Speaking Zulu and Spirituality

Before

As usual life on the farm is busy and unpredictable. I have been very busy with the coming of a new horse Jack Frost, a Marimba band grades 5-7, and general administrative tasks the past week. A week and a half ago however I was not on the farm. I was picked up by the MCC team and taken to Pietermaritzburg to stay at the prison for a week. As a group, we did the very first Color Run in Maritzburg. It was so much fun! I fit in very well with my handmade, hot pink tutu and we all had a blast getting pelted with color every kilometer. We also spent an afternoon at a Butterfly House and the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary. It was a lovely week of seeing some sights and having some down time from work.

During

After

Butterflies for Africa

Our main mission for being in they city however was because it was time for our first round of language school. Dinar, who finally arrived just before I came to the city, and myself, took isiZulu lessons. We live in a province called KwaZulu-Natal and one of the main languages is Zulu, so many people I interact with on a daily basis speak this language fluently, for many it was their mother tongue. Sokea took Swahili lessons, a language spoken in many places around the continent of Africa. Sokea works at a refugee center and many of them are from Tanzania where the national language is Swahili, therefore, it will greatly help her to connect with her clients to speak some of their language. As for Dinar and me, we have to seek out opportunities to speak Zulu. While many people speak Zulu, everyone here on the farm does know English. In fact the school is an English medium school, where the children are encouraged to only speak English all day to encourage fluency and develop vocabulary skills. isiZulu is a difficult language mostly because it includes several clicks; the letters c, x, and q are made with different parts of your tongue and mouth clicking. I found I can produce the clicks just fine on their own but when you have to say a whole word saying the click followed by a vowel is very tricky for a novice. The rules of the language are fairly simple, although I did not learn even close to all of them. There's no gender in the language which is helpful but there are linking letters to help connect the noun and the verb. This is what I can never remember. and because all words have connecting letters and sounds it's hard to actually decipher the root word sometimes! I enjoyed language lessons, even though my brain was full at the end of each three hour day. I enjoyed getting a sneak peak into a culture that is very different from my own. I feel just a little bit closer to the people I spend my days with by being able to speak to them in their first languages...well I can great them and talk about myself mostly. I will be taking another week of lessons at the end of November and will hopefully be able to build some vocabulary skills. Here is what the language looks like, I'll write in isiZulu and then translate below.

Sanibona! NginguAshtonCluts, ngihlala eCamp El Olam. Ngivela eMelika. ngisebenza eCamp, ngithanda ukuhike eCamp futhi ukubhukuda. Siyabonga! ngiyaxolisa, ngifunda isiZulu.

Hello! My name is Ashton Cluts, I stay at Camp El Olam. I come from America. I work at Camp. I like to hike at camp and to swim. Thank you! I am sorry, I am learning Zulu.

My vocabulary is failing me as I write this and I don't have my dictionary with me! Well this is just a sample anyway.

After language school and having the weekend to hangout and rest at the prison. Karen and Adam took Dinar, Sokea, and me to a retreat center in the midlands. A quiet region with many artisan stops along the main road. Karen and Adam acted as our live in chefs for the next two days and the three of us YALTers were lead in a very wonderful spiritual retreat. It was relaxing and rejuvenating. We each had our own bedrooms in a lovely cottage with a lounge and kitchen. We spent several hours each day in guided mediation and theological discussion with our leader Pastor Sharon, whom Karen and Adam have come to know through a church that they attend in Pietermaritzburg. She was a wonderful leader who's theology was very much like my own. We even did one session with a video from Pastor Rob Bell who is one of my favorite pastors from Michigan. When I was in high school we did a small group series using his videos as well. We explored our spirituality through scripture, song, and meditation. I was able to be in conversation with God and bring my heart and mind into focus in a very intentional way. I came away having a deeper understanding of my calling here in South Africa and an enthusiasm to continue my journey.

Thank you again for everyone around the world who is praying for me and my time here and keeping me in their daily thoughts. Knowing I have such a wonderful support network makes being away almost easy. Please keep in touch through my Facebook.com page and instagram!

