More pics from Christine Revell....

Aren't they too cute!?!

American Thanksgiving in Cape Town!!!

Ok, so I know Thanksgiving was a couple weeks ago now, but we had a huge celebration here in Cape Town at the volunteer house. We invited everyone we know and most came!! We had 40+ people in and out for an American Thanksgiving feast and then some American Football!!! We cooked 3 turkeys, 6 pies, tons of mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, stuffing, squash...all the good stuff!!! A great time was had by all!!

A couple pics from Christine Revell!

Here are a couple pictures from the Christine Revell Children's Home that I've been volunteering at for a month now. Its sort of difficult to take pics because we are always busy with the kids crawling all over - including all over us!! I feel like I'm their personal jungle gym some days!! They are so fun and precious!!! Enjoy the pics.....

My car!!!

Praise God!!! I finally found a car!! I bought a 93' VW Citi Golf, its white, cute and clean! I'm so excited to have my own wheels! It's really necessary now that I have my own place and since I don't work in the same projects as the rest of the team. This makes it much easier for me to get to the two children's homes that I work in and back to the office without having to disrupt the regular volunteer projects. Here's a picture, we've affectionately named him "Jimmy".

Goodbye Caro!!

Ok, so I've been slow in updating my blog lately, and Caro(lin) actually left a couple weeks ago, Oct 29th to be exact, but here's my homage to Caro. She started out on the International Volunteer team in August 2006, but then in January 2007, she joined the Khanya Lifeskills team, so when I got here she was no longer in the house, but the volunteers spent a decent amount of time with the Khanya team, so I got to know her a bit. I've talked about Khanya before, its a dance and drama team that is together for a year doing programs in various middle and high schools. So Caro was on the team this year as the only female and the only international member, the others 3 members were male and native South Africans. So it was quite an adjustment for Caro living with these guys and being submerged in their culture - quite a change from the volunteer house! But Caro handled it all with a smile and great attitude. She's probably one of the most positive people I've met! Always a complete joy to be around! She'll always have a special place in my heart because of how kind and gracious she was to me when I was struggling at the infamous "Kylemore hike" my first weekend here. She hardly knew me and I was a complete mess, but she was so sweet and gentle with me in my fragile state! It was also cool to watch her change over the course of the year, she seemed kind of quiet and reserved at first, but by the end, she was outspoken and strong and very capable of standing up for herself around those 3 guys! She's really quite a phenomenal woman! She'll be missed here in South Africa! Love ya, Caro!!

My new flat!!!

I'm finally in my new flat!!! It's a 2-bedroom in a new complex in the suburb of Parklands. I have the place to myself until Nov 28th, when my buddy, Rita Usher arrives to share the place with me. She is also committed to be here for two years. So here are some pics... This is the apartment building, my flat is the one of the first floor right in front of the car pictured....

Here's the living room...I'm still hoping to get a rug for the floor and need to get stuff put up on the walls. Its nice tile floor throughout except for the bedrooms which are carpeted...Here's the kitchen, unlike the States, I had to buy the fridge (not pictured) and microwave...
Here is the bathroom...there's also a tiled stand-up shower in the corner....

And this is my bedroom, kinda small but it's got built-in closets that are nice, and I'm used to living in a small space. Its been so nice getting it all organized and I love having my own space instead of sharing with ten 19-22 yr olds!!!

South Africa - Rugby World Cup Champions!!!!

k, so rugby is the most popular sport here in South Africa and Saturday night South Africa took on England in the World Cup finals and they won 15-6!! Needless to say people went nuts!! We went to Canal Walk, one of the big malls in Cape Town to watch the game and there was a big crowd there along with us. We ended up finding an empty spot on the floor to sit and watch the game on one of the big screens. Here's a pic of the crowd in the food court where the big screens are...it was madness when the game finished...and as I drove home there were people yelling and celebrating in the streets...so much fun to be a part of!!!

Christine Revell!!!!

So today was my first day volunteering at Christine Revell Children's Home and I loved it!! I will be volunteering there on Monday and Wednesday mornings and will continue to volunteer at the SOS Kindergarten on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Christine Revell only has kids from ages 0-5yrs old, then they go to foster homes or another orphanage. They split the kids into 3 age groups, 0-18mos, 18-24mos and 2-5yrs and you have to pick one group to volunteer with. So I picked the 0-18mos group since I work with 3-6yr olds at SOS. So mainly we just play with the kids, try to give them stimulation to help them develop, etc. I really love babies so I loved it today. There are 11 kids at the crawling stage and then 4 infants. The days are fairly structured, so from 9-10am we are just playing/working with the kids, then at 10 they get their diapers (nappies) changed, then we feed them at 11am, then they pretty much all go down for a nap until 2pm. I haven't taken any pics yet but when I do I'll be sure to share a few with you...rest assured all the kids are adorable!!!!

