DAY 2

This Sunday I joined the praying circle of the Bahais (but I didn’t pray ‘cause I’m not religious) which was quite interesting because they accept any kind of religion and prayer and there’ve been people from at least 6 different countries. The reason for that is that they believe in progressive revelation meaning every prophet (Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Bahá'u'lláh) had a message of god fitting their time and therefore the founder of their faith ain’t the last one but the one for this age.
Other cool things about this faith are no hierarchy (like priest, super priest and priest overlord), woman and man are 100% equal, they’ve got a principle saying you’ve gotta think (not just believing), they don’t claim absolute truth and there is no hell. (but you’ll get punished for you’re sins until you’re pure enough for heaven)
So basically they’ve removed all these damn flaws of other religions which make it so easy to influence, control and oppress people…and now guess where it was founded? In IRAN!!! I couldn’t believe it.
Anyway I’m not planning to go there again because it still feels strange, like you just don’t fit in but I’m definitely meeting ‘em again to discuss philosophical aspects and to go to the townships to play and teach the children there.
The kids we met today were really small and so funny. They smiled the whole time and they all wanted to get a goodbye hug esp. one small girl called Shila she was sooo sweet. (hope I can get you a picture)
But then I also experienced a little that living in these poor areas must be pretty tough ‘cause one of the small boys I was playing footbag with just came over when we were about to leave and said in a surprisingly rough way: ‘ Borrow me that ball!!!’
And it really sounded like gangsta style the only thing missing was ‘Don’t scream and don’t try anything funny!!!’
Still I wanna talk to the guys my age next time even if they might be real gangstas to find out a little more what is going on in these townships and maybe to think about ideas how you could empower the youth there to do something useful.
On our way back I had been talking to a woman who actually converted from Islam to be a Bahai which you’ll probably won’t find often ‘cause leaving Islam is forbidden.
The reason why she left was that the Imam in her community told her that all Christians will go to hell and when your parents are Christians and you’re Muslim you’re not allowed to pray for their souls after they’ve died which she just couldn’t take (but her parents are Muslims)and I gotta admit that such stuff doesn’t make sense to me either but I probably should keep my mouth shut.
I don’t wanna run advert for the Bahai faith, they’ve got just so many principles which I like and which most of the other religions just lack.
So back in the Bahai centre we visited the Bahai clinic where private doctors of JoBurg being Bahais offer medical treatment for free. Most of the patients are HIV/Aids infected from the townships who can’t afford going to a doctor.
Some minutes ago I was playing footbag and doing sit-ups to get rid off my nerd-belly, really I couldn’t believe what smoking, pizza and endless anime nights could do to my stamina, power and shape -> baby crying: ‘I am fat!’
Coming to speak of anime Johanna’s bro just showed me a samurai anime which I didn’t know which I thought is impossible and it is called ‘shigurui’ and seemed dark and brutal (yeah!!!). Furthermore he showed me a nerd series called ‘Chuck’ so if you like Big Bang or IT-Crowd check it out and tell me wether it rocks or not.
Ah I almost forgot you should also watch docus of Louis Theroux quite interesting and funny because he makes people admit stuff they probably would never have said in front of a camera, I watched both about South Africa (one about violence in JoBurg and the other about Afrikaaners establishing whites-only-towns)
So now lets have dinner and after that a big bunch of sleep I’m really tired.