November 18th-December 15th

It has now been closer to a month than a week since my last blog. My internet usage is quite restricted as it is dependent on my own transportation which for the past few weeks had been non-existent; I just bought a scooter but have yet to buy a helmet. But a lot has happened since my last post so I’m going to try to summarize and be brief. That’s always a challenge so please bear with me.
I have now gone to the beach a few times. My first time was with my family when we went for 4 hours to an incredible tidal pool 5 minutes away from the house. The water was brought in over the walls by the crashing waves of the freezing Atlantic Ocean. It’s incredible to be laying in this beautiful clear water completely surrounded by mountains and ocean on a perfect day. Really sacrificing myself to be here.
The second time I was at the beach was with the Living Hope volunteers. Again the water was as close to freezing as it can be without becoming ice, quite literally intolerable. But it was a lot of fun. Second time we went surfing to a nearby beach which is supposed to be the surf capital of world, which sounds a lot more intimidating than it seemed to me. It just means that the 90% of the people who live there do so for the surfing.
A few Saturdays ago I also got to go “caving” with Casey and Matt Berry. Not really knowing what I was agreeing to go to, I went along. After about an hour and a half worth of hiking, half of which was spent figuring out where on the mountain we were, we delved into a giant crevice on the side of one of Cape Town’s many mountains. We went through and found ourselves on the other side of this giant natural structure of rock and dirt. It was a lot of fun.
The Prince’s yard continues to be a community center for the kids of Ocean View. It was expanded to more than just soccer which can be both good and bad. We often need to kick out the teenagers who for some reason think it’s ok to smoke a hookah in someone’s backyard. Casey also had to speak to the guys who smoke marijuana right on the outside of the yards cement wall. Things like this, along with inevitable but infrequent fights between the kids, can make everything quite exhausting.
I’m not going to talk much about it because it is still a bit fresh on my heart and my reflection on it will likely be kept within my family, but my Grandma passed away on Saturday the 28th. It’s hard for me to think of her as dead so instead I like to think that she just got a promotion. I, as well as my family, am a direct reflection of who she was. There was concern for me during this time as I was away from the comfort of mourning with my family. My family, nuclear and extended, figured that I may be having a very hard time due to the fact that I was here by myself, without anyone to share my pain. But as horribly sad as I was, I realized that at no moment I had felt alone. I have come to form such a personal and REAL relationship with God that I genuinely felt the presence of my Father with me during this time. My biological family may have been thousands of miles away, but my Father and Creator was right there with me, suffering as I did over the temporary loss of an AMAZING woman. I’m never alone. He will always be by my side. There is a song in Peter Pan that says: “Me and my shadow, my shadow and me. We’re always together, as close as can be.” This is a bit how I feel about my relationship with my Father.
This past week we also got to go to the World Cup draw festival. I don’t know if it’s worth trying to tell you how incredible it is to be here during these preparatory months before the World Cup. If you’re reading this then you know how IN-LOVE I am with soccer. I would say it’s like a child in Disney World for the first time but that isn’t anywhere near as exciting as the festival and events like it. There were around 150,000 people lining Long Street and the streets that intersect it. There were Germans, Koreans, Brazilians, Dutch, Argentines, Nigerians, Americans, Scots (not sure why considering they dint even qualify), South Africans, and every other nationality you can imagine; which also made for a lot of beautiful girls. There was an incredibly healthy blend of nationalistic pride and global community in accordance with the festivities that should accompany such an event. I kept getting goose bumps as I walked through the crowds. It’s just one of those moments in your life where you are happy beyond your mind.
On December 2nd through the 6th I attended a conference at the University of Cape Town with Sarah Prince. Its aim was to bring together some of the most prominent scholars on the topic of Restorative Justice and Psychological Trauma in post-conflict societies to discuss different approaches which they found successful in help healing those affected by trauma. The topics were absolutely fascinating to me. Some of the sessions I attended included “The Silent Narrative of Violence – The Transgenerational impact of Violence on Children in South Africa Today,” ”Are any actions unforgivable,” “Speaking at the Limits of the Human: Witnessing ‘The Greatest Silence, Rape in the Congo,” and “Transgenerational Transmission of Holocaust Survivor Process of Dialogue between a Holocaust Survivor and his Descendents through Three Generations.” The other topics were related to the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, violence in Northern Ireland, Xenophobia violence South Africa, the Romanian genocide, and the Chivu Conflict. While these topics may not be that interesting to everybody, it was fascinating (and disturbing) to get to listen to the narratives of the people affected by these atrocities and to hear the research been done by in these societies.
