South African Animal Encounter

Today we went to an interactive cheetah experience outside of Cape Town on the way to Paarl. It is a preservation reserve that trains and supplies dogs to help farmers protect their property from animal attacks and to teach farmers about cheetahs in order to stop them from trapping, poisoning, or killing the cats. As a result this organization protects cheetahs and educates people about these amazing animals.

We got a package deal to meet and interact with adult cheetahs, cheetah cubs, and meerkats. It was R435, which was about $35. It was a chance of a lifetime so I gladly handed over the Rands (South African currency).

There were a couple of sets of 18 month old cheetah cubs. Mandiba and Majik (both males) in one enclosure. And Romeo and Nikita (male and female) were in another. My group visited Romeo and Nikita. They were lying down resting and we carefully approached them from behind with our escort. We did this after a short training discussion and after clipping on a tag saying we understood the dangers of entering the enclosure with these animals. Sobbering. And delightful. Feeling the power and grace under your hand as you patted these magnificent animals was astonishing. Feeling the movement of his body when Romeo purred was exciting. I've never experienced anything like that. I am having trouble even finding words to fully express how it felt.

Then we went to visit Ebony - an adult cheetah. And I was struck by how well the big cat and her handler interacted. They have worked together for a long time. He knows her personality, her moods, and her movements. She knows his voice, his touch, and his smell.  But they also work with other cts so that no one cat imprints too much with one particular handler.

When she got unsettled due to a sick cheetah being cared for nearby, the handler immediately removed us from the enclosure. I felt safe but wary when we were allowed to re-enter her space. I still can't believe this kind of experience is even possible.

Last up but not least by any stretch of the imagination was meeting Sebastian, a feisty and fresh young meerkat. Sebastian was kept illegally by a family when he was little and has developed a fascination/fetish with crotches, cleavages, and shoes. Oh my.

But cuddling is his main thing. He made the sweetest noise when happy and let you know if he wanted to be tickled under the chin by raising his head and touching your chin with his nose. He burrowed down into the crook of my arm and was quite content to stay there most of the time. It was so much fun. I felt pure joy. Just unadulterated joy.

I am not really a pet person. I have significant allergies. So normally I would not get close to cats or animals with any type of hair. But today I just wanted to soak in the experience.

On this trip, I have tried food that I would not normally eat, drank beverages I would not normally order, and let the moments just develop as best I can thus far. I'm loving the adventure.

Being away is not the only time I try things that push me out of my comfort zone. I try them often. But being here in South Africa is opening me up to new and interesting things in a very different way. I want to be this open all the time.

In South Africa they say “I'll do it just now.” It doesn't necessarily mean right this minute. It means sometime in the future.

It reminds me that in Texas we say, “I'm fixin’ to.” I'm about to do it.

In taking on new things and bringing our best selves forward in new situations - at home or away - we should do it “just now.” And now.

How about you?

Robben Island - South Africa Trip

The boat ride to Robben Island took 40 minutes. We saw a couple of whale fins and lots of birds. The view of Table Mountain on the boat over was obscured by dense fog. Seabirds dipped and frolicked on the waves. Kids chatted excitedly with their parents and siblings along the way.

We had talked about what we would see, read about the apartheid era, and learned about the prison itself in preparation for our trip. But nothing prepares you for your arrival on the island, walking through the front gates, and being led through the story of political imprisonment by a former prisoner of Robben Island. Our guide was named Sparks. But during his seven years of confinement, he was only called by his prisoner number, 5683.

Nelson Mandela was prisoner 46664. He was the 466th prisoner to be imprisoned in 1964. For 27 years his name was not spoken by the prison authorities. His cell was 2x3 meters. He had no socks, shoes, or coat. He had a T-shirt and shorts. Summer, winter, rain, wind - did not matter - black prisoners were given nothing more.

I sat under the grape arbor where Mandela wrote and hid his manuscript for The Long Walk to Freedom. It was such a surreal moment. I am still processing it.

