Health and safety and cleanliness

Going to S.A. you take your life into your hands and I don’t mean because of the high crime rate or illnesses, but mainly because of the lack of health, safety and cleanliness! For instance, in cars, it is common place for them to have chips or cracks in the windscreen and one of the cars we regularly went in even had a crack half the size of the windscreen across it, most talk on their mobiles while driving (though its illegal there I don’t think much is done about it), many cars have no ‘safety belts’ (i.e. seat belts), and more often than not we drove with 4 adults squashed into the back! If I was going to die in S.A., it certainly would be in a car. Other examples of a lack of health and safety concern, are that people hung off the back of trucks as they drove along, and construction work (which actually happened remarkably quickly, i.e. we saw whole roads and buildings built during our time there rather than them taking months or years!) on roads had no tape blocking it off or other safety devises so that you could, or in some cases had to, walk literally a few inches from a guy with a pneumatic drill drilling into the concrete or using a massive saw type thing cutting the pavement in half!

The second issue slightly related to this is the lack of cleanliness which I found quite worrying indeed! When we moved into the little flat at COTT, though the bedsheets were clean, I’m not sure much else had been cleaned! E.G. See the close up pic of my bedside table below. Also the bath was yellow inside instead of white and when you filled it with water and sat in it,it smelled really quite bad! Dom and I found some bathroom cleaner from Pick ‘n’ Pay, it took literally ages of really hard scrubbing to get it off, leaving me to wander if the bath had ever been cleaned at all! Finally, with regards our flat, it was never cleaned during the 3months we were there, while of course we could now clean the bathroom, we couldn’t hoover as we didn’t have a hoover despite trying our best to find one. This lack of cleanliness was also present in individuals as several of them smelt quite bad and many wore the same clothes all week despite the incredible heat and therefore sweating.

I guess it just goes to show that what is important to us, is not as important to others.

3 Point Stoles

The stoles they use in S.A. are different to the ones we use. They are called ‘3 point stoles’ and have a section at the back. This is so a chasuble doesn’t have to be worn, which I expect is to do with the fact it’s too hot to wear one! I bought a double-sided one as a fitting souvenir of my time in S.A. It’s purple on one side with traditional Christian African symbols on (which are the same we use at home), such as grapes, wheat, the Alpha symbol, the Omega symbol, etc. The other side is green and has traditional pictures of African on, such as a lady carrying a baby, the aloe plant, and a traditional African house, etc. It really is wonderful and I’m very pleased with it. I look forward to wearing it when I’m ordained and to remembering my African brothers and sisters when I do so.

England is primitive!

1 thing which regularly made me laugh while in S.A., was that sometimes I would say things and Titus would comment “That’s because you’re primitive in England!’ He was of course joking, but he would often tell me we were primitive when I mentioned things they did in S.A., which we don’t do, E.G. S.Ans often have steak on their braii’s and I said we don’t as we have burgers instead.

No panto! Oh yes there is! Oh no there isn't!

There are several things we have in the UK which they don’t have in S.A., and some things they were lacking I felt more disappointed about than others, especially when I realised they don’t have, or even know, what panto is!!

Meat and Vegetarianism

Linked with the below post about food, vegetarianism is virtually unknown in the more traditional areas of S.A. Hence, vegetarians aren’t catered for at all at COTT, so when Jon came he just had vegetables and rice! Not only is it not catered for, but it is considered V strange indeed! Most students were shocked when they found out Jon was veggie and wanted to know why, how long he had been and importantly, when he would start eating meat again!! The fact he’s been veggie long before he knew me, and for all of his adult life to date and will be in the future, was something many of them just couldn’t comprehend. Though I love my meat, especially bacon sandwiches, I came to his defence trying to explain that there were many vegetarians in England, and they seemed able to cope with the thought of it better when they realised it was a cultural things we did!

As for meat, it was the staple diet of those from the more traditional S.As cultures and so they did not consider a vegetarian meal to be a full meal at all. Also linked to cultural views, was the fact that some of them wouldn’t eat certain meats. I can’t remember who ate what, but some cultures wouldn’t eat pork, whereas others wouldn’t eat beef, and some wouldn’t eat pork or beef! So there was always a chicken alternative to cater for these. At first I thought this as odd and wanted to know why they wouldn’t eat certain meat, but found most unable to answer this question. I later realised it wasn’t that odd at all, as we don’t eat, for example, donkey, but there is no reason why we don’t. However, if I went to a place where they did eat donkey, then I too would, whereas these people wouldn’t ever eat pork or beef.

Most meat was served on the bone and was eaten with fingers. All the meat was eaten. E.G. If you had a chicken drumstick, just 2 completely clean bones would be left on the plate, with the rest being eaten, the ends, the cartilage, the pink bits of meat, the grey bits of meat, ALL of it! The bones were also sucked and some even gnawed on them, therefore eating much of the bones as well.

Food!!!

