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Living on the edge
The edge of Ben's beautiful nursery!
Check out the view. And the other direction you can almost see the ocean! The title is meant to be a bit cheeky, it's actually more like two separate phrases:
WE CAN STAY!!!
We just found out yesterday that our visas have been approved!!!
This is very exciting news and has been a monumental effort on the part of A LOT of people! Thank you to all of our friends and colleagues who wrote us letters, to our mom's for gathering, faxing, and sending official documents, and to our lawyer for standing in line at the Department of Home Affairs from midnight until 5pm too many days to mention.
Thank you also to everyone who has provided us with such unwavering support. We are really happy to be here and are very thankful that the process of becoming temporary residents allowing us to work legally is finally accomplished!
Our visas are good until 2011!!! WOW! On one hand, we can't even imagine staying that long. On the other, we can't even believe that in just a couple of months, we'll have been here a whole year!!!
. . . well it won't exactly be a consecutive year because . . . .
WE'RE COMING HOME!!!
We've purchased our flight tickets,
Building the green house
Ben wasted no time whipping the nursery into shape. Soon after he started he requested a nursery and lo and behold - it was built. more like paid the nominal fee to have the dates changed, and we arrive in San Francisco on July 22nd at 11:10am. Inshallah. 😊
We're planning to leave to return to our Cape Town home on September 2, at the latest. So, we're really looking forward to enjoying the summer weather with you all and getting to spread lots of hugs around to all of you, our favorite people!!
Other news on life here in the Cape
Life is really good. We seem to have gotten into a really great flow. Just busy enough, but not too much so. There was a while where I was beginning to feel like I wasn't doing enough. Partly I just came to the realization that whatever it is, it's always enough. And partly, I continued to put out to the Universe what it was that I wanted to do, and then followed up with any opportunities put into my path.
Many of you heard about the xenophobic violence occurring in South Africa recently. Thankfully, we never once felt unsafe. The violence wasn't really directed toward European or Americans foreigners. Unfortunately, as is the case with much of the world's conflict,
Ben flying
This is taken as Ben jumped from a rock during a break on our hike through the Newlands forest. it really has to do with people's basic needs not being met, thus, a very small faction of poor South Africans were taking out their frustration on poor African residents. The reasoning was the usual: They're taking our jobs. It sounded very similar to the xenophobic discourse of some Americans regarding Mexicans. However, this wasn't just discourse. Many of the shops in the poorer neighborhoods were owned by residents from other countries, and the owners along with their families and friends were all told to leave. Given letters warning them to leave, actually. So, many people from Zimbabwe, the DRC, Somalia, Mozambique (most of whom are here legally; many of whom have lived here for years and years) moved to camps or halls or police stations that have been labeled as Safe Zones. This was a good step in that it separated people to give everyone a chance to de-escalate the violence and intensity. However, now thousands of people are still living in these temporary camps, with no clear path on where they're to re-establish their homes, either in new communities or back into the communities that expelled them.
When all of this started, I really wanted to get
involved in the peace-building efforts, but could not figure out who, if anyone, was doing anything. All the work I heard about -- and there was a lot, thousands of people came out in support of the foreign residents -- has been reactive, and I really wanted to be involved in something more proactive. I wanted to work on something that would bring people together to help us all recognize our unity in humanity. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a training at the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture, where we learned the ways in which volunteers can basically act as a liaison between people living in the Safe Zones and the services that they need. This was great, I was glad to be able to do something, but still not exactly what I was looking for. Well, at the training I met two beautiful people from Art of Living foundation, that combines, yoga, meditation, and social justice work. They were looking for participants in their upcoming peace-building and youth leadership training and asked me to participate!
So: on Sunday, I leave for a nine day residential program where I'll be living with youth (aged
Proteas and Mountains
Two things for which Cape Town is in a class all its own! 20-35) from the townships and safe zones who are all coming together to work on building peace between the two communities. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do this, and am looking forward to reporting back to you all on how it goes!
We recently also discovered Agape South Africa. Agape is a Greek word for unconditional love, and there is a huge spiritual community in Los Angeles that coalesces under this name. A few weeks ago, we found out about this group building a spiritual community here. We went to the gathering for the past two weekends, and have met some really wonderful people.
Table Mountain
In May, we finally hiked to the top of Table Mountain and back down!!
Our friend Nadia that we met through the yoga classes I've been teaching had wanted to climb Table Mountain, and didn't have anyone to do it with.
Once we heard this, we jumped at the chance! Hiking Table Mountain, or at least going to the top via the funicular, is one of the top things on everyone Cape Town visitor's list. Many people were shocked to hear that we'd been hear nearly
Platteklip Gorge
One of the many beautiful views on the ascent to the Table top. six months and hadn't yet been to the top. We were just waiting for the right time. (Actually we were waiting for the opportunity! Taking the funicular is too expensive and I didn't want to climb it alone without someone who hadn't already done it!) So after a yoga class, we picked up Ben and headed into town to go to the beautiful, majestic, awe-inspiring monument that justs sits so solidly right in the middle of Cape Town. We hiked up Plettenkip Gorge and had a great time! It was a bit windy so the funicular was closed, which meant that there weren't that many tourists at the top. The lack of tourists is a good thing because apparently it can be quite a tourist frenzy up there, and instead we were really able to enjoy the views and hike around. The wind was also great on the way up because it got quite warm and the breeze kept us feeling refreshed.
It was quite a climb. Numerous times we commented to each other, "Who built these steps?! Giants?!?!" Some of the stairs (really just huge rocks strategically placed to form steps) along the path were a good two
and a half feet tall. One of those is fine, two is even okay, even three, but hundreds, possibly thousands?! By the time we reached the top, our thighs were burning something fierce! It only took us an hour and 45 minutes (it's supposed to take 2.5 hours), and we weren't rushing or anything. It's beautiful on the way up, we just kept turning around and getting the most amazing view of the entire northern side of the Western Cape.
We ate our packed lunch and hiked around on the top, getting nearly lost at one point and a bit concerned that it would be sundown before we made it down. Alas, we recovered the correct path and were able to get down in plenty of time, with many
It feels really great every time we make a connection with someone really special here that we can see developing a friendship with. Getting to know people and expanding our horizons through exposing ourselves to new groups has really been the majority of the exploration we've been doing as of late.
In the future I hope not to be as long between updates. Please keep the comments and
Heart of Stone
This is taken atop Table Mountain. A little piece of love from the most special rock in the world. (Wait 'till you see it in person - this mountain rocks!) :) emails coming! It's really great to hear from everyone, and we REALLY REALLY look forward to hanging out with you in the upcoming weeks!
love, sarah and ben
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claire
non-member comment
hooray!!
kate has been keeping me updated on your status ! hooray for your visas and hooray for your summer vaction cant wait to see you guys!!!