update 4

Johannesburg has been a cool town. We have a gracious host and we've met some great people. Our host is Irving Steggles, a local reformed baptist minister. Pastor Dickie gave a great message on Sunday night about some basics of evangelism. I think the young congregation appreciated the message, particularly two young brothers that waited a long while before speaking with Pastor after the service. Pastor and I both slept like rocks last night. The 13 hour flight messed us up a bit, but today we were back on track.

We started the day with breakfast with some neighbors. They're missionaries from England and they've got some crazy stories from their trips in "the bush." When they say "bush," they're not referring to one star hotels. They've got some funny stories involving snakes, leopards, natives, and other crazy characters. They've done some great work. We then went to a monument erected for the dutch people that defended their property from Zulu warriors in the 19th century ("their property" is still open for debate here). Looking at the history, it's very much the same as the American history with native americans. In the American's effort to expand the frontier, they ran into Indians that were there first. Conflict ensued. Indians lost. There was some strong imagery at the monument of the "savages" murdering innocent women and children. History is indeed written by the victors.

Before touring the monument, Steggles drove us through a poor area in J-burg. It was by far the poorest area I've ever been. The homes were a complete wreck and were barely suitable for being considered bathrooms. The homes were all makeshift. A few walls were just thrown together and a tin roof was tied to the top. It was crazy. Before we got to that spot, I asked Steggles what the South African government does. It really seems like they do absolutely nothing. Grass never gets cut, the people dare not walk around at night due to the crime, there are barbed wire fences around all the homes, there is no unemployment insurance (and when you've got 40% unemployment, that's a problem), education stinks, an alleged rapist gets elected president... It's amazing at how broken the South African government has become. And in Zimbabwe, just north of here, the leader is killing white farmers to "take back" the land that was stolen a century ago. The motto is one bullet per farmer. And since all the farm land has been confiscated as rewards for Mugabe's cronies, no one knows how to produce food, which means one in three kids in Zimbabwe starves to death. It's an absolute mess. And the folks in South Africa are fearful of a similar fat if this new leader does the same thing. It would be like the Native Americans coming into power and killing everyone on their land and then saying "ok, so who here knows how to farm." So count yourself lucky being an American where the government somewhat heeds and respects its citizenry.

We're off to a game park tomorrow to see some wildlife. I only plan on taking a 30 minute jog while in the park, so I'm not worried about getting eaten....



ok, so that was ajoke. Mainly for my mother. Our guide is picking us up at 5 and we'll be doing a bike tour in the park....another joke. Again, for my mother. We'll be safe in a car. It's been pretty cool in the weather here, so we're supposed to see a lot of game as they come out from the shade. I'm very excited! It's supposed to be a gorgeous park. Maybe I'l find my darwinian ancestors (another joke).