Meet Marie Molimbi

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Marie and her family have been a part of our Jubilee and Salt River community since 2008.  They have been much-loved members of our church family through Sunshade, womens’ prayer groups, and Kids Club.

In addition to being a devoted Christian mother, Marie is a talented and qualified seamstress. After studying and teaching sewing in the DRC she has turned her passion into a local business in South Africa.  She runs this business from her Salt River home making beautifully crafted clothes.  She has designed stunning women’s garments, furniture coverings, and bags.  She also offers an alteration and repair service for clothing.

Her goal is to grow her business by increasing her customer base, and gaining sales into established stores. As well as establishing her as a business person, this will enable her to provide a university education for her children.

We are blessed to have her bags as part of our Joybags project.  Marie shared that she made these bags with joyful love and can’t wait to see people with them.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Update on UCT Protests - 16 November 2016

Let me start with the big news.  An agreement was signed on November 6th and there have been no disruptions for almost three weeks!

Now, on to the details.  My last update was over a month ago.  Here are my two excuses.  First, it has been hard to write these updates.  UCT has been a very stressful environment making it difficult to accomplish much of anything.  Second, we took a road trip to Johannesburg (more details in next update or check out some of the other blog posts) that delayed this update.

Week of Monday, October 17th

My last update was on Monday, 17 October when the protesters broke into the Physics building.

On Wednesday (19 Oct), they returned to the Physics building (video) and the academics tried to block the doors of our building from protestors in order to avoid a repeat of Monday, but eventually a sympathetic Physics student opened the door for them (video).  They banged on doors up and down hallways, removed people from the library (video) and then were eventually peacefully escorted from the building by security (video). 

There were a number of incidents across campus during this week.  The protesting students were systematically entering building with libraries and computer labs in order to chase any students out of the buildings as they continued to try and shut down the university.  There were a number of altercations with security and arrests of protestors during the week with a steady increase in the levels of violence (see links below).

Article describing clashes between security and students

Video: Security Guard Attacked by Students

Monday, October 24th to Wednesday, October 26th

The next week marked a turning point in the protest action at UCT.  It started with further escalation of violence when 4 cars were burned on campus (link to article describing event), but two events seem to push events to a climax.  First, UCT announced an interim interdict that prohibited the disruption of exams, libraries, research and other laboratories, and the ability of any of the university’s employees to do their work.  This was in direct response to the events from the previous week.  There had not previously been any explicit statement regarding the legality of disruptions at UCT and the interdict seemed to "disrupt" the disruptions, particularly the statement about needing to be 200 meters from any of the venues listed above, which basically excluded any protest action anywhere on campus.

The second event was the Minister of Finance giving his mid-year budget report to Parliament in downtown Cape Town on Wednesday, 26 October.  A number of pickets and marches were planned throughout the day to petition government to do something about higher education in South Africa.  The UCT slot was allocated for 9 am in the morning and after an hour of peaceful picketing and delivering our demands (link), we disbanded to make way for the later marches.  It was not a good sign that the police trucks with trailers full of rolls of barb wire pulled up as we were leaving.  Needless to say, the afternoon protests by the #FeesMustFall students did not end so peacefully.  After the speech (in which the Minister promised an increase of R17 billion (~$1 billion) over 3 years to fund higher education), the students got antsy, provoked the police and then for the next two hours, chaos reigned in Cape Town as the police chased protestors around the city with stun grenades.  See these two new articles for further description of the events.  

UCT Academics handing over list of demands outside South African Parliament

Article describing events in Cape Town following marches on Parliament

Article discussing marches on Parliament (lots of pictures)

After October 26th

It is hard to know what exactly changed, but the protest disruptions largely subsided after October 26th.  As far as I know, there have been no major incidents at UCT since (other campuses are still closed or under protest).  Everyone on campus was still very tense, particularly since the level of violence had been slowly escalating, so we waited for the next wave of protests, but it never came.  This tension, of course, made it difficult to do any work, particularly trying to prepare the exams for the students.  As the time passed, campus started to get back to normal as everyone prepared for the start of exams on Monday, November 7th.  Even after the agreement was signed on November 6th, there was a lot of apprehension on Monday morning when the first exams started, but every thing went smoothly and have been for the last 8 days.  There are still reminders of what has happened, like the chain-link fences surrounding the exam venues and the ID security points at each exam entrance, but things are feeling a bit more normal.

