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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Culture.

This weekend is a blur. The days have been going by unusually fast lately. We went to the mall on Saturday and walked around. When we get into the city, it makes me feel normal again. Being in the mall with hundreds of other people makes me feel somewhat normal. It reminds me that YWAM Durban isn't "life"... and that there's more to life than YWAM Durban. It makes me also kinda feel like I'm at home in the US again. The hustle and bustle of life refreshes me. To some extent, the chaos of life revitalizes me I think. Odd, I know. 

Last week's lecture was on cultural redemption. Our teacher was a white South African woman. We did several exercises to show the differences and similarities in our cultures. In the DTS that I'm staffing there are 2 Canadian students, 2 South African students, 1 American student, and 1 English student. It's really interesting to hear where the South Africans are coming from and it was great to share a bit of my culture with everyone. I mean, yes, I am in South Africa. I am here to experience South African life HOWEVER, I am still a North American woman. I cannot leave every piece of who I am behind because I'm in a different country. I don't expect anyone to lay down who they are because I'm from another country. Wouldn't it be amazing if I could bring my culture to the table and the South Africans could bring theirs and we could learn to adapt to each other. We could learn things from one another instead of argue who's right and wrong? Hmm... seems ideal to me.

So the most exciting thing that happened today was that Mia got some dry erase markers and colored on the wall in our lecture room. I almost died. There are 2 little kids that live on base (their parents are on staff) and they came and told me that Mia was coloring... on the wall. Mia was so surprised to see me when I walked into the lecture room. Thank God all the art came off the walls. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I love and miss you guys. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad you got to go into the city and go to the mall. That is funny about Mia drawing on the wall. Jakob has not tried that yet, but most kids do!! Love ya, Kathy

Anonymous said...

Kristen, I usually don't leave a comment, but I just wanted to let you know that I've been reading your blog for a while. You, through Christ's strength, are such an inspiration to me. When I get so down on myself for all the consequences I'm dealing with for the few months of bad decisions, I just start thinking of our friendship and how much you and what you've done with your life has encouraged me. We are doing the Louie Giglio study WIRED for Worship right now and I was journaling on CREATION. I found myself finally writing out into words that I don't understand WHY God created me, for what purpose? for what reason? I used to be so sure of that and now everything seems so confusing. Thank you for being a rock of an example Kristen. I love you and miss you a lot!
~Somer