The importance and inadequacy of Education

     Last Thursday was "take-a-member-of-your-life-group-to-work-day" for Jenn, a member of my small group at Jubilee Community Church.  She works at Living Hope, an organization centered in FishHoek.  I have been asking her for several weeks if I could see what they do, and now it has finally happened!
     First she gave me an overview of the organization in FishHoek, and then we drove to Masi and Oceanview, two nearby townships, to see some of the work there.  Masi is more of a Black township.  Oceanview is more Colored, formed when the Colored population from another area was relocated to make room for a new all-White neighborhood.  One of the great tragedies of this relocation--apart from the basic, appalling injustice that it happened at all--is that the people of Oceanview used to live by the ocean and now they had a beautiful view of the ocean but no access to it.  Their fishing skills are useless in this inland community, and drugs and alcohol have become big problems.
     Living Hope is involved in these communities through children and youth programs, addiction recovery programs, food-sharing, support groups, teaching the people how to farm, care for HIV patients, and overall education.  The work they do is really amazing! (check out livinghope.co.za if you want to find out more)
     The importance of education in particular stood out to me.  I learned, for example, that HIV positive moms can have HIV negative babies.  These babies have natural immunity against the virus, but this lasts only as long as the baby exclusively breastfeeds.  If the baby starts eating and drinking other things besides the mom's breastmilk, the baby's resistance to the virus is broken down and the baby often becomes HIV positive.  So it is important to teach the moms to exclusively breastfeed, or exclusively feed the baby formula and other food.  Of course, things get complicated when other people feed your baby food or when your friend, who is baby-sitting, decides to nurse your hungry baby--we're all family, no?  But if they understand the concept, many young children can then be protected from HIV.
     However, I was also struck by how education is not always the answer.  Another big challenge in these areas is the prevalence of young, single moms.  Often, though, ignorance about safe sex and abstinence isn't the problem.  Rejection is.  Many young girls feel unloved, and they know that at least a baby will love them and provide a reasonably safe outlet for their own love.  This underlying relational brokenness must also be addressed for lasting and meaningful change to take place in a community!

Time Travelling

     A week or so ago I met some 'strangers' in Cape Town with a vaguely familiar accent--it almost sounded Canadian, or American, one of the two (sorry for any unintended insult to either party!).  This group of 'stranger' students were the Discover team from Prairie Bible Institute (PBI).  They were here for ten days or so, helping with kid's work at Jubilee, visiting metro kids in Cape Town, and helping set up for the new, enlarged Jubilee Health Centre (to read some of their stories, check out discoverourglobe.prairie.edu).
     It was neat to meet the Discover students, as well as spend some time with Kendi, who is also very much involved with the GlobeTREK program at PBI.  But that was an expected emotion--to enjoy hearing some news from 'home' and seeing the excitement of the Discover students in a foreign land.
     Some of my feelings as I met them were more unexpected:  I felt a sense of belonging at Jubilee--that it was my church and I felt excited to show these 'newbies' around.  I hadn't realized how much I had learned about Jubilee and Cape Town and how many friendships I have developed in the three months I have been here so far.  I was also surprised by the fresh perspective the Discover team gave me.  I think I am becoming more proficient and natural at living here.  I don't stand out so much when I go to the shops--at least until I open my mouth and my Canadian accent falls out :)  But when they arrived, I re-noticed things that have become 'normal'--such as security guards zooming down the streets on segways and the exciting array of flora and fauna.  On a hike the one day I saw a two-inch, neon red and green grasshopper that almost looked fake!  There are also the cutest little geckos in the house and springiest springbok on the mountainsides... and such beautiful flowers!  My new fav flower is definitely the frangipani :)

...  Now the reason for the title of this blog post:  Time Travelling. Prepare yourself to travel from a couple weeks ago to the present! ... And I'm sorry if that is not as thrilling as you expected when you read the title!  I just found the above paragraphs in a folder entitled "incipient blog post" and decided I had better get going and terminate this post as well.  The longer I wait to write my next blog post, the harder it gets for me to actually do it.  You can only imagine the agonies I sometimes go through in this regard!  ...What should I write about?  ...If I write about something funny that happened, obviously my life here is too frivolous.  But if every post deals with some brobdingnagian and momentous epiphany, that would be depressing for those who live mundane lives--not to mention, it would be an unrealistic portrayal of my own, often mundane, life!  I could write about my feelings, but some people want facts and couldn't care less if I suffered indigestion or feel emotional.  I could write about facts, but I do like to think that some people actually care about my thoughts and feeling... Hopefully you can appreciate a little more what is going on now when you are simply annoyed by the fact that I haven't blogged for a while so I obviously don't care about you!
  As it is, I do care about you and am actually writing this at 11 pm because I couldn't sleep while leaving this undone any longer (those of you who know me will understand the great sacrifice this is, when bedtime is obviously 10 o'clock :) ).  Part of the reason for this insomnia is because life is so good I just had to share some of it with y'all.
     Right now I am living in a house with around 12 other people, and the set-up is family style.  This means that we take turns taking out the garbage, cutting the lawn, going shopping, and cooking meals for everyone four nights a week.  It is a neat opportunity to talk about all kinds of things and get to know each other better... as well as try a variety of interesting dishes :)
     Tonight was my turn to cook, and I made a chicken and broccoli casserole with rice and a sumptious salad.  It was a good end to a good day of spending time with the moms at Sunshade in the morning and just talking with patients from the health center and volunteers at Jubilee in the afternoon.  It is a humbling and wonderful experience to see and be part of what God is doing here.  There are crazy stories of God's healing in people's lives, and how God orchestrates unexpected things. For example, through connections at the health center an unemployed man who came in for physiotherapy left the clinic with a job working for the physio's friend.  God cares about these down-to-earth things as much as He cares about all aspects of our lives--work, relationships, health, etc.!
    ... Thank you, Father God, for your provision in my life and the lives of the people around me!  I feel so blessed by my friendships here as well as those 'back home'--and all around the world!  I look forward to seeing more of your amazing goodness and work!

     Well, it really is bed-time now :)  So, I wish all my readers a wonderful day tomorrow, and thank you for letting me be a little part of it as you read this!