We left Swellendam at 6am. I was quite embarrassed because we had to get out the house and Adrian and Stacey were still fast asleep. I thought perhaps Elsie had woken them at 3 or 4am and they had gone back to sleep again. I dreaded waking them to let us out, but eventually I tapped on their door. Within moments they were up. What time is it? Oh 5-55am. What? Elsie hasn’t woken up yet? What time did you all go to sleep? Midnight. Oh my word that’s fantastic. Elsie slept through the night! Oh dear. Elsie didn’t wake her parents up. Elsie’s grandparents woke her parents up! Oh flip! Hopefully, there will be lots more Midnight to 6am nights, where they can sleep until Elsie’s hungry wail fills the house! She’s 4 weeks tomorrow and she has already slept through the night. Go Elsie!
I love Cape Town. I have been here since 27th December 1982 and I love it as much today as I did 35 and a half years ago! Arriving back in the city is something I love to do. Driving over Sir Lowry’s Pass and catching the first majestic view of the city and the sea is always memorable. It’s impossible to get a decent photo…but this is coming down the Pass…….the sun was just rising.
We checked Google maps and it said the coast road (Baden-Powell Drive) was the quickest route. I like going this route because we don’t drive it often and it spells the start and sounds the end of a road trip. The wind was blowing from the north, the sea gulls bobbed and dived and the spray whipped off the waves.
We were in by 9am and literally just climbed back into bed and on this stormy Father’s Day, that’s where we stayed. David visited. The storm blew in and it has been a really relaxing day.
As I have pondered my love for Cape Town, it definitely has its roots back during my impressionable teen years. I had planned to come to Cape Town to nurse for a few years prior to leaving school. During my education at Oriel Girls High School in Harare, Zimbabwe, I had decided I wanted to study nursing. During my O-level year, I wrote to three South African hospitals – Johannesburg General, Greys Hospital in Durban and Somerset Hospital in Cape Town. I had one question: would they accept me for the Registered Nurse’s course if I only had O-Level. Joburg Gen and Greys wrote back saying “no.” Somerset wrote back saying “No, but here is an application form. Fill it in and return it to us.” With a tiny glimmer of hope that I may be able to leave school at the end of 1981, after O level, I immediately completed the form and sent it back to Somerset Hospital. They acknowledged receipt of it and said I could start my studies at the beginning of 1983, after I had completed my M-Levels. So that was the plan. I was going to leave the country of my birth and go and live in Cape Town.
You may wonder why I wrote to Somerset Hospital and not Groote Schuur. The reason for this was because the only people I knew in Cape Town were the Beale family (you can read about Aunty Wyn here) and they lived in Somerset West. I figured if I was going to be so far from home, best to be at a hospital close to the Beales. It was not long before I discovered that Somerset Hospital was in Green Point, Cape Town, 50km from the Beales, but my plans were set and Somerset Hospital would be my training ground.
For 18 months at least, I had looked forward to coming to Cape Town and it did not disappoint. A couple of years ago, I wrote about my First Sunday in the Cape Town and from time to time my mind returns to my 18-year-old self and the huge excitement, wonder and absolute joy I felt at seeing that God had bought me to such a place as this. When I first went over Chapman’s Peak Drive, I almost had to pinch myself. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude that God had chosen Cape Town for me. This is where God had bought me and it was very good.
I told the lady at Home Affairs the other day that you can’t choose where you are born. That decision lies with your parents alone. I was born in Zimbabwe, nationalized in South Africa, of British parents, but Capetonian by heart and even then, I am only passing through. God has allowed me to spend these years in a glorious earthly place that can only be surpassed by my future heavenly address.
#694 of my 1000 thanks – Cape Town! Nuff said.
Daniel 2:20-21
Praise the Name of God forever and ever, for He has all wisdom and power. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars.
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