A Deeper Level of Home

The other night Dan and I were on a date.  As we were leaving we ran into some friends who were also on a date.  They invited us to share a cup of coffee with them before they ordered their dinner. Two things stood out to me about this:

1. Being able to run into someone you know in a city of 1.5 million people is not an easy thing to do, especially when you're on the other side of town and you haven't lived here for very many years.  Meeting "old" friends and spontaneously going out for coffee made Pretoria feel so much more like home.  It added to our sense of belonging.

2.  Time alone with my husband is a precious commodity.  If we can get away from the kids, I don't always want to share that time with other people. The fact that our friends would invite us to join them on their date is a testament to the hospitality and generosity of the culture here.  I am still learning to put people ahead of tasks, and I am still "unlearning" much of my American-ness (which is not all bad, but there are strengths of the culture here that we wish to adopt and emulate).

It was a wonderful evening and warmed my heart tremendously.  Meeting our friends was the icing on the cake, or perhaps I should say, "Dit was die kersie op die koek."