Thursday, January 29, 2009
9-29-09
Well, this post is coming rather quickly after the last one, so there's not a whole lot to say. Before I start though, I'll show you that this here is a pic of our little monkey friends, they're really quite cute when you look at them, but don't be deceived. What's going on right now is actually very interesting, and a little sad so don't read if you've got a big heart for animals. But how the monkey community works is there's an alpha male and he's completely in control, he runs the show. In due time, the monkeys begin to feel more and more comfortable around us humans and things begin to get out of control. What you do then is...this is where it gets sad...you shoot/kill a baby monkey. This results in the mothers beating the alpha male senseless, sometimes to death, because he's supposed to protect the babies. From either, either the alpha male learns its lesson and the monkeys stay back from the humans more, or the alpha is so beat that new male monkey fight for the open alpha spot, which one eventually earns. Either way peace is restored at the loss of one poor innocent monkey.
With that said, I had my first Life and Teachings of Jesus class today. It's taught by Reg, the man the myth the legend basically our president out here. The class was phenomenal! So much rich information, taught so well. I'm super excited. Other than that, not too much is going on. I'm part of our worship squad at chapel tomorrow morning, so pray our God will be praised...and that's about it. Sweet dreams and I'll leave you with a picture of the view from just outside our front door...beautiful!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
1.28.09
It has officially been pouring for 24 hours, and it’s awesome! I love rain, but I am beginning to realize that I’ve begun to take the beauty of it for granted. Experiencing the rain in this new environment is refreshing, and renewing. And even though it’s raining, it doesn’t hold the monkey back. I don’t think I’ve explained yet, we have about 30 monkey that live on our campus. Before we came here, we were brainwashed into thinking the monkeys were miniature versions of the devil…and now that I’m here I see that they are. They break into the rooms and steal food, they get into every garbage can within a mile of this place, and they torture the girls (which is rather funny I must say). We were told me must establish our dominance, so that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. At any chance me and my fellow 8 men chase the monkey, it’s super juvenile, but so fun. It’s also really fascinating, I love it.
I guess the reason I’m here is for school. After all without the study, there wouldn’t be a study abroad. So about my classes. I have four of them right now. A South African history class that’s only once a week. A Zulu class that’s only once a week. And my two largest classes right now are bio and Life and Teachings of Jesus. I have yet to take my Life and Teachings class, but my Bio class is started. It’s only Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but the class goes from 830am to 400pm, it’s insane! The sweet part is that every Wednesday is a field trip, yes just like we’re in 3rd grade. Today, because of the rain we were in the classroom again so next Tuesday and Wednesday we now have field trips, I’m stoked!
Oh, and another bit of excitement. Last night my buddy David was giving me the usual haircut with a pair of beard clippers. It was moving slow because the trimmer is for beards, but we were making progress. Then Chad walked into the bathroom, David lost focus, the end of the clippers came off, and Dave took a clean swipe at my head…I then had to shave my head. It’s awful. And I’m going to stop telling the story before I start crying. Life goes on I guess…
That’s it for now. Life’s good, and God’s even better. Thanks to those who’ve been contacting me, I love hearing from everyone. Talk to you soon!
I guess the reason I’m here is for school. After all without the study, there wouldn’t be a study abroad. So about my classes. I have four of them right now. A South African history class that’s only once a week. A Zulu class that’s only once a week. And my two largest classes right now are bio and Life and Teachings of Jesus. I have yet to take my Life and Teachings class, but my Bio class is started. It’s only Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but the class goes from 830am to 400pm, it’s insane! The sweet part is that every Wednesday is a field trip, yes just like we’re in 3rd grade. Today, because of the rain we were in the classroom again so next Tuesday and Wednesday we now have field trips, I’m stoked!
Oh, and another bit of excitement. Last night my buddy David was giving me the usual haircut with a pair of beard clippers. It was moving slow because the trimmer is for beards, but we were making progress. Then Chad walked into the bathroom, David lost focus, the end of the clippers came off, and Dave took a clean swipe at my head…I then had to shave my head. It’s awful. And I’m going to stop telling the story before I start crying. Life goes on I guess…
That’s it for now. Life’s good, and God’s even better. Thanks to those who’ve been contacting me, I love hearing from everyone. Talk to you soon!
Monday, January 26, 2009
January 26
Well, we are officially at our home for the next 6 weeks in Pietermaritzburg, and it’s phenomenal! The landscape is gorgeous, green everywhere, forest all around, and a 20ish foot waterfall behind the girls shanties. It honestly looks like a scene from Jurassic Park. The downside is it is very hot and super humid, but hey I can handle that.
Things with the group continue to go great as we grow closer. I praise God as the individual selection that has taken place, bringing such a unique group of individuals together that mesh so well. There’s always adventure, always laughter, and yet the ability to get deep when appropriate.
Classes started 2 hours ago with our first South Africa history class. It’s still odd getting back into school things since 1. I haven’t done school in about 2 months, and 2. I’m in South Africa. My history class meets once a week on Mondays, and then I have an Earth Science class that meets twice or three times a week (I can’t remember) for about 7 hours each class. I also have a Life and Teachings of Jesus Class meeting 3 times a week. It’s a decent load of work, but in six weeks I’ll have about 2/3 of my schooling done for this semester, so that’s nice.
