Amy Biehl Foundation and Sir Lowery's Pass

So we have spent the last two days at the Amy Biehl foundation and then back at Sir Lowery’s Pass. While at the Amy Biehl foundation, I was one of the very few girls who decided to truly slave away and help dig up grass, shovel what I thought was dirt, which turned out to be dirt mixed with poop (monouer) (spelling?), and lay down sod. Needless to say my back and biceps are very sore today but it was so worth it! And I was really excited to get some physical activity as well since all I have been doing is stuffing my face and not being able to sleep at night. The yard in front of the school house, we did looks absolutely fabulous though!!

Today we went back to the townships and as soon as I stepped off the bus Tay-nooh came running and screaming “COOOOURTNEYYYY” and leaped into my arms! Needless to say I was just as excited to see that sweet little girl!! Tay-nooh, Roemasa (two of my favorite little girls) and I spent the beginning part of the day coloring masks and then beading more bracelets. Then, Uganda, an older boy of the township, about age 13, asked if I could help him with his history project since his team members were playing in the play ground versus contributing their part. So I learned a little bit about how to write in Afrikaans, which was really cool!

I always feel bad for the guys of our trip because they are literally a jungle gym to the boys of the township. They literally have about 8-15 kids tackling them all at once! Since, I enjoy running around and being just as aggressive, I got to experience a little taste of that as well. The kids are really sneaky, they go for your feet and flip you over! Even though there was a dog pile on me, I really enjoyed myself. Towards the end of the day I became some type of “amusement ride” for Tay-nooh, Roemasa, and her little sister and was lifting them up above my head and swinging them low and lifting the back up! Of course I didn’t mind doing this because in my head I was reminding myself I was getting a work out in! haha

As much as I love service week, I am looking forward to Friday. Haha Only because it is extremely exhausting!! We have class everyday at 830am and then break for lunch at 12pm the on the bus headed to the townships!

The lessons we had in class though were extremely helpful with being able to process everything we are experiencing and everything we have been taking in. As much as I want to give and give every possible dime I have to these amazing people its really hard to try and help them because so many times we try and impose our American values and what we think is best for their lifestyle when in reality, they have made it this far without us and they may become to dependent on our “gifts”. Also a lot of the gifts or help we try to give may also cause more harm than help since we cannot physically assist everyone. How do we decide who is or is not worthy enough to be helped? Also, if gifts of such are given, typically then men take control of the distribution of the wealth and that takes it back to the conflict of men over powering women and that also leads into more conflict.

Something that surprised me about the children was that they still perceive white people as better. They are fascinated with our looks and notice everything from our hair to our nail polish color, to our shoes. The fact that most of the children watch crappy American reality tv shoes such as the Kardashians is such a sickening thought. It gives such a bad impression on how we appear to be so materialistic. I also feel like they don’t see life as a big picture, the just live life day by day versus trying to plan. When they earn a big pay check, theyre first thought is not “oh this will buy groceries for the next month” instead it is to go out and purchase a big price item. I was shocked at how some of the kids did not even have shoes but the families had blackberry phones and plasma tvs in their home. I think they think Americans are so happy because of the materialistic items we have but in reality most of us are not happy and always want something more. The families here have a misconception of Americans being happy with what they own. I often looked at the families in the township and was jealous at the strong sense of community they all shared amongst one another. It was an open door policy no matter whose home you were in. At one point, I remembered counting how many kids were in this living room that was literally the size of a bathroom or walk in closet, and there were 28 children, all just hanging out together. It is just such a different way to live than how we do in the states.

