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South Africa has not disappointed in terms of beautiful scenery, fascinating history, cultural diversity, and the prevalence of the church. As Erin mentioned in the last post we briefly spent two days in Johannesburg then traveled to Lesotho for a week, before returning to South Africa. Upon our return, we rented a car and headed into the the Drackensberg Mountains for a brief reprieve. The freedom that came with having our own wheels, as compared with depending on public transport or other people, was welcome. After six weeks on the road and constantly interacting with people we took a short mid trip break to relax and to recharge. We enjoyed driving through the beautiful countryside passing through a couple national parks and several quaint mountain towns. The much needed rainy season started which was great for the crops, but a little unfortunate for us as we spent a day hiking in the rain and cold. The rain only lasted a couple of days and we enjoyed some more sunny hikes at Sani Pass where we also drank a beer at the “Highest Pub in Africa.” The Kwazulu Natal region was home to several battles during the English and Boer War and we visited a couple of the battle fields in order to learn more about the history and culture. After our time in the Drackensberg we drove three hours to Durban and spent the afternoon on the beach boardwalk. The next day we returned the car and flew to Cape Town.
The amount of development and infrastructure in South Africa is even greater than I imagined. The World Cup contributed greatly to this, with the addition of new airports, soccer stadiums, shopping centers, and hotels. As walked in fancy shopping malls and drove on a six lane freeway I often felt like I was in the U.S. After being in Zambia for a year we have especially enjoyed driving on the South African roads. But with more development comes an even a bigger gap between the rich and the poor. Cape Town is probably the biggest example of this with extravagant homes on the beach and thousands and thousands of people living in shanty towns on Cape Flats. It is difficult to know what to make of the extreme poverty amongst such abundant wealth and we are continuing to wrestle with this complicated issue.
We have been here since Oct. 20th and it has been a great few days. We have been staying with our new friends Casey and Sarah Prince who have been very gracious and generous hosts. They have gone out of their way to make sure we have made the most of Cape Town and their beautiful two year old daughter Kieren kept us entertained. They live in Ocean View which is a colored township just south of Cape Town. Sarah is an associate pastor at a Methodist church in Ocean View and Casey is leading a youth soccer ministry called Ubuntu. We enjoyed spending time with them and experiencing their life and ministry in Ocean View. We were also able to see many of the great sites in Cape Town including: Table Mountain, wine country, the waterfront, Cape Point, and the penguins in Simons Town.
This morning we flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg and are currently in the Jo’burg airport waiting to catch our flight to Madagascar. We are excited for our adventure to Madagascar, as it is much different from the Southern Africa countries we have visited thus far. More to come on that later.
Author: The Raskas
Created: March 5, 2010
A tale of the Raskas' journeys
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