Dear Family & Friends,
After over 30 hours of travel, I'm sitting in my uncle's house in sunny California writing this email on my laptop. I no longer have to worry about spending too much time writing an email and having to pay for it (really, someone else paid for it--but at least now he won't be beating down my back ;-) )! What that means is that (lucky) you may have to endure many pages and addenda to our adventures in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape--or just a lot of musings about the experience in general.
There are a couple gaps that I wanted to fill in about the last couple days in Transkei (Eastern Cape) and also relate to you about the final days we spent in Cape Town. I put them into sections because I realize that this email will be quite long; feel free to skip around.
The Fire.
The fire Simon (our team leader / mentor), David, Carl, and I helped put out in Gulandoda is one of our great trip memories. After a day of evangelism, Sunday school, and a church service, we had finished up dinner and were in the mood for some sleep. The night was winding down and conversation in our hosts' hut was coming to a close. The girls on the team--Panayiota, Beth, and our translators: Andiswa, and Beauty--had finished serving a round of tea. One of our hosts got up to look outside and started gesturing. I looked out and saw a bright flame on the opposing hill. I thought to myself, "Wow, that's kind of pretty at night." But then our translators mentioned something about a fire and the tata (Xhosa for an older man) of the house hurriedly grabbed a couple old shirts and ran out. We were told that the fire threatened the fields of our host family and the father had rushed out with a couple of the younger kids to put out the flame. David rushed to our hut to grab a couple gloves, and one of the mothers handed him a couple old t-shirts. Carl, in a moment of sheer genius, decided to employ his towel to beat out the fire (when it was wet, he could put out more flames than anyone else on our team). I, on the other hand, was handed an empty rice sack, and Beth was kind enough to hand me her headlight.
I ran to catch up with the rest of the team, and David had already gotten his t-shirts wet in the nearby river. I didn't know where it was so he took my rice sack to try and get it wet and, giving me a wet t-shirt, told me to go ahead. When we reached the blaze, I wasn't sure what I thought. It was big, but I figured that if it wasn't big--it wouldn't be fun to put out. I wasn't sure what to do, having never been taught what to do in case of a fire except follow the glowing "exit" signs and--if I had caught on fire--to drop, roll, and something (scream for help, I suppose?). We're not really taught to run into fires; we mostly run from them when they threaten our homes. So, clearly, Stanford graduates aren't prepared to fight brush fires. Two of the kids waltzed nonchalantly up to the nearest flame and started whacking it with their old t-shirts. And, not knowing what else to do, I followed suit. David came back with the rice sack and explained that it couldn't hold water, so I'd just have to whack the fire really hard to be effective. With enough people beating the fire, we finally cleared a path to the field and headed out there.
When the team made it to the field, it was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, and it was too dark to find a way into it. A flame was threatening one corner of the field, so we threw our t-shirts and rice sacks over the wiring and just climbed over the fence. Here, we split into groups of two to handle the fire in different places. Carl and I traveled to the corner and started to put out the flame. Fortunately for us, the field was fallow and the remaining stalks were sitting so far apart from each other that the fire needed intense wind to really do substantial damage to the field. The real trouble was the dry grass that surrounded the field. Those caught on fire quickly and burned intensely if the winds picked up. Carl and I happened to arrive when the winds took over, and the fire was too intense for us to handle. We decided to let it burn and pull out some grass further down the path where it would run out of fuel. Then, we'd attack it there (yay for strategic planning?). Carl's towel was amazingly effective at putting out the grass fire, and it was intensely satisfying to see a single swoosh of his towel put out a large area of fire. I'd beat down the little, simmering flames with my rice sack after Carl had finished punishing the mother flame.
We finished the corner, and Carl headed off to find the others. I was busy making sure the smaller fires were contained and couldn't harm the field anymore. When I had finished, I lost sight of the team and wandered around on the hill until I saw them fighting another fire on the other side of the hill. To give you some sense of where we are: standing at our hosts' hut, his field (and the fire we saw) was at the top of the hill. We had run up one side of the hill to reach the field and had now gone down the other side, so that you couldn't see us if you were standing at our hosts' hut. We were at least a 5-10 minute walk from the hut now. The winds had picked up the flames, and they were approaching some huts in another village nearby (on another hill--in the Eastern Cape, everything is just "over the hill"). Thankfully, the villagers had come out to defend their houses. I turned my attention to another fire threatening another field, and with Carl and Simon, we put it out.
