Picture Blog!

This weekend, i stayed with some of my friends in a squatter camp on the edge of Mamelodi. This informal settlement started when thousands of people who are unemployed and illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe persisted in building tin houses at the foot of the mountain, just over the creek outside of Mamelodi.

This may sound like an unsafe place–and true the Police don’t even respond to emergency calls from that region–but it is in fact quite the opposite. “This is the safest village in the world…because we have these!” My friend Victor proudly held up a plastic whistle. “At any time of day or night, if you have any kind of problem, you blow on this, and immediately all the neighbors surround the area. We have had zero problems since October.” Yes, they have taken law into their own hands.

I have lots and lots to tell about this weekend, but i think i’ll mostly tell my journal about it, and i’ll assume that you’d rather see some of the pictures. This is my friend Paul, and his wife Lacretia and their two-year-old son, Grace. They had said i could sleep on the floor of their kitchen. However, when i got there, they were surprised that i actually came. Why would an American go to the squatter camp?

So, i ended up staying at Paul’s friend’s sister’s fiancee’s house. They woke him up at midnight and said, “This is Shane. He will sleep here with you tonight.” He had fallen asleep while studying. His oil lamp was still burning by the bed. As it turns out, he is studying electrical engineering. How ironic to study such a subject by the light of an oil lamp! we laughed about this, and stayed up most of the night talking in that tiny house that is just big enough to fit a bed and a chair.

On sunday, after waking up at seven and attending a super-lively church service and getting invited to join the worship team and hired to teach some guitar lessons, it was time for an adventure. Malee (nephue of Paul: on left) Rashee (how the flip do i spell that?: center) and i (right) climbed a mountain. You see, these boys have lived in the shadow of the mountain their while lives and always dreamed of climbing it. They were too scared. i told them i climb mountains all the time and will protect them, and up we went!

Here we are cresting the first ridge; down there is home.

We did some rock balancing on the windy flat-topped hills. We also did lots of rock throwing.

We found these bug eggs on a stick, and were unable to identify them. i am hoping that some bug-extraordinaire will be able to help me identify them…please?

We used the timer on the camera to do some jumping pictures. This is as close as we all got to all being in the air at one time for a photo…

A few hours later, after hiking down, we did some jamming.

Maduku, the girl on the left, came over and threw around a ball (well, actually, an avocado seed) with us for a while.

And Malee thoroughly enjoyed carrying around my guitar. He wants to be Johnny Cash when he grows up.

There was much, much more to this weekend, but there is not much more internet here… 4 minutes of net time left–i have to post this business now. i hope you enjoy this; it’s just a little glimpse into my life here on a typical Thursday-Sunday time-span…