“It is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now.” Nelson Mandela

A little over two years ago, while traveling through Kruger National Park in South Africa, I bought a copper bangle bracelet in a touristy gift shop with the number “46664” on it. This was the prison number given to Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned on Roben Island in 1964 for his leadership in the fight against the apartheid system. I later found out that a portion of my R20 went to this awesome organization: www.46664.com. Since then, I have worn that bracelet every single day. Yes, sometimes it turns my arm green, but it’s a constant reminder of my experiences living, learning, and serving in South Africa. More importantly, it is a reminder of the sacrifices Mandela made in the name of social justice and equality. 

During my VISTA year, I have struggled to work behind the scenes. My position turned into an unexpected lesson in stepping back, in “building capacity” without being directly involved in a hands-on way.  The past five years have taught me that there are all kinds of service, and they are all important. Sometimes you get to work with people face to face, meeting needs and getting your hands dirty – and sometimes you sit in front of a computer and fill out paperwork. Social change takes time, patience, and work that isn’t always fun. 

Since my time in South Africa, my study of Ubuntu has turned almost completely inward - getting through the final stretch of college, writing my thesis, planning my next steps post-graduation. I’ve been working on loving myself and establishing better, healthier habits so it’s that much easier to love others. Honestly, though, I’ve been kind of lazy this past year. I watch a lot of HBO shows. I’m apathetic at work. I haven’t read very many books. It’s time for a change.

One month from now, I will become a full-time case manager at AHOPE Day Center, taking my first professional steps toward becoming a social worker. My plan is to revive this blog as a part of my self-care plan, so I have a place to process my experiences through the lens of Ubuntu. It’s time to put myself back on the social change radar, back to getting my hands dirty and really working toward a cause I believe in. 

So, on this celebration of his 95th birthday, here's to Madiba and new hands lifting the burden.

“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.” –Nelson Mandela

Love, by nature, wants to give itself away. (Originally written 6/8/2011)

I have ten more days in South Africa. Up until now, I've avoided the inevitable countdown in a "this is never going to end" sense of denial. However, it's time to face the fact that I have to move on to the next phase of my life, and I better make the most of the time I have left in this beautiful, scary, wonderful, complex city.

The other day, I read a wonderful blog post that got me thinking about love and service. I'm not talking about the mushy-gushy romantic kind of love, but the we're-all-human-and-we're-all-in-this-together kind of love. It's the love that Jesus talked about, the love Mo Tzu talked about, the love the Dalai Lama talks about. It's Ubuntu.

I like to think that I do service because I care about the state of the world, because I care about people and human rights, because I want to make this crazy world a little bit better. But here's the thing: all too often, I do service because it's what I'm supposed to do. I serve out of a sense of obligation, of duty. And yes, the Habitat house will be built and the Dance for All networking will get done, but have I done any good?

When I serve from a place of love, everything changes. When I do anything from a place of love, the whole actions changes. Let's take washing dishes, for example. There are 20 people living in the Kimberly House. We generate a lot of dishes, and they often don't get washed. I got into the habit of periodically attacking the kitchen, cleaning everything in sight, getting rid of the pile of dishes in the sink. I am, by no means, the only person who does this – and I often play a role in creating that giant mess. At first, I began washing dishes out of a sense of guilt: I am uncomfortable with the idea of Knox (our awesome housekeeper) cleaning up after a bunch of privileged Americans who couldn't be bothered to wash their dishes and put them away. I am embarrassed by our collective mess, angry.

However, after thinking about actions of love, I have begun to approach this cleaning in an entirely new, mindful way. As I stand at the sink, I think about the many reasons I love my housemates, and how my cleaning up after them might reduce their stress in some way, maybe even if they don't realize it outright. I think about Knox, with her beautiful smile and quiet calm as she sweeps, mops, and cleans the toilets for one group of American students after another. When I perform this task with love, intention, and mindfulness, it becomes a source of joy rather than shame or anger. Tich Nhat Hanh writes that “each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane." When I am fully aware of my actions, both motivationally and physically, they can become a sacred act, and, in my opinion, an act of love for whomever or whatever benefits from that act.

