Beyond the Boerewors Curtain

Bachelor parties

2008-11-06T22:21:00.003+02:00

A google image search for "bachelor party" yielded the expected results. Wikipedia tells me that "Increasingly, bachelor parties have come to symbolize the last time when the groom is truly 'free' and without the influence of his new wife."

Celebration.co.za says "The bachelor party is a party for the groom to party the night away, with his male buddies, as his last night of being a single man and to possibly do things / activities his future wife may not approve of."

What to expect

"The groom's mates often, after heavy drinking, subject the groom to various humiliations, sometimes in public. These often include leaving him tied naked to a pole or placing him on an aeroplane to a remote location." Source.

Think: heavy drinking, shaving of eyebrows, painting of body parts, general mayhem.

The presuppositions

It's your last night of freedom - enjoy it (assumption: a wife takes away your freedom).
Many people refer to the wife as "your ball and chain."
The idea is that the man gives up his autonomy and now can't do anything without another's approval - the implication is that she won't approve of anything fun from now on.
Some people think that once married life begins, boredom sets in, because it's impossible to live an adventurous life with a woman in tow.

Me, the party animal

I've never been a heavy partier. In fact, for most of my life I've been an "observer" - someone who watches what goes on without (often) getting involved. So it's been healthy for me to move beyond that, and to participate in things which I don't know how to do "properly". Sometimes I've had to pretend that I'm having fun, so that I don't offend my friends.

I've been to a few bachelors parties. They've been interesting. Almost none of them serve any purpose beyond attempting to embarrass the groom. Also, see the presuppositions above: they're all rubbish (obviously!). So why do something which gives credence to them?

The necessity of it all

Some people would say that a bachelors is a necessity, that it's one of the few rituals that we (English-speaking South Africans) have left. This resonates with me: I like rite-of-passage rituals and feel that those who haven't gone through them have missed out.

All rites-of-passage rituals have a purpose: to move a person from one thing to something else. Like from a boy to a man. So what is the purpose of a bachelors, then?

The ever-reliable Wikipedia tells me that "The history of bachelor party is thought to have originated with a bachelor dinner that was traditional in ancient Sparta (5th century BC) where soldiers would toast each other on the eve of a friend’s wedding."

I like that concept: the friends of the groom getting around one of their fellow warriors and wishing him well for the future, for his new life. How we got from something profoundly affirming to something almost entirely de-structive - I don't know. I know this much: I don't like it.

The presuppositions of my marriage

Danya doesn't take away my freedom - she increases it. By being with her I have more options for life and am amazed by what she's drawing out of me.
My capacity for adventure increases by being with her. For instance, I've wanted to go back to China ever since I first went there, but want to share that *with* someone.
We will have a full life with each other, growing into people we never thought possible.
I will be completely loyal to Danya at all times.
I wrote this to her a while back: "I commit to having a group of people around me external to our relationship who hold us and our relationship in prayer and positive intentions, and who, in a world of failed relationships, help guard and fight for our own relationship."
I'll always tell her the truth and will always trust her.
We see the other as our "adventure partner for life."

These are some of the presuppositions of my relationship with Danya...and as you can see, they're in direct conflict with the presuppositions of a bachelor party.

And now?

And so I'm thinking of not having a bachelors party before my wedding in December. What do you think? Do you think I'm being too serious and not playful enough?

I'd like to "take on the system." I've been at enough bachelor parties where the groom is uncomfortable, a lot of the people there are uncomfortable, and there's an unspoken thing of "this is stupid - we could do it a lot better." It's meant to be affirming, not something you'll regret.

Technorati Tags: bachelor party, wedding, rites of passage

Saying goodbye

2008-11-06T21:16:00.001+02:00

So this year at NieuCommunities is almost at a close. Our last official day is next Friday, November 14th. We'll then hang around for a few days, and I'll probably come back to Joburg on Sunday November 16th. The big day is December 13th, when I'll be getting married to Danya, so the next month is doing planning and hanging out with her to make sure we don't lose sight of the reason for the planning.