SERVICE LEARNING

Wow, what an incredible day today! Service is a huge reason of why I decided to travel abroad this summer with Global LEAD. The curriculum we learned today in class could not have been more appropriate to prepare us for what we would encounter in the township of Sir Lowery’s Pass. Service learning was the topic. According to Robert Sigmon, he suggested service learning was only accomplished when both the providers and recipients benefited from the activities. This really opened my eyes because during class I related it back to my experience with Global LEAD last summer in Ecuador. Before they expanded the Ecuador progam to a 5 week study abroad program, I was lucky enough to spend 10 amazing days there. We worked with children from a school there as well, however it was only for one day. But during that single day, even with the language barrier, I had never felt so alive with the experience. The children there really opened my eyes. I learned a new form of happiness, something that I had never experienced before. It was not only a humbling experience but an experience that made me want to give back. I learned that helping, no matter what simple or complex form it was in, was what I wanted to do it life. It is what I feel passionately about and makes me feel alive.

Today in the townships I felt that same sense of aliveness. Being able to connect the lesson from class this morning to the experience in the township helped me bridge the link between knowing and feeling. Right when I stepped off the bus the same emotions I felt in Ecuador came rushing back. Three adorable little girls instantly grabbed my hands and started walking me to their school where we all met before we found our house moms and departed for their homes. Mrs. Rina was the mother we got to share dinner with. She so kindly invited us into her home. There was a total of eight people who shared the one bed room, one bathroom, living room, and kitchen. Nadien is Mrs. Rina’s 21 year old daughter that I got to talk a lot to. Since we are the same age, I was really interested in hearing about her life. She said her primary responsibility was to stay at the house, clean, cook, and look after the little kids while her mom worked as a cleaning lady in town.

Her second oldest child was a boy named Jason, he is 17. He spends his day at school but is also married with , either one or two kids. Both him and his wife live with his mother and father. I was really moved by Jason because I could feel the love him and his mother shared. While waiting for the spaghetti to cook he started dancing with his mom in the kitchen. He also was the one who said grace. I wasn’t able to remember all of his prayer but he said “thank you for the strength you gave us to get through the day, please strengthen us for tomorrow… thank you for the food, the people who have made it, and the visitors we have here today, also, thank you for the air..” that kind of caught me off guard. I am an avid prayer but I cannot remember a time I have thanked God for air. From Jason, I learned how many simple things I take for granted every day and how often all I think about is what I want next or what I want to accomplish next. Never do I pause and truly say thank you for the simple things, such as clean air.

Another thing that I really enjoyed seeing in the townships was the close bond is between all the children. They were everywhere playing games with one another and running around together. Even though many of the kids were not related they constantly would look out for one another. There also was obviously an open door policy because children kept going and coming as they pleased!

I am so excited to go back to Sir Lowery’s Pass and get to spend the entire week there. Like I said, this week was the highlight of why I came. I am looking forward to seeing what I learn tomorrow about myself and the amazing people who live in the township!

Go Stormers!!

Well yesterday was a blast! We woke up early and went to the Old Biscuit Mill, which is kind of like a farmers market but with tons and tons of food and samples, not just veggies and fruits. So it was right up my alley!! And it is only on Saturdays! The tastes and smells of so many different spices, pestos, desserts, sandwiches, juice, teas, coffee, (the list could go on and on,) was unreal. I had a delicious juice it was called “green pick me up” and since my mom doesn’t know how to use her juicer, and it just sits and collects dust, I think it might go missing when I get home (just like the magic bullet!) haha But the drink was so good, I stopped by again on the way out and got another one! Another one of my favorite treats were these cute little pancakes with different flavor spices and syrups on them! Oh and the humus was to die for! The best I have EVER tasted in my life! I bought two tubs of it thinking it would last until next Saturdays market but I am already out of one. L

After the Old Biscuit Mill we went back to the Green Market. I think I knocked off my huge list of who to bring back something for so I am excited!! I got a lot more cute little treasures and did not improve my haggling abilities at all! But oh well, at least I am supporting the locals economy! J

The rugby game was the next event of the day! We cheered on the Stormers as they played their rival team I think. We also tailgated and cooked out before the game! I even talked our adventure guys into letting me help cook the sausages but I was removed from the job when I accidently dropped some on the ground! Oopsie!

