Cape Town like WOAH

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Alright, time for a real update! I'm sitting at the table in our guesthouse, babysitting my friend's computer while she goes out of town for the weekend, blasting country music. In fact, the guesthouses are fairly empty this weekend - there are only four of us who haven't taken off for some regional destination. We've just finished the first course (John Comaroff's African Civilizations I, in-class final this morning, thank you very much) and are fancy free till Monday, when we start African Civilizations II with Jean. I'm actually quite happy to stay in Cape Town and have a little time to myself. I'm planning on hanging out with some of my native Capetonian friends - shopping this afternoon with Bianca, beach tomorrow, something thrilling on Saturday and Sunday.

Which puts me in mind of a major change in my character since arriving in Cape Town. I have become an avid beach bum. As in, if there's time, I'm at one. Granted, Cape Town makes that easy - there are six stunningly beautiful beaches within a ten minute drive of where I'm staying - but regardless, I think of it as a major lifestyle change. I always somewhat distained the people who traveled to a new place, only to lie on the beach instead of seeing any of the truly unique things their destination had to offer. Well, I am completely converted. There's something so brilliant about lying on the beach in 90-degree heat, sweating like crazy. When you can no longer stand the heat, you run right into the freezing water (8 degrees Celsius, for what that's worth). Repeat the process - stay in the water as long as you can, then run to the sand to warm up. After my first day I realized that the process bears distinct similarity to the Russian Banya - the connections to Russia never stop coming.

On that note, I've been having a fantastic academic experience over the past month or so. First off, one can't possibly complain about hanging out with the foremost faculty in African Anthropology in the world on a daily basis - besides their brilliance, John, Jean and David are fantastically fun to hang out with. Those of you who know John know that his puns are ridiculous, and constantly remind me of my father's. In addition to his puns, he is constantly imitating a Russian accent and telling Stalin jokes - two weeks ago this continued all the way down Table Mountain. The ironic side note to all the joking about Russia is that every single lecturer we've had - whether a faculty member or guest lecturer - has been quite blatantly Marxist. I even met the Deputy Secretary General of the South African Communist Party, Jeremy Cronin. The experience has been amusing and frustrating at turns, but educational always. Don't worry - I have no nostalgia for the revolution - but I didn't expect to find so many connections to my discipline (Slavic Languages and Literatures) in a program focused on African Civilizations. I also didn't expect to have so many office hour conversations clarifying my understanding of Capital and On the Jewish Question.

Academics aside, I have been going non-stop since we got to Cape Town. As I mentioned in my last email, I've been working at a place called Inyathelo, an NGO that sort of consults other NGO's. They work with small organizations all the way up to museums and universities, talking about ways to attract investors, as well as interfacing with the philanthropic community to encourage no-strings-attached donation. They've also begun a program called the Philanthropy Awards, which is what I've been working on. Their first awards were given out last year, and myself and two other interns have the unenviable tasks of setting their databases straight after the mad rush to get everything done on time. Despite the boring work (data entry into Access and Excel), it's great to be doing work that is really needed.

In addition to Inyathelo, I've also connected with the Student Y, a student ministry at the University of Cape Town quite similar to InterVarsity. It was quite the bizarre circumstance (or literally Providential plan?). I emailed the Y attempting to track down old family friends who we had visited the last time my family was in Cape Town. They had moved on to Perth, Australia, but when I got to Cape Town I emailed them again to say that I wanted to get involved with their ministry while I was here. That email happened to be picked up by their staff worker, Tanya, who has a ministry to the extension arts campus, where our program's classes meet. I gave her a call, and we met up for coffee. We talked about life and ministry, and she mentioned that she'd been hoping to start a small group Bible study for girls at the arts campus. I got really excited (small groups is my area in Chicago), and told her that I'd love to be involved. She mentioned that she was thinking of having them study Ephesians (Ephesians is the study happening in Chicago this quarter while I'm away), and I jumped for joy! I'm going to lead the first few studies and try to pass on some small group tools while I'm here, so that when I leave another girl can lead it. So, we had our second meeting this week, and the group is really great - they're enthusiastic and insightful, and I'm so thrilled to have completely new fellowship in my life. For those of you itching to know, I've also connected with the IFES affiliate in South Africa, and will be hanging out with them at some point later - they don't have any ministry at the campus I'm at.

Ok, so - I've mentioned school, activities, the beach….I must tell you about a few more things in this already terribly long email. First: SURFING

In all my beach trips I should mention that my friend Jono has been trying to teach me how to body surf, and I'm gradually improving. But, I decided when I came here that I really wanted to learn how to surf properly, and eventually found a surf school in Muizenberg, about a 40 minute train ride from here. I organized a lesson for a group of us last Sunday, and I LOVED it. Due to a bunch of bizarre occurrences, we were late to the lesson, and had limited time in the water, but even so I was on the verge of standing up three times - only to promptly lose my balance and fall to one side of the board or the other. I plan to spend any hard-earned bucks going back for more.

There are lots of other stories to tell, but I have to say something to tell you all in person! I love getting emails from you guys, so please keep me in the loop of what's going on with you all!

Much love from sunny, sandy Cape Town,

-Lauren

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Comments

[Wenda Dueck]

Hi Lauren, It sounds so very exciting and so very beautiful. Cape Town sounds as glorious as ever. We are praying for you. Mom, Dad, Paul and john