After the wedding we have a week, then we fly to the States (where her parents stay) and then to Canada for a month or so, having Christmas with her extended family and doing some travelling. On our way back to SA we'll stop over in London for a few days to see my sister Stacey and her family. Then it's back to Joburg and driving to Cape Town in early Feb - Danya starts studying a Master's in Diversity Studies in mid-Feb.

Pray all the visa stuff comes right! It's complicated, to say the least. The next few months will be hectic, but I'm hoping for a kind of peace in the middle of that.

Which brings me back to the present, and the last week at NieuCommunities. It's emotional for me, as I don't like goodbyes, and we're stretching this one out a bit. I've grown to love this community and the people here, and it's a challenge to say goodbye well. Part of that means grieving, and we all do that in different ways. My temptation is to get lost in the preparations of wrapping things up and in finishing up some website work. I'm finding myself to have less energy, and want to move away from solitude and reflecting. My sleeping patterns are...all over the place...although I'm getting a lot done!

On top of that we're doing wedding planning, sustaining a long-distance relationship, I'm doing my heart project (an "express what's happened in your heart this year" art experiment) as well as doing website work...and finishing up assignments and reading for NieuCommunities. Time is short! There's an impromptu bachelors party happening on Saturday night too...

The next 3 weeks, my fiance, my heart, Lyndi's wedding

2008-10-24T15:03:00.003+02:00

My apprenticeship with NieuCommunities wraps up in 3 weeks. It's been an absolutely fantastic year, with learning so much and growing immensely. Pretoria has been a surprising place - more interesting and diverse that I expected - with great people. I'm going to miss it!

After we wrap up here, I'm going to White River to spend some time with my fiance, Danya. She's wonderful! We got engaged in September and are planning to get married in December. She's been working in Positive Living (holistic health) at York Timbers in Sabie for nearly the last 4 years and will be studying a master's in Diversity Studies at UCT next year...so I'm moving to Cape Town in early February! After we get married in December we're heading to Canada for just over a month, to spend Christmas with her extended family and to see her friends.

We've just started a Heart Project at NieuCommunities: creating a work of art which gives a tangible expression to the past year. I've already come up with some ideas (acrylic, canvas, beads, triptych, photos, white space, video) and will be working on this over the next few weeks.

I was at my sister Lyndi's wedding in Cape Town last weekend - and it was great! She looked stunning and the day came together so well. Congratulations, Lyndi and Andre! They're on honeymoon in Bali right now...and I look forward to seeing them more in Cape Town next year.

Danya and I have found a place in Obz which looks like a good place to start our life together. It's a pretty vibrant community (and no, we're not on the ground floor!) and close to UCT. I'd love to pursue Interactive Visual Art more next year and hopefully make it a full-time thing. Otherwise I'll still be doing freelance web development (about to finalise www.mudanca.co.za - my latest site for a client) and perhaps coaching too.

So that's me! A lot of changes around, a lot to think about and do, but things have been good. Let me know what you've been up to, too :)

A September update

2008-09-10T07:07:00.001+02:00

I've been back at Pangani for a week-and-a-half and it's been great! Cape Town was a superb experience, although I was only able to hook up with the apprentices twice. Seeing my sister Lyndi (and her fiance - my future brother-in-law - Andre) ahead of her wedding there in October was fantastic - and she let me sleep on her living room floor - thanks Lynd! I was doing a training course - NLP Master Practitioner through AHT - and managed to learn lots of things about myself which has some life-changing consequences.

One of them is that I'm awake at 7am today processing my tasks and getting ready for the day. I think all of the NC people (especially Amanda!) are kinda amazed at this new development - none more than me! Turns out I had the following beliefs:

You're not allowed to enjoy what you do

Nothing is worth getting out of bed in the morning for

Changing these has been fun! I find myself more at peace and more able to engage with community and relationships. Hooray!

We're in the middle of a process called Life Compass where we're figuring out the important things in our lives and what we want to do with them. It's been good so far: last week I realised that although I do technology stuff really well, I don't like the process - only the result (I get to build cool stuff). Yet this is what I've spent the last 5 years doing - and it's an energy drainer!

