-age, and I kept hitting rock about 10mins into each hole. I had to continually try to dig around to find places deep enough and accordingly keep adjusting the orientation/measurements to make sure it would still work

By the end of the day I’d managed to get two of the heavy supports in, which I was pretty pleased with

Fri night, 22 June

Later Friday night, we all ventured out to Shooters, one of the local drinking holes in town; being the only (yes, yes) white people in the establishment (and there being 5 girls), we attracted all sorts of characters

One of the guys that hung around for most of that time was a black fella that seemed fairly well known there, and the curious thing about him was that he spoke English like a white South African; quite well, and with an Afrikaans accent. The fact that we spend most of our time with black Zulus that speak accented broken English, this was something different

And on the way out of the joint, another guy stopped me and asked if I was Chinese, to which I answered yes (I figured, close enough, and as we were just passing by, I wasn’t exactly going to get into detailed explanation); at which point, he then pulled out his wallet, and took out a 10 Yuan note (the currency of China) to show me :S

Coming out of a bustling black pub, in a Zulu capital in South Africa, and being shown a Chinese note was bloody confusing, so I asked if he’d been to China then, to which he responded by saying that he’d just come back from Singapore, which confused me even more as Singapore use dollars (not Yuan), so I simply said in reply “cool”, and continued on my way

Weird

Tues-Wed, 19-20 June

After coming back from the safari weekend on Sunday arvo, I found myself once again packing my bags and shipping back up to L’Abri

These days were allocated for the L’Abri staff (who I went up with) to go over top ropes training, and I was up there with one of the trainees, tasked at commencing work on a proposed sleeping platform

So as the staff started their ropes training, we started by checking out the potential sites; because the platform had the goal of immersing campers more deeply into an outdoors experience, this platform was to be right in the middle of a forest, not reachable or visible from any of the roughly beaten tracks or trails, which meant traipsing through shrubbery, fernery, crawling under and around low hung branches for the entire morning, through a forest floor that’s naturally green and damp and covered with leafy plant things

After deciding on a spot, we measured the area, felt around the green coverage on the floor for the rocks and then started to grab our materials from the main site
We then spent the rest of the afternoon transporting planks from the main site to the site; I commandeered the L’Abri ute, and spent the arvo bush tracking and hauling in the diesel Isuzu, feeling pretty blokey :P The whole process was so exhausting, I was actually in bed by 8:30pm!!

The next morning we continued hauling things, this time it was sourcing and measuring the huge logs that would be the corner posts of the platform; it was a good thing that we were leaving that arvo, because by that time we were again exhausted :P

All in all, a tough but productive couple of days :)

Hluluwe & St Lucia (Fri-Sun, 15-17 June)

This was a really pleasant surprise; my intentions for this particular international foray were purely to concentrate on the volunteering aspect, and to stay in and imbibe as much of a culture as I could, rather than do that tourist thing; so I’d made no plans to travel around the area or country

So when I found out that there was a trip organised by YFC for us, the volunteers, I had mixed feelings, but for the most I was excited, in a quite bizarrely child-like way

We woke up and left the YDC in Pietermaritzburg at 8:30am on the Friday, went to Durban to pick up the volunteers from there, and then off to a homestead in a rural area, about 3 hours away from Durban

Even on holiday we stayed in the middle of a rural homestead, a quite traditional community, and after we’d settled in our things, we then walked around and learnt about the area from the locals, the traditions, way of life, etc

At the homestead itself, we were really spoilt, with locally cooked food and a really, really nice setting; I remember walking into the dining area, seeing the layout and just feeling utterly spoilt

The next morning we woke up at 5am, at which I did the bravest thing I’ve ever done by going for a bloody freezing shower; yup, no hot water here!! After which we then departed at 6 for the Hluluwe game park in open safari vehicles

And then, as we crossed the boundaries and into the park, for some unknown reason, this overwhelming, kiddish excitement came over me

Maybe it was the shock of the cold shower in effect, or perhaps the hour of the morning, combined with me being in this surreal, Jurassic Park moment, but I could not help but feel incredibly lucky

It was the same guilty, indulgent feeling I get when I’m in a cinema by myself watching trailers and eating the first lolly from the packet in anticipation of a great movie

Here I was, on this trip organised for us the volunteers, to be served nice food, to be able to see these animals and actually go for a safari; a safari!!

