Easter-fun-time

I had such a great Easter weekend. The only way I can describe it is through these photos..Enjoy!

"Travy G's" A gigantic sandwish...

All students eat..


Until they feel like this...

Music Festival

This is how excited we were to watch Snow Patrol and Oasis

Great music + Great friends= Perfect day

Mr Cocky Guy
but I couldn't help singing along to"wonderwall"

I give this Easter weekend 5 out of 5 muffins

Hypocrisy or Honesty?

photo from www.telegraph.co.uk

I don't want to be a hypocrite.

Say you are sitting in your house, behind your locked door, on the inside of your brick wall, safely protected by your big gate, listening to Heidi Baker talk about desiring God, hungering in desperation and the poor of Mozambique and your bell rings.

You pause the message and peak out the window to be met with the deep brown eyes of 3 young boys and you don't open the gate. Rather, you sit in the living room and wrestle what you have been told and taught about the poor in South Africa.

Okay, by now you can understand that this is me (Darcie). It happened today and a battle raged between the words of Isaiah "Is this not the fast I have chosen . . . to share your food with the poor?" and the ongoing argument that handouts here are like tightening the chains of poverty.

So what do I do? If I ask myself the cliche question "What would Jesus do?" I get another battle in my head because my first response is that he would walk out of the house and give the kids even the last bit of bread he had sitting here. But I wonder if that is true. . . I wonder because I believe there is more to Jesus than I know, both as a man and as God. I have to believe that because the world I see needs deeper healing than a bandage and a pat on the back, and the God that would walk out and hand bread to a poor person is handing a band-aid to an accident victim. (Okay, not all the time, sometimes it is just bread that people need) Poverty and need aren't solved with a bit of food. The women that Elijah helped started a small business for goodness sake, she baked and sold and had enough to eat. There was a plan involved and that plan provided for the woman and her son for years to come, it didn't feed her once and create a pattern of reliance. . .however, I may have just sent my neighbor away saying, "be warm and well-fed," and done nothing to help them get there.

When I was a kid people used to drop groceries off on our front porch anonymously because we didn't have enough. To this day I hold a special place in my memory of those moments and desire to be a generous and giving person as well, but do I get to pick and choose? If I don't give to the boys standing outside my gate, but I give to my friend going on outreach does it really count? Does it really solidify the process of begging so rampant in this country if you give to every door to door begger that comes by? Or is this just the outcome of so many high walls and locked gates - hard hearts?

I am mid-thought on this one, comments welcome, even if you call me a hypocrite.

House stories part 2

Me (Marie) and Darcie's favourite spot in the house is the kitchen. A lot of great ideas are birthed here. Many articles are being typed, and delicious food is being made. Even the best TV show, Scrubs, is watched in here.

Here are some topics that are being discussed in the kitchen with friends from different parts of the world:

Now that I have started my internship at the radio station, I'm very up-to-date with the news. I decided to update my friends about the news from the G-20 meeting in London.

Marie: Thrillion!! They put a thrillion in to solve the world economy!
Anonymous: What the heck is a thrillion?
Marie: A lot of billions that will make a thrillion

Darcie: It's just as much as 50 000 camels

Lauren: Or all of the first born girls in China

Darcie browses through a magazine to see what to make for dinner...

Darcie: OOhh! I want to make these chocolate chip cookies!
Marie: Well just Crank up the music and Bake!
Lauren: Jamie Oliver thinks he is soo hot! (Looking through the same Magazine while she is eating a Darcie's home made chocolate chip cookie)...
Marie: No he is NOT hot!

Lauren: I said he THINKS he is..

We have also realized that we both suffer from short term memory loss and tiredness. Instead of solving it with eating more iron we enjoy these masterpieces Darcie threw together:

I give her 4 out of 5 muffins so she has room to improve...

Home Sweeeeeeet Home

As promised - the pictures of our AMAZING, WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC, HOME!

Day One-ish

We know we started this co-blog days ago, but something about life makes today feel like day one. Today we had our first early morning meeting with the Leader of AfriCom, Miranda Heathcote. We discussed all the big plans we have for the coming seven weeks and got loads of contact info and more ideas on how to pursue specific topics. We began talking to people we want to meet with weekly to improve our design, video and photography skills and we began sending out emails for interviews, information and meetings in the near future. Today was the first day we had to think about packing lunches because we would be "in the office" over lunch time and, sadly, only one of us did. I, Darcie, sit here now wishing I was the one that packed a lunch.

Yesterday was the official-feeling end to the previous page of our time here. We had to clean and move and move and clean throughout the day. We had to say goodbyes and see-ya-laters to various people and wash and re-make several beds. (You know, all those things that indicate leaving one page behind and turning to another.)

Yesterday we also talked with a woman working to prevent and educate people around the topic of human trafficking. Justice A.C.T.S. aims to inform communities about the possibility of 30,000-100,000 people being trafficked, mostly into the sex trade, in preparation for the 2010 World Cup happening here in Cape Town in just over a year. Justice A.C.T.S. works with local churches and non-profits to train people to recognize the warning signs of trafficked persons and multiply training into most at-risk communities. We hope to get more information and connections in regards to this heinous slavery and be able to raise awareness as well.

As the page turns, we are driving boldly forward!