By the Light of the Moon and Three Floodlights

By the Light of the Moon and Three Floodlights

I am sitting here in my charming little room beside a bedside table with a night lamp trying to piece together a Safari outing I was a part of today. I have to be honest that a portion of the title of this blog is from a collection of children’s books stored in a case over my sons’ bed in the bed and breakfast that we are staying at. As I was gazing around trying to put my thoughts and feelings together about the Safari, a book, By the Light of the Moon written by Keith Faulkner jumped out at me. I read the short story, laughed and it gave me the starting point I was looking for. In short the story is about a witch, ghost and skeleton that get ready and then go out to scare the villagers and then the villagers all wide awake scare out the three because they’ve had more than they can take.
No, the Safari was not an opportunity to go out and scare animals but I think we did. Tonight’s activity was a chance for entertainment and education. Earlier in the afternoon we were all on for today’s agenda to go to a local bizarre and do some shopping and then travel on to Sun City. Sun City, which I prefer to call Sin City, is a huge Casino about an hour outside of Rustenburg, South Africa. The place had the bookings of a Disney World Day. The trappings include a water Safari world, Dance Shows and gambling, eateries, condominiums, show acts and so on and even bookings for a nighttime Safari into the local National Preserve for wildlife. Local posters are even promoting an upcoming Patti LaBelle show. This is probably very common in many Casinos’, as I have heard they are full of entertainment but I’ve never visited a Casino and after tonight don’t care if I ever enter another again.
Why do I sound so anti-Casino? Well to begin with my son said what I was thinking and that was, “hey dad are you noticing that everyone that works here seems to be black?” Yes I did notice that. He and I have noticed that almost every low level service job cleaning up behind what people appears to be done exclusively by black people. In the McDonald’s we visited, all black. In the Casino, all food service and Casino service people we saw were all black. There may be some brown skinned people but there were no white people seen to be working. The white people, and many very robust and probably hinging on a future diagnosis of diabetes, were emptying their pockets of their Rands (South African currency) drinking beer and eating food and playing games and yes buying tickets for rides and shows like I was. It was disconcerting to note the apparent delegation of service jobs to black people but some white people were heard bragging about how they were filing in to “Sin City” tonight to enjoy a musical extravaganza of the history of black music and culture in South Africa from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. I wasn’t sure but got a sense they were trying to come to terms with their feelings about having imposed apartheid and for them to feel this was some kind of achievement somehow for the Black folk. I say black folk because as I have begun to learn, the colored people (people not black anymore but with black ancestry) have lived by different rules during the oppressive culture of apartheid.
So at the “Sin City” ticket counter I voluntarily purchased 2 tickets for my son and me to go with others in my group on a night time Safari whereby we would be driven into the National Park from the Casino grounds which border the park and drive around looking for animals to be caught in a spotlight for viewing. Earlier in the day the question was asked, “Why at night?” The response was that it is easier to see them and they sort of get stunned and don’t run away. Some joking occurred about how in the past people deer hunted like this. The lights stun the animal and then their shot. This was the first reason why I began to feel perplexed about this whole plan for an outing. I really didn’t feel comfortable at all about buying these tickets which would have equaled a Disney entrance fee but didn’t feel like I could stand disappointing my son and making him miss a Safari.
My son was so looking forward to seeing lions, elephants, rhino’s and giraffe. I wanted so much for his and my dream to come true but suddenly found myself caught, as s many parents do, between making something possible and doing something that is not what God intended for people to do which was be good stewards to the creation we have been given. I also began to struggle within my heart and head with how this was measuring up to being socially responsible and being just. I mean, here I could have bought a food parcel for a family for 1 month with just my ticket if I didn’t go. But what would this be saying to my son and affect my relationship with the other people I was with that I love and care about. Would I look like a sore person and somehow become separated from them? I worried, would I be seen as the person that people would have to “be careful around” because I was on some kind of moral high horse? I worried about these things but I will worry more in the future about the cost of not doing the right thing and asking to not go out on the Safari.
Going out on that Safari cost more than just money, it cost me sense of value of living in harmony with creation. I will think often about the animals disturbed during drinking and eating. Actually it was wonderful to hear the elephant eat and to hear the crackle of the branches in it’s’ mouth. It was also just wonderful to sit and hear the call of the crickets and other wildlife when we got to sit for a few minutes with no lights, no motors, just the light of the moon and the song of the night.

