Pretoria! Pretoria!

Hello from Pretoria!

The last week has been wonderful! We flew out of Cape Town and were picked up at the airport. We had a nice drive through the city and got to our private compound. We aren't staying in or even really near the city center, but in a suburb of primarily white Afrikaaners which has been a different setting than we've had so far this summer. Grant and I have been staying in a private guest house as the only visitors. Soooo we have a kitchen a living room a back yard..a koi pond!!! It's been super great. For the weekend we pretty much just found different places to lounge around and read, soak up the sun...all the good things that were kind of neglected by our busy schedule in Cape Town. The whether here is incredible. It's winter, but the sun is out and warm every day. It's a welcome climate.

On Monday we decided that we should probably get out a little bit so we went on an epic adventure for the Pretoria art museum. We bussed downtown which was super easy and then started wandering. What we thought was the art museum turned out to be a theater, so we asked for directions and went on our way. The staff directed us to a museum, but not an art museum...it was some animal museum natural science business...not really our thing. Pretoria is kind of funny because literally every building that isn't a shop is an official governmental building or a museum...We let go of finding the actual art museum pretty quickly and just settled for wandering around the city. Pretoria is the first city we've spent time in where we've been the minority, so it was a really neat experience. We found some beautiful parks and even more beautiful buildings. The architecture in Pretoria is pretty astounding. As we were walking around we came across this really dilapidated building that was fenced off and things. Right as we walked up a group of uni students were coming out and so we got to go in. Turns out the building was the first synagogue in Pretoria and was where they held Nelson Mandela's trials...what?! It was really pretty amazing. Then inspired by our adventure we continued on to another area that we had seen some cool buildings in. One was particularly interesting looking so we went up to the front door and it turned out they were doing construction. We were able to go into the building...sans close toed shoes...sans hard hats...and explore around. It was really, really fun. All of the old molding and wood work are being preserved so it was a pretty incredible space. We nearly got trapped in by scaffolding but made it out alive! We also took this ancient lift down which was scary and very exciting.

There's this great thing going on this week in Pretoria called the festival of the clowns. It's a week spent with different lecturers and arts and performances put on by a local church. We've only been to one event, but it's one of the top things that I will take away from South Africa. It was this man, Father Michael, who was leading the workshop and a group of around 20 Zimbabwean, South African, international adults all coming together to reclaim our vulnerability. This included hearing the Father's personal story of the adversity and trauma that he'd faced in his life (he was an active opponent to the Apartheid government and was targeted with a parcel bomb...he lost both hands and an eye in the disaster and has since started a group called the "healing of memories" in which he counsels groups on how to forgive oneself as well as the perpatrator so that victims do not fall into cyclical patterns of victimization.) So we spent 4 hours going through a condensed program to reclaim our vulnerability and heal from past experiences. It was an intimate, honest, emotional, and hopeful experience. We got to listen to people's histories and the ways they've been victimized and offer encouraging words of strength and healing. I never know what to expect from any situation we enter into here and have been so struck by the multitude of powerful experiences that just seem to spring up in whatever arenas we enter.

After that we had a rushed lunch and then headed into a nearby township, Soshanguve (sp?) We caught up with a family that Nieu Communities is really involved with and met other community members...I love township life. It was really interesting to be in a bigger, more rural township compared to those near Cape Town. People had much more space in Sosh which seemed to be a big difference. It's hard not to compare different places, but I really don't think the townships are comparable. What is universal is the joy that emanates from the different families we've met. The strength of the women. The sass, spunk and love I've felt. It seems to always be an energy renewal when we are welcomed into these places. I wish we could have spent more time out there since being in Pretoria, but oh well...such is life under tourist time schedules...

Well...we leave Pretoria tomorrow and go back to Cape Town on Friday. We're going to spend the afternoon and evening in Jo-Burg which will be fun. Grant is a little nervous about it but I'm excited. We've heard so much about the place that to not spend any time there would be a shame. There's a pretty amazing Apartheid museum that we're going to check out so that should be great.

I only have 9 days left in this place. Single digits...it's impossible to believe. I'm in denial. It still feels like we have so much to do and see and people to meet and spend time with...ah!

Hope you're all having wonderful days, mornings, evenings, afternoons. I am looking forward to seeing you in the near, near future :)