War and Peace

I realised that I don't often write about the realities and day-on-day activities of what I do here (mostly because it's pretty much the same all the time and would be incredulously dull) but yesterday something very real happened.

It began a pretty normal, and in fact, wonderful Saturday morning. I was awoken by my boss on our day off at 8.30am (thanks Di) who had panicked about something the night before. Annoyingly the thing she was panicking about was neither necessary nor was it even about me. It was about Jonno. So while Jonno slept serenely across the room, I was awake on my only lie-in day.

However I thought I'd make the most of time alone so headed off to the internet room to finish my tala blog entry and begin writing another piece on my other blog. After a couple of hours there was a build of people on the site, but I didn't think much of it because Pastor Samson often has gatherings of his refugee church on site on a Saturday. About an hour or so later, Jonno walks in and says that Samson has told him that 900 refugees are expected today because they're giving out food.

About 12 midday I head out to find some breakfast / lunch and there is a LOT of people there. And I feel somewhat convicted that I am walking through them all with my nice-ish clothes (they weren't especially but still nicer than theirs), ipod and mobile phone, and having just sat in a comfy room for 3hours on the internet. So I went to find Samson to see if he needed any help. He said he did. So I was like 'oh ok, I'll just go shower and eat something quick then I'll come help'.

I went off to shower thinking that this would be just like the other feeding scheme I do. It would be very simple and everyone would be polite and we'd all clap our hands and sing happy songs etc. etc. Oh how wrong was I.

I wandered back and found Jonno already there. He'd obviously asked Samson to help independantly of me. I was ushered through the crowd of Africans and into the middle section with the mountain of beans and maize. By the time I'd got there Samson had already got 900 people silent to pray, something Jonno says was a sight to see, and seperated them all into their respective nations. It seems relatively civil when I arrived and I set about opening up all the packets and sorting them for the people handing them out. Each person was allowed one bag of beans and one pack of maize. They were supposed to wait for their names to be called. Sounds very organised, no?

I think it took maybe 10 minutes for the first fighting to break out. And then it pretty much repeated every 20mins or so. Unfortunately it is fair to say that it was most the Zimbabweans who were being so disruptive. I was working on the South African line and Jonno the Zimbabweans. I know Jonno on more than one occasion genuinely feared for himself because being surrounded by big, hungry and angry African men is not the best place to be.

One more than one occasion Samson had to stop the food giving to try to get everyone to stop fighting and sort themselves out. Unfortunately this usually came when the people stormed the tables and began to try to steal the food in whatever quantity they could get.

I can't explain to you how it feels to be sat on a large pile of food and surrounded by hundreds of people who are desperate and who don't want to line up and wait their turn. It wasn't so much fear for me - I actually really enjoyed getting involved and stopping fights starting - but rather disbelief and dismay.

There were three things I think that struck me most, and when I say struck, I guess I mean it in the damaging sense.

First, and something Jonno said to me, was the transformation of the news from abstract to reality. Both in the UK and over here there is a lot of talk about what is going on in Zimbabwe and all the refugees. At one point when Jonno and I were sat in the internet room and he was reading on BBC News about the refugee situation in SA. He goes 'I'm just reading about the refugees and I look out the window and there they are'. He was so right.

Second was the xenophobia. If you hadn't known, there is a lot of xenophobia over here at the moment. It's not as bad as it was a few weeks back but its still there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7455061.stm

I suppose I neither understood why this would happen nor thought it would ever happen near me. I didn't understand how you could turn on someone just because they are from another country. Especially if they've fled their country for fear of their lives. Once again I was wrong.

Samson had asked me to bring my camera so that I could take photos for him. However this turned out to be a poisoned chalice. Each time the Zimbabweans stormed their food area, the South Africans would cry out and shout anger at them, and these three guys would say to me 'take a photo, take a photo! Look what the Zimbabweans are doing!' They also said 'Zenophobia is going to break out soon'. Thankfully nothing actually did, but I could very much now see how it happens. That article I linked says that a lot of it is due to scare resources and I can very much vouch for that. As the food went down, the anger and tension rose. And as the tension rose, people first looked to blame and fight groups of others i.e. other nationalities, and towards the end they just blame and fight anyone who isn't them. It was pretty depressing really, while at the same time very understandable. Desperation leads to poor judgement in all walks of life, hunger must be one of the worst.

The final thing was just this cavernous contrast between the peace, good fight and love within Samson who was trying to serve and help all these people, and the war, violence and hate that was being handed back by the people gathered. I don't quite know how Samson keeps going when people are trying to cheat and steal whatever they can. It's not that I can criticising the people. I am sure that if I was in that situation i would do precisely the same. And I mean that. I was just completely dismayed by the depths of corruption within the human heart. These people are just like you and me, except that their situations are a million miles away from ours.

