Worship at Umtwalume
(Sunday, 13 May 2007)
Text of report letter to East Walpole church:
Sanibona, Union Church ! With this e-mail we're sending along a text description of our visit to Umtwalume on Sunday. By a series of separate messages which should follow in short order, we're also sending small-file versions of some of the photos we took this day (we can forward large-file copies if you'd like, but this is easier for us with our dial-up connection here). We hope that these together will prove interesting. Best, Jan and Ruthann.
The day for our return to Umtwalume was sunny and bright, the temperature in the upper 20’s Centigrade, around 80 Fahrenheit. When we arrived, we were assured that as they’d been anticipating our arrival, there had been many prayer requests for fine weather for the day, and God had provided.
The route to Umtwalume from Umhlanga, north of Durban where we stay while here, is one of several for which we now have fairly detailed notes of directions. The first hour of the trip, this isn’t really necessary, as it’s a straight shot down the N2 interstate-quality highway, leaving the southern ring of Durban’s townships and suburbs and beginning the string of small beach resort towns of the Dolphin Coast, which extend all the way down past Port Shepstone and to the border with the Eastern Cape Province. Those towns lie to the west, while to the east and all around, there are sugar cane fields interspersed with small settlements, and here and there as you get farther out from the urban area, there are some that look rather like the kraals more common up in Zululand.
Traveling on the superhighways in KZN is a bit of a different experience, and not just because it’s on the left side of the road. For the most part the auto and truck traffic here is similar to that at home, though you’ll encounter a greater number of small pickups – bakkies, they call them here – with passengers in the back. This morning we had a succession of pass and re-pass meetings with one of these, with three ladies in their finest in the back huddled against the cab to escapte the wind, and as we’d seen them several times and again over several minutes, Ruthann, who was driving, waved to them, and they smiled and waved back, and she and the ladies seemed to have a running joke about the constant passing and re-passing as they zipped ahead of us on the downslopes and we overtook them on the upslopes.
The greatest difference in highway travel here, though, is the non-motor-vehicle activity on the road. All roads here, most especially in the rural areas, are thoroughfares not just for vehicles. There will always be pedestrians along, and crossing, the highway, and customers waiting for or being picked up or let off by the regular route but irregular timing minibus taxis (mostly the old style of these, a van built for nine and holding 12 passengers or more), and often small herds of animals being led to and along the grass, less common in the median but it’s happened. There are usually vendors as well. On this Sunday morning, there are more than the usual numbers of vendors along the highway. Most days on this stretch, it’s avocados on offer, with a few of the sellers on the side of the breakdown lane, each with a small box turned on end and made into a table, set with a pyramid of the fruit, and sometimes instead with the vendor standing with a single fruit like Liberty holding the torch (or a bent-arm version of that). In one particular stretch, near Scottburgh, it’s not avocados but bags of lost but now found, retrieved and washed golf balls that are on offer; and then as you continue down the coast it’s back to avocados. And so this morning, but especially in the avocado belts, as it were, there are quite many of the little temporary stands – a couple of boxes turned on end, the vendor sitting on one and displaying the fruit on the other – with one of these arrangements every football field’s length of road, or closer. There’s no real differentiation in the product or the presentation, and it must be largely the luck of the draw as to who makes a sale -- we’re not great avocado fans so don’t stop for these and can’t speak to whether other motorists have ways of selecting where to stop – but it must work, this sales effort, often enough to make it worthwhile. The venue certainly exposes their ware to many potential customers. And the golf ball section I understand implicitly.
But we were heading to Umtwalume. And once we leave the highway, at the exit for ‘Sipofu / Mtwalume’, our notes tell us: At end of ramp (106.7 km from start) turn right, inland; Turn left on R102 (110.4) toward Hibberdene. At this corner, there are a number of vendors set up, but they’re selling bananas, and even a few tomatoes. It’s probably a pretty good spot, with the intersection and as it appears to be a spot for taxis to pick up and unload. Turn right (112.3) toward Sipofu (past Hibberdene p.o. boxes and a school). This takes us through a relatively built up area, with no farmyards around the houses, and here mainly square houses, fewer of the rondavels you find in the outlying areas. We continue through sugar cane fields making a bit of a tunnel out of the road (and coming right up to the tarmac, so the folks walking along the road are necessarily in the road, so it’s a bit unnerving on the winding bits); but eventually the road begins to follow broad ridges, and here and there you can get a view of the valleys and hills around, still very green at this time of year, quite lovely. Turn right (122.8) toward Lellos Drift (dirt road); Curve right by DPW (don’t go downhill on left); Police station to right; Cross a one-lane (128.3) causeway with no railings; Turn right into church at 128.7. And there we are.
