Last day of school at the SOS KG!!

So on the last day of school we had a beach themed Christmas party. First the kids donned their bathers (swimsuits to you Americans!) and ran through the sprinklers...or as Joanen did below, just stuck their heads right in the water!!! An excellent way to combat the heat! =:) When not running in the sprinklers, the kids all laid down on their towels. Then they put up the jumping castles and the kids all took their turns jumping around! Finally we went into the courtyard and had lunch - here's a pic of mielies we had (corn on the cob for us Americans!) ...and handed out presents that were donated by an area insurance company. Here's a pic of some of the girls opening their presents. I just love this last picture of Thulani, isn't she beautiful!!

who knew I liked sushi? .....and everyone knows I love dessert!!!

So on Friday nights until 7pm they have half price sushi and drinks at Beluga, a fancy schmancy eatery downtown Cape Town. So one of our friends who loves sushi talked me and another vol, Natalie, into going there for sushi. I've only tried sushi one other time and thought it was pretty nasty, but at everyone's urging, I gave it another try, and, whadaya know? I liked it - a lot!!! Here's a pic of my Samuri rolls, salmon with avocado... I also had a banana kiwi daquiri...yum!
Then on a Saturday, Natalie and I went downtown to walk around and look at the market and some of the shops and we found this interesting place....Mr Pickwicks Deli - Splendid Deli Foods. Simply Silly Shakes. We had to give it a try.... so Natalie had the Hummingbird Cake.... and I had a brownie with ice cream....too yummy on a hot day!!!

Masquerade Party!!

So the Blouberg volunteer house had a Masquerade Party just before Halloween (which they do not celebrate here!). You couldn't come in without a mask, if you didn't bring one, they'd provide one for you - most of them not very flattering!! It was big fun...here are a couple pics.... There weren't many choices at the stores, so Joana and I had the same mask!!! Cathleen and Jozien.....

More American-style!!!

So I found the pics of "The Famous American Style Chocolate Chip Cookies" and "American Carmel Corn". Again, it just makes me laugh whenever I see these in the store - in Cape Town, South Africa!!! Both very good btw, gotta love American-style!!! =:)

Goodbye Edith!!

Now, Edith just left last week, so I'm not so behind with her post!! She is also from Germany, seems we've been overrun with Germans lately!! =:)
She served in our Kangaroo Moms program at the Karl Bremer Hospital and then she and the girls started a new program at New Life Center, where women go to hide a pregnancy, then give up the baby for adoption. Apparently one of the "women" is only 11 years old!! Their aim here is to fellowship with and encourage these women.

Edith also served in the farm project, where the kids live in a small development where their parents work at the big, main farm. They live in pretty poor, unhygienic conditions. They are trying to find creative ways to teach them basic hygiene without offending them or their parents!

Edith was so sweet and seemed to always have a smile on her face! She was truly a joy to be around. We will greatly miss her! She is hoping to study to be a midwife back in Germany. God bless you in all you do, Edith!!

Goodbye Lea!!

So Lea left in September and I'm just now getting around to updating! She was only here for 2 months and served in the Kylemore project, so I didn't get a chance to know her very well. But clearly she bonded with the kids and will be missed!! She is back home in Germany, but we joked that she was an American German because she'd spent enough time in the States that she had hardly any accent....many would guess she was from the US instead of Germany! I am sure God will use her great heart in mighty ways!! God bless, Lea!!

What makes me smile every day?!

This is a picture of my front sun visors in my car. They are wire, beaded flowers that I buy from the guys selling stuff at the street lights (called "robots" here!). I started with just a couple but soon decided I would set a goal to have them going all the way across before I left...and, as you can see, I succeeded with several months to spare!!! They really do make me smile every day!!!

Habitat for Humanity build...

