The View From Here - Pt 4

I really like these winter days before the rains come. After a few pleasant days the Northwester has picked up and is now pumping right across the Helderberg basin as it brings the rain ever closer.

Calm After The Storm - For Now

Alfred sent another SMS this morning saying:

"Praise God the situation looks calm on our side. But some are still hungry for violence."

We really thank God for keeping Alfred and his family safe.

This afternoon I met Eduardo from Angola. He rocked up at the office looking desperate and confused.

MTB Photo

Here's a photo from my most recent mountain bike race, more can be seen here.

The weather was glorious even though the ride was tough.

We had a great time that weekend, see: Weekend below for more.

Friends & Foes

Last night I spoke to my friend Alfred, a Zimbo' living in a local township, as I wanted to check he was OK and to offer him & his wife accommodation if they needed it. Alfred told me that he'd managed to get his four kids to safety out of the township but he and Pauline were staying. He had arranged a house swap with a friend in the community (a South African national) in the hope that his house would not be attacked. One has to admire the bravery of Alfred's friend! I made Alfred promise that if he got into trouble he'd call me and I would go and pick him up. Alfred used to be a part of my men's bible study in CNP until his work commitments prevented him from attending.

A Spade Is A Spade

Let's be clear about just what is happening here in South Africa.

RACISM IS RAMPANT!

We've had stories about white students in Bloemfontein abusing Res' cleaners and urinating in the food, and now we have stories about neighbours turning on neighbours. Looting their houses, burning them and in some instances burning their neighbours.

South Africa is a deeply racist nation and needs to get a grip of the issues involved and do something to address them before the next generation adopt their parents attitudes and perpetuate the racism that is so deeply ingrained across all sections of society. Blacks, White and Coloured South Africans are all deeply racist!

Township Riots

International news agencies have been running stories of township violence in South Africa over the last few days. What is particularly shocking is that this violence is purely discriminatory as it's directed at foreigners living in the townships. Nigerians, Somalians and Zimbabweans seem to be some of the worst affected. In essence the people in these townships are behaving exactly the same as the white oppressor did during the apartheid years, this is the real tragedy!

Weekend

We had a great weekend in Montagu. Dean was riding the big race so we decided to go back to Joel's favourite place 'in the country' - Farmer Koos's farm. We took the boys straight from school on Friday and enjoyed a fantastic lunch on route - just look at that view! It was wonderfully warm and very relaxing. The boys simply loved pottering around the farm and Eli was often gone for up to an hour making himself at home with the animals/machinery.