Sunday we attended the morning Eucharist at St Georges Cathedral where I had the entirely counter-intuitive experience of singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing whilst fanning myself with the service leaflet in order to stay cool; Christmas at 30 degrees!
Sunday afternoon we were reunited with a delightful South
African experience called a Braii. In
Canadian parlance that would be a BBQ. A number of friends gathered together
around good drink, grilled meats, and accompaniments.
Our host and companion in South Africa has been Tallis
Wessells. Tallis, seen here with Amy, is the brother of Joan Truby. Joan is the one who is providing leadership
in getting Godly Play established in South Africa. We had a wonderful afternoon
around the food and drink but also rich conversation in which our gracious,
tolerant, hosts helped us to understand the enormously complicated picture that
is South Africa’s
historical and cultural context. It is easy from afar to impose a simple
narrative on another country but we only have to be reminded of Canada’s own
complexities around relationships with first nations people’s,
French/English strains, the assimilation
of new immigrants etc etc to know that no country is deserving of simplistic
categorisations.
The next day we headed up to the top of Table Mountain to
take in the views. You can hike up the mountain which would take a
couple of hours and is quite a taxing experience or you can wait in line of the
4 minute cable car ride which takes couple of hours and is quite a taxing
experience! Needless to say Andrew, never known for his patience, wished he’d
hiked. However you arrive the vista from the top is stunning.
And in the afternoon some time on the beach. And
December 30th at that; not a normal experience for a couple
domiciled in Toronto!
Wednesday morning we had a very productive meeting with the
Director of the Anglican Province of Southern Africa’s Grow the Church
initiative. Trevor is very excited about Godly Play and we can now say that the
resources of the Anglican Church in this part of the world are fully behind the
growth and development of Godly Play. Furthermore Godly Play will be featured
at the Anglicans Ablaze conference in Johannesburg this July with over 3000
attending. Very good news!
In the afternoon off to the Cape of Good Hope. Given the
howling winds and jagged rocks it is easy to see why the sailing ships of old
experienced this as a treacherous bit of
navigation.
And to make matters even better Andrew got up close with the
penguins.
