"And the children of Israel said to them, 'Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'" -Exodus 16:3

Itinerary: Week 3 (Sun, Feb 9 - Sun, Feb 16)

Events:

• Mon, Feb 10 - Fri, Feb 14: First Week of Classes: Wow! Hectic, but God was faithful!

ISA Excursions:

• Sat, Feb 15: Old Biscuit Mill: An opportunity to shop for some interesting homemade goods and eat delicious food!

The Old Biscuit Mil: Yikes! We'll try from left to right...
Back: Mitchell Wall, Brett, Chaz, Martin, Elizabeth, me, Bo, Kenneth
Middle: Grace, Olivia, Emily, Mercy, Gil, Esther, Katie
Front: Megan, Morgan, Jane, Salamine

Learn the Culture: UCT Class Registration and Add Drop Period

My intent is not to complain or paint a bad picture of UCT's academic system out of spite, but to inform of the hardships of studying abroad, that I most certainly didn't expect, to prepare students interested in studying here.

I mentioned in my last post about registration, that it was hectic and done on paper. We registered Friday of last week (not this resent Friday) which involved figuring out which building you may find a certain course's course convener for them to sign your paper saying you can take the course. This often meant asking around at reception desks and sometimes they would send you to a completely different building. In short, running around everywhere trying to figure out old complicated buildings, most of which would haunt the nightmares of any civil engineer! I'm serious! I have nightmares of complex building structures less complex than these! (Praise God He's lead me to all my classes on time! It's truly a miracle I stumble upon them!) At least I am now becoming a master of UCT navigation and I haven't even had to enter the oceanography building 😜 Also for two hours in the middle of my searching, UCT got load shedded. This means the power went out all over campus (except for their Rec center, which is the only building on campus with a back up generator for some reason) and also that people are not in to sign your stuff. Thankful in the hour afterwards I was able to get all the signatures I needed! Now I was in the system and registered for Statistics for Engineers, Hydraulic Engineering, Construction Surveying, and Social and Developmental Psychology, four of the five I needed! By the end of the add drop week I only stayed in one of these classes.

Problem 1: Hydraulic Engineering was review. Thankfully Mitchell Wall (the only Dordt person here with me) had in mind Hydrology for Engineers which better matched what we would have taken at Dordt anyway! Easy fix right? Add one drop the other? No, hydrology conflicted with Engineering Statistics. So we dropped both and signed up for Introductory Statistics with hydrology. We were also able to now add African Dance for our CORE-160 requirement (introduction to the arts, much needed, especially for me).

Problem 2: I found out that the period I was signed up for developmental psych was only for OT students. Old Testament students? Occupational Therapy students. Okay, so I'll put it back into 7th period, drop out of African Dance (because it runs during then) and live with the conflict of missing lectures 8 Thursdays of the year. Jumped into African Instruments for the CORE requirement.

Praise: Rebecca (Dordt study abroad coordinator) got both African Dance and Instrument approved for CORE-160! Now, at the end of Wednesday my schedule was set!

Problem 3: At noon Friday in surveying I learned that the class's practical (lab) was scheduled for a time I hadn't planned on, and conflicted with African Instruments. Now what? I had until 3pm to figure out my schedule that is sealed for life, and I had no more options for CORE-160 besides African Dance. Which means I'd have to drop psychology. And what for my CORE-25_ requirement? I didn't have time to get anything approved back home. Thankfully God had for me one very last option. I could take Microeconomics instead of psych for my Engineering Economics credit. But I needed a signature for econ; I'd needed signatures for all the previous classes. I asked on the ISA Whatsapp chat where I could find the signature. Leslie Social. Great! That building is close! But what an insane maze! I spent most of my three hours in this stage, running around this complicated building looking for a reception desk. Someone in an office pointed me to a reception who told me that the econ offices where in middle campus (a bus ride away! No time for that), but suggested going to Menzies Commerce, the building over. Took a crosswalk (sky walk) to Menzies, which must have been designed by the same structural mad man. Found a receptionist who suggested going to any office, but sent me in a direction that lead me no where. Eventually I found some offices and desperately asked for the lady to sign for me! She lead me to another helpful lady who signed a part of the form I never needed signed before, and told me I didn't even need the econ signature. You have to laugh at this sort of thing in reflection, because it's really ridiculous 😄 So in the end I quickly ran back to the 5th floor engineering reception and dropped African Instrument and psych and added back African Dance and econ, getting there right at 3pm. That pour Muslim receptionist lady must have been pretty tired of my face; I'd been there as least four days, often multiple times a day.

