Cape Town, SA

Am I in Africa or the south of France?  In my mind Africa is a hot, arid landscape of browns and golds, thorny and harsh, but in Cape Town the landscape is every shade of green imaginable, palms and pine trees are everywhere.  Bouganvillea and calla lilies bloom on the side of the highway.   Emerald green waves fade into a sapphire blue ocean.  They crash and tumble onto pure white sand beaches that are ringed with gray boulders.  It is absolutely beautiful!

Cape Town from Table Mountain

I decided to come here very much at the last minute.  I wanted to bring my niece Ally with me on a trip so she could meet some incredible cancer survivors, hear their stories and for us to share time together. Ally had to be back to college in Pennsylvania on August 24th, so we were under a bit of a time crunch.  As always, Alina and Annie at the UICC provided me with some great contacts in Cape Town.  Also, Carol Jabari from Jerusalem had visited SA a few years ago and gave me information about programs that she had seen there and her contacts as well.  Unfortunately most of these contacts were heading to the UICC conference in China that week, but Linda Greeff a social worker for GVI Oncology graciously took the time to meet with us, share her story and introduce us to additional women to meet with before she flew out to China.  I am also incredibly thankful to Ann Steyn, the president of Reach to Recovery www.reachtorecoveryinternational.org who also very kindly arranged for me to meet with other some wonderful women including herself!  We spent a great week in Cape Town.  Here are a few “vacation” shots. I will be posting more about Jordan and Cape Town soon!

Penguin at Boulder Beach

Cape Point