Five weeks of vacation with my husband Raoul, three boys; 9 year old Liam, almost 8 year old Ethan and 3.5 year old Gavin, as well as my in-laws in Cape Town South Africa was bitter sweet. We were on the go every day and by the end I was tired and the boys didn’t want to go back to school, Raoul joked that he has earned a year of no driving since he did all of the driving on the “wrong side of the road” while we were away.
I loved learning more about my husband’s heritage and appreciate everything we went through as a family to achieve his dream. He was able to find old school friends and reunite with extended family that he hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years.
I made some amazing friends along the way: Dawn a teacher, and Karin a mom to two cute girls, accepted me into their homes as if we have always known each other. Then on our second-last day we found out one of Raoul’s high school friend’s home-school their two children, and we were able to connect on a totally different level and I was able to share resources. I think the biggest challenge with maintaining these new friendships will be resorting to snail mail, (internet connection is per download, so everyone I spoke with could only check emails from work, and that was limited,) I will have to brush off my pen and writing paper.
I came home a different person. I spent hours reading South African authors, trying to understand more intimately the life that my husband’s family experienced during segregation. Now I am itching to go back and explore Cape Town even more intimately. We are talking about buying a vacation home and starting up a fair trade import business, the opportunities for a different life seem to be eminent.
This trip was a trip of a lifetime.
Can we do it over again?
Table Mountain and Cape Town seen from Robben Island.
Tara is an urbanmoms.ca member and active contributor on the forum. See the archives for Parts I and II of her South
African Family Vacation travel diary.
..it’s a good site..!
i got so many idea in this site/..!I think the biggest challenge with maintaining these new friendships will be resorting to snail.
Wanna be my family be like yours….You spend great time together..Keep it up..God bless you guys,,..
hi tara,wow what a great trip! for you and your family.travelling and experiencing different cultures is such a great thing for our children.how lucky they are.i’ve enjoyed reading about your trip.
Tara –
Just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed your series. What a wonderful opportunity you and your family have had.
Wow, Tara! How powerful! You are right, you can never go back but if your attitude is to continue to learn and experience new things then you are only moving forward. It sounds like this has changed your life and your view of the future is very exciting, indeed! Keep us posted.