The Ups and Downs of It

In my quest to become an American African, there are bound to be setbacks along the road. This last week was one of them.

We had no running water two days last week, I had a horrible experience at the grocery store, was in a few spectacular traffic jams (where people made up their own traffic lanes in a futile effort to move ahead), and there's *still* a pigeon in my roof. Where I thought I had made great strides in patience and flexibility, I took huge steps backwards. My friend Rian says, "A country's way of doing things is designed to make its citizens comfortable, not its visitors," or something to that effect. He's right, and I am reminded once again that I am not a citizen here.

I hate the fact that occasionally I get amazingly frustrated with South Africa, that I can't let every little thing roll off my back, and that I can't be the perfect model of adaptability, flexibility and resilience.

I still love South Africa, but I'm frustrated with myself.

For Refugees Everywhere...

Anyone who has moved to another country will understand this, but especially refugees:

"I had a feeling that day that I was losing something, that I was mourning a death that had not yet occurred. I felt as if all things personal were being crushed like small wildflowers to make way for a more ornate garden, where everything would be tamed and organised. I had never felt this sense of loss when I was a student in the States. In all those years, my yearning was tied to the certainty that home was mine for the having, that I could go back anytime I wished. It was not until I had reached home that I realised the true meaning of exile. As I walked those dearly beloved, dearly remembered streets, I felt I was squashing the memories that lay underfoot." - Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Pigeon Saga Continues...

The Pest Control guy has come back three more times. Apparently all the holes are plugged, but the pigeon was trapped in our roof. He had to go up into the attic, catch the bird, and then humanely release it into the wild (how nice of him... much nicer than I would have been). Ten minutes later - I kid you not - the pigeon flew back into the roof and promptly got stuck. Again. How dumb are pigeons??

And then it hit me - however dumb pigeons are, people can be that dumb as well. How many times to we get ourselves into a situation, can't see a way out, beg God for help, and when He helps us, we somehow manage to get ourselves back into the same situation ten minutes later? How often do we settle for the known and the comfortable- falling back into old patterns- when there is freedom and open spaces to be had elsewhere?

"Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free... Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." - John 8:31, 34-36

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but this I know - I want to live in freedom and walk in the light.

10 Random Reasons Why I Love South Africa

1. South Africa is the only nation whose flag has six colours.
2. South Africa's national anthem is the only one in the world with a key change.
3. South Africa was the first nation to build, and then voluntarily dismantle, it's entire nuclear weapons programme.
4. There are 11 official languages.
5. South African English has bits and pieces of the other ten official languages in it.
6. South Africans know how to put relationships ahead of tasks. You can stop by someone's house for coffee ,and even if they were on their way to the store, they will stop everything and spend an hour with you.
7. South Africa has the 3rd highest level of biodiversity in the world.
8. South Africa is home to the world's largest hospital (and, incidentally, the world's first heart transplant was pioneered here in South Africa).
   
9. South Africa is the only nation to establish commercially viable oil-from-coal operations.
10. South Africa houses the largest correspondence university in the world.
    

Worse Than Green Eggs and Ham

There are Rock Pigeons in my roof. I've called Pest Control three times, but the birds still manage to come back. We've removed nests, sprayed, put in mesh, metal spikes - you name it - but the birds insist upon making a home in my roof.

So, in the spirit of Dr. Seuss, I have a few things to say about Rock Pigeons:


I do not like Rock Pigeon birds
Especially in family herds

I do not like them in my roof
I do not like them in a kloof

I do not want them on a ledge
Please push them o'er the steepest edge

I do not like them, Pest Control
I do not want them here at all!

They carry mites and fleas and things
They're rather more like rats with wings

Why are they keen on urban life?
I only like them dood en styf

So, Pest Control, I'll pay you geld
To chase them to the lower veld

Away from all my property
Because, you see, they bother me!

They build a nest above my head
While I lie sleeping in my bed

I hear them scratching in the beams
And cooing, mating, in my dreams

They enter through the tile and bricks;
I hit the roof with hockey sticks!

But still they persevere to stay -
For free! - what cheeky nerve have they!

I do not like Rock Pigeon birds
And now I have run out of words.

War of the Hoses, Part 2

A while back I wrote about our back neighbours who like spraying us with water from a hosepipe over the wall. Lately, though, they've found new ways to torment us.

Someone bought our neighbour's children a vuvuzela (if you don't know what that is, imagine a long, plastic trumpet-thing that sounds like a goat giving birth). Every night, just as I am drifting off to sleep, the horn of the vuvuzela appears over our wall and blasts a lovely good-night call to us. Then, just before my alarm goes off in the morning, I am awakened by a vuvuzela reveille (I *almost* don't need to set my alarm).

I do not know what we have done to incur such punishment from our neighbour's children, but honestly, I'm starting to feel like I live in Jericho.

All I can say is, if they start marching around our house, I'm hanging a red cord out of my bedroom window!

Confession Time

I am irritated with SABC. They bought the rights to broadcast the Olympics, but are only showing a one-hour highlight each day. They "sold" that to DSTV, so you can also watch the highlights on several of the Super Sports channels.

I anxiously awaited the one hour highlight show so I could watch bits and pieces of the Opening Ceremony, but halfway through the programming switched to a documentary on the Albino Society of Tanzania (I am *not* making this up). So I only got to watch 35 minutes of Olympics... and they SKIPPED the lighting of the torch!

I scoured BBC news online, CNN, the Vancouver 2010 website, and even Al Jazeera for photos of the Opening Ceremony, but I only found one of the Olympic torch being lit (thank you Vancouver2010.com).

And now I am battling the guilt of caring more about the Olympics than the albinos of Tanzania. Those people are being killed for their lack of skin pigmentation... surely that trumps alpine skiing? And what does this say about me if I care more about one hour of entertainment than the cares of the world?

This brings up an interesting philosophical question: Must we constantly bear the weight of the world on our shoulders or can we allow ourselves to be entertained for a bit each day? Does our mental health require a daily dose of "down time", and does that include entertainment? Or must we work more diligently to share hope with a fallen world, caring more about the needs of others than our own petty desires for entertainment?

I work for an NPO in Africa and I still feel guilty. It's probably just my own hang-up, but still... I don't want to be on my deathbed someday and regret that I didn't do enough. I doubt I will regret that I didn't watch more Olympics. To be able to look back on my life and say, "I do not regret my journey"... that will be the mark of success for me. And quite frankly, that's better than an Olympic gold medal.

"The supreme desire of my life is to give myself in reckless abandon to Christ." - Ed McCully