A Forgotten Draft - Different Things in Africa

I thought I had posted this blog a long time ago, but I got looking at my blog and didn't see some pictures that I was sure I had posted.  Some of them I put on Facebook a few weeks ago----but I thought I had them here already.  Now I know what happened.  I really didn't finish the blog and it was just a draft.  So here it is---it really should have been before the sailing post because it happened a long time before we went sailing.  When it happened, I was dreaming of going sailing but didn't really think we ever would.  I thought it would be way too expensive. 

People ask me sometimes, "So, what's different in Africa?"  To tell the truth there are only a few different things that I mentioned in my other blog.(This one is supposed to be named Different Things)   But this blog is about things that are different for me, but something that you may have experienced in your life.  So this may be overwhelmingly boring, but I want to share these pictures of things that are so interesting to me, but pretty ordinary. 

 South Africa is trying so hard to be like Europe and like America, that many things are the same.  The things you can buy in the stores are almost the same.  But the foods usuallly have an African taste---which is kind of a sweet and sour taste to everything.  They really love hot chilies here and put them in everything.  They make a sweet chili sauce that is really tasty---many of the missionaries have asked me if I think they could take some home to show their moms so they can make something like it.  I think I have tasted something kind of like it at some great Chinese restaurants, but still there is that little African taste that I can't describe!They don't have catsup here---I mean they HAVE catsup, but it is really just tomato sauce.  They even call it tomato sauce, but put it in a catsup bottle and use it on their fries and hamburgers.   

Here is something that is very different for me here in Cape Town, but lots of you have seen this lots of times I expect.  The wharf!   I have always dreamed of living near the ocean and I have to admit visiting the wharf is one of my favorite things to do. We went down on a sunny fall day and watched the boats coming in and out of the harbor and I couldn't help but think about my life in Idaho - landlocked with hardly a boat in sight----the ones we did see were mostly on the freeway going somewhere other than Idaho! The wharf was really bustling on this Saturday (our P-day) and the large Cruise liner in the background started "hooting" its horn to call shoppers back to the boat. This picture was taken from the food court of a huge 500 store mall named Victoria and Alfred's. (after a long ago king and queen of England---or was it a queen and her son?)

   We stopped at a little sidwalk cafe and had some chips (french fries) and a soda (very healthy for old folks eh?) We were sitting under those little red umbrellas showing in this picture. 

This pirate looking ship is probably some kind of a tourist trap, but it might be fun to go on a ride in it!

While we were sitting there lots of interesting boats came by - some going out, some coming in.  They have a bridge that goes over this little waterway to connect the different parts of the wharf and they keep opening it to allow small boats in and out of the harbor.   Some of these were short ocean cruises that people were going out on. 

This picture shows the other side of the "canal" these boats are going into---there were people over there waiting to see the next big event.  We thought probably the oceanliner was getting ready to leave, but we didn't think it would be this soon.  I expected to see some people like Lucille Ball and Ethyl come running down the sidewalk yelling for them to wait.  It was just so sudden.

The big oceanliner that had been blowing its "horn" for about half an hour started moving out and all the little tugs began to gather around to help out.  It was fascinating to us, being the landlubbers that we are, to see this huge thing drift softly and delicately out of it's place among the other boats and move out to sea.  We moved across the "canal" to the other side to get a better view.  Those of you who have been on a cruise have probably seen this many times, but for us this was a new experience and very pleasant.  There she goes!

One Friday night  a few weeks later we went to a restaurant in Tableview by the beach with our group of friends.  There was live African entertainment and a woman came to our table and offered to paint a design on our faces to add to the "mood" of the place.  We were more than happy to have that done and we posed with her for this picture in a little corner of the restaurant where she was selling little homemade items.  You can see some of the items in the background. 

From left to right we have Sister Susan Harms-Public Affars, Sister Laura Mahler, Family History Preservation; Sister Kaye Plehn, in the office with me; Marita the design girl; me; and Sister Deanna Foster, Family History Preservation. (Too bad I didn't get a pic of the men!)

You can't see my design very well, but it was really cute!  Right after this I decided to go to the restroom and  Elder Herbert was heading there too.  It was then that we realized there was something strange about the bathroom that no one else had said anything about.  It was the ladies' AND the men's room.  The stalls were completely shut little rooms, and the sink area was for both men and women.  Very strange feeling!  So Vic took this picture of me in the bathroom.  I really liked the sinks and mirrors and mostly wanted a picture of them, but it turns out you can see my little design a little better. (This was Friday night and the next day was P-day, but yes, I had to wash it off the next morning.  I think it would have stayed for days! ) Now that bathroom was something you don't see in Idaho. 

