White Christmas

“Walking in a Winter Wonderland”…seriously! I arrived into Tacoma on the evening of Dec 16th. I had an ok flight from the UK (which by the way was an unbelivable stop over-seeing so many dear friends!!!), stuck in a middle seat, but wept my way through the classic It’s a Wonderful Life! I was expecting to see my parents at the airport, but the surprise was they brought my nephew Jonathan along with them! I was met with a huge hug and kiss from him…and a melted heart at the realization that he hadn’t forgotten about Aunt Bryna from "Afrikka" !!! I guess he had been waiting for days for my arrival and when my parents said they were going to the airport to pick me up…he cried saying he wanted to go too (ahhhh!). He is the same little guy I left but has such an extensive vocabulary now…we sang Christmas carols the whole ride back home. The exciting part too was that snow was on the ground once I landed, not a lot at this point but enough to make me smile. That night we had a supper with both my sisters and their families…so fun and natural to be together again!

Well, it’s now been a week and a half since I have been back (it truly goes fast)…we still have snow on the grown but its beginning to melt a bit. A few days after I arrived we got about a foot of snow (!)…quieting the city down and causing us to be home bound for a few days. Once we were able to drive a car we had to park it on the top of my parent’s road…as the hill down was too snowy and icy to drive on…this meant at least a ten minute walk up or down hill on ice, whenever you wanted to go anywhere…good exercise!!! Most of my days have been spent sitting in front of the fire…next to the lighted Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music, reading my parents (many!) Christmas cards, watching Christmas movies, looking at travel pictures…and dreaming about the future. It is so good being back with family. I have seen a few close friends so far, but at this point have kept my visit pretty low key until the holidays are over. At the beginning of January I will be travelling to Arizona with my father to see my Dad’s parents who are there for 4 months…a huge gift! I will also travel a bit around the state too seeing various friends and getting time with those that I love.

Hope the pictures below give you a taste of what I have been up to…

Love you all and those in Cape Town I ammissing you and looking forward to seeing you in January…I will try and write more soon!!!

Love, Bryna

Our cozy living room in the cabin...I sit where the blanket is!

Looking out at a Winter Wonderland,

this is our water view from my parents cabin

Britlese and I built a snowman at her house

A family walk in the snow,

"Mor Mor and Grandpa" with grandkids



Ben's snowmen and the ladies

Christmas Eve morning with my precious nephew and nieces

I bought the girls disney princess cell phones

Brynestad Christmas Eve Party with Annamarie

Girls Night with my Grandma Rosy

Laughing with Alaina

"Excuse me, where did our plane just land?"

(Written December 7th 2008)

I’ll start off my story by telling you where I currently am…ummm let see…Bergamo, Italy?! Was this my final destination…ahhh, no! To be honest I have absolutely no clue where I am or how to get where I am meant to be.

I am on my way to Venice. How romantic one would think, but flying Ryan Air from Stanstead is not the most glamorous adventure in the world. I journey up to Stanstead via Victoria Station to Tottomham Hale…where I then caught a half hour train to the airport. On arriving, I was immediately pulled into the stressful rush and zoo of airport life. Unlike other major airports, Stanstead is one of the homes to cheep flights…thus NOTHING is convenient here. After checking in on a machine, I was sent to a ‘so-called queue’ to check in my baggage. This was more like an entire mass of a few hundred people standing (and pushing their way) to unmarked desks. Then, once this and the stress of security was over, I was safely surrounded by Duty Free shops, magazine stands and Starbucks.

My flight was leaving at 7pm for Treviso, Italy (just outside of Venice), but about 10min before boarding I looked up at the gate sign and the destination has been changed to Trieste?! I initially thought my gate might have changed, but then an announcement was made saying that due to fog and bad weather we had to land in another city. Well, here I go…I sensed an adventure was on its way and had no choice but to go along for the ride. I quickly texted my friend Kristina who I was going to meet and we made very quick plans for her to drive to the new airport which was an hour away in the opposite direction. Later, on the plane and 10 min before we landed, another announcement was made (completely in Italian)…saying that we weren’t able to land in Trieste either…so here we are Bergamo, which I have been told is somewhere outside of Milan. I was thinking…Milan, isn’t that the city full of beautiful designers and fashion…cool, but not exactly where I want to be at 10pm! I got off the plane, feeling totally helpless…my dear friend and her husband were in a completely different airport hours away! I had no phone, no currency and no friends to keep me company either. On the plane, we were told a bus would be sent to take us back to our destination (a 3 hour ride away), so once through customs our entire flight crowded outside to find the bus. We waited…and waited but soon the cold night air was crippling and everyone pushed their way back inside the tiny airport. I got up the nerve to ask a stranger if I could borrow her phone, allowing me to let Kristina know where I was and that the bus should come any minute. Well I continued to wait and then another announcement came on (in Italian) and I found out from the woman standing by me that the buses were not due to arrive until midnight!…it was now about 10:30pm and so I borrowed another phone to touch base with Kristina…she said she wished should could just come and pick me up but they were 4 hours away (!) so it just made sense to wait for the bus, and meet her in Treviso in the early hours of the morning!

