Water Drama

Just slipping in a note about how our week is going. It’s been drama week with the landlady. Here’s some advice; if you don’t want to open a can of worms, try not to catch your landlady sneaking your water to feed the horses. Somehow it will end up being your fault, and, as the landlady might say, “You’re in Africa!” Whatever that means. We're trying to show kindness in the face of....unkindness. What is that verse that says..."But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head" ?
Burning coals....sounds great.

>:)

Otherwise, it’s been a great week. Its warm now and all the baby animals are out being mowed over by gale force winds. Poor things.
Randy is doing some light reading (Dead Sea Scrolls and Hermeneutics) and I’m working on my next novel. But I need to do a little philosophical reading first. Anyone have Philosophy for Dummies?

This is what the dogs are doing……..

Denise!

I met Denise when I was 20 years old. That’s a long time ago! We waitressed together in a Blues and BBQ joint in Lubbock: Stubbs. (some of you have been there; Lizzy, Paige)
Denise could carry nine plates without a tray. She was amazing. I wish I had my old pictures here to dig through because I know I have some…colorful ones. Denise married Jerry, a long-haired musician, and together they’ve had a crazy life with all their dogs. A while back they sold their house, bought an RV and toured the country for a year selling BBQ off the side of the road. (And y’all thought we were nuts!). After a year, they came back, gave the RV to charity and trying to decide what to next.
I haven’t seen Denise in years, and yet she tracked me down and has sent us a package. Isn’t she great?! I miss her. Everyone pray that her package gets here. Its 15 pounds of fun and I can’t wait to open it!!

Meet Melissa....

I think everyone in my life knows who Melissa is. You’ve seen her influence in the clothes I wear and the paintings I do. Well, here she is. Isn’t she fun?
(her with her best friend)

Melissa grew up on the south side of Chicago in the craziest environment that I’ve ever heard of. She can handle more chaos than any one person should be capable of handling. Last year she flew down to Lubbock with me to go to my brother’s art show and my family loved her and she loved them. I will be eternally grateful for that experience.

(Melissa with her sister)

For my birthday this year she sent me a package full of the kind of things that make my eyes twinkle. Long embroidered socks! Brownies! Vintage-style pot-holders! People Magazine! I am so lucky to know her and I appreciate the way she’s impacted my life.

(her with her husband)

Friends

For those of you who’ve read her comments, this is what Tamara looks like. Isn’t she cute? She is married to Jeff and they have a boy named Marcus. (sorry so blurry!)

We met at College Church in Wheaton and have been friends ever since. Jeff went through the same exegesis program that Randy went through.

Tamara is the queen of going to the Post Office. She is so good at sending little envelopes full of goodies. Little packets of flavored coffee, Twizzlers, etc. We love them and appreciate them!

Andrew and Cristin

This week we’d like to introduce everyone to a few of the people who have encouraged us beyond belief with packages and emails etc. It’s so exciting to get something in the mail from the States. When it happens, I turn into a ridiculous, giddy, spaz and Randy says, “Nice.”

We *love* Andrew and Cristin! Since we’ve been gone they’ve sent us several packages full of things that make us happy! Just so you know, Andrew is my brother and Cristin is Randy’s sister. They have been married for 10 years. How crazy is that?

Over the years they have spent their vacations with us in Chicago. They are not just our siblings, they are our companions in life! Cristin takes care of our finances (which are still in The States) and Andrew continues to respond when I bombard him with questions about Photoshop. What would we do without them?

By the way, when are y’all coming?

Turkyless Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Life is going on as usual here today. Nobody I know is cooking a turkey. People here should really consider having Thanksgiving (and inviting us over for it). It’s cold and windy again so we’ll all stuck inside. We can’t keep the dogs off of us when it’s cold like this.

But we’re good and happy and thankful. I'm thankful that the dogs are here and Randy is thankful that he has been able to devote all his time to his studies. We're both thankful for this experience, even when its stressful. We're thankful that in such a big, lost world, God gave us the faith to love His Son! What can we possibly complain about? (I guess you could just read back through my old blogs to answer that question)

Randy is studying today and I’m drawing (and trying to shove the Wump off my lap)

Y'all eat turkey for us and somebody in our family think of me when you're eating Cristin's green-bean casserole. And if Sue makes that Raspberry Crumble stuff, I don't want to hear about it. And Mama, I miss you and your Rat-Tart. (and siblings, I love you! And miss you.)
Heather

Daisy

Obviously I have nothing intelligent to share this week. Maybe I just need some virtual

conversation.