Me with some hippos at the Butterfly House

Are We Speaking the Same Language?

Life here at Camp El Olam is never dull. There are always things to do, and there are always people everywhere doing farming things, building things, administrative things, kitchen things, school things...you get the idea. I have not been bored! We had had the first camps that we did program for in the past two weeks. One a group of 3rd and 4th graders and the other a group of 10th graders. Two very different groups of kids but both so much fun. I got to see the camp really in action! I even got to lead some activities from my "home" camp, Camp Friedenswald, with little El Olam style changes of course. I love seeing the camp alive with campers, it has a presence, I know that it's God, but I can feel it so strongly when the kids are here.

Other than the camps, life is quiet and fun, horse back riding, reading in Adirondack chairs, drinking tea etc. Oh wait, horseback riding has not been so serene, last week I went on a ride with my roommate and the horses decided they had no interest in walking any further...needless to say, we both found ourselves on the ground instead of in the saddles. We both faired pretty well, although we both are quite sore and I have a huge bruise on my leg, that is healing nicely but looks pretty gnarly. I must have been hoofed as I fell off but I only remember being on the horse and then the ground...so who knows!

After the ride, smiling
but in pain!

Before the ride!

 I got to go to a game reserve for the first time this past weekend and it was so cool to get to see the animals close up! I saw, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, a warthog, Ostrich, lots of deer like animals I don't remember the names of, and rhino. These rhino were special though, in order to reduce the likelihood of poaching, vets have come in and humanely de-horned them. They were still huge and cool but did look a little funny without their horns.  

The Giraffes!

That's my quick update and now to the title of this post. I am so lucky to be in a place where nearly everyone I meet speaks at least some English. This has made feeling homesick a farfetched idea at this point...I know the time will come. But it is so nice to be able to communicate what I mean and how I want to mean it, a luxury that is not usually achievable in a new place with a completely new language. However, there are differences in the English that I speak and South African English. As I mentioned in another post that their are a lot of words that are different from the words that we use in the U.S. for the same thing. These are called colloquialisms...in case you didn't know! As I spend more time here I am learning more and more, there are so many in fact that sometimes I feel like we aren't even speaking the same language. Of course we are definitely both speaking English; but I never thought I would have to say "what does that mean" so many times, in one day! Some of these colloquialisms I have picked up very quickly and already say them without thinking about it. Some I say with a very conscious effort to help feel more a part of the culture, (like trying to speak a truly different language to help learn) and some I don't think I'll ever be able to integrate into my own speech patterns, but only time will tell.
I'm going to try to list as many as possible. Some I knew from my time in Australia, and some I knew from my time in London, the British influence from colonialism is strong.

baggies: boys swim suit or shorts
biscuit: cookie
boot: trunk of the car
bonnet: hood of the car
borewors: long sausages used to braai
braai: barbecue the verb and the noun
bruh: friend/brother (pronounced broo)
chips: french fries or chips
cokey: marker
costume: swim suit
haibo: "no way bruh"
hectic: anything that is extreme, chaotic, crazy, cool this is a filler word
hoot: honk the car horn
house: grouping you are placed in while in school (yes, like Hogwarts)
loo: bathroom
lounge: living room
peg: clothespin
potjie: a stew made in a three legged cast iron pot (this is an Afrikaans word pronounced Poy-key)
roll: bun for hot dogs or hamburgers
slops: flip flops and other sandals
stationary: anything used in the office basically, pens, pencils, paper, binders, etc.
term: length of one session of school, there are four terms in a year
tomato sauce: ketchup
torch: flashlight
tune: scold "I will tune him later about wrecking the house"
vienna: the meat part of a hot dog, once the meat is in a roll then it's a hot dog
yah: yes or yeah

Of course these are not all of them, I can only think of so many as I sit here and write but I will try to add some to each new blog! Look out for another one soon about Zulu classes! Feel free to keep updated on my travels on Facebook.com and instagram.

Congratulations you made it to the end! Thank you so much for letting me share my journey with you!