Week One

Justin raises and sells birds, and on Friday he bought 2 babies and their parents.  I got to help him feed them porridge with a spoon.  He has 4 pairs of birds now and he sells the babies.  Justin has 6 Ringneck parakeets, 3 cocktail, some Gold and Cichlid fish, and a turtle.  Some family from East London (South Africa) were at the house from Thursday till Monday.  Uncle Mark left for Capetown Monday shortly after they left so the house was very very full then almost completely empty!  They bought us a new flat screen TV when they first came.  Everyone was very excited as we mounted it on the wall and turned it on.

 Here's a picture of the parents.

  This is a picture from the house looking at the informal settlement (across the road behind the house) which I attempted to describe in my last post.

This is a picture from the driveway looking over the neighborhood.

So I have been going to work at CLP for two days now.  A few people are out of the office so it has been quiet; which has been nice since I have been doing lots of reading!  I have been enjoying reading some short papers/articles that CLP wrote.  Here's a link to them on their website:  http://www.churchland.org.za/?page_id=95

So, if you are wondering what CLP does and a little bit about what I will be doing, read the 'Occasional Papers.'  For the first bit, it looks like I will be learning some isiZulu by taking a class or two, and I will be reading to learn more about CLP.  After a few months or so of learning isiZulu, it looks like I will be participating a little bit with the program activists.  Something along those lines, but TIA (this is Africa), so we will see what happens!

Sorry my blog posts are slightly rushed, so they aren't exactly organized and there isn't much proofreading! (Editor's note: EXCUSE ME?!)

Home Sweet Home

 When you walk in, you walk into the lounge area.  It is small but comfy.

 This is the lounge area from the other side of the room.  To the right is a stand with a small tv.

From the lounge you walk into a hallway where you can go right into the kitchen or left down a hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms. It's

kinda like a triangle.  This is the kitchen, small but comfy with a nice oven and a new microwave.

So down the hallway the bathroom is on the right.  The toilet has it's own little room then the sink and tub are right next to it.  Every morning I take a bucket bath in the tub.  There is no shower so we just put some water in a big bucket and use a large cup to pour water on ourselves.  It works quite well.  In the corner of the bathroom there is a very nice washer for doing laundry.  Driers are not very common since it is sunny during the day pretty much every day so there is no need for a drier.  (the rain comes in the afternoon)

Right next to the room with the toilet is my room.  I have a very big bed (twin bed) and a sewing machine with some bags of cloth next to it (sewing machine is covered).  The room is spacious and comfy. Strait out from my window, over the neighbors house, and across the road is an

informal settlement.  It spreads across a big hill and at night I can usually hear bunches of dogs barking, if i keep the window closed they aren't very loud though.

So far it has been nice and relaxing.  Uncle Mark (host dad) usually takes me and shows me around somewhere once a day.  He took me on the Kumbi (taxi) to show me the rout I will be taking every day to work.  I'm not sure when I start work Monday. I will be learning some Zulu and getting to know how CLP works.  Thursday the 2nd I will be doing a 'meet and greet.' We have gone to the mall, the market (several times for groceries), and he showed me a nice route to run.  I'm not sure how far one lap is, but my guess is around .8 miles.  The first day I only made it two laps... kind of disappointing, but the hills are massive and constant.  There is one huge hill and another large hill (all of the hills are bigger than the ones in Indiana), so it will take some getting used to.  The next morning I ran with Justin (host brother) and we did 2 slow laps, then I ran 3 fast ones, then the next day 4, so I'm getting used to it quickly :).  I would say my highlights are running.  If I don't wear a shirt, I get all kinds of cheering and yelling from the kids along the road which is fun.  But yeah, as I run most people I pass say something encouraging, which is nice.  Everyone has been very friendly.  On Sunday we went to church.  Uncle Mark is a pastor there, so we greeted most people as they came in.  The service was very different from the church services at Walnut Hill (which has been the case for every church I've been to since coming to South Africa, which was expected).  The church is a smaller church, probably about 50 people were there.   Only a few people drove to church--most road a bus.  Wednesday night, Rory (I think he's the youth pastor, though I am not sure) picked Justin and me up and took us to Malcolm's house (Justin's brother).  It was the youth group for BCI (Breakthrough Church International) church where Malcolm works and Justin attends with him every Sunday before going to work at the mall.  Youth group was nice; we played some games to get to know each other and listened to a song and prayed and had some snacks.  There were 9 of us including Malcolm and his wife (plus 3 little kids that played in the room next to us).

Orientation in Pietermaritzburg

The first day here in Pietermaritzburg it was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit so we drove an hour to Durban and went to Ushaka water park! Here is a picture of the skyline of Durban.

This is the last piece of the prison left in Durban. During the apartheid there were many political prisoners here. It is in front of the convention center.

 One of the days this week we drove to Mpophomeni, a township of Pietermaritzburg, to see two of the work placements that are at Aids clinics there.  This is a picture of the cemetery there.  Funerals are common on Saturday afternoons.

 This is a picture of the second largest waterfall in South Africa.  It is about 80 meters and if you look at the picture you can see the black on the rocks, once the dry season is over the water will fall over all of the black areas.

 This is a house made of grass that is in a traditional Zulu settlement.  The houses are quite amazing.  There is no better design for a home in South Africa.  During the summers they stay cool as they can breath, and during the winters they stay very warm with a fire in the middle.

 This is a picture of the inside, the door is very small.

