"If I say, 'surely the darkness shall fall on me,' even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shine as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You." -Psalm 139:11-12
Learn the Culture: 1st Thursdays
Every first Thursday of the month in downtown Cape Town some of the art galleries open for free, and food places have deals on food and drinks. I was able to have the opportunity to take part in the festivities this past Thursday.
We started by going to a digital media studio that served free wine and provided us with space and material to play around with our own art. I had my first drink in SA there; a dry white wine. I don't know if it was good wine or not; I've never been a fan of wine. Communion wine is good 😜 I used pencil, which is the medium of art I have by far the most experience in (besides engineering, but that's a topic for another day). I was thinking about Jesus! Thankfully too, the glass of wine didn't effect me.
We went through one small art gallery, and one persons art particularly intrigued me. It was done by a lady who was coping with fear. The colors and themes of wings and butterflies were particularly peaceful, which I thought showed good healing from the pain of fear.
In the end Mitchell, Kenneth and I found a quaint little courtyard filled with tables, surrounded by restaurants and we got quickly seated at a pizza place that fired its pizzas right there in front of us! Unfortunately, we may have budged in front of some folks who were patiently waiting 😰 We got two decently sized pizzas for R180 ($12), one bacon and mushroom, the other pineapple and ham! I probably had a good six pieces.
As we hailed an uber, two beggars began confronting us and I made the mistake of acknowledging one. He asked me for small change, and being pretty certain I had none said, "sorry, I don't have change." This went on for a while and as we waited for our uber the homeless man spotted it before we did and guided us to it. This begging and his help racked my heart over the coals so as we left I stuck a R100 in his hand, this being the only bill I had. Later I thought more about it. I paid that man more than I did for a delicious pizza, more than I tipped an amazing waiter, and for what? So I can enable him to continue living in this way? So that he can run off and spend it on drugs?
SPIRITUAL LIFE
This week was a tough week. I was really feeling the culture shock. When I called home my mother said, "you're married to this country, so you're just going to have to make it work," among other more comforting things, but she's totally right! I really am having a hard time getting South Africa. Why are there so many homeless and unemployed? Why are there so many nice new vehicles on the road? Why is it rush hour basically all hours of the day? What is still oppressive about the government that people are still complaining? Why are there so many protests and are they justified? Why do these people dislike the United States? Why isn't the church more prevalent, more wide spread? Why is there so much violence? What is being done about all the generational hurt people hold? What is being done to combat gender based violence? Why is the economy in its second recession?
If a culture is a body, and we all are organs in the body, I feel like a transplant that is being rejected by its new habitation. I feel like I'm not wanted here. My friend got stabbed, another got a knife pulled on her, in my economics class some of the students made known to me very clearly their disdain for my country...
Cultures are like great vineyards full of many types of grapes, some good for wine, some for eating, some for making raisins, etc. I am like a man surviving in this vineyard. Not only must I pick those fruits which are good, I also have discern what they are good for. Like all cultures there are certainly bad fruits that need to be pruned out. The colonialists saw the African vineyard and, despite the good and bad fruits in it, decided just to cut it all away and plant grapes they knew how to use. This didn't turn out well at all, as the old grapes grew back in much pain and now the whole vineyard is a mess of fruits which are very hard to discern.
I mused that in ancient times, what did nations do to disorient people and more easily rule them? You place people in new cultures and mix them all up. So here I am doing it to myself 😄 I'm certainly learning to relate better with the patriarchs; Abraham, Joseph, and Daniel!
I praise God that I have a brother that is in New Zealand walking with me and that we are able to very intimately understand each other's struggles! He suggested that this may be a time of information gathering, learning not only new academic material, but about people, about myself, and ultimately about the heart of God! I had expectations I didn't realize I had until they were not fulfilled. Expecting to be helping people more. Expecting to feel nearer to Christ, feel like I was doing His will, feel like I was on the front line for the Gospel. Expecting to not feel so lonely, not to struggle so hard with sin.
