The Undiscovered Tribe...Seriously!

I came across this article in the news this morning and I found it very interesting.

Have a good look at that picture. Those guys must have had the shock of their lives.

"Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it's superman."

I highly doubt this was going through their minds,when the plane flew over. It looks like they have their two best warriors ready for battle, with the old witch doctor in the back ready to say some garbage.

Looking at the picure, I now know why they call them the red Indians, because they red. DUH.

Exept that one guy in the back who was in the sun a little bit more than the red (sunburnt) guys.

He is now charcoal.

The funny thing is that we are not much different from them, sure we don't wear loin clothes or shoot arrows (although some people do), but we are similar in other ways. We live in our own little world just like them. Some people more than others, but everyone has their own world. We get so caught up in it, that when someone else comes along, we treat them different. Simply, because they are not from our familiar world.

I have noticed this especially in the smaller towns of America, where I am from to be exact. People tend to have a village mentality, which is not bad, it just is that way. It's the way we have been brought up, it's our culture, its our LIFE. We tend to get comfortable and happy with our circle in the middle of nowhere. We THINK that it is somewhere or something, just like the these fellows. But just as we realise that they are nowhere and have nothing (they might fight that point), we are exactly the same. We in reality are in our little world, with our few friends, but we would fight the fact that it's something. It's just our little world that we want to believe is alot, but there is so much more than our world.

Our world is not bad, we need our own little world otherwise we seriously would have zippo.

I'm happy in my world, you should be too. However, never get to the place were you are comfortable or you don't want people to come and go from your world.

Have a great weekend!!!

Oh, That's Sneaky

Six, Five, Four, Three, Two! Oops, I think I'm going just a little bit to fast, but still only 4 days left until summer is officially here. Then I guess the humidity starts coming, which will be interesting. The weather today is absolutely perfect, warm but not stuffy.

Today, I was at the Wal-mart looking at buying some strawberries. I think they were priced at about $3 a container, a reasonable price, but we stilled turned it down. Now, if you not familiar with Lancaster county, you wouldn't know that in summer there are stores on the side of the road were you can buy fruit and veg. So this is me telling you that there are.

On the way home, we come across one of these Amish/Mennonite stores (not sure which one, they all look the same) selling strawberries. Us, not being from the area, have never bought from these stores, first time for everything right!
$5 for the same size container! Fair enough, it's probably home grown, organic and they are much Larger.

Needless to say, we absolutely punish the first few (BIG ONES) in the first few seconds, well I did at least. I have a look later and after the BIG ONES are gone, hidden away, are these tiny little strawberries. I have to admit that they were the best strawberries I have ever had, but do not be deceived by the Amish/Mennonite.

Although their culture and religion keeps them separate from the "world", they are by no means ignorant to marketing strategies.In fact, they even had a drive through part of their little wooden store. Only America!!! We live in the marketing country of the world, without marketing your product ends up.... well actually it ends down, way down.

Moral of the story, we all need to market what we have, otherwise no one will ever know what we have.

Later this week I will be doing a post on a internet church like no other and why it's so wrong.
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I've been diagnosed with...

I've been suffering with a rare disease over the past few years and I could never figure out what it really was. Well, yesterday after speaking to some very qualified doctors (a TV commercial), I now know what I have. I'm suffering from flavour amnesia. I know you may not have heard of this, but it really does exist.

"Too much chicken and not enough meat." Said Dr. TV

That's when it hit, I have flavour amnesia!!! I need to be eating more manly meat and not so much healthy chicken. At the moment, my mom is on a healthy, organic eat special ugly foods phase. Where's the meat? I think I need to start breeding organic cows. Wouldn't know how though.

This brings on another point that I just remembered about America. Everyone that has traveled to Europe would heartily agree with me. AMERICAN CHEESE STINKS. There is nothing better than some European cheese with some good baked bread. Not the kind you find in wal-mart, which I'm pretty sure was made about a week before you bought it. If you have never tried a American cheese, save yourself, don't! Rather buy a plastic toy and chew that. It has the same results on your inside.

Have a great week and stay away from the bad cheese

Music

I'm sure you notice the new feature to my blog, the MUSIC. I thought I'd just show you two songs a really enjoy listening to. I think that music plays a big in your emotions, both in creating a sad emotion and in bringing you out of one.