The food at COTT was similar in many ways to our food. We often ate rice and stew, but when I say often I mean we regularly ate rice for every lunch+dinner,+the portions of stew were incredibly small. Unsurprisingly I lost a few pounds while out there. As well as this we often ate all sorts of different kinds of squashes (which they boiled to death!), their version of ‘porridge’ for breakfast which looked like yogurt but tasted like porridge and cold baked beans mixed with runner beans!! Bread was also offered with every meal. Interestingly, bread in S.A. is something of a status symbol as those without money apparently eat porridge but those with more money eat both porridge and bread. So I think it was for this reason, as well as to fill people up, that people ate much bread, and I mean much, most had between 3-6 slices a meal! Another reason its important to S.Ans to fill up with food if they can, is because HIV/Aids is a debilitating illness+so they don’t want to look thin as they worry people would think they had it. Also, many made peanut butter sandwiches which they had with their meal! Finally, loads of salt and tomato ketchup was had with literally everything. They put loads of salt on everything and there salt wasn’t white like ours, but a browny colour and tasted like curry power! The ketchup, they mixed it with rice, curry, anything!! It looked disgusting!

Other food they all loved is pap, braiis, ‘cooldrinks’ (i.e. fizzy drinks), samp (a kind of milky ricey thing, see pic!) and fat cookies which were like sweet bread rolls and were really nice but we only had them twice!!

Much S.An food was made from ‘mielie-meal’ which is sweet-corn but not as we know it! Its a white variety of sweet-corn and was made into a coarse flour which was then made into all sorts of things, including pap, samp, +porridge.

Other common or interesting foods eaten in S.A. were Twizza (a fizzy drink), pineapple fanta, Symba’s crisps and nuts, and different Cadburys chocolate including Whispers which are Cadbury’s maltersers! Spurs and Steers were 2 places I loved to eat at, Steers as it had the delicious (and cheap!) ice-cream (see below pic!) and Spur as it did excellent (and also quite cheap) burgers and ribs, yum yum!!

Pics: 1) Me with samp! 2) Steers ice-cream! 3) Steers logo!

English exchange

Fr.Isias told us that the college exchange between Cuddesdon and COTT has been going on for years, at least 10yrs, +he was keen to note that though other exchanges sometimes fail, this exchange never fails.
Interestingly, Titus also told me on a couple of occasions that English people seem to always fit in S.A. life quickly, whereas American’s don’t!

The UK

The vast majority of S.Ans we met wanted to come to visit the UK. I think this was linked to 2 things; 1) that they consider it the home of Anglican Christianity, and 2) that they consider it to be a decent society in the way that it is developed and they think it is based on Christianity. I guess I can see their point but at first I thought many of them would be disappointed if they did come to the UK, but then I realised they wouldn’t because compared to many of the places they live in, our developed society is wonderful, e.g. we don’t run out of water, all get decent health care, we have regular public transport, all get a minimum wage, etc etc. This is summed up in the fact that, of those who had been to the UK, all said they liked it, and I only asked a few people what they liked about it (I only asked a few as only a few had been) and 2 of these said they liked the London tube!!! Also, when we first got to COTT, a student told Dom he wanted to go to England, and when Dom asked him what he thought England was like, he said ‘Heaven’! Though we was partly saying it jokingly, there was some truth to this thought.

I guess, all in all, we don’t realise how lucky we are.

Greetings

The people we knew at COTT greeted one another every time they saw them. They would never walk past you without greeting you, and mainly greeted you simply by saying your name rather than saying hello or something similar. As a result I’m sure I heard my name said in S.A. more than I’ve ever heard it! E.G. Leaving my room and walking down the corridor, I would hear ‘George’ as a greeting by one student, then ‘George’ said by another, and then ‘George’ said by another, etc etc!!

COTT's facilities

COTT’s facilities were mixed in their quality. For instance, the library was so big it was being moved to another building but it wasn’t electronic so you had to look through cards to find what you wanted, the computer room had 30 computers in all linked to the internet but the internet regularly crashed and couldn’t be used, the classrooms didn’t have enough chairs and tables (which of course didn’t match) and so were moved from room to room at the start of lessons to make sure there were enough for the class, etc.

Pics below: 1) St Peter's classroom, 2) the media classroom, 3) the computer room, 4) the social room..and Jon!

Reading

The way they select the Bible reader for the chapel at COTT is different to how we do. Instead of having a rota so that everyone gets a chance, the student leading the service asks 2 people to do the readings. I didn’t think this was a great idea as someone may end up being left out. It was nice though to be asked and Dom, Jon and I were all asked to read in a service at least once.

Rural and Urban

In S.A. the rural areas are mainly locations and townships, and the urban areas are the developed area. So the rural areas are the poor areas and the wealthy areas are the towns and cities. As well as this, the vast majority living in the rural areas were black, and they also held more traditional African cultural views. The locations are sometimes right next door to developed and relatively wealthy towns or sometimes, literally, in the middle of nowhere. Locations also often have shops, churches, and taverns (bars/pubs). The urban areas were mainly lived in by the white or coloured S.Ans and in their culture were rather Western.

Landscape

One thing I am missing much being back here in the UK, is the beautiful S.An landscape. I took some pics of it but they don’t do justice to it in reality. It really is awesome to be able to look and see nothing but Gods creation, no buildings, no cars, not even any people apart from who you’re with, and just nature for as far as the eye can see in all directions –beautiful. And you drive like this for hours before coming across any civilisation or development. The journey from G’town to Queenstown was particularly wonderful as we drove for hours on a windy ‘road’ (the roads aren’t as obviously, big and black as ours anyway) through mountains and it was just like one of those car adverts where there’s literally just the one car for miles and miles and miles and just mountains, fields, and one small road. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of this, but I can still see it clearly in my mind.

