O Port Alfred. The Kowie River winds through this oceanfront town on the Eastern Cape of Africa and when you stand still by the river you can feel what my friend Allo calls ‘The Kowie Breeze.’ It was beautiful to be by the sea and I love seeing Allo, a great friend and mentor, with his new wife Kris so happy and at ease in their new hometown. So much newness and the refreshing waves of the ocean bringing a calm within me that resembles the second layer of the ocean just below the waves. So much to learn about love on this trip as I felt so grateful to share South Africa with Pidge for the first time – one of the most special countries I have been to many times supporting my friends Allo and Liza with their non-profits.

Pidge and I had just spent a few days in Johannesburg and while it was eventful to meet up with old and new friends there, it felt restrictive and tense. We were told not to walk anywhere alone and it felt very fenced off, more so even than as I remember it being when I had visited in the past. The intensity of the security guards everywhere made it ironically feel less safe as there was tension in the air. We did enjoy meeting up with my friend and mentor Liza Lightfoot and seeing some of the work in Alexander township of her non-profit Kidlinks.

Flying from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth, we could see only blue as we landed near the ocean, and we were met by my friend and mentor Allo after we landed! He drove us to Port Alfred and checked us into an Airbnb with a beautiful view of the river. We did need to remove a picture off the wall and place it outside as there was an ant trail to and from it, and it turns out a large ant rave behind it. We thought it could have been interpreted that we really didn’t like that piece of art as our host messaged later asking why this particular piece of art was outside 🙂 A great point of reflection about love; the art in the frame, although framed, is sometimes less important to focus on than the art being actively created around it and the ant rave behind it. Tu sabes?

It was a joy to be with Allo and Kris. Pidge and I were able to go with Allo to his organization Global Leading Lights Initiatives new GLLI headquarters, meet the team, and go visit a few of the neighborhood centers that they support. Then we had dinner at Nick’s restaurant (just learned that it is not called Nick’s restaurant actually Graze by the River – which was a special restaurant because it was where Allo and Kris had their wedding reception just a few weeks ago. Nick, the owner, made a show out of bringing out each piece of the menu and presenting it in dramatic form. The food was as delicious and as fresh as the presentation.

We really loved having this time all together, enjoyed some slow meals, nice walks, and time by the water. Our time together culminated in a safari trip to Addo Elephant National Park. On the way there with Allo driving, we must have drove by about 1.2 million lemon trees and when you have that many lemons it is tempting to make some lemonade. By this I mean that we finally arrived and we did a safari together and when Kait saw her first elephant (who was in must), she cried – one tear. It was magic. Seeing so many elephants, zebra, kudu’s, and even ostriches in the wild was well…wild. It was such a joy to be there all together and enjoy the experience of being in nature.

Before heading to the airport, Pidge and I had time to do one more safari together and we ended up getting surrounded by a whole herd of elephants and at some point we felt like we were looking at ourselves out there…