myearlylife.org
An Australian in Johannesburg
June 4, 2008 at 9:28 pm · Filed under Life in South Africa
No doubt you’ve heard about some of the terrible stuff that’s been going on in South Africa the past few weeks.
It’s not something that has really affected me directly, to be honest. If you’re living in this part of town (Melville), you mainly heard about the xenophobic violence in the news, or talked to foreign friends who feared taking minibus taxis or going into the inner city.
But psychologically I think it’s affected everyone quite a lot, including myself, contributing to a general sense of pessimism and frustration that has settled on the country this year.
I think people were really spurred into action in many ways: churches and NGOs stepped up in a big way to house and feed the almost 50,000 people left homeless by the violence.
The government has finally stepped in more effectively, and has started relocating some of the refugees to new tent cities adjacent to some of the new middle class suburbs. (Which has been causing its own controversy.)
I made a video about the attacks that we showed at the evening service. Check it out at the top here.
February 4, 2008 at 7:49 pm · Filed under Life in South Africa, Images
On Saturday I went hiking with my colleague Kylie and my housemates McDonald and Stephen in the Magaliesberg.
We walked at a place called Bartlett’s Farm, and for a while it seemed like it would be a nice typical highveld walk with sweeping views across the mountains. But we were wrong. Completely out of nowhere, the walk dipped into these canyons - quite deep, with beautiful freshwater streams running through them. Nice place.
January 20, 2008 at 5:24 pm · Filed under General
Well, the big news all over New South Wales tonight is that this time tomorrow, the state is going to be one citizen short.
My flight will leave Sydney at 10.30am, but arrives five hours later in Johannesburg. Planes are pretty impressive, hey? If I were driving, I’d probably only be at Dubbo by then! (Well, it’s a fourteen-hour flight, but you know all that time difference stuff.)
It’s been a brief but great sojourn in Australia, and I almost feel like it’s rained more days here than the sun’s shone. Our front yard is a tropical wetland.
But I’m really looking forward to another lekker year in SA. See you soon, Mzansi. (Fo sho.)
January 18, 2008 at 8:49 am · Filed under General
A massive apology to you if you tried to check out myearlylife.org in the last week…the site was down and I’ve spent the last few days trying to get it sorted. Stay tuned at least for more! I’m leaving for SA again on Monday 21st!
January 3, 2008 at 12:40 pm · Filed under Australia
I know it’s been a long time between gigs, but thanks all you faithful blog readers who still enjoy the tantalising crumbs of information that drop from my table…
It’s been a hectic few months, but I’ve been back home in Australia for three weeks, catching up with friends and family and organising my support for 2008. There’s been a couple of big events at Springwood-Winmalee Anglican Church organised by a few of my collaborators - notably Andrew Cork and Andrew Allison. (You can’t go wrong with Andrews, that what I’ve always said.) They (and a massive team) put incredible amounts of work into these events. Thanks lads.
We ran a Supporter’s dinner in mid-December, and the Friday before Christmas was Hark!, a night featuring eight local bands, with all the proceeds going towards my return to South Africa.
The night featured The Space Between, The Martin Robinsons, Mcivercork, The Flying Colours, Sheer Fox, Cameo, The Elect, The Detours and Stanfield. It was seriously ace. Thanks to all the bands (who all played for free - and even paid for entry), and especially Dave Andison for presiding over a fantastic sound and light setup.
October 31, 2007 at 2:23 am · Filed under Life in South Africa
Now I know this is a week late, but I thought these pictures would still be worth showing.
You may have missed it in Australia, but the Bokke dominated in the final and passions in South Africa were running high. It had been an incredible build-up: minibus taxis with “my bloed is groen” (my blood is green) scrawled across them, vuvuzelas (a kind of extremely loud plastic trumpet used at soccer matches) blaring, and every man, woman and child decked out in Springboks gear.
I made the mistake of wearing a red, white and black t-shirt during the day on Saturday, and people heckled me from buses. And I was actually supporting the Boks!
Anyway, the night went to SA, and people hit the streets to party. And party they did! These pics are from Melville Main Road, in my neighbourhood. There’s a whole lot of bars along the street, and after the game people flooded into the road. People were rocking cars, dancing, and drivers were spinning their wheels.