Below is the view taken from the P.E. to C.T. plane

Darkness

One thing I never got used to in S.A. was how quickly and early it got dark in the evenings. By 7pm it was dark. I really didn’t like this as I’m so used to the light lasting a long time in our summer evenings.

Singing

During services at COTT we sang from a variety of hymn/song books to include as many of S.A.’s languages as possible. Each book had its own code on the hymn board so you knew which one to use. The books we used were:
‘Xhosa’ Iculo Lase –Tshetsi –which was in Xhosa and was known as ‘Xhosa’ and represented by an ‘X’.

Sing Together –which included songs in English, Afrikanns, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, N.Sotho, and an ‘additional section’. It was represented by letters, e.g. ‘B 16’, as each letter referred to a langue, i.e. A was English songs, B was Afrikanns songs, etc.

Ancient and Modern –Yes, the Ancient and Modern we used to use here and some still (unfortunately!) use. It was symbolised by AM.

Songs for Worship –A mix of songs in different languages compiled by COTT. It was denoted by a space ‘ ’.

Where the Rainbow End –which was known as ‘Rainbow’ and was COTT’s hymn book and so included songs in various languages and the words to the marimba settings to the Eucharist which they used. It was denoted by a small rectanglar box. We often sang from this book and I bought a copy myself. I enjoyed singing from this book and some songs we sang from here include ‘Sa is a zour, Sa is a zour’ (i.e. ‘This is the day’), ‘My Jesus, My Saviour’, ‘Besiel my, Gees van God’, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’, ‘Modimo wa matla le thata’, ‘In moments like these, I sing out a song (Singing, I love you, Lord)’, ‘E, ke lumetse, Nthole, Morena’, ‘Be still and know, that I am God’, ‘Ukubantu bakho Nkosi, Ngezikhathi zonke’, and ‘My al is op die altaar’.

Inside the front cover was a beautiful poem by Richard Rive, called ‘Where the Rainbow Ends’:
Where the rainbow ends
There’s going to be a place.
Where the world can sing all sorts of songs,
And we’re going to sing together.
You and I, though you’re white and I’m not.
It’s going to be a sad song,
Because we don’t know the tune,
And it’s a difficult tune to learn.
But we can learn, you and I
There’s no such thing as a black tune.
There’s no such thing as a white tune.
There’s only music,
And it’s music we’re going to sing
Where the rainbow ends.


Extra songs –we also sang some songs regularly which weren’t in any books. These were generally V lively songs, with few lines to learn, sung in English and sometimes also sung in two parts. Here are a couple I particularly liked:
‘You are Alpha and Omega. We worship you our Lord, You are worthy to be praised’ x2, followed by ‘We give you all the glory. We worship you our Lord, You are worthy to be praised’ x2. This sequence is repeated as many times as wanted!

‘Oh yes the blood of Jesus (the blood), Oh yes the blood of Jesus (of Jesus), was shed for me and you, shall never loose its power. Shall never never loose its power, shall never never loose its power, shall never loose, shall never loose its power. Shall never never loose its power, shall never never loose its power, shall never loose, shall never loose its power. Oh yes the blood of Jesus (the blood), Oh yes the blood of Jesus (of Jesus), was shed for me and you, shall never loose its power. Shall never never loose its power, shall never never loose its power, shall never loose, shall never loose its power. Shall never never loose its power, shall never never loose its power, shall never loose, shall never loose its power. Shall never never loose its power, shall never never loose its power, shall never loose, shall never loose its power.’ And so on and so on for as long as you want!

'In 2088....'

S.Ans appear to remember the year they did everything!! So, in conversation, they would say things like, ‘in 1998 when I.......’, ‘I went there in 2001......’, or ‘in 2008........’. It really seemed odd to me and made me realise I don’t have a clue when I did anything! Like I couldn’t even tell you the year I started college here, without really thinking about it first. I guess we’re just used to say ‘a few years ago.......’. I wonder if it has a link to different viewpoints on time.

Ancestors

Many S.Ans have a high regard for their ancestors, i.e. those related to them who have died. They talk about them regularly and do things to please them. Indeed, they seem to talk about them as if they are still present, which to them, they V much are.

Languages

There's 11 official languages in S.A. including English which is the main language used in commerce,government+various places such as schools+the like as the majority speak English as their 2nd language.
After a couple of weeks I was used to the languages at COTT+could sing them with almost no problem -though I didn't understand what I was saying!

Afrikaans comes from Dutch+so is similar to German. As I did German briefly at school I find this the easiest to join in with.
Hello in Afrikaans is 'hallo' said 'ha-low'.
A typical line from a song is 'My al is op die altaar, en wagtend op die vuur'.

Xhosa+Zulu are similar+simply through participation in services I picked up how to pronounced these languages.
Hello in Xhosa is 'molo' said 'more-low', in Zulu+Swazi it's 'Sawubona' +I think it's said 'sa-wu-bona'!
For some more examples, 'Nkosi' is Xhosa+Zulu for 'Lord'+is pronounced 'co-see' +'Ungcwele' means 'Holy' in both languages+is pronounced 'un-*clicking/tutting noise with your mouth*-wele'.
A typical line from a Xhosa song is 'NDIZA kuwe, Wena Mvana, Ndingenazwi kup él' eli- Wandop éla, wandifela, Wandibiza ndiza kuwe.'
And a typical line from a Zulu song is 'Yi Бa-na Бakhonzi Бakho, Nxa Бefakaz'iqiniso; Nkosi, negentembiso yakho, Siph'ezinhle izifiso'.