I said to Jonno, why is it that when desperation and need sets in, the human heart turns straight to selfishness, and to the point of violence and stealing? Few times before have I more seen the need for a new human heart.

I would however like to include a more positive note and say that I am well aware that there is hope. There was one guy who was there all day, waiting patiently, helping out stop fights, taking things back off people who had stolen and giving it back to us. He constantly encouraged us and prayed, looking to help out wherever. Towards the end he had not actually got any food, but all he said was this, 'It's better to be a beggar than a thief'.

Right at the end there was enough left over from the staffs materials to give him food.

In the Bible the Pslamist prays 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'. Until I can say 'it's better to be a beggar than a thief' in the face of life threatening need, I will sure be praying that prayer over and over.

A Tale of Two Citis (well nearly)

Ok so before you jump on the spelling error bandwagon (or the SEB as I like to call it in my freetime), I did not misspell cities but did indeed mean citis aka Citi Golf. This is a fine tale involving a Citi Golf and an Audi Saloon (not sure which kind because the number after the A had fallen off. Classic.) hence the ‘nearly’ title. It happened a few weeks back.

If you’re sitting carefully then I shall begin…(and if you’re standing then gee, sit down because you’re looking like a muppet standing which at a computer AND you’re probably hurting your back. Physical and emotional pain there. Double whammy.)

*note: timings given are inaccurate because I wasn’t looking at my watch much but I promise the facts are correct*

11.07: It was a splendid Saturday morning when Phil set off for a trip to Tala Game Park with his venerable friends Kylie, Izzle, Hannah, Kat, Ru, Naomi, Jules, Jenny, Abby, Ellie-Jo and Caleb (note the male-female ratio. The only other dude was 4. I love you Caleb). So they trundled down the motorway (FYI: called the N3)

11.32: Arrived a short 25mins later. After having quite enough estrogen for one journey, Caleb and I were both out of our respective cars and heading towards the braai (South African for BBQ – I’ll hit you up with some more of those translations another time, they’re comedy) area and rock pool (a pool shaped like a rock, nothing exciting). We soon connected through our testosterone and without saying a word Caleb hid behind a large rock (large meaning taller than mine, it came up to my knees. Role reversal would’ve been tough) while I told the girls I’d lost Caleb. Turns out women don’t find that all that funny. What was funny however was the shock on Hannah’s face when Caleb jumped out. Caleb and I bonded in that moment. Amen.

11.45: People begin to get into the pool shortly followed by screams of agony akin to death by fire. Only this was perceived death by cold. Some South African’s remarked ‘you must be British, no South African would get in there.’ Some pansies did get in with wet suits but by and large that man was correct. I had not planned to go in the pool because I was wearing my contacts and therefore also did not bring a towel. Unfortunately my easily baited instinct took over and I was soon in the pool. It was cold. After about 10mins you got too numb to feel a thing and at that point the experience resembled something close to enjoyable. I think at one point it even touched the line between enjoyable and ‘kill me now’.

12.11: Turns out it’s a bad idea to stand around in cold soaking wet swim shorts and ‘dry in the sun’. Note to self: bring towel.

12:46: Braai time. Great stuff. Meat. Fire. Tongs. Genesis 1.

14:00: Time to take to the game trail. Our intrepid explorers pile in the two cars. Phil, Kat, Izzle, Hannah and Kylie get into the Citi Golf. The other pile into the Audi.

14:06: Eagle-eyed Phil exclaims as he spots the first Springbok. Turns out it was not an antelope-related-animal but rather a bush VERY CLOSELY RESEMBLING ONE.

14:24: Citi Golf begins to struggle on the dirt tracks. Audi cruising.

14:28: We spot a lion king tree. ‘Now we’re in Africa’ remarks someone, they’ll probably go on to fail they’re degree.

14.34: As Citi Golf finds it harder and harder to overcome the tracks that are best described as ‘rural’, the Audi takes a left down a negative incline.

14.36: After two minutes deliberation and peering, Citi Golf travelers elect to part ways with the Audi and take another route. Wisdom.

14.41: Citi Golf travelers fail to see much game. The odd Springbok appears (and actually was an antelope-related-animal this time) but then runs back into the bush. Resulting photos look more like an animal version of ‘Where’s Wally’ than actually game photos. They wonder how the Audi is getting on with the animal hunting.