I did have an interesting experience today. I went to the store to get some Thanksgiving Chocolate (seeing that we don’t have a stove and we are often as thankful for cheap chocolate as we are for just about anything else we consume).

To start the story, I have to tell you about a house in Monkey Valley, right between our house and the beach. Monkey Valley is the stretch of old rich estates all tucked into the mountain, connected by Monkey Valley road. It’s an old brick road completely enclosed in a canopy of trees. Halfway down the road is my *favorite* house. I call it the Apocalypse Now house because of its ancient stone and cement steps and the fact that it’s on a hill. There is also a bizarre line of palm trees standing guard in front. I don’t know, it just reminds me of that movie….

I like it because it’s a ruin-of-a-place in the middle of a road full of perfectly manicured richness; the most beautiful road in the area. A long time ago, it was someone’s castle. Now, it’s mysterious. I always think, Who lives there? I’ve taken a bunch of pictures before, but they don’t do it justice.

It’s rainy and cold and dreary today. On the way home from the store, I saw a young black girl standing on the side of the road with her thumb out. There’s always a line of guys, and a few women. So I pulled over for the girl (and shooed the men off). I’ve seen her around before. She’s probably in her early 20’s.

I tried talking to her and she kept looking at me like I was crazy. You could tell she was used to silence in the car. She told me she lived in Monkey Valley and then laughed when I squealed over the fact that she lives in my favorite house. I told her I walk by almost every day just to look at it. I was so glad to see that a black family lives there. Her name is Daisy and she has blue braids. Maybe I’ll see her again and she’ll invite me into her cool house (if she doesn’t still think I’m a complete lunatic).

Boring Tuesday Blog

We’ve been pretty busy lately. Apparently, we’re the type of people who like to run around in circles only to remember that running around in circles makes us dizzy and cranky. We’ve had several people in here looking at our apartment. The couple last night just moved here after spending 11 years in the Himalayas (strange people), and a couple today just moved here from Dubai (nice people). Interesting. We’ve looked at several apartments now. Today we looked at a little farmhouse that was spectacular. High ceilings, old brick floors, two huge bedrooms, a garden, etc. It was also closer to Stellenbosch. But it didn’t come with a stove or a fridge and it isn’t furnished. So, it wasn’t for us. Maybe God has us where we are for a reason. We decided to stop running in circles for the time being.

I’ve been doing my usual chores. Working full time always gave me a great excuse to not grocery shop. I was not born to shop for food. But I do it now. And the Launderette is in the grocery store building so I can get everything knocked out in one whack. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my trip to Pick ‘N Pay and back.

This is my bag-O-laundry

This is me trying not to back over the landlady's dog

Going out the gate

Driving on the weird side of the road

The lovely supermarket

Parking Lot Guys

Driving home again

Waiting at the gate

Wumpy waiting for me in the window

Was that a thrill a minute or what?

Travels

Yesterday we ran into the city to do a couple of errands. We keep hearing about the “Waterfront” from everyone, so we decided to go check it out. It’s basically a big tourist attraction on the coast of Cape Town. It was beautiful, but the entire area was stuffed full of people with giant camera’s strapped around their necks. (old men with white shorts and long socks)

The most interesting sight on the Waterfront, was the seating area of a small outdoor amphitheater. It was sectioned off into two parts. There was a township school sitting on one side and a Suburb school on the other.

Considering that whites only make up 13% of the population here, I thought this next picture was a good representation of South Africa’s population statistics.

Anyway, this morning we went and looked at that other apartment. The area was beautiful, but the “apartment” was basically a garage. There was a counter top with a microwave/stove-top thing sitting on it, and a hotel fridge. It was (more or less) similar to our currant set-up, but half the size and no windows. Stemray (the landlord) was such a nice guy, but I think I’d go crazy in a cinder-block garage with no windows….

On the way back we stopped at this little country convenient store and Randy ran inside to get a couple of cokes. There was a woman standing on the side of the building (where our car was parked). She had a baby and another daughter with her, plus four bags of groceries. All of a sudden this man stumbles out of nowhere, swaying and talking nonsense, and then he stands in front of the little girl and starts crying into his fist. She just looked at him like, “I have to deal with weirdo’s like you everyday.”

But then, a hooker and two scraggly men come out from behind the building, and one of the guys starts bothering the lady while the other one stands in front of the car and points at me and the dogs. So when Randy returns to the car, there’s a whole circus of issue-ridden people just hanging out, staring at me, staring at the poor lady and little girl. So we got the lady to get into the car with her kids and groceries. The dogs were with us, so they both had to sit on my lap. Together, all 7 of us drove to where this woman was staying. ( I think it was a warehouse).