As a volunteer here, from the moment I landed, it’s always been, for me, about being here, of plugging in and helping, in any, small way I could, every spare day I’ve been trying to get idea of what I could fill with what team or what project, and in the off days, rest, so as to be energised for the team/project days

To have something done for me, organised entirely for my indulgence, my enjoyment, for my sake...

To have not earned it in any way, to not have to worry about anything except for packing my things, to take away all my opportunities to be ‘doing’ something useful, and to allow me to feel like it’s ok to be a tourist, for a few days...

To feel, for a few days, so overwhelming, so undeservedly...

... so gracefully...

blessed

Day (insert applicable number, as I've lost count now :S)

So I’ll have to fall back to the archaic day, date and month system that I hear some people still use...

Tues-Wed, 12-13 of June

Coming off camp on Fri-Sun, and then I went back up to L’Abri a day later, charged with the task of constructing fencing for a railing

So I groggily woke up really early in the morning with an sms saying that I was going to be picked up WHEN I woke up (8am); I managed to scrounge some food and stuff into a bag, jump into the car and right back up I went...

Spent the morning trying to figure out what was where, what stuff I could use, and where I could find the trees that were going to be my raw material, had a bite to eat for lunch and then spent the afternoon measuring, sawing and hammering all the way till sunset, after which I then went through another basic computer lesson with Mzwa, one of the site staff

The site staff live in their own houses up there, so I was in the big Lodge all by myself; cooked myself dinner and made a fire to keep me warm

Was weird... I thought I would have a mini freak out whilst up there, figuratively being by myself, but I found it actually really, really peaceful; it was nice to have a task to set myself to, to work and live a little as my own person and not a YDC collective (i.e. a bunch of girls), or a camp

Woke up the next morning, finished a section of the fencing and then attempted to mount it... I think it sorta worked... gave another computer lesson on how to use formatting in MS Word and then jumped back into the buggy for the return trip... all in all, not a bad few days at all :)

a working weekend part II

Saturday was an interesting day to say the least; I started the morning (6:30am) by making the fire for breakfast for the aftercare group, then heading to a different part of the site to help with a church group that was there for the day (8am); from Zulu street kids, to Indians rolling up in beamers and all sorts of nice cars... and very evangelical Indians at that...

And THEN at 11am I rolled off to yet another part of the camp site to help out with a 7yr old birthday party that was there from mid-morning to afternoon!! This group were all affluent whites, parents and children, for which I assisted in the use of the rock climbing wall (as a belayer) and the low ropes course; for all my head spins about traversing through three vastly different cultures and demographics within the span of a few hours, the kids were pretty darn cute...

Then (@ ~3pm) I rolled back off to the aftercare group to make the fires for the hot water, the main eating area (for cooking) and main meeting area... bit by bit my fire-making skills are getting back up to where they used to be, though I was coughing all weekend from all the smoke inhalation...

I stayed with the aftercare for the rest of the camp, helped pack up the site and came back on Sunday arvo thoroughly exhausted...

a working weekend part I

Friday morning began @ 8am, where me and Rod made a trip out to the verify some camp site information, then we went back to the office to go through more maps and materials to be collated electronically

After which I then walked back to the YDC, packed and then bundled into a ute (along with 9 others) to head up to L’Abri, setup the camp and then waited for the aftercare group to come along

Aftercare in this context is far from the more familiar ideals where kids are dropped off because their parents are both working; the aftercare group here deals with kids that outside of school (if they go) have less than ideal home situations, and therefore spend as much as time as they can out of home, which here means the streets. Abuse, alcoholism, random boyfriends or girlfriends of their single parents are the norms in these households; parents or older siblings dying from aids is an all together normal story too

These are adolescent boys that don’t have much going for them in life; ages 14-19, they face a life in a country where there’s above 50% unemployment , where in one case a 17yr old boy had lost a father last year, his elder sister this year (both to aids), his elder brother had just returned from jail and found no issues with stealing from his family to fuel his drinking habits

For three days L’Abri takes them out these harsh realities, and tries to impart some life lessons and skills...