14.52: Citi Golf gets entirely lost. The map we were given is rubbish and look more like Mr. Messy (from Mr. Men fame) than a device for geographical knowledge transfer. We soon find a small hut and what appears to be a large rangers’ car. Aside from it blocking our path, we delight in maybe finding someone who knows where we are. After a quick realization that none of the girls are going to ask him, Phil climbs out of the ride and goes to find him.

14.56: Phil makes a glorious return clutching his map in his right paw. He feels he now knows how Prime Minister Chamberlain felt when he stepped off that plane with the piece of paper saying Hitler wouldn’t start a war.

14.57: Armed with the map that now included expert opinion on where all the big animals were and our present location. The Citi Golf sets off at a pathetic pace to hunt the game.

15.03: En route, the Citi Golf team wonders how many animals the Audi has found in the time they were lost.

15.23: Animals ahoy! Up ahead the Citi Golf spies a herd of Buffalo. Expertly Phil feels like David Attenborough himself as he spots what he thinks is a Giraffe up in the hills. However after realizing that Giraffes don’t walk like that nor does his ‘Giraffe’ have a long neck (thanks Hannah for that info) they realize it’s actually just a Springbok.

15.24: Oh how the mockers are mocked. Phil’s erroneous but beady eyed observation leads Kat to notice a large slowing moving grey object to the right of the ‘Giraffe. Said large slowing moving grey object to the right of the ‘Giraffe turns out to be none other than a Rhino, and its child.

15.25: Kat lives up to her name as she begins to have kittens over seeing the Rhino. ‘I’ve seen the big five’ she chants mercilessly as if her entry to heaven depended on it. What Kat was referring to is the so called ‘Big Five’ animals in Africa; the Elephant, the Leopard, the Buffalo, the Lion and the Rhino. In Kenya Kat had seen the other four. It’s almost hard to believe the fifth was now not running away at its top speed of 60mph at the shrieking Kat was now exuding.

15.26: I previously have talked about how much a like the word juxtaposition. I get to use it again here. A large metaphorical brick with JUXTAPOSITION hits me in the kidneys. Ouch. A phonecall from the Audi. Turns out that they had gotten stuck on the road they had turned down, the same road we had declined. They had been stuck for a while so had called out the emergency park guys. Naomi, who rang me, sounded somewhat panicky. In a mix of confidence in her and ignorance of the true severity of the situation, I told her it would be fine and she could do whatever was required to cope with the situation.

15.27: Upon hanging up, I attempted to inform the guys of the Audi’s predicament and their request for prayer. It’s safe to say my message was lost in light of the Buffalo and Rhinos.

15.32: We pull up towards the Buffalo and stop. Many photos are taken. Buffalo comes with 2m of my open door window. Man was it ugly. I would not marry one of those. It was however quite humbling to know it could take me even if I formed a tag team with a locked Citi Golf door.

15.37: We edge towards the Rhino who was, along with its baby, coming closer to the road. Kat is suddenly a lot quieter as we come within 10m of the beast (I mean that in a respectful way. Kind of like how Duncan Bourne is a beast among men). I feel very safe in my Citi Golf. Only later would I found out that only last week that Rhino ran at and turned over a Citi Golf. Turns out they can get to 60mph in just 6 strides. Good job I didn’t know that really.

15.45: I check on the Audi. The emergency people had just arrived. Audi team feeling a lot safer.

15.57: Citi Golf team is on the trail of the actual Giraffes. Armed with the whole long neck info, Phil feels a lot more confident of finding them.

16.06: Phil checks on the Audi. The sun is beginning to set and the emergency guys can’t get the Audi out. Tension rises.

16.10: Citi team finds a wedding. Phil thinks he sees a giraffes. Hannah says that just a dude with a long neck. Phil learns more.

16.13: Kylie spots a hidden path that might lead to the giraffe area. The adventurers trek on.

16.24: Citi team are a bit too full of animal excitement and take a few roads they shouldn’t have. Only God knows how we got up and down some of those hills.

16.28: Wild boar frolic in the long grass. Pumba was a lot cooler. No giraffe.

16.35: Update from Audi team. Car still stuck. Trying new ways of getting it out. Darkness on its way.

16.42: Citi team see Giraffe! Five of them! They are about 20m away in the trees eating leaves. Quality animals. The pictures were right, if they stood with legs apart all you’d need is a good quality blanket and you’d have a great tent. Bear Gryllis and Ray Mears combined couldn’t think of this stuff.

16.46: Citi Golf in trouble. We pick a bad path to go down. A large rock smacks against the underbelly of the car. Oops.