Anyway, life is good, and God is continuing to be faithful. I miss everyone back home, and look forward to hearing from you all eventually. Please take the time to write me at asalzwedel@apu.edu, or on facebook.
Things with the group continue to go great as we grow closer. I praise God as the individual selection that has taken place, bringing such a unique group of individuals together that mesh so well. There’s always adventure, always laughter, and yet the ability to get deep when appropriate.
Classes started 2 hours ago with our first South Africa history class. It’s still odd getting back into school things since 1. I haven’t done school in about 2 months, and 2. I’m in South Africa. My history class meets once a week on Mondays, and then I have an Earth Science class that meets twice or three times a week (I can’t remember) for about 7 hours each class. I also have a Life and Teachings of Jesus Class meeting 3 times a week. It’s a decent load of work, but in six weeks I’ll have about 2/3 of my schooling done for this semester, so that’s nice.
Anyway, life is good, and God is continuing to be faithful. I miss everyone back home, and look forward to hearing from you all eventually. Please take the time to write me at asalzwedel@apu.edu, or on facebook.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
1.24.09 5:30 pm
I am officially in South Africa, and I must say it is rather surreal. I don’t think it’s actually hit me yet. Nonetheless it’s awesome. The land is very green, it is rather hot, and pretty humid as well, but again, it’s awesome!
We headed out of L.A. on Wednesday night, took a red-eye to New York where we had an 11 hour layover. I had never been to New York and was fortunate enough to get to tour the freezing cold city for several hours. When that wrapped up we headed back to JFK for our 18-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Knowing you’re going to be on a plane for 18 hours is rather daunting, but it really wasn’t that bad. Several hours of broken sleep and some reading and we were here.
We arrived in South Africa at about 5:00 pm, headed to our hotel, got some instructions on things, and grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant next store. I experienced my first naïve tourist moment here when I ordered smoked salmon, unlike everyone else who got burgers, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the salmon was in fact smoked but that was it…it was completely raw. I ate it anyway, and did acquire some food from others. Oh, the other thing, the food here is suuuper cheap which is awesome! A burger and fries is about 4 dollars, and that’s at a restaurant, not McDonalds. Anyway, we headed back to the hotel to sleep for the nights.
Today we headed on an excursion to two locations, Soweto and Pretoria. Soweto is mostly famous for it’s riots in 1967 that were in one way or another the beginning to the end of apartheid. It was also at one time the home to Nelson Mandela. Our learning outside the classroom is pretty sweet. I feel like this is what we’re missing in American schooling – field trips! In Soweto we also visited what is called an Informal Settlement which is a development of shacks. The one we were at was home to 15-20 thousand people. It was crazy seeing such poverty, playing with the children, and also taking in the sense of community. I loved it. From Soweto we headed to Pretoria, one of South Africa’s 3 capitals. There’s more to Pretoria, but it’s pretty boring.
That’s about it for day one. We’re gonna eat sometime tonight but we got the rest of the day off. Tomorrow we take our final plane ride to Pietermaritzburg – my home for the next 2 months, and chances are I’ll be there by the time I actually get to post this because of the absence of internet. See ya!
We headed out of L.A. on Wednesday night, took a red-eye to New York where we had an 11 hour layover. I had never been to New York and was fortunate enough to get to tour the freezing cold city for several hours. When that wrapped up we headed back to JFK for our 18-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Knowing you’re going to be on a plane for 18 hours is rather daunting, but it really wasn’t that bad. Several hours of broken sleep and some reading and we were here.
We arrived in South Africa at about 5:00 pm, headed to our hotel, got some instructions on things, and grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant next store. I experienced my first naïve tourist moment here when I ordered smoked salmon, unlike everyone else who got burgers, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the salmon was in fact smoked but that was it…it was completely raw. I ate it anyway, and did acquire some food from others. Oh, the other thing, the food here is suuuper cheap which is awesome! A burger and fries is about 4 dollars, and that’s at a restaurant, not McDonalds. Anyway, we headed back to the hotel to sleep for the nights.
Today we headed on an excursion to two locations, Soweto and Pretoria. Soweto is mostly famous for it’s riots in 1967 that were in one way or another the beginning to the end of apartheid. It was also at one time the home to Nelson Mandela. Our learning outside the classroom is pretty sweet. I feel like this is what we’re missing in American schooling – field trips! In Soweto we also visited what is called an Informal Settlement which is a development of shacks. The one we were at was home to 15-20 thousand people. It was crazy seeing such poverty, playing with the children, and also taking in the sense of community. I loved it. From Soweto we headed to Pretoria, one of South Africa’s 3 capitals. There’s more to Pretoria, but it’s pretty boring.
That’s about it for day one. We’re gonna eat sometime tonight but we got the rest of the day off. Tomorrow we take our final plane ride to Pietermaritzburg – my home for the next 2 months, and chances are I’ll be there by the time I actually get to post this because of the absence of internet. See ya!
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