Early 9/19
Sam and I are getting into a rhythm. Each night when we get back from touring around we come back to our hotel right on the Waterfront in Cape Town and just relax for a bit. We have wandered around the Waterfront and found something to eat, thrown his mini Springbok ball or his small wooden flying toy we bought at the craft market. Sam will say, "40 times" and we will pop up from what we are doing and toss back and forth in the room- thank heavens haven't broken a lamp or anything yet ;)
He loves watching Rugby on TV. Found he likes to have a little alone time and the other night look his bedding and set up a nest in the bathroom's tub where he brought his laptop and wrote his blog and uploaded his pictures. ;)
Out of no where it will pout down rain. Upgraded to a better rain coat...ready for any kind of weather now.
Food is very inexpensive here. Last night Sam ordered a tasty BBQ chicken pizza for only about $2.50.
There is a huge beautiful Waterfront Mall here that has every great shop you could imagine and out front along the cobblestones along the harbor there is a singing group with fabulous African harmony which sings and sells their CDs. They have such rich harmony and hypnotic rhythms.
We have had great "luck" with our choices so far. When we left for our trip we knelt and prayed before we left our home. In the prayer I asked that "I have done all that I can do to prepare for this trip, now we give it to you Lord and ask that you take us where you need us to go, what you need us to see, to learn, to do...." In our prayers here each day, we again ask the Lord to guide us and keep us safe and we have had such wonderful experiences, trusting that we will be guided. The day we chose to see Table Mountain has been the only clear day since we got here. Of the days we have been here we went to Robben Island on the best of those 3 days- cool enough and not too rainy that we could be outside on the ship's deck without me being inside and sick. Yesterday it was blustery and a bit wild and a perfect day for a drive along the coast where we could be protected in a car but witness the Cape that was originally aptly named the Cape of Storms. We are so thankful to feel watched over and surrounded by wonderful people. Mitsura was such a perfect guide too yesterday. She was a delight and full of information and a teacher that connected with Sam and asked him so many questions and really engaged him with her humor, inquisitiveness and information. We feel very grateful.
Incredible beaded animals and figures here, haven't seen that in other places I have traveled. Excited to see how our new beaded elephant and antelope heads will look- likely will hang in NH. "Art will find a home," a quote from a Moroccan rug dealer ;)
At night we do what Sam wants to do. Saw The Giver the other night and last night we went on the Ferris Wheel right by our hotel. The second we got into our gondola and got to the top of the huge Ferris Wheel it began storming hard but it was spectacular to see the views and be sheltered from the rain and overlook the wild ocean all around us and see the ships safely in the harbor. Last night we also threw the mini Springbok rugby ball on the lawn outside the Springbook museum. When we get back to the hotel we both write in our blogs and then last night watched a movie on our laptop before going to bed.
Each night, which helps make us feel at home and gives us a familiar routine is that we read our scriptures together, something we do as a family each night when we are home. Then we kneel in prayer right before we go to bed.
People are so friendly everywhere we have been here. They are easy going and happy to help and very friendly.
Hard to wrap our heads around Apartheid and especially for me since I remember hearing about it, reading about it, the sanctions, the newspaper stories that I read during college... It was interesting speaking with our guide today to learn more about living under it. She was raised in Cape Town and explained how as a girl she was a great athlete and might have been able to even go to the Olympics one day for Track and Field but was not allowed to compete against whites and couldn't be on the Olympic Team as a person of color. She explained to us how people were categorized into 9 different classifications and how so much money had been spent to create and maintain these classes of people of color and how tests were done with essentially a pencil that ran through your hair which judged what color you were based on the coarseness of your hair and the other thing was the shape of your nose. This determined where you could go, live, the quality of your education, the living you could make,... It reminded me of my professor at UCLA that had been a visiting professor from South Africa and how he said as a child going to a sporting event wit his family how they could never sit together at an event since no one looked exactly the same. It is again hard to wrap our heads around this concept and that it was just so recently that this system of segregation finally officially ended. It seems that the people here could be full of resentment or they have chosen to look forward and move forward without allowing the unfairness of the past to determine what their future can be. I know things aren't perfect here or anywhere and there still is discrimination, but grateful that in each of our countries we are making forward progress. It really is a country of rainbow colors. I have never been anywhere where there are more colors of people, it is a reminder we are all one race, the human race.
Incredible birds in Africa. At home we see deer and moose in our yards. Here there are baboons and ostrich in theirs.
The mountain vegetation is so beautiful and since it is spring it is blooming and beautiful and my allergies are going crazy!
The ocean is so wild on these stormy days and makes me think I would surely die if I had to be on a boat rounding the Cape of Good Hope. No wonder there are so many shipwrecks along the coast. Would love to see a boat heading out in this crazy water, just don't want to be on it!
Happy Birthday Kendall Blake. Hard to believe that you were born 22 years ago! So grateful for you. Hope you have a great day at home. xoxox Happy Birthday to your dad too!
