Table Mountain! Chapman's Peak! Happy Birthday!

I am posting this without pictures as I brought the wrong cord to the internet cafe and cant get my pics yet! Bummer!

Last week, we finally made it up Table Mountain - yes, the lazy way, via the cable car! It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and each of the girls brought a friend. Lyle brought kite-flyer Kirsty and Molly brought Becca Gracey's long lost twin sister - Victoria. It's eerie how similar they look and act AND if you saw Becca as the artful dodger, accent and all, you'd swear this was her! Anyway, we got on the LAST cable car going up (8:15pm) and the last car coming down (9:30pm)! It got pretty dark around 9p and we were able to see the southern cross and the large magellanic clouds to name a few. Orion and his dagger are upside down and the pleaides, rigel, betelgeuse were all amazing to see, upside down...By the way, the pizza and cocoa at the top of Table Mountain were yummy and perfectly well-timed! The excitement of the evening created a huge appetite!

We are struggling a bit with fear of the ocean and the shark sightings that the local papers seem to think is VERY important news. Since newspapers are sold at every robot (traffic light), it's hard to hide the daily reports of shark sightings, even if they are 30 miles away. Kids are irrationally afraid. Think I need to find some homeopathic remedy for this, because with 10 weeks to go, I would like to go back to the beach.  In the absence of herbs and homeopathy, I prepared a BIG bubble bath for Lyle to soothe that sixth grade something I am still trying to understand. She loved it and topped the day off with a few skype calls.

Our internet has been on and off - more off than on, honestly. Needlesstosay, we are keeping the internet cafes in business. At the very end of last week, Dave and I attended a training session necessary to begin as a SHINE Centre volunteer. We are hoping to get going this week. The SHINE Centre has some hugely energized people behind it, including our friend Kathryn Torres, wife of a Middlebury grad. Visionaries, professional educators and specialist educators, fundraisers/stewards and a cadre of volunteers ready to get to work. Their formula is completely in place.  As I said earlier, we got hooked in thru friends of friends.

I had the great pleasure of joining my friend Chris for a training ride as he trains for the upcoming Cape Argus. We rode from Hout Bay to Noordhoek. (Not a long ride for those familiar with the area, but every rotation of my tire was more scenic than the one before. It was glorious! ) (This picture is on a camera for which I am told we left the cord back in VT! Bummer! ) He is trying to convince me to ride a part, if not all of, the Cape Argus - a 109km race (from Cape Town city to the southern suburbs beaches, down the penninsula to Cape Point and back up the other side via coastal route thru Noordhoek and Hout Bay and up the west coast back to the city) on March 14th that will draw over 35,000 riders. I just need to put in some saddle time - and I am considering it. In any case, we landed in Noordhoek at a lovely cafe for brunch! Chris and his wife Alison are neighbors and terrific ambassadors and tour guides here in SA. It was Chris who took Dave and me on a hike to Elephants Eye in Silvermine Nature Reserve last week (photo above). I saw a snake on the trail, but I don't think it was the puff adder or the cape cobra! OMG! Chris and Alison are friends of our landlords, Garry and Biz. We continue to feel so happy at home - Garry and Biz are just amazingly warm, thoughtful and energetic people!

We are off to Hermanus this weekend to celebrate my birthday - it's a full moon, too! We are hoping, weather permitting, to go sea kayaking and see some water wildlife. We are told seals are abundant and whales do appear this time of year, though not the southern right whale. They are long gone to Antartica.

We'll document the Hermanus trip after the weekend. Tomorrow marks our exact half-way point. How sad!

Chapter 2..

The days after the Chandlers and Daveys left were hard for us. No playmates, anticipation of school and a few hot, hot days. Three days before school began, the girls got hit by a really ugly stomach bug. REALLY ugly. We documented it but noone wants to see the footage of the wreckage. Fortunately, self-proclaimed Dr. Mom managed to find enough homeopathic remedies we were spared the need for paid professionals. Some of us like you people more than others! The mere thought of doctor visit makes one of us even sicker!

