It's the People

Judy. I guess I need to be clear that there are no animal safaris on our Africa sojourn. Oh, we’ve been to, and will go to some game parks, but the full-fledged sleeping-under-the-stars-to-see-giraffes-in-the-morning is just not in the cards this time. Mostly that’s about money.  Instead, as Ted put it, we’re on a “people safari.”

I already talked about our Botswana people experience, and South Africa is right up there.  From the time we arrived in Cape Town, I’ve not even had time to blog, we’ve met so many folks.

Our Servas Day Host Juanita picked us up at the airport, and drove us to our Airbnb, where Niel and Heather walked us down to our “Leafy Hideaway” at the bottom of their garden and made sure we had everything we needed. We took a day to rest, then Juanita spent the next two days driving us around the Cape Town peninsula and to Kirstenbosch Gardens, as well as to the wine country around Stellenbosch and Franschoek. Juanita is an artist, so she made sure we saw the galleries connected with the wineries, as well as some of her own work. She even mapped out some potential routes we could take when we left the City on our road trip.

Niel and Heather invited us to their home for wine and snacks one evening to talk about the area, as well as tell about our retirement travels. A friend in New Orleans virtually introduced us to Ute, a Cape Towner who arrived 20 years ago from Germany for a year of study, and “fell in love with South Africa and my husband.”  She drove us to Sea Point for a walk along the beach and a great view of the sunset before taking us to a delicious Ethiopian restaurant for an evening of discussion of her views of the country.

Even people whose names we never learned made us feel welcome—the bishop, dean, and priests at the Easter service at St. George’s Episcopal Cathedral, as well as the usher who approached me as I waited for Ted (we left the service a few minutes early) and invited me to come into the worship service. The young man we met on the boat to Robben Island who had come from Johannesburg to run the 56-kilometer Ocean to Ocean Ultramarathon and dreams of running the  Washington Marathon. 

Most of all, the guide at Robben Island, who had been incarcerated there for five years and shared his story of solitary confinement,  torture, beatings, and most of all, the uplifting spirit of the people and of his fellow inmates who gave him hope. 

Ted asked how he could relive these experiences day after day, and he replied, “I needed the job.” This man lives with courage every day as he asks us to remember and to move on to acceptance and peace.

We left Cape Town after a week and drove on to Fish Hoek, where our Servas host Irene, a transplanted Dutch woman, shared her home and garden, suggesting sights along the way of our day trip to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. That evening, her friend Brian came over for dinner and told us about growing up in the area, and about the wildlife there.

We headed into the Klein Karoo to a small mountain town called Montagu. The lady at the information desk there pointed us to Connie’s Cottages, where Connie, a charming lady in her late 70’s, and her 92-year-old husband Harold welcomed us into a one-bedroom “cottage” complete with beautiful gardens front and back. They were gracious hosts, telling us their life stories (she’s Afrikaner, he’s English), feeding us coffee and pie, playing the piano for us. Ted bought the book Harold wrote of his life story!

Our neighbors, Hans, Hannelore, & their daughter Birget, a German-Swiss family who’ve been coming to Connie’s for eight years, invited us to their porch for wine and snacks.

One day we went to a hair salon for much-needed haircuts, and the hairdressers there not only did a good job with the cuts, but made us laugh with Zuma-Trump jokes and local gossip.

On Sunday we visited the Dutch Reformed Church—service entirely in Afrikaans—and clearly felt the faith of this sturdy farm stock, even though we understood little of the service.

From Montagu, we drove through the Karoo to Calitzdorp, a tiny Karoo town noted for its wine and port—this country DOES wine. At our little B&B, Bronwyn and her

daughter Piper welcomed us with glasses of port and advice on things to do. Shortly after we arrived, a couple from Port Elizabeth, Rod and Margo, pulled up, so the four of us walked to a nearby winery for a tasting. As it turns out, they’re friends of the Servas couple we’ll be staying with in Port Elizabeth! We got on tremendously, and after we’d had our fill of wine—and bought bottles—we went to dinner together. After we shared breakfast, we made

tentative plans to meet again this week or in PE, as they are also on a retirement road trip around the Karoo. (And then we ran into them in a restaurant in Oudtshoorn!)

We left Calitzdorp and arrived in Oudtshoorn, where the ostrich farms are.  Ostrich is, by the way, our new favorite meat. At the Tourist Information in Oudtshoorn, a young woman named Corleen spent quite some time helping us to find the right accommodations, and detailing some of our entertainment options. She even suggested heading out to a hotel out of town for a sunset drink and to watch the stars come out, which turned out to be the highlight of the city for us.  Should you come to Oudtshoorn, stop in the “i” and tell Corleen hello.  She’s amazing. 

Each of these people have embraced us, listened to us, shared their stories, and made our stay here more complete. 

Yep—I like a people safari.

Anzac Day

Ted. In most of the world, April 25 is a day like any other. In New Zealand and Australia, though, it is a day of remembrance, like our Veteran's Day. Originally intended to honor the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) troops who fought and died at Galipoli during WWI, it now serves a broader purpose. 

While staying with Geoff and Neryle, our Servas hosts in Wahroonga, Australia, we visited the local RSL. Returned and Services League licensed clubs were originally gathering spots for vets (like our VFW or American Legion halls). Many of them have really expanded and include poker gaming machines, nice restaurants and other social amenities giving them a broad appeal to vets and non-vets alike. However, the RSL’s have never forgotten the importance of honoring those men and women who served their country. At 6:00pm each day, everyone on the premises stands for one minute while an ode to the fallen soldiers and sailors is read.

We found this really touching and we recalled the words of the ode several weeks later, while walking the grounds of the Sandakan Memorial Park in Eastern Borneo. This was the location of a Japanese POW camp where English and Australian soldiers were taken after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Towards the end of the war, the surviving prisoners were lead on a series of death marches. While six soldiers escaped and, aided by local Malays were able to survive, all of the remaining 2,400 prisoners died horribly.

As Judy and I stood in the chapel, just a bit weepy, we understood the final words of the RSL ode, “Lest We Forget…”

So, on this Anzac Day, we join our new friends in Australia and New Zealand in paying tribute to their veterans who served and, all too often, made the ultimate sacrifice.