SA... so full of surprises.

my south african experience gets more interesting every.single.day.

lets start with the toilet. so, the non-communal-habit-friendly housemate has always been using the toilet near my end of the house. there's another one thats in the middle and very much nearer to her room, but for some reason, she prefers the one that 3 of us already share. maybe it smells nicer? heh. anyway, so i get home from Botswana on wednesday afternoon, and i am greeted with a sign on the toilet door, requesting a common courtesy - flush the toilet after use!! (i'll post a photo soon)... seriously.. just gotta love the ingenuity of my housemates sometimes. its so, in. your. face. but, its apparently not enough because, as i commended  the note's author, she told me to hold it because, it has not worked.
i always thought it was a china-thing(no offense, just that the china toilets left quite an impression). but looks like it extends beyond culture. and its getting on my nerrrrrvesss. and yes, food is still going faster than i eat them. just a few more weeks.

interesting development #2. zambia&malawi plans are out of the window for good. and whole new plan is in place. point to note is that it happened in a verry short window of time. more specifically, during a family conference call with 4 people in 3 countries on 2 continents and 1+ hour. so...  results = i get to stay another 8 dayz in this awesome country... side effect, but then.. i guess, God is still in control no matter what comes up. sighz. enter in the eternal and well, whats for sure is that its going to be an awesome month. (after these darned exams are done with!)

oh, and #3, i got a freaking 94% for a test that i barely studied for. HAHAHA. joke of the semester seriously. semester mark of 80%. yay. (: lesser stress for one more subject i guess!

HOORAY FOR SPRING!

today was quite an awesome day. cant remember all of it now, but it was great! and tomorrow is spring day! (a majorrr university holiday here to celebrate spring) i will elaborate tomorrow, its quite a huge celebration here.i've got a really nice to-do list that i'm really looking forward to.

Things to do tomorrow:
1. internet cafe - get ladder :D (will update more on what i used it for IF IT HAPPENS!)
2. cycle to sunnyside - get cheap groceries
3. run at univ. lake
4. chill next to lake: reading & QT
5. church/worship service - i havent decided mid-week church or huge worship event (for christians who dont party & drink on Spring day)
6. watch beer pong - there's a 'team' competing & its going to be fun!
7. hatfield square - (will update more as well)

ahhhh. ok. highlights today:
- self-declared break after working so "hard" over the weekend for that international economics test (which i still messed up & will probably fail but, nevermind, i will just study harder for the other test)
- nice day of classes for socialwork and i got full marks for the class test (yay!)
- arranged with mary-lou to go to the apartheid museum in joburg this saturday (and then to her dad's restaurant again! its got awesome food, plus its free for us!)
- attended a chillaxed reception at the university's oldest building (>150yrs old!),
Also, i was told by Ms Moloi (one of the heads at the Int'l Stdts Division who's super pro-Singapore) that the Singapore High Commissioner was talking to her recently, and it turns out that his kids (around my age) are coming soon and he thinks it would be great if i could meet up with them (?? ok i really dont know what to think of this, but it would be cool maybe!) haha. so i have to call the embassy sometime soon or something. i have no idea how/what/where etc. (that was an interesting chat)
- packed my room!!! (IT IS NICE AND NEAT AND CLEAN NOW!)
- caught a movie with some others
- chilled in our tiny kitchen with the housemates for >2 hours just talking (: loved it!
- ANDANDAND!!! SPRING BREAK PLANS WERE SETTLED IN LESS THAN FIVE MINTUES! THANK YOU GOD! :D
 ok this one needs details. hehe. so xinyu and i go to the guys house after the movie & we ask shane & thomas if they've made any plans for spring break. as it turns out, no they have not. i ask if they'd like to join us to slowly make our way up along the eastern coast, with no solid plans or anything. thomas says, ok! sounds interesting, do we drive? i nod, and he thinks a bit more & then he says what about doing that in zimbabwe? *BRIGHT LIGHT GOES OFF IN MY HEAD & BELLS START RINGING* YES!!!!!! haha. shane & leon suddenly get excited too, and xinyu nods really fast, BINGO! WE HAVE A PLAN! :D the cancelled Zimbabwe-Botswana weekend getaway just got extended to a 12-day Zimbabwe, Botswana & Zambia tour! 
AWESOME OR AWESOME!? 

