The Restory Retreat Centre

Kateri Tekakwitha We had the pleasure of staying at the Madonna Retreat Center while attending the Living School Symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico this year. We loved our spacious and neat room with a marvelous view over the Rio Grande River, with Albuquerque town across from the river and the Sandia mountains as an imposing backdrop. We loved the quiet and the friendly and helpful staff at the center. We loved walking to the nearest bus stop on Cours Avenue and taking the bus in to the Old Town and then walking along the narrow streets to the Albuquerque Hotel where the Symposium was held. We loved all of Albuquerque. What struck and impressed us was the strong influence of the Pueblo people in the architecture and culture of the city. Our very first visit to the US could not have been to a more exceptional place. Since being back home in South Africa, I often find myself missing Albuquerque. I recall the coyotes calling at night in the open space down by the river and

Photograph by George Angus With the water level so low after the drought we are now able to see landmarks usually submerged under the surface of Zaaihoekdam. One of that is the old road leading past our farm to Wakkerstroom. Before the dam was built years ago, it was a fairly straight and much shorter route leading into town. Now we have to drive much further all along the perimeter of the dam. The old inhabitants of the area tell us about homesteads, a bridge and obviously the old road that apparently disappeared for good under water once the dam started filling up. Now, with the drought some of it make an appearance once again, amazingly intact after all those years in its wet coffin. Every time I look at the old road, Rudyard Kipling’s poem comes to mind: The Way through the Woods They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know There was once a road through the woods Bef