Week 13 – “Night swimming deserves a quiet night…”

My grandfather used to love to read National Geographic, the magazine known for its photos; he was a subscriber for longer than I can remember. He stored his decade-spanning collection in the basement of my grandparents’ house – shelf after shelf of bright yellow spines sitting neatly in chronological order. Every once in awhile, when I’d go down there to get something, I’d pull one out randomly and flip through the pages to some of the pictures before carefully reinserting it into its proper place on the shelf. Somehow, no matter how beautiful a photo may be (and National Geographic has some of the best), it’s just not the same as the real thing, is it? Knowing something’s there and seeing something’s there can be completely different things.

In my thirteenth week here in the Rainbow Nation, I went on my first South African road trip! My dearest American friends know how much I enjoy a good loud ride on I-95 to see some of my favorite people and places, and I was quite excited to do some driving this past week and have a chance to see some more of this lovely country I’ve been enjoying. I started this past week off with a lovely trip to Betty’s Bay with the Anglican Society (AnSoc) from the University of Cape Town. As you know, summer is starting is South Africa, so after a fierce bout with exams, students are ready for break. Before they scattered, seventeen of us came together to get away for a retreat/vacation/planning weekend. Betty’s Bay is a quiet beach town nestled between the ocean and the mountains. The houses are spread out and the city seems much farther away than it actually is. It’s the perfect place for a retreat. Although it was a little crowded fitting seventeen of us into a four-bedroom house, it was so very much fun – and so very relaxing. The beach was a short but adventurous walk away. To get there, we had to climb over a few steep dunes, following twisty paths through the brush and passing a lovely lake.

During the planning activities, we not only discussed what we wanted the ministry to look like next year, every person got some time to reflect on this past year. Then, we got to talk about our journey in small groups. So much can happen in a year. Looking back on my past year – and my year before that – reminds me just how much madness (both wonderful and not-so-great) a year can hold! It was a great time to get to know more of the students better – although at one point we were interrupted by a wild baboon peeking into our living room. The guys chased him off easily, but he served as a vivid reminder that I’m not in Jersey anymore.

Once we’d finished our planning, adventured on the beach, and enjoyed a nice braai (or barbeque, as we say in American), it was time for my first game of 30 Seconds – the board game of South Africa. The game is played in teams. On your team’s turn, you draw a card with a list of things on it (anything from cities to people to brands – all known well in South Africa) that you have to get your team to say by describing them yourself – but you only have thirty seconds – hence the name. You then move your gamepiece the number of spaces equivalent to the number of clues that your team got right. Even though I was a rookie, our team was the clear victor, but everyone had fun. There were some really funny – albeit ridiculous – clues people used to get there teams to say the right answer. I look forward to seeing everyone again after the holidays!

Betty's Bay Weekend

Leaving right from Betty’s Bay, my next trip took me to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape (Cape Town is in the Western Cape) for the annual provincial Chaplains’ Conference at the College of the Transfiguration, the Anglican seminary. The drive was quite long, but it was so amazing to see all the scenery along the N2 highway: farms with horses, cows, and OSTRICHES; beautiful coastal towns; curving mountain roads; and the lights of Port Elizabeth. My friends, co-workers, and travel companions, Odwa and Tshepo, were amused by my excitement at the mass-ostrich sightings.

The conference was an exciting opportunity to finally meet some of the chaplains I’ve been emailing and to hear about their respective ministries (and how they’re so similar but also quite different from my knowledge of Episcopal campus ministries). The chaplains are a fairly diverse group. I also got to spend some time with the ASF President, Thandeka and hang out with my fellow YASCer missionary, Travis, who lives at the monastery. It was fun to catch up and hear about his experiences on the other side of the country.

Grahamstown

The trip concluded with the overnight drive back to Cape Town, which included a stop in East London… which is three hours in the other direction – but was still a fun sight to see. I got to meet Mama Gonya, my boss’s mom and, for the first time, I saw the Indian Ocean!!! I was equally excited when we spotted some zebras while driving along the curvy mountain roads, decorated by the occasional rural town, which gave new meaning to the phrase “quiet, country, life.” I got home Thursday morning just in time to cook a turkey… which I will describe in more detail in next week’s blog!

Week 12 – “Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?”

