Mamelodi Stories

While this blog has pretty much become a scrap book from the summer of 2005 - life has not stopped! Head over to our new blog, www.mamelodistories.org where we are sharing our experiences as we spend a year serving with Africa Revolution in the township of Mamelodi in South Africa.

A Final Post - For Now

Rebecca and I have been waiting for a good time to write one final post, to put the blog to rest over the winter, until next summer when no doubt more adventures will begin. Because life hasn't stopped since we've been back in the U.S. there's no real good time to do it, so this is a good as any.

Things with my Mom have somewhat stablized, as she receives chemotherapy and we all slowly adjust to the fact that this is real. It's been a rollercoaster of emotion, lack of emotion, helplessness and clinging to prayer, scripture and Grace. I talk to Mom almost every day on the phone and she always sounds upbeat, even when she's really tired or had a bad day with back pain. In my experience with chemotheraphy in high school, I learned how important a positive attitude is. I saw this same attitude in South Africa from Selina, the woman who contracted HIV from her boyfriend who cheated on her. Instead of feeling like a victim, she came to terms with the fact that this is now her life, and is moving forward to embrace the new reality in her life. I think we underestimate the power of our minds to actually bring about in our bodies a reflection of this positive outlook. I'm not saying we heal ourselves, but it almost seems like it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you act like you're going to die any minute, you'll be depressed and your body will not fight. But if you take it by the horns and say, "I'm going to live" then your body responds and fights to survive. I'm not saying we can defeat any sickness, some are too much, but it sure makes living with it so much better.

In other news, Rebecca and I have two new kittens, Pippy and Champ. I've posted a link on the side bar to their website. They stay at Rebecca's house, with an occasional visit to my house. The website from my class in Spain is also finished. There's a link to it on the sidebar as well. My story is called "Wild Horses and Celebrations." Our church, Grace Community Church, became officially organized last week, meaning Ru is our official pastor and we're no longer a church plant. It's exciting and encouraging to be part of a new church as it gets its feet planted. I'm excited to see us reaching out into the community, acting in faith like I witnessed at Vincent's church.

Finally, before I pass it to Rebecca, I am still formulating my thesis this semester through many meetings with Jim Thomas, a professor in the School of Public Health and a pastor at the Chapel Hill Bible Church. He's been extremely helpful in helping me understand the bigger picture of HIV and to dig deeper into how we can help things. If I had to title my thesis right now it'd be: "AIDS, Poverty, and Faith." I will look at what things the Christian Church is doing and not doing to help with AIDS. This thesis will be finsihed in May, so I'll probably do a posting here when its done (it'll be an interactive multimedia website). I am excited to most likely return to South Africa in January to follow up on some things and explore more, now that I have more focus.

...

It's hard to believe that this is our "unofficial" last post to Vicarious Summer. Nate and I want to thank each of you for following our adventures this summer and for keeping in touch by posting comments and shooting emails. A big thank you, too, to those of you who contributed to the "Want to help us out?" link. We have no way of knowing who you are, but thank you! Nate and I got dressed up and cashed in on the blog contributions the other night by enjoying a wonderful dinner date at the Latern in Chapel Hill.

Most of all, thanks for your encouragement and prayers that followed us this summer. We feel so blessed to be surrounded, no matter where we are in the world, by so many wonderful family members and friends.

On my end, finally (!), I've readjusted to being back. Work at NCCAI is going well and I was quickly welcomed into the fold by my colleagues. I'll have my work cut out for me this next year as there is so much communications potential for the Insitute, which is exciting.

Having Pippy and Champ around has been great fun, though it's hard to get anything done while at home! They are just too adorable, and hilarious.

We're going to miss posting to this blog, but as Nate said, we'll be back at it soon enough! Thanks again for reading!

Diagnosis

Mom came home last week, the day I left to come back to Chapel Hill. She's been at home, weathering Katrina (no damage to the house, fortunately), getting stronger and waiting for the final diagnosis. She visited the doctor today, and almost all the results of the tests they've done are in and show that she has Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the plasma which is treatable but not curable. She starts chemotherapy right away. The dosage is supposedly not enough to cause her to lose hair or get very sick, but it does last 12 months. Patients usually respond very quickly with the symptoms (severe back pain the major one) reducing very quickly. My parents are going to take it day by day. That's the only way we got through the year of chemo I did in High School. That and many prayers, so keep them coming.