No, God had different plans than I had expected, as usual 😏 As usually, I get so concerned with 'doing' when I need to be resting in what has been 'done.' Being out in the streets ministering to the homeless won't get you into heaven! Telling every person you see about Christ won't get you into heaven! Optimizing you opportunities to do things and make friends won't get you into heaven! Trusting that Jesus loves you, that He died for you, that He is God and conquered death for you; now that is what matters! I will "be still and know that [You are] God."
join me: Surveying
Welcome to group 10! We're not a very talkative bunch, but when its necessary we try our best to accurately communicate our ideas and plans for surveying. After the beginning powwow where Professor Singh questions us if we even know what we are here to do, you head into the abandoned zoo were you will be conducting your first survey. As mornings in Cape Town are, it's cool, so you've worn long sleeves. As you follow an old beaten trail you cannot help but feel the melancholy of this abandoned place, a place where children once ran about to delight in getting to be so close to animals so much greater than they! The noise of crowds is now replaced by the steps of lonely surveyors marching like soldiers to the old lions' den. The lions' den sits in the zoo like the decrepit monolith of an ancient king's throne, or like a sacrificial ziggurat in South America. You ask one of the Capetonians in the group, and he remembers when it was still up and running, but the way the foliage has claimed it makes it seem much older. You're impressed by the trees. They're massive! Huge straight trees with only branches and leaves at its zenith. Their bark like scales remind you of huge lizard tails sticking up out of the ground, or the massive forelimbs of sauropods!
Surveying is fun work. No calculations, just understanding what spatial data you need and how to get it using the level and total station, two scope on tripod devices. You do your best to be critical and respectful of your peers and to aid them in ways that are not enabling. Mostly you realize you just have to trust them, that they know what they're doing, even if we've all messed up in the past. You have to do some observations over again because someone wasn't doing something correctly. Even so group 10 finishes much faster than everyone else and you're worried that maybe we missed something. That weekend you run through the calculations. Praise God! We were only off in our heights by 6mm!
Thanks for reading! I'll be skipping a week of blogging for an overnight excursion to the Aquila game reserve! Hopefully I'll have many good things to write about and praises to my Savior! God bless!
Every first Thursday of the month in downtown Cape Town some of the art galleries open for free, and food places have deals on food and drinks. I was able to have the opportunity to take part in the festivities this past Thursday.
We started by going to a digital media studio that served free wine and provided us with space and material to play around with our own art. I had my first drink in SA there; a dry white wine. I don't know if it was good wine or not; I've never been a fan of wine. Communion wine is good 😜 I used pencil, which is the medium of art I have by far the most experience in (besides engineering, but that's a topic for another day). I was thinking about Jesus! Thankfully too, the glass of wine didn't effect me.
 |
| Contemplations Over a Glass of Wine |
We went through one small art gallery, and one persons art particularly intrigued me. It was done by a lady who was coping with fear. The colors and themes of wings and butterflies were particularly peaceful, which I thought showed good healing from the pain of fear.
In the end Mitchell, Kenneth and I found a quaint little courtyard filled with tables, surrounded by restaurants and we got quickly seated at a pizza place that fired its pizzas right there in front of us! Unfortunately, we may have budged in front of some folks who were patiently waiting 😰 We got two decently sized pizzas for R180 ($12), one bacon and mushroom, the other pineapple and ham! I probably had a good six pieces.
 |
| R90 Pizza: Man am I keen for pineapple on pizza! MmmMmm! |
As we hailed an uber, two beggars began confronting us and I made the mistake of acknowledging one. He asked me for small change, and being pretty certain I had none said, "sorry, I don't have change." This went on for a while and as we waited for our uber the homeless man spotted it before we did and guided us to it. This begging and his help racked my heart over the coals so as we left I stuck a R100 in his hand, this being the only bill I had. Later I thought more about it. I paid that man more than I did for a delicious pizza, more than I tipped an amazing waiter, and for what? So I can enable him to continue living in this way? So that he can run off and spend it on drugs?
