Convention!

Okay, so we have been in South Africa for under a week and already we have traveled all the way up to Bloemfontein! Bloemfontein, or Bloem as people usually call it, is about 7 hours northwest of Pietermaritzburg, where I now live. Every year New Zion Ministries International (which my new church is a part of) has a big, four-day convention in Bloem and lots and lots of people go. This year the attendance was somewhere around 850, but somehow it felt much bigger. There were people everywhere! The semi-overwhelming atmosphere was definitely aided by how enthusiastic and downright loud everybody was, seemingly all the time. I mean that. All. The. Time. They stayed up late having parties and got up early to sing and pray.

They are insane. But it's definitely a good insane - their excitement was inspiring and even a bit contagious, even for born-and-raised-no-dancing Mennonites like us.

The weekend started out hard, with us having trouble adjusting. Not only was it a completely different environment, but we were all pretty much exhuasted in varying degrees. However, looking back, I'm so glad that we went. It was a really good experience. So good, in fact, that I came up with a Top Ten list of great moments!

10. The arts were so emphasized at this convention - it was awesome. I especially liked the dancing - they were good at it, and everyone did it! By that I mean that boys and girls danced, not just girls.

9. We saw baboons on the way to convention, just hanging out by the road, and ostriches on the way back - also just hanging out by the road.

8. There was a bus that shuttled people from our lodging to City Hall, where we had our meetings. One night, on the bus, everyone, seemingly simultaneously, burst into song - in Zulu!

7. One musical artist I remember listening to as a kid was Christofari - Christian rastofari! It's awesome music, and I hadn't heard it in years - until this weekend, when a group of guys couple of doors down were playing it (very loudly, of course) in their room.

6. We helped out with children's church one day, and every day after that I got stopped and greeted by little kids who knew my name!

5. Two kind Zulu members of our church taught us to say "hello," "how are you," and "yes" in Zulu.

4. The founder of the church (Apostle Hilton Toohey) has a grandson named Casey. Casey, while we were helping out with children's church, very kindly and sensitively broke up with me for Gabby.

3. I lent my iPod to one of the guys at the convnetion, and he wandered away with it. So Anna and I went looking for him and somehow ended up at a party! A group of maybe 15 people were crowded into someone's room playing a game: someone gives you the "mic" (a can of spray-on deodorant) and you have to perform, whether you want to or not! Of course Anna and I were given the mic, and we sang "My Girl" by The Temptations in front of a very encouraging audience :). It was very, very fun. (Also, I did get my iPod back.)

2. We went to a steakhouse called Spurs whose motto is "The official restuarant of the South African family." However, Spurs is entirely decked out in Native American Indian decorations! Totem poles, placemats, stained glass, pictures, you name it, it was all Native American. It was bizarre and hilarious. Picture above!!

1. On our way back to the hostel from Spurs, someone called Tim (one of my teammates) a trekkie (as in Star Trek). There was a moment of silence, and I was sure Tim was going to deny it, and then he said "Actually, the term is trekker." It was absolutely hilarious.