Kindred Spirits

South Africans are incredibly friendly people. One of the couples we met, Amelia and Anton, volunteer at Living Grace to do fundraising and such. The second week we were there, they offered to pick us and Amanda up from LG early and take us around for the day. Their two daughters, Dani and Abi, were off school for two weeks on holiday, so we all went down to the Waterfront for the day. We had lunch and then we took the girls to the Aquarium for a few hours. Afterwards, we got ice cream and went on a beautiful scenic drive along the coast. The next week, we went to Amelia and Anton’s house with Peter, the director of LG, along with his wife Sandy and daughter Amy. Anton and Amelia have an open room which has a braai, where Anton cooked snook (local fish), chicken and toasted sandwiches. It was so good! For dessert, we had a malva cake, a type of warm cake soaked in something like maple syrup with custard and fruit. People are so generous here, we were truly blessed to have them welcome us into their family so warmly. Abigail and I had a special relationship; We hunted cockroaches on the days she came to LG, we danced during devotions and she always brought me a chocolate treat! I’m really going to miss them! Two weeks into being in Cape Town, the group that had been there when we arrived all left within a few days of each other. I mentioned in a previous blog that this group was great, but somewhat difficult to connect with. Among the new group of people that arrived, came two girls, Amanda and Becky that had actually just come from two weeks in Mozambique. Soon, they had a new roommate, Kelly, also visiting from the US for a month. These girls are awesome- really funny and easy going. We got along right away. Todd and I definitely wanted to be within a community for a number of reasons, and I realized when they arrived how much I had missed my girlfriends and sisters. One weekend, we all rented a car together and drove to Simon’s Town for breakfast and to see the local penguin colony in the rain. The next day we went to Stellenbosch to the wineries and to look around the shops. Becky and Amanda gave me their left over malarone pills, so I don’t have to take the scary ones my doctor prescribed. When we left, Amanda had a card signed by some of the guys from LG and presented it to us with cheesecake and chocolate cake. I am so grateful for these girls. They really brought me a lot of joy and laughter in Cape Town. I’m really hoping that Todd is brought some good guys in the near future. Amanda would always egg him on to say mildly inappropriate things, which she thought was hilarious and to which I would roll my eyes. They were definitely trouble together. For about a week, Todd was a really good sport, driving around with four girls in the car. The last week when Rob came, he finally had another guy to talk to, outside of at LG. Our last day there at lunch, we presented Amanda and Rob with a ladle and the songbook, and stepped aside as they took over for us.