Sam and I are getting into a rhythm. Each night when we get back from touring around we come back to our hotel right on the Waterfront in Cape Town and just relax for a bit. We have wandered around the Waterfront and found something to eat, thrown his mini Springbok ball or his small wooden flying toy we bought at the craft market. Sam will say, "40 times" and we will pop up from what we are doing and toss back and forth in the room- thank heavens haven't broken a lamp or anything yet ;)
He loves watching Rugby on TV. Found he likes to have a little alone time and the other night look his bedding and set up a nest in the bathroom's tub where he brought his laptop and wrote his blog and uploaded his pictures. ;)
Out of no where it will pout down rain. Upgraded to a better rain coat...ready for any kind of weather now.
Food is very inexpensive here. Last night Sam ordered a tasty BBQ chicken pizza for only about $2.50.
There is a huge beautiful Waterfront Mall here that has every great shop you could imagine and out front along the cobblestones along the harbor there is a singing group with fabulous African harmony which sings and sells their CDs. They have such rich harmony and hypnotic rhythms.
We have had great "luck" with our choices so far. When we left for our trip we knelt and prayed before we left our home. In the prayer I asked that "I have done all that I can do to prepare for this trip, now we give it to you Lord and ask that you take us where you need us to go, what you need us to see, to learn, to do...." In our prayers here each day, we again ask the Lord to guide us and keep us safe and we have had such wonderful experiences, trusting that we will be guided. The day we chose to see Table Mountain has been the only clear day since we got here. Of the days we have been here we went to Robben Island on the best of those 3 days- cool enough and not too rainy that we could be outside on the ship's deck without me being inside and sick. Yesterday it was blustery and a bit wild and a perfect day for a drive along the coast where we could be protected in a car but witness the Cape that was originally aptly named the Cape of Storms. We are so thankful to feel watched over and surrounded by wonderful people. Mitsura was such a perfect guide too yesterday. She was a delight and full of information and a teacher that connected with Sam and asked him so many questions and really engaged him with her humor, inquisitiveness and information. We feel very grateful.
Incredible beaded animals and figures here, haven't seen that in other places I have traveled. Excited to see how our new beaded elephant and antelope heads will look- likely will hang in NH. "Art will find a home," a quote from a Moroccan rug dealer ;)
At night we do what Sam wants to do. Saw The Giver the other night and last night we went on the Ferris Wheel right by our hotel. The second we got into our gondola and got to the top of the huge Ferris Wheel it began storming hard but it was spectacular to see the views and be sheltered from the rain and overlook the wild ocean all around us and see the ships safely in the harbor. Last night we also threw the mini Springbok rugby ball on the lawn outside the Springbook museum. When we get back to the hotel we both write in our blogs and then last night watched a movie on our laptop before going to bed.
Each night, which helps make us feel at home and gives us a familiar routine is that we read our scriptures together, something we do as a family each night when we are home. Then we kneel in prayer right before we go to bed.
People are so friendly everywhere we have been here. They are easy going and happy to help and very friendly.
Hard to wrap our heads around Apartheid and especially for me since I remember hearing about it, reading about it, the sanctions, the newspaper stories that I read during college... It was interesting speaking with our guide today to learn more about living under it. She was raised in Cape Town and explained how as a girl she was a great athlete and might have been able to even go to the Olympics one day for Track and Field but was not allowed to compete against whites and couldn't be on the Olympic Team as a person of color. She explained to us how people were categorized into 9 different classifications and how so much money had been spent to create and maintain these classes of people of color and how tests were done with essentially a pencil that ran through your hair which judged what color you were based on the coarseness of your hair and the other thing was the shape of your nose. This determined where you could go, live, the quality of your education, the living you could make,... It reminded me of my professor at UCLA that had been a visiting professor from South Africa and how he said as a child going to a sporting event wit his family how they could never sit together at an event since no one looked exactly the same. It is again hard to wrap our heads around this concept and that it was just so recently that this system of segregation finally officially ended. It seems that the people here could be full of resentment or they have chosen to look forward and move forward without allowing the unfairness of the past to determine what their future can be. I know things aren't perfect here or anywhere and there still is discrimination, but grateful that in each of our countries we are making forward progress. It really is a country of rainbow colors. I have never been anywhere where there are more colors of people, it is a reminder we are all one race, the human race.
Incredible birds in Africa. At home we see deer and moose in our yards. Here there are baboons and ostrich in theirs.
The mountain vegetation is so beautiful and since it is spring it is blooming and beautiful and my allergies are going crazy!
The ocean is so wild on these stormy days and makes me think I would surely die if I had to be on a boat rounding the Cape of Good Hope. No wonder there are so many shipwrecks along the coast. Would love to see a boat heading out in this crazy water, just don't want to be on it!
Happy Birthday Kendall Blake. Hard to believe that you were born 22 years ago! So grateful for you. Hope you have a great day at home. xoxox Happy Birthday to your dad too!
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