Get in there!

The title is first and foremost a comment about the England rugby team facing South Africa in the final's of the world cup this Saturday. People are very, very passionate about rugby here, and being an englander at this time can be bad for your health! Still, it won't stop me bragging if we do actually win the cup (again) and set the score straight on the thrashing we endured from SA in the group stages.

I've never been into rugby much, but between everyone here being so and the fact that someone's got to stick up for old Blighty, I've decided to take to it a bit more.

The title is also a bit of a description of my weekend. Saturday I had a huge braai (BBQ) while Gary and Nicky were away and had about 20 people show up - virtually all students. It was great to properly break the ice with a number of people, and when the speakers and music finally showed up we were getting a bit of a party going. I was also taught what must be the African equivalent of 70s disco moves too, which was a good laugh!

Being students most of course didn't bring anything with them. Being Africa too it's largely expected that the host will just take care of everything anyway. I bought stuff in on the basis that even if only every other person just brings a small amount there should still be a good amount to go round. Turned out that I had to go get some more meat in the end! With my home-made selection of Sticky BBQ, Citrus Thai, Italian tomato and herb, and Cajun spice to put it all in though there was plenty of flavour to be had and it would seem many were roundly impressed at my cooking! :o)

Sunday I brought a football, as promised, to church for a game with the lads I've been getting to know at church from Cato Crest (township). We had a great game in the boiling 11am sun (by which time it was already 29C!) and it only strengthened the relationship that God seems to have opened up there. What was great was that when I dropped some of them home , following another car with the others, the lead car didn't do the usual drop off at the main road but drove right into the township. I keenly followed, eager for a taste of what it's like without wandering in as a presumptuous tourist. It was very interesting to see. Most of the suburbs of Durban are quiet by London standards with very few people about and very few cars on the roads. This was a complete turnaroud - people and cars everywhere! People seemed far less surprised to see a white man in a BMW driving up than I would have expected and on the whole it seemed like a fairly normal place. The party line in SA is if you go into a township you'll be robbed, raped, and ripped apart within 20 seconds, but this didn't seem a problem at all. Ros, the girl in the other car, caught a few dodgy glances from some guys in another car as we were leaving, and I would think someone like her a lot more vulnerable in that setting, but for me it didn't seem too risky to be there. Of course, because there's nothing there except people's houses and no through route to anywhere else, you do need to have a reason to be there, and should really have some local people you're with, but in such cases it doesn't look like there's too much to worry about.

Coming back from there I was absolutely boiling and took the opportunity to plunge myself into the swimming pool when I got home (pics of the pool to follow). Finally I could see just why it was so desirable to have a pool in places like SA. It's nothing to do with swimming at all! It's all about cooling off. There's no measure to how refreshing it is to be able to just leap into the pool all in one go and just lie there when you're just boiling. Being in the tub indoors is just not the same as being outdoors in the sun and with freedom to move about in the water. Problem with an outdoor pool is that it does collect a lot of leaves, dirt, and insects however, so I got out before long and started skimming the pool while trying to avoid burning my feet on the paving.

Another place I "got in" was the sea. For weeks I've been here and either had too much to do, rubbish weather, no car, or no idea, when it's come to going to the beach. Wednesday evening to Friday morning was our church's leadership retreat for prayer, planning, and fun, and we went to a large house near the beach at a place called Salt Rock. During our free time on Thursday we went down to the beach and I tried out the waves. Though I'm not a surfer, it's still great fun to catch a good wave and swim, letting it carry you a massive distance. These things were scary though! The waves were big and the slope of the beach was steep, so the pull back from the waves was borderline dangerous! Plus it churned up all the sand so much that it was much more like getting hit by a wall of wet sand - knocking me clean over and throwing me about a couple of times. When I did manage to time it right and get a good wave where I was sure I wouldn't be swept out to sea, it was incredible to ride the surging power of the waves here. My feet soon regretted going to the beach though. The sand at this particular beach was so harsh, with massive grains that would have been classed as pebbles if any bigger. Before long I found myself laden with camera gear at another end of the beach and very much feeling it - knowing I had to walk all the way back ever increasingly in pain. When I got back there were dozens of bits of shredded skin hanging from the soles of my feet (lovely, I know) and they hurt for a couple of days. I'm sure they'll be all the tougher for it though - something I was amazed at when I was playing football with the guys, because some of them ran on hot asphalt barefoot like it was nothing!

Still waiting for my car. The date keeps rolling because of one hiccup or another, so I'm just going to wait and see if it really is tomorrow Saabine comes home. Sigh!

We had the second in our series of preaches on the poor on Sunday, which again proved inspirational and challenging. More to come on that soon.

Sorry if I've not had much chance to respond to all the emails, texts, letters, facebook posts, etc I've got. I do read them and do try to reply, but please keep sending them as it's always nice to hear from y'all. Sitting by the pool yesterday I felt so at home here, just like I would in the UK. It felt as though I should be able to walk out of the door and drive down the road to London, but unfortunately it isn't so, so please stay in touch in those ways available.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ!


Andrew/Cook/Cookie/Durf/Druff/etc