It's time to finish up with South Africa and move onto what's next. We came home from Cape Town last Monday. I went to Valpo for 3 days where I could process with people who have previously been in the CGE Namibia program. Then I headed home for 3 days. Now I've been in Birmingham for 3 days doing training for Youthworks, which is what I have worked with for the last 3 summers. On Friday, I head to Atlanta with 3 other individuals to lead Christian service trips for the summer. My role is to coordinate several crews of high school youth in sending them to different ministries and service organizations in Atlanta.
This shift has been so busy that I have not had much time to sit and ponder over my experience in Namibia. It was not until last night when I was chatting with a guy from the Youthworks office that I finally "snapped." We discovered that he did the same Namibia program with CGE in 1994, which is nuts because Namibia got its independence in 1990 and South Africa in 1994. He then led a discussion on poverty with the other 70 staff in training. It was incredibly difficult to sit and listen to their perspectives after what I have experienced. Poverty is entirely different in the US as compared to Namibia, but my experience in Namibia has no doubt shook me up when thinking about living in this world with such inequality and injustice.
When I think of poverty now, I can't help but think of it in terms of how individuals not in poverty are the ones causing it. The culture of my own background is the oppressor that takes hope away from those without hope. People in poverty rarely do anything by themselves that puts them into their poverty. And if they are currently making bad decisions that keeps them there, it is our inability to acknowledge their own integrity that pushes them to their habits. What are we doing that is creating this culture of hopelessness in individuals? Why are we not welcoming all individuals? As I walked between bars at night in the downtown streets of Cape Town, I saw individuals who had probably not been acknowledged as a real person created in the image of God. I could visibly see what this had done on the psyche of these individuals. Then I came home and saw the same longing to be acknowledged as a creation of God in the homeless individuals on the streets of Chicago.
You might call me a young idealist from reading some of my writings, but I've have my bouts of unrealistic and unexperienced idealism. yeah...time for me to eat dinner and get back to this later. I have many more reflections about Namibia and I will probably keep this blog going to share my experiences from Atlanta.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Rugby
We reached Cape Town 2 days ago.
Today was a good day. Went to Robben Island...saw the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Had ostrich steak for lunch. Watched crazy fire breathers. But mainly, Kesem and I went to a professional rugby match. It was awesome...It was probably a stadium of 40,000 that was filled. Interestingly, 95% of the audience was white. I suppose apartheid still lives on in big ways. I would expect 95% white in MN where white is a majority, but here, whites compose a minimal percentage.
Yep, that's all. Rugby is a good time. Tomorrow we see where the Indian and Atlantic meet.
Today was a good day. Went to Robben Island...saw the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Had ostrich steak for lunch. Watched crazy fire breathers. But mainly, Kesem and I went to a professional rugby match. It was awesome...It was probably a stadium of 40,000 that was filled. Interestingly, 95% of the audience was white. I suppose apartheid still lives on in big ways. I would expect 95% white in MN where white is a majority, but here, whites compose a minimal percentage.
Yep, that's all. Rugby is a good time. Tomorrow we see where the Indian and Atlantic meet.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Street Vending
Victoria Falls
I suppose its time to mention Vic Falls even though it was a month ago. We spent a day homeless waiting in Otjiwarango for a bus. Naturally, we visited the crocodile farm to kill some time. Sadly, they were out of meat. Come 10pm, we loaded a bus and arrived in Zambia at 1pm the next day. We stayed at Jollyboys Backpackers in the town of Livingstone, which is about 20 minutes from the falls. One of the girls with us thought there was a huge fire because she thought she saw tons of smoke, but it was only the spray of the falls.
I visited the falls several times and it blew my mind. I can’t think of any place where you can get soaked with rain when it’s clear skies. Safety precautions are a little more lax than places in the US. We dipped our feet in the Zambezi about 8 meters above the falls. We also went on a 2 day canoe trip on the Zambezi. We wanted to go rafting but the water was ridiculously high. We also spent another day doing a gorge swing, which consisted of a 50 meter freefall. This was actually much scarier than any skydiving we did.
