Survivor

I am a survivor.

Survivor of what? No threatening illness...no frightening crime...no thrilling daredevil stunt....no...I have survived prospie weekend.

Why is prospie weekend so painful, stressful, and generally hellish? Aside from responsibilities involved in planning to darn thing and being asked twenty million questions by volunteers who have already been told exactly what to do...aside from all of those things, why is prospie weekend so difficult? Basically because it involves meeting students like this:

who are expecting graduate school to involve asking great questions of wise (or at least intelligent) professors, who will then bestow their expertise upon their students...


...when in fact it involves the following:

...and its just so difficult to see them, all full of hope and energy and eagerness, when you know that by this time next year, they'll be almost as cynical about graduate school as you already are.

coordination to the nth degree

Hehe...this is a worthy way to spend three minutes of your day.

Turn your speakers on, go to http://www.sonnyradio.com/chrisbliss.htm
and enjoy the show.

(Thanks for the link, Mom!)

long time no blog

Hi everyone :)

As my dear husband reminded me, I haven't blogged in a while. As he was the one who just returned, I figured he had the more blog-worthy stories to tell.

Actually, I don't really have any stories to tell...which makes me wonder, what have I been doing the past three weeks? Let's review...I have been:

1. complaining a lot about grad school (rightly so, I feel)
2. organizing hordes of (okay, about 20) volunteers for ICD's prospie weekend (next weekend)
3. planning for, designing, and hiring nursery attendants for Mercy Seat's nursery
4. training and becoming a liaison for an AFS exchange student and host family
   
5. knitting, on occasion...which means I have made all of five inches of progress on my sweater sleeve (over three weeks)
   

I guess that's about it. I also occasionally freak out about the fact that I have prelims this summer, Andy and I will be moving this summer (and hope we can actually afford the place we want to move in to), and I have no idea what I could possibly write a special areas paper or dissertation on.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

The Group

I thought I should post a photo of our group. This was taken at the home of Basil Manning--who is seated in front in the middle. Sitting on Basil's right is my professor, Dr. Charles, and onCharles's right is his son Karl--who is very smart and a lot of fun.

In the middle row, from the left, is Charle's wife Kris (a professor at St. Thomas University), Thevan (a CARAS staff member who I'll introduce in a future post), Leah (a college senior and daughter of a Luther Seminary staff person), Mark (a PhD student of Charles at the seminary), some random guy who wandered into the shot, and Christian (an MDiv senior at the seminary).

In the back row, from the left, is Jolene (Basil's son's girlfriend), Matthew (Basil's son who is an elementary school teacher), and Brandon (an MTh student at the seminary)

Brandon, Christian, Leah, Mark, and I were the five that came from the US.

One important person not pictured in the group (because she is behind the camera) is Charles's daugter, Shaheen, who is 26 and travelled with us to Cape Town and elsewhere. She was a lot of fun and a good conversationalist. Here she is on the coast of the Indian Ocean:
(Update: my mistake, that's the Atlantic Ocean in Cape Town)

Another important entity that is not pictured as part of the 'whole group' is my sweet umbrella. (note the floral print AND special frilly edge) I have three words for you: Height Of Cool

Jessica's and my friend, Andria , who is currently living in Johannesburg is now the proud owner of this fine accessory (the umbrella).

Introducing Kelebogile

One of our delightful hosts while in South Africa was Ms. Kelebogile (pronounced roughly: Keeleh bokheeleh)--Kele for short--who is the executive assistant at the NGO (non-governmental organization) that helped organize our trip. She grew up in Soweto, one of the many townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg, where black people were forced to live under Apartheid. This is a picture of her with her uncle in front of the house where she grew up. When we went to visit Soweto, she took us to see her old home and introduce us to her uncle. He is a jazz musician as well as a landscape artist--as illustrated in the photo below by what he's done with his house.





