Sawubona friends and family, (zulu for hello)
I hope all is well at home and abroad for those you who have already taken leave of your state or the country for foreign places and experiences.
For those of you who are wondering why I might be sending a big long email to you, I am in Africa! I will be traveling through Africa over the next 12 months studying in(ter)culturation in the Catholic Church. Inculturation is in effect, the intentional Africanization of Christianity. Interculturation implies that this is not a one-way exchange, but that there is reciprocity. This is all made possible by the Watson Foundation, who awarded me this fellowship along with 50 other graduating seniors last march. I have written to you all to tell you a bit about what has been going on so far here since I arrived on August 2nd.
Well, life has been moving right along here in South Africa. I apologize for not having written sooner. I have tried to update my blog frequently (www.mikintranslation.blogspot.com) but for some reason I have found it difficult to sit down and write the emails for home. I have been living in South Africa for nearly a month now. I am mainly stationed (as I like to call it) in urban areas, so no, I haven’t seen the wildlife here. Even if I had lived in a more rural area, much of the wildlife has been placed in reservations. Of course, just because my time here hasn’t been spent in the wild, doesn’t mean that things haven’t been exciting.
My first week in South Africa was largely spent adjusting. It is so odd thinking back to those first few days. It doesn’t feel like I am in the same residence, the same city, the same Africa. That Johannesburg was unknown and foreign. Even with no language barrier, I felt like I was seeing the world through a photo book. This sounds silly, but I remember how proud I was with my first purchase at the store. I began to accumulate visas stamps and prepare my plane tickets for my countries to come.
I am currently living in a student residence called trinity house, right next to the Jesuit residence. I am here in Johannesburg largely because of a friend of mine from Berkeley, Bruce Botha SJ, who is getting ordained next month. There are students in my building of all disciplines. Richard, a first year engineer student is always a regular at the “happy hour” put on once a day by Bruce in one of the kitchens. Richard and I have taken to playing cards in that time. Another fellow named Patrick also lives on my floor. He used to be in charge of the national Catholic Tertiary students organization. He is a directing student at a local private film school. We have had our own interesting discussions concerning his views on inculturation. Tich, from Zim(babwe) is an architecture student who I have had late night discussions with concerning race issues here. At the Jesuit residence there is David, Anthony, Russell, Graham and Bruce. David is in his 70’s and is a chaplain at a local school. He is an avid sports fan and has actually explained to me how cricket actually works. Russell is a high-powered younger priest, always off to meetings always full of energy. Anthony is an academic. He is a professor of ethics and enjoys guns. He is always good for conversation and seems to be able to talk about anything, even if he may know nothing about it. Graham is the superior for the Jesuits here. He is always preceded by his spunky, but very well trained lapdog, doglet. Yvonne is the Jesuit residence cook. She is really quite an amazing woman. She can whip together a meal very quickly. She has been the cook here for some 30 yrs and runs a little soup kitchen out of the church every morning at 10. David and Vussy live behind the Jesuit residence and they do basic services around the facility here. I wander however…
I have spent 2 weeks in Jo-burg (1 at the beginning and 1 now) and 2 weeks in Cape Town. Cape town is a really gorgeous city. It is built right on the ocean with Table Mountain in its background. Our drive between Jo-burg and Cape Town was quite reminiscent of my trip with tab 4 years ago across eastern Oregon and into Nevada. The karoo is a long expanse of a harsh beauty. Scattered throughout the karoo are stone paintings left from the San tribes (also known as the people of the eland, their totem animal or pejoratively as bushmen). While in Cape town I got some excellent hiking done and had a chance to meet with Jim Cochrane, a friend of my prof Doug’s and a prof of religious studies who focuses on public health and globalization through the lens of religion. While I was in Cape Town I certainly did a great amount of touring. Bruce and I drove to cape point, which is the southern tip of Cape of Good Hope. We also hiked up Table Mountain, minor peak and lion’s head. All this is good preparation for climbing Kilimanjaro. Most of my fellowship work has been in the realm of theory since the Catholic Church here isn’t a prime example of inculturation. I have had some great discussions with Jesuits and students alike concerning this topic. While in Cape Town I was going to mass at the Student chaplaincy. As one student described to me, wherever the students planning the masses, they seem to take over and do what they want. The songs for the service were often done in 5 or 6 different languages there. South Africa does have a strong tradition however of African Indigenous or independent churches (AICs). These churches typically have no links to any of the missionary churches and are often related to our Pentecostal churches.
It has been interesting trying to adjust here. Often all of the coffee that you find here is instant. Rooibos (a red tea known for high anti-oxidant that reduce your blood pressure) is a happy addition to my daily consumption. It was cold when I got here! The season is currently winter and I was ill prepared for the snow I saw on my second day here. Few of my adjustments have had to do with food and weather though. Right within my first week here in Jo-burg I began to worry my friends. I decided one Saturday afternoon to take a walk through the surrounding neighborhoods. I am living right on the edge of the university within the business district. This business district, braamfontien, was dead, but the moment I stepped just on the other side of a busy street I found vibrant neighborhoods. Kids were playing soccer in the street. I walked on past a long string of shopping stalls next to Joubert Park. I only learned later that this area is notorious for muggings. It has been interesting getting used to the security issues here. Sadly, it is not an issue that you can just ignore and deal with should it ever happen. Crimes here often have a tendency to be violent crimes. Many of these crimes have their roots in the current state of poverty and the history of race relations here. It often makes me think of the last line of Langston Hughes poem a Dream Deferred- what happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or does it explode. I have been fortunate so far to have no problems here. It is an interesting balance. I have enough common sense to not go to those neighborhoods after I was told how dangerous they were, but there is also quite a bit of paranoia here. I think people are in particular worried for me because I am a tourist and I am white. I refuse to live by fear, but I have to balance that with at least a little sense of self-preservation.
