Lost in Faith

January 16, 2007

Again today we start with an assault.  Seaview Scatters Camp is a step DOWN from the townships.  This place has no running water or no electricity.  It looks like places built by homeless people under a bridge only it houses thousands of men, women and children.  Predictions are that 50% of them are HIV positive.

In the midst of this hell hole is a little building that Oceans of Mercy helped erect that houses Seaview Church.  I will speak there on Sunday.  It will hard for me to say anything to these folks because our worlds are so far apart.  My biggest issue is not having internet access to send this journal out while they wonder how they will feed themselves and their children.  The load for men to bear is so burdensome that they disappear and leave a trail of broken hearts, lives and bodies behind.  Somehow I will squeak something out.

Everything about another culture is tiresome.  Your sense of smell comes under constant attack not always because there are foul smells but always because everything smells different.  Driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car is a constant mental drain and a miracle that we survive.  The food taste different even though it might have a familiar name, Coke or Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The languages that are spoken in front of you leave you wondering what they are talking about.  The customs are nerve racking.  Giving away some candy to the children they would cup their hands in front of you in a subservient way as if you were some great white lord.  I just couldn’t handle it when adults did the same thing.  The African people are so humble but the unnatural portion of this humility betrays the years of servitude they were subjected to at the hands of the white minority.  I just found ways to give them the stuff that I was giving away so they couldn’t cup there hands.

Leaving Seaview Camp we headed south along the coast to decompress before we head north into Umtata for another experience.  I hope that you are planning on attending the Shoal Creek Celebration on the 26^th of January.  I will describe in detail some of the events of this segement of our trip.  I can promise you’ll see something, well let’s just say that it took my breath away.