Swazi is also fairly similar to Xhosa+Zulu +hello in Swazi is the same as in Zulu.

Tswana, Northern Sotho +Sotho are similar languages.
'Dumela' in Tswana is said 'du-mel-a' +means 'hello'.
A typical line from a Tswana song is 'Jesu, ke tla b ôt š ô ye e sa khutleng, Ya batsheg ô ba e leng, 'Tsala tseno leseding?'

The above languages,apart from Afrikaans,include letters that are sometimes silent but sometimes not, clicking with your mouth for certain letters+combinations of letters,+saying certain combinations of letters which don't include vowels which we don't have in our language such as 'tsh'.
Also, when S.Ans speak, many of them mix English and their own language. I mean, for example, they will say 5 sentences in Xhosa and then 1 in English, or will being taking in Tswana and then say a few words in English! This happens in generally conversation and even on TV like in their soaps! I found this V odd indeed.

Ubuntu

A common traditional S.An worldview is ubuntu, meaning ‘I am, because you are’. This is obv. strikingly different to the Western viewpoint. It shows that community and relationship is at the heart of what it is to be an African. Consequently many of them struggle to understand individualism and also sometime belifes and behaviours related to it. E.G. We had several lessons in Ethics of Sexuality discussing the difference between the Western view that many marry because the 2 individuals are in love and choose to marry one another, rather than marrying for the good of ones community and family.

20-10

Just about every S.An you meet is looking forward to ’20-10’ said ‘twenty-ten’. This is odd as it is already 2010! But by ‘2010’, they mean the soccer world cup. Nothing else happening in 2010 seems to count for anything and literally everyone is excited about it as it means so many people from all over the world are coming to their country. They are making major improvements ready for this and most cities you go to are having their roads re-worked to cater for the 2010 visitors. Even many adverts on TV and the like mainly refer to the 2010 soccer. Everything new built for 2010 has an African theme for the tourists which is wonderful, E.G. the seats in the stadium are white and black stripped like zebras, the metal frameworks holding the stadiums up are in the shapes of giraffes, and market stalls are being encouraged selling traditional African food and the like, etc. It really is a huge event for them and I hope it goes well for the S.An people, cultures and economy, as well of course for the visitors coming.

This lion is the 20-10 mascot which you see everywhere in an assortment of sizes!

English Language

Most S.Ans speak English and it’s 1 of their 11 official languages. Obv. the fluency with which individuals speak it varies dramatically. Most speak it as it is their language of commerce. At first I thought it was odd they’ve chose English to be the common language spoke in S.A. when its not a language native to S.A., however I later reassessed this, realising it avoided favouring or disadvantaging any particular S.An culture.

Interesting, they also have some words which are their English words but which we don’t have in England, such as braii instead of BBQ and tekkies instead of trainers. Also, they often use English words to refer to something which we have a different name for, E.G. they call seat belts, ‘safety belts’, they say ‘stay’ instead of ‘live’, and they call traffic lights, ‘robots’!! They also had phrases we don't use, i.e. when we may say 'really?', they say 'is it?', and when we would say 'me too', they say 'even me'.
Annoying, they often speak American English too!
And, many of them make the same mistakes when speaking English, such as many saying ‘having’ when they meant ‘have’ which is quite confusing when someone tells you they are having 5 children!!
Also, they often leave words out, i.e. 'see you, Friday, 2', rather than 'see you on Friday at 2'.

Nonetheless every single person I met spoke better English than I spoke their native language!

Power of Touch

S.Ans touch one another much more readily than we do in the UK. E.G.It’s not uncommon to see people holding one anothers hands while talking or sitting with their arm around one another. And this happens between those of both opposite genders and the same genders just as much. It is a sign of friendship and nothing more. I actually think some amount of touch is essential for humans and, unlike S.Ans, we seem to have catered for this by sharing touch with just close family and pets!! When in S.A., once you realise their touch is a sign of friendship (and not someone making a pass at you!!) it is actually V. comforting and made me feel really accepted, cared for and even, sometimes, loved.

Some more thoughts...

Though I'm now back home in the U.K. I'm going to spend much time this week adding more blogs about my thoughts + experiences of life in S.A. which I didn't have time to add during my busy time out there.

C.T. highlights -Simon's Town

Finally we visited a place called Simon's Town which had several beaches, including Boulders Beach which is 1 of just 2 places where African Penguins live naturally. It was so weird to see penguins laying on the beach!! After we’d seen them at Boulders (where you can only view the beach from a walkway), we went to the next door beach+as we were swimming in the sea a penguin swum past us just a couple of feet from Jon! The penguin was soon joined by another,+the 2of them swam+walked near us for sometime which was wonderful! Appropriately Jon was wear his "One by one the penguins steal my sanity" T-Shirt!!