Thats about it for our Friday and Saturday....

Prettiness

Just when I thought we were having a boring week….

Randy took Enkidu out and said, “Heather, come look.”

I went outside and the sunset was pretty. But then I looked out towards the beach and I was floored.

We chunked Enkidu back in the house, grabbed the camera, jumped in the *Benz* and literally sped to the beach. (this one was taken on the road)

We got there as several other people our age were jumping out of their cars with cameras. It was spectacular.

Dumb dog

This is, unfortunately, the extent of our excitement for the week.

Wumpus doesn’t bark. He roars. Like, he literally says the word “roar”. It sounds like this, “Roar-roar-roar”.

Anytime I talk to one of the horses, Wumpy roars. I don’t know why. He’s just a freak.

Now when I want a little entertainment I just say, “Hi Ginger!” and Wumpus goes nuts. And it’s so loud. If any of you have heard Enkidu respond to the word Architect, this is even louder. It’s ridiculous really.

This weekend should be more interesting.

Tomorrow we have a couple of errands to run in the city, so I'm going to try to get more pictures. On Saturday we're going to look at another flat in the wine country near Stellenbosch. The landlord's name is Stemray(?). He wants us to bring the dogs so he can look at them and decide. Pray for us that nobody poops on the carpet.

Blacks, Whites, and Animals

Driving around this area, I can understand why South Africa has such a problem with the redistribution of wealth (theft). Every house in our neighborhood is on a beautiful plot of land (guarded by dogs and an iron fence). The paths seem to be populated entirely by blonde girls and their ponies.

On Saturday, we walked to the market and there was a big TEARS (animal welfare) hoopla going on. The place was packed. I am an animal lover, but I found the whole thing so irritating that I had to leave. It’s amazing how much time and energy the upper class put into the animals. The streets are lined with “Don’t run over the toads!” signs and “Watch out for horses!” But I have yet to see a “People crossing” sign anywhere near Site 5.

Site 5 is what the whites call the township that is less than a mile from our house. The blacks call it Masiphumelele, or “We Shall Succeed”. There is a large mosaic sign at the entrance, but most people around here refuse to give it a legitimate name. It is simply Site 5.

Over 30,00 people live in Masiphumelele. These are a few small shots I took, but there are more to come. Its hard to believe that in an area of the country that can raise hundreds of thousands of Rands for animal charity, there are children starving and dying of AIDS. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people here have AIDS and by the year 2008, there will be more than 2 million orphans in South Africa.

I think most people here are desensitized to the horrific poverty around them. Many of them are jaded by all the crime. I just hope that in the time we live here, this reality never ceases to shock us. Hopefully God will open up more opportunities (and hopefully I'll be brave enough to take them).....(Randy's not scared of anything)

:)

The City

Friday was a good day. We drove into Cape Town with Jim and Julianna to explore and eat dinner. This is along the road to get there.

We stopped by their apartment first. My favorite tree is in their yard!

It felt great to be in a city again. I remembered all the things I loved and hated about Chicago. More loves than hates. The shops were incredible and the outdoor market was a place I could really shell out the rands. (But I didn’t. I was good)

Cape Town is very exotic. It was an interesting sensation to be walking hand-in-hand with my husband in an African city. What a great experience to share together. I kept looking at him and saying, “Isn’t this cool?”

I should have taken more city pictures, but I felt weird whipping out the camera on a crazy down-town street. The buildings are old and beautiful and the houses are bright, fun colors.

Everything is smashed together and the hills are steep. It’s like an even more surreal version of San Francisco.

We walked through a park downtown with some seriously funky trees.

Then we stopped and had coffee, then drove up the mountain (that is in the city itself).

Afterwards, we had dinner reservations at Marco’s African Place. It was extremely…African. I have never really had African food, so I was excited. They do a lot of weird meats. Like Crocodile tale and Ox tongue. I had veal and man, was it good.

It was fun being with Jim and Julianna. They both make me laugh and we all know how much I love amusement.

Then we drove back over the mountain to come home. The whole city is spread out directly below the precarious road we have to take. I tried taking a nighttime picture, which is hard considering we’re flying around harrowing bends and the wind is whipping the camera around and the shutter is taking its sweet time.

Lovely, no?

PS-Sorry so many pictures of me. Randy is a "behind the camera" person.
:)

Fun for Heather

Today was one of those days where I didn’t feel like being conscious. It was a down-day. I got up at six, but then went and buried my head in the pillow a couple of hours later. Finally Randy came and jumped up and down on the bed to make me go do something fun with him. Getting me to put my shoes on and walk out the door almost required the use of a cattle-prod, but he succeeded.