So I look forward to finding out what I come up with as a better way of doing life...

Technorati Tags: NLP, Pangani, NieuCommunities

I'm interviewing an atheist this Friday

2008-07-29T22:15:00.001+02:00

I'm interviewing Kevin at TGIF in Pretoria this Friday on his beliefs. He used to be a Christian - and even was on the Baptist WOW Team for a year. Then "God" fell to pieces, shattered by rational thinking and observation. We'll be having a civil conversation about his story - and helping others listen better, hopefully.

From the TGIF weekly email:

************
KEVIN PARRY & ROGER SANER - CONVERSATION WITH AN ATHEIST.
at the Seattle Coffee Company, BROOKLYN MALL.
************

It's easy to break down a straw-man. Trouble is, not many real people are made from straw. And perhaps breaking down shouldn't always be our main priority either.

Kevin Parry and Roger Saner are friends. Kevin is an atheist. Roger is a theist. That makes for some interesting conversations between them. Don't miss this TGIF with a difference as Roger interviews Kevin on what he does and does not believe - and why. The interview isn't about winning arguments, but about increasing our understanding of each other.

Technorati Tags: TGIF

Prayers and creeds

2008-07-06T22:25:00.001+02:00

Several of us from Nieu Communities with an appreciation for the prayers and creeds of the Church have created a site to post one each day. We would love for you to join us and others around the globe in saying these prayers and creeds on a daily basis. We will begin posting on Monday, 7 July.

Please stop by the site and subscribe to have each day’s piece sent you via email or rss.

Tshwane Bloggers meetup - July 19th at 9:30am

2008-07-01T20:09:00.001+02:00

Steve Hayes and I are hosting a Tshwane religious bloggers meetup at Greenfields in Hatfield, Pretoria, on Saturday July 19 at 9:30am. And you're invited! You don't have to be a blogger either - just someone who is happy to hang out with some others and talk about G-d. Come along!

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 1:27

The last month

2008-06-01T21:51:00.001+02:00

So much has happened this last month - where to start? I've spent a lot of time in Mpumulanga with my girlfriend, Danya, helping her recover from her 6th foot surgery (if at first you don't succeed, sky diving's not for you) and traveling around (turns out SA Roadlink is not a good bus to travel on - a 3 hour journey by car or City Bug to Nelspruit turned into a 7-and-a-half hour journey by SA Roadlink). Danya works in Sabie, which is such a beautiful place. Unfortunately, HIV/Aids infections have not decreased in the last 4 years, and people are still reluctant to get tested.

As part of my apprenticeship, I job-shadowed Danya's friend Lerraine, who works in the social responsibility department of York Timbers. I got to meet David Poole, one of SA's top experts on medicinal herbs, and hear about projects which they're planning. Lerraine told me about York's community gardens, which provide sustainable produce to local communities. She also showed me their adult education computer training centre, one of the mills and a clinic.

I've also spent some time with Alan Hirsch - one of the top thinkers on building movements which bring about change, all within the Christian framework.

Jody and Andrew went to Amahoro: Rwanda - I was at Amahoro in Uganda last year - and had a very growing time.

We did a week at Pangani called The Sacred Romance - an intense journey focussed on the heart, asking the big questions of life. I've come away with several huge questions and insights, some of which might take a lifetime to grapple with.

Of course, the big news of the last month in South Africa is the xenophobic attacks. As a single South African it's hard to think what difference I can make, but being part of a community response reminds me that if everyone does something small, big changes can happen. I've also continued my involvement with Change Agents - we've run our first 2 of 5 training days (Joburg North and Ekhuruleni), equipping local church-based youth workers to do their ministries better. Although this isn't something which directly impact xenophobia, in the medium term it can help, since xenophobia isn't simply about locals not liking foreigners - the issue is bigger than that.

