Notes On Peace

We're getting down to the end now. At first glance, it seems like we've been running around too much to appreciate the place we're in, but when I stop for a moment I start to remember...

Here, from a letter I wrote to Jen, are some of the moments from this trip that I'll remember:

- The wonderful mornings -- I'll remember getting up early most mornings, sitting on my front step under the trees, eating a bowl of cereal in silence and quietly greeting the day.

- Watching the sunset from the hillside garden in front of the Union Building in downtown Pretoria.

- Watching the sun slowly come up while we sped across the plains on our way to the game park, everyone else around me sleeping. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises i've ever seen.

- Sitting in silence looking out across the valley that afternoon in Pilanesburg watching a herd of elephants (and a baby!) stroll down the hill across from us. Just below them a herd of grazing wildebeests. To the left three giraffes grazing with their heads sticking up through the trees.

- Standing in the middle of Church Square in downtown Pretoria, eating an ear of fresh corn, feeling the amazing feeling of being the only white person in sight, watching hundreds of people swirl around me in the bright morning sunshine.

- Riding home in the microbus from Soshanguve after an afternoon of taking pictures and visiting as the late afternoon sun slants through the windows.

- Standing by myself in the animal blind at Pilanesburg, feeling the cool breeze from off the water, listening to the hippos snorting in the mud, the young crocodile hiding motionless in the grass just below me, the kingfishers squawking.

- Listening to the night breeze outside my window almost every night as I drift off to sleep.

- Shaking Francis's hand (street kid from pretoria north) and watching him grin and saunter off like the Mr. Cool he wants to be.

- Driving down to the gas station to get ice cream bars in the middle of the night, leaving the window open so I can smell the night air from off of the tree-covered hill above us.

- Running until I can hardly stand up, playing soccer with the kids from the "House of Safety" (parents dead, in jail, abusive, etc)

Those are just a few of the moments. I'll add more (with pictures, I hope) as I have time.