i've experienced everything from relentless rain to crazy bizarre spouts of heat waves. I've been in both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean and i've swam with penguins. I've been at the very bottom of Africa and thank God Columbus was wrong and i did not find myself staring at the outer limits. I've fallen sick to some virus or another in the air, i've lost various amounts of clothing articles, i broke my guitar string today, dropped the surfboard, burned myself, walked in front of oncoming traffic and fallen face first in a group of unsuspecting (but highly amused) freshmen. oh, and I am officially broke for a bit.
and i have never been happier!
"sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to the Father"
i will have more to write later im sure, but for now as always....
peace. love. grace
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
oh baby its a wild wild world....
LOVE:
Last week I started work at Ikaya Primary School in Kayamandi working with sixth and seventh graders in the afterschool program. They should have warned us. At the least they could have prepared us. And I’m sure all the parents reading this have chosen this moment to raise their arms in triumph at this ‘interesting’ little situation I seem to have gotten myself into. Nonetheless, I am in love with my group of twenty or so fire-breathing minions. I love these kids. I love them with a painful, crushing love that grows even deeper as one carefully calculates the exact angle to jump and hang from my neck without crushing my windpipe. I love the overconfidence and the selective hearing sprinkled with a generous dose of mayhem. I love this because there is no room left for me to think of how I should act or what I should say there is only action. There is teamwork in the note making a seemingly unseen path behind my back and into the hands of a giggling group of girls across the room. There is the pure and raw passion that is thirteen-year-old Zine, self-appointed leader of the class, bursting spontaneously into a song that my ears can’t possibly understand but somehow the rebellious, determined child in me does. There is the love, because these kids unconsciously answer questions I do not realize I am asking. And there is love because that is all there is room for.
JOY:
The weekend found me cramped in the back seat of a 1976 electric blue ford Cortina with a couple surfboards a couple beach bums and a whole day ahead of us. To my left and right lie miles and miles of vineyards with vines that have lifetimes ahead of them. The air spills into the car from every window caressing, uncovering and leaving as quietly as it comes. Nico is blasting something from the radio, it might be German but it sounds like journey, I turn my head to see him humming along as he shifts gears. I roll down the window some more as the smell of the ocean encloses me and I have to stick my hand out letting the smell and wind waft through my outstretched fingers. We close in on an empty spot, finally there it is. I am inexplicably happy at the familiarity it brings and I think of friends and family and peace and God and home, all of my homes, and I think of joy. Of joy. And as we all get out to look at the horizon before us we become in that moment infinite....
Peace. Love, Grace
Last week I started work at Ikaya Primary School in Kayamandi working with sixth and seventh graders in the afterschool program. They should have warned us. At the least they could have prepared us. And I’m sure all the parents reading this have chosen this moment to raise their arms in triumph at this ‘interesting’ little situation I seem to have gotten myself into. Nonetheless, I am in love with my group of twenty or so fire-breathing minions. I love these kids. I love them with a painful, crushing love that grows even deeper as one carefully calculates the exact angle to jump and hang from my neck without crushing my windpipe. I love the overconfidence and the selective hearing sprinkled with a generous dose of mayhem. I love this because there is no room left for me to think of how I should act or what I should say there is only action. There is teamwork in the note making a seemingly unseen path behind my back and into the hands of a giggling group of girls across the room. There is the pure and raw passion that is thirteen-year-old Zine, self-appointed leader of the class, bursting spontaneously into a song that my ears can’t possibly understand but somehow the rebellious, determined child in me does. There is the love, because these kids unconsciously answer questions I do not realize I am asking. And there is love because that is all there is room for.
JOY:
The weekend found me cramped in the back seat of a 1976 electric blue ford Cortina with a couple surfboards a couple beach bums and a whole day ahead of us. To my left and right lie miles and miles of vineyards with vines that have lifetimes ahead of them. The air spills into the car from every window caressing, uncovering and leaving as quietly as it comes. Nico is blasting something from the radio, it might be German but it sounds like journey, I turn my head to see him humming along as he shifts gears. I roll down the window some more as the smell of the ocean encloses me and I have to stick my hand out letting the smell and wind waft through my outstretched fingers. We close in on an empty spot, finally there it is. I am inexplicably happy at the familiarity it brings and I think of friends and family and peace and God and home, all of my homes, and I think of joy. Of joy. And as we all get out to look at the horizon before us we become in that moment infinite....
