So after a long academic quarter, I packed my bags and headed back to visit Cape Town for the Easter holidays. It was wonderful riding the bus down, knowing exactly what I had to look forward to. The beauty, the atmosphere, the food... I was ready for it all. Due to weather during my last visit in October, I still had quite a list of activities to do and I've succeeded in completing them all! Yea accomplishment!
One of those activities was visiting Robben Island, where political prisoners like Nelson Mandela were held during apartheid in South Africa. After a beautiful boat ride across the bay with gorgeous views of Table Mountain, we took a tour around the island via bus before touring the prison on foot. An ex-prisoner was our guide, providing us with personal stories during his sentence on Robben Island. The highlight was seeing the cell where Mandela spent 18 years which was very moving. We also got a wonderful view of the island from the top of Table Mountain after taking an exhilarating cable car ride up to the top. We hiked around the top of the mountain and took in the beautiful views of the Cape. The picture was taken coming from Robben Island, viewing Cape Town and stunning Table Mountain.I also made my way down the peninsula via train to Simon's Town, a small coastal community on False Bay. It was wonderful being near the ocean, walking across the rocks and running sand through my fingers. But it also made me desperately miss Maine and my family there! I visited tide pools where I spotted some African penguins who waddled there way ashore!
But it will be back to Lesotho later this week. I'll be busy preparing my local preschools for a large shipment of books from the African Library Project and I look forward to the increased workload. Also looking forward to a drop in the temperature - bring on winter!
4 comments:
We're reading- you've been slacking on your updating. What's up with that? Missed you yesterday at the grammie/ grandpa egg hunt; Dave nobly opted to be the last person to find their egg since you weren't there.
Don't worry- Maine, family, and US comforts will be here, but African penguins won't. Enjoy it!
Oh, yes we are reading with great interest everything you write on the blog! We check it almost daily. They are interesting, touching and sometimes have brought tears to our eyes. It is great to have another granddaughter doing such wonderful work with the Peace Corps.
Don't worry, Maine and your growing and loving family here will be waiting for you. We'll even grow some extra large mosquitoes for you.
We love you lots, Grammie & PopPop
You are most certainly making a difference in those peoples lives, and in your community. We are all very proud of the work you are doing. It is no doubt difficult and heartwrenching at times, but your efforts will be remembered.
Penguins...hmm...we really can't compete with that.
Puffins are kinda like peguins...
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