In case you missed one of my shouts of excitement (or in case there is somewhere on this planet where the sound of vuvuzelas did not reach), some friends and I had the privilege of going to the USA vs SA game at the World Cup stadium in Cape Town!!!

I’m not usually a big sports fan… Don’t get me wrong – I love me some home team victories from the Yankees or the Giants… but as for live sports events? I went to a bunch in high school and a few football games in college. There is something about being at the actual event. The power of the crowd hums through you like it’s got a heartbeat all its own (or too many vuvuzelas).

My friends Suzanne, Helen, Amanda and I decided to take the train into the city and then do the Fan Walk through the city center to the stadium. The forty minute train ride was a riot! We sat roughly in the middle of the train, between the two sets of doors on either end of the car. In the aisle between each pair a group of particularly excited fans congregated: one group was drunk, the other was still drinking on the train. The still-drinking group rocked out on the costume front; they donned flag-decorated hats, face paints, jumpsuits, wigs. One guys was dressed as Batman! They weren’t as loud as the less-costumed more-inebriated group, who started with the songs (singing everything from the South African national anthem to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas and vuvuzelas right away. The train literally shook with all the fan excitement. It was like sitting in a train car with two vying fraternities on either side of us – each competing for the honor of most school spirit… while simultaneously celebrating homecoming. I had a flashback to the type of antics I often observed homecoming weekend during my years at university.

Surging with fan energy from the train ride, we enjoyed a warm summer night’s walk through the city center. The stadium grew larger and larger in the distance – more and more real. As if to herald its approach, the vuvuzelas seemed to multiply – as did the number of South Africans around in us in their yellow and green Bafana Bafana (South Africa’s soccer team) shirts. Occaisionally, I caught a US fan in the midst of us: a man with a flag tied like a cape, red-white-and-blue shirts or groups, a guy singing the Star-Spangled Banner. When we finally reached the stadium, the US fans were even harder to spot. Bafana Bafana fans cheered and shone like sunshine against the black night sky visible above the roof of the stadium, which was lit as bright as day. (Did I mention that the game didn’t start until 9:30pm in order to air live in the US at a reasonable time?)

The teams were a good match for each other – neck-in-neck. No goals were scored in the first half. In the second half, Bafana Bafana seemed to get more aggressive. While no goals were scored for most of the second half, those South African boys seemed to want it more in the face of all of their fans. I was starting to lose faith in those US boys I was cheering for. They just didn’t seem to want it the way their opponents did, but then, out of nowhere, GOAL for the USA! Typical, America :-) And that right there is how the US beat SA 1-0!

Week 11 - "I'd risk a fall just to know how it feels to fly..."

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, a pilgrimage of about thirty people from my home diocese spent days in South Africa! With some much-appreciated help from my friend Greg, I was able to meet up with them during their time here.  There were a few people in the pilgrimage whom I’d met briefly, whose names I’d heard around the diocese, or who I’d had to call as a part of a diocesan phone survey I did while interning for the diocese a few summers back. For the most part, I didn’t know the travelers… but that didn’t reduce my excitement at their presence here or my eagerness to meet up with them! Last Friday, my fellow YASCER Amanda and I enjoyed dinner with the group at the Protea Hotel, where they were staying. We got to talk with a handful of the Jersey folk in the lobby before enjoying an inspiring conversation with Bishop Councell, Bishop of my home diocese – the Diocese of New Jersey, and The Very Rev Rene John, Dean of New Jersey’s Trinity Cathedral. It was nice to share stories and talk about our impressions of this beautiful place we’ve all gotten to explore. While I’m deeply enjoying my adventure here as a missionary, it has been hard to give up a year’s worth of things like family dinners and late night conversations with friends. The evening was a refreshing and renewing taste of home. One moment that stuck out to me was the key line in a story of Henri Nouwen’s that Bishop Councell repeated about the thrilling magic of trapeze; “The flyer has to fly and the catcher has to catch.” See, if the flyer tries to catch the catcher, he could break the catcher’s wrists and they could both fall.  The flyer just has to let go and fly, all the while trusting that at just the right moment the catcher will catch him. Think about how many situations that this applies to and all the risks we take in life to fly away on an adventure to a new place or with a new person or for a new experience – or maybe all of the above! It makes missionaries sound like trapeze artists.