Update from Wales

I am so excited to be sharing some videos with all of you showing some of the happenings here in South Africa. I believe Stacy has posted a link and you should be able to see. It takes some time to upload a video and we've been limited a bit by our ability to access the internet so it's been a little late in coming. I have many more videos and will try to upload them soon. If by chance you can't get the link, you can go to You Tube and type teamrb25 in the search bar. Please feel free to post comments! It will be great to see whose visiting and to have a more direct way to communicate about what we are doing.
South African's are among some of the most beautiful and kind people and have been very hospitable. I hope those of you dreaming about coming will be able toake a committment in the future! The weather is great, the wildlife sparse and the food (this is a meat based culture) for me has been horrible. God Bless Stacy who today found a vegetarian restaurant and bought lunch!!!! Thanks so much Stacy, I needed some nourishment!

Peace, Wales

Last Day in Rustenburg

Well, I am grubby, but I thought I'd drop by and leave a post. Tomorrow we head to Johannesburg for the weekend and I'm not sure whether we'll have internet again before we get to Capetown.

Check out Wales and Alden's Youtube page, where you can see some of their videos from the trip.

Today we cleared a piece of land at Tapologo and started putting in a rest garden for the staff. I am covered in red dirt and white dust from the rocks. I didn't really expect to be spending my time here landscaping, but so goes volunteering: you show up and do what they ask you to do.

Tomorrow morning we head for J'burg. Hopefully I can find my way to the Stable Inn, where we'll be staying for the weekend. Driving directions are interesting here, in part because they don't have street signs. The streets have names, but people rarely use them because, well, there are no signs, so the names don't really help. They give directions by the number of "stops and robots" you go through (and often by landmarks like "the big hill"), and they seem to like to tell me to "go down the highway" but not in which direction. I'm sure it works for those who live here, but it's fairly confusing for outsiders. In J'burg we'll be meeting with people from the So. Transvaal Synod, preaching at a church there, and visiting Soweto. I'll keep you updated as possible.

Tonight, we'll have a little farewell shindig with the new friends we've made in Rustenburg. Special thanks to the Hartleys (the family who owns the B&B and seems also to be involved in everything else in the city) for repeatedly saving our lives with tire repairs, directions, guided tours, laundry, coffee in the morning, drinks at night, food at all hours, and generally interrupting their lives to cater to our general helplessness.

It's Wednesday, right?

Well, I tried to upload a drivers-view video of our daily trek into Tapologo, but the internet hates me and it didn't work, so you'll have to settle for more words.

Sometimes it's still a little surreal that we are in Africa. I was driving down the road this morning - on the left - feeling perfectly normal, when I suddenly realized that I'm on a different continent. I'm getting rather used to things here, and it's going to be odd to leave on Friday and move on to a new part of the country.

We spent the morning today at Freedom Park, hearing from the home visit workers and checking out the AIDS clinic. Now we're at Tapologo, where those who are not blogging are doing actual work, planting a garden. Tonight we'll be meeting with representatives from the DRC (i.e., the white church) and the URCSA (the black and colored churches) to talk about potential strategies for partnering. The racial dynamics here are deeply ingrained and pretty difficult for me to fully understand; difficult to even hear, really. Casual comments keep disrupting my New York PC-ness, and it's easier to jump to the snap judgment than take the time to hear what's behind them.