Once the kids were well, we thought we'd distract the anxiety of the start of school by going surfing but it was too windy (even for the kite!) and there was a fatal shark attack at the beach (bad visibility for shark spotters, he was alone swimming in a school of feeding fish about 100m off shore, and in an area known to attract great whites!) The whole thing was terribly unfortunate. Anyway, this is Lyle and her friend Kirsty, whose mom is the Librarian at their school. Sadly, since that day our kids have yet to even dip their toes in the water and that was a week ago. Not sure they are going in anytime soon. Sharks have been seen with high frequency these days but where we swim, 3m from shore, in front of lifeguards, with 50,000 other people, in knee deep water, we feel pretty safe.

School began and we were 1 hr late on the first day due to massive traffic. The amount of exhaust from cars here makes NOONE wonder why our greenhouse gases are polluted. I will need a detox from just THAT when I get back. Yet, hit the beach and the air is perfectly salty and fresh. Anyway, school has gone very well. This picture is from that very first day. Molly in 7th, Lyle in 6th grade. Sports start today and they are all decked out in their Herschel uniforms, even down to the pool flip flops. They swim in gym class - how cool is THAT? Though it is an all girls school, Herschel is like the Groton of Cape Town. (OK, biased Hope waxing poetic here...) Steeped in tradition, exceptionally high standards in and out of the classroom, a gorgeous campus, very competitive admissions and superb matric results. In fact last week, as the matric results were made public, Herschel was named the #1 school in all of the Western Cape. All of their grade 12 pupils (matrics) have become eligible for top admission to university. Herschel was in close second place last year, with the coordinate boys school being #1, by a small margin. All of this is to say that we are thrilled and priviledged to be a part of this fine institution.

We collected most of their uniforms a few weeks back and in the school store, met a lovely woman who offered us a tour of the Cape Town harbor on their 33 +/-ft yacht. Tough offer to refuse, so we arranged this past weekend to go for a sail. Shirley and her husband Theo would be our Captains for the day on their yacht, Nautibouy, pronounced "naughty-boy". It was a hot one and the seas weren't suitable for wind sailing - too flat - so we motor sailed and got tremendous views of Table Mountain, Lion's Head, The 12 Apostles, the Soccer Stadium, the chic neighborhoods of Mouille Point, Clifton and up close encounters with dolphins (seen here), seals (sunning in the harbor as well as in the ocean), penguins and a few humongous sunfish as they circled and played alongside our boat. While it looked so calm, and it was calm (See any white caps? There were none!), somehow I managed to feel a bit queasy. For a few hours, I WAS the new green or was it my fleece reflecting? I have never been much of a sailor, ( I get seasick in a bathtub!) but I did have a great time. Shirley and Theo are incredible people and I took to Shirley at our initial meeting in the school store like she was my local Ann Alexander. Her husband, Theo, is a true seaman and a passionate SA who knew everyone in the harbor AND every boat at sea. If those qualities don't remind you of Charlie Alexander, what does? They took exceptional care of us and we are deeply grateful and look forward to our next activity with them.

We braai'd that night with our new friends, Rod, Zoe and their son Hektor and their pet geese. Rod and Zoe are squash friends - a connection made thru my US Squash Teammate Natalie Grainger. We swam and talked squash and kids and inventions. Hektor is 2 and swims and hits balls, rocks, pretty much anything with his racquet. He's great on his tricycle, as well. We will see more of them, both on and off court.

Dave and I attended an information session on a literacy program (http://www.theshinecentre.org.za/) in the public schools. We go back late in the week for extensive training and hope to get going as our time here is short.  The program works with 2nd and 3rd graders in the public schools. Half of the class, so about 25 out of 50, are learning - LEARNING - their ABC's. Second grade, people. And there are TONS of schools that can benefit from these services and this program is growing but is run entirely by volunteers.  We hooked into it thru some friends of friends - a Williams/Harvard couple with a kid who did Overland last summer. Sounds like us, eh? There are some amazing Americans who have moved here to do important work - and there is much to do. Another one, started by Williams folks, is Mothers2Mothers...More on that in a future blog...

