Ipharadisi Lami

I cannot believe it’s March. I’ve been here for over a month?? I come home in 64 days?? That’s unreal to me. It feels like I just got here.

Before we left the States, our leaders went through the stages of culture shock with us, trying to prepare us for what was to come. They said the first is “honeymoon” which we all experienced to the infinite degree, and then the second was “withdrawal.” They said we would start to miss home and feel sad and dislike a lot of things about this country.

I’m still waiting for that to happen.

I keep waiting to be sad, or to miss home so much that I can’t handle it, or to get really fed up with something about the culture here. I keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting. It never comes.

“Ipharadisi lami” means “my paradise” in Zulu and truly, this place is my paradise. I am so in love with everything about it. I’m currently sitting outside in 80-degree weather, with a nice breeze, listening to the sounds of people speaking Zulu to each other and the waterfall in the background. Like I said, paradise.

I am captivated by this country. I have fallen in love with African culture. I was talking to some girls about it the other day, and American culture feels so distant. The only thing I miss about it (obviously besides family & friends) is the food. Mexican food and In-N-Out, in particular. But really, there are so many wonderful things about this culture and we could learn so much from these people.

Something God has been teaching me a lot about lately has been humility. He’s been pointing out just how prideful I am, in so many things. I remember the second day we were here, when we toured Soweto and saw townships and poverty, feeling so bad for those people, pitying them. But what makes me think I have anything to offer them? Looking back, I realize I felt better than them because I have money. I felt like I could give them something because I could buy a meal for them. And yeah, that’s great and there’s nothing wrong with it. But who’s to say they don’t have just as much to offer me? If not more? Who am I to pity their lifestyle? These people are so spiritually rich, and that matters a lot more than having enough money to own 15 pairs of shoes. There are so many things about this place that reflect God’s Kingdom so much more than American culture. For example, the African Traditional Religion has something called “ubuntu.” This basically says that the community matters more than the individual. It means that widows and orphans are absorbed into the community and taken care of. It means that no one is left to fend for themselves, but instead is loved and looked after by everyone around them.

How much more does that line up with the Gospel than our individualistic culture?

God is teaching me to be humble. This place is teaching me how to love others more than myself and be joyful despite any circumstance. My world is being rocked while I’m here, and I absolutely love it. I can’t believe it’s already March and I’m so sad that a third of this journey is already over.

I want to share with you some quotes from the book I’m currently reading, “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. God is teaching me about humility, and reinforced that through Lewis’ words.

“I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.”

“The truth is, we believe in decency so much—we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so—that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.”

With love from a place that is changing me every day,

Alex