Bound To Come Some Trouble

Hello everyone.

I can hear the scolding now. I sincerely apologize for how long  it has taken me to upload a post. But I have a very good reason. Actually a lot of good reasons.

I had a beautiful post written on my Blackberry phone and was just waiting for the opportunity to upload it, when my Blackberry was stolen. So, that set me back a week as we dealt with that issue and tried to find me another phone. I retyped the post on my computer and when I was at the church to upload it, my computer stopped working. That set me back another week while I tried to get my computer fixed. Which didn't happen. At that point I was so discouraged with technology I just gave up. Now I am working at Strathyre Home for Girls and I have access to internet so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to let you know why I haven't written in over a month.With just three weeks left I will try to post weekly but things happen so I apologize in advance if it doesn't work out.

The month of April went by so fast and I had an amazing time living in community, working at the Sierra Nevada Primary School with Team indiAfrique, spending another week at Amkhaya and working from Seth's home this last week meeting important people in the area of theatre, painting his house and enjoying good home cooked bunny chows. I've been learning about leadership, freedom vs. control, oppression and assertiveness. I thank God daily that he "did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity but of love and power and of a sound mind."

Thank you for your continued support and prayer and I look forward to seeing everyone again very soon!

Dream and Reminder

What an amazing week this has been! I moved into the church house campus at Jeshua Community Church and became an official member of Team indiAfrique. We are five young people who are living in intentional community and doing outreach projects for the surrounding community and in area schools. There is one South African of Indian descent, one Black , one Colored, one American and one German.

         
As Team indiAfrique Craig, Robert, Elzemieke, Daniel and I went into three different schools this week. At Lenasia South Secondary School we met with thirteen grade tens who are very interested in doing community service projects. We encouraged them to see themselves as leaders in their own school. We are hoping for continued contact with them during the remainder of the school year. At Ennerdale Secondary School we motivated the grade twelves to work hard and to work smart so that they can have 100% pass rate in their class. We also met with the RCL students and encouraged them similarly as the students at LSS. On Friday we met with Dale Abrahams the Principal of Sierra Nevada Primary School about the possibility of offering workshops during the coming week. He was very excited by the skills we could bring through drama, teaching, games, and discussion. We will be at Sierra Nevada from Tuesday through Friday of this week.

          
We also had the opportunities over the last week to meet Christopher Jaftha, a working stage actor, clean the bathrooms with Aunty Elizabeth, open our home for visitors a few times, and take prayer walks through the neighborhood together.

I have absolutely loved living in community. We have to share the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning, but we eat together and joke to together and learn from each other and have become good friends very quickly. I am sad that we only have one more week left of this intentional community living experience. I truly value the lessons I have learned from Elzemieke, Robert, Daniel and Craig.But I know that this will be a blessed week of beloved community and personal growth. Your continued prayers are appreciated. I will leave you this week with a little phrase we've learned from Daniel, “Ich liebe dich.”

All Of My Friends

Last weekend was very busy and I was unable to post. The following is the blogpost I wanted to post last week.

This past week was very similar to the week before. I spent most of my time at either Amakhaya or with the Naicker Family. However, this week brought the arrival of Daniel Kolditz to South Africa from Germany. He is also interning with Seth. This afternoon I will be moving into the living space at the Jeshua Community Church along with the four other current interns. I'd like to introduce you to Daniel, Craig, Elzemieke and Robzin the Poet.

Daniel Kolditz is a 21 year old, blonde haired, blue eyed German guy. He is in his second year of Bible College to become a youth pastor. He was on iThemba in 2010 and met Robert Morgano (Robzin the Poet) who recommended Seth Naicker as someone with whom to study. As apart of his program in Germany Daniel has to do three internships; one each year and he chose to study with Seth instead of an easier program incountry and with YFC (Youth For Christ). Daniel is extremely friendly and is able to strike up a conversation with literally anyone. He has been here for just under a week but God has already used him to touch my life and encourage me. I have learned so much about socializing from his example. I am blessed to know Daniel and I thank God for his life and I rejoice in the gifts that he has been given.

Elzemieke, (EHL-zuh-meek) or Mickey is a beautiful 19 year old girl whose father is Indian and mother is Afrikaana. She finished her matrik (senior year of highschool) and is in a time of waiting for the summer term to begin so she can go study at university to be a primary school teacher. She lives with her family at the House of Compassion; a home and rehabilitation center for men with substance abuse addictions. Her father, Uncle Barney, runs the non-profit home. Mickey has helped me adapt to this culture because of her love of laughter, her willingness to serve and her ability to be very direct. I am really looking forward to getting to know her better as a roommate! I pray for her often that she will have the courage and financial ability to complete her degree. She also has a brilliant mind for languages and can speak at least three languages almost fluently.