more than meets the eye :D

i’ve managed to download a few trailers on one of my internet trips, and I cannot be more psyched about the transformers movie!! have been cautious and wary about the lead up to it, as movie tie-ins rarely seem to pull it off, but the trailer looks incredible... and gives me credence to continue to hope, as it’s not one of those trailers that show you all the best bits; the fact is, it shows you incredibly little at all; i can’t wait :D

Trailer viewable/downloadable from this link: http://www.jurassicpunk.com/movies/transformers.shtml

Day 17

Along with all the stuff that’s happened in the last few days, the two Irish girls that arrived last Friday have decided that South Africa isn’t for them, and will be returning to Ireland tomorrow, making their original plans for a 2 month stay turn into a 6 day one…

 

It’s a little weird for me, as I remember how hard it was to be here, just how incredibly hard the first week was, to be here in completely foreign land, to be staying with foreigners… just so much worked to do my head in… and the thought of leaving crossed my mind constantly

 

It could never be an option for me though; viki and I reckon that we couldn’t do that (return) because of how proud we both are, perhaps there’s a bit of asian-ness in there also, and how we can’t waste things…

 

Part of my brain is trying to focus on just what an achievement it is then, to still be here, but to also process that there aren’t going to be any more volunteers coming, and in the coming months the existing volunteers are gradually going home; in fact, now that the Irish are gone, I’ll be the only volunteer here for the last two weeks, which is very daunting prospect…

 

Either way, it’s been a pretty confusing sequence of days :S

Day 16

This day was just as exhausting too; The day had already been scheduled for work at L’Abri, but that very morning I get a call saying that they needed me also for their soccer game with the street boys

I dunno what it is with working with ngo’s and having to play the sports that I’m worst at :S

So on swelteringly hot day, on a dry field with huge dirt patches, of extremely athletic Zulus, some not wearing shoes, and of a tremendous amount of skill, there was ONE non-black in the midst of the fury, kitted up at the end of the field as a goalie

After all that activity, I grabbed a quick bite to eat, travelled up to L’Abri and spent a few hours there tutoring about how to use computers before being able to finally call it a day

Needless to say, I slept quite soundly over those two days…

Day 15

I spent the day travelling out to the suburb of Howick to help one of the L’Abri staff dudes with his (work) computer

Travelled there by taxi, which here means squished with 16 zulus in a Hiace van 20+, from the middle of a black town to a church in an affluent white suburb, which was a weird experience in itself

I’m learning that stories here will always, always have a racial bias in them, even from the best hearted people here, but even with that in mind, there must be an element of truth of the street team (all black) of that church (all white) having an office, separate to the rest of the building, and in the basement; earlier that week the rest of the offices had been renovated with air condition units, but not theirs; theirs was where the old fans were dumped...

Spent the morning troubleshooting the one, old computer they’d been given to use, and then afterwards shown around Howick

There’s a small tourist bit, where they have a 107m waterfall that’s quite beautiful, after which we made our way back into the main town to get back to the taxi rank

Again the transition from affluent white suburb back into the Howick town centre is sudden and quick; the suburb is a pro-apartheid stronghold, a few minutes and meters later the town centre of Howick is ALL black; it’s gotten to the point that an alternative shopping area had been built a little further out of town that coincidently mostly non-blacks frequent

Behind the buses there are rings of people sitting in rags and on dirty paint cans, drinking home-brewed beer and playing gambling games to try and win more money for more beer

Also had to deal with in a more tangible way feelings of possibly underlying issues of being ‘used’ for my what I represent in terms of wealth and opportunities in another country...

All in all, an incredibly exhausting day, and a little confusing

Day 11

One of the things you’ll notice when visiting South Africa, is just how fortified everything is; EVERY building and house is secured by some sort of hazardous fencing; the YDC itself has enough barbed wire to divide a paddock, and we are not allowed out on the streets at all when dark

 

I got lost today, walking back from the main office to the YDC, and found myself in what seemed to be a very white neighbourhood; along the way I thought I’d take some pics of what is very normal housing decoration...

 

A detention centre? Secret military base? Nope, this “Superior Security” is ALL around Pietermaritzburg Girls High... and it’s a government school...

 

I walked passed this house on my lost wanderings, and wondered why, in a country where property dividers are usually jagged, razor sharp pieces of metal, this fence was just singular wires...  I thought no... it couldn’t be... these are wires at ground level on a BUSY walking street in a heavily populated school district...