Another adventure this week was a short trip down to Hout Bay for supper last Saturday. After running a few errands, Suzanne and I decided to go for an earlier supper. I must say there is definitely never a bad time to take a ride along the coast. The town is just a bit north of Simons Town, which Amanda and I explored the Saturday before and which you can read all about in my last blog.

Now it’s time to acknowledge another less scenic adventure I had this week: my ongoing journey with my computer screen.  I’ve never pretended to be anything other than a computer geek; my dad built me my first computer when I was five or six. This past week, I’ve had to look my inner geek straight in the eye - because I was unable to read the bottom half of my computer screen.  While my screen is currently working (when disassembling it, checking the connections, and reassembling it didn’t work, I figured out the right angle at which to shake my computer to fix the problem – ridiculous) and I think I’m finally getting to the bottom of this technical issue, I can’t help but feel like I rely more on technology for communication and entertainment purposes than I had previously realized. It makes me think that maybe my use of technology bare more resemblance to Luke Skywalker and his cybernetic hand than I’d like to admit.

A hardedar made an appearance in the yard last weekend!

Week 10 – “Holding both of her shoes in her hand, said she likes to feel the sand beneath her feet…”

Thursday, 4 November 2010

(This post is late due to some technical difficulties… which will be further explained in next week’s blog)

It’s been another exciting week here in Cape Town! Last Friday, Ansoc UCT & CPUT and I went over to Bishopscourt, the home and offices of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, archbishop of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (check out his blog on the list of those I follow on my blogger profile). We had a lovely afternoon talking with him, planting flowers together, and exploring the garden before Archbishop Thabo offered a prayer for the students as they begin their end of semester exams (remember those reversed seasons!). It was a fun way to begin the weekend!

Saturday, Amanda and I went on a (touristy) adventure down to Boulder Beach and Simons Town and saw PENGUINS. We wandered the boardwalk paths and saw the cute little guys hanging out en masse on the shore or in little clusters under bushes and trees. PENGUINS! Penguins hanging out in their natural habitat. It made me think about how I’m waaay closer to Antartica then I’ve ever been before – not that I’m actually close to Antartica at all… but I’m closer.

After we’d checked out the cute wildlife, Amanda and I headed to the beach and climbed up on one of the beach’s boulders to back in the out-of-control gorgeousness that is Boulder Beach. Seriously. Unbelievable. It was one of those scenes that was just so completely beautiful that you keep taking pictures of it, hoping you’ll take a picture that captures the way that this place can take your breath away. With the exception of a few passersby and a seagull who couldn’t stay away (he tried leaving twice but came back), we enjoyed the peace and solitude of the rock for over an hour. It was well worth the sunburn!

Once we got hungry enough to break our bliss, we wandered over to the Boulder Beach Restaurant for a delicious lunch. Here, we saw the coolest sign:

I’m glad it pointed out the Moon; that one can be tricky!

After lunch, we wandered around Simons Town, a cute little town by the sea with lots and lots of boats in the harbor (including some sort of battleship).

Check out more pictures on my Picasa album:

Boulder Beach & Simons Town

Sunday, of course, was Halloween – Jack Skellington, costumes, candy, pumpkins, fall leaves – Wait, it’s SPRING! Last Halloween (also UD Homecoming), involved a Star Trek uniform, my last college football game, friends, horror movies, Britney Spears Three dancing, trees that looked like they were on fire, and other general merriment. I wouldn’t so much say that I missed Halloween so much as it didn’t seem like Halloween.

The neighborhood I’m staying in allocated two hours for trick-or-treating in the late afternoon and a couple dozen kids in various degrees of costumes (sometimes just a wig and a hat to constitute a witch) stopped by. It was a different kind of Halloween. I remember talking to the Ansoc-ers here about it at Bishopscourt; I couldn’t contain my surprise at their indifference. It’s a culture thing. I know. For the first time, I thought about Halloween as not just American, but kinda patriotic in just how distinctly American the celebration of it seems to be… but who knows, maybe I’m out-of-touch with other possible international observations.

On a final note, I noticed yesterday that there are all these people from the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey here in Cape Town right now. Clearly, I should have been paying more attention. Yesterday, they even saw the Boulder Beach penguins. Here’s there blog: http://newjerseyinsouthafrica.blogspot.com/ In next Thursday's post, we'll talk more about them :-)