The first song is called "Cinderella" and was written by Steven Curtis Chapman. He wrote it because he saw his daughter lying in bed one day and realized that she was growing older. A few days ago I found out that his daughter had just died in a car accident. I can't imagine how he must feel now.

The second song "Frontline" by Pillar is extremely encouraging to me. When I totally feel like giving up, I play this song and reminds me to just hang in there. There is a prize in the end. This happens on a regular basis, sometimes daily. In actual fact, a few months ago I listened to that song about 20 times non-stop. Talk about feeling like giving up, hey!

Hope you like them.

Weekend

Friday is here! I'm sure you have waited all week to hear that, so I though I might just throw it in. It has been a good week for me, I have learned a good few things this week about websites. I even had a brainwave on what I'm going to start my first website about, I just need some money to get it started.

We are in the process of launching three different sites, two for ministry purpose and one for visiting Greece. You are definitely going to have to check that one out when it's up and running. Looks like you need a vacation!

As for my running career, I think it's over, since I'm sitting here typing with a ice-pack on it. I'm very upset about this. This is the one sport (activity) that you can do in the farmlands.

The Xenophobia attacks in South Africa have gotten worse over the past few days. It has now spread to other cities in South Africa including Cape Town. The blame is being placed on the government at the moment, who only recently have brought it military troups to aid in stopping the attacks.

Have a smashing weekend!

Whats Xenophobia?

I spoke to a friend on skype today and learned some interesting news of what's happening in South Africa. He mentioned the word "Xenophobia", what on earth is that? Some disease or outbreak? I had seen the word before in the news recently, but thought nothing of it, probably because it sounded to big. It is actually a phobia (fear) or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people. The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself.

In South Africa's case it is the black South Africans not liking or fearing the blacks from other countries coming into South Africa illegally. In recent years, 2-4 million Zimbabweans have come into SA, this is a quarter of Zimbabwe's population. This is probably the result of Mugabe's(president of Zim) work in the country. I would probably want to run away from my country as well (look at me talking, sitting in America)! BUT I didn't run away from my country and I am legal, just to justify my case.

There has been several of these attacks in the poorer parts of Johannesburg, resulting in death. I'm pretty sure its in the squatter camps. I'm not taking sides on either one of theses, but if I had view the mindset of each group of people, I can understand where they coming from. The South Africans don't want people there illegally, because this is the main source of drugs and violence.If they absolutely have to come in, can't they just leave the drugs back in their country? I wonder how the country would look with no illegals. A better country or just the same? I really don't know.
Now, on the other hand, we have people trying to get into South Africa, because it's the land of gold for them. As I mentioned earlier, they are trying to get out of their countries, which are in often worse shape. Although, I don't think worse in crime sense. South Africa is ranked in the top 3 most violent countries in Africa, this includes the ones at war!

Just a quick look at what's going on back in SA, hope you enjoy!
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Internet learning

Whew, there goes another weekend, it totally flew by. It came and went along with the rain. It's amazing how it only rains on the weekend. It comes, makes my grass grow 5 inches longer, laughs at me and then leaves. I guess tomorrow I'm going to have to be out in the garden again, doing my "favourite thing." MOWING!

Yesterday was fun though, had a good run in the rain. Totally ruined my knee (old soccer injury), hopefully will be able to recover in a week for another run.

Last night I was out in Reading with the church that we planting, it's going pretty well. My brother, Wesley is playing guitar, very well might I add and Dad's preaching up a storm as usual. We are just under 20 people at the moment and this is only the first few weeks. Who knows what could happen? GOD?

I've been asked a few times what I do all day, so I thought I'd share a little bit with you. Since Im not allowed to have a JOB in the country at the moment and studying is so expensive in America. Mmm... that could make a good post someday. Anyway, I've gone to what I know I can do. Study online. Everyday I work and research things online, at the moment I'm focusing on SEO which stand for search engine optimization. This is making your website or blog rank in the top of a search engine, when googled by someone. Sound easy? NOT SO! I'm learning to take a keyword and build a business around it. I might not have any webites yet, besides the one you reading, but when I do get going, I'll know what to do. Would You?
This along with building a website and adding important things to it could have the potential to make you alot of money. It's a work in progress.