C.T. hightlights -The World of Birds+Monkey Jungle

The World of Birds+Monkey Jungle was great as there were so many different types of birds to see, including parrots which said ‘hello’+squirrel monkeys which jumped all over you!! I even had a battle of wits with 1 monkey who opened the right-hand-side zip on our rucksack and as I closed it,opened the zip on the left-hand-side, as I closed this 1 he then re-opened the 1 on the right-hand-side,+so on+so on for quite some time!

C.T. -Robben Island

In C.T. we also went on a tour of Robben Island where black people with political views of equality were imprisoned. The tour guide was an ex-political prisoner there and his account of life there was very moving, and unsurprisingly, it sounded horrendous.

Below is a pic of Nelson Mandela's cell when he was imprissioned on Robben Island. As you can see, it has virtually nothing in and is tiny.

C.T. highlights -Table Mountain

I thought it would be best though to include the highlights of our time in C.T. in separate blogs.

Table Mountain is a mountain with a flat top which therefore looks like a table!It is huge + we walked half-way up before getting a cable car up the steep bit! The view from the top was amazing, especially when you looked out and saw more mountains or the coast. Jon had the fun idea to trek down, which was fun but also hard work! Unfortunately we hadn’t realised that it’d make walking the next 3 days very painful!! It was worth it though for the adventure!

Holiday Pt. 2 –Cape Town

Next we flew to C.T. for just over a week. We had an amazing holiday+did all the tourist things such as visiting the Cathedral, the V & Waterfront, the castle, the S.A. Museum+Planetarium, the sight-ceeing bus, the Kierstenboshe Botanical Gardens,the 2 Oceans Aquarium, local markets,+spent a couple of afternoons relaxing by our hotels pool. 1 eve we went to a comedy night at a local pub which was very good fun indeed.

Above: Jon in the nemo tank at the Aquarium! Below: Jon at the hotel

Holiday Pt.1 –P.E. and Addo

After leaving COTT,Jon+I spent a couple of days at P.E. where we explored the city+spent time on a beach+in a pool.

We also hired a car+spent a couple of days at Addo Elephant Park which was amazing. We saw loads of animals including kudu, leopard tortoises, meerkats, warthogs, ostriches, elephants, spotted hyenas, lions, zebras, red hartebeests, a black-backed jackal, a buffalo, spring buck, vervet monkeys, rock monitor lizards, a scrub hare, and the rare flightless dung beetles!! We were also lucky to see lots of baby ones of ostriches, warthogs, lions and elephants.

We stayed the night in a forest cabin but forgot our alarm clock so I had an amazing idea that if we drank lots of water than we’d wake to go to the loo!! It worked, but too well, we woke every hour!! At least we didn’t miss the sunrise tour we’d booked ourselves on though, and this was when we saw 3lion cubs playing together so it was worth the sleepless night!

Home at LONG last NO thanks to BA or the British Government

The title says it all. Basically, in breif, Jon+I were meant to fly Sunday evening+didnt until last night (Wednesday). NOTHING was done in the mean time, so we were effectively left homeless+hungry. BA were unhelpful, unsympathetic, difficult to get hold off, contradictory in their messages+just plain rude. Jon+I have vowed NEVER to fly with them again. All in all we've never felt so let down by Britain+cannot believe a country who claims to care for their citizen could be so uncaring.

Offline on Holiday!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning Dom,Jon+I are leaving COTT.
Dom is getting a plane from Port Elizabeth to go to Cape Town for a few days,+Jon+I are staying in Port Elizabeth for a couple of days, Addo Elephant park for a couple of days, +then to Cape Town for just over a week.

During this time I won't be blogging. I think we'll get online about once so will check emails but won't reply unless it's of major importance!

On my return to the UK 2weeks today I will continue blogging! First a post about our holiday+then many about my time in S.A. as there are many things I still want to write about, i.e. observations, reflections, experiences +a few more photos. I will attempt to do this asap on my return while my time here is fresh in my mind,however I'll leave it open a bit longer in case things come back to me over time! As a result my plan is to finish +close this blog about 2weeks after my return.

See you all soonish at the other-side of the world!

Farewells

Easter Sunday was the day the vast majority left COTT. The single students+married people who are here without their families all went back home, with many leaving at the end of the service+therefore even before breakfast! Several didn't want to wait any longer+so hitchhiked home so they didn't have to bother waiting for a bus, which is how most get home apart from a few who got a plane (others don't as they cant afford it+so have to travel 8-16hours on a bus).

So right after the service many came to say bye to us+hug us. Many of these goodbyes were moments where you don't know what to say but what you say doesn't really matter as the hug says it all. I made sure to thank Gregory much though for looking after me. And later in the day we went to wave off Kholisilie, Nonto, Edward+Pinky. Nonto had earlier in the day given me a pen with a little message on. We hugged all (again!) +wished them well.

With regards Titus, the goodbyes started a few days before with him giving Dom,Jon+I a letter he'd printed out with a photo of him,Dom+I on. It was a lovely+funny letter which had me welling up in tears. It was titled 'Friends will also be friends', which I presume he meant 'will always be friends'. I made a similar letter for him. Then on Easter Sunday he said I could keep my copy of 'An African Prayer Book' by Desmond Tutu which we were given with our hymn books at the start of term+were meant to give back now. He said I could keep mine as a present+wrote a short message in it. He also gave Jon a book of his too. Jon+I gave him a book of ours which we too wrote a short message in.
I'll add the photo+some of the letters comments here at a later date.

