Cruising the cape

Cruising round the cape

Today we took a guided tour around the cape in a comfy van with our Koisan driver Joe. He was very informative, entertaining and only a little political. We stopped on our way south at several breathtaking viewpoints. We hung out at Mariner's Wharf in Hout Bay. Sandra bought some pendants made of beautiful stone and fossilized shark teeth. There was an amazing market, fishing ships and all the nations of people there. And music.

This is now the next day and we are sitting in cape town airport. I have had multiple tries at sending a blog with various cybermishaps. I will send more with photos when I can get online without charging an arm and a leg.

We've had a really good and meaningful time and are ready for home almost ready for work :-) !

Chillin' in Cape Town

We arrived last night after goodbyes to the amazing folks on our team. It has been a rich and intense two weeks. I am amazed at the response to our workshops and all the good networking that happened. Seeing the service to street workers and their children in Maputo was powerful and inspiring. Maputo is an interesting city blending meditaranean architecture and African realities.

Today we walked along the Seapoint seaboard, watching the Atlantic crashing along the volcanic rock formations.

Its nice to relax with my sweetie!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

Chillin' in Cape Town

We arrived last night after goodbyes to the amazing folks on our team. It has been a rich and intense two weeks. I am amazed at the response to our workshops and all the good networking that happened. Seeing the service to street workers and their children in Maputo was powerful and inspiring. Maputo is an interesting city blending meditaranean architecture and African realities.

Today we walked along the Seapoint seaboard, watching the Atlantic crashing along the volcanic rock formations.

Its nice to relax with my sweetie!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

The Sparrows at Matola

We have arrived in Maputo!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

On to Maputo

We're packing our essentials to get ready to leave at 10 for Mozambique.

Saturday and Sunday and we had up to 19 learners For our workshop on vicarious traumatization. People representing orphanages, churches , outreach ministries, and so on. Aside from the teaching, lots of great networking and encouragement took place. A lot of people saw more clearly the need for self care and community.

The main challenge for the day will be crossing the border into Mozambique. There are lots of "unofficial" border guards who like to rummage thru your luggage and vehicle. Pray for safety please.

We will likely be without internet for 2 to 3 days. I will blog soon as I'm able.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

At the end of the day

What a day we have had today! I am beyond tired but my heart is full. We had 29 learners for our course on resilience, again mostly the same young adults that hung out with us yesterday. We started with one of those spontaneous moments where I asked the group what the best SiSwati word for resilience was. This led to a great roar of conversations, laughter and arguments until they arrived at "kuvuselela" "bouncing back". So today we taught on kuvuselela!

So many of the folks were stars in the workshop-
Duncan and his humour and ability to lead the group. Khumela 6ft4 with his all expressive arms and legs with more than a dash of drama, all applied to the content and spirit of the workshop. Sue with her spritely wisdom. Bubu with his enthusiasm and mildly goofy presentation. Phinda, a quiet 19 year old who is intent on becoming a psychiatrist. He gave bright and insightful answers and reflections. He also has incredible balance and grace in some of the movement exercises we did for grounding. Enoch is one of youth leaders who lives at Litsemba. He has both humour and depth, often serving as translator when English and SiSwati were having a clumsy dance with each other. I could go on and on. I will miss these young adults.

Saturday and Sunday Sandra and I are teaching here at Betor House on boundaries, resilience and vicarious traumatisation. Yay! No bumpy bakkie rides for two days.

Our next adventure after that is to drive out to Mozambique to teach and serve at a ministry for women in prostitution. I'm glad to be going as a team. This is new territory for both of us.

Full schedule. God is good. Time to go sleep.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network