Armour family visits SA!!

Dad being himself

The Armour Family

Cort and Odwa

Amy and Akhona

Mom, Dad and some ASP kids

So my family came to visit Lisa and I here in SA. We had a wonderful time sharing our life here with them and introducing them to all of our friends and co-workers. They met our puppy Sipho and I am pretty sure my parents hated him. Oh well, we love him. It was great for Lisa and I to have family here with us and sharing in everything that we are doing. We have amazing support from them. My brother and sister also had the chance to hangout with some of the students from Bridges Academy. Odwa and Akhona are still asking about them everyday! Hopefully my family will not soon forget their experience here and will continue to seek out the ideas of community development.

African Window

22 Aug, 08
There are things that make me feel like I’m in Africa, the way that certain songs can make me feel like I’m in a movie that someone cares about watching and the way some fumbling mistake I make or some crazy person I’m interacting with makes me feel like I’m on a candid camera show and people are laughing, but I don’t know it.
I have a fairly normal kitchen, but the window is not normal. The window I look through is African. It has metal pains painted white and a metal latch that is hard to work. It also never closes, so that when the wind howls my window whistles me a cold tune. And it has thin white bars on it to keep me safe. It’s what’s outside my window above my ordinary sink that is the most foreign. I see tall grass blowing underneath our Mulberry tree and lining our homemade brick stoop. And in the near distance is a pre-fabricated shack. Like if there were many, many of these shacks they could be a track shack neighborhood. And in that track shack live three African men who work on this farm doing construction.
And so we have neighbors on each side with no fences to block our lives from one another. Their track shack has no windows so they have a little more privacy than us with our African windows. In the afternoons these men play soccer outside my African window with the metal panes and the cold whistling tunes. They put up two iron posts for a goal and take turns shooting goals at one another. They talk in a loud, jolly, foreign language and end their days with this game in the tall grass. When one scores a goal, the ragged ball goes sailing into the overgrown pear orchard and the man with his turn there goes high stepping after it.
And then I turn around from my African window with the dirty white panes and the streaky glass, the pear trees and the tall moving grass, and black men and I see my home which is remarkably unremarkable and home-like, with pictures of familiar faces taped onto our small refrigerator.
Some time I’m sure we’ll be in a place that feels even more unremarkable and home-like than this. And I’ll remember all the people and scenes that made me feel like I was far from home and at home in South Africa. And I’ll be sad (maybe), but I’ll remember that Annie Dillard says, “enough is enough. One turns at last even from glory itself with a sigh of relief. From the depths of mystery, and even from the heights of splendor, we bounce back and hurry for the latitudes of home.”

TNHF visits SA!!

So our friend Justin Zoradi started an organization called These Numbers Have Faces. Please check out their site. Their mission statement "The mission of These Numbers Have Faces is to move from fatalistic statistics to identifiable persons. We aim to discern a felt need through relationships and create effective partnerships to provide opportunity and hope with networks of caring people." They are currently working with JL Zwane Football Club in Cape Town. A few weeks ago the TNHF crew came to South Africa for a vision trip. Here is a picture of the crew Jered, Kirsten, George, Morgan, Andy, Lisa, Anda, Dominique, Justin, Trish and myself: Lisa and I got to spend a few wonderful days catching up with the old Portland crew and some of the new folks. It was a great group of people and at one point I was begging them all to stay because it just felt good to have some community. We learned more about all that TNHF has been doing and hopes to do in the future. We had a wonderful time with the whole team and just wanted to share a few photos with you.Couldn't help putting this last shot in!! The movie theaters around here come up with some interesting names. The ladies could not get their minds out of the gutter.
It was wonderful spending time with TNHF and we hope to see them out here again soon!!

16 Days in California!

So Lisa and I recently made the trek back to California for 16 days. In total we spent about 60 hours traveling between Cape Town and California and back. I will tell you that I do not care to travel for that many hours anytime soon. The cramped conditions of planes these days is getting ridiculous, especially when you are having to fly so far.
We hit the ground running when we got to LA. My sister Amy picked us up and drove us to the good ole OC. I think Lisa and I went into immediate culture shock when we crossed into Orange County because of the amount of nice cars and strip malls. My parents decided to take us to the new Javier’s’ on Newport Coast for Sunday dinner. Yikes!! What a scene. I have never in my life seen so many fake lips, boobs, cheeks, faces, and people in my life!!! Lisa and I were stunned. If we did not know what culture shock was we knew now. If you are looking for an interesting night out I would suggest Javier’s’ in Newport.
We spent a few days in Modesto hanging with Lisa’s family, mostly with Sam our 7-month-old nephew. He is the cutest thing alive! Here is a picture of him:We also got to see some of our friends while we were in Modo. After a few days back at home in San Clamente we met Lisa’s parents and Jeff, Holly and Sam at Disneyland!! Talk about an all time day! Sam was a charger and went on everything he was allowed to ride. He rode Pirates, Tea-Cups, Jungle Cruise, Finding Nemo and he would have rode It’s A Small World if it was open. He loved every minute of it! We loved every minute of it. Here are some pics from the day:Our 16 days came to a close with my friend Doug’s wedding. It was a gorgeous day filled with love, laughter and tears. Lisa and I got to spend some great time with friends at the wedding. A big shout out has to go to JP for his major lack of Farkle skills!!