Staff Conference!

Hi, All, sorry for the lack of posts this month, its been kinda crazy here...I'll try to do better!!

Three weeks ago our whole group went to Magliesburg, just outside Johannesburg, for the annual YFC South Africa Staff Conference. The event was held at the training centre and it was so beautiful! Rolf, our Cape Town Centre Director, said the land was donated to YFC something like 20 years ago and it was just wilderness, no running water, electricity, but the National Director at the time had a vision and now 20 years later its so cool to see what that vision turned into! Here are some pics.....
This is what greets you as you arrive....so beautiful!!
This is part of the grounds and one of the conference buildings.....
and here are some of the vols from Cape Town at one of the training sessions, obviously enjoying themselves!! It was really a great time, from the 25 hour train ride, to the training session to the "fashion show" celebration at the end! It was cool to meet YFC workers from all over South Africa....the Centre Director in George is an American who has been in South Africa for 30 years! I can't imagine!!

SOS Kindergarten "Market Day"

This week they had "Market Day" at the SOS Kindergarten, where the kids pay in R7.50 (just over $1) and then they went around and "bought" things at the different "shops" set up. I worked a shop "selling" magnets, stickers, rulers and balloons. There were also shops "selling" chips, pancakes, popcorn, a soft toy, a borewors roll, juice, etc. The kids all got stuff from each shop and then enjoyed all their goodies....the day is designed to teach them that things cost money and when they go into shops they have to pay for what they want. They also played music as the kids love to show off their dance moves!! They had donations from some businesses and also had a women from ActII bring popcorn and juice for the kids and a couple ladies drove up in the Red Bull car...a car that is not only painted like a can of Red Bull, its got a huge Red Bull can attached to the back of the car!! They gave each of us workers a free can of Red Bull to help get us through the crazy day!! A great time was had by all!!

Manenberg Tour!

Last week the whole team went on a tour of Manenberg, a poor area of Cape Town, it's not really a township, but it is certainly a disadvantaged area. As we walked along on the tour and listened to the different people talk, it was interesting how the issues they deal with in this community are so similar to the issues facing our inner cities in the US. Drugs, gangs, unemployment, minimal education....it was great to see the programs they have going to try to combat these issues. The organization that gave us the tour is called SelfHelp Manenberg, they aren't waiting for the government or more privileged people to come "rescue" them - they are taking the initiative themselves and doing something about it! They have various training programs going to assist the people get skills required to get a job. They train the people and also assist them in finding employment. They served us a meal made by some of the people in the catering and hospitality programs. Once they finish the programme they are assisted in finding jobs at hotels and the like. Here are pictures from the tour....first pictures along the street of the shacks built in front of apartment buildings, we visited one family who has a little convenience store in the front room of their house. They sell coffee and sugar in little baggies that residents can buy for 1 rand (14 cents!)....a picture of kids hanging out along the road....a picture from the church we visited where they talked a lot about the gang activity that has plagued the area the last 30 years but has been better lately, the house the church is in used to be a hub of gang activity but the leader became a Christian and gave the house to the church....the last picture is of a man who is a former gang member and has now also become a Christian and runs this fruit stand, he had a sign hanging that said "no Jesus, no life...know Jesus, know life!"

Grandparents Concert at SOS Kindergarten!

Sept 12th was the annual Grandparents Concert for the kids at the SOS Children's Village Kindergarten. I got to help them with the concert, both in terms of getting ready, practices and so on, and then with keeping the kids organized for the actual concert. It was crazy, but a lot of fun! Of course the kids are soooo cute!! Here are some pics for you.... This is a pic of some of the kids singing "10 little monkey's jumping in the trees" song...Here's a pic of some of the kids singing the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" song....Here's a pic of some of the kids singing "The Little Brown Jug" song....And finally here's a pic of two of our budding actors in the play "The Old Man". Matthew is "the old man" and Alex is playing the "magical, golden fish"! All the kids were so precious!!!

Goodbye Nathan!!

Nathan also left on Sept 5th. He was our first "local" international volunteer as he is from the Johannesburg area. His family is friends with our Centre Director, Rolf, and he was looking for a volunteer opportunity for a couple months before going to college. He was quite the character! Here's a pic of him that we call "surfer dude" since he tried his hand at surfing while he was here. It was nice getting to know about another area of South Africa. Jo'burg is pretty different from Cape Town, so it was cool hearing his stories and how his life is different there. We'll miss his humor and openness to anything! He'll be going to school for graphic design and from what I've seen I think he will be very succesful! Here's another pic of him with two of our other vols when they climbed Table Mountain.....