What comes next?

This is the big question.  Two interesting aspects of the agreement between the protesting groups and the UCT executive (link) are: (1) The use of an Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) to address some of the institutional issues that have arisen from the protests as well as address the scope of what is considered acceptable protest action at UCT.  (2) The agreement also grants clemency (suspension of charges while no further disruptive activity occurs) for actions taken by protestors during the two months with the possibility of amnesty.

In the short term, the academic program for 2016 has been saved, but there have been serious consequences for 2017.  Most of the departments and faculties have abandoned the blended learning idea in favor of a 3-week mini-semester at the start of 2017.  The Science Faculty has decided to stick with the blended learning (posting online materials and hosting limited face-to-face interactions [I delivered 2 hours of lecture this week and will give 2 more hours next week]) in order to give the academics time off (aka do some research) at the start of January.  The university has given all students the option to write their exams now (7 Nov to 24 Nov) or defer them until 2017 (23 Jan to 10 Feb).  In addition to the mini-semester, there will be one additional week of lecturing in the first semester of 2017 in order to "catch-up" any missed material.  The result of all this is that we will start the semester more than 3 weeks late, our mid-year break has been shorted by a week and we will once again be running exams to the end of November 2017 and marking until the middle of December (same as we will do this year).  It is going to be a long year.

In the long term, it is hard to say where we will go for here, but hopefully UCT will be able to heal from this and will become a better place as a result.  We are also hopeful that future protests can be avoided because it has taken a serious toll on the fabric of the university and I am not sure that it can endure another sustained series of protests.  There is no doubt that UCT (and South Africa) suffers from severe cultural and racial insensitivity and it will take all of us to work together to make a difference.  Please pray for this country and this university as it navigates a delicate future.

Road Trip For Noma (Day 1 / Wednesday, 02 November 2016)

First Leg: Cape Town to Karoo National Park (462 km)

We had big plans to start out early (~6 am) on our drive north, but it just didn't work out.  Trying to figure out how to organize the three car seats ended up being one of the biggest challenges.  Eventually, we got everything and everyone packed up and ready to go by 8:30 am.  The drive to Karoo National Park was largely uneventful with a stop for gas, a couple toilet stops and a stop to buy milk and mayonnaise (I know, a bit random).

Playground at gas station

We arrived at the park at 2:30 pm and immediately saw some baboons, kudu and red hartebeest.  Very exciting!  We checked into our cottage (which was incredibly nice) and did the Fossil Trail (a very nice activity for the boys).  It was also incredibly hot (33 degrees Celsius or 91 degrees Fahrenheit), so we decided that we needed to go for a swim.  Very refreshing!!  And we also saw a tortoise, a huge grasshopper, and a funny mouse-chipmunk animal-thing.  The fun of staying in a national park.

View from our cottage

After dinner (we had tuna sandwiches, thus the mayo, although we ended up using cream cheese [long story]), we went for a dinner through the park to look for more animals and saw some zebra (two different types) and lots more kudu, red hartebeest and ostriches.  We settled in back at our cottage, all went to bed with the plan for a 6 am drive through the rest of the park.  If only it had worked out that way!

Fossilized teeth on Fossil Trail

Kudu

Seth during the game drive

Zebra at watering hole

More updates to come ...

Road Trip for Noma (Day 0 / Tuesday, 01 November, 2016)

This is a series of blog entries detailing our trip to pick up Noma from Johannesburg.  For anyone who is not aware, Noma Anele Ruth Peterson is our adopted daughter and we are leaving tomorrow to drive across South Africa (Cape Town to Joburg, 1400 km or 870 miles) to meet her for the first time!!!!!!