New Photos on Picasa!

Sibusiso on the farm in Franschhoek.
The Armours and the soon to be Zoradis at Doug's wedding.
View of Table Mt and Devil's Peak from my friends balcony.

These are just a few of the new photos that have been added to our Picasa web album. Go there and check out all our new photos. Hope you enjoy.

We have a new family member!!!

So last week Lisa and I were walking around in the township of Sweet Home in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa. While walking through this community we happened to spot a litter of puppies. The puppies were all mutts and were some of the cutest little creatures ever. When we got back to our home base in Sweet Home we asked one of the mamas what it would look like for us to have one of those dogs. She said she would look into the matter. The next day we were back in Sweet Home and there was a cute little male puppy in a box waiting for us!! We were so excited!! It was the best from the litter too!! We paid $3.50 for him. After a few days deliberating we decided to name him Sipho (See poe). Sipho means gift in the Xhosa language. He is definitely a gift to us. He is missing about half his tail which someone in the township decided to lop off. This only serves to make him more awesome!! Here are some pics of him.

Good times!

Well Barney and Meg have left and it is time to settle back into life here in SA. As we get back into the swing of things I thought I would give you all a recap of our time with the Stichters. Our time started with a great evening out in Cape Town walking Long St and eating dinner at the Africa Café.After a few wonderful days spent hanging around Cape Town doing some work and touristy stuff like wine tasting, great white shark cage diving, surfing, Robben Island and going to the top of Table Mt, we headed up the Garden Route to Jeffreysbaai.

(Side note: on Sunday when Barney and I went surfing, I got super sick and proceeded to throw up out the window while I was driving. I threw up 7 times that day!! Worst day ever!) Along the way to Jeffreysbaai Meg decided she wanted to jump off the highest commercial bridge bungee jump in the world. She checked it from the viewing platform, suited up, cruised out to the jumping platform and dove over the edge to fall 708ft!!!! Didn’t even faze her!!
We arrived in J-Bay and immediately paddled out at Supertubes. We got some decent waves that first afternoon. The following day the surf was flat so we headed out to Seaview Lion Park. This place was amazing!! After a lame self-drive safari where we saw Wildebeest, Zebra, Giraffe, springbok and goat we made our way to the lions. We saw 3 huge Bengal tigers and about 50 lions. The tigers and a few of the male lions you could get within a couple of feet from them, only separated by a small electric fence. These lions and tigers are huge!!!!!! After watching them for a while we hopped in the car and drove through an enclosure containing 6 lionesses. After that we headed to the main building where they had 4 three-week-old lion cubs, 6 two-month-old lion cubs, and 4 seven-month-old lion cubs. We took the opportunity to go into the enclosure with the 4 seven month old cubs. What an experience. These cubs were definitely big enough to cause damage if they wanted to.
Lisa and Meg got to go in with the 2 month old cubs as well.
The rest of the time we spent in J-Bay surfing a great beach break as the swell filled in at Supertubes. We scored some great surf at the end of the trip with the wave of the trip definitely going to Barney at Supertubes on the Armour’s last morning.
We said our goodbyes and left Barney and Meg in Jeffreysbaai for one more day to head back on the Garden Route for home. It was a wonderful two weeks with the Stichters! Josh and Meg, thank you for coming out to visit and spending your vacation time with us! You can see more of our pictures by clicking here

All the Cool Kids...

are hanging out in South Africa!

Well, as the seasons change and you all wait with anticipation for the approaching summer, we sit anxiously awaiting the harsh southern winter. Yes that is right, we are on opposite seasons down here...July is the dead of winter!! Being so far south in the southern hemisphere we can look forward to Antarctic gales and tempests!!:( We have been watching the beauty of fall come over the land for a few weeks. The leaves have changed, the air has grown crisp, the cobras have gone into hibernation and the 100 degree weather has gone. Today, Mother Nature showed a sampling of her fierce southern winter side with some of the nastiest weather I can remember. The wind is howling, threatening to rip off anything that is not appropriately attached. The rain is falling horizontally giving even the Jackals of the field nowhere to hide from its wet grasp. I half expect any one of the Bridges Academy kids to get blown away anytime they run outside to their room to get something. As I sit in the comfort of the cement and mortar, architecturally sound office looking out the window admiring the beauty of Mother Nature's unrestrained ability to unleash her winter onslaught of wind and rain I cannot help but think of our friends in the townships.