16.48: It’s not looking good as the path gets worse and worse. In comedy fashion some fat ranger-tourist-4x4-carrier-thing comes the other way. He tells us not to go down there. So we do a genius three point turn in the middle of a bush. In absolute comedy, the tourists in the 4x4 monster chuckle and take photos of us. I kid you not.

16.54: Audi update. Audi still not out. Sunset upon us. As the Citi team take amazing photos of the sunset, the Audi team see are still pretty much the same place as the two cars parted ways some two hours ago.

17.01: Citi team head back to the entry gate expecting the Audi to be out soon. They spot some Zebras on the way back, however the Zebras soon run away so if you want any photos of a Zebras butt give me a shout.

17.10: Citi arrives back at base. Rings Audi. Audi is still not out and they’ve called out another car, this time a bigger Land Cruiser. Dusk has fallen. Tension is high. Phil stands out of the car in the hope that the Land Cruiser rides past and he can get a lift to be with the others. Sadly upon seeing headlights it is just the same 4x4 thing they saw earlier. This time the tourists laugh at the Audi situation. This time it was not funny.

17.11: The Citi team re-enter the park to park by the Hippo pond.

17.23: Hippo watching is not so much fun. They tend to sit below the surface a lot. Not especially photographable.

17.24: Audi still not out but big car has arrived. Darkness now envelopes.

17.30: Citi team wait by the gate. Blankets come out of boot to keep warm. Audi team finding things hard again. Much prayer.

17.31: A quality game of ‘one day I went to the beach and brought an apple, a ball, a c…’ ensues in the Citi. Also we ask to use the gate man’s toilet and we find he is drunk. Confidence inspiring. And then Hannah falls into a pothole on the way back from toilet and can’t walk her ankle.

17.44: Audi team report that they are out and on their way back. Amazingly the Audi is drivable and largely unscathed. They arrive back at base to much jubilation and huggage. They tell us what actually happened.

The Audi had taken a path with took a very steep downward and angular turn. The everyone but the driver got out. The car began to slip down the hill. Thankfully it did not lose all control. The guys who got out looked on in horror. The Audi then got totally stuck in a large hole later on could not get any grip. When the emergency guys arrived Jenny asked ‘I bet a lot of people get stuck here’. The man simply replied, ‘no, people die here.’ Turns out that four rangers (that’s people in 4x4s who know the park) had died down that path, known as Devil’s Neck, by losing control and flipping their cars down it. A number of tourists have also died and been injured.

The guys could not explain how their loaded Audi Saloon survived that road and nor could the rangers. Call it luck, call it providence, call it what you want. It was outrageously improbable to have no damage to either the people or the car.

Ambitious Development

Hi team,

How are you all? I don't really know why I'm asking that but it seemed like a good idea at the time. 'The time' being 3 seconds ago. People often say that communication is a two-way process, those people didn't account for travel blogs. Idiots.

Anyways, it's been about 11 days since I last wrote to you fine people and it would be very dramatic to say that it's felt like either 11 minutes or 11 months but I'll be honest. It feels like 11 days ago. Time is a funny thing. Deja vu.

So what have I been up to? Well quite a bit actually. I said before that my boss in admin had been away so not much happened here (as if anything ever happens in admin. Admin is just a synonym for steady as she goes. I prefer 'admin' as a phrase because whenever I say 'steady as she goes' I feel like I should have an eye patch and say 'Arrrrr' after it) however the school was all systems go. We had a special founder's assembly at the school because Pastor Jabu (the head honcho of Gateway) felt very strongly that we needed to be remembering our founding fathers at the present time. So they had a set of awards made and invited a lot of old principals and teachers along and honoured them. It was a very impacting time simply because although we 'knew' the school had begun with nothing, when we saw the tears of happiness in some of the original teachers' eyes, it was only then we truly knew. I will get some photos of the school in due course, either on this or on facebook, but suffice to say it's very impressive considering it came from nothing and has had no major financial backing. Some people call that good work. Others call it God work.