I'm although thinking through what will be good ways to continue responding to the refugee crisis in SA. Once the humanitarian concerns have been met (food, shelter, safety) and this round of anger has cooled down, we have to face the task of re-integrating these foreigners back into society. In the meantime, sitting around all day is a boring existence - so I've had an idea: to play movies in the evenings for these groups. We have a refugee camp just down the road in Akasia (the one which has been in the news because all of the men (mostly Somalians) are on hunger strike to protest their prolonged poor treatment by the South African government) and strong ties to about 75 Zimbabwean refugees in Pretoria. What would be a good way to help them use their time in a good way, beyond reading newspapers and playing checkers?

Just stay in SA!

2008-05-03T20:39:00.001+02:00

BlyNet (meaning "Just stay" in Afrikaans) is a site encouraging Afrikaners to stay in South Africa instead of fleeing due to crime or whatever. It's endorsed by prominent Afrikaners like Steve Hofmeyr, Ryk Neethling and Fanie de Villiers.

ADD

2008-05-03T19:52:00.001+02:00

I was about to look through the Attention Deficit Disorder Association site but then went and did something else.

Multi-cultural church

2008-05-03T18:32:00.001+02:00

I've been involved in churches and camps which have been multi-cultural - and it's worked out really well. When dealing with multi-cultural stuff, people need some kind of commonality - and often religion can play that role, and instead of being polemic, can be a point of unity. I've experienced that unity (and have also experienced that polarising, even within Christianity), and I found an article today which points in the same direction - I've taken the best bits out of it and put it below. I like how it ends, talking about how the church can explore new forms of collaboration that enable it to lead in celebrating the gifts that will be a part of our richly multicultural future.

--x--

In the UK, more churches were planted in the last seven years than Starbucks were opened—over 1,000 churches as compared to only 750 Starbucks coffee shops. Interestingly, most of these church plants were ethnic and multi-cultural.

[...]

It is past time for those of us who are white to wake up to the reality that we are living in a new majority world. By 2060, the United States will become the first non-European Western nation—a nation of Latinos, African-Americans and Asians. Those of us from European roots will just be another group. All of our churches need to help prepare to not only live in this future but receive and celebrate the gifts from other cultures as well.

In other words, the days of people with European roots running the world and the church are rapidly slipping away. While the churches in Western countries are overwhelmingly in decline, many churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America are growing at an explosive rate. Many of these churches are involved in reverse missions—planting churches in the United States, Canada and Britain. The leadership of the church will also increasingly shift to the majority world.

Clarkston Bible Church in Clarkston, Georgia, has already awakened to the new reality. Older white southern women in their Sunday finery find themselves worshiping with immigrants from the Philippines, Togo, refugees form war-torn Liberia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Afghanistan. Slowly, more and more churches are becoming much more like our richly multi-cultural world. But not only traditional churches are beginning to wake to this new reality. Young innovators are as well. Increasingly, multi-cultural leaders are beginning to come to the fore.

[...]

There are even a few mono-cultural churches that are beginning to question whether that model is fully biblical. Kingston United Reformed Church in Britain, comprised of Korean, Russian, Nigerian, Chinese and English members, has worked very intentionally to become a multicultural congregation. Pastor Leslie Charlton believes diversity is essential to being church. “You cannot call yourself a church if you are all the same.” She added, “It may be a nice group, but a church, like the kingdom of God, must have room for everybody.”

In Doug Lee’s church plant, called Catalyst in Culver City, California, the multiethnic congregation enjoys the rich gifts of several different cultures. People from the South Pacific Islands bring a spirit of warmth, welcome and generosity. African American members teach others about being fully present to God and highly invested in worship. Latino members remind the congregation of the importance of family and hospitality. And Asian members bring service without the need for recognition. Doug Lee says his church family is richer because of diverse gifts people bring.

[...]

Mustard Seed Associates hosted an evening with community activist Rudy Carrasco called “The Color of Love in the City” to start a conversation about what love looks like between communities. After Rudy shared his stories, Eliacín Rosario-Cruz led a discussion on race and culture. To my surprise, people from a range of different racial backgrounds shared very openly about both their pain and their attempts to live faithfully in a multicultural society.

