Sorry it's taken me a few days to get to writing again, the internet here goes in and out and it's taken a few days to get into a schedule with the time changes and everyone settling in! I did make it to Cape Town safely, after a long two-day journey! I promise that I will be posting pictures as soon as I can, when I have the time (and internet capacity) to upload them!!
It's hard to sum up my first impressions of this place. I guess the first thing is how absolutely beautiful it is here. The entire city is overshadowed by Table Mountain, and surrounded by ocean on three sides. Driving around the city, sometimes you look up and the view takes your breath away. It is unlike any city that I have ever been to. (I promise that I will be posting LOTS of pictures as soon as I get the chance to upload them!)
Cape Town is a lesson in extremes. Today was our first day of work, and it summed this up quite well. We are staying at a lodge in the upper-class section of the city, which is very safe and quite wealthy. (Apartments nearby are available for 1,500,000 Rand, or about $150,000). Driving through this area, we saw several fancy cars, nice apartments and buildings, and well-dressed people going about their business. After we drove through downtown and began toward the outskirts of the city, we saw the houses getting smaller and more hastily-built. Soon we arrived at Crossroads, the largest squatter settlement in Cape Town. On the right side of the van, you could look out the window and immediately see rows of crowded, dilapidated shacks. On the left side, however, the road and the shacks were separated by a large construction site that seemed to go on as long as the settlement did. We asked Neville, our driver, what the construction was for. He said that they were building nicer apartments and homes along the roadside, "to put up a better front."
How many times do I do this in my own life? On the inside I may be impoverished, starving, and barely holding on to survive. But I create a chasm between the real me and the world around me, building a facade to hide my desperation. I appreciate authenticity and honesty, yet I'm definitely a person who tries hard to have it all together, or at least come off that way to everyone else. How would my relationships be different if I allowed people to see behind the walls? But this isn't even what got to me.
As we were driving through Crossroads, I looked out at the cars on the highway nearby, and saw a fancy car (I know next to nothing about cars, so don't ask me what kind it was specifically). I can't imagine living in Cape Town as a wealthy person and driving my fancy car down these streets. Seeing people who don't know where there next meal is coming from, as they're on their way to a fancy restaurant or shopping trip. Encountering the "least of these" from the comfort of their plush leather seats at 65mph.
But I can't even say "they," like I have no responsibility in this. Don't I drive by poverty all the time? Even though I live in a nation where people are much more fortunate than the people living in Crossroads, I encounter the poor almost daily (and if I don't they're only a few blocks away). But what am I doing to help the people around me? One of the other students on the trip was talking later, and said the poverty didn't hit him until we were on our way home. We may be going into the settlements every day, but we always know at the end we have a hot shower and meal waiting for us. We have clean clothes, a warm bed, and safe water. We have an "escape" that many of these people have never, and will never, know. It's hard to grapple with the fairness of this. What makes me deserve such a privileged life when these people have nothing?
The truth is, there is nothing that makes me deserve anything that I have, or that puts me in a beautiful home in Massachusetts while they are in a Cape Town shack. God has blessed me so much with the things that I have, and has blessed me still more with the opportunity to love people in poverty. I feel compelled to do what I can to help them, and am so honored that they would let me be a part of their lives.
"There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing; another pretends to be poor, but has great wealth." --Proverbs 13:7
Oct 23, 2014
Oct 19, 2014
To the Hilt
Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. --Jim Elliot
This day has come so much faster than I expected it to. I am sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight to leave the United States. The past few days have been a whirlwind of packing, last-minute errands and vaccinations, and goodbyes (for now). So much preparation has gone into this trip. I have been doing hours of research and writing for ID2050, a class entirely dedicated to preliminary IQP work. The more I've learned about the safe house, my project, and Cape Town, the more I've been looking forward to seeing all of it in real life and to be a part of the work that is going on there.
Of course, there is a part of me that doesn't want to leave. Saying goodbye to my family (especially a crying younger sister) is heartbreaking, although just for a few weeks. It's hard to imagine being so far away, even if it isn't my first time being immersed in another culture. The timing of this trip is also something that I've questioned--it's a hard time to leave home. However, I am so confident in the fact that God has a plan for me, and that He knew what He was doing in placing me in South Africa for this project. I have a feeling that He is going to do incredible things, maybe through me but surely in me. I can't wait to see what they are.
Just as I was finishing that thought, my mom sent me a text saying "God has planned it this way intentionally, so make the most of it." The exact message that I am trying to convey in writing this. Although I surely leave a portion of my heart at home, I want to be all there when I am in Cape Town, as this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that few people have the privilege of experiencing. I know already that before I know it, my time will be over. So I want to be purposeful in living "to the hilt"--there will be opportunities that draw me out of my comfort zone, but that can't be an excuse not to make the most of them. I have confidence in the fact that God is with me and will be every moment while I'm there. This time will pass all to quickly, so I want to make as much of it as I can.
My plane will be leaving soon, but I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and taking the time to read my blog while I'm gone. I'll write again as soon as I can!
Til later,
Sam
This day has come so much faster than I expected it to. I am sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight to leave the United States. The past few days have been a whirlwind of packing, last-minute errands and vaccinations, and goodbyes (for now). So much preparation has gone into this trip. I have been doing hours of research and writing for ID2050, a class entirely dedicated to preliminary IQP work. The more I've learned about the safe house, my project, and Cape Town, the more I've been looking forward to seeing all of it in real life and to be a part of the work that is going on there.
Of course, there is a part of me that doesn't want to leave. Saying goodbye to my family (especially a crying younger sister) is heartbreaking, although just for a few weeks. It's hard to imagine being so far away, even if it isn't my first time being immersed in another culture. The timing of this trip is also something that I've questioned--it's a hard time to leave home. However, I am so confident in the fact that God has a plan for me, and that He knew what He was doing in placing me in South Africa for this project. I have a feeling that He is going to do incredible things, maybe through me but surely in me. I can't wait to see what they are.
Just as I was finishing that thought, my mom sent me a text saying "God has planned it this way intentionally, so make the most of it." The exact message that I am trying to convey in writing this. Although I surely leave a portion of my heart at home, I want to be all there when I am in Cape Town, as this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that few people have the privilege of experiencing. I know already that before I know it, my time will be over. So I want to be purposeful in living "to the hilt"--there will be opportunities that draw me out of my comfort zone, but that can't be an excuse not to make the most of them. I have confidence in the fact that God is with me and will be every moment while I'm there. This time will pass all to quickly, so I want to make as much of it as I can.
My plane will be leaving soon, but I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and taking the time to read my blog while I'm gone. I'll write again as soon as I can!
Til later,
Sam
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