A few days in July and then again in September, some of us volunteers assisted at a Habitat for Humanity build in the township of Mfuleni. The day I helped out we were putting up rafters for the roof, then finished the roof with tiles. I couldn't help snapping a pic of some kids in the street.... Here's a pic of me and one of our South African team members, Melany. Finishing the roof.... The happy homeowner, Ntsikelelo Mgaju and her daughter.

Ricardo - a short, wild life....

Ricardo was one of the kids at the SOS Village. Wild and untamed is how I would describe him....He hung around with a group of boys who were always into trouble and on September 30th it caught up with him. The boys had climbed over a wall to escape the village, were running across a busy street when a car struck Ricardo, killing him instantly. And now I'm left wondering what could have been...

Here are my strongest memories of Ricardo:
At the KG: When I was volunteering at the kindergarten last year, I had many run-in's with Ricardo. We tried our best to make him stay in class and listen to the lessons, but he was always too antsy, he literally couldn't sit still! And if he did stay in the class he was generally disruptive and combative towards the other children. So much of the time he spent running around in the courtyard or helping the custodian, Uncle Andele. But the sweetest memory I have was when he graduated from kindergarten last year, he told one of our other volunteers to "Tell that guy (Denzel) that I graduated!" He was so proud and wanted someone to know!

When I would see Ricardo in the village in the evening, he was always in motion, running around, climbing things, he couldn't be bothered to come down and talk to us boring old people!! But at the same time he loved to go into the hall where we did a lifeskills program with the teenagers and wreak havoc! That is how most of us from YFC remember Ricardo. Running around, being disruptive, but impossible to catch to talk to, impossible to get him to stop for a moment and listen to you...

I don't know what his background was, all the kids at SOS have suffered from either abuse or neglect or both and have been sorely let down by the adults in their lives, he has 3 other siblings still living at the village.... I don't know how long Ricardo had lived at the village... I know his SOS mom worried about him and had trouble keeping tabs on him, try as she might... I always wondered about Ricardo myself... since he couldn't stay in class, how could he learn? And if he had no education, what was his future? To be honest, I thought without some sort of intervention, Ricardo would end up in jail. And so maybe God knew Ricardo was too wild for this world, he couldn't be tamed and he couldn't be forced to conform to society, so now he's at peace and I hope his soul is free.... I miss seeing Ricardo race past me at the village... and again, I can't help but wonder what might have been... I have nothing but love and memories of this wonderful, wild child...Ricardo

YFC General Assembly

So YFC has a General Assembly (GA!) every 4 years and this year it was held at our training centre in Magaliesburg, South Africa (just outside of Johannesburg). Its the first time it has been held in Africa, so we really wanted to make a big impression on the rest of the YFC world! Here is one of my favorite pictures, taken at one of the evening sessions.....I love the colors and how the cross is illuminated....





This is the logo of GA....








So most of us volunteers in Cape Town went early to GA to help with getting everything ready and then we were "on duty" the whole week. The dates of GA were Sept 19-26th. Over 800 people were there from over 100 nations! It was truly amazing! I was part of the Admin team that had to get everyone registered and into rooms! No small feat, believe me! Here are some pics of registration and of me and Natalie at the Info Desk...









At the opening ceremony the worship band really got things off to a great start with incredible, spirited worship songs (the worship band is from Cape Town so I know most of them so it was cool to see them on stage and using their God-given talents!)









And we had some Zulu dancers to get everyone in "Africa mode"! It was a fabulous night....










But then every night was great! There were talks given every morning and evening. Because I was helping with admin, I missed most of the morning sessions, but luckily I didn't miss most of the evening sessions, because they were mostly given by Robert Gelinas. He's a pastor from Denver and to say he was phenomenal is an understatement!!! He gave 5 talks on being "People of the cross". In the most powerful message he gave he asked if we were willing to accept whatever "cup" God might have for us in our lives - referring to Mt 26:39 when Jesus said "...My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will." He asked us to think about what cup God may have placed in our lives and are we willing to accept it or will we run from it? One of the other speakers talked about how important it was in his life when as a teen, an older man in his church told him God had told him to pray for the young man, every day. And how that man had encouraged and stood up for him in the church. He challenged us all to ask God to show us one young person that we should pray for every day and to tell that young person we were praying for them and what a difference it could make in that person's life...I know who I'm praying for....will you also take the challenge?

