A Great Day

Today was just a great day so I thought I would write a few comments. I spent the day with Eagles Rising community program today. I finally got to start a class with the second year students today. We've been trying to start for a couple of weeks, but with all the holidays it has gotten delayed. Today we started and we just started by telling our stories of what we've experienced so far in life. It was amazing and humbling to hear from these students and what they have experienced in life. One guy said his mom died when he was five and after that life was never what it was suppose to be again. Most of these students have been through so much!!!

After that I went grocery shopping with the cook. This morning she was preparing the last of the food they had. She had put everything in a soup and was just believing something would happen so she would have food to prepare tomorrow. I had some money that a lady in America had sent to me and said to use however I thought best. I had been praying about what to do and felt I should buy something for Eagles Rising. I had no idea about the food situation. But I arrived today with the money. You should have seen all the rejoicing!!!! So we went grocery shopping today. Three hours later with food packed into every available space in my car, we arrived back with enough food to carry them through next week (the picture is of all this food in the kitchen at Eagles Rising). Praise God. He knew the exact need. They really do experience a lot of miracles of food multiplying. There have been times when Auntie Cookie, the cook, simply prepared what was available. She could look at the pots of food and know it was not enough to feed the 27 students, only half the amount that she normally cooks with. But each time she is able to serve all the students. The food just multiplies as she dishes it out. It was fun to be a small part in seeing food provided today!

Then, after that I took one of the former students home to Khyalitsha, the largest township in Cape Town. This guy has been on staff at Eagles Rising for the past four months. But over the past month God has been burning a desire in his heart to begin a prayer room in Khyalitsha. He doesn't know of any prayer room there at this point. So, this young man in his early 20's left a comfortable stable job to follow God's call. His family is not Christian but they are supporting his choice to follow God in this way, which is really a miracle. I am so inspired by this young man who has made the choice to leave behind comfort to return to his home town and bring the light of Christ and the hope of God's ability to answer prayer to this difficult community. And it was such fun taking him home today. Khyalitsha is a wonderful township and the streets stay full of children playing and people walking about. I had so much fun waving at the children and meeting people here. A friend from Lubbock is coming to Cape Town this weekend for a visit. So, I arranged with this guy for the two of us to go with him to church in Khyalitsha this Sunday. I know it will be fun! Please pray for this young man...pray that God gives him grace to be home again, that salvation come to his family, that God provides him with a small house or shack that can be used as a prayer room.

Well, its 10:30pm now and I have been going, going since early this morning...I'm exhausted! I have a 7-9am prayer slot tomorrow but then I can rest because tomorrow is yet another public holiday. Yeah for public holidays!!

Election Results

Well, I actually just have a few minutes to write, but I wanted to make sure and give you election results. The elections were amazing. Absolutely peaceful. Here they make a mark on your thumb when you vote that stays for a long time. People who have voted proudly where their mark. It is fun now to see everyone with these marks on their thumbs. Anyway, the dominate party of this nation has stayed in power but there are other parties emerging who received more votes than expected. What I've been told is that many people believe the most balanced government will take place if they are able to have four strong parties here. So, its fantastic to see some other parties growing.

Oh, and just to share a little more about South Africa. I haven't e-mailed or blogged much in the past couple of weeks because things have been so busy here. There are so many public holidays during the month of April that people sort of take a big holiday for the month. I've heard so many people make the comment that they out to just close everything down for April. Everyone goes out all the time, spends their time out doors before winter comes full force, and many go out of town on vacation. So, I've joined in the fun and spent a lot of time out and about with new friends I am meeting. It has been wonderful...but staying out doesn't give much time for sitting at the computer :) But I think Friday is the last public holiday for a while...I think. Yesterday was Freedom Day to celebrate the end of Apartheid and full freedom for all. Friday is Laborers Day when people who work labor jobs get celebrated....how great is that!

More later....when things slow down and everyone gets back to work :)

Elections in South Africa

On Wednesday the nation of South Africa just held the most critical elections they have had since 1994 when Apartheid ended and every person was allowed to vote for the first time. People all over the nation acknowledge the importance of this year's elections and voter turn out was again like that of 1994 with long lines of people waiting for their opportunity to vote. I'm waiting for all the final numbers that will come out tomorrow, but it appears as if 80% of the population voted this past Wednesday. 80%!!! That is amazing voter turn out. I suppose when you've been denied the right to vote in the past it becomes more precious of a privilege.
I have to say that being here for the month leading up to this election has been amazing! So many things have gone on. Corruption has been uncovered, the problems with leaving one dominate party in power for too long has been openly discussed, tribal division and racism have been acknowledged. And yet in the midst of all of this, people and even the media have remained amazingly positive about it all. Even when a complaint is made the media has been quick to point out how the people of this nation still believe in the positive impact of a free and democratic elections no matter how many small mis-haps occur along the way. Can you imagine how peaceful things might be if the American media could just find one positive thing to say now and again!
For me the best part of this whole election process has been how the political parties campaign. There are something like 12 political parties here and almost no mudslinging. No negative words about the other parties. I actually know what the parties here believe in because they campaigned on what they are standing for rather than what they are against. I only heard one party in this nation campaign as standing against the domination of the leading party, but even with that it was not an entirely negative campaign. I did see one other group use a play on words to say if you don't want to vote for the other group then vote for us (one group here is called Congress of the People and to shorten it they call themselves COPE. So the one add said, "Can't COPE? Vote I.D.") Then, I don't know the exact process of things here but apparently representatives from each party are present during the counting of votes and these people who have just campaigned opposing each other for the past months sit in the same room and talk and chat. How nice is that? Can you imagine if Obama and McCain had sat in the same room and chatted on America's voting day???
Anyway, just wanted to share about this amazing experience of peaceful politics!
Oh, and why do they say these elections were so critical? I heard one media person say this, "In 1994 we voted to see the beginning of a new nation. This year we are voting to see where this new nation will go."

