Cape Town excursion

Since we arrived in South Africa, nearly every person we meet has said, "Are you going to visit Cape Town?" After awhile we got the hint that this might be a nice thing to do, so we sat down with our calendar a couple of weeks ago, and realized that the only time it could happen would be the final week of Feb. So we booked flights, car, and a flat to stay in, and we went for 5 nights.

The weather is billed to be cooler than Durban, and maybe it was, but it was still hot. And unfortunately there were a number of wildfires going, which produced haze everywhere. One of the big attractions is the fabulous scenery. And it really was quite remarkable, but on one day in particular it was simply invisible. (But we did get some good views, such as the top picture.) And then, first night there, Jane jammed a toe. But in spite of all this, we had a very nice time and truly enjoyed the area.

We stayed to the east of Cape Town proper, in a town called Stellenbosch, in the heart of the Cape Winelands. If you've ever been to Napa Valley, you get the picture. There are literally hundreds of wineries, including one owned by a brother in the Cape Winelands ecclesia. We went to meeting there on Sunday (and Paul gave a talk), and then on Monday we visited the Bilton Wines winery. Very nice, and they produce outstanding wines.

On Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday we went into Cape Town, and on Tuesday we took the cable tramway to the top of Table Mountain. The 3,500 foot ascent is covered in just a couple of minutes--the cable cars really move! There is a very noticeable temperature difference between the bottom and the top--that will give you an indication of the height. Do a Google search for Table Mountain for some pictures--ours didn't do it justice.

We also spent some time in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, a really beautiful spot on the slopes of the mountain, dedicated to preserving the native Cape flora. Also worth a Google search.

Wednesday was devoted to the Cape Peninsula itself, which runs down to Cape Point, with a spur off to the side called the Cape of Good Hope. This is where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet.

Half way down the peninsula, there's a place called Boulders Beach, which features a large colony of African Penguins! Never thought we'd swim with penguins, but we did! They didn't seem to mind the people much. In fact, they were right in the parking lot, as the picture of the sign suggests.




Right after leaving the beach, we had a close encounter with a family of baboons along the side of the road. Stopped to look, of course. Seconds after the picture of the big male was taken, his hands and nose were pressed to the glass of Jane's door!

We spent the later part of the day actually at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. You can actually see the difference between the two oceans--the Atlantic is definitely rougher. The bottom picture is taken at Cape of Good Hope with Cape Point in the background. Off to the right, the next land you'll encounter is Antarctica. Yep, ever so often we realize we're quite a way from home!

Busy month

February has simply flown by! A very brief recap of what we've been up to.

For 3 weeks we had a brother from England staying with us, Tim Morse. He took his holiday time (vacation to you Americans) to be here as a short term volunteer, and pitched in with a number of different activities.

Early in the month we rejoiced to have a baptism at the Durban ecclesia. Our new brother Graham is in the top picture at the back, standing between his fiance and his future father-in-law. And we are hopeful that there will be several additional baptisms soon. Our Sunday afternoon bi-weekly class has continued, and two of the students have asked for baptism: Charlotte, the woman second from the left, and Dieu-Donne, who is next to Paul in the back. The fellow right in front has also said he wants to be baptized, and there are two students at the BEC who are also studying for baptism.

Work at the BEC of course continues. The ordering & stocking, database upkeep, and scheduling volunteers keeps us pretty busy all by itself. We are also working to expand the educational side, and we've introduced some individual study classes at the BEC, as well as some group classes at other locations. One of the BEC students invited us to come to a group she put together; the first class has been held, and it appears it may meet bi-weekly on Saturdays. Interesting twist: most of the students don't speak English, and the classes are in Zulu. Fortunately we have a well qualified Zulu teacher, Brother Dumisani from the Westville ecclesia, who will be the primary teacher. For others who help out, there will be someone there who can translate.

Following on from the great study day in Lamontville, we have put together a schedule to do a monthly half-day "First Saturday Good News" session. Paul and Dumisani will do the first one next weekend. Something that we, at least, are finding interesting: the publicity is entirely by SMS (text) messages to our contacts' phones. This seems to be the most effective way of communicating--postal mail reliability is iffy, and most don't have email. But everyone has a phone, and SMS is used here by everyone, for just about everything. The 2010 initiative has an account with a bulk SMS service provider, and we send the messages via a web interface to our 109 students in the Lamontville & Umlazi area.

The Tuesday evening class in Lamontville also continues, and Jane has a consistent bunch of kids who have a class outside on the patio while the adults do a Bible study inside.

Coming up are another couple of very busy months. In March, the Mariannhill Good News Centre will formally reopen (the old building, just a house, was demolished to make room for a larger one, built for the purpose). Our son Caleb and his friend Shawna will be visiting the last part of the month. Then in April a P2P (Prepare to Preach) group from the UK will be here for 2 and a half weeks, which is going to be completely insane by itself, and within that time will be the Easter gathering, which Paul is one of the teachers for. Then the Beelers will arrive from Arkansas, we'll be handing off to them, and then our time here will be done! Can't believe that we can already see the end getting near.

Looking at all of that coming up, we decided we needed a bit of a break, so we went over to Cape Town for a few days. That will be the next post!

Finally, pictures

We've been very frustrated by Blogger, which has not allowed us to upload pictures (in spite of using different browsers and exhausting all the hints we could find...but nobody wants to hear our sad story!)

Here are pictures to go with the previous posting, which is now over a month old.