SPIRITUAL LIFE

I chose this verse from Exodus as the title of this post, because this is how I felt Thursday evening. Here I was, having sacrificed time to God in my daily Bible readings, time to my brother on the phone as he adjusts to his abroad in New Zealand, and now tomorrow at 2pm my first assignment was due and I hadn't even started it. I had however dug into the material I supposed it would be about, and it was hard probability theory. Needless to say I was freaked out. Scared by the prospect of what a late assignment meant at UCT, and angry that I had to make the choice between spending time on important relationships, or doing well academically, I cried out to God! "Did You bring me here to ruin me?!" I felt like the Israelites in the wilderness. Thank God that I knew the rest of the story the Israelites didn't know. God rained bread on their hungry souls!

From Cape Point: The very tip.

So I walked by faith. I spent that hour for devotions early Friday morning. I went to class at 9am. Now I just had three hours, no time to finish a typical engineering problem set (the homework I'm used to budgeting time for). And in two hours God smitten that assignment and it was handed in without a care! And I worshiped! And God used it to prepare me for that final trial of the week, the last schedule change I wrote about above, so that when I learned of the new schedule change, though my heart dropped like lead, I knew He would help me. And He did! And praise God I don't have to do psychology here! And praise God I get to take econ, and African Dance, and surveying, and hydrology, and statistics, and especially that I'm on the way to graduating on time! And even more especially that He never left my side through it all and was faithful to answer my every prayer! I got so anxious through out this week, and it was all in vain! That's what I continuously learn in the course of Life that God has me registered for; I can trust Him no matter how it looks from my perspective!

join me: UCT Campus

Come with me off the Jammie (UCT buses) at the North stop of upper campus. You're thankful to God for this beautiful early morning, beating the normal rush to classes in the cool air. You probably won't be so lucky on the way back though. As you walk done the main road from the North side of campus to the South side of campus you can't help but admire the beauty of these old buildings. The great green vines that scale their walls almost making them look like giant hedges with parts of building emerging from the mass of leaves. Large dark oak doors often mark the entrances to these various halls. They have names like John Day and Paul Daniel Hahn (called the PD Hahn, like the BJ Haan's long lost brother). You're headed to the A.C. Jordan building that looks indistinguishably the same as the rest of them. These are the humanities buildings, not like the intriguing New Engineering Build (NEB) or the Snape building (with its glorious new lecture halls and comfortable seating), which are more unique buildings. Alumni donate to their own faculty generally, so it's a wonder the engineering buildings are the new ones 😉 Anyway, you hope A.C. stands for air conditioned.

The A.C. Jordan is like all the rest of the old buildings; a maniacal maze of hallways, stairs, and curious landings. By God's good will you happen to enter the right door of the building to only go up one stair and find the room for your class! Mitchell Wall, who's in class with you (in most classes with you because you're both civil engineers from Dordt on the same semester abroad) says, "this is straight out of an Indian Jones movie!" And he's right! The lecture theater floor is slanted forward with wood, pew like, seating and a small board as your desk space. The room itself has wood flooring with the bottom half of the wall having wood cladding. Otherwise, the walls are white washed, and the windows old fashioned lattices. You thank God for the rustic environment.

Indiana Jones' Classroom: A.C. Jordan, Jordan 3A

Around 10am you walk back to the Jammie to grab a signature from a lady in middle campus who is the convener for African Instruments. As you approach North stop a large helicopter starts to land nearby, within a hundred yards from the stop! As it lifts up again form a depression in the ground you realize it has a large bucket underneath for carrying water out to a wild fire happening on the mountain side. Once you're on the bus the bus driver vehemently expresses to you the apparent idiocy of the helicopter pilot for taking the fresh water to fight the fire. He swears at them in his superior understanding. You placidly agree, but figure later on that ocean water would probably kill the vegetation there, like sowing salt on Carthage.

God bless!

P.S. Sunday evening Mitchell Wall was stabbed during an attempted mugging by two people in a subway tunnel near our suburb. Please keep Mitchell in your prayers! He received three wounds, only one of which is deep in his shoulder. It nicked his lung, so he was kept at the hospital over night. He should be discharged today (Monday) after they make sure the nick in his lung is healed.