Hey! Get Out of the Road, You Baboon!!

I was sure this week would never end.  It was a wonderful week, but there was a lot to take in...and then write a sermon.

After my trip to Stellenbosch on Tuesday, I crashed hard.  The next morning, I taught a class for some of the old ladies on the parable of the wicked tenants (my favorite).  I got a little geeky with some Greek and they ate it up.  When they returned my evaluation forms, they said they wanted to do parables more.  All the credit goes to Stan and Zach, who taught me awesome things about parables.

Snow capped mountains, vineyards.  This is my life.

Immediately from there, I left with the other Americans to go to Sutherland.  (Emily Peterson, pay attention to this part)  Sutherland is famous for two things.  It is the coldest place in South Africa, and it has the world's largest telescope.  That's right, we went to the observatory.  It's about four hours away from Durbanville, so we drove for a good long time to get there...through the most unbelievable mountains I've ever seen, gorgeous vineyards, and snow.  We actually got stuck in some snow on the last leg of our journey, but being the industrious Americans that we are, we hammered away at it and finally made our way to the other side.  And then there was this...

SALT - the largest telescope in the world

The American telescopes

Since the telescopes are all owned by different countries and they are booked by legit astronomers, the public doesn't get to go in at night.  There is, however, a guy in Sutherland who does astronomy as a hobby and will let you look through his telescopes.  So we went to see him, and as soon as I got out of the car I looked up and saw, for the first time in my life, the Milky Way.  It was unbelievable.  (Emily, things we must go and do.)  Seriously, I was absolutely awestruck.  Unfortunately, you can't really take pictures of that unless you have an extended exposure camera, which I don't.  So, sorry y'all.  Then Yurg, the astronomer, (I'm sure I spelled that wrong and the pastor's daughter is going to laugh at me) got out his telescopes.  When they said amateur astronomer, I expected the kind of telescope Doogie Howser had in his room.  No, these bad boys were for serious.  Someone said he had at least half a million rand worth of equipment, which is only $50,000 and I find that hard to believe.  I estimate it was about half a million dollars worth.  In his equipment we could see Saturn's rings, which was truly epic.  But the Milky Way was still better.

Remember how I said Sutherland is the coldest place in South Africa?  When we woke up the next morning, it was NEGATIVE SEVEN DEGREES.  Now, if I'm being honest, that's only about 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit, BUT STILL.  I saw a news clipping on the bulletin board of our B&B that said Sutherland was only one degree warmer than ANTARCTICA.  It was a few years ago, but I think you see where I'm going with this.  My point is, I DON'T DO COLD.  If you're put off by all the caps, I DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT'S EFFING COLD IN SOUTH AFRICA.  Except today...today is lovely.

On our drive back, we saw baboons in the road.  'Nuff said.

Baboon daddy and baby

Baboon...in the road.  Me...behind the camera.

Friday is my day off and so the pastor's daughter and I went out to do some fun things.  Earlier in the week, we had decided to do a wine and chocolate pairing at one of the local vineyards (there are apparently 11 in the immediate Durbanville area), so that's exactly what we did.  I drove us up to Durbanville Hills winery and we sat by the window, sipping wine and chowing down on chocolate.  I felt very fancy.

I forgot all the in between shots because I was really enjoying the wine and chocolate.  But you get it.

 Then, since we had some time to kill before youth, she suggested we take a ride down to Table View so I could put my feet in the ocean.  Hence, this...

It was terribly cold...

...but I persevered

That's right, I've now put my feet in the Atlantic ocean on both sides of it.  Soon we're going to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, so I can put my feet in the Indian Ocean.  Then I can truly call myself a world traveler.  I'm pretty stoked about that.  They think I'm crazy for wanting to put my feet in the ocean in the dead of winter, but I don't often make it out to Africa, so there's that.

In between all of this, I also wrote a sermon which I praught last night.  I think it turned out alright, but it wasn't able to go to readers so there's probably a lot that could be improved.  I will, however, post the text of it.  As I was preaching, I looked up and saw Moira, my host mother.  She always comes to the morning service, but has now come to the evening service two weeks in a row to hear me preach.  It's seriously like having family there.  She's such a wonderful, warm, gracious, hospitable, loving woman, and I feel so at home with her and her husband, Piet.  They have taken me in and treat me like one of the family.  It was a warm, gooey feeling seeing her face out there.

This week also promises to be full, and I hope to post more frequently so you won't have quite as much to read all in one sitting.  But I appreciate your faithfulness and your prayers.

Finally, I've had a request to post my address.  Remember how much Leisl likes telegrams in The Sound of Music?  Yeah, it's like that.  So, here it is:

Durbanville Presbyterian Church
P.O. Box 180
Durbanville, South Africa 7551