Pain and Joy…

The wise man once said that people might think you are a fool when you remain silent, their opinion is confirmed when you speak… So I have been silent for a few weeks.

I do not wish to talk about Jacob Zuma and the ANC anymore. I am just so tired of being blamed as a white person for all the wrongs in this country when our “leadership” has wasted such a lot of money on corruption, silly weapons deals, bribing Fifa for the 2010 world cup, Nkhandla… I have thought too much about all these things the last few months. It has really stolen my joy in life and made me negative. So I remained silent. And used the time to rethink my priorities. Or as our fearless leader so love to say: “Apply my mind to it…”

I have decided that it is not my job to expose all these negative things through facebook and twitter and other social media. It causes too much pain.

So I am rethinking and applying my mind to focus on the things that I do have control over, that give meaning to my life and bring back the joy. Things like family. And faith. And relationship. And motorbikes.

Family: My son is somewhere in Texas on a John Deere 670 Combined Harvester, been away from home since the 20th of April, I really miss him a lot. I really wish that I can also see some of the USA one day. My son really loves it!

Faith: Like the rest of humankind I am also struggling to understand why there is so much pain in the world. I really believe that the church should be a channel of love and hope to this world. But I really am having a hard time to understand why 80% of church people also seem to don’t care to try and make a difference anymore… That is also why I am so quiet these days… I am really questioning myself if I  make a positive difference in our community…

Motorbikes: I had a wonderful motorbike trip in March with my wife and the SA Bible Society to Lesotho and the Eastern Free State and Cape.

April and May was hard work, and June will be as well till the 27th. Then…

Everything is coming together for a 5000 km Motorbike tour through Botswana and Namibia, with my wife and 3 other couples… BMW GS all the way…  There are still some hick-ups in getting my bike ready to take all the equipment needed, we are going wild- with tents and sleeping bags between the elephants and lions near Kasane in Botswana. (So sad about the American lady connected with Game of Thrones, being killed by a lion just outside Pretoria this week… People of the world, if you ever come to Africa on safari, don’t accept all lions are cuddly like Simba in Lion King. Nobody just walks with lions!  And please stay in your cars and close the windows when near a lion. Please! )

I still need to find the time to take my bike to Pretoria for a service and a new front tyre. But then all should be well. I still need to find a lion and elephant repellent spray… 🙂

In the meanwhile, to fund this next road trip, I had to sell my beloved BMW R850R…

I hope the new owner gets a lot of joy from this Mädchen, and takes good care of her…

So thanks, still alive and kicking! Thanks for all those who asked if we’re OK, I really appreciate it.

Thanks, and if you see my son doing his laundry in Abilene, Texas, give him a hug from his dad, and buy him a beer?

Matric Farewell (Prom) South African Style…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy...

I am suffering from severe writers block at the moment. It is also extremely hot in our town at present, and extremely dry… so we are just barely surviving until the real rain starts.  So inspiration is at an all time low…. But dreamy…   There is one function in every school kid’s life that might be considered to be dreamy…

Every school kid in South Africa dreams about their matric farewell function, shortly before they write the last examns ever at school.

It is my eldest son’s turn this year…

The last one, with his beautiful date, was unfortunately taken with my mobile phone in extreme bad light, without a flash- the battery was nearly flat. But you do get the idea…

I hope to find some inspiration soon, or some time to take a decent photo again…  a dreamy landscape perhaps…

Water- Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge

 

 

Now, after a lot of Beetle restoration posts… something else for a change!

To each his own fun in the water…

 

 

 

 

Gorillas in the Mist- Travel Theme…

Ailsa has really set a difficult challenge this week.  We don’t often have misty days around where I live. And sorry- no Gorilla’s either, the nearest would be the vervet monkeys… http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/04/04/travel-theme-misty/

Most of my misty experiences happened on hiking trails. There was this beautiful morning on the Camino de Santiago in 2011! We walked through the misty layer to high above it, It was so beautiful looking down the mist covered valleys…  (nearly reminds me of my favorite song from Dire Straits… These mist covered mountains,… !)

Where is the mist? Look down there!

A year before my Camino experience, our family hiked the Blyderivierspoort Hiking Trail in South Africa. And the weather was really extreme. We got lost in the first 2 km! When you are lost in the mist, without a GPS, sit and make tea…  The boys loved it, my daughter didn’t…

Teenagers and Misty Hiking days… pure memories from hell… (for them…)

And that is all I have to say about that…

The Moment of Impact…

UShaka Marine World (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

uShaka Marine World in Durban South Africa boasts that their waterslide is the highest in Africa. I don’t know about that! All I know is- I went down it two times yesterday to impress my kids… And my bum is hurting from the water’s stopping effect today….