You see, crazy ass stuff isn't that crazy here. In the last few weeks the following three things have happened:

1. Mama Dorah's Comrades Ticket. This thing is entirely non-understandable and I still don't know what happened and what the outcome is going to be. Anyways, there is this Zulu lady who lives on site with us called Mama Dorah (all Zulu ladies of ripe age are called Mama) and every year she runs the Comrades Marathon. However 'marathon' is a deceptive term. This is no London marathon. This is a double marathon. 50 miles. Between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It's insane. And of course during the day it will likely hit 25degrees here and clear skies aka hot weather for running. I suspect you are imagining Mama Dorah as a slim twenty something. Nope. She's between over 40, pretty short and pretty wide. Anyways, Comrades is her life. And last week she got a call from the Comrades people saying they didn't have her qualification details. Oh dear. I've never seen her not smile until now. She was proper devastated. Like seriously, you can tell from other people's faces how upset someone truly is. She was upset. So Lorne, another lady who works in admin, asked Jonno and to investigate and so we did. I personally spoke to her club manager to told me she had run the qualifying race but not in the qualifying time. I asked if there was anything we could do. He said no. I put the phone down. Not good. I told Lorne and she told Dorah. Dorah was evenmore devastated than before. There was genuinely an awful mood over the admin block that afternoon.

Cut to two days later. Mama Dorah comes towards me waving some post and grinning. I assume it's some amazing mail for me from my amazing friends (hint hint). She showed it me and I didn't have a clue what it was. Someone with more braincells than me pointed out that it was her details for her entry to the Comrades Marathon; start time, jersey number, starting place, the works. Makes no sense at all.

2. School fundraising. I said already about this assembly that the school did. Anyways they also mentioned that they are looking to raise R100,000 (about 6 thousand pounds) for a sports field for the kids but didn't actually ask for it. The assembly was about honouring those who had built the place. But by the end of the assembly the school had two thirds of it, from only two sources. One was a R50,000 donation. That's insane. That's a LOT of money in this country. Much more than the 3000pounds it equates to.

3. The Community Care House. This one is particularly crazy. Basically a project that use to be under the Gateway ownership is going solo because it's gotten so big, and they need to move buildings. So these two guys went out to look, seperately and unbeknowns to each other, and ended up at the same house at the same time. But when they spoke to the lady selling the house, she said there were already two bids in above and beyond what these guys could offer. However she then asked what is was for and they said a church-based care project. She then testified that that morning she had felt God saying it would be a good day and she sold it to the two guys then and there for way under the bids already lodged. It's just non-sensical this stuff.

This place continues to amaze me. I have just finished this fundraising course my boss in admin was running and it's been a massive eye opener. This place, although very much Christian-centred, isn't a poverty-pleading and poorly thought out venture. This project has so much fundraising going on as such a high standard. We have a UK trust that gathers UK donations and we call it over in lumps so to avoid international charges, we have a crafts business that sells in New York and Europe to generate income, and are about to launch a massive tourism initiative that will turn our site, while we still work in it, into a tourist location. From that we are already on a publicised 'freedom route' which includes attractions of both Nelson Mandela and Ghandi (the latter being rumoured to have stayed in our very prison block). They may be Christian here and focused on aid and community development but we certainly do things to a very high standard of work!

Interestingly I asked Pastor Jabu (the head man) about the relationship between trusting God in and for all things, often a nice Christian catch phrase and excuse for laziness, and working hard at the practicalities of, say, fundraising. He told me that we write proposals for funding as if God doesn't exist and then send them off as if we didn't make any effort! He went a bit further and cited an example of Jesus back in the day. In the classic Jesus turning water into wine incident, Jabu said that Jesus didn't do it all himself. He asked the people to fill the jars with water, then Jesus did his bit i.e. we do what Jesus asks and then he (may or may not) do his bit. It's a very interesting balance to me, but I do beleive both in good quality hard work, and an ultimate trust in God and his promises. I plan to ask many more people the same question before I leave here!

In other news, I have just finished writing a newsletter for Project Gateway. It was a good learning experience for me. I worked out that in a month, we impact, through all our projects, over 17,000 people. That's 200,000ish a year, and nearly 2million since we began in 1992ish. And that's not including the 2million fed in a feeding programme that ended a few years back.

4million people in 15 years. And this place isn't done yet. It's growing and becoming self-sustaining (we hope!). This is no small fry. This is ambitious work. Ambitious work in developing the community to not just comfort the poor, but to develop people and communities and remove poverty altogether in Pietermaritzburg. This place is so me.

p.s. (and in saying this I am breaking my cardinal rule of writing i.e. when you've built a rhetoric, don't ruin it by changing tone. Oh well. My rule breaking will be very ironic when you read what I'm about to write) anyone who reads my blogs can probably see I love to write and people say I am good at it. About five years ago my dream job became a speechwriter (thank you Sam Seaborn, Toby Ziegler and Aaron Sorkin) and I have grown in my love for writing ever since. Today I finished writing that newsletter I mentioned and Pastor Jabu (the head of this place, you should know that by now) was so impressed that he's asked me to be his personal writer for all this letters and memos and important messages. I can't tell you how excited I am.