Kele, was an amazing person to have working on our behalf during this trip. Not only did she graciously share her own story of the Apartheid struggle--what it was like growing up as a young black woman under the white regime--but she also worked tirelessly to organize our various excursions. She arranged our accommodations. She set up meals and meetings and never ceased to amaze us with her genuine kindness. In a particularly impressive feat, she managed to negotiate the cost of our rental van (pictured below) down from R1400 to R400 per day! (South Africa's currency is the Rand, and at the time of my trip the exchange rate was 6 rand to the dollar--so R1000/day is no small change). One delightfully appropriate thing about Kele is that her full name--Kelebogile--actually means 'Thank You' in the language 'Tswana,' one of the eleven official languages of South Africa that I mentioned in my last post. So everytime we said her name, we got to say a little 'thank you' to her for all she did for us. We have a lot of thanking left to do, but it was a start!

Above: This was our "ride" for the duration of our stay--the indomitable VW Kombi. It took us 1500km across the South African interior from Johannesburg to Capetown (a trip I will detail later) as well as through Kruger National Park.

Dr. Charles Amjad-Ali and Reverend Basil Manning

The two gentlemen pictured above were instrumental in making our trip what it was. On the left is Professor Charles, the Luther Seminary prof who taught our class and who set up the trip. Born in Pakistan, he has worked continuously throughout his life, for the sake of the gospel and on behalf of the powerless in the world--which is one in the same thing. He is currently on sabbatical in South Africa where he was drawn by his longtime friend Basil Manning who is the CEO of Ditshwanelo-CARAS, the NGO that worked with us. Please check out their website for a good introduction to what their organization is about: www.caras.org.za. Basil is, in his words, a "black South African of mixed descent, " and as such suffered the humiliation of segregation and oppression of Apartheid, but with the added twist of being told by the whites that he was some better than what they called "blacks" but of course not as good as whites. This placed people of his color in the situation of deciding (in so much as one can 'decide') whether to take advantage of this tiny amount of extra privilege in exchange for supporting a wholly corrupt system of racism. As is clear from his description of himself, he set himself against the system.

In fact, both Charles and Basil were both political exiles from their respective countries years ago and became friends while working together during this time in their lives at the World Council of Churches. They are both extraordinary men and it was an amazing opportunity to work with them--truly an honor. They are deeply dedicated to their work, but they can laugh together like I've never seen. And after catching a mere glimpse of the struggles they have faced, I can see why you must learn to laugh with your comrades--and apparently good wine and single-malt scotch don't hurt either...not that I (or my group) know anything about it...

Friday Night

to

Saturday Morning

Back from South Africa

Hello Everyone. As my lovely wife has kindly informed you, I have returned from my trip to South Africa. It was a truly remarkable three weeks, and I look forward to sharing some stories and photographs. I have struggled, however, with how to begin sharing some of these things with all of you. During the trip, I had a wide range of experiences characterized by a wide range of emotions, from joy to awe to anger to deep sadness. South Africa is a beautiful country with a painful history. In other words, it is a country a lot like our own. How then to begin talking about it in a way that doesn't collapse the tension of the place, painting either to dark or too rosy a picture? To solve this dilemma, I’ve included two pictures in this first post that try to get at both aspects.

This first photo depicts one of the many casualties of Apartheid. His name was Hector Peiterson. He was 13. He was shot by a policeman at a student protest against the forced introduction of Afrikaans (the language of the white oppressor) as the language of instruction in all black schools. Imagine you're in the middle of high school, trying to prepare for your future and overnight the government mandates that from now on all teaching will be in a foreign tongue. You watch as your test scores plummet and your learning slows in those most crucial years in your school career—all in a disgusting scheme to further the systematic exploitation of your people. In response, the students protested, and this little boy was one of the many killed. That’s his sister running alongside his body.

The second photo conveys for me some of the hope that is a counterpoint to the darkness of the first. It is the sign outside the recently finished Constitutional Court of South Africa—equivalent in many respects to our Supreme Court. It simply says “Constitutional Court” in the ELEVEN official languages of the country. The court is built on the site of one of the most notorious prisons in South Africa where countless political prisoners and resisters where held during Apartheid. The chamber where the court meets is built literally out of the bricks the former cell blocks and guard towers. It is an amazing place. And while it does not represent a South Africa fully healed of its past, it certainly sums up the hope that such healing can and will occur.

Well this is a start, anyway. I have lots more to share, but I wanted to start it off right. I hope this does it.