Just one day left on this amazing odyssey. Yesterday Sarah and I toured downtown Capetown. We visited St. George's Cathedral, made famous as the church of Bishop Desmond Tutu. It was the place where he called South Africa a rainbow nation, and led the march of 30,000. I found it to be a stunning sanctuary, quite apart from its historic significance.
Sarah and I enjoyed some good time together. She has only a few weeks left here, before she returns to the US in mid-June. This has been quite a significant journey for her, as well.
For my part, I have found that so many of the treasured moments of this trip have been more subtle and affecting than I imagined at first. South Africa is noit a sublte place, at first glance. It has such a melding of races and issues all writ large when you arrive here. The scenery is vast, diverse and beautiful. The wildlife is strange to my eyes, and really wild. These are not zoos we visit. The people blend language and cultures in a new mix that re-defines diversity. My own exposure to so many ministers, professors, and different characters has made this trip rich in many ways.
Even though it would seem there is nothing about South Africa which is subtle, I found the small moments carried the larger significance.
Even for all my planning in advance, it was the chance meetings that brought some of the greatest pleasures. From this vantage - here are a few highlights -
The chance meeting with the school girls in Kwa Mashu. The look on Sarah's face when I greeted her for the first time outside a coffee shop near the University of Cape Town campus. The little girls and boys who studied me in the first church we visited. I realized later that they may not have seen a woman in a collar before, or perhaps they had not seen a white woman in a collar, in their church. The fact that Flo Mandlala wore the cross I gave her to the launch of the AIDS center.
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