I was most intrigued about Livingstone itself. Through a random contact, we were going to visit a rural village. Expecting it to be some personal thing through this person we met, we went only to find it was a typical tour and a major tourist trap. They gave us a half-hour tour through this village of several thousand. We stopped in people’s homes and felt so awkward. They made sure to bring us by the area where a few people were making curios or crafts. The kicker came at the end when they brought us back to where they sell the crafts. About 50 men ran ahead of us to man their stations. I’ve never met salesmen with such aggressive techniques. Everyone says, “Can I ask you one question? Where from?” I’ll tell them the US and then they ask for your name to make it very personal. They’ll use your name nonstop, and then they offer to trade for different articles of clothing. After offering several things for something like socks, then they say, “Well how much money are you going to put on top of it?” They try to make you feel like you’re getting a good deal by trading as well. I felt so conflicted as a tourist by going and “gawking” at some village, but it was also one of their main techniques of making money by suckering us in to buy stuff. People all across the region used the same techniques. I want to support these guys, but its impossible to buy from more than a couple of them.
I actually got into a conversation with one vendor, and somehow he started being totally honest with me. He was young, about 23, and was looking to attend university soon. He described the different techniques vendors use and how they sucker you in by offering to trade, but really they don’t want the item. He also told me some real prices. He might by an item for Kw15000, try to sell it to older people for kw50000 ($12), but he acknowledges that students can’t afford as much so he’ll start offering around kw35000. He said that some people ask how much he wants for items, so he’ll give a price and they will offer more because they want to support him. This is rare, however. We eventually got off of the craft selling topic and had an amazing conversation.
We went to Sossusvlei a few weekends ago and it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. That’s all I can do to describe it.
I suppose its time to mention Vic Falls even though it was a month ago. We spent a day homeless waiting in Otjiwarango for a bus. Naturally, we visited the crocodile farm to kill some time. Sadly, they were out of meat. Come 10pm, we loaded a bus and arrived in Zambia at 1pm the next day. We stayed at Jollyboys Backpackers in the town of Livingstone, which is about 20 minutes from the falls. One of the girls with us thought there was a huge fire because she thought she saw tons of smoke, but it was only the spray of the falls.
I visited the falls several times and it blew my mind. I can’t think of any place where you can get soaked with rain when it’s clear skies. Safety precautions are a little more lax than places in the US. We dipped our feet in the Zambezi about 8 meters above the falls. We also went on a 2 day canoe trip on the Zambezi. We wanted to go rafting but the water was ridiculously high. We also spent another day doing a gorge swing, which consisted of a 50 meter freefall. This was actually much scarier than any skydiving we did.
I was most intrigued about Livingstone itself. Through a random contact, we were going to visit a rural village. Expecting it to be some personal thing through this person we met, we went only to find it was a typical tour and a major tourist trap. They gave us a half-hour tour through this village of several thousand. We stopped in people’s homes and felt so awkward. They made sure to bring us by the area where a few people were making curios or crafts. The kicker came at the end when they brought us back to where they sell the crafts. About 50 men ran ahead of us to man their stations. I’ve never met salesmen with such aggressive techniques. Everyone says, “Can I ask you one question? Where from?” I’ll tell them the US and then they ask for your name to make it very personal. They’ll use your name nonstop, and then they offer to trade for different articles of clothing. After offering several things for something like socks, then they say, “Well how much money are you going to put on top of it?” They try to make you feel like you’re getting a good deal by trading as well. I felt so conflicted as a tourist by going and “gawking” at some village, but it was also one of their main techniques of making money by suckering us in to buy stuff. People all across the region used the same techniques. I want to support these guys, but its impossible to buy from more than a couple of them.
I actually got into a conversation with one vendor, and somehow he started being totally honest with me. He was young, about 23, and was looking to attend university soon. He described the different techniques vendors use and how they sucker you in by offering to trade, but really they don’t want the item. He also told me some real prices. He might by an item for Kw15000, try to sell it to older people for kw50000 ($12), but he acknowledges that students can’t afford as much so he’ll start offering around kw35000. He said that some people ask how much he wants for items, so he’ll give a price and they will offer more because they want to support him. This is rare, however. We eventually got off of the craft selling topic and had an amazing conversation.
We went to Sossusvlei a few weekends ago and it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. That’s all I can do to describe it.
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