With homes made of sheet metal and cardboard and roofs gingerly laid on top of the box house and held down by brick or tires or whatever else they can find how are they staying warm and dry? They aren't. If the wind has not blown their place down or apart, then the horizontal rain is coming in through the gap between roof and wall soaking the place like a fire sprinkler. If your house makes it past either of these then the rain draining down the hillside or off the streets is running under the walls of your house filling your floor with mud or water or worse.

How in the 21st century is this still possible? Not only that, but how is it still possible for such a large population of the world's human inhabitants? We have to do something. Take Burma for example. A cyclone has just recently hit there killing over 22,000 people with 41,000 more people missing!!! Katrina killed about 1,800 just to give you some perspective. The living conditions of many of the world's population are atrocious. I find that in everything we do here in South Africa my dependence on God becomes stronger and stronger. I ask a lot of whys and I want immediate answers but its not that easy. God usually answers with another question. I know I will be battling with questions like this for a long time coming. I do believe God is working in the people here though and that is very encouraging.

As you enter into the long, warm days of summer (except those of you in Portland...that is a few months more) I challenge you to think about, pray about and converse about the disadvantaged populations of the world who at that present moment may be melting in their home because of a lack of electricity and A/C or are soaking wet and freezing to death because of a lack of proper housing materials. The issues are much deeper than this but you have to start thinking about these things somewhere and once you open the flood gates you will not be able to close them again.

Handsome Boy

I think memory is a strange thing. I think it’s strange how we don’t have much of a choice what is going to stick in our minds. I’m thinking about this more lately when I can’t remember things I would like to. Did I just sound like an old woman saying she had a “senior moment”? Damn. But really, there are things that stick in our minds eye and hold the picture of a memory that no photograph can capture. This is the kind of memory I love. It’s not the kind of involuntary memory of classmates’ names from elementary school that I wasn’t even friends with, it’s not the memory that houses the lyrics to the opening song for Full House or the Paul Abdul song I liked in 5th grade. It’s not the kind of memory that I feel like is taking up valuable space.

This memory is a picture of something I won’t ever forget and reminds me of a feeling from that place. I had one the other day as I was driving down our long dirt driveway. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a boy riding his bike in the reflection. He was chasing me on an old looking black bike and he had a beautiful, young face and red, yellow and black beads hanging around his neck and a royal blue stripped shirt that he wears 2 to 3 days a week. His name is Sibusiso and I don’t have any special connection with him, it was more like a moment where I knew I was in Africa and really felt it as I bumped along the red dirt driveway leaving the farm. And I smiled the kind of smile to myself that is in a category all it’s own. It is way different than a camera smile and it’s nothing like the smile I do when I’m trying to make someone feel like they said something clever. It’s a smile just for me, no one is going to see it, I only get to feel it.

So I hope this new memory pushed something out that I don’t care about. And I’m sure that in years to come when I’m somewhere else in life and thinking back to this time and loving this time in my heart, I’ll see Sibusiso chasing me in my dust, determined to keep up even though he would have dirty boogers later and burning eyes. These memories are the best because you don’t know when they will happen and you can’t force it, they just come to you with all the benefits of a good dream and none of the involuntary forgetting.

Picassa updated!!

I made a layout change on the blog. Our profiles and photo link now appear above the blog archive so they are easier to find. We will be putting up a new post soon. There has been much that has happened in the past few weeks. Our apologies on not posting in awhile. Our photos on Picassa are updated though. Check 'em out. Cheers!!

Picassa updated!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that our picassa webpage of pictures has been updated. Check it out from the link on the left!!!

Just thought I would put this incredible picture on our blog. We went with the Bridges of Hope Academy kids to the beach and a water park called "Supertubes" last week. For many it was their first time in the ocean and for all of them it was their first time down a water slide. Keep in mind that all of them grew up less than 15 minutes from the beach. You can sit in every one of their houses and smell the salty air...if you can pick it out of all the other gnarly smells of the townships. After teaching most of the kids how to body surf in some of the most Great White populated waters on the planet I figured I would take a few turns down the slides with the kids. What a hoot!!!! If you have not been to a water park recently, go now!!! They are a blast!! This one only had two slides and I still lost my mind on them. So all of you who make what seems to be weekly trips to Las Vegas...you have got to stop at one of the many water parks in the area and go crazy for a couple of hours. Watch out for slides I call Wedgie Express!!