Noma @ 10 months

Here are some of the facts that you might like to know.

Our timeline:
We started the adoption process in August 2014.  Unfortunately, the process was halted due to the sabbatical from July to Dec 2015.  The process was restarted in June 2016.  After 3 months of intense paperwork, psych evals, stalking government officials and meetings, we were declared "paper pregnant" on 08 September 2016.  And the waiting began ...  On 18 October 2016, we received the referral.  We poured and prayed over the documents and officially agreed to adopt Noma on 19 October 2016 (our "gotcha" day).  Our application for temporary foster care was approved on 25 October 2016 (although we were not informed until 31 October 2016).  We are scheduled to meet her on Friday, 4 November 2016 at 3:30 pm and we can't wait!!!!


Noma's Timeline:
Anele (her given name) was born on 26 November 2015 near Johannesburg and was placed in the care of the Wandisa Adoption Agency (the agency that has helped us with our adoption).  She was soon transferred into the care of The Love of Christ (TLC) Children's home in Eikenhof, Gauteng where she has been ever since.  She has received wonderful care and is a healthy baby girl who we are ready to accept into our family.

More updates to come ...

Update on UCT Protests - 17 October 2016

It has been exactly two weeks since my last update.  I apologize for taking so long to provide further details.  I will try to briefly summarize what has occurred in the last two weeks (this is, of course, from my limited perspective of the situation).  I also apologize for the length of the update.

Monday, October 3rd to Wednesday, October 5th

UCT was open during these days with lectures stopping and starting due to the disruptions.  My last update provided some of the details of events on Monday.

Tuesday was better.  Students again blocked the entrance roads, but the private security and police acted more decisively, arresting one student (video) and threatening to arrest the rest of the protesting students if they did not move.  The students chose to stand up and move up the road to campus (video).  The other entrance to campus was also cleared thus allowing access to campus by car and bus.  There were further disruptions on other parts of campus, but the Physics building was spared and all lectures were delivered un-hindered.

Wednesday started out well, entrances to campus were not blocked and the first set of lectures started normally.  About 30 minutes into the first lecture, a groups of protesting students tried to enter the Physics building.  The doors were locked by security and the students could not get in (video).  After a while, they moved on, but a few students stayed outside.  When the lectures ended, students started exiting the building and one of the remaining protestors began yelling at the exiting students.  I followed her up the stairs to ask her why she was yelling at these students, but got yelled at instead (video) and accused of assault (I had gently touched her shoulder to get her attention).  Once the building was empty, she moved back across the street.  The group of protesting students returned about 2 hours later and entered the building to disrupt lectures.  This time they discharged fire extinguishers in two lecture venues and in the foyer.  I had been in my office, prepping for my lecture and couldn't figure out why I was coughing until I opened the door to see the white powder covering everything.  The building was cleared and most of the dust was cleaned up in time for me to deliver my first (and only) lecture of third-year Nuclear Physics.  The lecture went fine without disruption, but about the time my lecture ended, the university decided to close once again.  The protesting students continued to march through campus (video) eventually heading for the administration building.

Thursday, October 6th to Sunday, October 16th

UCT was closed (no academic teaching activities) for this period.  Many of the academics continued to come onto campus and the negotiations with the protesting groups continued.  There were isolated incidents involving protesting students (burning a truck, storming campus security offices, disrupting meetings on campus).  As the time wore on (and the negotiations were not proceeding), there was a decision to try and wrap up the semester and school year.  Exams will start on November 7th with campus re-opening on Monday, October 17th and there will be two weeks of "teaching" (without any face-to-face meetings).  We have been tasked with providing all content on-line, be in email contact with students, and teach our courses without needing to have students come into lectures (thus avoiding the possible disruptions).

