Bundle of Life

“God created babies to be so cute because He needed some way to keep parents from killing them when they grow up to be teenagers!”

This is one of the many Pat Parsley-isms I remember from when I was younger. It came to mind as I was reflecting on my first month (that’s right, I said MONTH) in South Africa. While I’ve already missed 6 birthdays, 1 musical, 2 new pets, 2 friends moving to new apartments, a family reunion, and countless other special life events back home; this month has flown by. Much like the adorableness of a new born baby, my training thus far has been precious and easy to love.

Of course, I recognize that this season too shall pass. But rather than down playing the excitement in search of realism, I’ve decided to enjoy this ‘honeymoon phase’ shamelessly and practice an attitude of gratitude. Then, on the days of doubt, sickness, frustration, exhaustion, and confusing that are inevitable coming my way, I can remember these nuggets of joy.

I love…fruit chutney chips, aloe vera trees, wild giraffes and zebras, singing every day, jam-packed taxis, learners calling me “miss”, free range chickens and goats, my host family’s hospitality, learning Sepedi, Koko’s (grandma’s) prayers, house music, kids joining in on my runs, tea everyday all day, driving on the left side of the road, African sunsets, giant avocados, church full of dancing and alleluias, greeting everyone I pass on my way to school, watching South African soap operas, mountains, ostrich spottings on road trips, and children running to greet me with open arms and giant smiles. But perhaps what I love most isn’t anything I can kwa (A Sepedi word that means to touch, taste, smell, and/or hear). It isn’t an experience I can check off a list. Instead, it’s what ties so many of these experiences together. It’s Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is difficult to describe, but I quickly saw it being lived out here in South Africa. I really appreciated how Desmond Tutu described Ubuntu in his book No Future Without Forgiveness when he wrote:

“It is say, ‘My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.’ We belong in a bundle of life. We say, ‘A person is a person through other persons.’ It is not, ‘I think therefore I am.’ It says rather: ‘I am because I belong. I participate, I share.’”

Ubuntu is how my host family welcomed me, a stranger, and gave me my new South African name: Mmabasotho. Ubuntu is how people greet each day as they pass one another. Ubuntu is inviting the entire village to weddings and other celebrations. Ubuntu is changing the ‘my” to ‘our’. I have been in awe of the hospitality, kindness, and warmth that has been extended to me in this short month thus far. I’ve seen radical generosity all around me, and it challenges me to abandon my own selfish habits that so easily creep into my daily routine.

With that, I also challenge you to bring a little South African Ubuntu into your daily life. Try helping a colleague with their work load, invite your neighbors over for dinner, share that chocolate bar you’ve been saving for yourself, or even just greet those you pass when you’re out running errands.

The world will be a little bit brighter and a whole lot kinder if we all just look up every now and again and truly see those around us. After all, we are all knotted up in this bundle of life together—South Africans and Americans alike.

Peace,

Mmabasotho