In these three photos are all 3 my sons from youngest to eldest… my daughter also went down, only the mother of our house did not want to…

The Scream- KZN Style…

For my friends at toemail… 🙂

Relationships are difficult in Africa!

As a pastor, I have to deal with a lot of relationship related problems. Take this past weekend as one example. We had a church camp, where a lot of us went camping with our caravans, some with tents, some staying in the chalets of the holiday resort.

But even here it pops out. Relationships between male and female just can be so tough!

For example: He really works hard to provide a home for her. I know, I know, my feminist friends will be up in arms again, maybe that is a sexistic oldfashioned way of looking at life. But this is Africa, and this is how it still works in some cultures. The responsibility to provide a home rests on his shoulders. He has to really dig deep, and work extremely hard, to get everything ready, before she will even look at him. He tries his utmost best to please her.  It is just work, work, work. He does not even get a single kiss for all his trouble.

And then, when he thinks he has saved enough, and worked hard enough to provide a roof over her head, he finally gathers all his courage and proposes to her- let’s cohabitate! Let us live together, make love, and raise our kids…

But even after all his efforts, sometimes she will just turn him down. She just is not interested in him, Or do he really expects her to live in THAT neighbourhood?  Could there not even be a more scenic view? MAybe her mother and her sister warned her about him and his family.

So this weekend, on our church camp- it exploded between them. It is so hard to see the implosion of a relationship. It is never a good sight to see a home, that was built with such great love and dedication, getting so broken so easily… This all happened on the church camp, of all places…

But wait- I have taken some photos in case you don’t believe me:

 

When planning a relationship, do your homework to see what is expected from you…

The most important three things to remember in real estate: location, location, location!

Plan your work, then work your plan…

Nearly there! Time to start planning the proposal!

Time to go ask for her… paw? Hope I look good enough, and the house I built will make her happy… maybe I will see my unborn children in her eyes tonight…

Love hurts!

So sorry, relationships don’t always work out in Africa! Broken homes are a sad reality in our society as well. And we even see the devastating effects of social disintegration on our church camp!

Back to the dating game, meeting new friends at the restaurant…

And so- Mr Finch is trying to get back on his feet…

Tough Times in Africa

Daily Prompt: Eye of the Beholder

by michelle w. on October 5, 2013

Describe what it feels like to hear a beautiful piece of music or see a stunning piece of art.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us BEAUTY.

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Beauty in the eye of the beholder… hmm- let me think about that one…

We just lost a rugby game against New Zealand, but what a match! it hurts, but well done All Blacks, you are the best (at the moment…)  They would call it a stunning piece of art, I suppose… (Like Kieran Reed’s ears… 🙂  )

Beauty- photo:

Anyway, while our hearts were breaking, my daughter had a lot of fun at Sun City…..

Beauty is Africa’s animals. And, like any dad would think- my daughter!

And like Forrest Gump said: That is all I want to say about that…

Links: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_8959042,00.html

Flower Friday- Cosmos- The Sequal

 

In my previous post I mentioned that we used Cosmos flowers at our wedding feast. This is my lady, 20 years later, in a field of Cosmos at Golden Gate National Park in the Free State, where we started our honeymoon 23 years ago…

 

 

For more on the Cosmos read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_(plant)

 

Waiting…

Daily Prompt: A Bend in Time

by michelle w. on September 27, 2013

When you’re giddy with excitement, does time speed up? Slow down? Tell us about the experience of anticipation.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us WAITING.

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As it is his 13th birthday today: here is my take on WAITING:

Sport has so much WAITING!

•  Waiting to get a chance to go on the field of play
•  Waiting for the ball to come your way,
•  Waiting for the chance to go for the goal line
•  Waiting for the glory

But: You have your mother’s adoring look:

Whatever the score, whether you score or mess it up- she still loves you a lot!

Are YOU looking, dad? My heart rate is up, time is slowing down, I just want to be YOUR hero today!

Look, Dad, I have the ball!

The try in the game of Rugby came later…

The Lesson for today:  Don’t let your son beg for your approval. Do not let them wait to hear that you love them…  They don’t have to perform to earn your love, they just have to BE!