As I mentioned at the end of last week's post, a bunch of people had arrived. Well, the lot of us (Kellens, Steve D., Therese, myself) joined up with Sarah Jackson (one of the missionaries) and Matt (another missionary) and we all went to the 9:30 service Sunday morning. It was a fine service and after church and lunch, I spent much of the afternoon with a terrible headache. Don't worry though, Therese and I went with Steve D. and Steve Kellen to choral evensong. It was very beautiful. It takes place up front in the chancel so we all got to sit in those very pretty but dreadfully uncomfortable choir stalls. The service was out of the 1954 South African Prayer Book so we got to refer to the Holy GHOST and pray the Psalms a la Coverdale. My complaint about choral evensong is that the congregation is passive for about 95% of the service which was frustrating because I knew a few of the chant tones and would have liked to sing along. When we returned to the sub-deanery, the Kellens, Sarah, Therese and I had an interesting chat about the Bible focused on the question of "can one preach Christ from the Old Testament." I think you know where I stood on that one 
Monday (day off) was very chaotic for just about every person in the house but me. Therese needed some materials for her ESL class at the Raphael Centre so we went to the University Book Store. We happened to hit the jackpot because they had piles and piles of books for children learning to read at various levels and they were all free. They were technically "samples" for teachers, but had so many they were more than glad to let Therese have her pick from the lot. Sometime mid-morning, a parishioner came by while everyone was gone so I ended up sitting with her for a while - Therese was with us too much of the time. Anyway, her name is Peggy and she is 87 (I would have guess 70 from our time together). She has a son who is an Anglican priest in Cape Town and a son-in-law who is a priest in the Church of England. We talked a bit about the similarities and differences of "the process" in the Episcopal Church verses these other two provinces of the Communion. She was also an activist against the Apartheid regime and a member of the Black Sash (a women's activist group). That afternoon Therese and I went to watch one of the final marimba practices before the performance for the festival.
Tuesday morning was staff meeting without the Dean who was on diocesan business in Queenstown. I led Morning Prayer and breakfast was at the sub-deanery. Zelia, one of the office staff, is on holiday so it was just Suzanne, myself, and Barbara, the Music Director. With the dean gone, the meeting was much shorter and less formal. That afternoon I spent some time with Steve D. talking about the Contextual Theology Programme and about our being American seminarians in South Africa. That night was a "bring and share" (potluck) farewell dinner for Sarah Jackson who will be going to Mthatha in July. It was a nice gathering of people from the cathedral and elsewhere from around Grahamstown. I had an interesting conversation with someone about a part of the impact HIV/AIDS was having that I had never realized. First, he told me that in just about any random gathering of South Africans (of any race) over the age of about 50, just about every person there has probably lost at least one younger adult relative to AIDS. The next thing we talked about was that since so many younger adults were dying, many families feel like they need to give a lavish send off by having fancy funerals. Of course, most South Africans can not afford horse-drawn hearses or fancy halls. That's when cash advance quick loan places come in. Yes, they are much like the US equivalent except here they market to people who need money to pay for funerals. They then bury the mourning family in 25% interest rates for years and years. One of the things the Church (Anglican and other denoms) has done is to very strongly encourage people to use parish halls and to make sure people are properly celebrating the life of their family members lost to AIDS and not being victimized by these creditors.
I spent Wednesday morning reading Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" because several of the people in the student group are reading it. It was interesting. The post-modern evanglical thing isn't my scene, but it was good reading. I spent a lot of the afternoon catching up on emails since the internet has been so shaky here. At 5:30 was the Parish Council meeting. I was the clerk. It was about as exciting as any vestry meeting at any parish in the US. Afterward, Dean Andrew asked me if I could help him with some office work the next day.
Thursday marked the opening of the National Arts Festival as well as Spiritfest, a "festival within the festival" sponsored by the cathedral and some ecumenical partners. At 10:30 we went to the Spiritfest kick off at the parish hall. After that I typed up the Minutes from the previous evening's meeting and Steve and I went to meet with the dean to help him with some work. I did take an hour off so Therese and I could walk around and look at all the street vendors that had showed up. After an afternoon full of drafting letters for the dean, Steve, Therese and I went to the Longtable restaurant and pub for dinner. I had Brazilian beef, it was very good, though not as spicy as I would have liked. Oh, this was the day someone tried to pick my pocket. I happened to have put my hand back just as theirs was reaching so they didn't get anything, but they disappeared into the crowd before I could see who it was.
