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Home » Prospective Students » The Community at Luther Seminary » Blogs » Student Travel Blogs

Student Travel Blogs

Africa Group

Africa Blog

Join Luther seminarians Sanna Reinholtzen, Dorothy Tate and Linda Webster as they travel to Africa on a cross-cultural mission experience led by Prof. Fred Gaiser, during July and August of 2004.

Blog Entries

Saturday - July 17, 2004
    First Impressions
Sunday - July 25, 2004
    Sunday at Elsies River
Tuesday - July 27, 2004
    Another view of Cape Town

The Student Blog area of the Luther Seminary Web site contains personal Web logs (online journal entries) of Luther Seminary students. The information and opinions therein reflect individual thoughts, tastes and activities. They do not reflect official policies or positions of Luther Seminary.

Saturday - July 17, 2004 - top
First Impressions

Traveling to South Africa
Sanna Reinholtzen, Dorothy Tate, and I are traveling together from the Twin Cities to South Africa. It seems we will be arriving a day earlier than most the others. We think there will be someone picking us up at the airport, but we are not quite sure about this. The arrangements are that we will be staying at the Lutheran Youth Centre in Cape Town. We will make it to the Centre one way or another!

Through the graciousness of a fellow student, we arrived at the airport at 3:45 a.m. (the flight is leaving at 5:30 am) – only to find out the airline's check-in counter does not even open up until 4 a.m. At least getting through all the security stuff was a breeze as we were almost the first people through for the day! As quick as that we caught our flight to Atlanta where we hook-upped with South Africa Airlines for the second – final – and longest leg of our trip.

Our only stop along the way was at Cape Verde and that was about midnight local time. I don't know about you, but in a confined and cramped space I don't sleep really well. So, I ended up watching a number of the available movie selections on my own little, back-of-the-seat movie screen. What a hoot that was! I know – it doesn't take much to entertain me.

View from the front gate

First impressions in South Africa
Finally, we have arrived. It was a beautiful, warm day. How can this be winter? And, yes, indeed, there was a wonderful gentleman, Raymond, there to meet us at the airport. Settling our luggage and us into his nice red, right-hand drive van, he told us to sit back and trust the driving to him.

On the way to the Youth Centre, we stopped along the road to look at one of the distant squatter camps. You could see the electric lines, but Raymond said that the water is located only at water stations. The common lavatory facilities appeared to be outhouses. It is hard to believe that this is an improvement for many since 1994. I can see I have a lot to learn.

This is a beautiful place. The mountains and the ocean meet here in Cape Town. I can hardly wait to see more of the city.

When we reached the Lutheran Youth Centre we were warmly greeted by Mrs. Poole (I'm not sure what her title would be – manager?) who showed us which rooms we would be in. Church had just gotten out. Lunch, which we ignored because of tiredness, was just being served. I took a nap immediately and the others did after a nice cup of tea and a sit in the warm afternoon sun.

Lutheran Youth Centre in Cape Town

Evening excursion
Not being exactly sure about what we needed to do for dinner, we called Raymond and he took us to a mall. We might have been anywhere in the U.S. After bringing us inside, he left us on our own for a couple of hours! As we walked through, we marveled that the shops had different names, but they looked the same as those back home. We ended up having wonderful fresh seafood for dinner. Eventually, after talking with waiters and waitresses interested in who we are and where we came from, we met up with Raymond and went back to the Youth Centre. Finally, sleep!

God's peace to you all
– Your sister, Linda.

Sunday - July 25, 2004 - top
Sunday at Elsies River

It is Sunday morning and we met at Eureka Lutheran Church in Elsies River. I think this is considered to be a suburb of Cape Town, but it may just be a different part of the city. This place is vast in the area it covers!

Pastor Melando was there to greet us as we arrived with our host families, but then he had to go to another parish for the morning. So, the service we attended was lead by members of the congregation, including one who is a retired pastor.

Pastor and Mrs. Melando

It is wonderful that the service was partly in English and partly in Afrikaans. The hymns, even those in Afrikaans, were all very traditional until the very end when we did a call and response song in one of the African languages – there was clapping and movement and we all enjoyed it a great deal! Truly, this is what we have wanted to see and hear and experience – the freedom we have talked about that can be found within African worship. We praise God for our sisters and brothers within the churches here and for all of the generosity with which they have welcomed us. It was hard to say good-bye to all these new friends we have made.

