PigsPaintPotters

Pigs, Paint and Potters

I’ve been here a month today! It’s hard to believe how much can happen in one month!

We’re settling into our respective programs. I’m working in the mornings at the Potters’s House, which is a shelter for women in crisis. Still getting settle in there as workshops and orientations have kept me from spending very much time there. I have loved going to the prison to have church with the women there. We sing together and have great conversations surrounding scripture and our lives, we pray together and take messages from them to their loved ones. The fellowship there is beautiful and I look forward to going every week. My other responsibilities at the Potters House will eventually include hospitality with the women who are staying either short term or long term, and I think a bit of advocacy on their behalf as well. I have been surprised at times by how curtly they are treated in their times of need. I’ve decided I want to be the welcoming arms as they come to the Potters House. And its great that my mentor and coordinator is very open for me to do whatever I feel I might be drawn to do. There’s a lot of freedom and empowerment here at TLF.

My other job is at the School of Creative Arts (SOCA). I am really excited about where this year is going to take us. I should be starting to teach a sculpture class soon, which will be the first (I believe) visual arts class they’ve had. It will also differ from the other classes, as it will be taught at the women’s shelters instead of the school. I’m excited to use art to address issues of pain and healing. And my coordinator, Zee, is a great mentor in this area. It seems that my dream to use art for reconciliation in a community center is not so impossible.

It’s been a challenge to get used to the pace of things here. I might spend the whole day talking with my coworkers and not feeling like I’ve actually gotten anything done. But I’m realizing how much these relationships are the work. And I love my coworkers. I’ve mentioned Zee and there’s a picture below of Sandile, who also volunteers with SOCA. And last week the new volunteers arrived, primarily from Germany. Saskia, the other SOCA volunteer is actually from Switzerland. She’s great and I’m excited to work with here more. The women at the Potters House are teaching me a lot by their examples. I think this sharing between the Potters House and SOCA is going to be a perfect fit.

I mentioned the new volunteers have arrived, which means our living situation has changed. We now have two young German women sharing a room in our flat and I don’t know how many German men and women sharing the flat below us. I don’t know everyone yet, but they seem like a good bunch. Robin and I are trying to find a good balance between including them and not getting sucked into some weird and exclusive volunteer clique. So far I think it’s going well.

I have to admit that it feels a little funny talking about work since I haven’t hardly been there lately. Tuesday I started feeling sick and didn’t get out of bed Wednesday until I was taken to the hospital, where I was tested and given a drip to bring my temperature down. I was given several prescriptions and told to stay away from people for five days. The first day home after that I didn’t care whether people were around or not, I was just so tired. But being alone at home eventually wore on me. I’m still alone at home, which is why I have time to write this, but I feel 90% better. I did eventually find out I had the swine flu (or “piggy flu” as my house mates so affectionately refer to it and to me). I have been very well taken care of by my friends here and the doctor. Being sick is usually a good way to find out how you really stand in a place. And I have felt fine to be here. I feel cared about, comfortable and I know I’ll be fine.

Not everyone has reacted so calmly to my sickness however. This has actually highlighted what Robin and I have noticed as a spirit of fear here in Pretoria. There are scary things here, as in any city, and every part of the world. But there are also very simple precautions that can deal effectively with those dangers. And yet so many people spend much of their time fretting and worrying about all of this. Robin and I are praying for freedom from fear for this city.

There continue to be fun events I’ve been able to participate in. Within one week I saw an amazing musical called “100 Years of Music” featuring Hugh Masekela (South Africa’s most famous trumpet player and an activist during apartheid), the youth orchestra from Germany perform with opera singers in a beautiful opera theatre and an opening exhibition for a poet/painter named Lefifi Tladi, who was also an activist and influential leader.

I continue to enjoy my friends here and am excited to see relationships deepening. I am thankful for Robin. Having a good friend here changes everything. And I am confident I am exactly where I need to be for now.

I’ll try to include some more funny anecdotes in the next one, but this is already too long.

peace