Bits and pieces
Last week I went down to Durban for the conference of the Association for the Study of Religion in Africa. I took Val's Toyota Yaris rather than my Subaru station wagon, because it costs R150 less to fill the tank of the Yaris, and it goes further on a tank as well. It took about 9 hours for the journey (about 650 km). I went on the old road, through Delmas, Leslie (Leandra), Standerton etc, and it took about 9 hours. The freeway is probably faster, but then I would spend the money I saved in petrol on tolls. I also have a conscientious objection to toll roads, and avoid them as much as possible. A long time ago there were no toll roads, and there was a road fund to maintain the roads. The Road Fund was maintained by a tax on petrol. The old National Party government raided the Road Fund to pay for its invasion of Angola, and instituted toll roads instead. The ANC government no longer wants to conquer Angola, but they still rob the road fund for other purposes. I also like the scenery on the old road better, and am sentimentally attached to parts of it.
On the first evening there was nothing happening at the conference, so I visited Val's cousin Dorothy Benjamin and her family in Northdene (described in our family history blog). The next two days were the ASRSA Conference with many papers (described in a couple of posts on my Khanya blog). One of the nice things about that was meeting an old friend there, Janet Jarvis, who had been in a church youth group we had helped to run in Durban North more than 30 years ago. Janet (then Janet Shemilt) was a teenager back then, and now she is a granny. It makes me feel so old.
I read my paper on Christian understandings of paganism and witchcraft, and no one threw rotten tomatoes, so I assume it was OK. After the conference on the way home I spent a day in Pietermaritzburg with another old friend, John Aitchison. He was a good friend when I was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, and he married my cousin Jenny Growdon, but she'd gone overseas, so I didn't see her. Among other things we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the crystal skull. It was quite fun, but not as good as the earlier ones. Some scenes were overdone, like a prolonged car chase on a cliff-top which went on far too long. They also showed the trailer of Prince Caspian, and from what I've heard it suffers from the same defect.
Since getting home I've been working on a journal article on Orthodox ecclesiology in Africa for the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church.
Some may wonder why I write about most of these things in other blogs, like the Khanya one, and that's because more people read them. My LJ has an average of 3 visitors a day, while the Khanya blog has had an average of 152 visitors a day for the last month. That's quite a difference.
On the first evening there was nothing happening at the conference, so I visited Val's cousin Dorothy Benjamin and her family in Northdene (described in our family history blog). The next two days were the ASRSA Conference with many papers (described in a couple of posts on my Khanya blog). One of the nice things about that was meeting an old friend there, Janet Jarvis, who had been in a church youth group we had helped to run in Durban North more than 30 years ago. Janet (then Janet Shemilt) was a teenager back then, and now she is a granny. It makes me feel so old.
I read my paper on Christian understandings of paganism and witchcraft, and no one threw rotten tomatoes, so I assume it was OK. After the conference on the way home I spent a day in Pietermaritzburg with another old friend, John Aitchison. He was a good friend when I was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, and he married my cousin Jenny Growdon, but she'd gone overseas, so I didn't see her. Among other things we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the crystal skull. It was quite fun, but not as good as the earlier ones. Some scenes were overdone, like a prolonged car chase on a cliff-top which went on far too long. They also showed the trailer of Prince Caspian, and from what I've heard it suffers from the same defect.
Since getting home I've been working on a journal article on Orthodox ecclesiology in Africa for the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church.
Some may wonder why I write about most of these things in other blogs, like the Khanya one, and that's because more people read them. My LJ has an average of 3 visitors a day, while the Khanya blog has had an average of 152 visitors a day for the last month. That's quite a difference.