Working, having fun with my friends here, or going to church where we worship in Sotho and Zulu, English, or Afrikaans, Easter week in South Africa has been a wonderful celebration of life and living. After a busy week at work with lots of proposals to write and projects to work through, our department had a retreat at the most beautiful guest house to work on our distance education program with our external consultants. The setting was absolutely lovely and the food, from the breakfast tea through lunch, and then with afternoon tea made the whole day a treat. Of course, I just had to sit there listening, occasionally making a comment or two and asking a few questions, but generally I was quiet and drank my tea.
For most of my colleagues, that meeting continued on through Saturday, but Nkidi and I had already made arrangements to go with a group of her friends to Soweto. I can’t begin to describe how vibrant and alive all of Soweto is. There are people everywhere! We drove past Barankua, the largest hospital in Africa and certainly the largest one I have ever seen! It is also close to where Ben had lived for a couple weeks. We drove by the Soweto towers, but no one seemed to interested in bungee jumping so we just keep on going. We visited the Apartheid Museum and Nkidi and Sharon said, as they walked through the exhibits, that it seemed so long ago that things were so terrible. But they also shared some of the horrors of a segregated life and dealing with passbooks. Next stop - Wandi’s, with an all you can eat buffet of home-cooked African foods. My plate was piled high and I ate everything! Then we drove by Mandela’s little house, Tutu’s residence, Winnie Mandela’s house. We stopped to take a walk outside the Hector Peterson Memorial to learn about the June 16, 1976 student uprising against being taught in Afrikaans. Although we didn’t go through this museum, it remains my favorite. For our last stop of the day we headed to a HUGE mall that was begun by South Africa’s first black millionaire.
Palm Sunday I headed to J’burg in my recently repaired VW Golf Citi 1.6 with no signs of the car’s alter-ego, The White Rabbit. My friend Annalie, whose husband takes care of my car, decided that the bunny had left my car to take care of Easter preparations and for that, I’m grateful. In any case, Palm Sunday at St. Peter’s began at an empty parking lot in the Tembisa township. For 2 hours we walked up and down the streets of the township, singing and preaching a street revival. We had people coming out of their homes to watch and listen as we made our way through the streets. I managed to get video of much of our walk and will share that with folks when I return home. We ended up back at the lot for a final prayer before driving t other church to finish the service with prayers, announcements, and the offering. The youth were raising money and sold hot dogs – a welcome treat after a 3.5 hour day of worship. Of course, there was the session meeting that followed the service, so the elders ate and talked for another 30 minutes before we were dismissed.
Monday I returned to work to spend time on an article I’m writing with Miemsie and Cycil (our head of department). Tuesday Cycil and I finished up the student interviews for the article and I began the transcribing. Marie and I met to talk about the 3 projects we’re working on together (one that Holly, Michelle, and JD are joining and another that Susan B., Dorothy, and Cindy Klevickis will join). Then it was time to head out for a 2.5 hour drive southwest of Pretoria to visit a rural ECED training site that Ina and Annalie have worked with for several years.
Ntataise was the brainchild of a former journalist who lives on a huge farm with her husband. She realized that the people who were employed by her husband had no preschools available for their children, so she opened up a preschool on the farm. She began to realize that the teachers needed training to do their jobs well so she began raising funds to develop a training center. Today, Ntataise is housed in a modern facility and serves a network of 17 sites. Trainers are trained by people like Annalie and Ina at the center. Then they go back to their own localities to work directly with the teachers in workshops and follow them into their classrooms to provide additional support. What I saw was amazing! We’re starting an evaluation and study of change with this particular project and I’ll have lots more to share about this when I return home.
One of the nice things about going so far away is that you have to spend the night. Again, we were staying at a guest house that is situated on a working farm. I had no idea of what to expect here, but Ina and Annalie couldn’t wait for my reaction to our hostess. They had had some less than pleasant experiences in their early days at Ntataise with guest house matrons who weren’t so friendly and didn’t understand the amount of work they had to do at night to be prepared for each day of training. When they found Alma, they found a treasure. She is about “our age” and she is so warm and outgoing and welcoming – it was like coming home. Once we put our things away, she took us outside to show us her labyrinth. She walked us all the way through it, telling us the story of holy week all along the path. The next morning, she laid out wine and bread so that we could walk through on our own for a quiet meditation time. We returned for the key to her little shop where she sells jewelry that she makes and other lovely things. After spending my fair share there, we had a hearty breakfast and headed off to see two child care centers and meet the Ntataise staff.
