"All doing comes out of being"

After a long week of somewhat frantic scheduling and rescheduling and a bout of unpleasant sickness, I finally know what my weeks are going to look like for the next five months and I'm feeling much, much better.

Monday/Tuesday: Service with Dance for All.
My first day is Monday, and I'm definitely excited to get started. They seem to be under the impression that I'm a full-fledged social worker, even though I told them at our first meeting that this is not the case. The first few days I'm there I'll just be observing and meeting people, so hopefully we'll get my responsibilities straightened out. A warning for anyone I know with some social work under your belt: you'll probably be hearing from me in the next few weeks.

Wednesday: Choir
The current incarnation of the UDubbs choir is fairly new, but the director definitely knows what he's doing. They are much more formal than Warren Wilson (most everything in the world is), but I think it will be really good for me. We've been working on a beautiful Xhosa song, as well as arrangements of This Little Light of Mine and The Water is Wide.

Thursday: Discourse on Human Rights / Social Problems and Development
Human Rights will give me a basic history of human rights law, and we'll be discussing a lot of local and international current events. Social Problems and Development is a part of UDubbs' graduate program called the International School of Development (ISD). This class will be an intro to development studies, and a broad look at different social justice issues in South Africa. My professor is a somewhat disheveled-looking academic type with awesome dreadlocks. SO excited about that class.

Friday: Leaders in Grassroots Organizations / Theology of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
 Grassroots is the academic side of my service placement, and another part of the ISD program. We’ll study the theory and practice of developing and working with community-based nonproffits. Our professor’s philosophy reminds me a lot of Center for Participatory Change.

Theology of Forgiveness is going to be an incredible class. I was a little wary of it, simply because “Theology” can entail a broad range of things. Turns out, our professor is a retired Anglican priest who quotes Carl Jung and the Buddha from memory. Honestly, he’s the kind of theology professor I’d expect to find at Warren Wilson. I found myself wanting to write down almost everything he had to say.

The most important thing, though, was his emphasis on simply being. All week I struggled with the fact that I am only taking twelve credits, and went back and forth trying to decide if I should add another class. Saturday I took a day off from the world and just chilled out by myself in Kimberley house. I gave myself some time to breathe and let my body recuperate. It was totally worth it. I even recorded some Appalachian ballads in the hallway outside my room, which has incredible acoustics. Everyone keeps telling me I need to chill out, and I keep fighting it for some reason. This semester I’m determined to take time for myself: time to relax, to breathe, to think, to be.