I must start at the beginning. I just want to reiterate, I HAD to leave the country. My 180 day visa was no longer valid as the guy at immigration decided he would no longer illegally stamp it. The nerve. They also decided they would no longer accept 180 day visas or so I understand. I had purchased a 30 day visitor visa but was unable to renew it so I had to go. It was an absolute miracle that Alpha contacted me and asked me to fly to Zambia at their expense. Miracle. I knew I would have to stay until my visa expired which gave me an extra week to spend out of the country. I had acquaintances in South Africa. I sent out an email and had two sweet, generous people graciously answer me. I met Hilary and Lisa in 2011, when I was in Cape Town studying the Warehouse and looking at their organization as a model for sustainable development and how to do it within ministry. Hilary was in London and offered me the room in her house. Lisa offered to collect me at the airport. I knew then quite clearly that going to Cape Town was simply what I was supposed to do. Little did I know. I knew I needed a time of rest. I admit that the more I thought about going to a modern city to rest, the more impatient I got with the heat and lack of water and days of intermittent electricity in Mozambique. I longed for a hot bath and deep rest. I knew I needed to get away and I knew I needed deep, peaceful, good for the soul, rest.
Through a friend of Lisa I was given the cottage on the hill in Simon’s Town. Just like that. “Hey I have a friend here who needs a place to rest”. “Ok, sure I will take her there”. And within less than 24 hours I am standing in the living room, enamored by the view. Upon arrival, I can spy a full size bed out of the corner of my eye. It has a down comforter. I can bet money there is a bath somewhere in this house. The owner leaves and I walk straight to the bed, remove my shoes and fall face first onto the bed. I wake two hours later. Then, I hit Simon’s Town. I had seen lots of colorful storefront windows full of antiques and clothing and displays with postcards on sidewalks. I pulled on my boots and grabbed my backpack and went to town. I hit up every single shop, even those that looked junky, just to go inside and have something different to see. I don’t know why living in the middle of nowhere makes me so insane but it does. I miss architecture and pretty things. I miss reading magazine covers at the checkout counter. I miss checkout counters. I went into the quaint little pharmacy where they only have a limited stock of supplies and a girl insists on helping you and I let her. I got Vaseline (eye make-up remover) and fingernail polish remover and cotton balls and little tins of lipgloss for Catherine and Emma Grace. I went into the antique shop and touched vintage linens. I love linens. I went in a great gift shop called Craftart. I normally would never just stop and look and touch and stare at every little single solitary thing, but I did. It was so blissfully entertaining. Everything seemed so pretty, artistic and creative. I chatted it up with the owner. Most of the time I try to hide my American accent. I don’t talk and just look and don’t make eye contact, but she asked a question and the American accent fell out. She and her staff were friendly and genuine. I bought a set of cotton/linen blend towels that are soft, durable, quick drying and absorbent. Sounds impossible to be all of that in one towel but they are that good. I saw a Chalkboard sign that said Veggie Burgers 39R and went up wooden steps to a large bright white restaurant called The Meeting Place. All in all this place was just okay. It is your quintessential lunch spot with large sofa and magazines and whitewashed walls. There are pastries under glass domes. But they didn’t have the veggie burger. I ordered a salad with hummus but they were out of hummus. Instead they sent a really bad dip that looked like it should have been pimento cheese but it was not. Don’t put a Southern staple in front of me and mask it with cream cheese and who knows what. I wasn’t impressed. Downstairs they have a gift shop but I saw nothing I could not live without and even the pastry menu was not appealing and that says a whole lot because I am a sucker for dessert.
I stopped outside a Postcard carousel and picked out a variety. Sweet Granny McCarley still has a postcard of a sheep in a green field from my 2008 visit to Northern Ireland on her fridge. I figured she needed a replacement. I then went into a little convenience store that advertised stamps and asked where I could find the post office. A sweet little old man with a newspaper tucked under his arm who addressed the old Indian checkout lady as “Honey” told me he was going there and he would show me. It does not get more quintessential than that. So idyllic. Not to mention this whole experience is underneath a bright blue sky, beside the expanse of a bright blue sea and echoed by sounds of bleating PENGUINS. As he escorts me across the street he hears the American accent too and tells me how much he didn’t like Bush and how much he does like Obama. I smile and nod and thank him. Everybody has an opinion about pretty much everything, even little South African men about US Politics. By this time I have broken a little sweat and am anxious to get back to my cottage. I open the door and have to sigh out loud. This view is just amazing. This little cottage glistens and I am so incredibly undone that I get to stay here. I run a hot bath and real tears come to my eyes. Absolutely incredibly mind-blowing amazed that I get to stay here! Everything about this house just feels normal. Dishwasher, washing machine, normal bed, electricity, hot water, bath tub, TV! I didn’t realize how the lack of these things impact me. And I am not quite sure it is their lack that is the problem it is just their presence that leaves me completely happy. So blissfully happy. So I hope I don’t come across as being the most unlikely missionary ever but more like the most appreciative. Over and over I ask, “What did I do to deserve such love?” and each time I hear a vacant pause and then, “Nothing”.
That night a friend of a friend came over, we went to a local sushi place. It was on a very touristy little corner and is above a very family friendly blue carpet touristy restaurant called Bertha’s or something like that. It looked like a Shoney’s in a really good location. So the sushi dive won out. I can’t say I recommend it either. The service was odd, atmosphere confusing. But the sushi was good and that is what we where there for.
All the mornings were the same, me waking up really early, running a tub bath. Fixing a huge French Press of coffee, poached eggs and toast, rye, with rocket and tomatoes. I sat on that front porch and stared at the ocean and breathed in and out and drank it all in. I put on Rita Springer and blared it from the kitchen. I took my Bible and Kindle and read as the Spirit moved.
I went back to town to pick up where I left off. There was not much else to see. I was looking for the perfect place for lunch. I bumped into a man on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop in a white chef’s jacket and asked him what he had and he asked me what I wanted. I told him and he made it. I sat there and read chapters out of books until I found the right one and ate spinach with such passion that the chef noticed and asked me if I wanted more.
About the third day I discovered the big screen television in the corner of the living room and kept it on E! entertainment TV and got filled up with all the celebrity gossip. It’s a guilty pleasure. It is a brainless, beautiful escape into another world.
I spent Saturday morning with the Penguins! African Penguins! It was surreal, stunning, amazing, beautiful but also kinda loud and stinky. But hands down one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The penguin is fascinating. They are monogamous and take turns taking care of the children. There are no words to describe the beach. I got a lunch special of fish and chips and a little beach side restaurant with linen tablecloths.
I went back to the Craftart gift shop and bought another linen cotton blend towel because I dyed my new one purple because although my pajama bottoms have been washed a whole lot they have only been hand washed in cold water and I didn’t even think about it and threw them in with everything else. Anyway, I learned that the owners have been to Mozambique and her husband, an engineer, is coming there to work on a dock at the hotel in a few weeks. He bought me a cup of coffee and showed me pottery he had purchased in Pemba. They are a handsome couple in their late 60‘s. She is blonde and beautiful and he is tall with big hands and bright blue eyes. He said he would look me up when he comes. She told me I could take pictures of anything I wanted when I told her I wanted to start a gift shop. She showed me local products and gave me ideas. It was a fun random connection and I am curious just what will come of it.
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