Craig Augustine is 24 years old and finishing his degree in Economics. Craig is the Youth Leader at Jeshua Community Church and also leads worship sometimes using his vocal and guitar skills. He is extremely intelligent and loves deep discussion. His favorite quote and inspiration for life is Bob Marley's "Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery". Knowing Craig has allowed me to ask myself where am I mentally enslaved and too want something more than that. From Craig I suffer a lot of teasing but I am thankful for the experience because its teaching me to be strong and sure of myself.

Robert Morgano is a young black South African guy who is a poet by nature. He is currently employed at Wits University and works with the international students. He officially interned last year with Seth Naicker but he is such a great guy that Seth called him back to live at the house with us. He has been teaching me a few dance moves and has more than once said something to me out of the blue that was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. I see God's hand in having Robert in my life!

I am very excited for the weeks of living together this team will have. I continue to thank God for the work he is doing in my life and the lives of those I meet.

The Lord Is My Light

Happy Easter everyone!

I must confess that homesickness struck this week. Between Musical Menus, learning that I was not cast in a show I auditioned for, and Easter I felt very keenly everything I am missing back home. Although that really put a damper on my week I also had one of the most fulfilling weeks so far.

I spent the majority of my time at the Amakhaya Home for children. The home is a small house with a kitchen, two bedrooms (one for boys and one for girls), one bathroom with one toilet, an office and a very small eating and hangout space. There are two staff members, a young women and a young man, who live there 24/7 with the 12 children (7 girls, 5 boys). The children all come from very difficult backgrounds that include rape, HIV+, death and physical and emotional abuse but some do still have access to their families.

Some of the challenges of living there were the food (many time their meals are comprised of various consistencies of mealy-meal), the lack of toilet paper, and the fact that all but one of the residents speak Sotho as their first language. They can all communicate in English as well but not easily or clearly.

The blessings of living there was being privy to the entire lifestyle of these children, witnessing firsthand how quickly orphans can move from hysterical laughter to sullen silence and discovering that I can indeed use theatre to help orphans the way I have secretly hoped for years that I could.

I wasn't planning on directing a skit with the children but they asked me to teach them to act so they could perform at the Good Friday service. I don't know where they got the idea that it was an option, but I was very willing to try. With a script that I had written a week before with this project in mind (before the plans changed) we jumped right in. It was challenging because none of the children had acting experience and English was a struggle for them, but the amount of passion they had for the project was inspiring. Even when we took breaks from rehearsing they continued to talk about the project and encourage each other to learn their lines and speak better English.

We only had two full days to put the skit together and by the middle of the second day we were all getting irritated with the process. The children kept stumbling over the same words and the same moments. I was tired of giving them the same instruction and their lack of focus at that time concerned me. I didn't want them to get up in front of people the next morning and make fools of themselves and I knew that they needed to master the lines but I didn't seem to have the power to inspire that commitment.

That evening Aunty Joyce, the women who runs the home, asked to see the skit. She was able to get the children to be more expressive and to understand the time restraint upon memorizing their lines. I was so grateful for her directness with the children and for using her status to help them place value upon their hard work.

The performance was a success. All of the children did extremely well and the church body really appreciated their performance. While I am glad that the performance went well, I am more excited about what the project did for the children. One of the girls has been told that she has a learning problem and will never be able to learn well, and English is quite difficult for her, but she got up in front of people and spoke memorized English lines with clarity and focus. The boy who played Jesus also struggled to memorize the lines and speak them clearly in English, but with the encouragement from myself, Aunty Joyce and the other children he made the strides to confidently present himself in front of people.

I have now seen in action the power of theatre in the lives of children. There is power in getting children to speak, in getting children to express and to perform and when the experience is over the children are so proud of themselves and of what they have accomplished. They have been made aware that they have potential and they have been given the experiences and skills to accomplish great things in their futures.

I have now been here for one month! There is still two months left for learning but time will go quickly! Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I love you all!

I Will Wait

Hello everyone!


This week was kind of slow to be honest!

On Monday I worked again at Heartlines finishing up the database we were working on last week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent resting and relaxing. Tuesday I went to the Lenasia mall, Trade Route, and saw Hansel and Gretel(not as bad as I expected but not really good.) Thursday I went to the Rosebank Mall with some new old friends (Dieter Botha and Jonathon Abrahams who were both on Team iThemba) and we saw Django Unchained (pretty good, but is blood really that slimy?) 6riday evening at Youth we took to the streets shouting "Human Rights Are Our Responsibility!!!"

March 21st was Human Rights Day, a public holiday that honors the Sharpville Massacre where 60 people were killed when police opened fire without order on civilians who weren't carrying their required passbooks.

Saturday morning I helped Aunty Elizabeth and her granddaughter Tzcheza clean Jeshua Community Church.

