Looking Pitiful

from Elliott
I am not sure if I do it on purpose or just a subconscious response of mine. Either way, somehow in difficult situations we often have people come to our assistance. It is usually preceded with the look you give a lost dog or someone who is clearly out of their element.

It happened again the other day. Finally after much effort and misfires we took delivery of our 'new' used car. The dealer had said that he had taken care of all the paperwork. I soon found out that he had taken care of all the paperwork he was going to take care of. I had quite a bit to do on my end. So 45 km up the coast we went to the government seat with three pages of information. I had been told that all I needed to do was take those along with my passport.

Well it wasn't quite that easy. When we got there at 8:00am there was already a line but the line consisted of people sitting on a bench. The information officer instructed me that I needed to fill out some additional forms - four to be exact! I got to work; they wanted to know VIN numbers, engine numbers (seems like people steal engines here) , etc.

I then found out that my passport was only good enough to get a "Traffic Identification Number" My head was spinning at this point when I asked the helpful agent how I would get that. She said I would need to fill out another document and attach two photos. Where would I get those? "Go to Jay" was the response. "I don't know Jay, where is he?" I said. "Down the block on the left" I am sure by this point my eyes must have crossed and she immediately took pity on me, a confused foreigner. She came from behind her glassed booth and resurfaced at the other end of the room and motioned for me to follow her to the street where she then pointed down the street.

I went down the street amidst the throngs of people in the local market. There were lots of people having Jay take there picture - Jay had a job for life! When I went back, the agent immediately called me up and completed the process. For 180 Rand (about $25) I had registered my car. That seemed like a deal until I asked but what about the plates. She said, "Oh we don't do that. You have to go to the car plate dealer."

Down the street again, he is actually a locksmith that doubles making license plates with the number that the registration agent had given me. Once I had given him the appropriate paperwork he went in the back to make the plates. I looked in the back looking for the prison inmates that I had assumed made license plates just like in my home state of Texas. Not here, this was privatization at its best! For just 200 rand (about $29) I was in and out in 15 minutes!

Back to my original thought. I seem to attract sympathy when faced with challenging processes to jump through. Maybe it is the 'deer in the headlights' look or a clueless visitor look. I don't know if I am doing it on purpose but it sure does help navigating difficult waters!

Money in a New Land

from Katherine
Each time I have been in a foreign country it has taken me a while to "figure out" the money. The same is true here. I have to stop and think about the conversion before I buy.

I was at the market this morning and I thought I had enough Rand in my wallet to buy my groceries. I pulled out my bills and said to the cashier "Oh, I don't think I have enough money with me." The lady behind me looked at the total on the cash register and handed me a 10 Rand note.

I could not believe it! As it turned out I did have enough when I counted my change but I was still blown away by her generosity!

Chicken Pox?

from Katherine

We got a call from the school nurse today. Cason’s teacher was concerned that he might have chickenpox since he had a good number of red spots on his face, arms and legs and he itched. I assured the nurse that he had a number of vaccinations including measles and chicken pox something which is not typical in Africa. He returned to the classroom and after school I took him to the medical clinic in town. Actually, it is a pharmacy with a nurse for examinations and diagnosis much like a walk in clinic at a Walgreens or a CVS.

One key difference is that there was very little wait and the pharmacist was there to collaborate and prescribe drugs. On top of that, the bill was 30 Rand or about $4.25 for the nurse or ‘Sister’ as they call it here and 19 Rand or $2.75 for the two prescriptions.

The result was a diagnosis as we expected, of a bad case of mosquito bites. We are learning to expect that in this tropical coastland after three straight days of heavy rain. We are now focused on ways of minimizing the mosquitoes in the house due to the open windows since we do not have ‘air con’ as it is called here.

Tonight we have mysterious oil warming in an electrical outlet that claims to rid the room of mosquitoes. We hope this works. Because it requires electricity we are not certain it will work all night since the power was out all afternoon. That, we understand is a common occurrence.