we dont even take much time to decide car or bus because, as it turns out, thomas has an idea in mind of trying to buy a TRUCK (!!) that was advertised in a parking lot in hatfield! i will find out about that tomorrow because they will call & find out. but either way, THIS. IS. SO. SO. GREAT.  Victoria falls, Kalahari desert, Okavango delta (only inland delta in the world) and etc.. ! for 12 days!

my goodness. i'm quite amazed at God's hand in this. the Zimb-Botsw 5-day trip got cancelled due to really weird reasons like someone's cash not being disbursed in time & another person's test being rescheduled, just too much of a coincidence!and i was feeling quite bummed about it even though it helped to know that God had a better plan somewhere.... i didnt know what, and i CERTAINLY DID NOT EXPECT THIS!! SERIOUSLY. the Zimbabwe weekend (ok, 5days) plan was a concession on my part because i wanted to take my time & not rush through the countries,  now IT REALLY IS GOING TO BE OWN-TIME-OWN-TARGET travel! and i really wanted to do this over spring break, but settled for southafrica's coastal travel cuz no one seemed that interested in going far away,
and AND NOW IT IS ALL HAPPENING!! its just AMAZINGGGGG. :D hehe. i'm excited. plus, the company's gonna be fun too! & no tiptoeing around touchy egos that some of the girls here have.
ahhhhh. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH LORD!!! haha. when God blesses, wow, he really doesnt hold back.. i dont know how the trip will actually turn out & what will happen, because today was just talking, but today is enough of a reminder to me that God DOES have EVERYTHING planned. i'm excited to see what it is. and for some reason, this excitement isnt limited to my africa travels, but i feel really expectantly of what God will do at home, when i get home.
hahah, its so weird that i'm thinking about this, but i'm so excited about spring break! :D

but first, tomorrow.
and then saturday.

the kofiehuis (:

just realised i havent blogged ANYTHING about the most amazing 5 weeks of my life(as of now). from now on, whenever i have some assignment to procrastinate over, or a part of life now that reminds me of the 5wks, i’ll post an nice story of my encounters in Ga-Rangkuwa & KwamHlanga & Capetown (: i think it beats everything i’ve done/experienced here. & in time to come, i think this will be the highlight of SA for me. I kind of hope not, but i think it just might. =\

i haven’t really gotten round to writing my update of Capetown although i’m glad i finished it for the rural outreach, but i will soon! (: & thank you everyone for your prayer support back home!!

So i spent the day at kofiehuis again, and the one special conversation that i had today made the entire day of slacking around very worth it. But before that, i should probably introduce the coffeehouse first.

its a small little derelict building that sits on the corner of 3 very busy streets and its engaged in street ministry. They have programs for streetkids, occasionally the adults and they have a weekly Friday dinner. it’s a huge dinner where volunteers come and the people get a full hot meal and some decent respect. The streetkids come from places like Zimbabwe and what the KH(kofiehuis) does is that, everyday, they pick up these kids, bring them to the shelter for a meal, a bath and then a program which is either aimed at equipping them with skills or teaching the Word of God. So there’s a fixed group of about 30 kids that they’ve been doing stuff with for the past 2 months. Normally, the KH is shorthanded, but just 2 days before i first dropped in, the entire lot of kids decided to move to some faraway place for greener pastures, now the KH doesn’t have any kids to do programs with! (tough ministry eh..but hence for the days i’ve been there, there was a lot of free time, like today.)