One of the most innovative congregations in the US in the area of ethnic diversity is a church in Southern California actually called Mosaic. It is located in Los Angeles, California, where people from all over the world settle. The church responds to the challenge of a multi-cultural, postmodern, pluralistic and global community. Like the emerging church, they give a major piece of their life and mission to the arts; their group Urban Poets includes artists, dramatists and social innovators.

Most of the pastors of these churches are not content to just create interesting programs to meet the needs of people within the building. Like missional leaders, these church planters are intent on involving their members in word and deed ministries that impact the lives of people in their communities. Eugene Cho created a multicultural church plant in Seattle called Quest. Quest has been devoted to local and global mission from its inception. Their coffee shop, the Q Café, serves as a place to engage their community and a performance space for local artists. They work with the homeless and offer computer education classes for kids struggling in school as well as being involved in global initiatives.

As you can see from this brief overview, multicultural churches—along with the increasing number of immigrant churches—are going to be part of the growing edge of the Church in Western countries. This new mosaic stream is quite diverse, but what they all seem to share in common, like emerging churches, is their desire to a reach out to new generation. Like the missional churches they also see their mission much more focused on the needs of those beyond their congregation. We all need to pay more attention to what God is doing through the mosaic stream and explore new forms of collaboration that enable the church to lead in celebrating the gifts that will be a part of our richly multicultural future.

Micro finance

2008-05-03T18:06:00.001+02:00

I've been attracted to the idea of micro finance ever since I saw it in action in Uganda last year. The model was working really well, and empowered people to pull themselves out of poverty by using a peer-support system. I've recently come across a website - Grameen Foundation - which does a similar thing, and works alongside Micro Finance Institutions to to give them technical assistance. Has anyone seen examples of this model which work well?

Zimbabwe for the weekend

2008-04-21T19:53:00.001+02:00

2 of our group are heading to Zimbabwe this weekend to be with people and hear their stories. Just after hearing about this, I was emailed this post on the 24-7 prayer site, about a Canadian who talks about why she has moved to Zimbabwe, a nation in turmoil, while so many are leaving it, and her hope to see Jesus "impact and invade that nation for his glory."

I wish the South African government had done more about Zimbabwe; I wish the Church had done more; I wish I'd done more. All I'm doing now is praying for the crisis to be over, for life expectancy to rise and there to be food on the shelves again.

Good luck, guys!

Theology at FutureChurch

2008-04-19T19:25:00.001+02:00

So turns out I have a few other blogs - one of which is FutureChurch, where I blog about the future of the church in South Africa. I tend to write my theological reflections there - and more about what is happening at Pangani and NieuCommunities here. This last week I've got some posts out of my system...

While talking about what church could be during our book discussion yesterday, and where Christians would go for community if they left the institutional church, this post was written: Resisting assimilation into the Borg: the future of the church. I'm not really a Star Trek fan, but I thought the tongue-in-cheek metaphor was a not-so-serious fit!

On Tuesday we were looking at the first four books of the New Testament and it reminded me of the first century scholar - N.T. Wright's - research on the Gospel (or "Good News") which the first Christians proclaimed (and why it got them killed by Rome) - "Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not."

I've also recently concluded my series on Easter by looking at Jesus's resurrection on Easter Sunday - and why the Christian hope is that what G-d did with Jesus on that day he will eventually do with all of creation. Earlier posts in that series on are on Good Friday - the death of G-d by G-d - and Holy Saturday - whether following Jesus is worth it.

The last post in my recent return to blogging is on a podcast from the parent organisation of NieuCommunities: CRM. They had a discussion on the shift happening within the church today - away from attractional church and towards missional church.

Keeping the faith

2008-04-15T01:44:00.001+02:00

Apparently I don't like normal pictures. Don't know why...after all, my parents say I inherited their good looks...

Our rhythm for this year: the postures

2008-04-15T01:43:00.001+02:00

We have a number of ways to focus on different things as a community this year. One way is through the postures: 6 lots of 6 weeks which help us to orient our common life towards something specific. One definition of posture is a mental or spiritual attitude. For us they will look something like this:

Listening: Learning to listen to God, to our hearts, and to the culture around us.

