Heavy eyes. Rumpled Clothing. Grey winter skies.

Here at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, I watch planes descend through the clouds or roar into flight. In spite of the disorientation caused by nearly 24 hours in transit, there is a beauty in the suspension between hemispheres and cultures. This pocket of space and time that belongs to no one but me. Since October 2nd, the landscapes and timezones around me have shifted from Vancouver to Lima (Peru), to Los Angeles, and to Cape Town (South Africa)

For two months, we’ve been envisioning future partnerships for A Fresh Chapter while also breathing life into our first South African program. What a ride it has been! After the sleepless nights, child-like excitement, new friendships, and meaningful moments of change, I’m grateful for the pause created by a 10-hour layover.

A moment to sip my coffee and reflect on how far we’ve come since this big hairy audacious dream began. As responsibilities mount, I find myself missing the days when I could sit down and share the many moments of beauty and growth along this fresh chapter path. Now, I have fewer opportunities to write, but more chances to introduce our participants to the challenge and wonder of our programs. More opportunities to read what they write and experience A Fresh Chapter through their eyes.

Here is something Cape Town Odyssey participant Rebecca shared on Facebook while we were in South Africa together. Her words and images continue to linger with me.

“It’s difficult to grasp the magnitude of hardship faced by some South Africans. The experience of volunteering is raw yet sheltered, the community center, guarded and gated is the safe place of the township.

Each day we are shuttled across town, from an architecture of sea side beauty to one of survival. In the bus, the thin pane of glass that separates us from the township feels like a universe. A man walks by balancing a hard top of a truck on his head. Further down the block, another carries a rusty old piece of corrugated iron, ridden with holes. A road side stall sells old drink bottles full of silicones and glues, their shade structure stitched together with all sizes of prized plastic bags. Colorful clothes hang to dry in the dust and sun, all washed at the one running tap that seems to be shared by the whole neighborhood. A kid plays with tyre in the dust beside the row of portable loos. Shops open. A car wash! A cell phone store! A woman hangs her arms through the bars of her hair salon, set up in an old shipping container, the single opening replaced with a full height barred gate. I think of our home in Seattle, our never ending project, our “beautiful prison”, and I long to look deeper into this township. This is more than an architecture of survival, innovation lives here, a community bursting at seams with both devastation and potential.

There’s a mix of the beautiful and brutal here. Some sights though, belong to all South Africans. The ever present mountains, the endless sky, and the abundant barbed wire. (Words and below images by Rebecca Moore).

There is much more to share and to say about Peru, about Cape Town, and about the dreams ahead. But during this pause in time, I simply want to say thank you. Thank you for reading A Fresh Chapter, for believing in this shared dream, and for helping support us in transforming lives! This Giving Tuesday, if you want to make a contribution to help fund a program for someone financially devastated by cancer, join us by making a contribution here: Starting A Fresh Chapter in India. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.