Literary Expeditions: Hands On, TB Debate, and Iron Man

Followers of the blog!

I hope that everyone is doing well and starting to enjoy the good weather! Unfortunately, on this side of the world we are starting to move out of our summer and sunshine. There is a bite in the air every morning and winter is fast approaching. In Port Elizabeth winters are usually very windy and quite chilly, so in preparation I have decided to grow a beard:).

This blog is to give a short update of the goings-on in Port Elizabeth over the past couple of weeks.

My dear intern, housemate Barrett has been out of town visiting Cape Town and Kruger National Park with her mother, so I have been left to my own devices at home. Although, it has felt a little bit lonely I have taken to a lot of reading. I have become enthralled with the famous fantasy series, Game of Thrones and a book entitled Umlungu (white person) in a township. Both have been engrossing reads and have made the stay at home by myself a little easier.

I have been volunteering on the weekends with another non-profit organization in Port Elizabeth called Hand On. The mission of the organization is to give back a little bit to the community in the form of manual labor-mainly painting. I have helped out with two different projects. For our first project we painted two classrooms in a school in one of the Townships: JK Zondi. I was responsible for the doing most of the rolling which I actually found very relaxing. We are still in the midst of the second project; working in a foster home where we have painted a boys room and are still busy peeling off paint in the girls room (humbling work that garners much needed respect). Although, both projects are beneficial for the community, I feel strongly that the projects are important personally for myself to intentionally give a small amount of my time on a Saturday morning. It slowly is sharpening my servant's heart a little bit more for the Lord, but at the same time I must not allow the pride that can develop serving others to fester and control my motives. I want my heart to be a heart of service in reflection of the way that Jesus gave his life to serve us.

Painting in a Foster Home in Despatch

Scrapping paint is not easy!

In other exciting news...last week Grassroot Soccer was able to partner with Red Cross South Africa in a high school debate. Eight different schools from the townships participated in a very lively debate concerning Tubercuolisis and HIV. The debate went very well and it was nice opportunity for GRS to be a part of an event outside of our normal routine. We are hoping in the future that we can continue to be a part of events that Red Cross supports and that they can support the programs that we run. The day was filled with songs and was a very lively atmosphere, however everything ran just a little bit longer than expected so we were there the entire day. Some of the sample questions were:
1. Does everyone who has TB also have HIV?
2. Can someone infected with TB or HIV live the same, healthy life as someone who is not infected?
3. Should someone with TB be set apart from society for the duration of their incubation period?

The debate for and against was very lively and the children really got into it. If you want to know the 'correct' answers to these questions just send me an email at matthus2008@gmail.com

Yesterday was a very fun day for Port Elizabeth. The annual Iron Man race took place in the city and was quite the event. Participants started swimming at seven in the morning for 3.86kilometres. Then cycled for 180.25 kilometres and finally finished the event by running a marathon (42.2km). All of the streets were shut down for the event, so I grabbed my backpack and walked along the course watching the amazing feat that these athletes were taking part in. It really is tremendous to see everyone race for 8+ continuous hours.