I took this picture of the mountain one morning because I loved the full moon over the mountain---in the daylight! (Can you see the tiny moon?)  I know, I know, you see that all the time in Idaho so that is nothing new.  And I probably wouldn't have added it here, but I noticed the trees.  They look like they are bowing to the mountain.  This lovely look for the trees is from the Cape Town Clean-up Man---the brisk wind that blows almost every day in Cape Town.  (They call it that because they say he blows all the trash away so the streets are clean) (I guess they never look at the fences!  They are covered with trash!)  You can see the wind has had quite an effect on these trees.  The tops of the trees are touching the ground!  We see it all the time.  Probably because they just planted them and let them go----back a few years ago.  Now they carefully build little boxes around every new tree to keep it growing a little straighter.  Idahoans figured that out a quite a while ago!

You know I am crazy about this mountain here in Cape Town, so I have to throw in a couple of unusual pictures here to emphasize its uniqueness!  It never ceases to amaze me all the different faces of this mountain.  On this day it looked like a striped mountain.  I know the clouds are causing that, but I don't think I have ever seen a mountain look quite like that before.  It is kind of a zebra mountain! 

And the next one is equally satisfying, though probably not as unusual.  It is just so beautiful.  Its another reason to get up in the morning----so you can see what the mountain is going to look like!

Okay,  enough about the mountain, let's see what else we can come up with.  This next one reminds me of my youth, but the animals are different.  I really haven't had many good pictures of the animals down here, so maybe I will try to show a few of them.  These baboons really reminded me of the bears in Yellowstone when I was a little girl.  There were lots of them and they sat on the road like this and begged for scraps of food.  Can you see the little ones on the side of the hill above the cars?  If you look carefully you can see them all the way down the road.

This baboon was all alone - probably a male judging by his size and the fact that he was alone.  He just walked up to this really nice house like he owned it.  He was not a bit afraid of us and came right up to the car and crossed the street to look out over the ocean on the other side.  I'm sure the people who own these homes aren't that thrilled to have these baboons roaming so freely around their beachfront property!

The ostrich was a little further down the road, and not so close to the houses, but I expect they tend to get into things and bother people quite a bit too.  I just couldn't believe how big they are and how quickly they move.  It is amazing. this guy is at least 5 feet tall - maybe closer to 6 feet and really not that friendly!

Now I have finally posted this blog - I guess I was looking for a good way to end it.  I haven't found it!  So I'll just say hope you enjoy this little taste of lots of sights to see around Cape Town.  Somehow my friend Renae knew I would be posting again very soon.  I think she even had a comment about the one you will do tomorrow.  I'm planning one about our new house - just need a couple more pictures and it will be done too!  How's that for an ending?

At the top

Ah. . . . Table Mountain!

Here is our starting point for this blog. This is a great view of the "Mountain" at dusk. This looks like it was taken on an island looking back at land, but actually this is the other side of the bay. Table Mountain faces west almost directly, but there is this little neck of land that juts out opposite it that makes it possible to take this picture.

I can't really explain the fascination that people who live here have with this mountain, but it does kind of impose itself into your life. It is that constant landmark that you look to in order to know where you are. You check the weather by it because it is just so awesome to see what it will look like each day. I don't think I know a person who hasn't basically fallen in love with the mountain if they have stayed here very long. All visitors are captivated. Even Elder Herbert (who has not shared my love of mountains throughout our lives together) is constantly taking pictures of the mountain and commenting about how it looks.

Well, today is the day that we get to go to the top of Table Mountain. I feel like Moses going up to get the stone tablets. I am so excited about what I will see there. Tonight there is a "Sunset Special" which takes place the last two weeks of February - kind of in the middle of the summer. (I know---it has taken forever to find the time to get this on my blog-sorry! But I'm writing it just like I felt that day because it will be more fun that way. For me anyway---and hopefully for you! ) The tickets are half price today - a steal and Grampa isn't about to miss this great deal. The tickets are usually 150 rand (a little more than $20) per person, but tonight they are 79 rand---whoo hoo ten bucks to see a very thrilling sight. Our dear friends, the Harms, wanted to go see the sunset on Table Mountain, so they invited us to go along. We packed a little dinner, so we could eat and watch the sunset. We're having cheese sandwiches (courtesy of Sister Harms - grated cheese, green chilies, mayo, etc--they were very yummy) and grapes and chips and carrot sticks and homemade cookies. I brought the cookies, because I had a Relief Society meeting that day and we did scrapbooking.

This picture was taken as we were waiting in line to get on the tram that carries you to the top. You can see downtown Cape Town and the wharf and, of course, the bay with the white boats which look very tiny, but are really very large. This is only a very small part of Cape Town. It is about 6 pm. on the last Saturday in February, 2010.

