Catch up!

I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted in this blog!  Where has the time disappeared to?

Well much has happened and I'll try to fill in with a few relevant photos...

South Africa's census took place during October and friends of ours were area coordinators.  Their garage became Ground Zero for meetings and amassing dozens of boxes containing thousands of completed and part-completed census forms.  It was a busy time.  Here is one of the lighter momtents:

All throughout October we waited expectantly for the 'knock on the door', but it never came.  Later we discovered many other flat complexes were not counted either.

During October we also noticed a strange phenomenon happening to many trees in Cape Town:

Tree-dressing seems to be the latest craze for getting attention.  This one was outside a small art gallery near to our flat.  I think it must have been a last-ditch attempt to entice the public into the gallery, as only a few weeks later, it has now closed down and turned into a playcentre for children.

Another strange object seen on the high street in October was this enormous shopping trolley parked outside a church building:
:

It turned out to be part of a Christmas project for collecting food items for poorer communities.  I don't think people were expected to actually put items in the trolley as I'm sure they would have either perished or disappeared, but it was quite an eye-catching idea.

Also during October I learnt how to make vetkoek (fat cake), a very common South African dish, particularly amongst the poorer communities.

Take bread dough and cut into portion-sized pieces:

Heat up oil in pan, and cook pieces separately. They should puff up within a few seconds. Turn over to complete the cooking.

 Remove from pan, drain and place on serving plate:

Slice open and fill with filling of choice.  I preferred a sweet filling, as the texture is rather like a crispy doughnut. 

 However, savoury mince is also popular.  This particular vetkoek was bought at the Wild Oats Farmer's Market, Sedgefield, along the Garden Route. Although tasty it was not as light and crispy as the ones I made!



 In the first weekend of November, Durbanville Josh Gen Church went away for a church weekend to Boulders, where the African Penguins used to have free roam:

On Saturday afternoon there was a treasure hunt organised.  This was one task where groups has to build a sandcastle with a plastic spoon:

 We also climbed up the mountain behind the Youth Centre for a fabulous view:

We also had a baptism in the large swimming pool:



                                         

This was sunrise one morning:

The weekend away was a welcome break in a very busy schedule.