When it came for Titus to go several others were also leaving including Johanna,Max,James +Luthando +it was rather sad. The others went in the first car trip to the bus stop+just Titus +Luthando remained for Fungayi to come back with the car to take them to the bus stop. We then all went to the bus stop so we could see Titus off there. Once there we hugged all,especially Titus,+said bye to all. Fungayi drove us back to COTT+I had to wipe several tears away. Somehow I managed not to cry too much+so I'm waiting for this to all come out soon at an appropriate moment -i.e. 1 without an audience!

By the evening all but about 3 remained in the college building we're in. We weren't in the mood to do much,couldn't think of much to do anyway+were tired from the early start so went to bed about 8:30!

The following day we prepared to leave COTT -i.e. packed our bags,did last min emails+this blog,etc. We were also invited to Fungayi's for some tea+cake, +then to Fr.Isaias for tea+cake! These were both in a row+were both big bits of cake!! Its funny that we've rarely had cake throughout the 3months here+today had 2pieces in a row! Fr.Isaias' wife Ilda had baked a chocolate cake as Dom said in the first week of term that he liked chocolate! It was still warm+was delicious! At Funagyi's, Lavington was there too,+at Fr.Isaias's Vicenti was there too. These are 2 of among 3students who are staying at COTT during the fortnight break as its too long +/or expensive to get back home during this time. E.G. Vicenti lives in Mozambique where his wife still is.
Some of these people will come to wave us off tomorrow morning.

Easter Sunday

The Easter Sunday service began at 5am!!! I found this all a bit odd as the usual point of early services on Easter day is to have the first Eucharist of the day to celebrate Christ's resurrection, but we'd had a Eucharist service the evening before to celebrate this. I know it wasn't actually Easter then but if were acting as if it was then surely we wouldn't need 1 so early the next day, whereas if we hadn't had such a service the night before then I can see why people would like to have 1 early that day. I wasn't the only 1 who thought this+many didn't like that we had the service last night which they haven't had before at COTT (Fungayi has changed much of COTT's services since joining as chaplain in January and its not always gone down V well!).

That aside, it was a lovely typical Easter day Eucharist service. In fact it was a wonderful service! It was great to have a typical COTT Eucharistic service here as the last thing we do together at COTT before we leave. Everyone was joyful, the songs were in various languages, the marimbas were played in several points during the service, etc. During the peace I tried to get to everyone to give them a last hug+I V. nearly did this,but just ran out of time before getting to a few people at the other side of the chapel. Several of these came+gave me a hug goodbye anyway after the service which was good.

At the end of the service Dom,me+Jon were called to the front by Fungayi. He said a few words of appreciation for our time here +then we were asked to kneel in front of the altar as various people came forward to lay hands on us+all prayed. Among those who came forward to lay hands on us were Fungayi, the Rector Bill, Fr.Percy a lecturer, Vic a lecturer, +students Vernon, Gregory, Godukile, Jeannean+Badaneli, among others. During the prayers a chorus was sung +many prayed at once in their own languages. As this came to a natural end Fr.Percy said a prayer in English. It was a wonderful moment where I felt so supported+loved.

Grant, the student chairperson, then said a few words+gave us the 1st copies of the 'Who's Who' -the COTT directory of all staff+students. This is great as it has everyone's photo in+email addresses,among other info. Grant saud we'd wrapped ourselves around their hearts and he hoped they'd done the same for us.

Fr.Isaias who organises the exchanges at COTT then said a few words of appreciation+asked us to share our experiences of our time here which I+Dom then did. We mainly said we'd enjoyed the expereince, we'd loved getting to know everyone and we'd take back with us the community mindset and their passion for God.

Following this Bill said a few words too, including that they’d learnt from us, particularly from Dom that ‘disability is different abled, not dis-abled’, from Jon they’d learnt what it means to support your spouse, and from me they’d learnt ‘that dynamite comes in small packages!’

It was all incredibly touching+we all felt a tinge of sadness to be saying our farewells.

Next we went back to our seats for a final prayer+then a hymn which was sung so joyfully that many,including Dom,danced their way to the altar! I didn't as I was busy banging the pew with a marimba stick +therefore just dancing on the spot!

It was a fitting service to end our time here.

Easter Saturday

We began Saturday at Brent's+Melissa (a student here+his wife). They cooked for us an English breakfast which we all enjoyed. Jon particularly enjoyed it as they'd cooked fish fingers as well as eggs (as he's a vegetarian who eats fish)! We arrived for 10+ate at gone 11. We then chatted for a long time +left sometime before 2. It was a wonderful morning+nice to spend some more time with Brent+Melissa. We also compared the S.A.+English cultures, talking about things such as the education system, people's temperaments,+the royal family among other things! I found this fascinating as there are many things I take for granted+assume everyone does only to find out since being here that people in different cultures don't know about them+ think they sound really weird. E.G.The fact that we move the clocks an hour forwards +then backwards twice a year!!