Hanh also writes that “practicing mindfulness enables us to become a real person. When we are a real person, we see real people around us, and life is present in all its richness." Ubuntu is all about becoming a "real person": it's about acknowledging my own humanity and that of everyone else with whom I interact. So, I'm trying to approach my actions – everything from dish washing to service work – with a sense of love and mindfulness. Even the most mundane tasks can become extraordinary. I'm trying to become a real person.

Life Lately (Orignally written 5/25/11)

Some days, I catch myself walking through the daily routine here in the Kimberley House–running errands, making food, going to class and service, working on assignments, watching movies, going shopping–and I realize how normal my life feels here. And then I remember...none of this is normal.  Late last night, I sat in our living room with two South African friends discussing Xhosa male circumcision and rights of passage, high school prom, and cheerleading. I wrote an exam for my Human Rights class the other day, sitting in a giant lecture hall, surrounded by many students who speak English as a second (or third, or fourth...) language. When I go downtown, I hop in a kombi taxi for less than a dollar. I'm in South Africa, living a part of my life that is thoroughly extraordinary, and far from normal.

With four short weeks left here in Cape Town, I have to constantly remind myself to embrace the extraordinary, transient nature of this experience.

River Rafting and Resolutions

I spent Easter break floating down the Orange River, which forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. It was especially high that weekend for some reason, so the rapids were not much to speak of. The current, however, kept us moving for four beautiful, lazy days.

Me and Lydia, my paddling companion extraordinaire. She put up with my singing all they way down the river. Melissa, my roommate extraordinaire, is creepin over my right shoulder.

We spent every day on the river, and in the evenings we camped on the bank, watching stars like you wouldn't believe. We were on the trip with another group of American students from Stanford University, two of which are in a choir that primarily sings South African songs. They were interested in my Appalachian Studies obsession, so they taught me several songs in Xhosa and I sang them some ballads and taught them Bright Morning Stars (it was fitting, given the mountains and the spectacular sky).

 

View from my favorite campsite. 

We also did some hiking. Here's me and a plant that is literally older than Jesus. Not much to look at, but still pretty incredible. Note the tiny river below on the left. Also note my long-sleeved shirt. Yes, folks. I spent four days in an African desert and I did NOT get sunburned.

I was taken aback by how unpopulated everything was. The only people we saw for days were other groups of rafters. There was the occasional herd of goats or cows, but the scenery was primarily rocky, sandy mountains and tough-as-nails vegetation. We could even drink the river water. I'm sure there are stretches of the river where you can't do this, but we were able to go on a four day trip and not bring any drinking water with us. It was odd drinking orange water...but it tasted just fine. Places in the world like that are few and far between.

Over the past semester, I've had quite a few experiences that have made me realize what I need to prioritize in my life. This particular trip reminded me that I absolutely love being on the water and outside. I also realized I'm happiest when I'm singing with other people, either trading songs back and forth or teaching each other new ones. I already do that a lot at home, but I didn't realize just how much it meant to me until now. When I go home, I've resolved to kayak and camp whenever I get the chance, and to share and learn songs from as many people as possible.

Midsemester Adventure IV | Durban, Johannesburg, and Kruger National Park

I got a little sidetracked the past couple of weeks, but here's the final installment of the midsemester trip posts!

Our tours of Durban and Johannesburg were a bit of a whirlwind, as group tours tend to be. Durban is a fairly large city on the coast of the Indian Ocean (so warm!). We arrived around dinner time, checked into the Happy Hippo Backpackers, and went in search of food at a nearby touristy shopping center. We only had a few hours before we had to leave the next morning, so we got some breakfast and went for a walk on the beach. You'll notice a theme of eating at nice restaurants whenever we got the chance...the fast food on the road was a little rough toward the end of the trip. 

