People

As you know if you’ve regularly read my blog, I met some wonderful people in S.A. and so feel the need here to include a photo of those who’ve particularly made an impression on me.

Actually I've included pics of most of the people from COTT!

This is Mpilisi (pronounced 'm-pill-easy') who's room was next door to ours. He took quite a shine to me and always sat next to me and spoke to me. At first it was a bit weird really but I'm sure he meant it in the mood of hospitality. He really wanted a tonsure clerical collar shirt but they are £100 in S.A. and only £25 in the UK so I've ordered 1 for him and will post it when it arrives. Somewhat unexpectedly, he could play the drums!

This is me and Dom with Kholisile (pronounced 'collar-sea-lay') who nickname is Ma Thousand. He says it's his nickname because he has thousands of money (well not him, but his diocese) but others say it's because he had thousand stories!! The second is surely true as he continually told stories and made Dom and I laugh. He was actually V kind to us and became a friend, indeed one of my funnier friends!

This is Monde who was hilarious! He was in my Form G, and only had to open his mouth and we burst out laughing! He didnt appear to take much seriously at all! This is Nonto who was quite sweet and often chatted to us. She was the assistant sacristan.
This is Mninawe (pronounced as 'min-are-way') who was also known as Gift. He was a V quiet person!
This is Brent who was also a V kind person who always took time to ask how we were. He is also 1 of the families who had us over for a wonderful English breakfast!

This is Anthea and Jeannine. They were somewhat motherly, especially towards Dom at times!

This is James. He is V quiet. He was 1 who had never used a computer before, but he sure tried hard.This is Sefularo and his wife Vivian. Sefularo was 1 of the marimba players.

This is Johannah who was V quiet with us, she also played in the marimba band.

This is Jon and I with Lovington (pronounced Lavington) who was kind and 1 of the students in charge of the library.

This is Fungayi (pronounced 'fun-guy') and he is COTT's chaplain. He regularly wears this green cassock but also has a green shirt sometimes, and just occasionally wore 'normal' clothes! He wore green as that is the colour of the community he was/is a member of, the Community of the Holy Transfiguration. It's green to represent life, creation, nature. He wore white on Sundays, as they always celebrate the transfiguration on Sundays. He was a V funny man indeed and I spent much time with him as he was in my Formation Group. I got on well with him. He taught 'Christian Doctrines in Context' and to be honest it was more just Christian doctrines, but it was V interesting and V similar to our teachings at home. He was often challenging+some students found him V controversial. Often he would get excited when teaching and yell!

This is Titus, the chapel sacristan. As you know he became a friend of ours. He was funny and kind and included us a lot. This is Pinky who was lovely but somewhat unorganised! As you can also see, she is pretty stylish! Indeed,one the first week at COTT she nearly threw a fit when someone said she couldn't have a manicure before administering the chalice as he nails should be discreet!

This is Maria. She was V quiet with us but was quite a dominate figures in some ways as her and Gregory always had something loud to debate! She also had a nice singing voice.
This is Sanele. He was quite funny and was the main man behind the Friday evening action DVD's we watched.

This is Fr.Isaias, his wife Hilda (or 'Ilda') and their children. They were kind and Fr.Isaias was funny but I dont think he meant to be! He had certain phrases he repeated regularly, and was the 1 in charge of the exchange programme at COTT's side of things. He taught 'Ethics of Sexuality' and 'Mission' (which I only did for a couple of weeks in the end as it kept clashing with other things). His teaching style was 1 of letting the students talk and I learnt most during my time in S.A. in the ethics classes as students would be talking about their experiences and cultural traditions in relation to issues of sex, gender, adulthood, childhood, procreation, etc etc. -A funny side comment: on our first lesson we had to say what we brought to the group, and everyone said I bring myself and my knowledge/experiences, etc, and then Titus said he brought condoms!!! It was so unexpected, I couldn't stop laughing!!

This is Ashley, and Grant Walters. They were friends before they came to COTT and Grant particularly was a joker. They often watched the Friday evening films too. This is Amos (pronounced 'Am-os'). He had some good insights to share and also included us often.

This is Matsietso (pronoucned 'Mat-sea-et-so'). She's the 1st female ordinand to be sent from Lesotho. She's had a difficult life. When first at COTT she seemed V quiet but by the end of our time there she was V loud and always messing around in front of the group. She could sing really well too.This is Vernon, Natasha and their 2 boys. Vernon was V talkative! He worked with computers in the past so was often helping others on them! Him and Natasha are expecting another baby, and the family had us round for an English breakfast 1 day which was fab. We got on quite well with them. In someways they seemed a V Western family, but in others I guess they weren't.

This is Albert, his wife and their boy Kenny. Albert sat next to me in Chapel and enjoyed banging a cushion during songs which I also enjoyed! Kenny was adorable and I loved having little interactions with him. He would sometimes come to chapel and would run around all over the place, even up the front in front of the Altar and I loved that they all just let him carry on running around and playing and having fun in chapel.

This is COTT's Rector Bill and his wife Shona. They were great people, kind and V interesting. They'd done so many amazing things in their lives and Bill really had a big heart for COTT and the students seemed grateful for the good work he was doing. This is Zanele, she was in my Formation Group and was 1 of the more talkative women. We often laughed together in our Form G meetings. She had a wonderful singing voice.

This is Gregory, or Bishop Gregory as his nickname at COTT was! He was someone I spent much time with and got to know V well. He was V kind to me and often organised things for us or checked how we were doing. He was in my Form G and was also funny! And he had an amazing, deep singing voice.

This is Tshenolo (pronounced 't-no-la'). She was in charge of the chapel music.This is Grant Damoes. He was the student chairperson and V occasionally brought his guitar in to chapel. He was a funny guy, always making a joke!

This is Fr.Percy who taught my 'Implementing Transformation in a Community Using Christian Principles' which I've referred to in a previous post and 'Christianity in Africa' where he was arguing that Christianity could be seen as an African religion. He was also studying for a Masters.

This is Swazi and his family. He was a nice, quiet man. He was in my Form G and was also the man I borrowed a cassock from!

This is Ntombekhaya (pronounced 'n-tom-bek-a') -a quiet lady in my Form G,but she liked to laugh when someone made a joke!, a lady whose name I never knew because she never spoke to us, me, and Kea -a nice lady.

This is Nkosikhona (pronounced 'co-sea-cone-a') or just Nkosi for short. He was a funny chap in an odd way! He also became quite a friend. He was always running around and making chicken noises and the like! In chapel we often sang 'Khosi Khosi' to the marimbas and as its said the same way as his name, Dom and I sang it when we saw him! He was V happy when we taught him 'If your Happy and you know it'! -In fact we later taught a group of students 'If you're happy and you know it' as they asked us for an English chorus and it was all we could think of!! Dom also began to sing to them 'If I was a fuzzy-wuzzy bear', at which point we fell about laughing!!

This is Albert, Jokobo -in my Form G but only came half the time, he always had a long point to make in class which was often challenging what had been said!, Lundi -quite a quiet person, Nkosi, and Godukile -who was a V funny man indeed! In this pic from left to right starting on the back row is: Vicente -a guy from Mozambique, Albert, Simphiwe -the Communications Officer at COTT, Fanafoot, Swazi's wife and boy, Onkabetse (also known as 'Edward') -a kind man who was the Kitchen Liaison Officer so he always got most food!, Luthando. And on the front row: Brent, Mpilisi, Dom, Lyand, me, Swazi, and Vernon.