CHURCH (HOLY SHIT) AND GOLDFISH

This morning we woke up early and got the kids ready for church. The dress I was planning on wearing looked a little worse for the wear after being shoved in a duffel bag for 2 days (weird). I wasn’t going to say anything, in hopes that people wouldn’t notice that my dress had more wrinkles than an LA mom without Botox, but Moira caught me trying to smooth out the wrinkles and offered to iron my dress—proof that mothers always know. We all piled into their van and headed to church. Which is held in a classroom of the Oceanview Elementary School. Up until this morning, Dan had struck me as a deeply spiritual, and soft-spoken man. But when he got in front of his congregation, he transformed. He delivered a sermon about letting go of the past. During it he said, “The fight with the devil for your heart is fought in the battlefield of the past. Not the future.” It was really interesting in light of our conversation the day before when we were talking about the history of apartheid in Oceanview. He told me that a lot of members of his congregation still have trouble letting go of the wrongs they’ve suffered through and it affects them on a day-to-day basis. But he feels this resentment tethers them to the past and keeps them from moving forward. The congregation was a much more lively bunch than the ones I’m used to—mothers were screaming out, crying, dancing, and falling over in their trances during the ceremony. It was an incredible experience.

After church, we went back to their home and had a big, traditional Sunday meal that Moira’s sister prepared for us. Almost immediately after we finished eating, it was time to go back to the buses. Saying goodbye to the Jegel family was really hard, especially with Sarah-Claire because I don’t’ think she understood I was going to be leaving so soon. But this family was absolutely incredible—everything that I want mine to be one day. I know we’ll be in contact for a long time.

Ellen and I got on the bus back to Cape Town together, threw our stuff down at home, and went straight to Kirstenbosch Gardens for the last summer concert—Goldfish! We made it just in time and the concert was amazing. It was set against the beautiful backdrop of the gardens and there was really diverse audience, with people from ages 4-60. Got crafty thinking of ways to try and talk our way backstage and met ½ of Goldfish! The best part of the day was getting home to an email from Eric telling me he will be visiting South Africa after graduation in May! The subject line was "We need to talk," which was arguably the worst use of that phase in the history of South Africa and needing to talk. All in all, amazing weekend.