Goodbye Vanessa!!

Vanessa left on Sept 5th, she'd only been here for 5 weeks but she left an indelible impression on all of us! She wants to be a teacher and so she was part of the team that taught lifeskills at the 6th grade class at Vissershok Primary School. She was also a leader on the Christian Union team. It was on this team that I really saw her shine. I'd watch her and the other leader, Nathan, prepare and it was clear they put a lot of time and thought into their lessons. Then I went down one of the days to take some pictures and in the small group she was leading, the two young girls started fighting in Afrikaans and finally the one girl started crying. I felt that Vanessa really handled this situtation well....stayed calm and gently kept asking what the girls were talking about until they finally confessed that the one girl had threatened to have the other beat up if she did not share in the group! Vanessa took the one girl aside and talked to her privately about how to treat others and how much words can hurt other people. She then had her come back to the group and apologize to the other girl. It was a really stressful situation, but I felt like she really handled it well, especially for a 19 yr old with not much experience! Vanessa was also great fun around the house and had a great balance of being serious sometimes and crazy silly other times. The above pic shows her silly side. She's also in the pic on my main blog page...We truly miss her lots and are praying for her future plans to study as we are sure she will be an awesome teacher!!

My friend Joanen!

This is a picture of me with my friend, Joanen, from the SOS Children's Village. He's been at the village for a few months now and has totally captured my heart. He always has a huge smile for me when I arrive each day at the SOS Kindergarten. I don't know a lot about his story, but do know that he was abandoned by his parents and was found wandering the streets on his own...at 5 years old!! When the kindergarten teacher had a meeting with his SOS mom she said the first time she put lotion on him he kind of freaked out because he had never experienced the sensation of lotion on his skin! I can't imagine what his life has been like before coming to SOS! He's so affectionate, hugs all the time for me and the teachers. Earlier this week his teacher had to leave the premises to buy bread since we didn't get our delivery and Joanen was so concerned about where she was going and was she coming back?! He stared after her car for a long time and I literally had to drag him back to the classroom, all the while assuring him that "Yes, Teacher Liz will be back. She's just fetching the bread for snack!" I think this only worked because he loves snack time...he can never get enough to eat, so we surmise that he did not get enough to eat in the past and doesn't trust that his future will have plenty to eat, so he's eating as much as he can now!! He's so tiny, he looks like he's maybe 4, yet the teachers say he is actually 6 years old. They also suspect by his facial features that he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. He also has no attention span and can't sit still for even a few minutes, which is troublesome as to how much he learns. And you try to discipline him and he just flashes his huge smile and its hard to be firm with him! Oh he's so precious my friends! Please pray for his future, that he'll get along well at the Village and that he will take advantage of the opportunities the Village offers as far as schooling that would not even be possible if he lived in a township.

Goodbye Anna!!

On August 14th we said goodbye to Anna. She is from Oregon and had been here in Cape Town for 2 1/2 months and we will miss her immensely!! That's one of the amazing things about this program is how quickly you can build relationships with people! I was always amazed by Anna's passion, energy, openness, bubbliness, and just her willingness to try anything! Sometimes I was so envious of her ability to always know what to say and to always be so witty! She also loved to dance and she would break into a little jig at most anytime - so much fun! She was even game enough to sing a song karaoke for her first time on my birthday!! Thanks for everything you gave to the program and to me personally, Anna! God bless your life!!

Goodbye UK Team!!

We were blessed to have a team of six women from the U.K. come for three weeks from late July to the middle of August. They were here to do a program daily on community in a high school and to learn more about life and culture in South Africa. They stayed with us at the volunteer house, so our concerns that there would only be a couple of us in the house at the end of July and early August were unfounded!! We had a full house!! Lots of noise and chaos and lots of fun! They were a great group and we all had a really great time getting to know them. They left on Aug 12th and they have left a huge void in their wake!! I'm sure God has great things in store for each of these fabulous ladies!!
Thank you to Judy, Naomi, Emma, Helen, Corrie and Bess for enriching our lives!!

Feeding program at Vissershok Primary School

We have partnered with an organization called The Said Foundation to do a Feeding Program at the Vissershok Primary School. This is the school where we also teach twice a week. The Said Foundation has been trying to provide hot food for the kids twice a week, but they needed more help. They saw us coming to the school as well so decided to ask if we would be willing to assist them. So we have a least one volunteer go there to assist in preparing and serving the food on Monday and Fridays. I have been going the last few weeks and its so awesome to be able to help provide something so important for the kids. For some of them this is the only meal they will receive!! We also assist by picking up donated food on some Thursday nights and on Saturdays. The Woolworths grocery store donates the food and sometimes they donate odd things the kids won't eat so sometimes they let us have that stuff, so we've gotten things like sushi and cambert cheese - perks for helping out!! Here are some pics from the program.