We’d been told today it would be a full-circuit service, so people would be coming from the other nine branch churches as well. As we arrived, there were people milling about outside, most in their khaki uniforms as members of Amabutho – the Soldiers of Christ organization, described to us initially as the men’s organization, but which has many women members, in some churches more than the men – with some in the white uniforms for Isililo – the ‘bloused ones,’ the women’s organization; lots of women are members of both. At Umtwalume, we’d expect to see strong Amabutho membership, as it is at this church, back towards the turn of the prior century, that the organization was initiated; there’s a plaque on the outside of the church for the celebration of the organization’s 100th anniversary. To one side by the church entrance, there’s a music group rehearsing, what … the ‘i3L Chorus’ and very well done it is, too, maybe a tad slow. Well, that’s a bit of a thrill, to have this promotional jingle, in effect, being prepared to be used in the service.
We shake a few hands, are welcomed warmly and told of the weather prayers, and join the folks as they begin to enter the church. There are still arrivals expected, and probably as the taxis from the other branches begin to arrive the pews will fill up. Those that had arrived begin with some choruses, and a hymn used as a chorus, as they wait. Ruthann is able to use the time shaking hands up and down the pews, and Jan does some photography and videography and recording, and a few handshakes as well. The usual seating pattern has already manifested itself, women on the left as you face the altar, men on the right front – and it’s there that the male deacons will sit – with kids just behind on the men’s side, the gender division breaking down as you go back, especially as the latecomers grab a seat where they can. It’s a sea of khaki with a little white here and there, and others with go-to-meeting clothes of a more expected sort. The singing continues, and in a bit Mrs. Nonhlanhla Myeza, the minister’s wife and the main and prayer connection for the relationship with the East Walpole church, enters, greets us, and takes her seat at the front left aisle; we have opted usually to try to sit on the front left as well, in these churches, as it gives Ruthann better access to talk with the Isililo leadership which tends to be seated in the first few rows on that side. A bit later, Rev. Sibusiso Myeza comes in, greets us, and moves up to his seat by the lectern; the pulpit isn’t used during this service, it later comes clear that this may be because it’s being used to store the other vestments, the deep gold ones we’d seen before. The pulpit and lectern and railings and tables at the front are now all dressed in white, with small crosses of the light blue ribbon of the UCCSA colors.
If you look up from the vestments, there on the back wall is the old painting of George Wilder, the first great American missionary here at Umtwalume, in the second wave of the initial Zulu Mission of the American Board. And if you look up to the roof, the appropriateness of the weather prayers comes clear. It’s a corrugated metal roof, great as a reverberator for the music but now with gaps and some rusted bits here and there, and if it had been raining, it would have dripped mightily Been there, had that happen, elsewhere. The congregation is attempting to construct a new church, not so much because of the roof issue as that when all the folks from the circuit gather, there just isn’t enough room. The foundation for the new building is completed, and is there next to the old building, with no progress on it from when we were there last year. But it’s constantly in mind, as we’ll see.
With the minister now in place, the service begins, pretty much on time around 11 a.m. The service, inclusive of a brief Amabutho time, and an overextended Isililo reporting time, will continue for another three and a half hours.
The beginnings of the service include an introductory hymn, with leadership by a music director, in effect, whom we hadn’t met before. He (and we must get the name, it just didn’t make it in usable form into our notes of the day) is a teacher by profession, but is intending to leave that field soon to study for the ministry; he lives up in Durban, and within the past year served as the host for an exchange (college) student named Pamela Stuart, who he said had come from Massachusetts. The singing here at Umtwalume is quite good, among the better in terms of the hymns, perhaps not the very best in the choruses, but not bad at all! We’ve gotten to be quite the aficionados of the church music here …
The Sunday school aged kids, who may have been there for quite a while already, as Sunday school is before the service, will then sit through the service, which can (as did this one) run quite a while indeed. This mid-day, during one of the early hymns, there was kind of thud heard from just behind and to the side of where we were sitting, and then a scramble of people gathering around one of the youngsters who, it appeared, had passed out and hit the floor. Several of the ladies, including Nonhlanhla, and one of the male deacons, gathered the little girl up and carried her out of the church; Nonhlanhla came back not long after this, and assured us that the girl was alright. There’d not been any untoward panic when this had happened, and while there was a good amount of turning around to check on what was being done, aside from the four or five people who’d immediately responded, the others remained in place and continued with the singing of the hymn, and once the responders were outside, it picked up with full force to its conclusion. This may have been, and we’ve encountered this here at other places, an epileptic event; we don’t know for sure, and after Nonhlanhla’s assurance when she returned, it was not discussed further.
