On farewell parties.

Last night we had a party at our house.

Kylie, my awesomely crazy Australian flatmate, is heading back to Oz after three years of living in Jozi and so she had a farewell braai at ours yesterday.

About a 100 people came. Our house is not big enough for a 100 people. We are very thankful that yesterday’s rainstorm came in the afternoon.

It was a wonderful party though: R800 worth of meat was consumed, four pots of pap were made (and about two of those were actually eaten), drinks were drunk, the trampoline was bounced on, speeches were made, dancing wasdone and the tidying up didn’t actually take too long!

Sarah & Kylie

 

The theme was ‘Africa’ and most people came dressed in some traditional outfit or another. So I thought I’d share a wee photo of Kylie in her African dress, and Sarah – another of my lovely flatmates – preparing, at least clothing-wise, for her impending marriage to a Cameroonian bloke.

In summary: definitely going to miss wors; not convinced the same can be said about the pap.

 

On tea.

In amongst writing Bible studies, and final reports and other such delights, I’m trying to make the most of my final days in Jozi (17 left), saying goodbye to friends and visiting all of the best Jo’burg-y places.

One that has been on the list for awhile was finally ticked off this morning when lovely Kim and I went for tea at the rather wonderful Westcliff Hotel. If you’ve read my ‘25 things about me‘ post (and if you haven’t you should, ’cause it’s all about me and subsequently awesome) then you’ll know that one of my most-favouritest things to do in the world is go for afternoon tea (no.22), and although this time it was morning tea, that didn’t make it any less super.

Kim and I bonded over a shared tea and knitting snobbery (no milk, no acrylic, if you must know) and so going out for tea was a perfect activity. The hotel is stunning and fancy, the restaurant had a Polo theme (horses, not mints with a hole), the view over the forest that is Jo’burg was beautiful, the tea was Earl Grey with petals and served in clear glass teapots, and the food was nice and plentiful, which was handy since Kim is currently eating for two and I just like eating.

A very lovely morning and then back home for more writing of evangelism training courses and Colossians studies.

In summary: full of tea.

On counting down.

One month today I will be getting on a plane and leaving South Africa. Which is freaking me out just a wee bit.

At the beginning of the year (when I didn’t hugely want to be here) I was counting down to December and felt like it would never, ever come. Then I blinked and it was November 12th.

Today was another last – the last day on campus. I spent all day in my favourite coffee shop (which appears to be closing down – presumably because they’re too heartbroken at my leaving to carry on trading), meeting with my three lovely one-to-one girls, chatting through the awesomeness that is Colossians 3, dicussing the centrality and wonder of the cross, and rejoicing in the canon of scripture. As you do.

‘Twas a good way to end.

Lots more goodbyes to come. And much more writing of resources. So whilst I only have 30 days left in the country and 18 days left in the City of Gold, I’m trying not to wish or lament away the time, but get busy with what needs to get done.

In summary: trying to end well.

On Remembering

Today is a day to remember.

This day has begun to mean more to me in recent years. Now I have friends who are serving in the armed forces. Friends who have served. And friends who are about to start.

So, nothing else to say except – thank you. To you who have served, and to you who are. To you who I know, and you who I don’t. And to the ones who won’t grow old. Thanks.

For the Fallen

…They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them. …

Laurence Binyon.

 

In summary: grateful.

On musical woes.

In August something terrible happened. One of my colleagues borrowed my laptop, plugged his mp3 player into it and somehow managed to utterly destroy my itunes library. I’ve tried various different methods for retrieving the masses of music but all to no avail. I know it’s still there, hanging around somewhere on my external harddrive, but the technological knowledge to get from there back into my computer and available to play again is not knowledge that I currently possess.

Not everything is lost: stuff that I had purchased from itunes and was on my ipod at the time has been saved but everything else – days and days worth of playing time – is gone. So, at the moment I’m all about searching out new tunes to provide background music whilst I write Bible studies and take lengthy plane rides etc, and joyfully in that search I discovered the very awesome These Broken Hands by Portland.

These Broken Hands

My adorable baby sister, Sarah, sent me a copy of the CD earlier in the year, but due to the incompetance of either the Royal Mail or the South African postal service I never got it. However, when I went home for my wee October visit my Dad had it playing in the car when he came and picked me up from the airport, I fell in love straight away and nabbed that copy to bring back to Jozi.

I also spent a good portion of my free time at staff conference listening to it, so the music is now rather aligned in my head with the temperature, sights and sounds of the Western Cape bush (not a bad association to have, I might add).

All this to say – if you’re looking for something new to listen to, I’d recommend these guys. As I understand it the album is available to download from itunes, and I’d especially recommend the first and final tracks – Carry You is soft, beautiful and had me singing along by the second time I’d heard it, whilst Eamonn’s Leviathan is just awesomely folky.

Go. Download.

In summary: enjoying lovely music.

On exams.

Working with students is an awesome job, and I love it very, very much, but sometimes it makes me sad because I’m not a student anymore and occasionally I really wish I was. And then exams arrive and I am so very, very, very glad about the fact that that particular period of my life is over and done with.