Then we went out to this bar called Doublins, I wasn’t a fan, but it was neat to try it out. Everywhere is way to packed. You have to weave your way through people. I almost got robbed too! But one of the guys in our group caught him in the act of trying to unzip and take things from my purse. However one girl in our group did get her cell phone taken.

Today has been nice, just relaxing some and caught up on my sleep. I have been going going going so it was nice to have a more laid back kind of day! Then we have class later at 5:30 and a big group dinner together. I decided it was about time to do my laundry. For those who don’t know, my smart self only packed one normal bra and now I just realized not enough underwear either! Currently I feel like Gracie :P haha wearing my swim suite bottoms instead!! Haha sorry Grace, had to call you out! At least I didn’t go into too much detail! ;)  

I signed up for my extra adventure activities for the trip as well! I decided on taking surfing lessons, hiking and then repelling off of Table Mountain, bungee jumping from the world’s highest bungee jump, and the sunset champagne cruise at the end of the trip. Oh and something else I have noticed that is kind of interesting to me is that the food here goes bad so much faster than in America. Even salad leaves! Which just goes to show how much preservatives are in the food back in the states!

Well, we I experienced my first night out in Cape Town, last night. It was a little intense to say the least. We went to this place called “Tiga Tiga.” It was kind of like a night club but it was located in a mall…. Very interesting concept. They had kind of a form of go go dancers dancing on the stage. The people there were very into PDA! A little too much if you ask me! The guys are extremely aggressive as well. Some of the guys and our driver, Ish, who watches over us when we go out, had to step in a few times and let them know to back off. One guy even bit this girl’s shoulder FOUR times! So odd.. But over all we all had an absolute blast and look forward to going back at least once more before the trip ends!

Class this morning was absolutely amazing. We talked about our values. We had a pretend auction where we made a list of our values and then narrowed it down to which ones we valued the most and we had to divvy our budget of $5000 amongst which ones we wanted to “win.”  I had a huge list and narrowed it down to ten, then went on from there. I took a bunch of notes on the lesson today but our journals are being graded over the weekend so I will include all my notes in here when I get it back! However my max money bid was placed on Loyalty but these are my three most important to me values:

My three strongest values were : 1. Loyalty 2. Forgiveness/Mercy and 3. Perserverance. Loyalty of course is what I prize the absolute most. I think a lot goes hand in hand with that. To be loyal to someone to me, means always keeping your word, staying faithful, and supporting those in your life that you love. In my eyes, without loyalty, you have nothing. It is the root of any kind of healthy relationship. I think this is why I have such strong relationships with my wonderful family and friends. I can honestly say that I feel like I would do anything for the people I love and always have their best interest at heart.

Forgiveness is my second most prized value because it’s obvious that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Looking at my life and the way I relate to it, is that I’m never mad nor hold grudges. I can not think of the last time I was truly mad at someone. Life is way to short to hold a grudge. If someone says sorry and genuinely means it, move on! There is no point in wasting the time or effort in being upset with someone. Not only that, but being upset or angry robs you from your own happiness!

Perseverance was my third most valued value. I wouldn’t say I am stubborn, well maybe a little bit, but I am a very determined individual. When I set my mind to something, whatever it may be, I will accomplish it. And that’s the bottom line! I know what it means to work really hard for something and not give up, despite the obstacles. If I start something, I’ll accomplish it.

Even though I was extremely tired and going off four hours of sleep I decided to go out with a bunch of girls to the green market in the city. It was a lot of fun but I am a terrible haggler! I feel so guilty and bad! Haha My dad is the BEST at haggling so maybe I should have taken some advice before I left. But I just feel terrible for being cheap with them. After the market, we went to Charly’s Bakery, which Opera calls it the best bakery in the world and she is definitely right! I ordered a slice of chocolate cake and it had real rose petals on it and was probably the best thing I have ever put in my mouth! Everything was so nicely decorated. The cakes and cupcakes look like they had glitter on them. I took a few pictures but the pictures just don’t do it any justice! Needless to say, I am sure I will be back daily!!

