Today was by far one of our longest but also most exciting days yet! We started our morning before the sun and the geese, a shocking revelation for those of us who have had them as an unwelcome alarm clock, at 6:50, where we hopped onto the bus to attend church. During our bus ride we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of yogurt and muffins as we watched the sun rise.
The service was lovely and a unique experience for many of our singers. There were many new songs we heard during the service and even a few that I recognized from church in the US! It was amazing seeing special customs like incense burning throughout the sermon, and this week a few of our singers even took part in communion. After watching the church dancers beautiful performance, we gave a showcase of our own, performing “God’s Gonna Set This World on Fire” and “Ka Waiata.”
After our performance we were delighted to have tea and some snacks with members of the church. We were treated to delicious koeksister donuts, mini quiche, and many other amazing snacks that more than filled us up until lunch. We were able to speak to much of the church youth, even getting to know about their own singing and dancing experiences in and out of church! As a show of our thanks for the fun meal and conversation, we performed “Dinasi Ponono” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and while taking photos, we even burst out into a spontaneous performance of “Shosholoza”!
After an already eventful and fulfilling morning, we hopped back onto the bus for a surprise pit stop before heading to a long-awaited location: the grocery store. Little did we know our surprise pit stop was to a cheetah experience! We were able to see baby cheetahs, although they were more dog-sized, and adult cheetahs as well as jackals, meerkats, and dogs. We learned so much about the different animals and how they are all taken care of. It was amazing to see how such seemingly different animals like dogs and cheetahs could not only live together in harmony but also be best friends! After all of our animal exploring many singers visited the gift shop buying everything from stuffed animals to sweaters before we headed back to the bus and enjoyed a picnic style lunch of sandwiches with veggies, chips, marshmallow candies, and juice.
While we enjoyed lunch, we headed off to one of our most anticipated locations yet: the grocery store. We were all eager to buy some snacks and goodies to enjoy at the retreat center, whether it was ramen for a late-night snack or popcorn for our movie nights. We bought everything from candy to tissues to try and fight lingering coughs and stuffy noses we’ve started developing. I don’t know if I would be exaggerating when I say we raided the store aisles to find any new way to fight our sickness.
Post grocery store run, we headed off to our final and one of the most fun adventures yet on this tour: whale watching! We headed off to Hermanus for our boat tour completely decked out in layers in preparation for the cold water. We wore everything from hats and gloves to raincoats to ensure warmth on our trip, and it sure came in handy! We had a quick safety instruction and learned about the different animals we could’ve seen, from dolphins to humpback whales and southern right whales!
After our demo we boarded the boat and swarmed to try and find the best seats possible. While many singers ended up on the top floor of the boat, I ended up at the front with what I think were some of the best seats possible. It was an amazing feeling having the water splashing on me, although it was blinding on my glasses and quite salty, as we traveled to an ideal whale-watching spot, and to my surprise, we saw not only one but two Southern Right Whales! We were able to see both a mother and baby whale traveling in the water, and even though I ended up soaking wet, I wouldn’t trade the view of seeing them jump in the water that close for anything.
On the boat ride back from whale watching, we spontaneously performed “Jikeleza” and “Lion Sleeps Tonight” for our fellow passengers and Kimani, who somehow ended up in the captain’s den, and were even able to perform “Shosholoza” with some of the members of the boating crew! It was a truly unforgettable experience but also definitely left room for an appetite after. We enjoyed yet another picnic-style meal, as one does after a long day of driving and exploring, with quite a bit of variation for all of our singers. We traded stories of our different perspectives on the boat and were even able to meet someone who had family roots in Boston and realized our connection after seeing us perform on the boat! It was truly an honor seeing the impact our music can have on others and the connections it can make with even those we may see as strangers.
We finished off our day with a long bus ride back, which many singers, myself included, slept through, tired out from our exhilarating day. We arrived back at our retreat center, where we did everything from talk to play card games before heading off to bed, ready for our upcoming day of rest and relaxation!