Vacation in South Africa

I'm almost half-way through a 17-day vacation in South Africa, and since boarding the bus in Gulu on Easter Sunday I've yet to suffer a dull moment. Since my time in this Cape Town internet cafe is expensive, I'll cruise over the details.

Apparently my Ugandan visa expired back in November, but a little smoothe-talking in Entebbe paved the way. Fellow-YASCer and newly-ordained Episcopal priest Stephen Mazingo picked me up in Jo'burg, and drove me through the absoutely breathtaking a jaw-dropping beauty of the South African interior, especially the Free State. We arrived in Grahamstown at 10pm Monday of last week. Grahamstown is Chapel Hill, in short, except with a township and shanty town constantly visible in the distance. All of Monday amounted to culture shock. In Grahamstown, I enjoyed some western comforts and saw some beautiful natural sights. But the townships were always in the back of my mind, and to tour them and look down into town was, again in short, profound.

Sunday morning we finished our drive from Grahamstown to Cape Town and connected with my friend, Rev. Michael Lapsley with the Institute for the Healing of Memories, who pulled off a minor miracle by securing two tickets for Matt (fellow YASCer, based in Grahamstown) as guests of the Dean of the Cathedral for the Installation of Thabo Makgoba as the next Archbishop of the Province of Southern Africa. We must have made quite an impression, for as you can see we were front page material in the Cape Times the next day. The service was beautiful and extremely powerful. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was among the three who laid hands during the installment, and President Thabo Mbeki was humble and statesmen-like in his official greeting. Archbishop Makgoba spoke eloquently and with humility about the role of the church, and I felt honored and purposefully led to be present there.

Yesterday we hiked to the top of Lion's Head, which immediately overlooks Cape Town and the bays on every side - breathtaking. Today we're going to Robbens Island, where Nelson Mandela, as well a long history of freedom fighters of all kinds, was kept prisoner for twenty years. Every day seems to strive to out-do the last, and I'm having a blast.

Thank you all for the chance to be here.

Talk to you soon!