Peace. Love, Grace
Monday, August 4, 2008
lions, tigers and bears...oh my.
things that i am just now beginning to realize were very VERY wonderful to have in my life...
-central heating, i repeat, CENTRAL HEATING
-DSL
-consistent electricity
-an endless supply of burritos.
now i know you're all probably thinking "now Lynn/Jayden/Stranger it cant be that bad...". You are right. It isn't. It's not bad at all! This is just a moment of anxiety, a little panic attack that I have currently decided to have in the library. Speaking of panic attacks, the roommates and I decided to engage in a little "politics talk" seeing as how the election is coming up and all. let me tell you, with one german and three american poly-sci majors, you do not talk. You have intellectual warfare. Tables were drawn, theories were discussed, missiles were fired. I am here to tell you i survived and never before in my life have i been more aware, or unaware i should confess, of how much i do not know about american/international politics. Needless to say, i left that "discussion" with a fair share of battle wounds.
The Kayamundi basketball team held a brie (barbeque) at our house on sunday as well. A few classmates of mine volunteer/coach the team four days a week at Kayamundi High and these boys are amazing. They are talented, well spoken, friendly and all in all your typical 14-17 year old teenage boys. It was a great afternoon of food, music and soccer.(its international) The boys are full of life, we had everything from a dance off to a rap throw down. Definitely a plus side of the weekend.
Where there's an up, theres a down. My program got us all tickets for the famous Stellenbosch wine festival last friday. Being the environmentally conscious people that we are, we decided early on to take the short twenty minute walk to the location of the festival. Well weather here is really quite funny and so predicatablly everything that could go wrong...did. The heavens opened up and buckets (yes buckets) of water proceeded to escort us all the way to the festival. And because mother nature couldn't just let one of her kids have all the fun our good friends, 40 mph hurricane winds decided to join our fun little caravan. The Nile river appeared halfway through our exodus and we forged it (quite brilliantly i must add, onto the promised land. We arrived thirty five (not twenty) minutes later slightly hysterical, mildly delusional but mostly alive for an evening of food, wine and entertainment.
On that note...i have class in about fifteen minutes. I enjoy more than anything your calls, your texts, and general ramblings in my direction. thank you. as always...
peace. love, grace
-central heating, i repeat, CENTRAL HEATING
-DSL
-consistent electricity
-an endless supply of burritos.
now i know you're all probably thinking "now Lynn/Jayden/Stranger it cant be that bad...". You are right. It isn't. It's not bad at all! This is just a moment of anxiety, a little panic attack that I have currently decided to have in the library. Speaking of panic attacks, the roommates and I decided to engage in a little "politics talk" seeing as how the election is coming up and all. let me tell you, with one german and three american poly-sci majors, you do not talk. You have intellectual warfare. Tables were drawn, theories were discussed, missiles were fired. I am here to tell you i survived and never before in my life have i been more aware, or unaware i should confess, of how much i do not know about american/international politics. Needless to say, i left that "discussion" with a fair share of battle wounds.
The Kayamundi basketball team held a brie (barbeque) at our house on sunday as well. A few classmates of mine volunteer/coach the team four days a week at Kayamundi High and these boys are amazing. They are talented, well spoken, friendly and all in all your typical 14-17 year old teenage boys. It was a great afternoon of food, music and soccer.(its international) The boys are full of life, we had everything from a dance off to a rap throw down. Definitely a plus side of the weekend.
Where there's an up, theres a down. My program got us all tickets for the famous Stellenbosch wine festival last friday. Being the environmentally conscious people that we are, we decided early on to take the short twenty minute walk to the location of the festival. Well weather here is really quite funny and so predicatablly everything that could go wrong...did. The heavens opened up and buckets (yes buckets) of water proceeded to escort us all the way to the festival. And because mother nature couldn't just let one of her kids have all the fun our good friends, 40 mph hurricane winds decided to join our fun little caravan. The Nile river appeared halfway through our exodus and we forged it (quite brilliantly i must add, onto the promised land. We arrived thirty five (not twenty) minutes later slightly hysterical, mildly delusional but mostly alive for an evening of food, wine and entertainment.
On that note...i have class in about fifteen minutes. I enjoy more than anything your calls, your texts, and general ramblings in my direction. thank you. as always...
peace. love, grace
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