Friday morning Suzanne, Sr. Dorianne, and I went to Brookshaw Home for our weekly Eucharistic visits. Nothing of note really happened, but I did get to witness an interesting conversation between Sr. Dorianne and one of the women who lives there. They talked about how sad it was that there was so much crime and how neither one of them feels safe outside on the sidewalk by themselves (the convent was broken into earlier this year - the gate was broken down by a car driven right into it) and I was told to make sure to keep an eye on Therese during the festival because "there are rogues about." After we got back, Therese and I went to the Village Green, a large market square, to look at all the shops and see the street performers. It was interesting seeing all the different kinds of people. People were speaking in English, Afrikaans, Spanish (we met a jeweler from Argentina), isiXhosa, and other languages I can't distinguish. There were all the kinds of people you would expect at a giant outdoor market: hippies, tarot readers, Hare Krishna, Rastafarians, Christian jewelers, Muslim women covered head to toe, trendy artists, and Africans in the traditional wear of their tribe. We got to see dancing, singing, and we heard a great steel drum band too. That afternoon was our first shift at the cathedral as greeters during the festival. Not much too it, just say hi and point people to the information they want in the language of their choice (Dutch, German, Afrikaans, English, French, Xhosa). That night Therese and I ate dinner with the Hunters at the deanery. Dean Andrew and his wife, Claire, were ushers at a show so Therese and I watched their girls, Rachel and Nicola. We watched 7 de laan and Friends (which is popular here), played cards, and ended the evening with the Vicar of Dibley.
Today was Therese and my first show of the Festival. We went up to Settler's Monument where a lot of the shows are to watch AbaThembu dance and music. It was a portrayal of Imini yoMdudo (a day of celebration) done by the AbaThembu clan. It featured dancers of all ages, stick fighting games, and girls imitating animals. It was incredible. The performance was about an hour of nonstop singing and vigorous dancing. The Monument is also where I saw a policeman standing vigil with a machine gun by the front door. I understand that they are trying extra hard to maintain safety, but it was still a bit intimidating. After the show, Therese and I took pictures of Grahamstown from up at the top of the hill and pictures of the original fort the English settlers used. We went back to the Village Green after lunch and looked around some more and tonight Therese and I are going to a comedy, South Africa Vs Australia. It is supposed to be funny, but I don't really know much about it....yet.
Monday (day off) was very chaotic for just about every person in the house but me. Therese needed some materials for her ESL class at the Raphael Centre so we went to the University Book Store. We happened to hit the jackpot because they had piles and piles of books for children learning to read at various levels and they were all free. They were technically "samples" for teachers, but had so many they were more than glad to let Therese have her pick from the lot. Sometime mid-morning, a parishioner came by while everyone was gone so I ended up sitting with her for a while - Therese was with us too much of the time. Anyway, her name is Peggy and she is 87 (I would have guess 70 from our time together). She has a son who is an Anglican priest in Cape Town and a son-in-law who is a priest in the Church of England. We talked a bit about the similarities and differences of "the process" in the Episcopal Church verses these other two provinces of the Communion. She was also an activist against the Apartheid regime and a member of the Black Sash (a women's activist group). That afternoon Therese and I went to watch one of the final marimba practices before the performance for the festival.