We went through the prison and heard the stories of apartheid era political prisoners from an insider’s perspective. Beatings, solitary confinement, and 30-day porridge rations were the punishments of choice. Hearing Sparks tell this story was even more than I can describe.

Walking by and photographing Nelson Mandela’s cell was one of the most profoundly moving experiences of my life. I cannot imagine surviving 27 years in that place, with those restrictions, and with that kind of resiliency.

We stopped at the limestone quarry where Mandela and others worked. We saw the stack of stones placed in remembrance of the 38 men who lost their lives in that quarry and saw the cave where he wrote and talked about his manuscript during his lunch breaks.

Coming home was one of the roughest boat rides I have ever been on. The boat tossed and turned, crested and dipped. But being on the rough water was still a sign that I was able to leave the island when I chose. I have never lived in the kind of fear, terror, isolation, and oppression that Mandela and many others lived with in South Africa and that many continue to live with today in the US and elsewhere. This is due to my privilege. as a well educated, white, American woman. Today was a stark reminder of that privilege and the work we still have to do.

It is indeed a Long Walk to Freedom.

Travel days ...

Well, it’s Tuesday morning and we're about to land in South Africa. I've been on flights for 19 hours since Sunday evening.  I've showered in the Frankfurt airport. I've been drinking enough water to float a small ship. And I've heard more languages spoken around me than is typical in my realm of experience.

I've watched six movies, read two books, and surfed the net. And I've played with babies and met people traveling for business and pleasure.

I've done all of this knowing one thing … I am on a grand adventure. In one hour (as of this writing) I will land in Cape Town, South Africa for a two-week immersion into the systems of racism and their impact on the lives of the people who live in the midst of significant poverty and oppression, which too often live hand-in-hand. We are doing a humanitarian, social justice trip with some basic tourism thrown in. And we hope to bring back learnings from the reconciliation process in our own work in the US.

Travel is something I have done before. But mainly it has been domestic travel. International travel is not something I have done much. My wife and I went to Russia 16 years ago to adopt our son, we've gone into Canada and Mexico for day trips, and I went to Haiti in 1980 with the General Board of Global Ministries’ UMCOR Division. But this is different.

This time I am traveling for both personal and professional reasons. This time I am flying way out of my comfort zone and that is intentional.

What are you planning in 2016 to move out of your comfort zone, to further the work of the kindom, and to bring about positive change in your life and in the world?

Small steps or big steps - taking that first step is what’s important.

Me? I'm going to leap. Join me on the journey.

South Africa Trip - Pre-Trip Notes

I am heading to South Africa on Sunday, January 3, 2016. I will be traveling to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Robbin Island, Pretoria/Tshwane, Soweto, Stellenbosch/Paarl, Dinokeng Reserve, and Pilaneberg game park. I am traveling with a group of 14 people on a humanitarian/social justice tour.

“Travel is organized through Mission Vision Tours with the intent to engage conversations of race and racism, systemic oppression of groups of peoples, and to explore solutions to such injustices.” (From MV Tours Humanitarian Travel Letter)

We are meeting with authors, pastors, Truth and Reconciliation Commission members, spending a day with kids from an orphanage, swimming in the Indian Ocean, spending time at a game reserve, hiking the mountains near Franschhoek, and swimming in the mountain pools.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am delighted to be going.

While I have taken some significant time off from my blog, this occasion gives me the chance to start again – for at least the two weeks that I am away – and take you on this journey with me. I will post pictures, blog about my thoughts and experiences, and keep my family up to date about how things are going.

One of the things that I am most excited about is hearing the stories of those living in South Africa who have experienced the pain, racism, and systemic oppression related to Apartheid and post-Apartheid South Africa. I think there is much to learn.  And I look forward to opening up my heart and mind to hear what they have to say. I want to sit there and soak in all that I can.

This trip will help lay the groundwork for one of my next book projects about social justice preaching. And I think there are some interesting parallels between the US and South Africa in the ways people of color have been treated.

I invite you to follow along if you wish and to experience this amazing culture through my eyes. I have much to learn and am extremely grateful for the opportunity.