The hymns were followed by an opening prayer, and one of the standard liturgical creeds was sung, and then the Lord’s Prayer, sung in English this time. Next up, Mary Gumede, the elected Secretary of the Circuit, is asked by Rev. Myeza to formally welcome us as visitors to the church and this service. Then we have special music, with the intention that the congregation will sing the i3L Chorus; this led to a bit of discussion with the leader, about perhaps pitching it a little lower – Ruthann’s standard request – her singing a sample of the Zulu words was met with quite a reaction by the leader, and applause all around. Through her demonstration, she’d done it quite a bit faster than they had rehearsed it, and so that became the tempo used. (Nonhlanhla Myeza had commented to Ruthann that it did seem a bit slow? And with the new tempo, she said, ‘I feel like dancing,’ which in the event wasn’t done to this tune, but later.) The Umtwalume folks have come up with hand motions to accompany the chorus, which I hope show up on the video: indicating one’s self for the ‘lami,’ outward for the ‘lakho,’ pointing up for ‘le_nkosi’ and then broadly inclusive for the ‘lethu.’ There’s something to be spread! And the leader said they’re going to teach the song to other churches, if they haven’t gotten it already themselves, at the next conferences. That’s the way the songs, the many songs, find their way around in the churches, so we may have the workings of a B-sider, at least.
Next up was a ‘I’ve got joy in my heart’ rendition by the Sunday school, nicely done. Mary Gumede told us, after the service, that they’d usually have done more with the kids, but ‘this is a new group,’ which we took to mean that her mainstays for readings and drama and more difficult singing had moved on to the youth. As to the youth, nothing of a performance mode for them, this time, but they had other responsibilities, including the feeding of the assembly after the service, as noted below.
The sermon, or a homily since it was pretty short in this context, came next, delivered by Rev. Myeza. It was on Isaiah 5:1-7, with some English interspersed for our benefit.
And after some more music, including a wonderfully vibrant rendition of #121 in Amagama okuhlabelela (the Zulu Congregational hymnal); this is another hymn translated from the Xhosa, per the hymnal being set to ‘Still Water’ by Thomas Hastings (which I’ll attempt to check in time; it’s not always the appointed tune that’s used). What made this ‘neat’ from our point of view, is that when they got to the last line, of the last verse – Niphumleke nani phezulu – the singing entered into one of the perpetual loops that they’ll do sometimes, repeating this line and having it build and build, the multiple parts being sung with full-throated gusto, the only accompaniment the slapping of hymnals, a tambourine, a triangle-like mechanism crafted from a metal disc and axle and played with a small ‘spanner’ (wrench), and one actual cow’s horn and a few do-it-yourself shofars out of PVC pipe. And as it proceeds, the usual swaying while they’re singing leads over to dancing, and then leads over to dancing up the aisle to the front, and a dancing circle there, and in the fullness of time back to the seats, and ends. And through it all, people smiling, and laughing, and being, well, joyful. And when it’s over, someone decides that it was after all a hymn, not a chorus, so they add a staid ‘Amen’ in chords. The energy, the joy, the community, is palpable, and we do love to be part of it.
Things calm down for the collective prayers, which are really contemporaneous but several, not with a single reading that everyone recites, but each person praying on their own, but together: it’s as if there is a vocal rendition of the silent prayers we hope are being offered during that appointed time in the churches at home. By this time, several more outstations had arrived, and so too Neli Mngadi, the youth leader we’d met before. She begins to be the lead voice – the ‘call’ in the bridges between verses and some lines of the hymns, for instance – in the singing, taking over most of this from the male leader mentioned earlier. That makes the overall timbre of the sound a bit more typical of what we experience in the other churches. Anyway, she begins the ‘Mananjalo’ chanted chorus that often precedes this time of prayer, and this goes on for a few iterations, and then there’s a stop. Nokuthula Myeza gets up and gives an explanation, back and forth between Zulu and English, about her phone calls and activity for the prayer connections with East Walpole, through Leila Joseffer. She mentioned prayer requests from Union church, and explained that she’d asked for special prayers from them for the resolution of the impending public service employees’ strike here in South Africa, which will have, if it goes forward, a great impact on the lives of the people who depend upon these services as well as, in her own situation and others in the church, as teachers [the Education Department has announced that it will react to any strike with the ‘no work, no pay’ policy which sometimes is waived here or recouped through the settlement, but not this time it seems; the money will be lost, and that’s no small thing]. So the request for prayers here for there, and the explanation of the reciprocal request, were brought front and center for the service.
