On Friday I said goodbye to my kids for the weekend, after an eventful last weekday. It is truly stunning how these children are so so happy with so little. The playground at Silvertown consists of about two pairs of swings made from tires, a wooden hut, numerous metal bars welded together in a sort of makeshift jungle gym, and a couple of sandboxes. The boys just mostly play with spare tires that the care center has a lot of. 150 share all of this. At the same time.
In the afternoon, a few of the volunteers and I headed off to hike one of the many trails up Table Mountain. It was a beautiful hike, and a great workout. It got cloudy once we reached the top, but still made for some cool images.
It felt great!
Later that night we went out to a cool Tapas restaurant in the city called Fork. Everyone was wary of the time though, because we would all be getting up at 5am to go shark cage diving.
Now, you always hear things on Discovery, Animal Planet or whatever else about Great White Shark's being a misunderstood animal that have a false reputation as man-eaters. This became completely real to me today as I entered the water with these graceful beasts.
We took a boat out a few miles off of the fishing village of Gansbaai to "Shark Alley", the area of the world with the highest concentration of Great Whites.
The anticipation level on the boat once we anchored was indescribable. After only about 15 minutes of chumming, we saw the first shark. The crew dropped in a line with a few heads of tuna and the baiting process began.
Then I finally got a few solid pictures of an apparently 3-meter male (approx. 10ft).
After another shark came up to taste the bait, I got in the cage with 5 others. What transpired was the most awe-inspiring part of my life, so far. I took an underwater camera in with me, and I will hopefully get those developed soon. Here's an above water view of the kind of thing we got to see.
END OF LINE
Dang! Nice stories. What are you discovering about yourself as a servant to these children?
ReplyDeleteDavis, I love the blog! Your pictures are beautiful and it gives us all the opportunity to experience your adventure with you. Thanks for sharing. The hike looked marvelous; but I do not think I'd go into shark alley. I'll wait for those pictures. Peace. Joy
ReplyDeleteYou are a great communicator! I have read the whole blog. I'm jealous. The biggest adventure I had at your age was coming to Nashville. Of course moving from Jonesboro AR to Nashville in 1969 was probably comparable to moving from Nashville to South Africa today.
ReplyDeleteDavis, Thank you for giving your time to share your thoughts and experiences. WOW
ReplyDeleteZsa
Davis, while you have the chance, I would like to recommend that you visit The Institute for Healing of Memories: http://www.healingofmemories.co.za/introduction/ihom_history.htm
ReplyDeleteThe director of the Institute is Rev. Michael Lapsley. In April 1990, Reverend Lapsley was the target of a parcel bomb by apartheid agents that blew off both of Lapsley's arms and severely damaged one each of his eyes and ears; nevertheless, he chose to spend his life working for reconciliation and restorative justice, rather than seeking vengeance and retribution.
I hope that you might be able to find out more about this institute as you continue this amazing journey of discovery.
Peace and love, Thos.