Sunday (Feb. 20th): On our way to and from the grocery store we go around a corner stoplight that usually has a young boy or man standing in the middle of the intersection begging for money. He holds up his hands, stares at you with sad looking eyes, and pleads with you for just a little money. We have been told not to give money to beggars. If you give to one, more will flock to you and then you will have to give to all of them. Or if you give the man a little, he may end up using violence and steal more of your money or your camera, phone, etc. I wonder if these are just stories to make us fear people who are poor. To separate those who live in poverty even more from the rest of society. How often would those things really happen? I realize it is unreasonable to try to give money to every poor beggar who asks, but still I hurt when I see them. I feel like a cruel person, as I try not to make eye contact, and quickly spit out the lie “I’m sorry, I don’t have any money.” I bet they know I am lying. I hate it.
Sunday night, Katie and I went to Mass that was put on by the Catholic student group “ACTS” on campus. As we were walking there, we saw the coolest thing ever! We spotted 10 vervet monkeys and two baby monkeys. They were all jumping around in the trees and the pathway. I was so mad I didn’t have my camera. The student Mass was very cool too. Once again I experienced the true meaning of “catholic” being universal. The Mass was different from any Mass I have ever been to, yet I still understood what was going on. The songs were in many different languages to allow people of all languages to participate. The actual Mass was said in English though, by Fr. Dominic. Katie pointed out after Mass that God is universal, He speaks all languages. It was really cool to experience Mass like this. Plus, when they would sing, they always sounded so good.
Monday (Feb. 21st) we had service at House again. Our group did some cleaning, painting and sorting. Then we got to play with the kids for a little bit. Gosh they are cute. In the afternoon, we had our music class. We had someone come in and teach us how to sing the South Africa National Anthem. It is a pretty cool song. It uses 5 of the 11 official languages of South Africa. We also learned a few other songs in Xhosa. We did not sound too great as a group. Xhosa is a hard language for us because it has many clicks in it. Haha it was kind of funny to hear us struggling.
Tuesday (Feb. 22nd) we had service again. This time I helped paint one of the bedrooms. When we got to see the kids again, I found the boy who had on the blue shirt the first day. He still hasn’t told me his name. He is very shy. The entire time, I held a toy helicopter and he spun the propeller. When I would say “good job” or compliment his spin, a huge smile crept across his face. Ahh his smile is so beautiful and makes me so happy. After service, we had a shorter amount of time to change, eat lunch, and get to NMMU. Katie and I decided we wanted some fast food for lunch and so we stopped at McDonald’s. I had a cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake. I know it is bad for me, but it tasted quite good. Eating inside the restaurant, I did not feel like we were in South Africa. It felt like I was just in a McDonald’s in a city a little ways from home. It was so weird.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty average days. I had class and spent some time walking around NMMU. It was actually the first time I have been alone the entire semester. Katie and Heather went to go do something and I had a few errands to run on campus. It was so weird to be alone. I think that it is crazy that it feels so weird to be alone here, compared to last semester where I would wander by myself all the time and not have to worry about anything.
Well that is a lot of the random things that happened in Port Elizabeth this week. Hope you all are enjoying the snow back home. I heard you had a snow day. Haha :] fun stuff.
Love & Prayers,
-Laura
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