That done, Neli started up the ‘Mananjalo’ chorus again, and this led into the joint prayer time. This amounts to everyone praying, out loud, at the same time. It is something we’d misinterpreted as a kind of speaking in tongues moment, when we first encountered it a number of years ago, but these are in fact all vocal prayers in Zulu – with two now added in English – which go on for a number of minutes, each person with his or her own manner and specifics, some quiet, some exuberant. There is a kind of swell, like waves of sound, as the prayers proceed, and then in time it begins to fade, as people finish up their own prayers, and then it comes quiet. In some of the churches, there will be an appointed final prayer, some one person who will come into the very end of the few prayers still being voiced, using the ‘Mananjalo’ or other chorus softly until the stragglers conclude, and then transitioning into a closing prayer by this one person. Here, however, once it was silent from the individual prayers, Rev. Myeza called for a hymn.
And after that hymn, we were on. So Jan stood up and transitioned with the ‘i3L chorus,’ which in some other churches only a few of those in attendance would have heard or remembered, but in this context, since they’d been rehearsing it and had done it earlier, was quite a rousing rendition, and worthy of a ‘hallelujah’ at the end. This is the provenance and the intended use of the chorus, as the transition into the next item in a service – something each speaker does, with considerable variety as to the text and music chosen, for the chorus that they’ll sing as they get up to speak. That now done, Jan gave initial greetings in as close to isiZulu as he can manage, a text which was originally crafted last year for greetings brought to the KZN Region’s Annual General Meeting in Durban, so translated for that purpose by our (trusted) friend Florence Madlala of the Lamontville church (participating in i3L as the match for the Townsend church), so we’re reasonably sure he’s actually saying what he thinks he’s saying, and then in English with specific greetings from East Walpole Union church, recounting the sequence of our visits to Umtwalume and to Union, and the introductions between them, and the beginnings of the contacts that Nonhlanhla had mentioned at the prayer time.
We had with us, on this trip, items from East Walpole for Umtwalume, preceded by a Massachusetts map showing the Union church’s location, that we’d worked up. The scrapbook, cards and youth questionnaires, and DVD of the All Saint’s service were presented to Nonhlanhla and explained by Ruthann. Especial note was made of the pen pal data and self-descriptive information from some kids, and whole families. The cards were handed around, and the scrapbook spent a good part of the later portions of the service doing the rounds on the deacons’ benches, and there was, as well, a clutch of young women from the youth around Neli going through it, looking at the pictures and the youth questionnaires in particular. Ruthann got a good ovation for the presentation.
After this presentation, Jan talked a bit more about the manner and importance of the attempt to connect, to re-connect, these two churches of the Congregational tradition, so far away in geographical terms but so close in historical terms, and urged that this extend to as many people in the several churches of the Circuit as might be practicable. And then there was another round of the i3L chorus to conclude, and the conclusion was greeted by smiles and applause. It really depends upon the context of the specific church whether there would have been a blow-by-blow translation, or a brief summary of what had transpired for those of the congregation who were less comfortable with the flood of English to which they’d been subjected; when we were here a year ago, there was a translation, but not this time, and indeed the volume of English-conversant folks was rather higher than we’d recalled it from before, and there didn’t seem to be the need. It’s their choice, certainly.
The music leader was directed to give the ‘vote of thanks,’ which – rather like last year when Neli did this – did a severe departure into the need for help with the building. (Jan had a chance to speak with him later, as the offerings were proceeding, and making the point (we were looking at the scrapbook at the time) that the intention here was to strike up direct relationships between the churches and the people, not to be a broker for contributions towards their church building fund. A fairly usual issue on each side, especially here where one comes in ‘from America,’ and that’s usually the only reason that folks like us would have bothered to come out here.) And the ‘visit them’ point, also front and center often enough, came up as well in his speech. So as a vote of thanks appropriate to the program itself, it was a bit off base, but it’s usual enough. No harm done, really.