Now the kids came running back to us and told us to go back: we had done enough work. But the fire was still raging intensely in the valley below, and, in its all-consuming beauty, rolled menacingly towards another village. The fire out-paced us, so there was little we could do for them. They would have to fend for themselves.
On our way back, David commented that it was funny that, here, in the Eastern Cape, the girls learned to serve tea (the girls later said that there was really no learning involved), and the boys learned to fight a fire. We had a light laugh. But we were in for more laughter when we made it back to the huts and could see ourselves. I had burned a small hole in my jacket and caught part of it on a barbed wire. Carl's towel was completely black. And David's face was covered in ashes. We took some pictures and washed our faces. Then we saw our dirty hands and washed our hands. After washing our hands, we decided we were clean enough and got ready for bed. But more surprises were in store for us, and when we took off our shoes, what were previously pristine, white, cotton socks were now gray and black. In the two weeks at South Africa, I have managed to completely destroy two pairs of socks--one by running on asphalt and the other by putting out a fire. We took off our socks and washed our feet. And then we noticed that the smoke had gone up our pant legs and our entire legs were covered in smoke. David's leg looked like he was wearing black tights. So we scrubbed ourselves as best we could, laughed about it, and relished in our accomplishment for the day.
The next day, the tata complimented us, saying we were like soldiers out in the field of duty. The entire hill was burnt, but his field remained. I think we all swelled with a little bit of pride--city-slickers putting out a fire.
Okay, now I feel I've done adequate justice to the fire-fighting. :-D I could come up with something profound to say about fighting fires; but at the end of the day, the experience was simply unique and fun--people struggling against the elements as best they can. ;-)
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
After we got back to Cape Town from Transkei on Monday, the team took some time to rest before visiting the local "Learn to Earn." Learn to Earn is a ministry started by a Baptist missionary who desired to provide affordable skill training for the people in Khayelitsha so they could either find jobs or start their own businesses. It was very encouraging to see the awards they had won from the local city and read news articles about the impact they were having on the populace in Khayelitsha. After that visit, we went to the Internet cafe where I wrote my last email.
Monday night. We were finally able to meet with the last member of our team--Andrea--who had arrived while we were still at the Eastern Cape. She had been working with another team, but was finally able to start working with us. She surprised us all with her announcement that she had become a temporary German citizen for five days. The story goes that she lost her passport at the Frankfurt airport and had to become a German in order to stay in the country. After she did that (without speaking a word of German), she was able to go to the US embassy and get an emergency passport. It was by far the funniest travel delay story on our team. Except for David and me, every member of our team has had travel delays.
On Tuesday, we all took a break from work and visited the local sights of Cape Town, seeing the African penguins, the Cape of Good Hope, and the tourist waterfront in the city. We also visited an AIDS ministry called Living Hope. Unfortunately, I ate something weird for lunch and had stomachaches during the whole Living Hope presentation, so I don't remember much. What I do remember is that AIDS is a stigmatized disease in the Cape Town area, yet 1 in 4 people have it. The treatment provided by Living Hope is the latest in AIDS treatment--which the South African government subsidizes--and it is possible for the people who live with AIDS to have normal, healthy lives thanks to this medicine. The greatest trouble, however, is overcoming the social stigma that comes with having AIDS. Living Hope does more than help AIDS patients: they treat tuberculosis and have clinics in nearby communities. They also have after-school programs for young kids, and a soup kitchen for the homeless in the nearby town.
We closed out Tuesday with a waterfront steak dinner that had a spectacular view of Table Mountain.