We went to Stellenbosch to walk around and get a few papers (we’re thinking of moving there when this lease is up). It’s a beautiful, strange town. I would love to live there. We walked around campus and took a few pictures. Here is the school’s seminary.

And here is the campus commons.

On our way back to the car we walked right through the Stellenbosch botanical gardens.

The weather was nice and I got to eat a banana and bacon sandwich from a cheap little deli. Randy wanted a hamburger, but they didn’t have any beef. “We do have a savory mince pancake, if you’d like.”

So I feel a little better now. I guess sometimes when you’re living on a funny-farm in South Africa, loneliness likes to smack you over the head with a blunt object.
Loneliness isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s helped me to change every time I’ve experienced it in a big way. Thankfully I have a husband who can deal with my gloomy days.
"Why don't you go paint something!"
Maybe when I start looking for a literary agent I can put this personality trait on my writing resume; "Occasionally angst-ridden." That ought to sell a few books. :)

no email

hey y'all.
I won't have email for a couple of days, so if you need anything....send a letter.
:)
(or contact Randy)

The Cliff

We hung out with our Americans tonight. It’s unbelievable how satisfying it is to have a set of normal friends here and to think that God drew us to the same place at the same time. Jim and Julianna are crazy enough to go along with our ideas, which we like and appreciate.

I wanted to pack a picnic and hike up Chapman’s Peak Drive (while the road is still closed due to falling boulders) and eat on the cliff overlooking the ocean. It’s magnificent. The pictures don’t do it justice.

We made pitas and took cokes and chocolate and basically had the road to ourselves. It wasn’t cold out, and the sun was still up, but the wind was crazy. We could sit on the rock wall overlooking the water but eating there was another story. I didn’t feel like swallowing the hair which was whipping around my face, so we decided to sit in the middle of the road to eat. The rock wall blocked some of the wind. It was a nice relaxing evening, eating pitas in the middle of a highway, by a cliff on the edge of the African continent.

deutsch is deutsch for German and German is English for deutsch

Durch mein im Februar 1907 erschienene Studie über den Text des Spetuagint-Psalters (Sept.-Studien 2) überzeugt, daß ich ‘den Beruf habe, die von Lagarde verlangte methodische Erforschung der Septuaginta in die Hand zu nehem’ (Theol. Literaturzeitung 33, Sp. 132), veranlaßte Rudolf Smend im Verein mit seinem Freunde Julius Wellhausen und dem Ministerialdirektor Friedrich Althoff die am 4. März 1908 in einer gemeinsamen Sitzung von Berliner und Göttinger Gelehrten im Preußischen Kultusministerium erfolgte Grundung des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, das anfangs nur von den Akademien zu Berlin und Göttingen getragen, dann aber zu einer Unternehmung des Kartells der deutschen Akademien erhohen und seit 1911/12 vom Deutschen Reiche, Preußen, Bayern und Saschen finanziert wurde.

Above is the first sentence of the forward (Vorwort) to an important work in my research. There are “scads” of such sentences thereafter.

Let me offer an "illustrative" explanation:

The intrinsically recursive nature of the German sentence, and hence the syntactic descriptor often applied to it – Satzklammer (clause construction bracket) - allows one, mind you in typically literary and academic expressions, to subjoin, append, infix, or commit some other conceivable permutation and/or mutilation, endlessly, any number of overloaded adjectival clauses to virtually any part of speech, bracketing them within clauses, and bracketing those clauses within clauses, theoretically ad infinitum, until at some point one reaches "the" final verb, – and hence the initial confusion as to what the true “subject” of the clause was and by extension the meaning of the sentence that required more or less “full context” for its comprehension in the first place – but "the" final verb is but a quest for the uninitiated and is only satisfying and understandable to the reader when one, ostensibly, looks to the end of the sentence, if even that can be so determined, for the “controlling-albeit -perhaps- with -“overloaded -adjectival clause(s)" -and-of-course- adverbially-modified" finite verb, which may or may not correspond to the grammatical subject of the sentence, after those initial irritating moments of consideration are exhausted.

The nice element to all of this is that German offers a certain “precision” intrinsic to the language system that allows one to convey numerous ideas within a complexive amalgam, whereas in the English language one must be highly conscious of word order and the ordering of ideas for clear communication. Get it?

This reminds me of Mark Twain’s famous quote:

“Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”