So here I am, sitting on the cement floor, of a European airport that I have never been to… me and my faithful computer. I keep looking around trying to see if I recognize anyone from my flight…as I would hate the bus to come and for me to miss it. To be honest I would have expected this journey in Africa…but in Europe, this has certainly been a surprise. Thankfully I’m safe…have my luggage and am supposedly heading in the right direction.

(Written the following day)

I wish I could say the bus came and all was well, but our bus never showed up! I sat, rather uncomfortably on that cement floor for approximately 3 ½ more hours!! A few more flights were diverted to Bergamo, so soon all the floor space had people sleeping and waiting on it. It was rather refreshing to hear a few American voices of some foreign exchange students, amidst the Italian company…but I was too tired to strike up conversation and so just listened to a variety of conversations around me. It’s amazing what you do when you are waiting…study faces, eavesdrop, read every sign you can see, fiddle with junk in your purse…and even hum some Christmas songs. I was startled at about 1:30am when I heard a man walk around and ask in Italian who was going to Treviso, I was worried that I might miss my bus so got up and found this ‘man in a blue scarf’…turns out he was a fellow passenger doing a head count. I told him to make sure the bus doesn’t leave me, ‘the girl in the green coat’. Well, finally at 2am, I saw a small group of people walk out the doors…I jumped up and followed them outside…Yahh our bus was here! I quickly got on, found a window seat and was looking forward to some sleep. Soon my dear friend ‘the man in the blue scarf’ came on and said he had been looking for me in the airport…ahh sweet, so glad someone was looking out for me. We pulled into Treviso around 5am and I was met by my smiling friend Kristina (who went to bed at midnight, after driving an hour to a different airport, woke up at 2:30am, drove an hour to this airport and then had been sleeping in her car, in a sleeping bag until the bus arrived!). She told me later that she would have been really worried if it was any other friend, but knew I was a veteran to travel adventures (or ‘nightmares’, as she called them). We pulled into her house at 6am…and both jumped into bed and slept til the afternoon. What a long day…reminded me a bit of Uganda, but I won’t go into that story…you can reread that on a past blog!

Another day in Paradise...umm I mean Dubai!

Today is National Day…one of the many public holidays that Dubai celebrates within its year. Flags drape around the outsides of large SUVs, fireworks go off throughout the day, and LOUD and FAST cars zoom past our normally quiet residential neighborhood. Despite the noise today…it’s still not loud enough to muffle the hourly calls of worship from the many mosques.

Dubai is one of the most bizarre cities I have ever been to in my life. I knew what to expect on this visit as I was here for 2 weeks the summer of 2005. Culturally not much has changed in this Western blended Middle Eastern country…however, architecturally and visually…the landscape has added hundreds of new buildings all shapes and sizes. Most notably the Burj Dubai, now known as the tallest building in the world. You cannot escape its looming presence wherever you are in the city. It is very haunting looking, like a large needle pointing its way up to heaven. On seeing it for the first time I was convinced it was a ‘Tower of Babel’…I can see it from my bedroom window and as the tip is covered in clouds, it feels me with an eeriness…What the heck is this structure doing in the desert?!

Due to the fact that I have been here before, my trip is entirely relational and not a beach or shopping holiday. I am here visiting Alan and Louie McCormick and their sweet 10 month old daughter Daisy. Alan is away on business this week so Louie and I are having fun doing errands, drinking coffee and catching up. She is a remarkable woman and an amazing mother who has fully embraced where the Lord has called her and her husband to be. I am cozy and settled into their guest room, in a house that I helped Louie hunt for over 3 years ago. I have been able to sleep-in in the mornings, watch movies in the evenings and catch up on reading and writing in the afternoons…what a blessing before jumping into a packed schedule in London and then on to the holidays in the US.

What I’ve been up to:

IKEA…yes that’s right…same layout, same products and same yummy food. I love this store! It kind of sucks coming here though to just look and not have a cute house to decorate or organize…for no matter where you are in the world, the prices are still unbelievable. Louie was on a quest to find a couch so I had the pleasure of entertaining Daisy, who was in her pushchair (stroller) as I swerved in and out of the burqa clad women and their darling children. My favorite part of the trip was the restaurant of course at the end…many of you know that I am very partial to the meatballs. IKEA will always remind me of my mother and days when we lived in Ealing, London 15 min from IKEA…we frequented the restaurant there a little too often for dinner when my Dad was out of town. Well, I got my meatballs, fries and gravy….and Louie got her couch…success!

