Getting my Jesus on

I went back to the Rosebank Methodist Church today, which is super close to where I live and to campus. I went there the first time when PASSOP (the refugee advocacy group I volunteer for) invited us to be ushers for Susan Tsvangirai's memorial service a couple weeks back. Susan Tsvangirai is the new Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai's wife. He is the new hope for Zim, voted by democratic popular election by the people. Right now he is sharing power with president Mugabe who is supposed to be phasing out his term, an incredibly corrupt and murderous regime. There is more than a little doubt that the car accident Susan died in was actually an "accident". Mugabe's people have been known to kill people without hesitation if they were politically "misaligned" with his regime. Morgan even pulled out of the election a couple times due to the huge attacks on his supporters by Mugabe's people. It was a really cool experience to witness the coming together of the Zim community in this area to celebrate the life of an extraordinary woman. The gospel singing in Shona was my favorite part, such a beautiful language...

Anyhoo, I went back to the same church today to volunteer with the homeless ministry they have there every Tuesday afternoon. They have a special service, give out food, and donate clothing to the homeless in the area. The people in the church are wonderful people and so sweet, very generous with their time. As we were waiting to go into service, a drunk belligerent woman got into a HUGE brawl with another much older homeless man- like literally on the ground fighting, grabbing at each others clothes, pulling the man's mouth open, cursing like sailors, all that great stuff. It was pretty shocking to see happen right next to me, especially when the woman was saying "CHING CHONG" to me and calling me Japanese and all that jazz. Somehow I was an accomplice to that fight then I suppose? Then the drunk older man starts putting the pastor on blast telling him that his father was a good for nothing alcoholic, and that he's a f***-up, etc... strong words, man. That was adrenaline pumping I guess... It was especially surprising to find out that the two brawlers are actually lovers and apparently they get into these wild cursing fights all the time in the street. Who woulda thought? 

Anyways, the church service was quite nice, the singing was fun- the majority of the sermon and songs were in Afrikaans so I didn't understand much, but I always find the continuity in Christian themes comforting (the pastor talked about King David and repentance), probably because I grew up in the Church. All the homeless people were really sweet to me and friendly (other than crazy drunk lady) and they seem like generally great people. The only thing I felt bad about was I was always afraid I was going to gag at the awful smell in the small service room due to all the unwashed bodies. It was really suffocating but I kept my cool and just breathed out of my mouth. It makes me sad we live in a society where its acceptable for people to have to live like that. Where's the dignity? So unfair. A couple of the people there said they want to come back to LA with me in my suitcase, so funny how people are so impressed when they hear I'm from LA as if its the coolest place ever. (It is pretty awesome though :D) After the service, we sorted clothes for another couple hours and made packets for the different people with the clothing items they had requested. It made me feel really productive to be doing something that has some sort of tangible impact in helping people- which is really rare when you're volunteering for a larger organization. The clothing I sorted through and packed is going to provide comfort to these underprivileged people during the winter and that's something I feel is time well spent. A problem I have with my PASSOP internship is that I seem to just be doing a lot of administrative office work- filling out excel sheets and doing research, which is all well and good to a certain extent. Hope to continue working at this Homeless Shelter and working with the Adonis Musati Project (refugee humanitarian aid), a lot more rewarding than PASSOP I think... I feel really blessed to have the chance to help people at all, it's so ridiculous the disparities of privilege in this world, I'm constantly reminded of it here (don't get me wrong, it exists just as tangibly in America as well). It's also nice to be in a Church- as much as I don't agree with so much of Christian doctrine and the institution, the church is such a great community asset in its outreach for those who are in need- whether that be spiritual, emotional, or physical needs. One problem I did have with this church is that one needs to attend service in order to get the meal- which is unfair I think, its a spiritual imposition, takes all the free will and beauty out of faith, really. Almost like holding food ransom for another "soul saved".  I think the Church has a lot of power to impact so much positive change, but it also has the power (and has in the past) to cause a lot of negative destruction- imposing patriarchal mindsets, destruction of indigenous culture, evangelical superiority over other religions, etc. A boy came up to me while I was waiting for the bus and tried to tell me some regurgitated stuff about Jesus and it really annoyed me. I think that religion can be such a beautiful positive thing if only extremist Christians weren't so fanatic and imposing about their faith. Religion is definitely something I will continue to grapple with throughout my life but I think for now my religion is completely my own- based on compassion, individual dignity, empathy, love, humility and human rights. That is where I find my peace.  Amen to that! :)