New Year’s Eve in Marsabit, with Wingman and Bear

Mama jean: ‘europe’

Libby collected us from the airport and took us immediately to ‘europe’ for a light lunch, quiet reflection on our arrival to cape town, and silly antics. it was great fun…

eurafrique revisited #7: the new sitting area

on libby’s last day in town, she gathered the materials to make a nice sitting area in the corner of my apartment that had been ‘dead’ for months:

since she left, the chairman helped me to make it even nicer:

eurafrique revisited #6: sunsets

we did lots of watching sunsets. here’s some photos of them…

the chairman and i watched the sun set from table view before picking libby up from the airport:

sea point is the best place to watch the sun set:

eurafrique revisited#5: the ewok village

i took libby on a surprise two day trip to the tree tops, a village of cabins suspended in the trees near a citrus farm, and connected with wooden bridges. it was a really silly, restful time…

starting with the silly, here’s round one of multiple rounds of absurd trivia competition:

and further silliness, here’s some footage of our trampoline adventures:

here’s the citrus farm:

the ewok bridge:

the view from our dining area:

we went swimming at a thermal bath, with a bunch of old boer ladies who stared at us:

there was one close-call of possible danger (for us, and not just bear…), but even this ended up silly:

eurafrique revisited #4: cape point

on the way to cape point, we saw some sleepy baboons:

at cape point, we went first to my favorite overlook spot:

then down the path out to the lighthouse:

and libby celebrated being at the ‘bottom of the world,’ or close:

we sat and watched the sun set near the point:

back in cape town, we had a great meal at the top of bo-kaap and looked down on the city at night. we found not only libby, but the whole nation had become a ghost:

eurafrique revisited #3: freedom day

freedom day, the anniversary of the first democratic elections in south africa, was spend filling our time with adventures…

first, we biked up to bo-kaap, in search of food:

then we enjoyed deer park, up a different hill in cape town:

then we saw desmond tutu give a speech:

then we made homemade pesto and bad chocolate cake with the chairman hjof:

Eurafrique Revisited #2.5: A Eulogy from Table Mountain

Amidst the overall beauty of the afternoon, as we made our way down the mountain, my mother called me from new jersey to tell me that her loving partner and dear friend, alex santiago, had just passed away, after struggling against liver cancer for many months. It was quite an intense mix of experiences to be watching the fading light of day fall over kirstenbosch botanical gardens while my mother grappled with her immediate, and riveting reactions to alex’s passing.

Alex Santiago was a dear, dear man, humble, dignified and kind, and he was a tremendous support to my mother over the last 7 years. It will be a tremendous struggle for her to re-establish a way of life after having thrown so much of herself into his care over the last 8 months.

He and I always had a very respectable, and warm relationship. He took my ideas seriously, and made a sincere effort to be in my life and to mutually assist each other wherever possible. He attended my graduation from college, and two separate Liberation Education initiatives. A marathon runner for many years, he was a tremendous help to me during my efforts to run regularly, and to improve my body’s ability to run longer and longer distances. We spent a week together in Ireland, on Alex’s only trip outside of the states, just a month before entering hospice.

Alex’s striving to live an honest and fulfilling life are a great inspiration to me. In particular, I am proud to have watched a man who clearly and undeniably died from alcoholism face that fact fearlessly and without trying to deny any of the things about his past that he regretted. In fact, in his dying months, many AA people spent countless hours offering him care, as well as his children and siblings, who had previously had to struggle against the adversities caused by Alex’s drinking. Alex gave to his family and to his AA peers a tremendous willingness to tell the stories of his life without flinching, and to make amends wherever necessary.

May whatever comes to him and his kin after death honor the beautiful qualities of his self.

***

at some point during Alex’s months of hospice, after he had already twice outlived the doctor’s expectations, i made a decision to grow my hair and beard as long as he lived, and to cut it all off if he died. i saw Alex as amazingly carrying on, against logic, and i thought a small gesture of support would be to allow my hair to just carry on, slow and steady, like himself.

and, in cutting the hair at death, i was inspired by saul williams’ words:

“i promise
to learn to love
the way i learned to fear
to unknot all the inhibitions tangled in my hair
to let my ego pile in mounds around the barber’s chair
and make a graceful exit from my vexed and troubled years.
i’ve decided
i’ve been invited to my own resort
where knights can leave their armor neatly piled by the door
and every woman, man and child will gather by the shore
and study how sea lions swim in cursive.”

Eurafrique Revisited #2: Climbing Table Mountain

i climbed table mountain again! excellent, yet again! libby had never been up before, despite visiting cape town twice, so the climb was a top priority. we climbed the day after climbing lion’s head, which was pretty crazy, and made us really really sore afterwards. but it was definitely worth it.

we decided to climb up skeleton gorge, which you reach through kirstenbosch botanical gardens, on the south side of the mountain, as libby had never seen the gardens, either. the path up along skeleton gorge is sort of jungle like, dense shade through the woods, with little bits of creeks and caves and so forth.

sections require climbing up ladders:

here’s one of the caves libby found herself in:

our first spot to be able to look back down on the cape flats below:

up top, we reached this amazing reservoir, but swimming was forbidden there:

here i am, in the reservoir, despite the restrictions:

then we found absolutely the most amazing space-like rock formation. we had a tremendous lot of fun playing on these rocks as the sun started to set:

Eurafrique Revisited #1: Climbing Lion’s Head

The beautiful Ms. Loft returned to Cape Town for two weeks (to see the original eurafrique website, the documentation of three and a half months travelling together last summer, go to: libby2007.blogspot.com, or use the link at the bottom of this blog). As usual many adventures – many of them silly – ensued. The following posts document those silly days.

Here is some photos and footage from our hike up to the top of Lion’s Head.

after a gruelling bike ride up the mountain to the trail head, we took a pre-hike break:

the way up was pretty windy:

the view of table mountain from the lion’s head trail:

the ‘apostles’ mountains in the background, down the camps bay side:

the camera can’t capture it at once, but you can see all of signal hill, and down onto the city side and the sea point side all at once:

me, hanging at the top:

what an amazing view of robben island:

the acrobatic ms. loft displays a tremendous view of the city: