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Published: November 19th 2006
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Bob is doing fine now - there may be a stone in there somewhere, but he is feeling fine. We have been seeing a doctor of Chinese medicine, who told Bob he isn't drinking enough water. It has to be water that "a fish could live in," not just liquid, so Bob is drinking more plain water, and we are both taking herbs. We go back again tomorrow. The doctor is a white South African with a calm, peaceful demeanor who became interested in Chinese medicine while he was a merchant marine. He studied on his own extensively for a number of years and several years ago took the Chinese government’s certitifcation exam for acupuncturists; he was surprised to pass with 85 percent correct. He now practices in Jo’burg, with a small office and consultation room at his home.
The car repair was simply the replacement of an electrical cable. The dealer we bought it from in Pietermaritzburg took care of everything with the dealer here in Jo’burg, including making sure we could pick it up on Saturday instead of waiting until Monday. We paid nothing out and have had no trouble since. Yay!
We have rented a 1-bedroom apartment in a nice area, and we will move in this coming week! We looked at a couple of dozen apartments, learned some more of the city streets and areas, and found this beautiful apartment in our price range. I will tell more and post pictures when we have the place.
It may be 6 more weeks before I have my work permit and can start working. In the meantime, I started learning one of the African languages, Xhosa. You can say "Ko-sah," although it really starts with a kind of clicking sound. I have had 3 lessons from a friend and have another one tomorrow, with a quiz! I am really enjoying learning a language again, and it makes me feel more at home here to try to speak it with some of the people I meet. Xhosa is the first language of Nelson Mandela and is widely spoken in the Eastern Cape province and here in Gauteng Province. If a person understands Xhosa, they can also understand 3 other South African languages that are in the Nguni language group: Zulu, Ndebele, and Swati.
At a Bahá’í meeting a couple of weeks ago in Jo’burg, we met some new friends. The young man who ran the PowerPoint presentation was familiar to me; during the meeting it suddenly dawned on me: Project Blaze! Years ago, when I lived in Dallas, a group of Bahá’í youth spent a whole summer doing volunteer work all over Texas, and Ryan was in that group. He and his wife, Leyla, moved to South Africa about three years ago. They are an energetic, fun couple; he is a director and filmmaker working for the South African government, and she is a writer/actress who has just finished her Master’s degree in filmmaking. His work involves promoting and assisting African filmmakers, and he has been involved in the making of films such as Tsotsi and Cape of Good Hope, among others. Her master’s thesis was done on an Iranian comedy (an oxymoron?) called The Lizard, which upset the Muslim clergy in Iran and was banned. The only copies being distributed currently are bootleg, as all of the original masters were destroyed. Together Ryan and Leyla have done a lot of work that attempts to remove prejudices, including short films, TV shows, and public service announcements, and they are working on some significant projects with others around the world with altruistic motives.
We have met many people during our time in Africa that are working daily to improve the lot of humanity, and sometimes we have the feeling that we are surrounded by heroes and heroines. In addition to some that I have already written about, there are many others. Dan and Judy have lived in Soweto for decades, where there were deadly riots in 1985 over the teaching of Afrikaans (it was considered “the language of the oppressor”) in township schools. They worked for the elimination of racism during the darkest days of apartheid and were particularly outspoken about educational standards for black children. They continue to support an orphanage in the township and work for race unity and the education of disadvantaged children.
We recently met Mr. Wingi from the Congo who was here in Johannesburg to receive medical treatment. Bob and I drove Mr. Wingi and his eldest son to Pretoria to visit the grave of his wife who had died three years earlier. Along with other Bahá’ís we said prayers at her grave and those of two other Bahá’ís. Mr. Wingi’s stories about the struggles in the Congo/Zaire are quite moving. He has worked extensively as a Bahá’í in the Congo interior and in helping the Pygmy people gain equality with the Bantu people, who used to enslave them. He has great admiration for the Pygmy people of the Congo. He told us that on many visits to the interior, he was often surprised to find that the Pygmies were ready and waiting for him upon his arrival. When he would ask them how they knew he was coming, they would tell him that a certain member of their village had dreamed that he would be coming. These events appear to be quite common among these remarkable people. As he conveyed this story, he was quite aware of the fact that people from the outside world would find it difficult to believe, but he said that people who live in isolation tend to develop resources for communication other than technology. He told us a story about two villages in the Kasai region of the Congo where believers were building a Bahá’í Center that had been vandalized occasionally by some local Christians. The presence of the Bahá’í Center and the teachings of this “false prophet” called Bahá’u’lláh, were regarded as such a threat, that the various Christian denominations came together to discuss what they could do about the Bahá’í presence in their community. The meeting took a very different direction when it was discovered that nine people, all from different Christian groups, had shared the same dream. In their dreams they all spoke of being approached by an older man, with a white beard and turban, who asked them why they wished harm to the Bahá’ís when they worshiped the same God as the Christians and desired the same universal peace and fellowship? After this, the meeting took a very different direction, and a delegation of Christians went to the Bahá’ís and apologized for the vandalism and offered to help them build their center.
This past week we have been staying at Ryan and Leyla’s while Ryan is attending the Cape Town Film Festival. Last night we met another Congolese resident, Jason, who has several businesses in Kinshasa and is attempting to establish a television station there that provides high quality programming for children. Originally a Canadian, he has been in the Congo for 18 years, through two wars and numerous other disturbances and events, including the absorption of Zaire into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He calls this past week a “miraculous” week, because everyone was expecting the country to erupt in flames when the election results were announced - and then it didn’t! We are hopeful that the miracle will continue.
Tomorrow we will be back at the Bahá’í Centre until we move into our apartment (“flat”). We plan to find a refrigerator and other necessities for the flat, continue my Xhosa lessons, finish getting my qualifications assessed for the work permit, and submit the actual work permit and residency applications to Home Affairs through our consultant. It will be a busy week.
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Bahiyyih Baker
non-member comment
I found you!
Hello Sherri! I'm so happy to have found you and read about all your adventures! My love and encouragement goes with you! We are doing well here- Georgia enjoying 1st grade, Maya becoming very independant, and Teresa insisting on trying to dress herself and speaking in almost complete sentences (at age 21 months!). Thank you for all your inspiration in the words you've written.