Back to the Friday dinners, last Friday, i was just going round looking at everything that was going on and helping where i could, (parenthesis: it is seriously AMAZING to see >100 street people sitting in church, some praising, some watching, and then being SERVED a hot meal as if they were in a restaurant. also seeing how the many Christian volunteers just serve these people with such love is just, woah! personally, i think if they were asked to wash their feet, i don’t know who wouldn’t!)

but i digress, after dinner, i was chatting to this guy who slept on the porch of the KH every night with a few other homeless guys. And we went from talking about China (obviously, because i am Chinese and no one knows that Singapore even exists......) to his life; in short, he was angry with God and for everything that happened to him. his disappointment and hurt were just so clear in his eyes, and he kept asking me, if God can do signs, wonders and miracles, then why doesn’t He do them. (and yes, long debate possible here, but lets avoid that for now) he demanded to know why God could but didn’t and he said he would never go back to God unless He did something. Well, i tried to explain to him about how God uses people to bless others (w.r.t the meal he just had), and also about how God, being God, doesn’t do what a man wants him to do and etc. But nothing that i said got through, and i was clearly getting him more worked up (which is something that i learnt to avoid in Capetown). Obert (the 14yrold formerstreetkid who lives at the KH) came to my rescue and told me i was needed inside.

Until now, i’m not sure if he knew, because these kids are smart in this way, or if he just came because he came. But i left the conversation feeling quite troubled and sad, because, although what this man went through was nothing like Job, it was more than enough. I’ve been praying for him a lot over this week, because i just felt i had to, and i couldn’t really do anything else. But today!!! Today was really cool (: just as i was waiting for France outside the KH, this guy came up to me and told me he got a job today! He was really happy!! It was supposed to be a one day job, but the boss found him to be a hardworking guy and gave him a permanent one! He was so full of hope for the future and kept making plans to rent a flat, get off the streets, and watch movies etc.. eventually, the conversation kind of came back to where we left off last Friday, and he said, Ying, God gave me a miracle today! He gave me this job!....and that TOTALLY made my day because God is awesome. and i don’t know what happened over this week that was different from his last 2 years in SA, but i know that God’s pursuing this man’s heart and He did something special in this guy’s life today. the guy’s an alcoholic, and he drinks “to forget the hurt”, but we talked about that today as well, and he said he wants to stay sober and keep this job for real. And, well, we will see about that, but i’m amazed really. (:

So i’m seeing him tomorrow just before the dinner, with a big bottle of coke to celebrate his job & the start of his journey back to God. I’m excited to see what God has in store for him. but also, because i’m going to conduct a few photography sessions for the youth at the shelter (its another amazing place that’s closely linked to the KH), and i’ll do this while we gather more kids for programs at the KH. egggciting!

& that is the Kofiehuis for you. (: the OM training team spent 2 weeks on outreach at this place and they even slept on the street corner for a few nights just to start to understand what it feels like. now i’m starting to understand what made this outreach so unforgettable for my leaders.

PEEKTURES:

that's obert, the 14yrold teenager who looks like a little kid, and has the nicest smile EVER.

and thats me cooking pap, in a pot which is more than an arm's length in diameter and depth. (trust me, its HUGE) and that wooden stick i'm using, looks like an oar that could row a boat..

and old post #3, DONE! (:

August 17th, 2010

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01:13 am - of tests and everything else. its horrible how i alwaaaaays blog when i have something else more important to do. like my paper on cohabitation for example. i forgot all about the deadline until friday night when i got home from coffeehouse and looked at my plans for the weekend. and, OH WOW! I HAVE A 7 PAGE PAPER DUE IN 4 DAYS! (plus an exam which i knew about, but didnt bother studying for) because, well, i'm in AH-FREEE!-ca.... so the paper isnt all that hard, the topic has been set, the outline has been given, the segments of the essay have even been weighted, and the readings have half the info i need...... (quite amazing!! half my work is done for me!) BUT... butbutbut. me, being me. i havent done the other half, which is getting content and writing it. now, i've got my basic content outline & the sources and i'm procrastinating the writing bit. this slackness is going to kill me upside down next semester... oh, and i sat for my first exam here in SA. it was a JOKE i tell you. felt like not even JC level questions. "define active listening", "discuss the components of empathy",.... oh! and the best question, " LIST down the FOUR factors of .." MY GOODNESS. its a university course for goodness sake.... i read the questions in disbelief and for a moment, i just thought, crap why did i study so much stuff in-depth! if i had just memorised all the definitions, i would ace this test.. but seeing as which i didnt bother AT ALL with definitions...... HAHAHA. the results will tell if i've been studying effectively. and have i mentioned, communal living is so much fun (: on sunday, everyone was home. and we spent sooo much time in the kitchen.. its amusing that we were all just procrastinating so much! HAHA. at one point in the day, all 5 of us were standing in the kitchen, complaining and eating or staring at people eating.. its 12:57am now, and i think i just heard some activity in the kitchen.. point proven. time flies in afrika, in exactly 4 months and 1 day, its hello singapore again. i want to stay here! its not stressful! and i love speeding around everywhere on my bike. the risk factor adds to the edge, especially when i cycle home from church at night. and i really like church here. its so warm & welcoming & sincere & just so... nice. something interesting, the church is full of architects.. architects and architecture students. they go "wow, economics!", i go "wow, architecture!" (influenced by kevinong obviously) hahah. and i just realised i've typed A.LOT. i should have been typing words about cohabitation, but this is relaxing. and unlike home where everything becomes really quiet only at 3am, i get the same effect here at 1am. (: when the weather warms up, i'm going to take walks in the tuksdorp compound. AND I NEED PLANS FOR THE SEPTEMBER BREAK!! i have 11days to travel! and maybe make plans for a weekend trip next week. the only thing that is lacking now are nice travel buddies. but that, i will have to trust God that i make travel plans with the right people. so, my essay is due in 16 hours. and i have class in 8 hours. yay me. (: time to start work again.