Tomorrow we are all tailgating for the Stormer’s Rugby game!! So I am extremely excited and looking forward to it!! J Go Stormers!! haha

May 17th! :)

Well today was another amazing day in Cape Town! We started off with class this morning where we discussed our strengths. The teachers put an emphasis on how we should focus on our strengths versus our weaknesses. Typically if you were giving a list of 20 traits, in order, that were consider your strengths, most likely your eye would look at the last one to see what you aren’t good at and how you can improve. I confess I am guilty of it! My strengths in order is:

1.       Relator

2.       Responsibility

3.       Arranger

4.       Includer

5.       Positivity

I honestly think it described me to the T. Reading the results and descriptions of it on paper was interesting to say the least!

After that we went to one of the schools the Amy Biehl Foundation established. Kevin Chaplin, spoke to us the other day about how to be a good leader and run a successful business based on the “Table Theory,” I found it all really appealing and decided to buy the book! (I will have to waste three days on a plane ride home anyways!) However, he is the CEO for the Amy Biehl Foundation.

In short the Amy Biehl Foundation is a program established to help children in the townships to expand their extracurricular activities by hosting after school hobbies from 3-5pm every weekday. The events included dancing, singing, stepping, sports, HIV/AIDS prevention info, gardening, and so on.  We got to explore their class rooms and then they all performed for us. It was AMAZING. I could literally feel the passion these kids had for whatever their talent was. I could not take my eyes off of the boys stepping, or the kids in the choir. It is so hard to find the words to describe the feelings and emotions that came through me while being there. I felt like I was holding back tears and I had no idea why I would be crying. I guess seeing the joy and happiness on their faces with what they had and how thankful they was extremely humbling. Many of the kids did not even have shoes. I wanted so badly to take them all shopping and let them pick out anything they wanted! It’s just the simple things that we have in life that we constantly take for granted every day. While sitting and watching some of the kids perform I had the chance to talk to some of the little girls of the township. They were fascinated by my hair and kept wanting to play with it. The kid’s ages ranged from 2-17 there. And many of the older children spoke extremely good English! Some even better than me!! And while in one room I saw one of the kid’s math homework and truthfully I had no idea how to even solve the problems!! Haha I was very impressed with what the Amy Biehl Foundation has provided for all of these amazing children. You can see how grateful they are as well. I cannot wait to go back Friday to volunteer! We are getting to put on a field day so I am very eager to get to play soccer with the kids!!

I am excited for the rest of the adventures and amazing opportunities to unfold. Looking forward to tomorrow! J

Hiking Table Mountain!

Group Shot!

I learned today, that in some parts of Cape Town, boys and girls share the same bathroom. Needless to say.. it was a little awkward.

However, I really enjoyed dinner at Moyo, which was an African cuisine restaurant. The waitresses painted on our faces and gave us our all own unique tribal look! Then they danced on stage and encourage everyone else to join..... we all know how my dance moves are..... soooooooo...... hahahaha

Tomorrow is another busy fun filled day starting bright and early! :) I am looking forward to all the adventures it holds!!

Day One 5/14/12

I have never started a blog or honestly even kept a journal, so this is all new to me. But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and trip that I am doing this summer and I want to be able to share all of my adventures with those who are interested in my travels and for my own good, so I can look back on a reflect on all that I have experienced and learned. SO this is the begining of my attempt to publish a blog! haha

After THREE days of travel- with NO shower, we finally arrived to our destination. Our flight traveled from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany to Johannesburg and then finally to Cape Town, South Africa. The first thing we did was get our apartment keys and checked in.