Despite this lovely morning,the Saturday still felt like a day of waiting around,as this Saturday (after Good Friday+before Easter Sunday) always does to me at home. This was no different then,until a service we had at 7pm which started,as usual for such services,outside with a small fire being lit.This years Paschal Candle was lit from this fire. Well I say this years, but actually it said '1999' on it before Fungayi creatively changed it to '2010'! We then went in the chapel+each persons small candle was lit. There were many readings at the beginning +all of these were read by spouses of students+staff here at COTT. All spouses here are female so this meant for the first time hearing more females voices throughout a service than male and for me it was a V. welcome+pleasant thing indeed -especially since the night before I'd been in a situation where male+female segregation +gender stereotyping was rife in a way which I thought was basically oppression -i.e. at a party on Good Friday evening at Fr.Isias's (there's always a party/gathering on Good Friday in S.A. as they celebrate the whole day as if it's a funeral) I was asked to sit in one room with the women while the men were in another.

Next in the service we renewed our Baptismal Vows which for me felt particularly special on this occasion. And Fungayi used a conifer branch to soak us with the water which I liked! After this was the Eucharist.
All in all I felt,like several other students here,that the service was misplaced as we were celebrating Christ's resurrection before Easter Sunday had begun.

Good Friday lunch

This week I was concerned about when we were to have lunch on Good Friday as the service started at 12 before lunchtime +ended at 3 after lunchtime. I asked Titus about this who said we eat after the service! I clarified with him that he meant we eat lunch at gone 3, +when he confirmed this I made a loud shocked exclaim at the thought of not eating until then. Fr.Isaias was sitting nearby who simply said 'George, welcome to South Africa!' The 3 of us could not stop laughing!!!

When it finally came to lunch we had pickled fish which is what most people eat in S.A. on Good Friday. We also had hot-cross buns which tasted like heaven! I'm not usually a massive fan of them but as I'm eating everyday food that doesn't taste great+hardly eating any sweet things, the bun tasted superb!

Good Friday

At 7am Good Friday morning we had a service to consume the Sacrament which had been in the Easter garden all night. Again I officiated for this, though this time I was the 2nd officiant not the 1st so instead of leading parts of the service,I read the Bible readings,including the Gospel. It was a somber service+relatively short too.

We had the main devotional service from 12-3, which only finished 15mins late which isn't much by S.A. standards! Many students wore their cassocks for the service,while some others wore black clothes they would wear to a funeral. I've not seen this before at a Good Friday service. Also, in the UK our Good Friday services are normally V. somber as we recall Christs death. Here however the service was rather jolly in parts!
There was 8 talks based around the 7 sentences Christ said on the Cross before he died. Interestingly these were also all linked to 1of His 'I am...' sayings. This worked really well the majority of the time+it was wonderful to hear students preaching since 6students preached including Dom,as well as the Rector Bill + Fungayi. The students preached with great passion. Around these talks were hymns, times of silence (which weren't even 1min long!), solo songs, a drama, +a dance. The service was V. good,though it didn't feel like a Good Friday service to me at all.The dance was introduced as a 'funny dance' +it certainly was as Khosi, a student who is known to make people laugh, attempted to dance+part of the dance also included rubbing their belly's!!The drama was a comic play highlighting the point that Jesus is the only 1 who can fulfill our thirst. This was only clear though after this was explained at the end! The play included Titus playing a drunk Priest+a quiet student shouting 'I am thirsty for sex!' As a result it was V. funny!
Below is a pic of the preachers (plus Tshnola!) -Dom, Grant, Fungayi, Seffularo, Tshnola, Kholisilie, Lovington. And below that is Kholisilie 'preaching' in Freedom Square!

Maundy Thursday

Like many Churches in the UK, the Maundy Thursday included the washing of feet+the stripping of the Altar, as well as the Eucharist too of course. I was 1 of the officiants leading the service with Fr.Isaias +Dom was on Altar Prep duty again with Titus.

I borrowed a cassock+surplice from Swazi, a student here. He isn't much bigger than me at all +it was only an inch or 2 too long but was rather big in width! Dom had the idea to put a belt around it+this made a big difference.

It was a lovely service+V. moving. I also appreciated a great deal the chance to lead some of a Eucharist service for the 1st time. It felt V. natural +I had lots of positive comments afterwards,from students telling me it was V. powerful to others saying I looked beautiful!

When it came to the washing of feet,the Priest didn't wash 12 peoples feet like I've seen in England, instead everyone's feet were washed by each other. So 1person washed your feet+then you washed the next 1s+so on. It was incredibly moving +during this we were singing joyful songs too. The washing itself wasn't like we do in the UK where you just pour some water over 1foot,but instead you held each foot in turn+gently rubbed water over it. If I heard about this I would've thought it sounded awful but in reality it was fine+like I said,V. moving. It was certainly an enacting of the values of love+service.

After this we had the Eucharist+then the stripping of the Altar began during which Psalm 22 was chanted, the Sacrament was placed in a garden (made the day before by myself+my formation group) +all lights were turned out. This was in such contrast to the earlier thankful+joyful feel to the service. Several remained sitting by the garden in darkness apart from a few candles.

Fungayi remained their all night+students took it in turns to also be there so that at no point was the garden left empty. Jon+I were there from 10-11pm +Dom was there from 6-7am.