On Thursday, I finally got my hair done. That was a little “renewal” experience just for me and you won’t believe how much younger I look without all the white hair! The stylist was quite young and decided that instead of using a single colour, I should have highlights so she did the foils and fixed me up! I lounged around with the colouring and the protein treatment and the styling for a good 2 hours, reading every magazine (and they were all new!) in the shop. I managed to pull myself away from the mirror and head to the office to meet with colleagues before leaving for home around 4.
Nkidi and her daughter invited me to go to the Maundy Thursday service with them at the nearby Presbyterian Church. Although the crowd was very small, the tenebrae service was familiar. The church itself reminded me of Trinity with its smaller membership size and the open sanctuary with beautiful wall hangings celebrating their mission to reach into self, reach out to one another, and to reach out into the world. After the service, Nkidi took me to her home to have supper with her family. Her son is 18 and loves sports. He’s a soccer player for his high school and he’s one defender you wouldn’t want to mess with! Her daughter is in her 3rd year at UP studying accounting. She is one of those rare people who is genuinely sweet and smart and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to talk with her. Nkidi’s husband is a quiet man with a good sense of humor and dinner was a lively time full of fun. The food was excellent and I’m getting the recipes to bring back!
Friday was a rainy day, much like most of the week, so I decided to buckle down and get some work done after I went to the 9 a.m. Good Friday service at the Presbyterian church. By late afternoon, I was stir crazy, but actually had accomplished a bit between the laundry and the dishes and the general procrastination. I was thrilled to get a call from Andiswa inviting me to meet her at Themba’s on Monday so we could visit with his mom and then go out for lunch. Soon after Andiswa’s call, Annalie texted to invite me to join her, Nico, and some of their friends for supper. I jumped at the opportunity and had an evening of conversation around issues of creativity. They are all activie in international and national circles with creativity in the world of business in particular so we had a great time all around.
Sunshine was the highlight of the day on Saturday. We’ve had so little of it lately and I felt like a new woman with all the light. I decided to do some shopping and treated myself to a new pair of jeans that I can wear to work (my other pair was handed down to me from Caroline) and a bright pink blazer. I roamed around my little mall and headed home to work on an IRB proposal so I can work on a piece of research with Holly, JD, and Michelle. Since I was incredibly restless, I wrote a very little and took a walk to a lovely set of artsy shops near the house, then returned to write some more, then took a walk to the sports grounds, then came back to finish up the writing and do some emailing. Annalie texted (she rarely actually calls) to say she was leaving her house at 5 and wanted to know if I wanted to join her. When I asked what her plans were, she responded, “Dinner with fairies.” So you know, I said yes! She picked me up and we went to the mall that is closest to my house to talk with 3 of her students from Tuks Creative (the student organization she started) as they worked with children in the mall, telling stories, painting faces, and drawing pictures. It was a lovely way to end the day.
This morning, Ina and her family picked me up for Easter services at their Dutch Reformed Church. The building itself was designed by a famous architect and it is a registered historical site. It was absolutely beautiful! The sanctuary is circular, with a balcony. For Easter, everyone brings flowers from their gardens to decorate the altar. The music was lovely with organ, strings, and horn for today. Six babies were baptized. The message, as Ina translated it for me after the service, was based on “the dance”. A missionary had wanted to explain the resurrection to his African congregation and couldn’t figure out how to explain it in a way that would make sense to them. One day, at the scene of an old wreck, the beat up car was lying there when a young man came up, walked around and around the car, climbed up onto the car, and then began dancing. The missionary had his metaphor! Many of us have been in wrecks of one kind and another. The resurrection is the hope that as we walk over, under, around, and through the wreck, we eventually end up on top of it and can begin to dance and sing. We closed the service with the song, “Lord of the Dance”.
The sun was still shining when I returned home, so I quickly changed clothes and headed for the Sunday market. Inspired by the morning, I picked up some gifts for friends at home, bought another pair of pants and a jacket (the season is changing here, you know), and then treated myself to 2 samoosas (At 2 rands each, where could I get a cheaper lunch?) that I managed to eat before I was half-way home! Now the rain has come and is going by so that perhaps there will be a little light for the remainder of the afternoon. My projects are lined up in front of me, reminding me that there’s plenty to do. After all, tomorrow is another play day with Andiswa in J’burg.
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