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!!