All throughout the week there were special sessions for all the Young Leaders at the conference...almost 300 of them! It was the kickoff of a 2 year program these Young Leaders will be going through to equip them to go out in their countries and proclaim the gospel to other young people. On the last night we commissioned these young people...here's a pic....



It truly was an incredible week, so many great stories....but to be honest, this introverted girl was exhausted by the end of the week and anxious to get back to Cape Town and back to "normal life". So finally here are some pics of us waiting for the train and then on the train we took to and from Magaliesburg.




Here are some pics of my fellow YFC staff, me with Rolf's wife, Lizzie (Rolf is the National Director - formerly our Cape Town Centre Director) and then Rita, Rosa and Natalie....

It takes over 24 hours to get from Cape Town to Jo'burg, so we had lots of time for fun and games......

our favorites? Rummikub and Sequence!!! Lots of fun!










And finally a picture of the scenery going by - SNOW on the mountains and a beautiful lake in the valley below!! South Africa is truly so breathtaking!!

SOS Photo Shoot!

The kids at SOS love to have the picture taken and then they will bug you for days until you print them out and bring them a copy! But I love them so much and can never have enough pics, so here's a small sampling....

American Style!!

So here's a picture of an actual vendor at Canal Walk, the biggest mall in Cape Town - American Corn Dogs!! And they're so good and they remind me of the State Fair every time I have one! Not because I get corn dogs at the State Fair - cheesecake on a stick is more likely to grab my attention - but because I know there's the State Fair brand corn dogs...and so it makes me nostalgic! I also had taken a picture of the packaging touting "American-style chocolate chip cookies" and "American-style caramel corn" but I must have accidentally deleted them....its makes me laugh every time I see them!! It seems so funny to see packaging like that in Africa!! And they're both also very good, btw, gotta love American-style!! =:)

Goodbye Gabe!!

All I can say about Gabe is he's an original! He does not fit into any box you could come up with for a guy from the US, Georgia, in particular. He has no plans to go to college. Brags about how he can't cook, how he can live off a few bucks a week for food - he ate more pizza here in Cape Town than I thought was possible. He had no desire to see any of the sites in Cape Town -one of the most beautiful cities in the world! He's perfectly happy to sit in front of his computer for hours playing his Star Wars game - or sitting on the ledge on the front of the house playing his guitar. And though he hates 80's music (which I love!), he scores huge points for liking Janis Joplin and classic rock! On a serious note, Gabe worked in our project at Vissershok Primary School and at SOS Children's Village, and when many of the vols left and it was just him and Jana, he really stepped up to the plate and took the lead...much to our suprise!!! The teens at SOS will really miss him! I had lots of fun reminiscing about old TV show theme songs with Gabe...our favorite to annoy fellow vols with....sing it with me, Gabe, sing it loud.... "Green Acres is the place to be....Farm livin is the life for me!...."

Goodbye Arjan!!

So Arjan lived at the Kylemore house, so I didn't get to know him very well, but I know he is sorely missed in that community! He assimilated very quickly to the culture there and was involved on several levels. He taught lifeskills at the High School with one of our other vols, Rita. He led a nature club with some of the youth and he was a member of the soccer team in Kylemore - they called him Long Man because he's so tall! He has such an easy-going, fun-loving way about him that made him very approachable. It also helps that he is from Holland and since Dutch and Afrikaans (the "mother-tongue" of most of the colored community in South Africa) are quite similar, he could understand and communicate with them more easily. Here is a pic of him with Meno, one of our team members from last year who has come back to YFC to lead the Kylemore house. (Arjan is the white guy! =:) )