3 Weeks in South Africa

It has been a long time since I have written a blog…I can’t believe I have now been in South Africa 3 weeks!!! Wow! I have been doing short-term trips for several years now, just traveling for 10days to two weeks at a time. So, yesterday I felt it was time to go home. 3 weeks had pushed me a week past what I have grown accustomed to. So, I went to the movies. I sat in a movie theatre just like home, in the air conditioning, and I watched a Hollywood movie. It was a bit like home except I could not laugh with anyone about the movie afterwards….so it actually left me really wanting a great girls’ night with loads of laughter. South Africans see all the Hollywood movies but don’t necessarily know what makes the movie funny to Americans. I am always surprised at the different things people in other countries laugh at in movies and they have no idea why I laugh when I laugh. But it was a nice day in the AC yesterday…..really it was well worth the $3 for a movie just to sit in the AC for two hours. It’s really not that hot here, but you know a little AC is just nice now and again…..in a month when winter is coming with no central heat, I’ll be running to the movies for a heater :)

So for those of you reading this blog so that you can learn about moving to other countries…..I have learned a lot over the past three weeks!!!!! Oh, the things I would have done just a little differently had I known.

So first, leave it to Africa, they put the wrong visa in my passport. At some point I am going to have to deal with this, but I’ve just survived all the other things, so I’ll speak to Home Affairs another month! But I have a visitor’s visa in my passport….the one visa that lets you do nothing other than visit. I can’t open a bank account or do anything that requires a visa….I have a better situation than the other guy who was at the bank trying to get an account the day I was there. This poor fellow moved here to play Cricket for a pro team. He should have a worker’s visa, but they also put a visitor visa in his passport. Now this pro team only pays the players through paycheck bank deposit because it is the safest thing here, but this guy can’t get a bank account and therefore no paycheck until they get his visa worked out. What a hectic work this guy has ahead of him to get this all sorted out.

So, anyway, back to learning the best way to do things in South Africa, at least. It’s actually a miracle but I was able to sort out finances and paperwork and everything to get a car in one week’s time. Here’s how it went. Well, actually, it didn’t go as smoothly as this will sound. At each step I kept discovering that I actually needed to back track and do something differently…..but here’s how it could go for others in the future. First, find the car. Then, I had to go to the traffic department to get a traffic identification number (or something like that)…if you go into the traffic department and tell them you are a foreigner with a passport and you need the paperwork to buy a car in SA then they will give you the correct form. Anyway, I got this form very late in my process but I will let you know you need to just get this form in the beginning. Oh, and make sure you go ahead and get your id pictures made before going to the traffic department. Apparently there are usually people set up outside to take your picture right there, but none of these people were there when I went. The next thing is while you are at the Traffic Department have them approve your driver’s license (I would get an international one before you leave home, but they also may approve your American license). I actually don’t know how this last part works because I was told about it later when I got my car insurance and now I have 6 months to get it done. So all of this took some time and I went back and forth a lot because I didn’t know about one detail or the other. But it wasn’t too bad and I got it all done in one day!

But here is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to know when buying a car here….would have saved me and people at home a lot of time and money if I had known. We did fundraisers at home to raise the money for me to buy a car with cash when I got here. If you are doing this ask the dealership you are working with in advance what their requirements are for paying in cash. I brought traveler’s checks from home and had people at home go and wire the rest of the money to me. I paid all the fees to have this money exchanged and wired because I couldn’t get a bank account so I couldn’t pay with a bank guaranteed check which is what the dealership actually requires. So, after I got all this cash they told me I actually cannot pay in cash, but I would need to go to their bank and deposit the cash in the bank and bring the deposit slip……make sure to only work with trust worthy dealerships if you must do this!!!! Otherwise find a trustworthy South African friend to put the money in their account and get the check for you. Anyway, I went to deposit all this cash…..now at this point I had probably lost close to $200 in fees and lower exchange rates for exchanging cash. In the end I discovered the easiest thing would have been to have my bank at home wire all the money into the dealership’s bank account…..total cost = $55 for the wire + best exchange rate rather than the lower rate you get at money exchange locations. A bit of an expensive lesson….but that is why I’m taking the time to write this to let you know the things I have discovered so far for being a foreigner buying a car in South Africa.

Alrighty, well, more another day…..thanks for reading…..let me know if there is anything particular you would like me to write about concerning South Africa and the moving process.