You should check out the new feature I've added to my blog, "Where you from?"

Hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.

Strange Ads

It was just the other day that I realized something that I had forgotten. The last few months in South Africa, I didn't have a TV, so obviously no watching. Then when I arrived in the USA, I had some catch up to do. It's a teenagers duty to know what's on tv!

Anyway, while watching, we noticed something about the commercials. Now, I know both countries play the same ones over and over again. But these ones are different, I've never seen so many commercials advertising sicknesses and diseases.
"If you have these symptoms, you could have this disease. Therefore you need to take this medicine, of which the side effects could give you this other disease. "
And so the story goes on and on and on. This was very funny for us to watch (only in the beginning, now it's boring). Why would you advertise these things on tv? How many people are there out there that actually have that weird disease, which no one has ever heard of? It's not even like these commercials are short either, they the longest of them all.

This kind of makes me think, this is all fear that they are putting in people's minds. I'm sure it must leave some thinking, I had a pain in my left side last week, maybe I have a disease.

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Mother's Weekend

I trust all the Mothers had a good day yesterday! Did you get spoiled? We went to Hershey Farm for breakfast, which is a breakfast buffet, very good. And, of coarse we ate too much. It was such a sacrifice to go, but I was willing ;)

Saturday, I listened online to the radio in South Africa and guess what was on? That's right Stormers Versus Waratahs. For those of you who don't know, these are rugby teams, the former being the one I support. The game resulted in a draw, but Stormers still stand a chance of making it to the semis. It would be the first time in a very long time.

When I was back in SA, during BibleSchool, I would go often on Saturday's with friends to watch games at "restaraunts". Even though I don't think the ladies always wanted to watch, Im still glad they came. Miss you girls!!! I think they just wanted to get out the house. I did!

Mugg&Bean VS. Starbucks

In South Africa we have this coffee shop called Mugg&Bean, while in America we have Starbucks. It's very difficult to compare the two, since they cater to different people groups.
M&B is a place where you go to in a mall and sit down, order your coffee and watch people go by.
While Starbucks is a on-the-go, wake-me-up coffee take away. Starbucks offer far more variety in drinks and coffees, but you don't have the luxury of being served at a table. Although the seats aren't always the most comfortable at M&B, they do offer alot more than coffee. They have a fairly wide variety of foods and desserts.

In SA (especially Cape Town) it is alot more relaxed and slower than America. It's normal to have to wait forever in a restaraunt for your meal. There is just no point in rushing. We would go to the mall to hang out for awhile, watch a movie and have dinner all in the same place. The drive to this place was 10 minutes away.
Now in Lancaster county, it feels like it takes 30 minutes to leave our road, the restaraunt is a diner (nah, not always) and the movie house is in between 10 farms.

It's been a big adjustment driving in America compared to South Africa. If we wanted to go to the other side of town (30 min away), it was a big deal you hardly ever did that. You just stayed in your suburb for the most part, which was the northern suburbs in my case. Now, it's really nothing to travel to 30- 45 minutes to find something to do.

A little humour

I came across this website a few months ago, they really have some brilliant stuff. You might not understand it if you have never been there. Have fun anyway though.

It's great to be a Souf Efrikan...
This is a great country because .......
1. You can eat half dried meat and not be considered disgusting.
2. Nothing is your fault, you can blame it all on apartheid.
3. You get to buy a new car every 3 months and the insurance company even pays for it.
4. You can experience kak service in eleven official languages.
5. Where else can you get oranges with 45% alcohol content at rugby matches?
6. It's the only country in the world where striking workers show how angry they are by dancing.
7. You're considered clumsy if you cannot: use a cellphone (without car kit), change CDs, drink a beer, put on make-up, read the newspaper and smoke, all at the same time while driving a car at 160 kph on the highway.
8. Great accent. (!!!)
9. If you live in Johannesburg, you get to brag about living in the most dangerous city in the world.
10. Burglar bars become a feature, and a great selling point for your house.
11. You can decorate your garden walls with barbed wire.
12. The police are the first on the scene for most major crimes, without being called.
13. Votes have to be recounted until the right party wins.
14. Illegal immigrants leave the country because the crime rate is too high.
15. The police ask you if they must follow up on the burglary you've just reported.
16. When a murderer gets a 6 month sentence and a pirate TV viewer 2 years.
17. The prisoners strike and get to vote in elections!
18. The police stations have panic buttons to call armed response when they are burgled
19. Police cars are fitted with immobilisers and gearlocks!
Ja nee!! Dis baie lekker hier!!

