My new friends
In keeping with the same 'slice of Betsy’s life' theme as the last
entry, I thought I’d also share a bit about my new friends.
I am so lucky to have met these girls. We have had so much fun together, and having them around has certainly made hard times easier (like Thanksgiving without Warren). There are five of us on the same volunteer team at Bap, and we all get along so well. There’s Kristen from Ohio; Kaity from Alberta, Canada; Henriet from Holland; and Molly from Maryland. The other volunteer team has a few 30 year olds and a few 60 year olds, so it seems like I should be on that shift, but I’m really so glad to be on this one instead, despite the big gap in our ages.
We talk about doing a reunion volunteering trip somewhere. I don’t know if that will ever materialize, but it sure would be fun.
Thanksgiving
Since most of us are from North America, we decided not to let the fact that we’re on the wrong continent get in the way of having a Thanksgiving. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off, but…check out this feast:
Kaity, Molly and Kristen made everything from scratch (no mixes), and wow was it delicious. (I did help a little.) We had to substitute barbequed chicken for turkey because that’s the closest thing we could find, but everything else was traditional and scrumptious. And we don’t really have a table for dining, so we had to eat buffet style and sit around the TV room coffee table (pictures below), but it made for a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
Henriet is from Holland, so this was her first Thanksgiving. I’m sure she was duly impressed.
Before digging in, we all said what we were thankful for. And, without exception and actually not very surprising, we all expressed thanks for our newfound friendships!
A truly memorable American holiday.
Living like a local…
Having been in Cape Town for almost two months now, we have pretty much exhausted the main tourist activities. Now we spend our off time like Capetonians—going grocery shopping, doing errands, running into town for shopping or a visit to a nice restaurant. These are nice, relaxed days…the kind of ‘living abroad’ experience I had wanted to have here (as opposed to a more rushed, sightseeing mentality).
But these ‘relaxed’ days are also not terribly momentous, and thus…there’s not much of interest to write about or photograph.
I did take my camera one time though—on a day when we all accompanied Kristen on a nose-piercing mission, stopping first for a fattening but delicious pancake lunch. Here are two pictures from the day:
