A Beautiful Detour

Last week I had the privilege of attending the HOPE Africa staff retreat.  The best part of the week was reconnecting with the staff members from the HOPE offices in Cape Town.  I hadn't seen most of them since Thanksgiving, and even then it was only for a few hours and I was terribly stressed about cooking the turkeys properly, so getting a whole four days with them was awesome!  We all drove up to Paternoster, which is about two hours north of Cape Town on the west coast, for our retreat.

The first thing you need to know about Paternoster is that it is gorgeous.  I mean yeah, everywhere in South Africa is gorgeous, and you probably get sick of me saying that, but it's true!  The area surrounding the town is quite dry and sort of desolate.  Actually, it looks a lot like New Mexico.  

The second thing you need to know about Paternoster is that it is a fishing community.  So is Hawston, but Paternoster has a very different feel.  I imagine life there is the same now as it has been for a hundred years.  In the morning, people wake up early and go catch crayfish in their wooden boats.  Crayfish are delicious, by the way.  They are not the same as the crayfish in American rivers.  These are as large as and look very similar to a lobster, but they don't have the big pincers.  (Side note:  I have been crayfish diving in Hermanus.  It is fun.  And no, I didn't actually catch any crayfish, but I did hold one that my friend caught.  They are fast little buggers!)

Our retreat programming was led by Diana, an Anglican priest from Uganda.  Diana has been involved in with HOPE Africa for many years, and it was nice to have her back here with the HOPE family.  

The programming that Diana prepared for us was powerful stuff.  The session that stands out in my mind was the one where we discussed detours.  We talked about detours in our work life and our personal lives.  I think this theme resonated with me so much because my life has been full of detours recently.  My work at the care centre certainly provides lots of them!  In a typical day, most of my time is spent dealing with issues that crop up.  Medical issues that the patients have, or staffing issues, or not having the right medications, or our equipment breaking, or any number of frustrations.  That's the way I tend to think of detours, as frustrations.  A detour is IN MY WAY, and I don't like things in my way.  It makes me very upset.  

But then, sometimes a detour can take you in a new direction.  It can change the way you get from point A to point B.  It can be enjoyable.  It might even be beautiful.  This staff retreat was a bit of a detour from my usual work in Hawston, but it was lovely.  I can't imagine I will soon forget standing by the Atlantic ocean at 6.30 in the morning singing hymns with my coworkers (we sang in at least seven languages.  I actually lost count of how many different languages  used) and seeing dolphins swimming right off shore.  What an incredible experience!  

You could argue that my entire year here in South Africa is a detour.  My life in Richmond was pretty settled.  I am married.  I have a house and a dog and a cat.  I had a steady job as a labor and delivery nurse.  I had my friends and my family and my hobbies and my plans for the future.  Yet here I am on another continent, surrounded by unfamiliar people, hearing another language, living in a former safe house, working in an unfamiliar area of nursing.  And you know what?  It works!  I am soaking up this experience of working somewhere that I am really needed, trying new things, enjoying the alien (but stunning) landscape, and most of all getting to know the awesome people here.  Yes, this is a detour, but it is certainly a beautiful one, and I am not nearly ready for it to end.  

Speaking of that, I have now been in South Africa for more than five months.  I would say 'where does the time go?' except that I remember reading a quote somewhere that said 'Time doesn't GO anywhere.  Time just IS'.  I like that.  You can't slow time down or speed it up, no matter how much you want to.  You just have to be in the moment and enjoy every second.  And I am going to soak up every last frustrating, challenging, surprising, invigorating second of this beautiful detour.

I could live in South Africa for a thousand years and never get sick of looking at it.

Looks like New Mexico, except there was an ocean right behind me when I took this photo.

During our last session, we broke into pairs and did something creative to summarize the discussions we had had over the past few days.  Here are Thaboso and Thandeka singing their HOPE Africa song (which was in 3 languages).

Iggy and Jenny read their prayer for HOPE Africa and the people we serve.

Delene and Patrina recite the Psalm 151, the HOPE Africa psalm.  What?  Your Bible doesn't have a Psalm 151?  That's weird.

Melanie and Mari display their depiction of personal and organizational wellness.

Rev. Diana celebrates the closing Eucharist.

Mari is teaching us a song in Finnish.  It's about elephants.

HOPE Africa explores the less affluent areas of Paternoster.

The team:  Thandeka, Jenny, Melanie, Thabiso, Delene, Kholiwe, Mari, Patrina, me, and Ignatius in the front (possibly proposing to Jenny?  Sorry Iggy, she's already married.)

And, just because I'm super excited that I've found a way to post pictures again, here is your customary sunset photo.  This one is from Hermanus, where I was having a lovely dinner with the charming Hananja upon my return from the retreat.