After all of the excitement of the city life in Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria it was nice to go back to a more relaxed Cape Town. It was a bitter sweet return to the Grundlingh family, however. I knew it would be the last time that I got to see them for some time. Our last few days were spent walking around Stellenbosch, trying to go on a rainy hike, and a celebration.
I was woken up on the morning of August 7, 2010 with a cake made of oranges, shells and rat shaped sugar candies that had two huge candles: one was a 2, the other a 5. This is how my quarter century birthday celebration began. Marizanne and I then spent the morning in the Mbekweni township to attend a women's day soccer tournement that her organization SCORE (http://www.score.org.za/) put on. The simply constructed soccer stadium in the middle of the township was filled with dancing, music, singing and soccer. Even though the volunteers or the locals hadn't ever met me before, I was encouraged by many of them to dance and sing, even though I dance like a white girl....really. One boy sat practically on top of me in order to give me the rythm of the song/cheer that the group of teenagers behind us was singing. It was quite an experience.
After leaving there the Grundlingh's along with a couple of other friends I have met since being in South Africa all dressed up and began with Champagne cocktails. That was followed by an excellent dinner at the Spier vineyard restaurant called Moyo (http://www.spier.co.za/index.php/what_to_do_at_spier/moyo_at_spier/). I was brought onto stage and made of an example of as a man dressed up like a Xhosa tribe leader sang to me in Xhosa. Thanks Mama Grundlingh! My last night in South Africa couldn't have been better. I miss it a lot already.
I have now been in Spain for over a week and have not written one update about anything. Nor do I have access to put pictures up. Stay tuned for those.
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