Here we are while we are waiting in line - very anxious to get going. We have only walked up a few stairs from the parking area. So we are just getting started. There are homes and buildings like this all the way around the mountain except to the south. Doesn't it look like a beautiful warm day to go to the top of a mountain?

Here is the gondola we will ride on - looks kinda small, huh. There are probably about 30 people in there. The neat thing is that it turns continuously while you are ascending, so you get to see all the different views around. We were lucky enough to be right on the outside so we had a great view.

No! Amazingly we did not take any pictures on the way up. I think we were too excited or worried that we would drop the camera. The trip up the mountain was awesome and we finally made it to the top. There were no close calls or anything, just a nice, safe, quick ride to the top.
Of course there is lots of room to wander around up there and we couldn't move fast enough because we knew the sun would set soon! So we walked around for a while. We saw this cute little museum house that is built on the top of the mountain. The little "steeple" on the end is the chimney and they usually have one on each end of the house. There are lots of little houses with this achitechural design all around Cape Town, but they are usually whitewashed stucco. People tell us it is Dutch influence from the late 1600s.

This picture below shows Sister Harms waving us over because she has found a great place to eat our dinner. It has a little bench and everything. My shadow waving back looks like Indian paintings on the rocks.
The sun is still a little while from setting, so we are looking around but we have walked up to the place where Sister Harms is. We have to check to see how long we have until the sun will set. Ah, it looks like we still have a few minutes, but people are starting to gather to enjoy it.

If we look to our left, we can see the mountain range behind Table Mountain expanding to the south. Looks a little like the Grand Canyon, but really reminds me of the sunset over the Rocky Mountains we saw on the west side of Denver - actually at Boulder. And, yes, that is the ocean you see way back there but with a cloud bank extending all around it. Somewhere around the bend on those mountains is a place where there are 12 special shapes all in a row kind of like you see these three formations right here. They are named the 12 Apostles of course, because this is a very Christian nation. Or at least it was until lots of Muslims, Indians, Thai, Chinese, etc. came here.

Here we are eating our dinner---I am busy scarfing down grapes and Sister Harms is putting some tomatoes or oranges or something on her plate. Elder Herbert took the pictures at this point so you don't get to see him with his mouth full.


This is the beginning of the sunset. Not exactly impressive after the stunning shots we had at Chapman's peak. One thing is very interesting though and I hope you can see it. There are clouds out there on the ocean. As far as you can see there are clouds out there about half as high as the mountain. I don't know how high they were above the water, but it looks like it is raining out there under them or at least there is a very thick mist! There is a wall out there where they begin (or would you say end?), and then you can see the ocean where it comes in to the land. We thought the storm would slowly move in on us, but it never did. So again the sun is going down behind a bank of clouds and not really into the ocean!!

And shoosh! it is gone! (It wasn't really that fast - we gazed at it for quite a while.) But it isn't really dark yet! This is that beautiful time we call dusk that we seldom appreciate at home, because we are rushing to get somewhere by 6 or 7.

If we turn a little to our right, we can see some more of Cape Town as the lights start to come on. Now you can see the other side of the bay where we took that beautiful picture of Table Mountain at dusk on another outing - we did not take that first picture today. You can't see it very well, but the clouds on this side are floating high above the buildings. It shows a little better in one of the next pictures.

And now you can see the sleeping lion - you could just see his rump in the last picture. The pointy part is the lion's head. The part that sticks up is his mane or his ears and you can make out his sillouette---it is amazing, in this light I can see it - I have never really seen the correct angle before I guess. He is resting there in front of Table Mountain. With a tiny sailboat right by his mane.

We could see the clouds beginning to sneak through that little crevice in the mountain and it reminded us all of the Ten Commandments when the mist went through Egypt! It was very enjoyable to watch it move. You can also see the bank of clouds behind the mountain and the lights of the city under it. That little point of mountain out there is the back of the mountain we take pictures of all the time at the office.

This picture gives a little better view of the clouds and the city. Our Mission Office where we work every day is over by where the clouds start and our home is back under the clouds about 3 or 4 miles.(But five or six kilometers!) It feels almost like you are in an airplane looking down at everything.

Now it is getting just a little too dark and the warning bell starts to ring that the last trips down the mountain in the gondola are starting. So unless we want to spend the night out here on the mountain, we have to go get in line. It looks pretty peaceful, as you can only see the outlines of people scrambling off the rocks, but I can still see that bank of clouds out there---it is just amazing.

Another day - another adventure for the lucky Herbert missionaries who are trying their best to do some good in Cape Town! Hope you are trying your best too! We love you all! Bye!