Traveling Friends

This blog entry is the first episode of our Traveling Friends section. In this weekly section of the blog we will introduce you to someone who along the way has been worthy of calling a dear friend. Though there should be many of these, this section will showcase the cream of the crop.

Let me introduce you to our dear traveling friend, Alessandra from Italy. We spent three days and nights traveling with her on the Baz bus, and though her words were few (maybe because she was trying to ignore us, or maybe because she wasn't very comfortable with English), the joy that she brought to our days was great. Alessandra has a real kick for life. Thank you Alessandra, you will be missed.

This is a video from our hike on the Wild Coast. What a breath taking view. We got up early Friday morning and hiked about two hours down the coast toward Hole in the Wall. About halfway, we were greated by a young local boy who offered to guide two lost American's such as our selves. He was good company. His name was Aaron, quite fitting for the setting, seeing as we were surrounded by open pastures filled with grazing cattle, sheep and goats. The dog that decided to acompany us (who by the way thought he was our guide and was thus ticked off when Aaron suddenly took over the role), took it upon himself to systematically herd every four legged beast in the area, which needless to say didn't make us very popular amongst the local herdsmen and herdschildren, which was the more common of the too. At one point I though we were going to have to surrender to three young boys who wanted to cane us for the dog chasing their goats down over a very steap hill. We barely escaped with our lives as we fought of their attack dogs for the next 100 meters. No joke. Anyway, it was an amazing hike filled with great beauty and many questions. I am forever challenged by the way of living in rural Africa, the contrast between the beauty and poverty of life. A place where so many tourist flock to see such great beauty is also the very same place where many suffer from extreme and absolute poverty. Many questions that are not going to be answered here in this post but that come to mind when I watch this video. How can I reflect on God's ever present Spirit which inhabits this beautiful earth without at the same time questioning what my place is in the whole thing, where is God in the lives of those who suffer on the edge of this most beautiful coast line? But that's a question for another time.

Our South Africa leg of the quest is over and tomorrow we jump on a chicken bus and head for chiredzi Zimbabwe, where we will meet up with many friends, and face a whole new set of questions. We are still trying to work out why we have joined together for this crazy quest, why are we traveling through Africa; is it for our own enjoyment, our own pleasure; is it to benifit others; is it to find something in the faces and lives of those we meet that will reveal the very nature of God and this life? Maybe it is just a little bit of everything, and is yet to be revealed to us. We wait in eager anticipation to discover why we have taken up this quest and we hope that our imaginations will be streched, that our hope will be expanded, and that our lives will be changed. I hope that we might become dear friends, and truly learn how to serve others and enjoy God's great gift of life. I have truly come to love Africa, and this is only the beginning.

Dan

Coffee Bay

This is a pic of the beach at Coffee Bay. This entire area is surrounded by bluffs covered in green grasses. It is very beautiful how the green hills contrast with the blue ocean and the massive rocks that line the beach. It is quite the spectacle, which unfortunately, this picture doesn't fully capture. But it does give you an idea.

Jon

The Wild Coast

Jon and I hiking on the wild coast of South Africa with our little dog friend Frodo which nearly got us killed by some local children.

Rain at Jeffrey's Bay

Today Dan and I got caught in a little rainstorm here at Jeffrey's Bay.

The morning had started off sunny, so we saw no harm in taking a little stroll around town. Boy were we ever wrong.

We were about 4 kilometers away from our hostel when the rain came down. Instead of heading straight home or finding shelter like normal people were doing, Dan and I decided to first head to the grocery store and do a little shopping. We had hoped that we could get some food for the evening and then hop a taxi back to the place, but no taxi was to be found. We therefore walked through the freezing rain as the cold wind blew across the sea to meet our soaking wet bodies. All Dan and I could do was laugh about the situation.

It's amazing how a simple rainstorm can bring forth so much good conversation and happiness, especially when our initial objective was to try and stay out of it. I highly recommend to everyone to take up the opportunity to walk in the rain at every chance you get. It truly is an enjoyable experience.

The evening so far has been pretty relaxed. Dan made pasta and salad, and then we sat around the kitchen and jammed some songs on the guitar with some of the other travelers staying here at the Ubuntu Hostel. We all basically just sat around and enjoyed eachothers company as we discussed some of our previous travels together.

It really is an amazing experience to be able to travel around the world and meet so many different people; all with their own ideals and agendas. To me the traveler is a very special person, for they have stepped outside of their own world and have embarked on a journey through that of another's. I truly believe that if everyone traveled a little bit more and began to share their world with that of others, the world would become a better place.

Well that is it for this evening. Dan and I will get back to you more as our story unfolds.

First day in Jeffrey's Bay. Damn that magicseaweed. No, waves like we had hoped. But we found a very chill place to stay called ubuntu, you would like Wayne, just your style. Their trying to teach us conscious living.

Dan