Submerging: Being the hands and feet of Jesus in the neighborhoods we live in.

Inviting: Becoming fragrant followers of Jesus who gather people around a compelling story.

Contending: Fighting well for the lives and faith of those God has brought into our lives.

Imagining: Seeing and embracing what God has created for us and preparing to engage the next leg of our mission.

Entrusting: Preparing those we have served to go on with God and encouraging them to pass on what they've received.

A blatant rip-off of Chris's post - thanks Chris!

Louise Carver

2008-04-15T01:37:00.001+02:00

Perhaps instead of saying anything worthwhile, I'll publish all of those posts sitting in my drafts folder. This is us at a Louise Carver concert in February - what seems like ages ago. Part of the deal this year is submerging into local culture, and what better than Louise?! I'm hugging a tomato sauce bottle in the background. Go figure.

The Union Buildings

2008-04-15T01:34:00.001+02:00

Another fine picture of me at the seat of the South African government. This should probably make you wonder why you read my blog. Especially since I haven't posted much recently: getting a girlfriend will do that to you! And doing a 10-day training course...and staying in Soshanguve for 3 days...doing and learning so much right now, my discipline of blogging has relaxed. A little. That will pick up soon.

Dis-location/Re-location

2008-02-27T21:13:00.001+02:00

2 weeks ago I took a trip to the Joburg Art Gallery to see a highly recommended exhibition about a British woman's coming to terms with moving to South Africa in the late 19th century. It's fascinating, using the metaphor of roses as that which reminds her of her past, that which she cannot (at first) let go of, and the aloe plant as the symbol of submerging into her new context. It is a mixed media exhibition, involving wax sculptures, photographs, video, a tryptich...all arranged in an interesting way.

I think it's highly relevant to South Africans as well as anyone thinking through identity/enculturation issues. Let me know what you think! I found the following summary online somewhere:

Produced in collaboration with the South African design team Strangelove (Carlo Gibson and Ziemek Pater), Dis-Location / Re-Location is a traveling exhibition scheduled to tour to seven South African Museums as of June 2007 to May 2008.

Debate around identity construction an issue particularly relevant in contemporary South Africa, at a time when this society finds itself in a process of redefining and building a new integrated South Africa from the diverse amalgam of cultures that coexist here. This exploration extends into the questioning of what constitutes South African identities, in relation to South Africa's place within the post-colonial African continent. As a result of the demise of colonialism and apartheid, the terms 'belonging', 'home' and 'displacement' seem to be particularly ambivalent and highly contested.

In the work on the exhibition, Farber explores these ambivalences through a dialogical relationship between South African colonial histories and lived present experience. Farber uses her image as metonym for herself and Bertha Guttmann - a Jewess brought to South Africa from Sheffield in 1885, in order to enter into an arranged marriage with the Lithuanian immigrant to South Africa, entrepreneur Sammy Marks. Residues of British and Jewish ancestry are visually and audibly grafted together with current influences from the Pan-African, post-colonial environment of Johannesburg. Ambivalences around belonging, home and displacement within this post-colonial environment are negotiated in relation to the artist's second-generation immigrant status.

In the work on exhibition, the amalgam of Bertha Marks and Farber is represented as engaged in needlework activities, considered as 'women's work' in the Victorian era and as a signifier of 'femininity' through docility and labour. The craft of needlework is used as a metaphor for the protagonist's attempts to negotiate a sense of being 'African' within a post-colonial environment by attempting to 'graft' a new identity physically and psychologically into herself.

Bertha's bedroom in the Sammy Mark Museum, Pretoria, is the space of such self-induced transformation - a private space wherein the protagonist performs a series of physical and psychologically transformative acts upon her body. The physical room might be considered as a metaphoric 'transitional space', wherein unpredictable outcomes may emerge from the grafting of diverse materials and cultures to give rise to new, hybrid, identity formations.