Saturday afternoon I went to see Oz The Great and Powerful (very fun and well crafted, the graphics were a little annoying because it was obvious they we computer generated) with a new friend named Yeshika. I spent Friday and Saturday night at Merrishia's parents house who live very close to the church. So, I had my first experience with a host family. It was fine! They were very welcoming and made sure that I was comfortable. It also gave me an opportunity to practice the new skills of conversation I am acquiring.

Sunday, I performed a monologue I wrote in church. I was very pleased with my performance but it needed some better directoral decisions.

Today I am moving to the Amakhaya Home for Children and will spend at least a week there working with the young people and learning more about how others live. I would appreciate prayers for a sharp mind, courage and good sleep as well as motivation to continue pushing myself.

I called home last night and it was really good to hear my family's voices!

Oh, one last thing. I have written a number of letters but have been unable to send them because the post is on strike here! So whenever I am finally able to send them out if they seem a little dated, it is because they are! Also, I might not receive any mail for a while.

Say It Now

This past week has been one of continual blessing, growth and encouragement. I have had so many wonderful experiences and met so many people.

Last Sunday evening I attended Doxa Deo, a predominantly white church founded for the Afrikaana culture. The Afrikaana people are descended from the Dutch who brought their trade here. The Afrikaans language is a very interesting mixture of Dutch, English, German and African languages. The church is trying to take steps forward in diversity and having Seth preach was one way for them to do so. Seth preached about “Standing in the Gap” from Ezekiel. The passage calls for a man to stand in the gap between the corruption of the city and the perfect that waits. After the message there was a time of socializing out in the coffee shop area of church lobby. I met a young woman named Danica who is studying theatre. We hit it off right away and went out for coffee together Monday afternoon. I loved looking at South Africa from a different cultural perspective and was surprised that there were a lot of similarities between hers and mine. I really enjoyed her company and hope that I will get to hang out with her again before I go home!

On Tuesday I went to the Hector Peterson Museum along with four students from Duke University who are in South Africa for one of their business classes evaluating the company Heartlines (which is one of the consulting companies Seth does work for). The Hector Peterson Museum commemorates the June 16^th, 1976 uprising that took place in Soweto. During apartheid the Afrikaana regime decided that Afrikaans was the medium for instruction in all of the schools. The black students in the Soweto schools were furious and wanted that to change. They met together, formed plans and took to the streets in a peaceful rally on June 16^th, 1976. No one is really sure what happened or who “shot first” but police opened fire on the young people and chaos ensued that lasted for days and had repercussions that lasted months.

This is a famous picture from the first day of the uprising. The dead boy in the arms of the other boy is Hector Peterson, thought to be the first child killed. The girl is Antoinette Sihkole, his older sister. Because Seth has a connection with her because of the work he has done over the last twelve years, the Duke students and I had the immense honor of hearing the story of the uprising from her personal memories. She told us about the sense of victory the students had upon taking to the streets, the confusion when the police tear gassed them, the fear of seeing her eleven year old brother at the rally when he wasn’t supposed to be there and the desperation when she discovered her brother was dead.

            I was introduced to the story of Hector Peterson years ago by Team iThembabut had forgotten most of it. It was very inspiring to hear it again from someone who was there.

Wednesday and Thursday I spent at Heartlines along with my fellow interns, Elzemeike and Craig, calling NPOs for their contact information for a database that Heartlines is compiling for a corporate company called SASOL. They were long days but the company was great, we had a few good laughs as we struggled to pronounce “Heartlines” so people could understand it (Hot lines? Hard life? Hot life???) and I learned a bit about the lay out of South Africa. South Africa has nine provinces. We called NPOs in the Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

On Friday I observed three consultations Seth gave over the course of the day to three different groups all involved in the same project. The Seacom Solution Quest is a social mission project that SEACOM, an African internet company, is trying to initiate in the Tembisa High School. We met with the SEACOM peopl in the morning at their headquarters and then transferred to the highschool for the meeting with the teachers and the one with the students. The main idea is to motivate the students to take the initiative for themselves to work for the social, academic and physical changes they would like to see in their school. I met a lot of the young people and they are very excited about becoming leaders in their school. They made commitments to themselves and to each other that from here on out they will keep each other accountable and be the call that will bring about the change they promised their school. It is likely I will return with Seth later during my internship to see how things are going and to continue to motivate the students on towards self facilitated change.

I lead a few theatre games at the Friday night Youth meeting. They were pretty well received. We played around with getting your body engaged and active in different ways by toying with near/far, focus points and connections to each other. We ran out of time for the exercise that was going to explore self-esteem and self-confidence, the items we are focusing on with the young people, but Nakita had a wonderful exercise that dealt with the subject even better. First we wrote on a piece of paper how we felt about ourselves. We taped it to our backs, covered it with another piece of paper and wrote on each other’s back how we thought about them. At least for me, the difference between my perspective of myself and everyone else’s perspective was quite vast. I must keep that in mind when I get down on myself.