Tuesday morning was staff meeting without the Dean who was on diocesan business in Queenstown. I led Morning Prayer and breakfast was at the sub-deanery. Zelia, one of the office staff, is on holiday so it was just Suzanne, myself, and Barbara, the Music Director. With the dean gone, the meeting was much shorter and less formal. That afternoon I spent some time with Steve D. talking about the Contextual Theology Programme and about our being American seminarians in South Africa. That night was a "bring and share" (potluck) farewell dinner for Sarah Jackson who will be going to Mthatha in July. It was a nice gathering of people from the cathedral and elsewhere from around Grahamstown. I had an interesting conversation with someone about a part of the impact HIV/AIDS was having that I had never realized. First, he told me that in just about any random gathering of South Africans (of any race) over the age of about 50, just about every person there has probably lost at least one younger adult relative to AIDS. The next thing we talked about was that since so many younger adults were dying, many families feel like they need to give a lavish send off by having fancy funerals. Of course, most South Africans can not afford horse-drawn hearses or fancy halls. That's when cash advance quick loan places come in. Yes, they are much like the US equivalent except here they market to people who need money to pay for funerals. They then bury the mourning family in 25% interest rates for years and years. One of the things the Church (Anglican and other denoms) has done is to very strongly encourage people to use parish halls and to make sure people are properly celebrating the life of their family members lost to AIDS and not being victimized by these creditors.
I spent Wednesday morning reading Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" because several of the people in the student group are reading it. It was interesting. The post-modern evanglical thing isn't my scene, but it was good reading. I spent a lot of the afternoon catching up on emails since the internet has been so shaky here. At 5:30 was the Parish Council meeting. I was the clerk. It was about as exciting as any vestry meeting at any parish in the US. Afterward, Dean Andrew asked me if I could help him with some office work the next day.
Thursday marked the opening of the National Arts Festival as well as Spiritfest, a "festival within the festival" sponsored by the cathedral and some ecumenical partners. At 10:30 we went to the Spiritfest kick off at the parish hall. After that I typed up the Minutes from the previous evening's meeting and Steve and I went to meet with the dean to help him with some work. I did take an hour off so Therese and I could walk around and look at all the street vendors that had showed up. After an afternoon full of drafting letters for the dean, Steve, Therese and I went to the Longtable restaurant and pub for dinner. I had Brazilian beef, it was very good, though not as spicy as I would have liked. Oh, this was the day someone tried to pick my pocket. I happened to have put my hand back just as theirs was reaching so they didn't get anything, but they disappeared into the crowd before I could see who it was.
Friday morning Suzanne, Sr. Dorianne, and I went to Brookshaw Home for our weekly Eucharistic visits. Nothing of note really happened, but I did get to witness an interesting conversation between Sr. Dorianne and one of the women who lives there. They talked about how sad it was that there was so much crime and how neither one of them feels safe outside on the sidewalk by themselves (the convent was broken into earlier this year - the gate was broken down by a car driven right into it) and I was told to make sure to keep an eye on Therese during the festival because "there are rogues about." After we got back, Therese and I went to the Village Green, a large market square, to look at all the shops and see the street performers. It was interesting seeing all the different kinds of people. People were speaking in English, Afrikaans, Spanish (we met a jeweler from Argentina), isiXhosa, and other languages I can't distinguish. There were all the kinds of people you would expect at a giant outdoor market: hippies, tarot readers, Hare Krishna, Rastafarians, Christian jewelers, Muslim women covered head to toe, trendy artists, and Africans in the traditional wear of their tribe. We got to see dancing, singing, and we heard a great steel drum band too. That afternoon was our first shift at the cathedral as greeters during the festival. Not much too it, just say hi and point people to the information they want in the language of their choice (Dutch, German, Afrikaans, English, French, Xhosa). That night Therese and I ate dinner with the Hunters at the deanery. Dean Andrew and his wife, Claire, were ushers at a show so Therese and I watched their girls, Rachel and Nicola. We watched 7 de laan and Friends (which is popular here), played cards, and ended the evening with the Vicar of Dibley.
Today was Therese and my first show of the Festival. We went up to Settler's Monument where a lot of the shows are to watch AbaThembu dance and music. It was a portrayal of Imini yoMdudo (a day of celebration) done by the AbaThembu clan. It featured dancers of all ages, stick fighting games, and girls imitating animals. It was incredible. The performance was about an hour of nonstop singing and vigorous dancing. The Monument is also where I saw a policeman standing vigil with a machine gun by the front door. I understand that they are trying extra hard to maintain safety, but it was still a bit intimidating. After the show, Therese and I took pictures of Grahamstown from up at the top of the hill and pictures of the original fort the English settlers used. We went back to the Village Green after lunch and looked around some more and tonight Therese and I are going to a comedy, South Africa Vs Australia. It is supposed to be funny, but I don't really know much about it....yet.
