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day twenty-seven: signal hill

On our last day in Cape Town, as we were headed to the airport, we made one last stop to gaze at beauty on Signal Hill. As if the sights we had seen in the previous 9 days weren't beautiful enough already, it just got more beautiful! As you can tell, it was a bit windy though... 







This was the stadium where the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament was held!

goodbyes

"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos."
-Charles M. Schulz

fiction book club, 2nd edition
































Remember last month when I mentioned I was in a new fiction book club? We're meeting for the second time tomorrow night and guess what the series that we'll be discussing is this month? Yep: Harry Potter! Don't try to imagine how excited I am because you can't possibly.

I'm trying to decide if I should wear my Hermione costume, or not...

And of course it wouldn't be a Harry Potter party without Potter snacks, so we'll have those too. In fact, we have a whole Potter-esque menu planned. I'll report back on that! 

day twenty-five: ethiopian dinner

This was my first experience with Ethiopian food, and frankly I was a little nervous. The rumors were that you eat everything with your hands; no utensils. I'm not one who's big on getting their hands dirty in any circumstance, but especially when it means eating dinner.

But I survived and I LOVED it. (Brendan and I actually scoped out an Ethiopian restaurant in Harlem recently to try it again.) The food was definitely different: different texture, of course different spices, and well, just different. But in a good way. And our team had a fun time experiencing this bit of African culture (albeit, Ethiopian, not South African) and it won me over. Fair and square!



this was an 8-course meal. see the 8 different blobs!

this is what we did to celebrate Lindy's birthday! and she got a free t-shirt!



popcorn and coffee for dessert. still not sure about this combo, but yum!


























she's (almost) here...



I'm literally clicking "refresh" on my browser every 15 seconds to see if Rose's plane has landed yet! I'm looking forward to a very fun weekend in store, I'm sure. After several flight delays today, bad weather, and a Newark to Penn Station train ride between us, it will be a sweet reunion (soon).

day twenty-four: gatsby sandwich

If you want to see a good idea for a sandwich, feast your eyes on this! One of the days that we helped out at Arise, they insisted that we try these Gatsby sandwiches; they obviously didn't have to twist my arm very hard.

It's a hoagie sandwich with meat, a delectable sauce and french fries right in the sandwich. It seemed like the most efficient way to eat all of my favorite things. I'm thinking about bringing these Gatsby sandwiches to the US... I'm craving one now!


hola, colorado!




Wow, is it beautiful in Denver! And wow, did I have the best host and hostess ever. I arrived at the airport in Denver laaaate on Friday night and I was pretty zonked since it was even later NYC time. Saturday, my most gracious hosts took me to see the sights of Colorado. First stop: Red Rocks! It was covered in snow and soooo pretty!

Then we went to Buffalo Bill's grave! Very interesting sight, I thought. Then we all tried to remember who Buffalo Bill even was...


Ahh, and the constant view of the mountains! They were spectacular.

Sunday, at my request in lieu of skiing, we went sledding on a nearby sledding hill in Denver. I thought this was the safer option (for me, a novice skier) and I was mostly right. After about 5-7 runs, our sleds broke though, but luckily no injuries!


I had such a great time visiting my friends Caylen and David and seeing a part of their life out west. It took too long for me to visit, but I'm glad I finally made it. I'll be happy when you guys are a liiittle closer!

city wide worship






















A few Fridays ago, Trinity Grace Church and some other churches in NYC hosted a city-wide praise event. This is a photo that was snapped and posted on Atlantic Cities from the final prayer of the evening. I became aware of this picture because I posted it on our new #TPFperspective photo blog yesterday (for The Park Forum, check it out!).

I can't stop looking at this photo. How powerful and beautiful. Seriously.

(and ps, can you find Brendan and me in the photo?!)

day twenty-three: public school assembly

I loved the entire trip to Capetown, but there weren't many things that touched my heart like the experience on Friday of the trip did. Through Arise, we went to a nearby public school and held an assembly for the kiddos to teach a bible lesson. Some of the kids were familiar faces that we had met on Wednesday at the Arise after-school program, but many faces were new. They were all beautiful and eager and excited to see us, and we had a blast putting on a show for them! And, I apologize in advance for the large quantity of pictures included in this post - get ready...




check out that ham!






this is one of my absolute favorite trips from the entire trip! we said scream...and she did!



we passed these coloring sheets out to the kids, and they loved them!


I want to go back to this school.


one more birthday post!

Because I thought this was pretty special...and still think it's pretty special, I wanted to share a video of my team singing 'happy birthday' to me on top of Table Mountain the day we hiked to the top! You'll have to be patient through the first 0:25 seconds at the beginning of mild-craziness, but then it gets to the really special part.

day twenty-two: my birthday (!!!)

Not everyone can say they've celebrated their birthday - on Thanksgiving day, no less - in Africa. But I can! The whole day...on my birthday... in Africa, ah!... I kept thinking about how surreal and awesome it was to be celebrating there (and I've had 25 years of celebrating birthdays in a pretty special way). Not only did I get to celebrate in one of the most picturesque places in the world, I got to see the most beautiful landscapes and views I had ever seen, go to a really neat market, go to the beach (which has never happened before, since my birthday is in November), have a cookout (!!) and wear a sundress  (rainbow, at that)...all on my birthday!

I will admit, I was nervous before I left about why I had agreed to go to Africa over my birthday and Thanksgiving instead of spending the time with my family. Instead, I got a new type of family who loved and cared for me in the most special ways and made me feel so terrific on my special day. It was better than I could have ever imagined.

I should also mention that thanks to the encouragement of my team members, I decided to celebrate my birthday from the time it began in Cape Town (7 hrs ahead of New York time) until it ended in Alabama (my home state), so effectively my birthday was a whopping 32 hours long this year!

my special birthday breakfast: triple layer mousse cake from Mugg & Bean

spending a few hours at the BEACH on my birthday! you couldn't find a happier person.

these signs were posted all around my room at the hostel when I woke up!


birthday celebration at the braai!

Lindy and I celebrating our birthdays together at the braai!


In addition to celebrating my birthday on Thanksgiving, our team also got to celebrate Lindy's birthday the next day! (You'll see tomorrow what we did to celebrate Lindy's birthday.) It made it even more fun having another 'birthday girl' to celebrate with while on the trip. 









milk tart for birthday cake

birthday girls!

This birthday will go down in history, for sure...

day twenty-one: thanksgiving braai

Instead of a traditional turkey dinner, we had a Thanksgiving braai! (The word means "grilled meat" in Afrikaans, so it's how South Africans refer to a cookout or bbq.) And since it was summer there, it was the perfect time for a cookout. It included many South African traditional staple dishes such as pap and boerewors (in my opinion, very similar to grits and sausage). It was delicious, and a very fun, unconventional way to celebrate Thanksgiving. I've definitely never had a birthday dinner like this before! I would do it again any day...





boerowers and grilled chicken


pap
There were so many people there to celebrate our "American holiday", there weren't enough seats. Good problem to have!