Our apartment is a two bed room, two bath, with living room, dining area, kitchen, and balcony overlooking the beautiful beaches of Cape Town along with a view of Table Mountain and Lions Head Mountain.

I am rooming with three other girls, Lauren (who I grew up playing soccer with)she is a student at Auburn University, Chelby who is a student from UGA, and Kelsey who is a student  from UGA as well. We all clicked right off the back, especially when I found out they love to run and work out!! We have to do everything in groups of three or more, so I am excited it won’t be too hard to find someone to go to the gym or run with!

The day we arrived we went into the town to get groceries. The grocery stores are connected to malls. It’s very strange. But what is even more complicated than that is learning the conversion of money. For example, milk costs $35 rand which in American money is $5. Pretty much we have to divide everything by 7.5 to get a better estimate on how much we are actually spending. I’m guessing as these weeks go by I will have a better understanding of it and be able to calculate it faster!

Our first night we dined at Zorbas, which is a Greek restaurant attached to the hotel. I had some kind of chicken shishcabob thing with veggies. No complaints there! J

Our first real day in Cape Town was today. We began the morning with a nice hot breakfast catered to us at the owners own home. Where we then went over orientation and broke up into our community groups. We spent the time making a chain “bucket list” of things we plan to do here in Cape Town. Here is the start of mine:

1.       Meet two new people each day and ask them about their lives.

2.       Visit Stoenbosh (which is the college campus here in the city)

3.       Go Bungee Jumping (heights and falling is my absolute BIGGEST fear in this entire world!!!)

4.       Learn some kind of African Slang

5.       Learn and do an African custom

6.       Run on the beach

7.       Try an “African Specialty” dish

8.       Ride an Ostrich J

9.       Learn to surf (even though it is winter here and the water is FREEZING!)

10.   Write and begin a blog

11.   Play soccer with the kids in sir lowerys pass

12.   Watch the sunrise

13.   Go shark cave diving

14.   Visit the stadium where the world cup was played

15.   Stay open minded to anything and everything that presents itself to me

That is what I have so far, of course I will end up adding more as I go on throughout this trip! After our orientation we loaded up the buses and headed out to a tour of the city.

The city is full of all different forms of what I consider beautiful. Although many parts are extremely poverty stricken, you can still see the happiness and simplicity of life on children’s faces as they play soccer in a field or fish around in the small sewage ponds. People have tarp houses built anywhere they possibly can find space, whether it be under a bridge, near a cemetery, or in a ditch. But what is so surprising to me is how you can almost feel such a powerful sense of affection that the families share with one another just by watching how they interact. I guess when you take so many distractions out of our everyday lives, whatever is left, is what makes life so beautiful.

We traveled two museums today. One was based off of the destruction of district six and the other museum was focused on the slave lodge. District Six was a huge area with a very closely knitted mixed population of blacks and whites. The government decided to pass a “Group Areas Act.” This act instituted the divisions of urban areas into separate townships, which were designed to divide and isolate communities. Poorly constructed working-class townships were built, separated by buffer strips consisting of freeways, polluted rivers and strategically placed military land and golf courses. In District Six, apartheid’s grand design was to remove 35,000 people from the city’s core to its distant periphery. However, the mixed community refused to leave so the government went in a demolished everything without any type of notice to the residents. That was decades ago, and now the people are allowed to move back and re-claim their land but only 3,000 residents put in applications because too many were too distraught to re-visit it because of the horrifying memories. The second museum was the Slave Lodge. I had always learned about slavery in school but today I feel like I truly understand how absolutely horrifying the conditions and treatments were. The Slave Lodge was a huge building with a court in the center. It was where the slaves were locked up at night. The horrifying details of it all made me sick to my stomach.

I’m glad we had the city tour because it gave me a better understanding of where I am and the history of Cape Town. It was a great introduction for the trip.

Our first group dinner is tonight and we will be experiencing “true African cuisine” so hopefully I will be able to knock another bucket list item off!