Jacaranda flowers at Wits

 

In South Africa finals are on at the moment. At this time of year the jacaranda trees are in bloom and the students have a bizarre tradition that if one of the purple flowers falls on your head whilst you’re on the way to an exam then you’ll pass it. Cue large numbers of students walking backwards and forwards underneath the trees on campuses throughout Jo’burg and Pretoria.

Wits students are currently in the midst of that special time of year. Which means that my weekly schedule is rather different than it was during the rest of the year. As opposed to the four days a week that I was spending on campus during term-time I’m now only there for one day a week. I go in for the whole day, meet up with my three lovely one-to-one girls and some of the other SCO ladies, and drink lots and lots of coffee.

Andrea

Aba

Stacey

Which perhaps makes you wonder what on earth I’m doing with the rest of my time? Well, for the rest of November I’m going to be working on writing some Bible study resources for SCO staff to use next year. It means working from home, which requires me to have a little more ’self-discipline’, but so far I’m really enjoying it and just hoping that the finished product will be helpful.

In summary: glad to have a degree already.

 

On graduation

– Just to warn you. November is going to be noticeable for lots of posts about ‘last times’. Sorry, but that’s just how I roll. –

 

Last night was graduation at Johannesburg Bible College, and so was a last visit to the lovely buildings where I have spent most of my Tuesday and Thursday mornings for the last year.

I’m very glad that I got to go to JBC this year. Learned some stuff, made lots of friends and drank too much coffee, and I think being there twice a week and encouraged with some nice con-evo theology was instrumental in keeping me sane through some of the more ‘challenging’ moments of SCO life.

The Graduates

About ten of my fellow students graduated last night (having gone to college full-time for the past year). It was a lovely evening, a good chance to reflect on the year and pray for the future of the college and the graduates. Plus there was very nice food, and the college principal’s 9 year old daughter, Miriam, kept me entertained by doing a bit of impromptu Irish dancing.

And of course the inevitable moments of sadness, because in amongst last night’s crowd was another bunch of people to say goodbye too.

In summary: grateful and sentimental.

On IFES World Student Day

Today is the IFES world student prayer day (although since it’s actually 48 hours long I’m curious about their usage of the word ‘day’)

International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

Check out the funky interactive website thingy (esp. if you can understand and appreciate the French conversation tht appears to be ongoing at the mo) and/or have a glance at the prayer requests for the EPSA region below.

EPSA (English & Portuguese-Speaking Africa) consists of the following countries:

Angola, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia & Zimbabwe.

Some of the key issues in many of these countries include the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty and political instability. So please do be praying for the students involved in the movements across our region as they seek to speak the truth of the gospel into all of these difficult situations.

Also, there are plans taking shape currently to implement a gospel project across the region. The movements have access to thousands of copies of John’s Gospel (known as Africa Life) to distribute to students. Please pray for the finances needed to allow this project to work, for the enthusiasm of IFES students to share these gospels with their friends, and for God’s word to impact and change the region.

For more info on the EPSA region (or other IFES regions around the world) go to the IFES website and click on PRAY.

In summary: praying.

On staff conference in the bush.

After I returned from my brief but fun-filled trip home I spent a couple of days in bed sleeping it off and then re-packed my bags, headed back to the airport and flew down south for the SCO staff conference.

We stayed at a ‘campsite’ in the bush, just across the lagoon from Hermanus (a small town, about an hour and half from Cape Town, and South Africa’s ‘whale watching capital’).

I have stayed at many, many, many Christian conference centres and campsites in my 25 years of being alive, and I am unable to believe that there is a nicer one in the world than Wortelgat. Beautiful, new houses built by super-nice Christians and then handed over to the charity to be used for conferences. It was hot, and peaceful and safe and one day we walked down to the beach and saw whales! Really.

Also, the people and the teaching were awesome too!

We were studying Philippians in the morning – taken through it by Gideon Para-Mallam, who is the IFES Regional Secretary for our super EPSA (English & Portuguese-speaking Africa) region. We had staff business meetings, year reviews, advice and encouragement on support-raising and Papi (the STEM director) told us all about his sabbatical trip to England to see how UCCF does staff orientation, Relay training and Forum, plus lots more. And I saw a Baboon spider and a poisonous snake (which made the campsite seem a tad less like paradise!)

It was a very fun week. Wonderful to spend time with the rest of the staff, and a great encouragement to go into the final month with enthusiasm to ‘end well’.

In summary: ready to move to the bush (once all the snakes are gone).

On goodbyes.

The time is coming for goodbyes. There’s now less than a month till I leave Jo’burg and only 39 days till I leave the country, and whilst I am looking forward to many things about going home, leaving my lovely friends here is not one (of those things).

This week marked the beginning of that, as my lovely friend Cion packed up all of her stuff and headed back to America. So the last few days have been heavily influenced by spending lots of time before she left.

Cion cooking brunch

Eggs & Bacon

We had a braai for her last week and a brunch for her on Sunday morning, and besides that I’ve spent a great deal of time hanging out in her flat and helping her to pack up her life from the last two and half years, encouraging her to cull her wardobe and assisting in the weighing of luggage.

She flies this afternoon and I will miss her a lot. But also conscious of the fact that this is only the beginning of the many, many goodbyes that will be taking place over the next month, and really can’t believe that there’s so little time left here.

In summary: sad.