Next came a presentation by the youth, which turned out to be ‘mother’s day’ gifts of pink-and-white face cloths and bath soap, to Nonhlanhla and to Ruthann (!) because on this Mother’s Day, ‘we feel as the youth that you, too, are our mothers.’ Ruthann got great reviews for her response to this, expressing the joy for our being allowed to be there, and the kind greetings from so many of them, as we’d entered and during the service.
And it was in this part of the service that we learned from Rev. Myeza that the ex-minister’s wife, Mrs. Nyama (if we remember the name correctly?) – ‘our mother as a church’ – had died since the first of the year. We recalled that she’d still been living nearby, perhaps in the old manse; the Myezas live down in Hibberdene by the coast.
It had been our impression that this was an Amabutho Sunday, but they didn’t have much charge of the service other than a section in which we saw the unfurling, and singing and dancing around and in celebration, of a banner – a banner for the Amabutho Ka Kristu South Coast District, which was a banner won, so we’re told, as the prize for a fund raising competition for the organization awarded at the recent zonal conference for the South Coast churches. (The matter of the building came to mind, but …) The explanation was given after the fact by Rev. Myeza, and we were glad for it, as the South Coast District designation didn’t quite compute otherwise.
Another aspect of the Amabutho section of the service had the only offerings for the day, special offerings to defray the cost of transport to the upcoming Amabutho regional conference at Mathonsi, 2 or 3 hours north, in late June. The time of the offering allowed for one of those special moments when those present from each of the outstations were summoned forward to make their contributions, each group selecting a chorus, some dancing and swaying forward, some in larger groups, some in smaller. They came forward from Umtwalume itself, and also from Hyman, Guquka, Othandweni, Beacon Hill, Ekubusisweni, Nkungwini, Egumbini, Ekukhanyeni, and Mangayiyane – the ten branches that together form the Umtwalume Congregational Church. And since they each sang and came forward, it took a while, but was good fun.
But after the Amabutho section had concluded, and we were getting close to the third hour of the service, a bit of a surprise: The khaki uniforms at the front were supplanted by white ones, and we’d transitioned into a sort of ad hoc Isililo meeting. The purpose of this became clearer to us as one of the ladies began, and continued, and continued further, what was obviously a report on the events at the Isililo annual conference which had taken place at Noodsberg, two weekends prior. We had had a sampling of such an Isililo conference back in 2004, when we’d gone to the conference held that year at Mpumalanga, to address them about the church-to-church connection effort, and we’d sat through a report on last year’s conference at Umngeni when we’d visited the Hambanathi outstation of the Groutville church shortly after that meeting. And, as well, we had some familiarity with some of the topics that had been under discussion at the conference, so were able to piece together references to the idea of constructing or purchasing a conference center for the Region, and the possible development of Point Farm – a property held by Isililo – including the news of the recent rental of space on one of its high points for a cell tower by MTN, one of the cell phone companies operating in SA. And the matter of standardizing the uniforms between the regions and synods of the UCCSA’s various Isililo branches, had evidently also come up; we’d heard quite a bit about this last year, when it was something of a hot topic with reminders about compromises that had been agreed all the way back in 1967 when the denomination was formed, but never implemented. Some progress seems to be being made, with a general understanding that compromises will be required; it seems a trifle silly, perhaps, but in talking with her about this afterwards, Nonhlanhla noted that the point of it all is to avoid the immediate distinction between members of the organization from various regions and synods, when they come together, merely by the appearance of their intended, but not actually, identical uniforms.
This would all have taken long enough, but the report this day took an approach that we’ve encountered before – and which this journal entry may itself exemplify – whereby it’s not so much a report, and certainly not a summary, as a blow by blow near transcription of the proceedings. This was most clear with an extended section beginning with the mention of a Bible study segment on the story from Numbers (ch. 13, was it?) about Aaron and Miriam’s misdoings leading to Miriam’s leprosy, and the requirement that she stay unclean for 7 days before reentering the community. We can’t guess what the point of that would have been, but the report on it went clearly verse by verse, with exposition on each, and it has to have run 10 or 12 minutes, and showed no signs of ending; but finally did, and then another detailed recounting of the next item on the weekend’s agenda was being launched. It was pretty clear that we weren’t the only ones straining a little bit to keep our attention directed at this report; even those who could understand fully what was being said were starting to fade, given we were beyond 3 hours for this morning’s service, by this time, so starting at 11 we were now past 2 p.m. We always make sure we’ve got water with us, but not always granola bars to munch as necessary. Behind us in the kids’ seating area, and they were still there having sat through the whole service, one or two of them were nodding off, and we’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case further back in the pews as well.
