Skydiving and getting Stuck

Well, I couldn't have asked for a better few days. We celebrated our host sister's birthday Friday night with a braai (.. that's bbq to everyone I know, or knew before coming on this trip anyway) at Gumstone and an outing to nearby Kalk Bay for dancing. A few of the other volunteers stayed over at "Camp Gumstone" for the weekend, so we all walked to Imhoff Farm for a leisurely brunch before heading to ANOTHER braai at the Kommetjie lighthouse, where we watched the sun set from the top of the lighthouse. It was so beautiful! On Sunday Dan, Mark and I woke up early to pick up some friends in Cape Town and go skydiving at Skydive Cape Town. Skydiving was amazing! I can't even begin to describe the experience, so you'll  just have to ask me about it when I return. I can't say that the trip to and from the skydiving place was so incredible, however. Because I was the only one who can drive a manual car, I had the pleasure of driving the 1996 Fiat Uno rental car, whose gear shift decided to stop working halfway through the trip. I managed to get it into 1st, 3rd, and 4th for most of the drive up, but I couldn't get it into 1st or 2nd for the life of me on the drive back into Cape Town, on which we happened to hit every red light. Perhaps understandably, the clutch burned out and we ended up stranded on the side of the road JUST as we arrived in Cape Town. Luckily the man who rented us the car was willing to come pick us up (and knock some money off the cost of the rental), so it was really the perfect broken down on the side of the road situation. Getting back to Gumstone and sorting out the cost of the car took most of the day, but it really was quite an extraordinary adventure! I can't wait to tell you more about it in a few weeks. -MEA