Youth Day

Tuesday was "Youth Day", which is a very important national holiday here in South Africa. In the '70s, there was an uprising of youth in Soweto (the area our church is near) and there was police action and two young people were killed. It is now looked on as one of the main 'fights for freedom'... so I think it would be like us memorializing the Civil Rights movement or something of the sort. Anyways, it's a holiday, so we were all off of work. Em, however, was unaware that sleeping in goes hand-in-hand with national holidays, so we were still up with the sunrise- it was an amazing sunrise... just a little early for my taste these days.

The church decided to have a youth and married couples hike. The hiking location is about two minutes from our house, so we told everyone we'd meet them at the nature reserve. We were told the rest of the group would be there around 9 am. We should have remembered about African time, but here in SA, that time isn't nearly what it is in other places. By 9:30, we left and went to get coffee around the corner, and by 10:30, when we got the call that they'd be at Kloofendal (the nature reserve) in ten minutes, we leisurely got the check for our coffee and meandered over.

The term "married couples" is very loosely translated into anyone who is no longer a youth and married, plus any of their children (even if those kids are older than I am). So in our group, we had everything from 7 months up to mid-fifties and everything in-between. Somehow, the 'younger guys' managed to be the ones who led our motley crew of 50 or so. Unfortunately, this was the type of reserve where there was an "easy," "moderate," and "you-have-to-be-out-of

-your-mind" choice of trails. Guess which one our fearless 14 year-old leaders took us down. So after about an hour of trying to get my growing belly and shrinking center of gravity up and over hills, dales and small cliffs, all the while Todd is packing Em on his back trying to make sure everyone can make it over the terrain, I told Todd that I needed the "mommy" trail. It was a great time and the kids had a glorious time learning to play capture-the-flag (since the two hour hike up the hills wasn't enough for them, so they played 2 1/2 games until it was time to eat). We had a braai (BBQ) and then the old people had coffee and chatted until the weather snapped really cold and four o'clock rolled around. It was a great day and I'm excited to do it again soon... just want to be following less... active leaders!

Up the hill to go back down, to go back up and so the day wore on!