Thanks for the picture, Kristin.

On the way out, we stopped at an Indian market. It was thoroughly overwhelming, kind of like a shopping mall only with vendors who would literally pull you into their shops if you showed the slightest interest. You could buy everything from curios (tourist bric-a-brac, some of which is made in Africa, some in China) to frilly bed linen. The entire place smelled wonderful from all the spice shops, my favorite part.

I also met a man from the US who was an African art dealer, and he was able to tell me where a lot of the art in some of the curio shops came from. You see a lot of little paintings from Kenya (very stylized and colorful depictions of people, villages, and animals), bead work from Zimbabwe, and masks from traditions all over the continent. I wanted to buy something that was authentic to South Africa, and he showed me beautiful bowls made from colorful telephone wire that come from the Zulu townships surrounding Durban. I bought one, and I wish I had picked up a few more.

Then it was back to the safari bus and on to Johannesburg, where we spent two nights in a hostile just outside of the city. We spent a day touring Soweto, South Africa's largest township. Nelson Mandela used to live there, and Winnie Mandela still does. Desmond Tutu has a home there as well. We visited the Freedom Charter Monument, which marks the place where the Congress of the People was held to compose the document which had a huge impact on the new South African constitution.

Soweto is most famous for the student uprisings that occurred in 1976 to protest the introduction of Afrikaans as the main language of instruction in local schools. We went to the Hector Peterson Museum, which memorializes the young students who lost their lives in the uprising.

We also went to the Apartheid Museum. We had one hour to go through a museum that deserved at least half a day, but it was very well done and presented a poignant, cohesive picture of life during apartheid and the struggle to overthrow it. I'll write more about this later (it deserves its own post).

We left bright and early the following morning for Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in South Africa. Only a small potion of it is easily accessible to humans, giving the animals lots of room to roam undisturbed (that's how I got over the HUGE impact of tourism in the areas where we were). There are specific areas where people are allowed to "camp" in beautiful little chalets that have air-conditioning, full kitchens, and swimming pools. It was like going to summer camp, honestly. The sites are fenced-off, mainly to keep animals out and over-eager tourists in at night. During the day, everyone drives around in their cars in search of the "Big Five" (lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and buffalo). I was skeptical about how many animals we would see with all the cars driving through the park, but we saw almost all of them, except for lions. I think the giraffes were definitely my favorite.

After two days in Kruger, we drove back to Johannesburg to catch a flight back to Cape Town. As we got off the plane and made our way back to K-House, it was an odd parallel to the first time we flew into the city. This time, we knew exactly where we were going, and it felt like home.

Sweet Home, Alabama

I woke up this morning to heartbreaking news from Alabama that just seems to keep getting worse as death tolls rise:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/04/28/severe.weather/index.html?hpt=T1

I'm fortunate that all of my family and friends are safe, and the storms never went to my side of Birmingham. My heart goes out to the thousands of people affected by the tornadoes. Many of the communities are small, rural towns with folks living on very low incomes. Communities surrounding Birmingham were also affected, and then there's Tuscaloosa, which seems to have been hit the hardest. It's going to take some time to recover from this one. If you are able, please make an instant $10 donation by texting REDCROSS to 90999 or go to www.redcross.org to help with relief efforts. You can also go to http://www.handsonbirmingham.org/ if you are able to volunteer at shelters or with cleanup work. Go here: http://magiccitypost.com/2011/04/27/tornadoes-kill-dozens-across-alabama-now-is-the-time-to-help/ for a more comprehensive list of ways to help.

I'll let you know if I find out anything else. It's one thing when tragedy strikes in Japan, quite another when it's at home. The outpouring of support and desire to help from all over is evident even this far from home. This is an awful tragedy, but seeing Alabamians pull together so quickly just adds to my faith in humanity.

Sending so much love to my beautiful Alabama!