SPIRITUAL LIFE
This week was a tough week. I was really feeling the culture shock. When I called home my mother said, "you're married to this country, so you're just going to have to make it work," among other more comforting things, but she's totally right! I really am having a hard time getting South Africa. Why are there so many homeless and unemployed? Why are there so many nice new vehicles on the road? Why is it rush hour basically all hours of the day? What is still oppressive about the government that people are still complaining? Why are there so many protests and are they justified? Why do these people dislike the United States? Why isn't the church more prevalent, more wide spread? Why is there so much violence? What is being done about all the generational hurt people hold? What is being done to combat gender based violence? Why is the economy in its second recession?
If a culture is a body, and we all are organs in the body, I feel like a transplant that is being rejected by its new habitation. I feel like I'm not wanted here. My friend got stabbed, another got a knife pulled on her, in my economics class some of the students made known to me very clearly their disdain for my country...
Cultures are like great vineyards full of many types of grapes, some good for wine, some for eating, some for making raisins, etc. I am like a man surviving in this vineyard. Not only must I pick those fruits which are good, I also have discern what they are good for. Like all cultures there are certainly bad fruits that need to be pruned out. The colonialists saw the African vineyard and, despite the good and bad fruits in it, decided just to cut it all away and plant grapes they knew how to use. This didn't turn out well at all, as the old grapes grew back in much pain and now the whole vineyard is a mess of fruits which are very hard to discern.
I mused that in ancient times, what did nations do to disorient people and more easily rule them? You place people in new cultures and mix them all up. So here I am doing it to myself 😄 I'm certainly learning to relate better with the patriarchs; Abraham, Joseph, and Daniel!
I praise God that I have a brother that is in New Zealand walking with me and that we are able to very intimately understand each other's struggles! He suggested that this may be a time of information gathering, learning not only new academic material, but about people, about myself, and ultimately about the heart of God! I had expectations I didn't realize I had until they were not fulfilled. Expecting to be helping people more. Expecting to feel nearer to Christ, feel like I was doing His will, feel like I was on the front line for the Gospel. Expecting to not feel so lonely, not to struggle so hard with sin.
No, God had different plans than I had expected, as usual 😏 As usually, I get so concerned with 'doing' when I need to be resting in what has been 'done.' Being out in the streets ministering to the homeless won't get you into heaven! Telling every person you see about Christ won't get you into heaven! Optimizing you opportunities to do things and make friends won't get you into heaven! Trusting that Jesus loves you, that He died for you, that He is God and conquered death for you; now that is what matters! I will "be still and know that [You are] God."
 |
| Some Dapper Gents: Gavin and me. |
join me: Surveying
Welcome to group 10! We're not a very talkative bunch, but when its necessary we try our best to accurately communicate our ideas and plans for surveying. After the beginning powwow where Professor Singh questions us if we even know what we are here to do, you head into the abandoned zoo were you will be conducting your first survey. As mornings in Cape Town are, it's cool, so you've worn long sleeves. As you follow an old beaten trail you cannot help but feel the melancholy of this abandoned place, a place where children once ran about to delight in getting to be so close to animals so much greater than they! The noise of crowds is now replaced by the steps of lonely surveyors marching like soldiers to the old lions' den. The lions' den sits in the zoo like the decrepit monolith of an ancient king's throne, or like a sacrificial ziggurat in South America. You ask one of the Capetonians in the group, and he remembers when it was still up and running, but the way the foliage has claimed it makes it seem much older. You're impressed by the trees. They're massive! Huge straight trees with only branches and leaves at its zenith. Their bark like scales remind you of huge lizard tails sticking up out of the ground, or the massive forelimbs of sauropods!
Surveying is fun work. No calculations, just understanding what spatial data you need and how to get it using the level and total station, two scope on tripod devices. You do your best to be critical and respectful of your peers and to aid them in ways that are not enabling. Mostly you realize you just have to trust them, that they know what they're doing, even if we've all messed up in the past. You have to do some observations over again because someone wasn't doing something correctly. Even so group 10 finishes much faster than everyone else and you're worried that maybe we missed something. That weekend you run through the calculations. Praise God! We were only off in our heights by 6mm!
 |
| A Level |
Thanks for reading! I'll be skipping a week of blogging for an overnight excursion to the Aquila game reserve! Hopefully I'll have many good things to write about and praises to my Savior! God bless!
Comments
Post a Comment