A sabbatical is supposed to be a time when you combine study and new experiences with some recreation. So, on Monday we took a hike in the Vernon Crooks Game Reserve. It is a very large place where animals roam free. It has some hiking trails and and we spent 3 hours there without seeing another person anywhere. Throughout the hike, view from the hillsides were vast and impressive. You could see the Indian Ocean in the distance, and Zulu villages on the hills.
I am staying in Kwa Zulu Natal, this province in South Africa, with the Halls, a couple who attend the Trinitarian UCC Church in Concord for half the year when they live in Massachusetts. For the other half of the year they live here and organize this loose collection of Zulu congregations in the UCC in South Africa that have partnerships with UCC congregations in the Massachusetts Conference. They have been my guides in Durban and have taken me to churches and introduced me to people in the congregations. The Halls explained that the Zulu villages are still run by the traditional system and chiefs assign homes and the land that goes with them.
We hiked for a couple of hours through grasslands and some woods. It was a distance of about 4 miles but seemed much longer to me, for some reason. But the views in every direction were incredible. On this journey I realized for the first time that the sun is in the north, not the southern part of the sky. I have yet to check out the water in the drain in the bathroom, to see which way it circles when it empties. There are simple things like this that dis-orient me from time to time. The sun, for instance, seemed suddenly all wrong. But the hike was wonderful.
Still treking...
1 comment:
and you all thought I was over the top moving to Colorado
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