A brief story from yesterday... We were visiting a home in the settlement where one of the three children, a 7-year old girl, was severely disabled: unable to speak, walk, or control the movements of her head or limbs. My guess is cerebral palsy, but there isn't sufficient medical care for these people to get a diagnosis - not that it would do them much good to have one anyway. The home care workers mentioned that the mother had been about to take her child to the church for prayers when we stopped by. I had been feeling fairly stupid and useless all day, but prayer seemed like the one thing that I could offer, and so I did. I went to lay hands on the child, and much to my surprise, the mother hoisted her into my arms, and I knelt on the floor next to her two sisters and prayed for the family. In the scheme of things, the whole incident is probably pretty insignificant, but it was a truly amazing thing to be entrusted with this child, even for just a moment. And it isn't much, but maybe a stranger's prayers brought a little glimmer of hope in the midst of some very difficult lives.

Freedom Park

We spent today making home visits with the childcare workers at Freedom Park. Some of us went into the illegal squatter settlement, while others were in the "official" part of the village, which has permanent housing and slightly better conditions. We visited a few homes, talking with the children and parents about their needs (insofar as it is possible to talk with people across a significant language barrier with minimal translation). The poverty and illness is astounding. I still feel like I'm trying to grasp all the factors involved in the situation here...and I suppose I still will be when I return. The staff at Tapologo has been a great help to us as we struggle to understand the political and social climate here.

I had hoped to post pictures and videos as we went along, but so far the internet access has been quite spotty. Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Phokeng, where I have fifteen minutes to do everything. So, I'm off yet again. Tomorrow we'll be working in the preschool at Freedom Park for part of the day. Then some of us will remain to work with women coming into the AIDS clinic there, while others will go to work in the garden project at Tapologo. Hopefully I'll get more online time to update you tomorrow.

PS - Carol desperately wants the Yankees scores if anyone cares to post them in the comments!

We made it!

We really did get here at the approximate time planned, but other things have not been quite as anticipated - like the availability of internet access. So, I apologize for the delay in posting, and also the probable brevity of this post. Our online time is very limited!

We arrived safely on Friday after a LONG flight, picked up our rental van, and embarked upon the adventure in driving to Rustenburg on the left side of the road. We've been staying at the Rainhill B&B, which is a really lovely place. Saturday was "jet lag day," with very little in the way of planned activity. We visited an open market and took a wildlife ride, which I'll tell you more about later, and drove the van through many potholes, one of which bent a rim and caused us a flat tire that has plagued us until this afternoon. Sunday was "church day," which involved dashing around to various churches in Rustenburg and participating in their services. I preached at an URCSA congregation where the service was entirely in Afrikaans with the exception of my sermon.

Today was our first visit to Tapologo. Again, more later - but for now, I'll just say that it is an amazing, humbling, and inspiring place. So many services are offered there, within an overarching philosophy of hope, healing, and compassion for the whole person. We also dropped by Freedom Park - a squatter settlement with an impressive clinic and home health care system - and Ledig, where Tapologo runs a large garden project.

Tomorrow it's back to Freedom Park, where some of us will work with child care and others will make home visits. Tonight we are having a farewell dinner with the Hospice part of our group, who are off to Durban in the early morning.

We're safe, we're well, and we hope you all are too!

3 Days!

The more I read about the country I'm about to visit, the more I realize how little I know about it. I'm trying to familiarize myself with some basic geography and cultural knowledge, but we're getting down to the wire here. I have a feeling I will be relying heavily on our hosts and guides, as well as on my traveling companions who have been to South Africa before.

Since I can no longer travel without the advice of the Lonely Planet, I offer to you their Interactive map of South Africa, and travel information. This is not their most helpful online travel guide, but it's something. Mostly it warns me of ATM schemes. Good to know.

If any of you who are local have a suitcase you'd be willing to never see again, I am looking for a piece of luggage to carry gifts, that can be left there (we can have two checked bags on the way to Johannesburg, but only one on our flight to Capetown).