Monday, October 17th

We were not really sure what to expect today.  The protesting students started by disrupting the campus bus system in the morning and then slowly meandered up to the main campus.  A few of us observed them peacefully walking through campus, occasionally entering buildings, singing and chanting as they went.  At mid-morning, they came up to the Physics building (which was again locked) and one student tried to open the door, shaking it quite hard.  Our initial thought was that the student would then stop shaking the door, but he got more and more aggressive until he was able to break part of the latch and the glass pane broke.  He then reached in to unlatch the door and then opened it for the protestors to enter the building (video).  After a few minutes, the police arrived and chased the students out of the building.  They were ready to move on until they realized that one of the students has been detained by the police inside the building, which led to a heated exchange (video) and a stun grenade being sent into the crowd.  Eventually, the students moved on to another part of campus and the student was taken to the police station.  The students continued to move around campus, breaking into at least one other building.  It is hard to know what tomorrow will bring, but these students are clearly focussed on trying to keep UCT closed.

Police barricading Physics building - 17 October 2016

Please keep praying for the universities of South Africa (the majority of the 26 public South African universities are closed, all have experienced protest action, some more severe than at UCT).  To be honest with you, it is hard to know exactly how to ask you to pray.  At UCT, we are at an impasse, the school year needs to be completed.  The university has bent over backwards to accommodate the protesting student's requests (link) yet the protest action remains.  We seem to have entered a world where we will try to continue "teaching" in the midst of protest.  I have included links to a few articles below that try to paint aspects of this very complex picture.  Please read if you are interested in knowing more.  Thanks for taking the time to read this, Steve


More Information

Article by student (Dear white people: it’s time your bubble was burst)

Article about protests (#FeesMustFall a deadly fight in a tunnel)

Article by academic (The wrong questions are being asked in the free higher education debate)

Update on UCT Protests - 03 October 2016

Today was a long day.  It started with a 3-hour standoff between students blocking the entrances to campus (for vehicles, not pedestrians).  This was followed by roving bands of protestors entering lecture venues to disrupt whatever teaching was going on.  The Physics building seemed to be a popular target with a total of five disruptions throughout the day.  We got quite good at leaving the building when the fire alarm was pulled, waiting for the protestors to clear the building and move on to the next building before having the students return to the venue and restart the lecture.  I was not teaching today, but was supporting many of the other lecturers.  I have uploaded some short cell phone videos to YouTube (links below) if you would like to get a glimpse of what is going on.  You will see that singing and dancing is a big part of the protest.

Thankfully, there does not appear to have been any instances of violence, just a lot of disruptions, although six students were arrested for disrupting one particular lecture.  Unfortunately, the protests will continue tomorrow and the university has decided to increase the level of security on campus.  This means that there will be more confrontations between protestors and police, and also likely more arrests.  Again, it is hard to predict exactly what tomorrow will bring, but it will probably get ugly.  Please keep praying, Steve


More Information

Article on UCT Protest

Videos I took today
Blocking road to campus this morning

Lecture disruption in the morning

Disrupting tutorial in the afternoon

Prayer for UCT Protests - 02 October 2016

The University of Cape Town has been closed for the past week to give time for negotiations between the university management and the protesting students.  The hope is to re-start lectures tomorrow (Monday, 3 October).  It sounds like the final set of talks did not go well and we are currently waiting on a decision about tomorrow.

This has been a stressful week on campus with many meetings between staff and students.  I attended five meetings this last week with various different groupings of students and staff.  The students (non-protesting) and staff held a silent protest on Friday (see link below) to re-open the campus, which was then counter-protested.

It is hard to gauge what will happen tomorrow, possibilities range from further closures to violence between protesters and private security or police.  The academics in the Physics department (including me) are preparing to step between security and students if violence becomes a possibility.  Please pray for the UCT campus tomorrow (actually tonight, classes will start at 8 am here, or 1 am CST), that peace will reign.  I will keep you posted, Steve

UPDATE: The Vice Chancellor has just announced that lectures will resume Monday with security present to deal with any disruptions.  Please pray.


More Information

UCT Silent Protest (look for me in the first picture next to the yellow sign)

Shackville TRC (primary protest group)