But at one stage, a whole bunch of people leapt onto a flatbed semi trailer that was passing through. For some reason, the driver decided to jerk the truck into gear and continue up the hill: one guy fell and was killed. It was a seriously wild night.
Here’s some pictures anyway, you can get some idea what it was like.
October 20, 2007 at 11:53 pm · Filed under General
Here’s a bit of a teaser from my forthcoming email update:
“I thought I’d let you know that amongst my other achievements here, I’ve got myself banned from the Westgate Shopping Mall. Actually, James Brennan, a Queenslander who’s just joined us here, got me banned.
It happened like this: it had been a long day and James and I thought we’d unwind at the movies - if you go to Westgate on a Tuesday a movie only costs R8 ($A1.60), but it’s a bit of a drive to get there.
So we went: we watched, we enjoyed, and were about to go home when James went to the bathroom. He was a bit crook, poor bloke, and he spent a while in there. He finally emerged, but with a cheeky grin on his face: he had something hidden underneath his jacket. I gave him a quizzical look, and he sneakily revealed his booty: a roll of toilet paper (just-in-case) for the trip home.
Unfortunately, the security guards also spotted James’ surreptitious behaviour. “Oi,” they said, and they approached. From there, it was all over: they accused James of stealing the toilet paper (which I guess he had) and carted him off to the security office. I tagged listlessly along, hoping to try and keep him out of trouble.
The head of security was a very angry man, and it was at this point that things became a bit racially charged.
“People are always saying it’s we blacks that are stealing this toilet paper,” he spat at us. “But now I know it’s you whites!” He was furious - and I had no doubt that this kind of sentiment was probably what he received from his superiors when they pulled him up about high rates of toilet paper theft. But he had had enough: it was time to throw the book. So he called the police.
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that the South African Police Service is stretched: some police stations are actually protected by Chubb Armed Response Security, which is a bit weird. So, it took a while for them to come. A long while. When they finally did, they were pretty annoyed.
“A roll of toilet paper?” one cop asked incredulously, in a strong Afrikaans accent. “How much does that cost: R2.50?”
The cops were pretty frustrated with both the security people and us - they even suggested better ways for James to get emergency toilet paper. But in the end, the convinced the security chief not to press charges against James.
“But they are going to ban you from the mall,” one of the cops explained. I smirked to myself - it seemed a funny end to a long night - by this time it was 2 am. And then it happened.
“And you too, mate.” And the policeman pointed to me.
“What?” I was shocked. “I didn’t even do anything! Why am I banned?”
“Well,” he replied. “They’ve deemed your friend here ‘undesirable’, and if you’re friends with him, you’re ‘undesirable’ too. So if you set foot inside the mall again, they can arrest you for trespassing.”
Shame. Now we have to go all the way to Northgate for R8 movies.”
September 3, 2007 at 6:08 am · Filed under General
There’s been a bit of a buzz around church over the year over an American preacher named Tim Keller, the senior minister at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.
He’s got a vague connection to Melville - the churchplanting organisation he founded is putting up the cash to power Melville Union’s churchplant in Sophiatown (a neighbouring suburb) next year - but his preaching is impressive. His framework: focusing on the centrality of the city to Christian ministry and kingdom growth is thought-provoking, and his engagement with postmodern Western culture challenging and refreshing.
He’s a pretty good oke, as they’d say in South Africa.
You have to put up cash to hear his weekly sermons, but there’s a few sites with a sampler. I’d recommend a listen.
http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/2005/07/tim_keller_arti.html
August 4, 2007 at 6:21 pm · Filed under General
This has been a year of strikes in South Africa, but the latest one is really going to hit people where it really hurts. A petrol strike. As of yesterday petrol started running out in my area of Jo’burg - the usually bustling petrol stations were closed and empty in the evening peak.
And people have got panicky - I’ve just heard that there’s a massive queue down on Empire Rd to one of the petrol stations down there that seems to have some.
So who knows - everything in Jo’burg runs on petrol. Everyone drives, and even the main forms of public transport (buses and minibus taxis) need fuel as well…
Maybe it’ll be a wake-up call and on Monday the streets will be full of bikes.
August 3, 2007 at 7:48 am · Filed under Images
A new gallery has hit myearlylife.org: Jo’burg.
It’s only small at the moment, but keep an eye on this one because it shall grow.
Hopefully you can get some kind of impression of Jo’burg’s beauty and sadness.
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