Communal Living

Ok, so obviously I’ve learned a lot about the culture and people of SA. This month also presented many different situations in which I had to choose how to respond or act, and this process revealed to me different things about myself. Surprisingly, one of the biggest challenges I faced, and probably the one that I learned most from, was living again in community. The first 2 weeks, there was a group of 18-21 year olds that had all been there together for a month and were quite bonded. To be honest, it felt a lot like I was back in University, with dishes all over and empty boxes of cookies. Their energy, interests and discussions were very different than mine. At first I really struggled with this. We met at 7 am for breakfast and group devotions, then all piled into the Kombi’s to go to our work locations, where we were in ministry all day. At 4:30 or 5:00 it was back in the Kombi again to go home and have dinner as a group. Many nights, we had activities already arranged for us. Other nights were free, but by the time some emailing was done, we were all pretty tired. Being a fairly strong introvert in a very extroverted day, I tried to immediately be very conscientious about my time. This meant that I had to get up at 6am if I wanted an hour to myself, and also that I would have to pass on some nightly activities in order to maintain some time alone and with God. The thing I realized during that time was that it was OK for me not want to stay up until midnight with them or go shark cage diving just because they did. I definitely felt more level because of this and was really comfortable just being who I am. After about two weeks, the original group was almost completely replaced by a new one. Over those weeks though, I really grew to appreciate their uniqueness and dedication. Here was a group of people not yet 20 who were in South Africa volunteering. Their hearts and courage were awesome. Plus, there were times when living with that many people was really fun. The first week we were there, we were all going over to Mike and Pam’s (volunteer coordinators) for dinner. Two people had rented cars; one was an old blue beetle, covered with graffiti, and the other, a rusty old red car dubbed The Red Baron. The front passenger door of the Baron wouldn’t open, so you had to climb in the window or go through the drivers door. Four of us piled in back. Jeff, the driver, had only actually begun learning to drive stick two weeks before, when he first got the car. The whole drive was a scary, somewhat thrilling series of jerks to try and clear intersections before getting hit and also while trying to remember to stay on the left hand side of the road. We thought we had safely arrived at their street, when we rounded the corner and discovered their flat was at the top of a large, steep hill. We all laughed as they watched us from the top and Todd yelled out “If you can’t find ‘em, grind ‘em!” To top it off, we left Mike and Pam’s a few minutes behind the other group. As we came close to the house, our headlights caught the beetle being pushed by the others. It had conked out and had to be towed the next day!