While I sat watching the kids in their swimming lessons, I mentally began a list of things I will miss about South Africa.  In no particular order:
 
1. Fearlessness.  I am always amazed at the way the swimming instructor here expects children to pretty much sink or swim.  Sure, the teacher helps the little ones like Zeke who are still new to getting their faces under water, but once the kids can stay afloat, they just go at it, faces under water until they come up to breath because they have to, sometimes struggling along hardly moving forward.  Then the instructor calmly gives little pushes and the most calm one-on-one instructions without criticism or distress.  Phoebe, who is naturally pretty timid, totally thrives in this.  You can’t be here long as a parent without noticing there is something in the attitude toward children here that is entirely different from most Americans’.  Kids run off to play on jumping castles and two-story high playground equipment (with gaping spaces for kids to fall from) and parents just sit back from a distance and watch, or even don’t watch.  And it isn’t neglect.  It’s just that they don’t blame anyone for the bruises their kids encounter in life, plus they trust the kids to figure things out.  Children here seem to learn a great balance of bravery and caution from a few hard knocks.
 
2.  Big brothers and sisters.  Part of the reason kids can go off and experiment in the dangerous world out there, like when Phoebe climbs the huge fruit tree in front of our apartment building, is that big kids know they are expected to look out for little ones—no babysitting money asked.
 
3.  A theological library of books across the street donated from around the world, including amazing academic journals by some the best African Christian scholars around.
 
4.  Music.  Sigh.  There’s a sadness in my gut just thinking of leaving behind the weekly chapel services.  Sometimes it chokes me up when I try to sing lately.  Even as I write this there’s a guy outside walking by, singing in a deep bass voice while another guy responds with a second part.  It is a precious, precious thing to get to hear raw, honest voices without inhibition belting out music in four-plus part harmony from the depths of the soul.  African music was one of the ways God lassoed my heart and pulled us to Africa, and I suspect a part of my heart is going to be roped to this part of the world forever.