 

Right at the end of the property “Alexpark Mansions”, there’s a little, little yellow sign letting people know, if they were interested, that the fence is electrified :S

Miscellaneous things I found amusing

Obviously “hooting” is a very big issue over in South Africa...


A medi-clinic on “Payn” Street :S Does anyone else find that a little sardonic?!

This gang is a group that is quite at large and wield all sorts of weapons in their rampages, but with a name like that, it's a little hard to take them seriously :S


This was a little novel; ordering a whiskey and coke will result in a glass of whiskey on the rocks, and coke in a little vase


And my personal favourite so far!!


Cuz you can NEVER have too much groot!! [This one is more care of the dutchies I stay with rather than South Africa :P]

Here's a pic of chix @ the YDC

As you can tell, they’re MASSIVE (yes yes, relative to me; the three at the back are actually stooping quite a bit (probably so I’ll then fit in the photo))

 

From left to right; Els, Emilie (Belgian), Rhode, Mathilde (weird huh, it’s almost ‘Matilda’), Klaske and ‘duh’

 

And from tomorrow onwards, add two more Irish chix...

Day 9

Today I went up to L’Abri again with Rod; set off in the morning, grabbed roofing sheets, 10 concretes blocks and then made the trek up again... this is the quarry we got the blocks from... and some asian dude in the back of a ute...

Checked out a computer they had there that they want me to try and teach the staff up there how to use, and then was supposed to wait around for Rod to have a short meeting, which ended up going for a lot longer than he thought; I ended up spending a South African Tuesday afternoon shooting hoops... it’s such a cool feeling when you find your stroke...

Also wandered outside a bit, threw the ball into the tree to get some nuts to crack/eat, and saw HEAPS of monkeys... the ebola kind... they’re EVERYWHERE... I only got this not so good photo of one ‘cuz I didn’t have a proper digi cam on me... imagine this little dude times 10 scampering ALL over the roof and trees :S

The YDC, Pietermaritzburg

In all this haste to try and find my Souwth Afreekaan groove, I’ve neglected to blog about the place I’m staying @, the YDC;

It’s a house that’s right next to the Khayalethu (the boys shelter), with three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and common area (pictured)

And I’m staying with... drum roll... five girls :S 4 Dutchies and 1 Belgian, with 2 MORE Irish coming in this Friday... it’s a little bizar; ironically, because I’m the only guy, I get my own room whilst the girls are all having to share between the two rooms!!

Whilst not of any star rating, it’s a cozy-ish place, it has a roof and a few (please note it really is only a FEW) powerpoints; akin to a backpackers, I think, except the power gets tripped (i.e. lose electricity to the entire house) a few times a night... usually around supper preparation time... which is now... in the whole time of writing this post, the power tripped 3-4 times...

Day 8

With the forecast at this point looking like I'll be working the weekends (camps), these days (mon-tues) I think will be my 'weekends'

So with notepad in hand, I've got lotsa errands to run today, most of which are online (i.e. finances), clearing mailboxes, uploading of photos and making sure the blog's still there!!

Walking down to the 'net cafe makes me wonder if I'll ever feel 'fitted in' here, as it's hard not to feel like I'm sticking out just a tad being the ONLY non-black person walking around... :S

Later that day...

Of course blogger was the ONLY site that doesn’t work on that particular PC  So will have to continue to mail in these entries, hoping that they’ll work...

Wandered around the town, with the purpose of trying find guitar strings, which I didn’t find, but was pleasantly surprised to see Pietermaritzburg in greater detail

Rod’s also just sms’d, letting me know that I’ll be up @ L’Abri tomorrow too... so much for a two day ‘weekend’ :P


Observations
• Internet here costs 10rand per hour... or a little less than $2 an hour :D It's not the fastest in the world though...

Day 7

Home time!! But first another wake up at 7am, brekky, activities and preparation for lunch, the kids go... we stay and pack up... and THEN home time (for us)... but no... not really either...

We finished packing up the site but due to miscommunications we had to wait an extra hour for our ride to show, so me and another L’Abri staffer just sat on the outside dining tables cracking nuts (walnuts?) in the sunny, sun-sun... was an awfully picturesque way to end the weekend...