Well, that’s all for now! I’m attending a birthday party and baby dedication this afternoon with Seth’s family. I am excited to see an Indian South African birthday party and dedication.

As you are inclined, please pray for my body to adjust to the sleep schedule. I got hit with jet-lag really bad in the middle of this week. Being tired makes it very difficult to focus on the learning and to push myself where I need to. Also, I would appreciate prayer that I would knock down the walls of fear and low self-esteem that continue to mount against me.

Thank you for your support and love!

Alison

Sekunjalo (Now Is The Time)

Sunday, March 10^th – 14:40

Good afternoon everyone!

I have been here in South Africa now for four and a half days and have already learned so much about myself and have had so many great experiences.

First I want to let you all know that my flights were wonderful. It was on my bucket list to fly over land and the ocean during the night. It wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be because I forgot to take into account that it is dark at night and you can’t see anything. However, the stars were glorious and I saw the northern lights over Greenland. It was amazing to see them at eye level! On my second flight I met a wonderful young woman named Lucy from JoBurg who currently lives in Lieds with her English husband and works as a choreographer. Our flight landed in South Africa around 10:30pm and the airport was very empty. It only took about 20 minutes to get through customs and pick up my baggage. I was met there by Merrishia Singh-Naicker and taken to their new house.

Seth and Merrishia and their three beautiful children moved into a new house the day before I arrived and they are having some extensive building projects done on the house even as I write this. They are hoping that everything will be completed by the end of this next week. But for now we live with builders, dirt on the floors, loud noises and the stress of it all.

The first two days were off days and I spent time with the children and ran errands with Merrishia getting to know the land. On Thursday night we had dinner at a restaurant called Spur and went over the contract for my internship. I wish I had a picture of the interior of Spur. It is American Indian themed but in a very laughable and stereotyped way. If I go back I will take a picture and post it here.

On Friday I went with the Naickers to their 5 year old daughter’s sports day at her school. Mahalia was so proud of her accomplishment in the walk-with-a-bean-bag-on-your-head race. It didn’t fall off her head once! Although the school was multi-racial the majority were from the white Afrikaans race. I also attended the evening Youth meeting at Jeshua Community Church. The majority of students who attended that night were Indian and a few were Black. Craig and Nakita, the youth leaders, were extremely welcoming to me and I had a great time talking with them. I am really looking forward to working with them for the remainder of my internship. Although the youth weren’t as outlandishly excited by the presence of an American as Craig told me they would be, one young man remarked on how cool it is that my eyes are grey.

Saturday I had the great blessing to join Seth and 13 grade 10s from Lenasia South Secondary and two of their teachers at the Amakyah Home and the Disabled Refugees Project to serve as needed. I mopped and cleaned the bathroom. I met two young Indian boys named Obadiah and Data. I also met a Black women named Bertha who lives at the Disabled Refugees Project with her husband, Moses, and their baby daughter Mercy. At the end of the two hour time of service Seth spoke to the young people and really encouraged them to think about what they had done. It wasn’t just cleaning toilets; it was helping people have a better and healthier life. Seth’s hope is to build a team of young people to be social advocates. I, along with Craig and a young woman named Alzameek, will probably work with them at their school and further service weekends.

This morning I attended the Sunday service at Jeshua Community Church. I gave a short five minute introduction about myself as the guest speaker in their series of “Focus on Community”. I also played “Amazing Grace” on pennywhistle at the end of the service during a quiet reflection time. The church body is made up of all the four major races in South Africa and welcomes the children from the Amakyah Home, the men from the House of Compassion, and the men and women from the Disabled Refugees Project. There are also men and women who attend who are not Christian, but everyone is welcomed and helped as they are ready. Seth says that he leaves salvation up to God. It is our job to love and to work for reconciliation between all people. If those people who do not follow Christ feel that Jeshua Community Church is a place they are loved and welcomed than they are receiving the message of Christ.

Whew!!!! It’s only been four days!!! I hope that I haven’t bored anyone. I appreciate knowing that there are friends and family in the States supporting me in prayer. It has already been a roller coaster of emotions and experiences but I am confident that Christ will bring to completion the good work that he has begun in me.

And just for fun here is a vocabulary lesson

AMERICAN – SOUTH AFRICAN

Bathroom – toilet

Napkin – serviette

Diaper – napkin (YIKES!!! Don’t ask for a napkin at dinner!)

Candy – sweet

Faucet – tap

Trash can – trash bin

This is good – This is nice

With love! I miss you all! I think of everyone I know at various times and just the thought of you warms my heart.

Alison

Oh…by the way. The cream soda is green here. Electric Kelly Green.