As I begin a new semester, adjust to Rebecca having a job (which she starts on Tuesday!), digest everything from this summer and make sense of all that's happening with my mom, life feels a bit out of whack. I've just written and deleted many attempts to explain how I feel, but it's not coming out right so I'll just end with the last two lines of an E.E. Cummings poem:

life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis

Mom is coming home! *UPDATE

***Update
Just before being released the doctors got the result of another test that showed abnormal protein levels. So they're going to move her into a hospital room out of ICU so she can see an oncologist. This has been a rollercoaster for sure, but we're aware that she is in God's hands. Keep praying!
***

Since I arrived in Fairhope, AL on Monday, my mom has been getting better every time I see her. She's currently in ICU only because there are no beds in the main hospital. If everything continues through the night she'll be released from the hospital sometime on Thursday. None of the tests they ran showed anything abnormal, so the doctors are stumped about what could have caused her calcium to go so high and what could have brought it back down. I think it's safe to say that hundreds of people praying had something to do with it. For those of you who prayed, thank you so much! Unless there's a major change, I won't be posting anymore and you can assume she's still getting stronger. Please continue to pray for her recovery.

Top Ten Things I'll Miss When I Return Home

NOT REALLY
10. Dialup – Usually a web guy’s kryptonite, but not me. I love paying $10 and waiting an hour for photos to upload.
9. Separate Faucets – Who needs warm water? I much prefer either scalding or freezing.
8. The Looks – I’ve really gotten used to being stared at everywhere I go, and I’ll really miss the myriad kids yelling, “Shoot me!”
7. McDonald’s – somehow it took coming to the opposite end of the world to find my hidden love for the largest chain of grease peddlers on the planet. I will especially miss the pukey-burp aftertaste.
6. Mental Math – I never was good at it, but I’ve grown to love dividing by 6.5 (or multiplying by 1.4 in Spain) in my head in order to figure out I’m definitely paying more than I would back home.

REALLY
5. Community – from burying loved ones to visiting neighbors, these people know how to care for each other.
4. People who still love Americans - I’ve gotten plenty of “ohs” and “we don’t like Bush” comments everywhere else I’ve been, except South Africa. I’m actually respected here — people come up and thank me for taking pictures at their loved one’s funeral.
3. Having all day every day to shoot photos – busy but focused is how I like it. Grad school is more like busy, unfocused, tired, stressed, wish I could just find time to eat a real meal.
2. Singing all the time – I’ve been doing it since I was 2, but here I’m just another voice in the crowd. I’ve been learning some African songs, but there’s never a shortage of good old American 80’s music around here.
1. Beautiful Shining Faces.

Kruger National Park

On Friday we hopped in the donkey (the affectionate term for the rental car) and headed north for Kruger National Park, home to many wild animals including the “Big Five”. On the way we saw some beautiful sites including a natural bridge and a wonderful view of the mountains called “God’s Window.” We spent the night about 50 km from the park and got up early on Saturday to hit the park when the animals were out and about. From the car we saw some amazing animals including: lions, hippos, giraffes, zebras, buffalo (quite different looking here), monkeys, baboons, warthogs, jackals, antelope, wildebeests, and most definitely some elephants. We actually got into a high speed chase with the elephant you see above; apparently the donkey upset him and since they never forget anything, we didn’t come back that way! Vincent, his wife Gloria, and daughter Busi were packed in the car with my gear. It was quite a long day, especially with a 4-hour drive to get back to Mamelodi. But it was well worth it, to say the least. Now that I’ve gotten most of the playing out of the way, I am very anxious to get started on the remaining thesis work. In 5 days Vincent and I will photograph and interview a grandmother and the orphan children of her two deceased daughters, the gravedigger and more funerals, a woman valiantly living with AIDS, a prostitute and anything else that comes up. Like Vincent says about services at his church, “We plan, but sometimes God steps in.” I am expecting a great (and busy) week.

Capetown

On Tuesday Will and I explored Capetown with a hike up Lion’s Head, one of the smaller peaks that lines the oceanfront. We had wonderful blue sky weather with just a little chill. Even though we’re at the southernmost part of the southern hemisphere in winter, it’s not that cold. After snapping some shots of Table Mountain and the 12 apostles (sort of like Mt. Rushmore but natural) we drove south toward Cape Point along a beautiful highway that had us wedged between steep cliffs on the left and blue waters on the right. We ended up missing the entrance time to the park that leads to the Cape (5pm) and instead checked out some penguins then headed to a small town where we had a really great seafood dinner and Guinness. We got home late after a stop at another lookout to take some night shots of the city from above.

At 5:15am today we got up for our shark cage diving excursion. They picked us up at our door and drove us all the way to the small bay about 2 1/5 hours away. The fed us and then we boarded “The Baracuda” for a 20 minute ride out the Shark Alley. The minute the anchor was set down we spotted a Great White circling our boat. The captain gave us a quick briefing and we suited up to get into the cage alongside the boat. We would sit in the rather chilly water until the captain told us, “Down, Down,” and we’d take a breath and go under to view the beautiful animals going for the bait they had out in front of us. At one point I was face to face with a shark with only about 2 feet in between us. It was a great experience, and another day of beautiful weather. I did spew in the water from motion sickness but felt just fine after that. Many on the boat had to leave early, due to sickness, on a dinghy that came out to rescue them. Will and I are about to hunt down some good food and relax tonight before I head back to Mamelodi tomorrow.