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| Norscot Manor |
Friday was a good day for me. It started Friday morning with an American Society function. We visited a beautiful place called Norscot Manor, an original 1920s plantation home named Norscot by the owner in honor of his Norwegian heritage and his wife's Scottish heritage. The manor house has been turned into a community center and one of the many rooms of the mansion is home to the Water Color Society of South Africa. We heard the curator speak of the history of water color art and how paintings are chosen to be displayed by the WCS of SA. I don't know if this attitude is typical of most art curators but she turned me off a bit when she said there were only two types of people she was truly interested in-artists and art buyers. Being neither of those, at least at that moment, I felt a bit unwelcome. But the morning improved when we had tea and brunch in the gardens and I had the chance to talk to about a dozen women, mostly American expats, and spent the next 2 hours laughing and telling stories about moving, family, life in SA and everything else women talk about when not around men!
Afternoon took me to another part of Jo'burg, called Randburg. This is the home to the regional headquarters of the church that Clinton, our domestic, attends. He invited me to a special Friday service there. I was honored he asked me and a bit nervous to go but I thought about it and decided that if I am going to come all the way to SA to live, I need to get out of my comfort zone once in a while to experience new things. It was quite something! The bishop and his helpers wore camouflage to illustrate their point of waging war on satan. I had trouble understanding everything said because of the heavy accents and the loud yelling into the microphone. There was a lot of standing, individual prayers but all out loud, laying on of hands, driving out the devil, letting in the holy spirit... you get the idea. There were about 500 in attendance and I and another woman were the only whites there. Regardless of one's personal religious beliefs, it was a powerful experience for me to see the fervor and faith of so many people. They may have very little materially but they were certainly rich in spirit and hope. I took away that at least. A typical African evening storm blew in while at church and the service was even more powerful with the thunder punctuating the bishop's cries to drive satan away. I also had to drive back home in it during Friday night rush hour to make our next event, which was seeing Evita the musical at our local theatre with our neighbors Tony and Tess. The theatre is part of this giant casino/hotel/restaurant/shopping complex built to resemble an Italian village. It reminds me a little of a Disney World theme park.
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| Exterior of Montecasino |
I had 5 minutes to change and jump in the car with the neighbors. We met Jon at the theater as he also had a late evening appointment with the local classic radio station for an interview about the upcoming launch of the newest African satellite, New Dawn. I will post some links for that.
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| Interior of Montecasino. The "sky" is painted ceiling. The shops, restaurants, casino, and theaters are all inside. |
Love to all-Jody
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