Fall Break: Easter Sunday

Sunday 24th April 2011

            This Lent has been quite bizarre to be honest. Holy Week has been even more so. Bungee jumping on Good Friday just seems a little odd. The agenda for Easter Sunday held Mass at a catholic church in Cape Town, returning to the multi-cultural service at Kanyisa back in Gugulethu that the rest of the group attended, lunch at Mzoli’s, and a tour of Robben Island. Mass was nice, but it was certainly the first time I had sat on the floor in the aisles of a church before. There were only 6 of us who went. Thankfully we were able to get to Kanyisa before the service ended. We watched a youth group give an interpretive dance and a skit to a song called ‘Everything’ by Lighthouse. A man and an interpreter gave a sermon and those of us from the catholic mass who were sitting in the back were then taken  to save spots for lunch at Mzolis. The service at Kanyis ran really late so we sat there for almost two hours. We ate a fat cake while we waited, which is an enormous African doughnut that has been fried to the point of tremendous greasiness. When the whole group arrived, we ate meat out of huge tubs that were passed around the table. Plates were nothing to mess with and napkins were used to the max as we ate and talked. Mzoli’s was loud and boisterous, the atmosphere of a bar being quite odd on a Sunday, much less on Easter.

            After lunch we made the trip out to Robben Island. We were taken to a group cell and told how life at the prison was. We saw Mandela’s cell and the quarries in which he and other prisoners toiled and were tortured. The day was rainy and gloomy which seemed to fit the mood of the island. None of us expected the island to be that large and spread. The tour was short and not overly exciting but it was powerful to be in the place that Mandela, the hero of South Africa, spent so many years.

            The evening brought a delicious couscous dinner and scrumptious Haagen Dazs ice cream. We stayed at the Saasveld Lodge near Long Street. Some people even went out on Long Street but we elected not to go clubbing on Easter. At the end of the day, we reflected on the diverse Easter we had. The homily at mass came in handy just then. The priest had spoken about being open to life and to what God has in store for you. God had provided us with an Easter full of surprises. Yes, we ate in a messy loud place without our families but we still celebrated the day with the community we have built in South Africa. We went to a prison but that gave us a chance to be grateful for our own freedom. We woke up in a township and went to be in a comfortable hotel. We were afforded the opportunity to see just how blessed we are to have been given such a distinct Easter Sunday in South Africa.