Saying Good-bye....

In 24 hours we'll be boarding the plane to return home. It has gone quickly and we've tried to savor every moment. Sophia is more eager to go home than sad and I think I'm more sad to leave than eager to return.


Since our schedule has been a different place / people every day, this past week has been a set of good bye's EVERY DAY. It's a bit draining for us both, though I think I'm more able to "manage" it than Sophia is. On Friday night she said, "Can't we just go home NOW?" And I said, "Well, don't you want to see your friends Enya and Nickolas tomorrow?" Sophia: "YES of course!" She's been on a roller coaster of happy to see people one more time followed by "GOOD BYE!"


Tomorrow is our last full day here:
We'll go to a favorite place for lunch - right on the beach with fabulous view of Table Mountain. Then we'll make one last visit to Miracle Kids (safe house with 13 children including a 10 year old girl whose become a good friend to Sophia and a newborn with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). We'll take a bunch of donations to them and spend a few hours there. Then we'll stop downtown Cape Town (at the Waterfront) for some last minute shopping, before heading home to finish packing.
Our last dinner here will be home made pizza's with Angie (our host and friend here) before going to the airport for our midnight flight.


We're due to arrive in Boston, Tuesday night late. Will spend Wednesday home together as a family. Then Sophia is back to school on Thursday~! I have a couple weeks to be home before returning to the church.


I don't know when I'll post here next, so for now, this is another "good-bye" for me.
Sigh.... and (for many of you) see you soon!

Good-bye Hillsong Africa Foundation and Spectacular sunset!

Good bye to the Hillsong Africa Foundation volunteers and staff!

With Jen who is the volunteer coordinator and was my first contact person with Hillsong. 

And then this sunset on the drive back. This beach is 5 minutes from where we're staying.

Of course - as we were driving away - the sky got even more spectacular!

Sophia's 10th Birthday!!!!!

We had a little surprise party for Sophia at our B&B!

Ice Cream Cake.... YUM!

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

With Angie - who runs the b&b where we're staying - Sophia's South African "mum"

Township of Gugulethu - meet Otto and the "hanger scraping" community center

Vukuhambe - a Community Center for disabled adults where they come to work at scraping stickers off of plastic hangers from local department stores, so the hangers can go on to be recycled. Read more about Otto in my post from a couple weeks ago. (During our most recent visit, I learned that he got polio as an infant, he wears braces on his legs.)

The Hillsong van outside the Vukuhambe Community Center 

Otto and others scraping stickers off of plastic hangers.

Otto and Gail

One of the two work rooms.

There are mountains of these bags in the hallway and outside the building

left: local person        middle: Anthea, a Hillsong volunteer        right: Sophia

Friday Kids Club in the township of Westlake

Kids start lining up 45 minutes before the program begins.
It is inside of the larger of these two buildings (on the left)

The empty room before the 300 or so children arrive!

Same room 10 minutes later!!!!

Three local kids lead singing...

Coloring pages (the Feeding of the Five Thousand with 2 fish and 5 loaves)

Activity time - coloring... older kids at the tables in the back half of the room, younger kids on the floor

Ash Wednesday at the Cathedral

We worshiped at St. George's Anglican Cathedral this evening. (This is where we attend Friday Morning Prayer each week). It was the Solemn Sung Eucharist with the Giving of Ashes, and it was lovely.


The music was William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, with two other anthems by Byrd, and a few hymns. We sat toward the front so were able to see all that was happening at the altar. It was HIGH CHURCH (yes there were "smells and bells"), which I've been missing in worship. The sermon was thoughtful and wove themes of repentance, the cross, and the anticipation of Easter throughout. He ended with a poem by Walter Brueggemann (of the UCC). And of course we came forward for communion and received from the common cup (again a practice I miss in our tradition).


After the service (1 1/2 hours that did NOT seem that long) we walked the labyrinth in the courtyard. This was Sophia's first encounter with a labyrinth and while we walked it "quickly" (in 15 minutes one way to the center), she shared that she felt that God was with her while she was walking. Nice.


Preparing to Leave!
It's hard to believe we've less than 2 weeks left in Cape Town. We are in "final" mode - making plans to see friends one last time, deciding what we still have to do that we've not done, and what we want to do one more time before we go. I've tried not to leave shopping to the last days, but am aware that it will be a long time before we're back...


Sophia talks of home more and more and I'm beginning to imagine the transition... Sigh...


We feel blessed every moment of every day; and I am grateful.

Guess what we did this morning?

"I'm flying" (a dream come true!)