The youth leaders had already left the sanctuary, and after a while there were signs of preparations of a table and chairs up behind the pulpit and lectern, and plates and glasses and such were brought and placed there, and eventually covered dishes (with some lettuce sticking out) were brought out as well and placed on this table. This was all in plain view of the congregation, though to the back of the reporter. There’d been communication between the Myezas, and Nonhlanhla asked us whether we’d like to go ahead and eat, as it was ready? They’d been very solicitous of our timing as the service proceeded (we admit to being a bit unusual in visiting and usually, if we can, staying through the whole service), and now again. Okay, we were indeed getting a bit hungry, having forgotten about the granola bars, but it didn’t seem the best plan for us, as the visitors, to be munching away up front at this table, while the report droned on and the congregation would sit there gazing up at us in hunger. So we said we could wait.
A bit further along, Mrs. Myeza got up again and walked up the side, and up to the seat behind the lectern where Rev. Myeza had been sitting patiently, and they chatted briefly. She came back to her seat, and then after not too long, Rev. Myeza got up and interrupted the report and, we’re surmising, indicated that it was necessary to wrap up the report because he and his family had to travel that afternoon up to Pietermaritzburg (to prepare for an evaluation for one of their young children at a special school there, we learned). The reporter was only a little disoriented by this, but managed to wrap it all up quickly enough.
The last item on her list had been, and she turned to it now, the announcement of the officers of the regional structures of Isililo for the coming term of 3 years. The new president, as we knew already, would be Mrs. Nonhlanhla Myeza herself, and there was oohing and aahing and applause at this news. Her election is an interesting continuation of a trend in the leadership of the organization from the breakthrough in the prior election when Sindi Dlamini, wife of the minister at Inanda, had been elected as the first younger leader of the organization in anyone’s memory, and as someone brought to the top post from outside the existing executive committee. But Sindi had held leadership positions in the national Isililo structure before, having earlier been elected from the Central Region, up around Johannesburg, when she and her husband were serving a church in that area. Nonhlanhla, to our knowledge, hasn’t held any post with the regional or broader leadership before this one; but while somewhat quiet, she’s very sharp, and her training as a teacher is both useful and valued by the organization and its members. We said we’d be praying for her; it’s not the easiest job.
That done, things wrapped up very quickly, with a brief run of announcements read out by Mary Gumede, the elected Secretary of the congregation, and then a hymn and a benediction by Rev. Myeza.
We shook a few hands, and went up to the table that had been set for us, where Nonhlanhla joined us. The youth started bringing out plates for the general congregation, a full meal of a stew with rice, baked beans, cole slaw, mashed squash, shredded beets, and probably other items. We had a separate menu of chicken and salad, with rolls, and while we’ve had the other menu many a time before, are grateful for the altered menu. Such a meal isn’t a constant element of the services here, even the long ones, but where, as in this service, people had come from the other 9 churches and had journeys home yet to come, the meal is an important help to get them through this long day.
As we left, there were people eating while sitting in the pews, and there were groups catching up on each others’ news in little groups here and there in the sanctuary and outside. Some of the members were beginning to load up to go, with one scene of several starting to pack themselves into the covered bed of a small bakkie, and a number heading across the road to where some minibus taxis were beginning to load up for the return trip to their localities. We received and gave a number of happy waves to folks at all stages of transportation, and pulled down the road back towards the coast, and northwards to Durban and its other world.
This is also a place that God sees --
Amahubo 33: 13-15:
UJehova uyabheka esezulwini;
Uyababona bonke abantwana babantu.
Esendaweni lapho ehlala khona
Uyababuka bonke abakhileyo ezweni,
Yena owadala izinhliziyo zabo bonke,
Oqaphela zonke izenzo zabo.
Psalm 33:13-15:
The Lord looks down from heaven,
He sees all humankind;
From where he sits enthroned he looks forth
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
He who fashions the hearts of them all,
And observes all their deeds.