Dave and I have been TOTALLY impressed with our kids ability to "go with it" at school. They are up against newness everywhere and have handled it beautifully. Note - perfection would be wrong, they have had ups and downs, but very few extremes.  The Head of their school has a daughter, Emma, in Molly's grade and they have been absolutely sensational to us - looking out for our every need. They even took us to a Fire Your Desire place last weekend and we all sat, chatted, painted and ate gigantic pieces of chocolate cake. It was a great mother-daughter experience! We took Emma to the beach one day last week and she and Molly built this enormous drip castle.

We are planning ostrich burgers for lunch as the kids wont touch the bird and demand to see the packaging when I claim we're having burgers and Dave lights the braai. Kids are now LOVING samosas, which is excellent because I have to pack lunch every day for them and this is a nice change from chicken wraps!

My sister Sandy sits in Guatemala watching the earthquake monitor, sister Blair is airborne on route to New Zealand to "WOOF" (world organic farming) for 2 months and brother Wally has landed in Florida for his family's dose of winter warmth. Dad reports the daily weather from his station (a.k.a the woodstove with dog at his feet!) in Westport, MA. Dave's parents and sister are also doing well. We are hoping for a visit from Dave's sister Sue in March!

For you Bostonians, 2 dates of note: May 7 - 10, I will be playing a WISPA squash event in Natick (hopefully bringing my SA "A" game and May 15th is a BroadBand gig in Newton. I will have liscensed SA World Cup gear to raffle off. Hope to see some of you!

That's about all for now. - Hope

Into 2010 with sun, surf, safari and smiles...

The last few weeks have been amazing. Blair's family arrived in Cape Town and we celebrated Christmas with them, complete with skypeing other cousins as seen in the first pic, kite flying on Strand Beach on Christmas Day and my nephews throwing baseballs with a professional baseball player that I met in a backpackers lodge who was nice enough to give some of his time and arm to three VERY eager young and talented ball players! Talk about the spirit of the season! A few days later, the Daveys arrived and they hit the ground running - it was as if they have always lived in a time zone 7 hrs ahead!

In short, our week went as follows: Upon their arrival, we went straight for the penguin colony and toasted a week in South Africa with cheese, crackers, Appletiser (kid-friendly bubbly) and milk chocolate. Could it get better? The next day we surfed at Muizenberg and didn't realize the magnitude of the sunburn until the next day.Whoops! We celebrated Lyle's 11th birthday with a big Braai (BBQ) and pool party at our house. Her cake had a beaded penguin on top - it was just perfect!

These surfing pics are a mix of pre-holiday at Bloubergstrand (girls and me- Atlantic Beach) and then when the Daveys came we went to Muizenberg (Indian Ocean beach). It will surprise NOONE that knows her that Kirsta was a natural, looks almost like she can hang ten and do tricks. Next stop - the big breakers! Kirsta is pictured above with the sleeveless wetsuit. It should be noted that Chris, Margaret AND Sara all got up on surfboards on their first day! I had a few falls (see below) and one good ride (see above) in Bloubergstrand and managed to hold my own in Muizenberg. I THINK Kirsta has footage of that, but somehow our camera doesn't. Dave is to be credited as the sports photographer in Bloubergstrand. He tried to get me on the board but the camera delay caught me in the dead beetle position. I ran out of wave....Don'tcha hate when that happens? 

Tuesday we "DID" the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point and hiked a bunch and ran up and down many great dunes. We even came within feet of this BIG Ostrich. Dave did NO zooming on this pic. We were THAT close!

