What city I'm in: Pretoria
Where I'm staying: Pop-Up Ministries, which is a non-profit organization that has a holistic approach to "empowering the disempowered." They offer classes for underprivileged people in Pretoria to teach them a skill set (like computer administration, hospitality, plumbing, sewing, home-based care, etc.), but they also offer the students childcare, medical assistance, dental assistance, eye care, mental health counseling and social work, nutritious meals each days, life skills classes that teach students to release emotional baggage and about forgiveness and God (among other things), and on top of that daily devotions and lessons about Christianity and who Jesus is (called CPR class: Continuous Personal Restoration class). It's INCREDIBLE. Seriously, you all should check out their website to learn more about this organization.
What I'm doing: God has blessed me SO much in my ministry this month. I was placed under the three social workers/counselors that work at Pop-Up. They provide the students counseling sessions and support when needed, and they also teach the life skills courses and the CPR classes each day. Vasti, one of the social workers, allowed me full access to her bookshelves too, so I was able to study up on Christian counseling and leadership techniques. I would help teach the CPR classes, which meant sometimes putting together lessons for the students, and my major job was having one-on-one sessions with the students, asking them questions about their lives and walks with the Lord. I spent a lot of time learning and listening, but those one-on-ones taught me so much and reminded me how much I love work like this. I can't wait to do mentoring and discipling after the Race, and I'm learning a ton out here that will apply to my work later in life.
People: The people in South Africa are a lot like Americans. We can understand each other fairly well (aside from some words that we joke about the others' pronunciation), and even have similar senses of humors. There's a large Western European influence, so there are similar fashions and lifestyles in South Africa. This also means they struggle with similar issues that Americans do–the people who have gone to church their entire lives can sometimes have a "know-it-all" attitude, and there are a lot of prosperity preachers. On the other side of the coin, there is a HUGE worldly influence, and there are signs everywhere around the city for abortions and "part" enlargements, bars and hook ups were usual topics of conversation for the students, and fashion and looks matter a lot out there. There are a lot of really strong Christians fighting for South Africa though, and we were blessed to know many of them that were working at Pop Up. Russell was like a father for many of us, and he would talk about the word with us each morning, and would listen to us and give us awesome advice about things we might be struggling with. He poured into us a lot, and was always honest and blunt and vulnerable regarding his life story and the struggles he was dealing with in his walk too. I think it's so important to have men in our lives who are vulnerable enough to show areas in their lives where they might be struggling with or are learning about, and to have him around was so valuable to me this past month. Vasti and Elmien were the two social workers that I shadowed, and they are hilarious and genuine and so strong in their love of God. They both taught me so much about God, but they also would ask about different things going on in my life. Elmien and I bonded a lot over personality tests and our love for all things Myers-Briggs. She's an INFP and I'm and ENFP so we have similar strengths and weaknesses…one of those weaknesses being losing things, which she told me that "God has certain mercies for ENFPs and INFPs, and finding lost things is one of them." They're both going to be my counselors for the race…I've already told them I'm messaging them each time I have an issue on the race.
Language: South Africa has 11 official languages, and one of them is English. I learned a few things in Afrikaans, and I think I learned a few things in Zulu (one of them being "choma" which means "homie"). I think one of the major language thing I've taken away from South Africa is saying "Agk, shame." The "agk" is that hacking sound a lot of Germans make…they say it all the time and I find it hilarious.
Food: The food was a LOT like America, which made me feel at home. We were in charge of making our own food for breakfast and dinner, so we ate meals consisting of recipes we remembered from back in the States (to all my college friends: you best believe my chili/"chunk" meal was made one of the nights :)…and it was a hit naturally! haha). For lunch, they would make us food, which was normally sadza (that maize meal, they call it "pop" here) and chicken and vegetables. The students at Pop-Up would eat the bones sometimes too! We would joke with them how weird we thought that was, and they would joke with us about how we would waste food by not eating them. In addition, one of the weekends we had a braai (a bbq) at Russell's house, and we ate a lot of different meats that were traditional South African food. It was all really good. The last weekend Vasti and Elmien took us to eat traditional South African food too, which included biltong (South African beef jerky…but it wasn't beef) and a dessert that was a combination of custard and pie. It was all delicious.
Water Situation: The water situation was like HEAVEN compared to last month! Holy wow. We had high pressure water, real American toilets, and HOT SHOWERS. It was soooooo wonderful and we were definitely spoiled.
Bed Situation: We all slept in their conference room, so each night we would unpack our mattress pads and put them on our makeshift beds, which were 8-10 of the chairs pushed together. It wasn't bad at all. The worst thing about it was that we would have to repack everything and put the room together each morning, but I can't complain at all. It felt like a 5 star hotel compared to last month's bed situation, and I'm so grateful for it all.
Power Situation: The power never went out–well maybe once, but that was because there was a huge thunderstorm and lightning hit the power line. But it was fixed the next morning.
Internet: We had it! Each night after the Pop-Up staff went home, we had free reign. It wasn't necessarily high-speed internet, but I was still able to Skype with my parents a couple times and Voxer (like a walkie-talkie on iPods) my little brother, which meant the world to me. It became really tempting to get on Facebook or Pinterest instead of being present though, so I'm actually happy to be away from internet this month.
Transportation: We didn't necessarily leave the property very often, but when we did we would either walk or someone would drive us using Pop-Up's van/ministry vehicles.
What people do for fun: It's a lot like America, people do a lot of the same things for fun. There are a ton of malls and nightclubs and restaurants etc etc etc, and there are a lot of outside things to do, like braai and go to lakes and hike and hunt etc. I'm glad we were only there for a month because I missed shopping a lot, it's incredible how quickly my mind goes back to wanting material things when I'm in an environment where that was possible.
What people need prayers for: Probably the biggest prayer would be for people to find their identities in Christ, and for the learners to be vulnerable and open to God working in their lives. They need healing, because many of them have been through abuse, abandonment, HIV/AIDs, addictions, and many of them come from broken homes. I fell in love with many of the students, because I related with a lot of the feelings they had been going through from their life experiences. Many are also dealing with financial struggles, and most at Pop-Up work as volunteers out of the kindness of their hearts, but still have families to support. Most of the prayers relate to material pressures and meeting worldly standards, kind of the same "keeping up with the Jones's" mentality that Americans struggle with as well. This place reminded me a lot of the US, and so the prayers for them are similar to the prayers the United States needs.