Goodbye Alicia!!

On July 31st we said goodbye to Alicia as she went back home to New York! She and I got to be really good friends in the 3 months she was here and I hated to see her go!! She and I did several activities just the two of us, which I will always remember fondly - like going to Cape Point, checking out Grandwest Casino and Entertainment Complex (we didn't do any gambling, but checked out all the other stuff - good food, ice skating rink and cinema), introducing her to my favorite movie, Casablanca, going to His People on Sunday nights....good times!! Here's a pic of us on the Cape Point trip. I'll miss you, Alicia! I know we'll keep in touch and we will see each other again, hopefully in December!! Thanks again for the Easy Mac!! You're the coolest!! =:)

Goodbye Jonny!!

So on July 30th we said goodbye to Jonny, as he went back home to England. He has been here in Cape Town since early January. He's the last person to leave that was here when I got here, so I was very sad to see him go!! He's an amazing young man and I can't believe how well he handled being the only male volunteer in a house full of women!! He obviously hung out with Denzel, our project manager, a lot, but for the most part he was the only guy and he handled it like a champ! He's very funny, energetic, adventurous and easy-going! All the kids LOVED Jonny! Whenever we went to the SOS Village the kids were always yelling his name and climbing all over him! My fondest memories of Jonny are from our Namibia trip and from the notorious (to me!) Kylemore hike, where Jonny literally dragged me up the mountain!! I truly would not have made if not for his help!! "Thanks Jonny!"

It was always tough to get a serious pic of Jonny, so the first pic is vintage Jonny, then the second is the two of us at the Cuban restaurant the night before he left. I know God has great plans for you, Jonny! I will miss you lots and I hope we meet again!!

Happy Birthday!! Karaoke style!!

So my 38th birthday was on July 18th and it was such a good day!! It was a Wednesday, so I went to the SOS Children's Village Kindergarten as usual and the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to me, in English and in Afrikaans! Then in the office they had not one, but two cakes for me!! Yum! Then I got home and the girls had baked another cake for me!! Wow, I've never had so much cake in one day!! Then the best part, they took me out to a pub doing karaoke!!! I love karaoke so much and had been dropping hints about it for awhile, but no one seemed too interested. But they blindfolded me and drove me there as a surprise. It was sooo much fun! I sang two songs on my own, then all us girls got up and sang "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!" and then the two guys in our group got up and sang "I'm Too Sexy!", it was hilarious! Then one of the other volunteers, Anna, got up and did her first karaoke solo, she did great, it was so much fun! Here's a pic of us girls singing at the top of our lungs!!

Musings on self-absorption...

I was recently reading the book "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. In it he remarks that all of the problems in the world could be solved if we were all less self-absorbed. This seems like quite a claim, but then when I think about my own life, I think that a lot of my so-called struggles are due to self-absorption, or are at least made worse by it! I have struggled to live in a house full of 19-21 year olds - always comparing myself to them and feeling like an old, fat lump on a log. But then I realize its all just me being self-absorbed and that comparing myself to others is just a scheme of the devil! Its such an easy trap for me to fall into though! Then this Monday evening we were doing our usual program at the SOS Childrens Village, but the Khanya team couldn't be with us, and it seems we just had no confidence in our own abilities...to control the kids, to plan the lesson...we seemed defeated before we even got there and of course it went badly!! I hope we learned from it, but I'm not sure....I know we were comparing ourselves to the Khanya team and feeling inadequate but again I think this is the devil whispering lies in our ears! Then, Rolf, our Centre Director, did a talk with us and talked about how we as Christians so many times just live in survival mode, just trying to get through life instead of living the abundant, victorious lives Jesus bought for us on the cross! The whole time he was talking I kept thinking "That's me!! That's me!!" I don't know how many times I prayed to God to just get me through this day, or that program...just living in survival mode! Why? And why do I feel inadequate all the time when the Bible promises that God will equip us for whatever we face? Again, I think self-absorption rears its ugly head...its always all about me and how I'm feeling! Hopefully now that I've recognized this pattern I can counteract it by adjusting my attitude and remembering God's promises.....something tells me this will be a lifelong battle!!

Goodbye Kate!!!!

Saturday we said goodbye to Kate as she flew back home to England. She is such a vibrant personality! She will be sorely missed in the house! She could always make us laugh. And she liked to cook, so we were always the beneficiaries of her culinary skills! She was also the planner for most of our parties!! Kate, what will we do without you?!?! This is a picture of Kate and I at the VBS in Belhar, she and I were the floaters so we hung out together most of the week...I miss you lots, Katie!!! Much love to you!!