From South Africa!

Wow! Wow! WOW! It has been such an amazing time in Cape Town South Africa! Whew, let me start from the beginning. We arrived on the 3rd of October. The port is BEAUTIFUL and reminds me so, so much of Mystic Sea Port. It is very touristy with lots of shops and ships and fish and chips. There was a small mall next door, which had a grocery store and so we took the morning to do some shopping. I love grocery shopping abroad! The foods and brands and things to taste and try are so yummy that we went a little crazy and bought a ton of cookies, crackers, granola, soymilk and Nutella to get us the rest of the way around the world. We had cheese and tomatoes crepes for lunch and then we headed out to the Khayelitsha Township.
This is one of South Africa’s fastest growing townships of about 2 million people. During our time in the township we got to visit the Philani Development Centre and Craft Shop that was started by the women in the town ship (with the help of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu) to provide child health and nutrition to the children in the community. The women work in weaving, silk screen printing, bead work and fresco painting to create these amazing works of art and the proceeds from all the sales go directly to Philani Center! To learn more you can visit philani.org.za. The women were so gracious and showed us around the facility. It was really a special place. I could have stayed and talked and made art for days and days.
Our next stop was to the Kopanong B&B, which was started by women from Cape Town who lives in the township. She wanted visitors to see first hand what it was like to stay in a township and become a part of the neighborhood while visiting Cape Town. The room and board costs all get fed back into the community. I was bummed that I didn’t have more days in South Africa or I would have stayed here longer! The townships are shack after shack after shack and no words can describe the amount of poverty that these people live in. But, once you set foot in a township, you are welcomed into their communities, homes, and families. I found that the shacks are all quite beautiful. They have so much unique character in each scrap of metal, broken doorframe, shutter, wire, fencing, and windowpane. They are incredibly small and hold very little, but they are neat and tidy and well kept. We stopped in a park in the middle of the township and played with the kids at the playground. We sang songs and asked about school, family and music. The kids were so great and it was so good to spend time with them. Everyone was so incredibly friendly. We were sitting talking to some boys who were about 6 and 9 and the mom came over and we started to get up (because we were worried she was going to be upset for these strangers (us) to be talking to her kids) but as she came closer her arms were open wide and she grabbed me into a huge hug and squeezed me tight. I miss my mom so much so it was so nice to have a hug. Then she explained a bit about the neighborhood and the township.
That night we headed out to dinner and I was missing my uncle Guy and wishing that I could tell him all of my stories and so in honor of him I ordered a HUGE bowl of mussels! Cool fact: South Africans call traffic lights “robots”! So they would say, “go straight and turn right at the next robot.”