Why Is My Life So Awkward? - Outreach Week Four

I think I’ve discovered one the main things that my outreach experience is all about: Being Awkward.

Pretty much everything we do involves some level of awkward. Usually pretty high. I’m gonna be so used to awkward that by the time I get home I’ll no longer be able to judge what is and isn’t socially acceptable – prepare yourself for lots of awkward conversations.

So this week I discovered that South Africa has three capital cities (this info is courtesy of the all-knowing and always accurate wiki so you’ll have to forgive me if it all turns out to be a complete lie. I know that wiki shouldn’t be referenced as a source but I’m not in uni anymore *sniffsniff* so I’m gonna reference it as much as I like). Pretoria is the executive capital. Bloemfontein is the judicial capital and Cape Town is the legislative capital. Why am I telling you this (other than to increase your world knowledge and better understanding of global politics )? Because on Tuesday we went to parliament. At first I was like “but Pretoria is the capital, surely parliament is there.” But as previously mentioned, Cape Town is the legislative capital, hence it has the parliamentary offices etc. I’m guessing that Pretoria has some too though – someone wiki/google that for me and find out.

So why did we go to parliament? We were planning to go to a prayer meeting held by some Christians who work for the government (yes, my life is a lot like being in a spy movie) but due to some African timing issues we missed it. Instead we prayed in one of the board room meeting things (just like in The Apprentice but without any voiceovers or crazy rich men telling us we're idiots for not choosing to sell pens instead of pencils) and then had a tour of the building -  we went to the old and new parliament room things (I’m sure they have proper names – if someone could wiki/google that for me then that would be great) and also the Speaker’s office and board room. So we prayed there as well. Shout out to Gabriel who organized it for us.

I’ve been struggling quite a lot lately and to be honest it’s almost what I struggle with most. Hairstyles. The women here have Good Hair. I’m talking everywhere I go I see straight perms, extensions, weave, plaits. My hair is a mess. Everytime I see someone with Good Hair I daydream for about ten minutes on what my life would be like if I only had Good Hair – it would definitely involve an endless supply of tea&cake.

Remember how I told y’all about the door to door ministry we did last week in Mfuleni?  (Wait, I think I wrote about that in the team blog – maybe you should read that first. Click this). Well, on Thursday we held our first ‘Girls Club’ meeting in one of the houses we visited last week. We had about five to six girls from the local area, aged between 19 and 25 and then a various assortment of children who wondered in and out. It was super awkward for quite a while. They didn’t know what to expect, we weren’t entirely sure of what we were doing and I’m sure at several points they wanted to be somewhere else. I’m also pretty sure that it was Gabriel’s influence alone that got them to be there in the first place, not any desire on their part to meet with a bunch of ‘missionaries’ from overseas. They began to warm up to us after we sang and danced to them though – the power of making a fool of yourself is never to be under estimated.

So on Friday we upped the awkward factor again. This time doing human trafficking awareness on trains. We get on the train and basically start handing out flyers and talking to people about human trafficking. I found it super awkward – funny that. To me the train is a place of quiet and still (obvs not literally). I’m in the zone, travelling. Going from A to B. If anyone talks to me then they automatically ruin my day. To be honest if someone even sits next to me without having a good reason then I’m gonna have to work hard to set my day on the right course again. So having to approach people and start talking to them was not my idea of fun times. Having said that, we were able to talk to a lot of people, many of whom had never heard of human-trafficking. So the awkward is worth it – just as our friendship will be once I’m home and we’ve worked through me making you feel awkward.