I am writing this post from home. Hello from cold rainy Langley! I definitely miss the warmth of South Africa. :) Anyways, I felt one more African blog was in order, so here are a few highlights from my last few weeks.
e United Lutheran Harvest Thanks giving Service took place at the beginning of November in Ikageng. I was excited to return there since I spent most of September and October there. We went in a bus--which was packed, especially with kids! Unfortunately the weather decided not to cooperate and about 3/4 of the way through the service it started to rain...a lot! Did I mention the service was in a tent? ...well, 2 tents actually. Fortunately, though, we had just finished up when the wind blew one of the tents over! But even that didn't dampen too many spirits, instead we started singing a song about being lifted up... :)
On one of my days off, I got the chance to be a tourist for a few hours! A friend and I went to Soweto and visited Nelson Mandela's house and the apartheid museum. Being a historian, I enjoyed it! I need to do some more studying about South Africa and apartheid though. I might know the basic details, but there's always more to learn!The weekend before I left, I got the chance to r
evisit Maskiet. It was great to go back and see everyone, but sad because the reason I went was for a funeral. Funerals in South Africa are a bit different than in North America. They generally start Friday evening with a night vigil. There is singing and speaking and more singing and more singing! The one I attended started about 10 pm and wound down by about 3 am. Then, at 7 am the funeral service starts either at the house of the deceased or at the church. After the service, everyone goes to the graveyard. The graveyard service doesn't end until the grave is filled back in and covered with rocks. The two services usually conclude by about 10 am. At that point, everyone returned to the house for food. Everyone is fed by the family of the deceased. The funeral I attended had a dead cow and goat in the garage. The meat slowly disappeared off the bones as the weekend progressed. Chicken was also served as well as vegetables and porridge. Funerals in Africa are not cheap!
evisit Maskiet. It was great to go back and see everyone, but sad because the reason I went was for a funeral. Funerals in South Africa are a bit different than in North America. They generally start Friday evening with a night vigil. There is singing and speaking and more singing and more singing! The one I attended started about 10 pm and wound down by about 3 am. Then, at 7 am the funeral service starts either at the house of the deceased or at the church. After the service, everyone goes to the graveyard. The graveyard service doesn't end until the grave is filled back in and covered with rocks. The two services usually conclude by about 10 am. At that point, everyone returned to the house for food. Everyone is fed by the family of the deceased. The funeral I attended had a dead cow and goat in the garage. The meat slowly disappeared off the bones as the weekend progressed. Chicken was also served as well as vegetables and porridge. Funerals in Africa are not cheap!
1 comment:
Very interesting blog you have here!
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