Sascha's Big South African Adventure: Waterfalls, Elephants and Family.

Looking up at 3d Waterfall at Cedarburg.

New Years day sunrise from my outdoor sleeping quarters.

The dirt road scenery on our way to Waterval for New Years.

The New Year is off to a glorious start. After working for 6 days a week during the month of December at Red Cross prior to driving William home and his return after Christmas, it was time for my week off. I spent a much needed incredible 5 days In Waterval, Cedarburg (approximately 5 hours North of Cape Town in the Karoo desert) with an amazing group of family and friends. My days and nights were filled with swimming in waterfalls and river rock pools, packing picnics, bountiful braais, dancing under the stars, hikes, painting, adventures, exploring, outdoor sleeping, games, lots of laughter, New Years dress-up and more. . . I am feeling totally energized, renewed, and so ready to grab 2011 by the horns.

Upon my first day back at Red Cross I had a meeting with my supervisor who is also the founder of CATh (The Community Arts Therapy Programme): the non profit that I am working for here. I was asked to take over in running CATh for the next 3 months (as she is dealing with some serious health issues and needs to take a leave of absence). This was followed by the "how would you like to stay on and run CATh after that," conversation. It's all very exciting, a little overwhelming, and totally uncertain. So much to consider and contemplate. However, if I do decide to extend my visa it would most likely only be for an additional 3-6 months as that's about all I can manage before needing to go home and deal with student loans and other grown-up responsibilities. So that's my big news for 2011 thus far.

I'm not sure how 2 months time have passed since the start of this last entry but the bottom line is they have come and gone and my blogging has fallen by the wayside. In a nutshell the last two months have been a whirlwind. I've been running and overseeing all Art therapy groups and 1:1 for CATh at Red Cross and the 2 schools in two separate townships , working intensively with William on his rehabilitation 5-6, sometimes 7 days a week (this will all be included in the next blog) and most recently visiting with my father Russell, AKA Poppa R during his 2 week trip to South Africa. We saw the sights in Cape Town (some of which my pal William joined us on), spent time with the family (was great to hear stories of when Dad and my Aunt Kris were teens together and watch he and my Uncle Ken get close, dig dirt for the pool and talk shop about nails, building, gardening/landscaping and so on), and then I took a much needed and well deserved week off work to go on a road trip up the Garden Route with Dad. Highlights of our journey included: hot springs soaks, watching Dad ride an ostrich, driving through 7 of the 9 world's biomes, sleeping in a tree house overlooking a bird/lake nature reserve, hiking to waterfalls in lush forest, beach-combing and swimming in the blue green Indian Ocean, 3 days at Addo Elephant park: so much wildlife, the coolest being a rare black rhino sighting and herds of over 25+ elephants and of course simply put quality father-daughter time.

Popps departed, I've been a working fool and have been really busy making the William Documentary ( see next post) and now gear up for my Mother's arrival AKA Momma K in just 5 days time! Thanks to the parental units for both making the big effort and long journey out here to see me and the family! We are loving it.