Another related adjustment is dealing with issues of race and poverty. I am a minority here. Walking around the town I get the feeling that I am the only white guy here. That is because all the white people are in cars or in the suburbs. Although I know there already is an unequal distribution of wealth in the US, this is quite prevalent here. Thus I am both a minority in terms of my whiteness, but also in terms of the wealth that is associated with it. I also feel terribly distant from poverty’s extremes here. Cape town was a city of great beauty and great ugliness. I was living right next to the university and thus I was isolated from the situation of poverty there, but as I drove between Stellenbasch (wine valley of the western cape) and Cape Town I was struck to see kilometers of shack towns that had popped up alongside the freeway. These were not temporary dwellings either. Many of them have power running to them.
Always lurking in the background is the history of apartheid and the current devastation caused by AIDS. The impact of the AIDS situation here is widespread, but you have to dig below the surface here to come face to face with it. The government has not as of yet adequately addressed this issue and many people have lost faith in the biomedical solution.
I have another week here in South Africa. I plan on making a trip to some of the areas with historical ties to apartheid. I will make my way to Soweto where the black students first rioted in protest of being forced to learn Afrikaans. (It is interesting to note that now, by and large; Afrikaans is the language of the poor.) I also will visit the apartheid museum and Alexandria. I am trying to get a meeting in with the Bishop here as well. He helped write a recent letter from the bishops council here that does not allow priest to be Sangomas (traditional priests).
Bruce’s ordination will be on Friday the 8th. I will be filming a DVD for him of the event. On the 10th of September I will be flying out of Jo-burg on to Uganda. My new mailing address will be:
Moroto Diocesan House,
Nsambya
PO Box 7572
Kampala,
Uganda
It seems I have hit the end of my rope in writing this email. I have many more details and photos on my blog at www.mikeintranslation.blogspot.com. I hope that you all are doing well at home and abroad. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I travel up north to Uganda.
Much love,
Mike
Michael Le Chevallier
mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
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1 comment:
Hello Mike and all,
Here's some pivotal knowledge (wisdom) so you and others can stop focusing on symptoms and obfuscatory details and home in like a laser on the root causes of and solutions to humanity's seemingly never-ending struggles.
Money is the lifeblood of the powerful and the chains and key to human enslavement
There is a radical and highly effective solution to all of our economic problems that will dramatically simplify, streamline, and revitalize human civilization. It will eliminate all poverty, debt, and the vast majority of crime, material inequality, deception, and injustice. It will also eliminate the underlying causes of most conflicts, while preventing evil scoundrels and their cabals from deceiving, deluding, and bedeviling humanity, ever again. It will likewise eliminate the primary barriers to solving global warming, pollution, and the many evils that result from corporate greed and their control of natural and societal resources. That solution is to simply eliminate money from the human equation, thereby replacing the current system of greed, exploitation, and institutionalized coercion with freewill cooperation, just laws based on verifiable wisdom, and societal goals targeted at benefiting all, not just a self-chosen and abominably greedy few.
By making everything free and eliminating all of the current barriers and negatives to participating in society, all of the complexities of economics, finance, employment, job creation, and myriad other chronic difficulties will cease to exist. Once we wisely end the existence and requirement of money and decide to simply cooperate to make all things free, then and only then will there be justice for all people. When money is banished from the earth, the primary cause and incentive to harm others for profit or survival will finally cease to exist. Likewise, the exchange for freely participating will be a life where everything is free, where life is dramatically simpler and more rewarding, where crime is practically non-existant, where people don't die in droves because they are denied access to money, and where it pays untold benefits to simply be helpful and cooperative instead of selfish and competitive. In this societal model, freely sharing knowledge and wisdom will be the key to benefiting everyone and constantly improving life for all.
We can now thank millennia of political, monetary, and religious leaders for proving, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that top-down, hierarchical governance is absolute folly and foolishness. Even representative democracy, that great promise of the past, was easily and readily subverted to enslave us all, thanks to money and those that secretly control and deceptively manipulate all currencies and economies. Is there any doubt anymore that entrusting politics and money to solve humanity's problems is delusion of the highest order? Is there any doubt that permitting political and corporate leaders to control the lives of billions has resulted in great evil?
Here's a real hot potato! Eat it up, digest it, and then feed it's bones to the hungry...
Most people have no idea that the common-denominator math of all the world's currencies forms an endless loop that generates debt faster than we can ever generate the value to pay for it. This obscured and purposeful math-logic trap at the center of all banking, currencies, and economies is the root cause of poverty. Those who rule this world through fear and deception strive constantly to hide this fact, while pretending to seek solutions to poverty and human struggle. Any who would scoff at this analysis have simply failed to do the math, even though it is based on a simple common-denominator ratio.
Read more here...
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