Wednesday we headed to Aquila Private Game Reserve. Getting there was a 2 hr drive thru, NOT KIDDING, vineyards after vineyards after vineyards. It was spectacular. Aquila Private Game Reserve was nothing short of amazing. Our camera is good but we didnt even need it to be that good as we were sooooo close to so many animals.Our accomodations were first class and we had a splendid dinner after a hard (hardly) search for animals. We were nearly tripping over them. Two exciting moments - one was when Dave  put his camera outside of our vehicle to photograph the lions. Well, young male pictured here saw Dave's hands and decided he might like a closer look. He circled the vehicle and we were all a bit scared when our driver calmly but firmly commanded us to "HOLD ON" as he sped away. Lion aren't apt to leap into a moving vehicle but any moves while we were right there could have been really ugly. Phew! A close call averted. Next morning, we awoke at 5:15 for our morning drive and saw 4 buffalo right outside our room. We were instructed not to leave our room until the area was vacated by these buffalo - the most dangerous of animals as they are the most unpredictable. (We were also charged a few times by buffalo while on our 2 drives, but that felt like nothing compared to waking up next to one or FOUR!) Anyway, Aquila gets 5 stars from all of us. In addition to the animals pictured, we saw hippo and rhino, many springboks and wildebeasts and offspring of many of these. The baby hippo stole my heart.

On Thursday, New Years Eve, we returned from Aquila and hiked the famed Lion's Head hike that gives tremendous views of Table Mountain and the Twelve Apostles. (Some of the apostles are hidden behind temporary clouds in this picture.) We had a HOT but glorious afternoon to hike it - and we all made it! ( I have just read in today's Cape Argus paper that there was a mugging on Lion's Head the day before we were there. In addition, there was an armed robbery at the entrance to Cape Point at the Cape of Good Hope for 1 million rand. This happened the day after were were there "Babooning." Crime is here and we are being very vigilant about ourselves and our possessions. )

Onto happier things - Friday we did the trip to Robben Island to see Mandela's prison cell. Robben Island is the prison Mandela and other black political prisoners were taken during apartheid. There is also a penguin colony there! Saturday we attempted the cable car on Table Mountain as it was a still, steamy and glorious day but the idea was not new to thousands of others - it was also a holiday in SA, so after a false start there, we ended up spending the day at the Penguin Colony Beach and swimming with these amazing swimmer birds...Saturday afternoon, after many, many pengiuns, we went "Babooning"...driving our car through Cape Point Nature Reserve in the search of the ever famous and often dangerous Chacma Baboons. We had been at their popular hangout earlier in the week and seen NONE so I knew the Daveys wouldn't believe my baboon car climbing stories unless they actually experienced it. Did we ever get a Baboon troop? The answer is affirmative!

At the parking lot at the Cape Point lighthouse, we saw over 20 Baboons. It was fun and games watching them open car doors, jump on the roofs, etc...and then it was less fun for poor Walker as the granddaddy baboon came up to Walker from behind and scared the pants nearly off him. Fortunately his shreiks sent the baboon far away but it was quite an encounter. All is well. Walker managed to laugh about it but not until the next day!

Sunday we visited a beach on the Atlantic Coast called Noordhoek and it was icy cold but perhaps the biggest beach any of us have even been on. It was HUGE. The water was a brilliant blue. And like every beach we went to, we threw the rugby ball, kicked a soccer ball, sunbathed and snacked on ciabatta with cheese, chocolate, chips and appletisers. We took the Daveys to the airport Sunday eve and then took Blair's family to the airport Monday morning. Monday we just regrouped - laundry, groceries, email, etc...Molly went off to a  playdate with a classmate and Dave, Lyle and I went to do some surfing at Muizenberg.  I have spent much more time ON TOP OF  the board this time. It feels better and I didn't even need a wetsuit it is so warm on these False Bay (Indian Ocean) beaches. The Atlantic is frigid. Period. Great views though.

School starts next Wednesday for the girls so we are trying to get some playdates with classmates as they come back to town after long holidays. It has been amazing to share some great experiences with family and friends and we can't wait to photo share as I know the Chandlers and Daveys have some amazing pictures. We are gearing up for a whole new chapter when school starts. It really has been a very happy new year so far in SA! And we hope all is well wherever this finds you...

I am really hoping to figure out the blog settings and be able to insert photos into text, etc.. as it has made me nearly crazy that this entry looks so botched up. All the info is there, but it doesn't feel well organized or look that pretty. There is always next time....

Will blog again soon! - Cheers! Hope