Thursday, March 15, 2012

Two Months Down, Three to Go


Wow time is flying by. As of yesterday, I depart in three months from this beautiful place. I cannot believe it. I feel very at home here in Cape Town. I was talking with my friend yesterday and she asked if I had been homesick. I had to answer honestly, not really. Apart from a few episodes of missing my kitchen at home (haha why is it the kitchen I miss?) I am quite content here living in this wonderful community of people and experiencing the little things of everyday life in a different country.
I must back up and give you an update on the past few weeks. Two weekends ago the group went on a retreat at a center called Volmoed (pronounced Fulmood because it is Afrikaans) in the town of Hermanes. I was so beautiful there. We were surrounded by mountains and hills of vineyards with the ocean not but fifteen minutes away. The weekend was a vacation that I did not realize I needed. I love being in nature, especially in the mountains. Friday evening when we arrived, there were wild baboons roaming around. They looked like cows they were so big! I walked along a little creek to a waterfall and pond. Saturday morning a group of us got up early to hike and see the sunrise. We didn’t quite get to the top, because we took a wrong turn, but it was ok. We sat in the middle of the trail to watch the sun pop over the clouds. It was beautiful to watch the sun climb down the mountain side, lighting up the fauna along its way. I and two of my friends decided to continue to follow the trail instead of going back the way we came. It turned into quite an adventure through a small town, cow pasture, through the woods, over a fence and finally back to camp, just in time for fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Later that day, a friend and I went on another hike up the mountains across the way. When we reached the top we could see the entire coastline and surrounding mountains. It was incredibly beautiful. I always feel closer to God when I am surrounded by nature. I certainly felt Jesus walking with me along the ridge looking over the incredible view. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.
The following week was straightforward. I had two fun days of service with the babies. I am getting to know their personalities. I like singing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” and the babies seem to like it too. Classes last week were not so great, but that is alright. We did a fun activity in my Grassroots class. We stimulated a community meeting where we all imagined out ideal community and wrote down details of what we saw on one white board. Then we came up with six themes that included all of our details could be categorized into. For example Environment was one of our themes, so listed under those themes were things such as open space, parks, sports fields, and public recycling bins. It was a very practical exercise that I can see myself doing with a community in a future.
On Saturday some of us went to Simon’s Town which is famous for its penguin beaches. I did not actually go onto the beach, but walked along a garden path to see the wild penguins. They were so darn cute! We stopped for lunch at an outdoor patio that looked over the beach. The beach itself looked like paradise with turquoise water and golden sand. Then before we went back home we played a pickup game of soccer with some of the children who were at the beach. To finish off a perfect day we hung our heads out the window of the train on the way back as it wound along the beach and coastline. I was a really wonderful day, in a most unexpected way.
Sunday I was quite lazy. Monday all the babies were sick with fevers, so they were unhappy and we just tried the whole day to keep them moderately happy. Tuesday they were feeling better and I spent most of the day helping one boy, Simpiwe, learn to walk. He is quite strong and can push himself backwards well, it is going forward that he needs to practice.
Classes this week were much more interesting. I learned about the Namibian war for independence from South Africa where there were human rights abuses committed (hence why we were talking about it in ethics class). I had never heard about it before, so I liked the class very much. In my Women Gender Studies class we talked about gender in music and sport. It was a stimulating conversation that really made me think about how gendered our society is. I also had two, what I might call, ‘random intelligent life conversations’ with two of my UWC friends today. I felt really cool to be able to connect with UWC students. There is such an atmosphere of yearning for knowledge on campus and I really enjoyed talking with other students about, well a lot of different things. Tonight I am packing to leave on an epic spring break trip up the Garden Route (a scenic coastal drive) to Durban and Johannesburg ending in Kruger National Park for a series of safaris (stopping for a bungee jump along the way). I am sure I will have quite a few exciting stories to tell when I return next Sunday. Until then, peace.

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