Grass on steroids

Seriously, what does this grass grow on? I just mowed the lawn and I can already hear my mother telling me to go mow it. It's amazing how in America the grass does not grow a inch in winter, not even Florida. But in Summer, whew, it catches up very quickly for the rest of the year.

I'm thinking that maybe all this fresh air and cow poop might be playing a role on my back breaking work with my wonderful push lawnmower. A ride on mower looks like a good investment at this time.
At least I'm getting tan.

President or Prisoner?

Elections in the USA is not the only political conflict going on now, back in South Africa we have this wonderfully crazy man (if you can call him that). Jacob Zuma. This man was the deputy president of South Africa not to long ago before being fired. This was do to not so false allegations of corruption and rape. He was found not guilty on the charges of rape alone, I'm still not so convinced though.

He is now currently president of the ANC, South Africa's leading party. Zuma has more influence at this point in the party than the actual South African President, who is ANC. Zuma at one pointed said that the current president should no longer be in that position, as he was no longer the president of the ANC party.

Trials are coming up in a few months on Zuma's corruption allegations. So to keep it simple, if he loses and proved guilty of corruption he ends up in jail. However, if he wins, he becomes South Africa's next president.

Just the fact that this is going on should be enough for him to get fired or resign.

America stands firm

With all the strange and wonderful differences between USA and South Africa, there is a very strong one that America has that I didn't see in South Africa. With all my traveling experience (only these two countries), even I can notice it. In fact, I don't think you even need to have ever been in America to have noticed. GOD BLESS AMERICA. Americans are probably the most patriotic country in the world, they love there country like nothing else. Sure, they have the biggest rivalry between states during the sporting seasons, but when it comes down to it. It's all about being patriotic.

In South Africa, I think you would be lucky to find a few people who would be willing to stand up and fight for their country. Hence, our small armed force. I honestly can say that I wouldn't want to fight for South Africa, besides all the useless politics involved in it.

Since being in America, I've really seen how important it is to love your country. Look at how America pulled itself through struggle over and over again, just because they were willing to stand and fight for there country. It really should be a testimony to other countries.
The amazing thing about it all is that it all is based on christian standards. Things like "In God we trust" and "God bless America". If a country keeps making and saying quotes like that, it's no wonder America is one of the leading nations in the world. Sure it's not perfect, but it's more than most countries out there. Wouldn't you agree?

It's going to be very interesting to see how the United States of America are going to pull themselves out of this economic dry spell. I have no doubt that they will. They are the UNITED States of America.

God Bless America

My Weekend

Sorry I've taken so long to make a new post, things have been pretty busy around here. I just love it when I get to see friends that I haven't seen for awhile. As I mentioned earlier, I spent Friday in the big apple. It really was amazing, doesn't matter how many times I go, it is so much better than staying in the farmlands. Which is not always bad, but it's nice to see the busy side of life again.
Did you ever watch the movie "Serendipity"? Well, we went to the restaraunt for lunch, I think this was the highlight of this NY trip for me. Oh, and we did see someone famous on the subway. Some guy from law and order. Always something new to see and do there, I love it.

The funny thing is that I ended up going back to NYC a few days later, this time I went with my family. Not quite as fun as with friends, but still totally worth it.

Now on another note, it's finally starting to warm up a bit again, I'm really not enjoying the cold any more. When I moved to the states, I was totally convinced I was a winter baby, now that I've experienced a real winter, I think I'm leaning more towards summer now! Sorry winter fans.

Whats new

I thought spring was setting in a few weeks ago, but now I'm not really liking the weather. It's pretty much like a Cape Town winter now. I'm really looking forward to summer.



Last night I went with Wesley to a youth group him and his friend are running. I shared a little bit with them. Honestly, I think it's easier speaking to older people than with youth.



Tomorrow I'm going to be in NYC for a day again, I really love that place. Although it smells like city and has so much polution, it still beats the absolute stink of the lancaster county cows...