Best Western Goedemoed Manor House & Vineyards Paarl

... of bread on table were purchased at a little shop down the street after we realized what we were getting into) I bought a radio! YEAH! the talk shows are hilarious, and informative of coarse. Haha. Music is limited to just a station or two that play current popular music. (Picture of my sweet new radio, and one of the front of my house) Nelson Wine Estate. Land owned by Allen Nelson since 1984. The estate has several fields growing red and white grapes. We ...

... died of "black cancer", as the aunt put it (Dr. Cooper said black cancer likely meant AIDS or leukemia). Anyway, the boy had a cough and the aunt was worried sick that he had TB and was going to end up dead like his mother. All he had was a touch of bronchitis. I couldn't help but feel bad for the aunt, though, for thinking the boy had caught TB from his mom a year ago and that it was just now surfacing. It just shows the ...

... Bl*ck Wednesd*y *nd Bl*ck Frid*y... the whole thing w*s odd. But despite the neg*tive p*rt of Th*nksgiving... it w*s *m*zing to w*tch * group of people come together on *n *rbitr*ry ide* to celebr*te something th*t w*s so speci*l to their guests. This my friends is South Afric*... It is Hospit*lity... It is home cooked me*ls... It is everyone trying to t*ke c*re of you, trying to show you * good time... It is the feeling th*t I w*lk *round with * sign on my forehe*d s*ying, "FEED ME ...

... we were interested in depended on calmer weather. All ferries to Robben Island were cancelled and so were all shark cage diving excursions. Sandboarding was also out of the question, obviously. So, we decided to be a couple of nerds and visit the museums. We went to this historic and recently restored Slave Lodge. It was built when Johannesberg was first settled. It was pretty interesting to learn that the slaves ...

... I was so terrified to breath in fully the smell that lingered. There are wild dogs and roosters running freely through the streets. While walking past one of the "homes" I almost stepped on a dead rat that lay on a few feet from the entrance of the shack. And then I heard a child crying. That crushed me. There isn't any heating in any of the shacks and it can be quite chilly during the winter (no snow, just very cold and rainy). Hearing that child cry brought a lot of things into ...

... to pay out the rope slowly, I was already feeling the strain and I knew that my arm wasn't in the correct position clenched behing my spine as it should be. What if I could not control the rope and I plummeted? But it was an amazing experience, to be in a self-controlled free-fall, looking out at the stunning view. When I looked down, I saw mountain goat waiting for me. I wish I had known he was down there when I got to the edge of the drop, I would have shouted down to him for ...

... with some guys from Gabon. What a strange situation to find oneself in. After that life continued as normal, well as normal as it gets at Little Angels and Bowy House, although Thursday night was punctuated with a lot of throwing up. Must have been four or five times, not as bad as Stephen in India, but bad enough. But hey, I just got on with it, I remembered that time in India when we were all feeling like throwing up and swapping tips for being sick, so I followed Kelly's advice ...

... there were there from Brazil to take pictures for Brazilian TV. These brazilians were crazy, they wanted pictures of EVERYTHING, every stupid sign, every tree, everything. It was so funny that i started taking pictures of them taking pictures. Every 15 steps of so Stephen, take a picture, Luciano picture. Whenever i would ask J to take my picture he would get this big smile on his face like it was an honor and a surprise ...

It's been a long time since I've written, so for the sake of speed I'm only going to report on the SECOND FUND-RAISING EVENT for the MHMF. I'll try to find time to write a diary before we leave South Africa next week.

People who know me well will understand how out-of-character it was for me to undertake this challenge, and believe me, if it hadn't been for the Fund there is no way that I would have done this.

On Friday 3rd November I did the world's highest gorge swing at ...

... 1. Matt getting some great guy time with Todd and Greg, including a late dinner/cigar smoking night to celebrate the baby of a dutch reformed pastor friend of Todd and Greg's. 2. Amy having great girl time with Jibs and Karen and getting to talk about the latest book all three of them happened to be reading at the same time: Captivating by John Eldredge, highly recommend it! 3. Playing with the kids of both families. 4. Wine tasting in the ...