Dave & Cherrie's Christmas in South Africa

This is our 2nd Christmas in South Africa. Last year we put up a small old artificial tree that had to be propped against the wall to remain standing. This year our Christmas tree(s) are our table decoration with a rhino and a little lamb accents. We bought the red tree back in October in Pretoria, then a couple of weeks ago we went to Irene Market and found the 2 green trees and the rhino. I had purchased the lamb to go with a nativity we sent home with our family in November, so just put it next to the red tree. When we added the 2 green trees, and it just looked like it needed the rhino - so there is our African Christmas tree decoration! We have really grown fond of it, so I'm not sure the rhino and lamb will ever make it to the nativity set, but may remain as part of this table decoration. Zulus here in South Africa do a lot of bead work and these were either made or copied from them. The cute angel was a gift from Elder & Sister Scott which I tied to the largest tree.

Table decoration in our apartment

We have 3 Nativity scenes in our apartment.One is of Masai warriors from Kenya. It has their traditional plaid dress. It was a bit difficult to discern who was Mary and Joseph, but I think I have it correct.

The three figure nativity was made in Zululand (KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa). It has a beaded body for Mary, then some beads on Baby Jesus while Joseph is dressed in burlap.

This last nativity doesn't look African, but we bought it in Cape Town and I like it for its bright colors. We have another African nativity I took to our office so it isn't included in these photos.

While it seems strange to have it warm instead of cool and longer summer days rather than dark winter ones, it is still Christmas time when we can celebrate our Savior's birth in Bethlehem over 2 thousand years ago. I'm grateful we can remember Him where ever we may be.

Cape Town Visit December 11-16th

Flower Arrangement and Christmas Decorations in Hotel

Lobby of Hotel

We flew to Cape Town with our missionary friends, Chris & Sue Johnson and Rex & Linda Scott, on December 11th. We drove to the Table Bay Hotel on the waterfront where we stayed for 2 nights. It is beautiful and has wonderful breakfasts and fortunately had good prices.

Table Bay Hotel from the Atlantic Ocean with Table Mountain in background

Below are some of the things near the Waterfront.

Marimba Band - there are a lot of different groups near the waterfront

We went to a sunset dinner in Camps Bay. When we walked out of the restaurant it was near sunset and beautiful - though very windy (I could hardly stand up!)

Camps Bay sunset photos

On the 12th we took the Red Bus blue line tour out to Kirsten Bosch Gardens and Imiza Yethu, a township. Coming back we saw much of what we had seen on our last trip to Cape Town. We saw an old windmill that was the first used in the Cape. The bird is a Sunbird we saw at Kirstenbosch Gardens. When I try to caption it moves the photos to the top! Is that a bus or a truck? We saw it at the gardens - sort of a unique type of bus. The last 4 photos are of the township where we had a walking tour.

In the evening we went on a Sunset Cruise aboard a large catamaran type boat. The photo is of the Scotts and Johnsons. It was windy, but not as bad as the day before. 

On December 13th, a rainy day, we drove to Franschoek (French Corner in Afrikaans) where the French Huguenots (Protestants) were settled by the Dutch in the late 1600s. We stopped at Boschendal - a farm-winery on the way (it has the Afrikaans architecture. There is also a photo of a Huguenot Museum we went into and a Afrikaans style church (not old, but looks like it is) in Franschoek. We stayed in a nice B&B in Stellenbosch the remainder of our time in the Cape.

On the 14th we drove to Hermanus, an old sailing village, with a stop at the Penguin colony at Betty's Baii (Bay!), It was beautiful driving along the coast. I have photos of the penguins and the brown animal is a rock hyrax or dassie as it is called here. there are also some shots of the views from Hermanus. The photo of the beached whale is in front of the whaling museum and is a plaster model.

On our return to Stellenbosch we saw a shanty town (which you see all over South Africa. the government is trying to provide better housing, but are years behind in doing so. The will provide housing for even people from other African countries so a lot of the people in these shanty towns are from Zimbabwe, the Congo or other countries which have difficulties). There are a lot of beautiful vineyards in this area. Surprisingly, and I don't have a photo, the area is very barren with small shrubs if there is no irrigation.

Also on the return to Stellenbosch, we stopped a a cute farm stall. There were u-pick strawberries also. Please note the "pickers!" There really were some u-pick fields also.

On Friday, the 15th we drove to Cape Point with a stop at Boulders Beach to visit the Penguin colony there (this photo is of them in their burrows . The photo of the baboon was taken when it almost came up to Dave. They are dangerous so it was quite a shock to have one so close! There are photos of views from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. There were even some ostrich near the Cape of Good HopeAfter our visit there we drove back by the coast fro part of the way and that is the last photo - a beautiful view of the coast. 

Our last dinner in Stellenbosch was at the Fat Butcher which has delicious steaks. It was too dark for a good photo of the restaurant. We did take a photo of the desserts - a cheese cake for Dave and a Toffee Cake for Cherrie. There is also a photo of this beautiful area of South Africa.