Time

from Elliott

Time takes on a whole new meaning when you are in a new culture. First, each culture has a unique concept of time. Western culture, especially in the US, values speed and efficiency. We are quickly learning that Africa does not place a high priority on speed or even what from my Western eyes seems to be efficiency. That may be a prejudiced view though!

Instead they place a priority on relationship even when you are at best strangers. Whereas Westerners might have a clear and stated process for accomplishing a task, it seems here that you have to ‘discover’ the process through a series of encounters, each time digging deeper to get the ‘rest of the story.’

We have found this to be true in acquiring housing and a cell phone and especially the case in the arduous task of purchasing a car. We have still not completed that task though we are close. We thought we had one car purchased until we found out that it had already been sold to two other people! We came in third place so I am not sure who won out finally….

We have been at a disadvantage not knowing the local customs. Sometimes we missed an opportunity and other times we found ourselves spinning our wheels and wasting time.

Regardless of the inefficiency there is a benefit to the relationship approach. We are finding that we are very quickly becoming a part of the culture and making many new contacts and friends. Becoming a part of their culture also enhances our sense of belonging.

Don't Wait Until You Die to Have That 'Estate Sale'

from Katherine
With all of our preparations to move in full swing, I have had so many good friends ask me how I am holding up physically but also emotionally. Elliott and I have been married for 26 years and collected lots of stuff in those years - some of it I have wondered why we have it! I also have most of my Mom's and Dad's things, most of which we have loved, but again I wonder why we still have it.

Since we are only taking six suitcases with us to South Africa, we have been in the process of going through all of our possessions and selling most of them and selecting some to store. The last few months of having Garage Sales and then an Estate Sale has been freeing for me. It is wonderful to not be so tied down with stuff. I know that is once again God's way of providing for me. I could get very sentimental and say I cannot part with this or that, but God has been helping me experience the joy of seeing others finding a 'treasure' to love in our Estate Sale.

God has given me the freedom to preserve in storage those limited number of things that are most special and be glad that others have found a new treasure that they will enjoy as much as I have for many years.

A Bit of a Detour

from Elliott
Going through China is a strange way to get to South Africa! Let me explain....

We are at language school now and while we are not learning the Xhosa language that we will use in South Africa, we are learning basics of language as well as techniques to learn any language with the use of a local coach.

We have spent days learning phonetics and the many sounds that we are not familiar with because they are not used in English. To teach us acquisition techniques we have been divided into small groups and assigned a native speaker representing many different countries. Mine is Mandarin Chinese and Katherine's is German.

The coaches guide us through a variety of drills, projects and role playing. Today, I learned hospitality conversation as if visiting a friend in China. We have also played games using drawings of places, forms of transportation and various pronouns and adjectives.

Seems strange to be learning Chinese but because I will never use it again, it allows me to focus on the methods that I will replicate once in South Africa. I think if my coach spoke Xhosa I would end up focusing on the language and not the methods.

I am fascinated to see how God will use what we have learned during this time once we get to South Africa!

You Can't Speak Xhosa Correctly With an "English Mouth"

from Elliott

We are at Language Acquisition School focusing on the tools to learn the Xhosa language once we arrive in South Africa in January. We are not learning the language itself but how language is formed and what techniques we can use with a native Xhosa speaker to acquire the language and build relationships at the same time.

The overall concept of the initial training is to 1.) improve our ability to hear other sounds and tones and 2.) gain control of our speech mechanism.

We have listened to all kinds of sounds, many of which are not used at all in English. Listened and repeated, listen and repeated, listen and repeated.

We have learned about the physiology of speech. Much of this is news to us! From the throat to the nasal passages, we are studying what parts are involved in producing the various consonant and vowels sounds using English and its 44 sounds as an example. Supposedly, we all have the physical ability to make any of the sounds in any of the languages in the world. I wonder, is there a sermon in that?

In order to make this real to us we were issued a mirror. OK, what for? You guessed it, we have spent the day making all possible sounds and examining in the mirror how we are doing it – lips, teeth, tongue, etc. It certainly felt a bit strange if not awkward!

I am learning that the key is humility and sense of humor. I just have to remind myself – my new friends in South Africa will be laughing with me as long as I am willing to laugh too!