Highlight of my trip to South Africa: Church Service and Breakfast with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Craig, a coworker at our internship’s (Department of Economic Development and Tourism) girlfriend, works for Desmond Tutu as his PR Assistant. He never failed to remind Nora and I of this “very important position” daily. July 16^th was Youth Day in South Africa and a public holiday. Nora and I were presented the perfect opportunity to finally meet with Desmond Tutu himself. The offer was declined because we would rather attend a Braai (South Africa’s version of a barbeque) we had already agreed to attend on the same day. Craig was not pleased and we were quite disappointed ourselves.

We were fortunate enough to get another opportunity to meet Mr. Tutu again. Craig’s girlfriend let us in on a secret very people knew about. Every Friday, the Archbishop led service at the St. Georges Cathedral, downtown Cape Town. It would be a second chance to see and possibly meet the Noble Prize winner. This time, Tom, Nora and I were out of the house by 6:30 am on a Friday. There was no guarantee we would meet him but we thought it was worth the try. When we arrived at the cathedral there was barely anyone around. We wondered if we were better off in bed but after a few minutes of anxious anticipation, we saw him walk through the door…. very unassuming and in plain clothes. I said good morning to him, he responded and headed off to say a quick prayer at the altar.

By then, everyone had arrived. There were very few of us- say, about 20 in total. We gathered and waited very patiently for the Archbishop. Service was short. Archbishop Tutu asked us to introduce ourselves individually. We then proceedws to sing hymns, pray and receive communion. This was especially important to me since I hadn’t been to church in a while. It was especially humbling because it was officiated by the Archbishop himself. After service, we shook his hand and bid him goodbye. He then informed us that we could all meet up for breakfast at a cafe across the street from the cathedral. Of course, by this time we were all running late for work but there was no way we would miss an opportunity to have breakfast with Desmond Tutu.

Almost everyone at the service made it to the café. The mood was intimate and friendly. The Archbishop joined our conversations and cracked jokes with all of us. We asked him to take a photo with us before he bid us goodbye. As we left, we were certain that moment was worth waking up at dawn. There were many highlights of my trip to South Africa. But this is by far the most memorable.