My sister is getting married!

2008-02-27T20:35:00.002+02:00

Hooray! My sister Lyndi proved the family right by becoming the first of us three children to get married. Congratulations Lynd! She has chosen (or was chosen by?) Andre who has set up a website called "Lyndi said yes!"

I'm giving a talk on New Monasticism this Friday at TGIF, Brooklyn Mall

2008-02-25T00:19:00.001+02:00

Here's the outline of the talk I'm giving this Friday, titled "Monkey business" (haha). Thanks to those who have already let me know they're coming (Steve, Cobus, Cori, Luc, Bryan, Laura, Chris, Jody, Amanda, Kellie) - I'm hoping to meet a few others who are on the invite list (Dion?). 6:30am, Friday, Seattle Coffee Shop, Brooklyn Mall, Pretoria.

In the early days of Christian history a small number of men and women fled the corruption of the church to seek God in silence and simplicity in the desert. This was the start of monastic life - a way of seeking and serving God communally which has endured for over 1500 years.

More recently some have suspected that monastic life solves some of the main problems of Western existence: individualism, materialism and consumerism. As a result enough new communities have been formed that they go under the term "new monasticism."

Dispelling some common misunderstandings, Roger Saner will examine why more and more Protestants are learning from and adapting monastic life.

In spite of what his friends say about him, Roger is not a monk - although he lives in a new monastic community in Pretoria North. He is helping Thorsten design a new TGIF website and is moving into the field of interactive visual art. He blogs at www.futurechurch.co.za and boereworscurtain.blogspot.com

Going green

2008-02-19T00:28:00.001+02:00

Below is the list of ways our community is committed to being "green" this year.

1. 5 minute showers or less!
2. Save water washing dishes and clohting
3. Turn off lights when you leave a room
4. Compost
5. Vegetable garden
6. Walk or ride bikes
7. Car pool
8. Cook together
9. Eat less meat
10. Plant lime tree
11. Use non-chemical cleaning agents
12. Electricity free day
13. Carbon footprint
14. Set water heater to a timer
15. Place brick in each toilet tank to reduce water use

Carbon footprints

2008-02-18T21:29:00.001+02:00

We've been trying to do things to reduce our impact on the environment. Andrew (crazy guy from Virginia...in the States, but probably also the Free State) was tasked with researching carbon footprints sent us an email with some helpful information:

The term 'carbon offset' is used to describe the various actions we can take to counteract the CO2 pollution we create in daily life. Producing all that CO2 does things like rip holes in the ozone layer - that special atmospheric blanket which filters UV radiation. And radiation as you know cooks our DNA for breakfast and shits terminal cancer everywhere it goes.

SO. please think about what you can do to offset this environmental damage. In trying to average a seemingly endless supply of online websites, it looks something like this: americans (sorry jode canadians are worse) produce about 12,000 kgs of CO2 a year. A return flight from washington DC to joburg produces about 3000 kgs. per passenger. yowser.

Here's the links:

Carbon offsets Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offsets

Options to offset: http://www.carbonfootprint.com

Going carbon neutral (co2 credits):

http://www.pe-international.com/index.php?id=6085
http://www.liveneutral.org/co2_reduction_tips

TLF: an inner city ministry in Pretoria

2008-02-15T17:38:00.001+02:00

We visited the Tshwane Leadership Foundation in town a few weeks back and were met by Katerine, who took us around to a few places where they work with job creation, homeless rights and local churches. Good people.

Keeping up to date with the news

2008-02-15T17:08:00.001+02:00

This next week I'm focusing on listening more to others, and I'll be doing that through reading the newspaper (there's a local-ish Pretoria one we're about to subscribe to) and checking up on some online sites, which are:

The Reporter, a citizen-journalism site where anyone can write. Some articles are not well written but all of it is raw, (mostly) honest accounts of life in South Africa. See the 10 most popular stories this week.
Independent Online
News 24
South Africa: The Good News a weekly newsletter outlining the good things happening in SA in the last week
ANC Today, the ANC's weekly newsletter