16 Januar 2006

Winter is clinging to the trees here. Laurel likes to think of God adding powdered sugar to the trees to make them more lovely in winter. We took this picture on the way home from church yesterday. It's one of the many little graveyards on the way between our home and the base.

The Germans take very good care of graves. There are even special days set aside each year, strictly for this purpose. The friedhofs, or cemeteries, are quite lovely and peaceful here.

Currently, I'm reading an autobiography of Winnie Mandela titled Part of My Soul Went With Him in preparation for this summer's adventure. Love this description of her given by the woman who helped this book come into being while Mrs Mandela was in banishment in a three room structure(total 30 square meters) in the tiny Afrikaner community of Brandfort, where she was constantly monitored and allowed to hold a conversation with only one person at a time.

"It seemed as if she did not even notice the almost absurd contrast which her mere physical appearance created in this surrounding, as if she felt perfectly at home where she was, as if this township in Brandfort was the place for her to be, and as if her house, No. 802, was an appropriate place for her to welcome her prominent visitors from all over the world.

Whenever I saw her I looked in vain for any signs of despair or resignation. She had the unyielding attitude of the politcal fighter who puts up with even the most desperate circumstances without losing sight of her aim, who is not deterred by defeats and setbacks, but rather gains new strength from them."

Another woman describes her thus:

"They will never succeed in building a wall around her. It doesn't matter where they banish her--homeland, desert or forest--this woman is so dynamic, she will make the birds sing and the trees rustle wherever she goes. You can be sure of that."