Sunday afternoon we took some time to talk about the days we spend with our host families. Each of our experiences was unique. But, the one thing we all experienced in common was the graciousness of our hosts.

It is hard to believe that we have been here almost one week. This coming week looks to be one filled with many trips and talks with church leaders and others within the academic and civic community.

Before I end this short note, I just want to say that I continue to be amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of poverty that is all round. Shacks can be found almost anywhere outside of the immediate City Centre area in Cape Town. Even near the Lutheran Youth Centre where we are staying there is a small cluster of shacks.

Please keep South Africa in your thoughts and prayers as people from every walk of life struggle to find answers to the questions of poverty, unemployment, and HIV/AIDS.

God's peace to you all from your sister in Christ,
Linda

Tuesday - July 27, 2004 - top
Another view of Cape Town

Today we had free time in the morning and for lunch and, then, we headed back to the Youth Centre to meet a visitor in the afternoon. We split into a couple of groups. Some went off to the beach (not me!) and some took the bus into City Centre (Jean, Dorothy, Sanna, Dr. Gaiser, Dr. Ludwig, and me).

On several previous trips into Cape Town City Centre, we have passed several Internet cafes, but the one we found that seemed fairly inexpensive was "closed for repairs" today. The fellow there very kindly directed us to another one that was just around the corner on a side street. What a find that was! The computers were modern and the connections were fast. It made surfing through several weeks of e-mails almost a breeze of each of us!

After that, as a group (minus Dr. Ludwig who was still e-mailing away!) we moved to the Green Street Market to look, again, at the wares there. Jean went to one of the adjacent museums, where Sanna and I followed after about an hour. There were a number of Rembrandt's etchings. One that really impressed me was a depiction of the Prodigal Son.

Rembrandt did a painting of this same parable that is hanging in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. (If you haven't already read it, Henri Nouwen wrote a wonderful book about this painting and the parable.) But, the etching is very different from the painting. In this etching the son truly looks like the abject person that I imagine him to be, being very thin and having few clothes. As I reflect on this now, the etching depicts – to me – much of the poverty I see around me here in South Africa. It is an outward poverty and destitution. The painting does not show the same extreme outward poverty, but seems to be more reflective of an inward destitution – one of the inward being. I feel this depicts some of the "poverty" that surrounds us in the USA – poverty of the soul and of the mind – which is reflected in the way we choose to live – lives that are full of acquiring things and using others, but lack moral, ethical, and spiritual depth. (Don't misunderstand me, though. We still have abject poverty in the USA, too.)

I am coming to stronger realizations that, daily, I need God's salvation to save me from my sinful, self-centered self. I say this not to "beat myself up," but with the growing realization of Christ's daily laying down his own life for the sake of others, that everyday that God in human form – Jesus Christ – lived on earth he was taking up his cross, putting aside the vestiges of Godhood to live in human flesh – all for the sake of "the other" who became his friends, his companions – those he loved and died for. This was not theoretical. This was not an experiment. This was the practical reality of dying to oneself, so that others might live. In reality, how many "comforts" in my life could I give up so that others might have food, clothing, somewhere to live, and earn a living wage? These are questions I continue to ask myself. Might you be willing to ask those same questions of yourself? Please try. I pray that God will help us all be honest in our self-examination.

Father Michael Lapsley

An hour or two of our afternoon was spent talking with an Anglican priest who has been part of the move against apartheid in South Africa and the move to healing and wholeness in the new democracy. Fr. Michael Lapsley is the director of The Institute for Healing of Memories, which is located in Cape Town. He was the victim of a letter bomb sent by the former South African government. He lost both of his hands and use of one of his eyes from this attack. The focus of his work is to help others who, like himself, are not able through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to face those who have directly wounded them. He is amazing in that he does not seem to harbor any bitterness or anger. The Institute helps others to try to come to this same place through workshops that sound like they are intensive and very needed for many.

Keep South Africa,