 Here you can see why the doors are so low (someones actual house).  With the fires in the center and no hole in the roof the smoke spreads out in the house and goes through the grass walls/roof.  There are no chairs and one does not walk around in the house, so inhaling smoke is not a problem. 

This is a picture of the Indian Ocean and a little bit of Durban when we were at the water park-Ushaka.  

The internet is being really slow right now and the rest of my pictures will not load and I probably will not have internet for the next week because today I will be going home with my host parents after we have a braai.  I will be staying with Mark and Prasila and their son.  Mark and Prasila are both pastors at New Anointing.  I will be working with the Church Land Program (CLP) for the next 10 months.  They are an organization that started in 1997, a few years after the Apartheid, that works with the churches by helping them find out how much land they have and what to do with the land that they do have.  The CLP helps amplify the voices of those who do not own land.

 Okay so the picture above is of a garden about an hour from Pietermaritzburg where we went yesterday (Thursday) to stop and relax for the day.  The garden is absolutely beautiful with a natural stream that runs through with drinkable water.  We reflected on where we are coming from and where we are now.  It was very peaceful and great for preparing to move in with our host families.

This is a picture of a Weaver finch with nests around it (there are tons of these birds here) in a botanical garden here in Pietermaritzburg.  We went there two days this week to reflect on the assumptions and expectations we came with.

Orientation in Johannesburg

So I picked up my visa/passport at around 9:15 am and flew out at of O'hare at 10:50 am Friday and arrived in Johannesburg at 5:00 pm (11 am Indiana time) Saturday! From there my time here has been jam packed with learning and exploring!  The next morning we went to a church in Hillbrow where the energy throughout the service was amazing! (sorry I do not have any pictures from the first few couple of days).  If you want to see more pictures, you can check out my South Africa album on Facebook! Feel free to ask questions!

 The above picture was taken in an informal settlement called Kliptown in Johannesburg.  KYP is an awesome program that provides an education and much more for the kids in these settlements.  The program was actually started by the youth!

 We drove past Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's house and Desmond Mpilo Tutu's house on the most famous street (name seen above) since both of them grew up on the same road and both have received the Nobel Prize.

 There is a lot going on in this picture.  To the right you can see a little bit of the largest soccer stadium in all of Africa.  In the background you can see a large mound of dirt which is actually one of many mountain-like piles of waste dirt from the gold mines in Johannesburg.  The smoke in the picture is from a controlled burn.  As winter (dry season) is ends and the rainy season approaches the dead grass is burned.  Right now it looks like Indiana during the winter, minus the snow, since everything is very brown due to the lack of rain.

 We visited the Hector Pieterson museum Monday and the Apartheid museum on Tuesday.  Very moving and heavy.

This is a picture of one of the cameras that takes the picture that you receive in the mail with a ticket!  Don't speed!

Orientation in Las Angeles (Hollywood)

 This week has been jam packed with learning and fun.  We visited Sana Monica beach one night after a long day of discussing racism. 

 The above picture is from the museum of modern art in Las Angeles.

 One of the days this week we learned a lot about looking at a neighborhood and learning many things about it from what one can simply see.  We also learned about gangs and the different types of graffiti.

 After a wonderful tour of some of the great places in Las Angeles we topped it off by eating at an all you can eat Korean Barbecue.

 This is the DOOR house that we have been staying at.  It is located in an awesome area of Hollywood, right by Paramount studios!

 Here is a picture of the iconic Hollywood sign taken from the observatory.

 This is the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood where we met with the director of DOOR and the Dwellers (a group that is doing a year of service in Hollywood) to learn about homelessness in Hollywood.

 After having a discussion on restorative justice we went to a restaurant in Chinatown where we were served all kinds of delicious food.

 A beautiful mural on a building we saw in downtown Las Angeles while roaming around on our "free day".

On Sunday we attended the above church.  They have an Indonesian service and an English service each Sunday and are working on making it one service. We listened to a wonderful sermon on fasting (translated from Indonesian to English).

The Beginning

Greetings family and friends.  I am writing you today to update you on my decision to go to South Africa. So my journey to South Africa in many ways started with Mennonite Church USA Convention 2013.  I learned a little about immigration when I was near the border in Arizona last summer and since then I have followed my urge to learn more about immigration and migration by going to a detention center in Georgia and traveling to Guatemala.  After hearing peoples stories and seeing the lives of others I have become very interested in learning more about the cycle of poverty and how it interacts with the displacement of people.  

On August 24th my journey to South Africa begins!  I will be participating in the Mennonite Mission Network program called Radical Journey.  I will be living with my host family in PieterMaritzBurg, attending their church, and I will be volunteering (where is TBA).  The volunteer position will be through the church and I may be working with people who lost their land during the apartheid.  I would be walking with these people by listening to their stories and journaling their experiences.

The cost of my trip is around $10,000.  I have raised $7,500 dollars through the Nelson’s BBQ fundraiser in March, the job I had this summer, my graduation money, Walnut Hill Mennonite Church donation, and my savings.   The $10,000 will go towards: my visa to be in South Africa, my flight to California (for orientation),  my airfare to South Africa, and the stipend given to the family I will live with (so your contributions will be double fold). At this time I am $2,500 short of my goal which I need to raise as quickly as possible.

I will be returning to Goshen, IN in July 2015.  I would appreciate your prayer support while I am in South Africa. I will be updating the Blog regularly.  If you would like donate monetarily towards my journey please write checks to Trever Yoder and mail them to:

℅ Brenda Weaver

18392 CR 46

New Paris IN 46553

Thank you for your support,

Trever Yoder