Starbucks…after nap time today, our big outing was to head to the nearest mall The Mercato, and buy a Starbucks. This is a luxury that Africa did not provide, and being that its Christmas time I was salivating at the thought of a Gingerbread or Egg Nog Latte. Well, when we arrived I scanned the big red menu sign and no luck…the only holiday drink they make is Toffee Nut…in my head I’m thinking…That’s not American…I want my Egg Nog! But before I made a scene, I realized the man behind me in his traditional Muslim head covering was patiently waiting his turn. Remembering where I was, I decided to not act like a selfish tourist who wanted her coffee a so-called ‘right’ way…Oh brother, I have been living and travelling on a continent the past 6 months where I have been very content without a single Christmas Latte…but now when I’m face to face with Starbucks my entitlements drastically jump upon me. Lord please save me from these stupid entitlements (…and please may London have a yummy Egg Nog latte waiting for me when I get off the plane:)

Fun City: After grabbing our grande drinks (I settled with a Caramel Macchiato) we headed up to a children’s play area called Fun City! I was used to the play areas in the malls at home, with a few soft climbable mounds…but this place was like Las Vegas for kiddos! (a very extreme Odyssey for those of you that are moms in Tacoma). On entering we headed into an area for younger children, which included a ball pit, slide, see-saw and other fun toys. Daisy’s face illuminated as she crawled around in delight…totally safe from harm on the cushioned floor. Louie and I sat down with our coffees and began to chat while keeping an eye on Daisy. I was silent for a while and Louie asked if I was ok…I was overwhelmed…I was in culture shock and I hadn’t even arrived in Europe yet! I quickly reminded myself that I had just come from South Africa, where I had been residing the last 6 months and it was ok to feel slightly dizzy. Young children between the ages of 2 to 4 zoomed past with their Philipino nannies. As I looked around Louie was actually one of only mums in this place and she said that she normally is. Many of the nannies in Dubai are from the Philippines and most of them have left their own families…their own young children to move here and work…it breaks my heart. I was reminded me that the money paid to these women is more then they get back home and they are able to provide schooling for their children because of this work…but, the bigger cycle of injustice and abandonment is heart breaking. Grandmothers are raising their grandchildren so that their daughters can support the family…but clear across the world! Oh Lord have mercy…on these precious nannies, on their children back home, and on the young ones they are entrusted to care for in this oxymoron of a place…called Dubai! After an hour, we headed out… past the candy floss (cotton candy) machine, the prize booth, the art center, the reading nook and the over crowded pushchair corner…to then find ourselves….back in the crowded mall!

Christmas Music: Before leaving Cape Town, people kept asking me, “Are you excited to get home and to see your family?”…the answer was always YES!…but I had to explain that I wasn’t going home immediately, but that I had a ‘journey’ home…a special journey of seeing friends along the way in three different countries (Dubai, England and Italy). Its December back home, a month filled with Christmas music, gift giving, special gatherings, decorations, yummy food, communication and deep generosity & compassion. No wonder the classic homesick song, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, takes such a special place at this time of year. I was struck with a growing desire to return ‘home’ today while driving in the car with Louie and Daisy…and listening to a Nat King Cole Christmas Album. To be honest it just wasn’t the same to hear the nostalgic songs of my youth, (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack frost nipping at your nose…”, “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful…”) while looking out at a vast desert filled with the most skyscrapers I have ever seen in my life! Although I am leaving the summer sun of South Africa, and the humidity of Dubai for a cold and most likely wet Northwest Christmas…I must say that sitting in front of a fire, in my pajamas, while drinking a cup of coco…by a lighted tree of course, will always warm my heart…in a way that a beach never will!

Atlantis: Lastly, here are a few photos from our trip out to the newly built Atlantis Hotel, which resides at the end of The Palm Jumeriah...a man made residential island...as you can see its like a city itself. The Atlantis houses the largest (always the best and biggest here in Dubai), aquarium tank...fish, man ray and even sharks swim together for all to see from many looking windows around the hotel!

Last Weeks in Cape Town

Camping in the Cederberg Mountains:

I will admit that I am becoming a bit more of an outdoors girl

here in Africa...but I still need my champagne!

We (Caroline, Christy, Craig & Ashley and myself) spent the

weekend swimming, playing cards and napping...ahhh the life!

This spider was found in Craig and Ashley's tent...
it was seriously the size of my hand! Lets just say we were

bit more cautious to zip our tents at all times!

American Thanksgiving:

Due to the hot weather you can see we ate outside.

We feasted on a traditional Thanksgiving meal,

hosted by the Stewart family and I was

surrounded by fellow Americans in CT.

During the day of Thanksgiving I hung out with my

dear friend Cathy Cordle (a half American herself)

Khyanisa Braai:

Caroline have been talking about doing a braai (bbq)

with church friends for ages. It was a unusual rainy day,

but we hung out by the fire and roasted marshmallows!

New Friends; Lebo and Mazura (don't you love his smile!)

Last morning at Khynisa with Caroline before flying out