Jack Elliott
When he stepped through our front door, his face covered with wild red whiskers and a bushy mop of hair poking out from under a crumpled hat, 19-year-old Jordan Beller looked like he was stepping out of history—a Boer “trekker” returned from the wild African veldt.
In fact, the Dawson Township resident was returning from “Outtatown,” a two-semester program by the Canadian Mennonite University of Winnipeg that included a three-month sojourn in South Africa, with a story recounting experiences as exciting as anything told from a trip to South Africa from two centuries ago.
Beller, familiar in the Rainy River area as one of the main characters in the “Great Beaver Caper” held during that community’s centennial celebrations in 2004, graduated high school this past year with an idea of what career path he wanted to pursue but anxious to explore other opportunities before committing himself.
“The ‘Outtatown’ program at the CMU gave me that opportunity,” noted Beller, explaining its purpose was to expand the individual’s knowledge of “knowing God, knowing the world, and knowing yourself.”
The two-semester program began last September with a three-week stint at the Bird River Bible Camp near Lac du Bonnet for Beller’s group of 30 classmates and four leaders.
Activities included “service days,” where an “urban plunge” focused on working at homeless shelters, helping the poor, praying with someone, or simply offering a hand up to someone down-trodden.
Scavenger hunts across the city, solving riddles, and viewing “urban murals” also expanded personal horizons.
Speakers and seminar leaders provided both challenges and opportunities to the participants. One speaker, John Unger, particularly influenced Beller.
“We talked about and documented our personal heritage and history, our abilities, and how we can use our history to shape our future,” Beller explained, passionately detailing the deep impact the session had on him.
Throughout the program, structured, extensive physical activity played an important role, with canoe trips, horseback riding, hiking, surfing, swimming, rock climbing, archery, paint ball, sky diving, and shark diving among some of the various endeavours that were a first for many.
As the program progressed, locations switched from Lac du Bonnet to Canmore and Rocky Mountain House, Alta. and the Vancouver area of B.C.
Many different cultures and social settings were experienced, from the traditional culture of the B.C. coastal native communities to the desperation of the drug-infested streets of East Vancouver opening many eyes to realities not experienced before.
“Seeing addicts ‘shooting up’ and drug deals ‘going down’ was really shocking,” said Beller, who obviously was deeply moved.
“I knew very little about native life and was very impressed by their history and culture,” he added. “Simply knowing the proper way to greet a person in a native culture was new to me.”
When the first semester ended Dec. 5, Beller was back to Rainy River to prepare for the next leg—South Africa. Departing Winnipeg on Jan. 13 with a minus-49 C windchill, Beller stepped off the plane two days later to 30 degrees C in Johannesburg.
“The heat and humidity just enveloped you,” Beller recalled of his first impression.
The format of the second semester was similar to the first, but with more emphasis on exploring the diverse cultures. Soweto, with its poverty and apartheid museums, gave the group ample opportunity for “service days” in crèches (day care centres) painting, looking after children, and teaching, he noted.
In Pretoria, they toured a lion park and had the opportunity to hold small lions. It also was the first of three “home stays,” this one with an Afrikaans family, descendants of the white Dutch settlers in South African.
Beller said he learned of their history and culture, the Boer “trekkers,” their food and history.
“It was very eye-opening to witness the richness there compared to the poverty of Soweto,” he observed.
From Pretoria, the group completed a 20-hour bus ride to the Capetown area.
It was mostly desert and mountains until they approached Capetown, where the valleys are covered with extensive vineyards, Beller said of the trip.
His group met civil rights activist Bishop Desmond Tutu and visited Robin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
Beller experienced his second home stay, this time with a coloured family—again a completely different culture experience. Service was practised at an elementary school while a seminar on conflict resolution provided new insights on society.
“The food was amazing,” Beller said in typical teenage fashion, remembering a “Gatsby” sandwich that put to shame any submarine he had experienced to date.
Two hours from Capetown at Stellenbosch, the class split into seven groups, providing community services again at crèches, painting buildings, erecting shelters, and working in gardens for the elderly.
Discussion groups and seminars were held on the plight of the poor and how to “fix” their status, as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS.
In Durban, Beller concluded his home stays with an Indian family, learning about their culture, immigration, apartheid, Gandhi, and, yes, food.
Once again it was amazing, he claimed, professing his newfound appreciation of East Indian cuisine—even if the hot green peppers nearly burned his palate
to a crisp.
No tour of South Africa is complete without a safari into Kruger National Park.
“We saw every kind of animal, including elephants within five metres,” enthused Beller, recounting as well the cheetahs, leopards, giraffes, and rhinos.
“We were even charged twice by elephants and once by a rhino,” he added.
Most of Beller’s classmates enrolled in the program to better clarify where they wanted to go with their lives. Educationally, most are going on to higher education in nursing, education, engineering, and other professional fields.
For his part, Beller will be entering college either in Sault Ste. Marie or at Fleming College in Lindsay to study fish and wildlife conservation, with a further step into fish and wildlife enforcement.
He aspires to be a conservation officer or a park ranger, and still has his sights on winning the Rainy River Walleye Tournament.
This summer he is heading for the lakes aiming to work at a tourist camp.
Of the lessons learned during his “Outtatown” experience, Beller noted many but pointed to one, “How people can change,” two, “How friendly people can be,” and three, “People living in what we consider poverty can still be happy.”
