Pre Script: this doc is about a week behind because the internet was literally out in the whole town of Port St. Johns and my computer just start working again after a week of being dead. however during this last week we spent six days hiking the coast of the Transkei and staying in Xhosa villages, many good stories from that time. these will have to wait. pictures are finally up on the picassa web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/billy211b@gmail.com and the group email we sent to family and school friends can be found here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd6mctth_4grm72vgb
Hey friends, right now I am sitting in a little dutch breakfast place on the coast at a place called Jeffrey’s Bay (known as the best surfing spot in the world). I love the breakfasts here, they give you hot milk with your coffee, and a cookie/biscuit, and their French toast comes with bacon and cheese smothered all over it.
So the plan today is to surf, we hung out on the beach yesterday read for hours and figured out which spot we were going to surf. Lucky for us the ocean swell is super low, so there is a perfect little six foot wave for us to surf. However, this place is a haven for great whites, so cross your fingers that I come back with all four limbs.
So, I’ll try to throw out some good personal notes of the trip so far… Thanks to Patrick’s insistence we made it happen to go into London for our twelve hour layover. Keith, I saw your man Van Gogh, I lingered at the painting Sunflowers for a long time and thought of you and Bop. Patrick, Hunter, in the spirit/precursor of Free the Hops passing, we went to a brilliant pub by Hyde Park. They had half a dozen cask ales and a handful of Belgian abbeys. I have been introducing Catherine to the world of actually enjoying beer, that it could actually be something you want to put in your mouth.
Ok, so Cape Town seriously was one of the most beautiful cities I will ever see. The most diverse place in landscape and people groups I will ever see. As far as the health care system there goes, I am jealous. I guess it takes a post apartheid state to create a system that actually cares about the health of its people. As physical therapy goes, they are not bound by the insurance reimbursements, even to the point where therapists can spend half their time educating patients on preventative measures. For example, in the states, over half of all the health problems could be eliminated by preventative measures, the numbers for diabetes and heart disease alone are ridiculous, but we treat the disease once it has occurred. Here there is a huge emphasis placed on educating and keeping these problems from happening through lifestyle changes. Anyways, I am tempted by the freedom that therapists have here and how intensely the government seeks to provide care to everyone even requiring students to spend at least a year in a rural setting after graduation. The PT student Sarah that we hung out with had to be one of the nicest people in the world. True story. She said there is such a need for medical professionals right now and especially teachers in the educational system (lets go).
Well its been a great trip so far, Catherine and I are getting along great, we have only punched each other in the throat three times (twice from her, once from me). The thing about a punch to the throat is that it really degrades your enemy and renders them useless for at least ten minutes.
But really, we’ve had a great time, a lot of good conversation about life, Christianity, PT, table manners etc.
I’ll let you flip through the pictures I’m about to put up to follow the different places we’ve been so far.
Yesterday’s theme (each day seems to develop a theme/spirit) was “be the individual”. So Matt, I spent the morning rolling through The Sickness Unto Death and started the Moviegoer. I see a major point of these so far is to see the state of despair you are in and actually let yourself think about the implications of being aware of yourself. Completely unrelated, Cat and I talked about how important it is to follow/develop your own desires, personality, beliefs, without just mindlessly attaching to or following the group. This was in context of different personalities in college. So then, to seal the deal, we had a very cool conversation with a hippie lady at the place we were staying. She had been traveling for fourteen years after selling off all her big cars and house and getting discontented with how selfish her life had become. The conversation started when I complemented her on how beautiful her dreadlocks were… funny thing, they actually were (don’t worry mom, I am in no way tempted). In the kitchen we talked about how important it is to be aware and realize there is something beyond the routine we get caught up into. For her, yoga was a major part of this development in being mindful and caring for herself and others. We definitely did not agree on everything, but it was interesting how much we did have in common. I brought some Kierkegaardian ideas to the table as I saw such thick parallels. Her name was Marie Claire.
Ok, this is long enough, much love to everyone!
There is another email we sent out yesterday to friends and family that I will post as a google doc if you want some more juice. Cheers,
ryan