Some of the male L'Abri staff kept bugging me to go for drinks with them, and I've been asked all through my trip so far, and although I was tired, I figured that it'd be a good thing to do for building relationships

I'm beginning to realise, for better or worse, that drinking is a BIG part of social life here, even for the most regular church attender (yeah, I know that doesn't mean much by itself, but still)...

Got back to the YDC, completely worn out, but for some reason feeling not too bad about it all, and perhaps a little encouraged of the picture of how I could fit in here

Day 6

Oh, and before I go on, let me explain that whilst the pics I took of L'Abri could allude to possible resort-like facilities, let me point out a few things; to get hot water, you have to make a FIRE, showers are outdoors (with tarpaulin doors), you pump the toilet handle to flush; the paths around the camp site are only in any useable because wild pigs frequent them (therefore moving the debris aside), and I’m told if a wild pig is on the path I’m on to get out of its way; these aspects aren’t the most photographical (dunno if I’ll have time to whip out the camera and simultaneously dodge pigs), so you get pics of the pretty bits

Today started at 7am, you know, natural waking up time for me (NOT) with brekky @ 7:30am and then lotsa team building activities, lunch and then a walk through quasi-rainforest (and back); more learning activities in the arvo, time for showers and then supper, followed by more activities...


Geez... as I type this out I realise that Saturday was a packed one :S

Observations
• Came across a tree that's 400+ years old
• Everyone keeps asking me about Jackie Chan
• How do you talk about family with those who have never had one???
• Am learning some Zulu; Hello (Sawubona), How are you (Unjani), and various swearing phrases :P
• Taught a zulu how to use chopstix today

Day 5

Friday started out a little abruptly; had been thinking I'd be able to wander into town and get a few things before I went off to camp for the weekend, but I got a call @ about 10am saying that I was going to be picked up an hour’s time :S Rod also mentioned during the call that I’ll be coming back to the YDC on Sunday, so that’s good too

So I quickly got up, packed, and saddled into a ute to pick up the other L'Abri staff in town...

Up to the camp we went, prepared the site and prepared supper (what they call dinner); the kids got there a little late, so all they had time for was indoor activities and the introduction, before we packed in for the 'night


Observations
• A junior taxi (i.e. a non-van taxi) with the branding "Arrive Alive" on the side of it
• Apparently the only time you see a chinaman here is because he's here to open a business
• With a normal knock-off time of 4pm here, people normally start leaving @ 3:30pm
• I don't know what I was afraid of with the flying thing here; if I make it through 10+ weeks of driving on these roads, THAT'll be the be miracle :S
• The flying bugs here are MASSIVE
• Street protests are incredibly musical and festive
• Saw a bunch of ebola monkeys scampering across the road (you know, the cute one from the movie "Outbreak")

Rest of Day 4

Managed to work out with the volunteer co-ordinator (Sally) a more workable arrangement; will be spending my working week up at L’Abri, but will still be based out of the YDC, which is a big relief; Went to the shops, managed to grab a few essentials and be acquainted with Pietermaritzburg in a cursory way

All in all, a good day :D

Observation
• It might be just me, but so far it's been awfully hard to find sunscreen here

Day 4

At least the start of it :)

I’m beginning to wonder if blogging in the morning would be a far better way to do it; when I’m not exhausted, when I’ve the hope of a new day ahead of me and the energy to embrace it, with a healthy dose of familiar Hillsong playing in the background (the Dutch people had it playing!!)

I’m still incredibly wary of what the next fortnight will hold, but as I sit here at the computer typing this entry, I look out at the sunny day, listen to the song “Majesty” blaring through the computer speakers (at a healthily not loud volume!!), I can’t help but feel my soul being restored

I’ve somehow gotten my phone battery to charge, chucked a load of washing into a semi-working washing machine (you have to half fill it manually by bucket, and I’ve been told that a lot of the time your clothes come out worse than they went in), and the shock of having to move everything again tomorrow is settling in a little bit

I’m desperately hoping to find a regular, sustainable rhythm soon (if I was only going to be unpredictable for 2 weeks, I could do that easily, because the end’s never that far away, but for 2+ months?! I don’t think so… at the very least, it’d be nice to be predictably unpredictable???) but if I don’t, I’ll try not to cry :P

The people I hold close to me believe in me, and I believe in my God does too, and that’s the only things I’ll need to cling too. At the end of the day, what more do I need, really?