August 16th, 2010

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12:08 am another week has ended. crazy how time flies. last weekend was quite awesome. (: met malems at sunnypark (its about 15min by minitaxi) was only a littleee bit unnerving when i got off the taxi to find myself on a street full of vendors and random people milling around and being the only non-black in the area. plus, i had my camera in my bag, so i walked reaally fast in the direction of the mall and stepped into a place of safety (in my humble opinion) very hurriedly. amusing, now that i think of it, but not so at that point of time. coffee and a good chat later made me realise just how much God was working in our team on the capetown outreach. (which reminds me, i have yet to finish typing that last update about capetown). malems' perspective and experience of our team also brought me new insight, and the team dynamics were really very interesting! after that we dropped into the coffeehouse across the road and that was where my kofiehaus adventure began. but anyway, joburg over the next 2 days and pilanesberg on sunday! pilanesberg national park was amaaazing!! we set off at 4am and reached at exactly 6.30am when the park gates opened. so i got to see a real african sunrise! haha. well, every sunrise is real, but this one, i saw inside a nature reserve, surrounded by bush. but the most awesome thing, the radio station which was blasting out party-type of music for the entire journey there, started to play a christian program with worship songs!! see, no one else in the car was a christian, and just to have a song of worship playing in the background while i'm in Africa, living a dream, holding my camera and watching a sun looks like a huge red ball rise in the distance.... no words can describe that feeling man. seriously. and of all things, the song that was being played was "this is the air I breathe". God really knows how to take care of people. best. host. ever. haha. i was really so blessed by that 20minutes or so. the rest of the day was spent going "ELEPHANT!" "ZEBRA!" "GIRAFFE!" etc... and the picnic, my gosh, i have NEVER heard such silence!!! it was sooo peaceful! even with so many other people having huge braai feasts.... awesomeness. it would have been even more cool to have people from home to share it with, but i loved it nonetheless. ach, so much to update. the week was eventful as well, especially wednesday when i went to soccercity to watch bafana play ghana. cool experience, but after that the real 'adventure' started. this was an adventure with people (really). oh and of course, like everything that has happened here so far, i'm safe where i should be. thursday and friday i went to the coffeehouse, which was just so cool. fastforward this weekend. and i miss the girls a wholeeeee lot. ): but i wonder what response i will get if i call home and ask my parents if they'll support me to put my studies on hold for 6months and go for OM's MDT that starts in Feb.... my thoughts are running wild. ohhh welll.. i conclude, its not going to happen. but i wish. (: its ironic and very possible actually.. i'm living a dream here in SA and i'm dreaming of more dreams in SA. but a girl can dream, cant she? :D