On Wednesday, David and I got our bags ready for the airport, but before we left, we went with the team to a high school in Khayelitsha to teach a couple classes. With our full six-man team, we taught the high schoolers about obedience--starting out by playing Simon Says, moving to a brainstorm about what obedience is, then acting out the story of Abraham and Isaac, moving into a short discussion of how obedience can be difficult, and closing with song. The high schoolers were shy to speak to us in English, but they enjoyed our stories and especially the song at the end. One class demanded an encore performance, and we sang for them again. In fact, we sang so much that morning, that David's voice was too weak to speak much with me on the flight back to the States. After lunch and after entertaining the high school with our songs, David and I said our goodbyes to the team and left for the airport for our long journey home.
Thoughts and What Next?
On the plane, I finally had some time to write down some of my thoughts. I'd like to share a couple of them with you here.
First, translators and culture. I was extremely grateful for our translators who worked hard to translate our thoughts and ideas into a different language. It's truly a blessing and gift to be able to speak the Gospel in more than one language--and the task of translation is no easy one (trust me, I've tried before). But a person who knows different languages can be a great (practical) blessing to the body of Christ, allowing those who don't speak the same language to communicate and worship together. However, this train of thought makes me wonder how the experience or knowledge of multiple cultures can be a blessing to the church. While it's obvious what sorts of practical advantages a bilingual person might offer, what about someone who experiences and bridges two different cultures? Churches in America seem to be divided by culture--and yet culture certainly ought to be praiseworthy. But how does culture fit or "work" in the body or in the Kingdom? I have no pat answers; but the question floats around in my head.
Second, inequality. It seems that wherever there are people, there will always be some form of power struggle and a lot of jealousy and envy involved. Someone will always "have" more of something, the others will be jealous and either try to obtain it for themselves or grumble at not being able to obtain it. Even if everyone made the same income, we'd find some way to separate ourselves from others--and really, it's just our hearts at work. We want to be special, to be someone worthwhile and someone different from everyone else. And while the differences may be petty, they can still be the source of jealousy or envy. For example, in Khayelithsa, we may find it petty that anyone would be envious of a school with a fence, yet members of the community where we built the fence didn't like the fact that we helped the preschool build a fence but didn't build one for each member of the community. As petty as that sounds, I'm sure that certain American jealousies are silly as well. It just seems that where there are people, because of our differences, we can all too easily find reasons to oppress someone else in our minds--and when we've done it in our minds, we've taken the first step toward the act. But when we consider our differences in light of God's glory, the differences between us measured with the difference between God and man become too tiny to mention. And if Christ bridged the gap between God and man, surely he can bridge the difference between man and man.
Third, evangelism. I briefly mentioned this in my previous email, but I'll restate it here. I often wonder if we can be "irresponsible" missionaries--if preparation betrays a "distrust" of God--or if "trusting God" gives us the license to say anything that comes to mind. There are obvious extremes, but it's a struggle to find the Biblical balance. At one point in the trip, I was so frustrated by the usage of "trust God" that the phrase no longer meant anything to me besides a formality and many of the thoughts I have coming out of this trip revolve around the question of "trusting God." So much of our Christian culture is bound up in the words we use that I wonder if it may be worthwhile to do away with the words and start afresh to truly appreciate the meaning behind the formality.
In any case, the trip has been a good experience, giving me a deeper appreciation of God's Kingdom and forcing me to think more deeply about issues of "being Christian." I do hope and pray that the seeds we planted in South Africa will bear fruit in due time. As for now, I will spend the next couple days adjusting to jet lag and then return to work. Who knows what the future holds? :-D
Prayer Requests.
I do have a couple prayer requests, if you would like to continue to pray for the team and for me.
* While David and I have returned, four members of our team--Andrea, Beth, Carl, and Panayiota--are still in South Africa. Please pray for their ministry and their fellowship with one another.
* David heads off to the Trinity Forum Academy in a couple weeks; pray for the challenges (intellectual and spiritual) he'll face and pray for his fellowship with the other kids at Trinity.
* I will return to work (however mundane that sounds); please pray for the challenges that I'll face in wrestling to find God's Kingdom within my work, for continuing maturity in the faith, and pray as I adjust to a new season in life.
Thank you all for your prayers these past few weeks--they have been heard and answered. Continue to pray for the rest of the team and pray for me, as "mission" work never really ends. On another note, I may send out pictures / videos in a future email.
God Bless,
Eric Chu.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
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