I'm back as promised to tell you about the weekend that I have had. Saturday morning we went up to Howick which is near Mpophemeni, the place we worked the first week. There in Howick is a fairly large waterfall. While the fall is not very wide it is still quite impressive. Picture any movie or show depicting a fall on a stranded island such as on Lost and you'll begin to picture it. Below the fall there is a small pond which makes the scenery even more beautiful.
All around Howick are stores selling many different handmade items so we drove around to many of them to observe as well as to buy some souvenirs. There is a lot of interesting types of art, but the ones that are most common in South Africa is art made of wires and art made of beads. Some of the most interesting pieces were bowls made out of different color telephone wire. One shop that we stopped at was a leather store, and while John was trying on a leather coat, I tried on a hat just to be funny. When I looked in the mirror I realized that the hat actually looks really good on me; the others said I must buy because it looks so good, and after seeing how cheap is was for such a high quality hat I indeed bought the hat. I am now the owner of a hat that is a mix between a Indiana Jones hat and a Australian Outback hat. Don't judge before you see it, and anyways it keeps the sun off my face and neck.
Midday the group stopped at a local microbrewery and got a sample of their four main beers. Hey, us divinity students need a break every once and a while too. After leaving the brewery we went for lunch at a very nice restaurant called the Bierhassl. While the cuisine was not South African, but rather Austrian, it was still new to me. I got something called a jagerschnitzel which is pretty much country fried steak but pork instead of steak.
We ended the night with another braii (cookout) with some of the seminarians at the flats such as John and a guy named Arno. The braii was in preparation for a big rugby game, which we went up to Arno's flat to watch. It was a very interesting game which I picked up quickly, and ended with time running out as one player was tackled just short of the goal line in what would have been a winning score. What made it even more exciting was that one of the teams was John's favorite team and the other team was Arno's favorite team so throughout the game they were shouting at each other and at home in Afrikaans. It felt like being back in America watching football with buddies, minus the Afrikaans.
Today we went to an Methodist church in town that was entirely Indian. The sanctuary was like a fellowship hall with plastic chairs directed toward a small cross on the back wall and a small pulpit for the preacher. The songs were displayed on overhead projectors like the one's we used to have in school. Other than the economic differences than the church we had previously been attending, the service was no different than any other that I have attended. I found this to be a beautiful thing. There were hymns, liturgy, a excellent Pentecost sermon, and communion. I came into the worship service expecting to experience a different culture, but found out that they worship the same way I do. To me this really emphasized that we are all brothers in sisters in Christ no matter where in the world we are, or what ethnicity, we are all one in the body of Christ. It was a great experience.
Tomorrow and Tuesday we head back to Walk in the Light but we will be back on Tuesday night so that we can attend lectures held at the seminary on Wednesday. Hopefully that means that there won't be so much time in between this post and the next. Until then though, God Bless.
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