2-6-15

 Hello again from Joburg!

While a bit of routine has begun to take place, the differences in day-to-day life is what makes every day new and exciting. We have begun to get out more and explore the town and the life in the Mayfair/ Fordsburg areas. On Monday the plan was to take the metro buses home, so after language studies we inquired of our language teacher whether or not he knew of a cab driver who was trustworthy, and then waited in his father’s “café” for the cab to arrive. The café is a place that sells coffee and tea as well as the traditional Somali snacks to go with them. When we got there, there were no fellow patrons at the little shop, but as the men finished with their mid-day prayers at the local mosques they started to fill up the area around the front of the shop. The only people in the whole area that were easily sunburned were us three! The décor in the shop was all from the surrounding area or from Somalia, and the size of the shop was close to 8’x15’. All in all the experience was pretty neat, and I hope to go back eventually, by invitation and with a local. After we left the shop I was told that that little place where we were surrounded by the adult men of that culture, was quite possibly the most dangerous place I had ever been in in my life. Of course while there we encountered nothing but friendliness and greetings, the worst that occurred were that a few of the people didn’t greet us!  If we as white outsiders had gone there and had been impolite, or insensitive to traditions and customs, then who knows what the outcome may have been.

 

The top two are images of where I teach, and the bottom two are of Gandhi square.

 

 

Not to put anyone to fear, I have not come across anything as of yet that I would say to myself, “self, I’m not gonna go over there or eat that because it looks too dangerous”. If anything, things may look dangerous or different, but that is simply because they are different there are not too many places in the Ozarks where you can hear the call to prayer 5 times a day, or purchase a burka for that special gal in your life. Of course the people in shops are trying to make a living and as long as you are not wasting their time they are cordial towards us. Where we are all of the food is made and served in accordance to Halaal regulations, most of it is delicious even if it is served from a street vendor. There is also a massive amount of Indian food and spices around, with some of the flavors being interesting!

After we left the coffee shop and caught a cab, we went downtown to Gandhi square to prepare for the experience of taking the metro bus. The bus drivers like to hassle whites for obvious reasons, but the bus rides went fairly well, we made it across town without incident, and after nearly an hour on the bus made it to the stop where we’ll be getting off the bus when we will be taking it. We were told by our Somali teacher to never get on the cheap cabs, the minibus type that are all over Africa, he told us that there is nearly always a guy in the back and if the opportunity arises that they really profit from robbing foreigners and whites blind.  Occasionally for those unfortunate enough to struggle during the mugging they also are reputed to have no qualms in disposing of bodies as well. So to put it simply, we will only be riding on the metro bus or in personal cabs, if we cannot catch rides with people we know.

So, on Monday our supervisor went to the bus station and rode the bus with us. On Tuesday we were supposed to find our way completely alone. This did not happen completely as planned because our teacher wanted to go with us, and help to get us set up with the routes from mayfair to gahandi and then on to where we live. Of course we agreed with this because the fare for the metro is roughly $1.25 per trip and a taxi would cost $7. After waiting for close to twenty minutes for the bus our teacher (who is our age and just had a daughter born on New Year’s) called his brother to pick us up and take us to the station, he has 24 brothers and 6 sisters. The brother arrived and off we went to the bus station to get set up with the right routes and to board our bus home. The teacher and his brother were exceptionally helpful and friendly, they made sure to warn us against being downtown after dark, not only because of our whiteness – they try not to go there themselves! Everything is relatively safe during the day, but the wisest course of action is to be in a secure area after dark. Do what the locals do, if they are having a good time and smiling, do the same; if they are running in a specific direction, run faster!

We have had an influx in new male students since we have arrived, both people who are completely new to English and those who have a small vocabulary. I am teaching those students who have come from their mother countries within the last few weeks. The difficulties in teaching language to a person who has no preexisting knowledge of that language is a bit mind boggling at times. As I am sure the feeling goes both ways. I know that there are some people who think that the people that I am helping to work with are inherently violent or disrespectful towards our homeland and our beliefs, but those ideas couldn’t be farther from the truth for the average people trying to live their lives.

Questions do arise about whether or not the land of opportunity is as good as the media makes it out to be, and as people who have lived there, what our thoughts on home are. A lot of people have aspirations of eventually moving to America, and they want to know if their lives will be all the better for it, or if they will face the same persecutions there as they do here or they did at home. During these conversations I bring up the topics that there places back home that are similar to where we are now or even more questionable in some instances, like Detroit or Compton for example. Also that there are more freedoms and things are organized differently than they are here, the idea of separation of church and state is an obviously foreign concept. The states are another place where people are still people, with all the flaws and prejudices that are part of being human, they have the freedoms to choose their own religion so most choose none at all.

The main difference that I have mentioned many times is that we have the law and the government/people to uphold that law. While we may see the government and law in the states to be ineffective at times, even at its worst it is still much more structured and good for its people than other governments around the world. While we tend to complain about some minuscule aspect of the law or the personalities of our politicians, at least we have people who are put in place to protect us from our neighbors and others who want to take disrupt our lives and take away the freedoms that we have started to take for granted. One of the simple ones that I have seen here is the right to bear arms, in the Ozarks how often do you hear of carjacking’s or home invasions where the attackers were the only people who could defend themselves with a firearm? Here where it is nearly impossible to possess a firearm legally, the armed crime rate has skyrocketed due to the common people being unable to defend themselves. Another that we take for granted is our water and electricity, when we are without in the states, it is usually because of a storm or natural disaster, not because there is only one provider for the nation and they decide not to produce enough power for all.

I know that I have gone on a bit of a tirade here, but without the liberty of being able to take pictures of where I am at all the time, I feel it necessary to describe in as much detail as I can my thoughts and what I see or talk about. There is much beauty here as well as much to gain from the people and their lives. But to contrast that, home is a great place because of the work that has been done to make it a great place. We as a people have our flaws, but so does everyone else, we just need to work to be able to model the real truth with our lives and share that truth with others. We need to be able to look into the cultures of others and see the good that is present, while looking into our own home culture and cutting away the bad from our lives.

Thank you for taking time out from your busy schedules to read my disorderly thoughts! I hope to be a little more punctual with my posting and updates. As for Requests, I really don’t have any issues for myself to think about, just that the work that we are doing will be effective with all who go through the doors of the learning center, and that opportunities will arise to be able to share into the lives of people. I am pr@ying that there will be seekers who want to learn more and who have a desire to not be lost.

With many thanks,

Ethan