Yesterday was a glimpse of the upcoming Workshop.  We met with some of the AIMS people and toured George Whitefield College, which is a christian college around the corner from AIMS where the workshop sessions will be held.  GWC is a beautifully restored building that was built as a private beach residence for a family back at the turn of the 20th century (my guess).  It has wonderful walnut wainscoting throughout with well maintained hardwood parquet floors.  When you come in the main entrance you find a gorgeous staircase with a lovely stained glass window at the top.  It's so hard to believe that this was someone's home at one time -- lots of bucks.  Of course, with the beach right across the road, it was a perfect summer home.  The College now has the building with 100 students in attendance.
After touring and ironing out a few things, we headed to the bank to exchange money.  One thing we discovered early on is that no one hurries in South Africa -- except visitors from the rest of the world!  It reminds me of people in the southern part of the US which tends to make me crazy after a while.  No matter where you go, there are long queues (lines) where you wait to get into most places.  For example, we waited about 1-1/2 hours to get on the cable car for Table Mountain.  Shades of Disney World in South Africa. 
After waiting a good while at the bank, we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  I truly enjoy going to grocery stores in different countries and checking out the different food they have as compared to ours.  The South Africaners are very conscious about plastic bags at the grocery and encourage everyone to bring their own bags.  If you do not, you have to buy a plastic bag which costs about $.03 which to us doesn't seem like anything but is costly for some of these people.  The disparity in the economy is substantial and the way some of the people live is not something we are familiar with in our world.  I plan on hugging my house when I get home because I truly live in a mansion compared to some of the places I have seen here. 
We did see a great sign yesterday at a used car lot.   Here they are called "previously cared for cars." The British/Dutch influence is definitely still here.  Another great sign we saw was "Leopard Toad Crossing."  We watched for them and they must have already gone across so we were SOL on that one.
More to come...