I Bless The Rains Down in Afffrica!

A month without posting! For shame. Not that we haven't been busy. Erika came back from Cape Town and, having spent a month in a hotel, cooked up a storm, culminating in our annual pie party. The pie party was a belated celebration of National Pie Day, delayed because of Erika's business trip and to coincide with the now annual visit of our dear friend, Jane. Everyone brings a pie, sweet or savory, baked or bought, and we all share. It's as awesome as it sounds. We ended up with something like a dozen pies and according to Rob and his PPLO stats (Percentage of Pie Left Over) Erika's savory tamale pie (with amazing polenta crust!) was the hit of the evening: 

Rob also got to visit his friend, Jon, who was in the neighborhood (well, Brussels) for a couple days with work. We are well aware that we live a crazy life when we get emails saying, 'hey, I'll be in Brussels for a couple days if you want to grab a beer.'  

And speaking of living that crazy life, Rob recently joined Erika for a couple weeks in Cape Town. Leaving cold, wet, and gray Amsterdam for sunny, 80 degree Cape Town? Yes, please. 

Cape Town is a city of 3 million sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the majestic Table Mountain. (Next to Table Mountain is another mountain with two parts, the Lion's Head and hilariously, the Lion's Rump). Going to Cape Town is like just dipping your toe into Africa. The city has a very European feel, due to its English and Dutch colonial (and slave trading) heritage. In fact, one of Erika's South African coworkers claims that you have to drive at least 3 hours away from Cape Town to get into real Africa. However, for those of us just visiting, the realities of Africa are very apparent, driving past the townships (suburb-sized ghettos where the 'houses' consist of tin and aluminum shacks stacked next to each other) and into the city, where most people live in either gated communities or in houses with huge fences and barred windows. 

Luckily, despite its troubled past, the city (and South Africa) feels full of promise and growth. South Africa is set to host the 2010 World Cup, so there are dozens of highway, hotel, and other construction projects in addition the building of a new stadium. The papers count down the days until the World Cup and the sense of pride and enthusiasm in showing of the country is palpable and even contagious. Everyone, both black and white (and, as they are classified in South Africa, colored, which are the South Africans that are neither black nor white but are descendent from the many Indonesian, Indian, or other Middle Eastern or Asian immigrants, former slaves, and servants that made their way or were brought to South Africa) is very excited to have visitors and very proud of the country- and for good reason. The land is simply gorgeous, the people are friendly and absolutely beautiful, and the food is fantastic, cheap, and washed down with delicious South African wines. 

We had an incredible time and we'll be putting up more posts this week about our trips, including wine tasting, visiting the Cape of Good Hope, Rob's first cricket match, our safari and more. Rob's back in Amsterdam with the 1500+ pictures we took so there should be plenty to see both on the blog and on the flickr account soon.