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.