Again, keeping my prayer to be open to all that God has to teach me through this experience, and to help me be as much of a help I can to the ministry here

Hope you’re all doing well back at home, and living just as much on the edge in your own lives :)… Time to see if my laundry’s been stolen…

Day 3

Haven’t really had a single day of respite yet; woke up @ 9, got picked up @ 10 and ran around ALL day with Rod on errands for L’Abri; heavy lifting and everything, so again have come back to the YDC utterly exhausted, and because of that, feeling pretty overwhelmed too

L’Abri is a beautiful place, quite magical in terms of natural beauty; I’ve confirmed however, that they’re hoping for me to spend most of my time up there, where I’ll be the only volunteer/white person, and in my section of this large camp, quite by myself when camps aren’t on (i.e. all non-weekends); just when I’d only barely started to get somewhat comfortable with staying @ the YDC, I now have to continue to shift my mindset to see L’Abri as my home base

Compounded by the fact that I’m the only really fluent English speaker, the boys shelter is right next door right now, that there isn’t that much personal space and everything is completely foreign, I’m feeling pretty silly for being so confident about doing all this by myself!!

There’ll be a lot for me to do @ L’Abri, between helping out with the camps (this weekend it’ll be the boys shelter up there) and maintenance of the site itself (there’s a LOT to do; fix the climbing wall, chop down trees and then use that wood to build railings, map the site itself, etc) so I won’t be bored, but I’m going to have to come to grips with being so far out of civilisation for a long time; with no Internet, no PEOPLE, no shops or services, just me, my room, beautiful scenery... and monkeys and wild pigs...

Last year @ Urban Seed the critical thing that got me through it all were the resies, and it seems that God’s taken it one step further to remove ALL things; Will be a severe time of testing for me, to spend all this time utterly and completely alone when I already feel so stretched, but I really, really pray that I’ll be open to what God is trying to teach me through it all

Observations from today...

·         In the Zulu culture, a man is only considered marriage material AFTER he has sired a child, and THEN is marriage even considered (sometimes they’ll even marry the mother of that child)

·         HIV is considered a manageable thing; a new strain of TB is reported to have no cure and is completely fatal

·         Africa really is a sunny country; there are never any clouds in the sky

·         Russell Peters is right; there ARE a lot of Indians here, and from once upon a time being brought in as slaves, they now own a lot of the businesses here

·         There are no Asians; I appear to be the only one everywhere I’ve been

·         Races are broken down to blacks, whites, Indians & coloured; Coloured being halfies (white and black parents); yep, again no Asians

I’m not sure what’s going on tomorrow; I’d originally heard that I’d been down to spend some time with the volunteer co-ordinator, am also hoping to get a bit of time to myself too (to wander into town and perhaps grab a few things) because on Friday I get carted off to L’Abri until God knows when :S

So much for easing into things, and I know I’ve maintained that I’ll get to rest all I want when I die, but this is a little crazy...

Day 2

Sat through a staff meeting with the rest of the L’Abri staff today; One white dude (Rod, who happens to be the guy in charge, one asian/aus, and ~20 zulus :S Finally got home @ about 10:30pm exhausted, not being able to totally shut out the knowledge that it would have been 8:30am in Oz...

Observations from today...

·         Was 5 degrees at about 10:30pm

·         Guard wearing a shot gun outside casino, all black staff with predominately white patrons

·         Vehicles unable to leave casino without a visual inspection from a guard

·         Even in post-apartheid South Africa, there are still overt classes, ‘black’ & ‘white’, to which I am accordingly considered as ‘white’ (which I don’t doubt will amuse mikey no end :P)

·         As a foreigner, I will be (incorrectly or not) seen as someone who is vastly wealthy and as a possible means by which some try and escape the worlds they are confined too

·         As exotic as Africa is, and as developed as South Africa is, a South Africa this far out from apartheid is still a very seriously screwed up place for blacks

·         HIV is such a real issue here; huge campaigns to urge people to go in for testing (“test one, bring five”), it’s quite bizar to be in a society where a rather demonised virus (for us in Oz) is extremely common place

·         Everyone keeps remarking at how quickly my time here will go, even though my body (feeling the ravages of time (zone) travel) at the moment still feels every minute passing

Blogging in SA!!

