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! =:) )

Goodbye Bao-Nhi!!!

Bao-Nhi and I got to be very good friends the last few months she was here and I miss her already, very much!! She has such a huge heart and is always taking care of everyone! I told her she has the most heightened sense of responsibility of anyone I've ever met! You always knew you could count on Bao-Nhi to follow through if you asked her to do something.....not always true with many of the vols...at least not in any timely manner! =:) Bao-Nhi also had a great sense of humor and we just plain had fun together. I assisted her with the program with the younger kids at the SOS Childrens Village and I was always amazed at how well she could control the kids and how she commanded the respect - trust me - this is no easy task!!! I know all the kids at SOS miss her very much - as do I! Here's a pic of her with many of the regulars to our program! Goodbye, Bao-Nhi, I wish you a long, prosperous, joy-filled life! Love you much....

Goodbye Nina!!

Nina left in mid August to go back home to Germany. She came to YFC Cape Town as a second visit, to be the leader of the Year of Your Life team that our office has every year. Unfortunately the year did not go as planned and Nina did not stay with the team, instead she moved to our Blouberg volunteer house in May. She then made the decision to return home in August in hopes that she would still be able to find a teaching job before school started in late September. Nina is also in a relationship with one of our staff members, Denzel, whom she met and kept in contact with the first time she was here with YFC as a volunteer. Denzel visited her in Germany in 2007 and then she made the decision to come back to South Africa to also give their relationship a chance to grow....and it did....though they are once again in different continents, they are still together and making the best of it...only time will tell where their relationship goes, but I for one am pulling for them, I think they're such a sweet couple. Here is a pic of them.... Nina, Denzel and I got to hang out a few times and I really enjoyed it, I also enjoyed the few times Nina and I hung out together and wish there had been more time for us to get to know each other. She is a good friend and I hope I will see her in February when I'm in Germany!