August 7th, 2010

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03:32 pm - of j's. jehovah witnesses in joburg. so, of all things, the friend of liu (an exchange student) turned out to be a jehovah's witness AND he brought us to hang out with more jw "brothers & sisters". it was fun even though it was a teeny bit disconcerting at the start, but they were nice people and we had a lot of fun talking and iceskating. side note: the day i decide to be game and try a bum-slide (i.e. move really fast on skates and cover the rest of the distance on your ass), i fall and hit my head so hard that now i have a huge bump. no brain damage done though. heh. back to the topic of the jw-weekend. at night i went to google jw on my phone (internet on my phone is so useful!) and i started to understand a little bit more about them. today was just weird. because, they brought us to 2 chinese shopping areas, one aptly named China Mall, and after breakfast, they left us to roam around while they went to "evangelise". & apparently, its a weekly activity they do regularly. after that, when paul (the chinese guy's friend) gave us a lift back to pretoria, God answered my prayer last night for opportunities to talk about their beliefs. he started by asking me about freedom of religion in singapore & when i asked him in return, he started talking about how the jws were persecuted in SA for refusing army conscription. and the conversation that ensued......well..lets just say that i asked all the questions in that conversation & the awareness of my ignorance of the bible has been amplified. hah. but this is what i get when i ask God to use this SA experience to grow me. because i am learning SO MUCH. Lord, some of Your wisdom now would really help. thank You.

August 6th, 2010

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12:33 am - yay weekend! its the long weekend, and i dont have anything thats like, "omg!SOEXCITING!" planned... but i think its going to be quite nice! going to joburg over friday & saturday for ice-skating (???) and stuff like chinatown (another ????...i didnt come all the way to AFRICA to go to CHINATOWN!)... but since liu (one of the chinese girls here) asked me to accompany her, so.. i think it'll be fun in terms of a chill sightseeing experience. but! sunday will be awesome because we'll be going on a day excursion to pilanesberg game reserve! photo-galore!! (i hope. because that 70-300mm lens may just utterly disappoint) so, i'm not exactly expecting national geographic quality kind of pictures, but hopefully i get some nice ones with my boyfriend & his awesome wideangle...and monday, mountainbiking somewhere!! one thing of concern to me, i'm being lulled into a false sense of security here i think. i just bought my bike yesterday and i'm so excited about being able to ride around like to church and go on cycling trips and everything!! butbutbut.. going to the singapore embassy today really introduced some doubts because of the way the guy reacted to the news that i used a bike... i know i'm not going to do stupid things like cycle into the city by myself or really stupid stuff like cycling out at 12mn, but now, i'm wondering... FINALLY watched inception last night! (about 1year later than the rest of the continents, but at least its here!) and it was sooo good. something random: i was thinking what my life in limbo would be like. would be interesting to dream it! dreams. its such a big word. (: AND NO WAY I AM GOING TO BE A BRIDESMAID. OR ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES ME TO WEAR A WHITE DRESS, ACT DEMURE AND/OR TOSS FLOWERS. (: boo to december 2010. but big yay to 2011. and bigger yay to the weekend!

August 3rd, 2010

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01:25 am its been a good few days. major stuff: sending regina off (even getting there & back was a miracle in itself), m-l's ladies' fellowship (learnt so much!), african mini-concert of gospel songs(my hair kept standing) & weekend-speculation with the housemates (egggciting)... speaking of which, i havent taken ANY pictures of the house, the housemates, school and other random stuff! i better do it before i get so used to living here that i lose sight of all the unique-ness of the place...and i should probably start using my boyfriend a little more, now that i have him back (((: i have only shot a grand total of 3 frames since he got back! but developing film here is just sooooo expensive... been doing quite a bit of thinking these past days. anything and everything major in my life came up. some thoughts i dwelt on & prayed over, others not so. but thats always the case i guess, cuz there's always something that holds back... tomorrow is a new day. and school here is just like school at home. in the sense that i'm ALWAYS late. but now with 2 postgrad courses i'm taking, slacking off is not an option anymore. hopefully it keeps me on my toes, if not next sem, i'm just gonna die dealing with work, readjustments and cell once again. ok but that is one example of something i AM.NOT.GOING.TO.THINK.ABOUT. not until 5 months later. funny how at home the 5 months leading up to this adventure dragged its feet so slowly...and here, i'm thinking, its only 5 months.. pfttt. save me from this retarded brain that does not know when to shutup.