G’day from SA! No, not South Australia :/

 

Will be blogging in a very limited capacity where I can; there isn’t a ‘net connection here per se, only access to an e-mail address (not even my own one), so I’ll be mailing in my entries from there…

 

Hope you’re all well, and having your own adventures back in Oz J

 

More entries to follow in the next few days… stay tuned!!

Get me outta here!! :(

Am approaching the 9 hour mark of time spent in Singapore, and am pretty thoroughly over it :(

All the excitement of travel has been truly wiped, and I really just want to get there now... I've been catching 20min naps on chairs around the airport, which ain't really enough :( The saving grace has been a shower I bought for $SG8.40 (includes bottle of water), and at least feel a little refreshed :)

I'll get to board soon for the middle (and longest) flying portion of the journey, the trip from Singapore to Jo'burg, and as much as flying bugs the hell out of me, I just wanna get outta here!! :P

Just tracked through the previous two (travel) posts, and it's funny to note the obvious decline in enthusiasm; catch you readers on the flip side (SA?)!!

Argh... damn it...

I just bothered to check my boarding pass, and it's not 3hrs remaining, but 6!! What am I going to do for another 6 hours?! The flight leaves here @ 2am Singaporean time, which makes it 4AM Aus time :( Blehhh... time to find somewhere to have a looooonnnnggg nap or something...

asian limbo :P

Have made it thus for to Singapore!! Flying wasn't nearly as bad as I'd over thought it to be, and I managed to watch two movies I'd missed in Melbourne (Happyness & Rocky), and start Because I Said So!!

I'd been sorta dreading the stopover here, as there was a gap of seven hours to kill, but after taking part of the free (free!!) city tour, I don't think there are that many more to go!! Another 3? But because the terminal is so huge here, I'm sure I'll find enough to keep me busy...

It really does feel like a bit of a pause on the way to adventure... as pretty as it was to see Singapore from a bus, I don't really have any urge to spend any more time than I need to here, and my excitement has slowly started to really grow about South Africa!!

Time to check NBA scores, discover the rest of the terminal and let one of the many people waiting for this booth have their turn...

Split personalities?

Due to my flickr being full, I've started to host all my photos on multiply; I'm trying to hold off from migrating fully (i.e. the blog too) to multiply as yet, as I'm pretty sentimental about this blogger site :)

But for pics and other content, feel free to check out (or add me as a contact) my multiply site @ nateleung.multiply.com

What the bleep?! South Africa?! Where'd that come from?!

I've been slow in getting onto a post about it all, but here it is!! 10:05am this Sunday I'll be flying off to South Africa for the next 2.5mths as a volunteer with TEAR/YFC

It's been my desire to go overseas and experience, imbibe and be a part of (however small) God's work in the developing world, and I've been lucky enough to have an opportunity to do so in South Africa

Most of the time I'll be at L'Abri, just helping out wherever (leading weekly bible studies, site maintenance, basic computer tutoring and assisting with the camps); the times where the camp is not active, I'll be spending with the Khayalethu street team :)

Since confirmation (in the last two weeks) it's been a non-stop organisational thing, arranging flights, vaccinations, travel insurance and all the like, and there's still so much to do!!

---

The concept behind L'Abri was birthed out of the disunity of apartheid South Africa. A youth worker back in 1984 had a vision to bring young people back to the simplicity of a natural, balanced environment and guide them in a reconciliation process, bridging cultural and social boundaries.


L'Abri is situated in the Karkloof Mountain range, 50 Km North of Pietermaritzburg where the indigenous forest, scenic trails and waterfalls form the backdrop for people to discover themselves, and the potential of group productivity and companionship. 80% of the property is covered with indigenous mist belt forest, and has 5 waterfalls cascading down the Mshwathi River Valley.


AND the


Khayalethu Project serves homeless children in and around the city of Pietermaritzburg by:

• Providing street based outreach through Street Work teams with the intention of building trust with children and young people, encouraging them to return home or to move into temporary residential care



• Running a holistic, short term residential-based programme that provides for the basic needs of a child, giving opportunity for personal development and intervention with the family that serves towards reunification



• Providing aftercare services on agreed upon expectations with families who have been reunited with their child to provide support and monitor their stability after reunification



• Developing community based prevention programmes in communities where children are at high risk of moving onto the streets on a temporary or permanent basis, via drop-in centre programmes and direct family intervention with families in need of support and care