"This is why South Africa is beautiful…"

Last week, some friends of ours invited us to join a small group that meets on Wednesday nights in town. The group typically watches a video on a topic, such as: the role of self in community, relationship with hierarchy, and connection between inner turmoil and physical health. After the video, they discuss how they do or don’t see the topic in their lives. They explore values and life philosophies. It reminded me a lot of the small group ministry at my home church, Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation, which I found to be life-giving. So, I was interested.

Our first time to attend was this last Wednesday.

[[TANGENT]]

This is not the focus of my story, but it is too “typical” not to share... The event was supposed to start at 7:00. We are unable to drive and we DEFINITELY wouldn’t take a taxi after dark, so we relied on someone to come and “collect” us. Due to the dark and lack of landmarks, this generous person turned off a bit too early and ended up stuck in the deep sand. We tried to push it out; we tried to dig it out. The neighbours all came out to help. His roommate drove up with a tow rope, but only had his little Corolla so he couldn’t tow. Our host family drove over to help push. A friend came with a Rav-4, which got the ball (tires) rolling. Finally, the Subaru came and saved the day.
It took four cars and two hours, but we finally were on our way!

…and yes, this is a common occurrence.

[[/TANGENT]]

Since so many members of the small group came to help us, the discussion was delayed until next week. Instead, we simply all got together and enjoyed a delicious meal and conversation. It was quite lovely.

At one point during the dinner, I looked around the room and smiled. At the other end of the table, two men were laughing together in their native isiZulu. There were two women speaking across the room in Afrikaans. And I was sharing stories in English with 2 South African women, one whose home language was English and another who grew up speaking isiNdebele. There was so much cultural diversity within our little group, yet (aside from Joe and I) they were all South African and we were all around the same dining room table feeling the warmth of community.

I thought to myself…

“This, right here, is why South Africa is so beautiful to me.”

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• Learn more about South Africa’s 11 national languages here and here.
• Learn more about Oliver Tambo.