Formation Group Farewell

My Formation Group seems to have had several final meetings this term!! The first of these was the braai where they thanked me for being with them this term+I thanked them for including me this term. We thought this was out last meeting,only to find we were in formation groups during the Community Building afternoon (though I wasn't as I was involved with planning the day) +during the making of the Easter garden. As a result my group felt it would be best to have an actual final meeting where we could all sit,chat+eat cake like we usually do+say goodbye properly. I was told about this meeting 1min before it started! So I rushed upstairs to put my Pick n Pay shopping down+get Jon, +we still got their before many others!!

The meeting was in Fungayi's house like most of our other meetings+we had tea/coffee +some cakes he had made, again like we have done in most meetings. It was unfortunate that Gregory was unable to make this meeting as he was the main person in the group who planned the meetings,trips+braai's in order for me to enjoy my short time here. Tshukumo wasn't there either but he hasn't been there half the time!

We spent a short while chatting+joking before Fungayi said a few words of thanks again for me being with them. He said they were pleased I had been in their group +thanked me for the beach+braai trip to Port Alfred because if I wasn't in their group they wouldn't have done a trip at all. After this Zanele handed to me the S.A. 'Anglican Prayer Book' which they had bought for me as a present. Inside was written a short message+they had all signed it. It was V. kind of them+is an excellent present as a reminder of my time here. The message inside is this:
"Dear George, For the wonderful time that we had together, this prayer book serves to bind us with cords of love+service to God+ God's people. Amen. Gregory, Ntombekhaya, Zanele, Grant, Swazi, Tshukumo, Monde, Fungayi. GOD BLESS. Cott/formngrp 2010"

Today I've printed out some photos of my time with the group+made a card saying "THANK YOU!!!" on the front with a picture Jon took of me with the group+my new APB (see below). Inside I wrote some words of thanks for the book as well as saying again that I'd really enjoyed being a part of this group+ have lots of happy memories from my time with them +also thanking them again for including me+sharing with me.From back left: Monde, Fungayi, Grant, Ntombekhaya.
From front left: Zanele, me, Swazi.

Easter Garden

During Holy Week each Formation Group had a task. Ours was to make the Easter garden which we did on Wednesday. It involved a lot of heavy lifting on my part! But I guess this was better than arranging the garden as I'm not V. creative in that way or arty, but carrying rocks I can do! Gregory was the creative brain behind the Easter garden+it was different to any I've seen before as we put fruit+vegetables in it to! It was also a challenge to make as it was during 1 of the times we were meant to be silence! As you can imagine this couldn't work in reality+so we whispered quietly instead.

More reflections on the retreat

I think most retreats or quiet days either speak to exactly where you are or seem irrelevant. This weeks retreat was no different, +actually it did speak to most people where they are. And I think if I hadn't been away from my usual life for 2-3months already, +therefore had space to think about life, the universe + everything, it would've been a valuable retreat for me too, especially the Sunday+Monday talks which managed to sum up+add to much of my thinking since being here in a way which I was unable to do so myself. They were about the way that sometimes God doesn't act as soon as we would like+the fact that sometimes things need to die in order to live. So he referred to John 12.24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

water relief again

Luckily the last water shortage only lasted half a day, so by 5ish we found the taps were working again.

Holy Week Pt. 1

The first 3days of Holy week (i.e. the week before Easter) we've had a Priest in from another diocese leading a retreat which he titled 'The Lazareth Life'. The first talk was Sunday evening+after this we had to remain in silence until Monday lunchtime! We had 2 talks a day+a Eucharist service,with Compline as well 1evening. From the 4pm Monday talk we had to be silent until the Tuesday 12:00 Eucharist +then silent again Tuesday from 4pm until Wednesday at 4pm!! I found this V. hard but thankfully some students were talking quietly in some places +Dom,Jon+I remained talking in our flat!

Jon+I actually used the quiet evenings to have some relaxing time watching films. 1 evening we watched Snakes on a Plane in the Social Room with Titus+Gregory. The Social Room is a small room with a pool table,a fold-away table tennis table,sofas+a TV. The film wasn't great but it was nice to pass the time as we talked throughout most of it with Titus sharing much about S.A. life with us.

Anyway the talks were about Lazareth (who Jesus raised from the dead)+how we too need to die in certain ways. Personally,as a result I felt the talks from Sunday evening-Wednesday afternoon about death were quite depressing! I also thought the last talk on Weds about rising from the dead was somewhat misplaced+ naive. It was about being thankful+joyful about being resurrected by Christ+I couldn't help thinking that the idea of dieing+rising again is something most Christians already know about,more especially ordinands! It also spoke of joy after you rise with Christ+in reality Christians,the same as non-Christians, do not always experience joy,or feel joyful, throughout their life. Indeed,I think this kind of thought can even put some people off religion as they can see that this isn't true as Christians aren't always joyful. As well as this it can add pressure to Christians to feel joyful when they don't which adds to their stress instead of alleviating it.

Nonetheless,I couldn't have done half as good as this myself! And many people here seemed to get a great deal out of this retreat so I think it did hit most people right where they are at. Although most also thought the silence went on too long!

water crisis again!!

You will not believe what happened over night...a water pipe burst+we have no water again!! I cannot believe it! But at least we have those barrels in place to get some water from to wash with+we have bottled water to drink. Still it is certainly not ideal+I hope it doesn't last as long as last time.