To hear some of the stories that took place during the different genocides and how the survivors must now live along their perpetrators is surreal. You literally cannot believe that humans are capable of such inhumanity. It was all the more real when you had survivors themselves, just 5 feet away, sharing their story. Babies being decapitated by child soldiers and thrown into the trash right in front of their mothers, seeing your family burned alive by your next door neighbor, having your lips and ears cut off by the man you used to buy bread from. You wouldn’t believe the things people did. As hopeless as hearing all this for a week can be, it also affirmed my belief that there are some situations out of which nothing can get you other than the promise of Jesus Christ. It is impossible to forgive your family’s murderers by your own human capacity for compassion. In these circumstances, nothing can give you the strength to forgive except the empowerment of love that Jesus’ gave us.
During the conference I also got to meet one of the men who I truly admire the most. The most exciting part of the whole week was meeting Desmond Tutu, twice. He first spoke on the second day of the conference and was presented with an award on the fourth day. The first time he was there was to have a ‘roundtable discussion’ where he would answer a question from 6 distinguished scholars who were attending the conference. Listening to their questions was SO annoying. Instead of asking the damn questions, these idiots babbled for like 5 minutes about themselves and the work they were doing, trying to impress someone who they were inevitably impressed with. But through his humor and simple manner, Desmond dismissed the fanciness and answered the questions as a true man of God. The night before, Sarah had asked the speaker, who recollected narratives from Rwanda survivors, about the importance of faith in the process of reconciliation. His answer was so sad as he spoke about the Church’s hypocrisy and how it had no room to talk after being on the wrong side of so much violence. Hearing Desmond speak so unashamedly as a pawn in God’s Kingdom was so refreshing and encouraging. He really is an incredible man.
On a lighter subject, Ubuntu had its first clinics this week. School ended last Friday, and since school is a joke in South Africa, especially in Ocean View, the kids were literally doing nothing when they attended. Attendance was 25% for the last two weeks and the ones who did attend just ran around the yard and did whatever they wanted. That said, it was a great accomplishment to get a good amount of 5th and 6th grade boys to show up to play soccer with us. Casey wrote more about it on the Ubuntu blog (www.ubuntusports.org) if you would like to find out more about it. Basically, it was successful in getting our name out there and letting the kids know who we are. The clinic included some fun drills and games along with a 10 minute period where we got to speak to the kids about a particular character trait as it relates to Christ; this is the basic structure for all Ubuntu events. This week we spoke about confidence and self-worth and how our true feelings of worth coming from being children of God. I would say that between the three, there was an average of 20-25 kids in each. We’ll have another clinic with the same kids during the first week of January, before school starts.
I’m getting tired of writing so I’ll tell you the rest very briefly.
I got a scooter on Saturday. It is manual and it drives very well. It will be very nice to depend on myself for transportation.
I think I’m going to Robben Island this Saturday. As someone who respects and admires Nelson Mandela so much so as to call him a role model, I am very excited.
I find out if I got in to NC State tomorrow. I am curious and excited to find out what happens, but at the same time, I am having a really hard time thinking about going back and hearing about the ‘problems’ people at home may face. I have another 7 months here but I am already preparing mentally for the impact that I will face when I have to go back.
Thank you so much for reading this. I would think it’s quite exhausting and even boring to read but it is encouraging to know that you are interested in what God is doing in other parts of the world. I know I need to make these things shorter but it is a big challenge for me.
Please continue to pray for me and all of the people here. Pray that Ubuntu’s injection into our community may be well accepted and successful. Our success is just another brick in building God’s Kingdom. I will be praying for everyone at home, that we may realize how blessed we are and how much responsibility comes with the empowerment of God’s blessings on us. I encourage you to not be a half-ass Christian but to be a TRUE follower of Christ in all ways, despite our failures and shortcomings.
My email is andychenlo@hotmail.com in case you would like to have it. I would enjoy hearing how you are doing back home. Please understand that my internet access is very limited.

Love,

Andy