Finding Momentum

So life here has been a whirlwind of activity:

Mercy Ministries

Last Thursday, I shadowed Zhie, a social worker and community organizer, as we drove on dirt roads from borough to borough and delivered food. It gave me a great perspective on life outside the mission. Zhie really inspires me as somebody who pours her heart out into what she does. She’s running a womens’ empowerment program, mobilizing women to create crafts at home and selling their products on the market. Sarah will keep us updated on more details.

IT Support

 

Sometimes I help Owen out in the IT room. I run around to different peoples’ offices and houses, pinging servers, running antivirus scans, plugging in switches and configuring network adapters.

Studio 7

Sometimes you can find me in Studio 7, the radio station studio of LBOM, working with producer/manager Kelvin Kaonga on a mix. We’re learning some new microphone and mastering techniques, and are applying it to his current projects. I really like how I get a chance to hear African music and be a part of its production. We’re currently working on a politically-minded freedom song by a Zimbabwean reggae artist… way cool.

Magazine Design

I’m starting the gist of my main project: editing and managing a newsletter-ish magazine for the mission. I’ll be working with another missionary intern on this project, which will involve interviewing folks and getting their stories into print. I’ll be doing the production work for the magazine as well, which is cool because I get to relive my Vertigo days, doing writing, design and layout.

Meals

I’ll usually share a meal on the porch with Sarah (either breakfast or lunch), all whilst being eaten alive by mosquitos. Speaking of mosquitos… I’m being feasted upon but things have gotten better. I’m definitely going with the jeans, even if its 90 degrees outside.

Food-wise, I’m glad I weaned myself off of the meal point system my last year of college. I’m getting a decent amount of cooking done, but as you can see from the picture above, I like to stick with the basics.

Hanging out

Sometimes in the afternoon I’ll shoot hoops with the students. They all think I’m really good. They’re all still in puberty.

Chinese people

Walking about town, I realized that many of the shopowners were Chinese, proving that Chinese people really are everywhere. There’s even a Chinese kid at school that I’m getting to know. Because he doesn’t know English (or Setswana) very well, our conversations in Mandarin are really good. How funny that my Chinese identity is still relevant here.

An even cooler note: I’m finding that many African dialects have phonemes very similar to Mandarin which helps me when I think of certain Setswana phrases in their Chinese equivalents. Awesome!

Housemates

I’ll catch a convo here and there with my housemate, Lawrence. He’s currently paying the lobopo, or bride price, so he can marry his fiancee. To do so, he’s started up a local fumigation business which will give him a side income on top of his graveyard shifts as the security manager for LBOM. I’m trying to see if an Internet presence will help his business.

Oh yeah, here’s my buddy and housemate Christiaan. He’s from South Africa and a fellow IT guy in the mission. He’s also an all-around Mac fanatic.

Church

In the evenings, I’ll attend the midweek church service, or the youth group service. Last week I was asked to lead worship for the youth, something I haven’t consistently done in five years. It was fun.

Sundays I’ll be running the sound board in the back. Some things never change