7-30 Auston's B-day

Auston is now 14!!

Learning a new song

The sopranos get a lesson

Hanging our BCS shirts on the line

Singers playing

Beautiful church in Bredasdorp

Kathleen writes of her experience on Robben Island and with her host family:

Nelson Mandela's Cell

Yesterday we went to Robben Island, the prison which held the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, for over eighteen years (in total he was in prison for 27 years.)   After a bus tour of the island and a brief history, we toured the inside of the prison with a guide who was a political prisoner for seven years. He shared his personal experiences and stories of the others there. The prisoners were treated horribly and forced to work in the limestone quarry for ten hours a day in the summer and eight hours a day in the winter, where the harsh conditions caused many chronic illnesses to the prisoners, Mandela included.  Many of the ideas of the post-apartheid era were formed on that island and it was an amazing feeling to be in the same spot as those great thinkers who formed them not so long ago.

Last night was our first night with our host families.  They were extremely nice.   Alana and I each had our own rooms and the beds were warm and comfortable.  The family had two kids but one was away in college.  They asked us a lot of political questions which Alana was prepared to answer better than me.  The house was modern, not too big and very clean and pretty.  Breakfast was some kind of chocolate cereal that I’ve never had before but was good.  Tonight they said they would take us on a tour of Cape Town or possibly to a play.      Kathleen Tevnan

Ex-prisoner - Guide

By the way, a delicatessen here is called the "slaughtery"....hmmm, sounds delicious.

(If my coworkers are reading I have a message:  I have no email access at all so --- take the next two weeks off !  Except Arthur.)