Hello! Just wanted to give an update on the half marathon this morning. We all did really well! I finished in 1:44:19 which is a little under 8 minute miles so I was super pleased with the result. Glad it is all over with though! The 7am start was a bit rough but the weather was great and the scenery was beautiful. I had as much fun as I could have when running 13.1 miles lol. The picture above is an actual picture of part of the course, so as you can see, Cape Town is quite the pretty place! I'm looking forward to getting some rest, seeing some of Cape Town night life tonight, and a few touristy things before I fly out on Thursday. Time flies ahhh!

Hello! Super sorry to all of you who have been reading my blog/ lack thereof the last few weeks! It has been super busy here, but thank you for reading up till the very end…yes only a few more days, it is crazy!  So the following are a few updates:

From my last blog, you heard about little Zuanny’s surgery. Luckily, everything went fine with the removal of his ear tumor! He had to go back to the hospital a few times, but he is doing fine, and they can’t keep him from playing outside. So he is feeling good and coping with having his head wrapped every day.

Last Thursday was the Ubuntu fundraiser. It was a wonderful night and the team raised enough money for all the boys to attend this really good school next year. We were all really pleased with how it went and how people are so keen to be a part of this great vision for these young boys as well as their future. A popular Radio DJ was so impressed; he even had the coaches interviewed on the radio!

Last Saturday, a few of us ventured to “The Old Biscuit Mill.” It is a large tent area in Cape Town, where Casey says “all the beautiful people go.” We had a lot of fun trying different foods – I had my first banana/nutella crape, yum!

This week was holiday club. Lots of laughs, sing a long songs that got very annoying, and boogars. Lots and lots of boogars. I had the pleasure of working with the preschoolers. Although super cute, most couldn’t speak English well and, therefore, had a hard time listening to directions. Or they just didn’t want to listen to directions at all? Lol who knows. It was a rewarding experience though and I was glad when it was all said and done that I got to do it.

On Wednesday, we went to see Coldplay at Cape Town Stadium. It was cool to go to since it was built for last year’s World Cup. The show was fantastic! I tried to sneak on the floor to get closer to the band, but no such luck. Still had an awesome time though!

Yesterday, we took the youth to Hillsong. Ocean Viewers are so fun to roll with. They totally were breaking it down at church. I will try to post a video soon! It was super fun! After a long week and sleep deprivation, I was a bit hesitant about going, but I had such a blast.

Today, the church from Nashville that sponsored Living Hope’s holiday club took all the volunteers out to play paint ball. I was super excited since it was my first time and had a lot of fun. I got shot in quite a few places. The ones that hurt the most were in the foot and neck. I hit one of the guys that work at the paint ball place by accident (woops), I guess I’ll stick to not joining the military!

Tomorrow is the “Gun Run” half marathon. It is going to be a beautiful, early morning run around the Cape Town waterfront. Unfortunately, my legs totally gave out this week and have been really cramping from being sick and what not, so I don’t think it will be the most fun, but I know I will be able to get through it and will feel an accomplishment when it is all said and down. Going to a foreign country for a few months with different food and minimal sleep and still being able to run a fair amount – not bad!

I look forward to doing a few more touristy things before I fly out Thursday morning and arrive in America Friday afternoon. I am really going to miss Ocean View and all of my new friends. The experiences I have gotten here can never be replaced and I am so fortunate for them all! Can't wait to see all my American friends though, it has been too long!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week! This is my last "normal" week! It is crazy how time flies! Just wanted to leave a quick note...My little buddy, Zuan (I call him Zoony) went into surgery today to remove the tumor in his ear. He is still at the hospital right now, but we are all hoping that he makes it out okay! Please say a little prayer that the surgery is going well and he has a quick recovery! Thanks!

A great start to the week! On Monday, I got to spend a lot of time with the little ladies of Ocean View. Unfortunately, since Treswill was sick, we were unable to go to the primary school to do soccer stuff, so I went to Casey and Sarah’s to do some other work. A few of the middle school aged girls came by and we all hung out for awhile. My mom had put a shoe box full of goodies into Austin’s carry-on bag, thanks Mom! It was filled with a bunch of stuff for the kids that I was unable to fit into my bag like the tooth paste and tooth brushes. I can’t wait to give them out! Tooth care is such a low priority here (Tomica didn’t even know what flossing was)! Speaking of teeth, the lady I went around with this morning had gold stars glued to her front 2 teeth, baller! Back to the shoe box: my mom also put in a whole bunch of all jewelry that she had been collecting. I recognized a lot of jewelry we wore years ago, as well as some jewelry from Grandma Higgs. It was cool to see memories of Grandma Higgs as well as my mom and sisters here in South Africa. The saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” went with this jewelry. It was so nice to see how excited they got over it. They kept asking me, “Are you sure we can have all of this?” They even said that they were going to give some of the stuff to their moms as presents. It’s so cool to see those who have so little, give so much.

A few of the younger girls wrote notes to me. They were so sweet, I got a little teary! It is going to be so hard to say goodbye in a few weeks!

I also had Bible study with the older girls on Monday. They were pretty well behaved, which was a plus, and contributed to the conversation. It may have been because I gave out candy, but I like to think it is because they are becoming more comfortable with talking about real stuff. They had some homework from last week. They were supposed to go out of their way to be nice to someone who they wouldn’t normally do that for. One of the girls named Jocelyn said that she tried to be nice to her cousin even though the cousin would totally ignore her. (Apparently when the cousin’s dad died she stopped talking to Jocelyn for some odd reason, doesn’t make since I know.) I told her that she should write her a note to tell her cousin that she will always be there for her no matter what. Normally the girls have such a tough guard up, so it was cool that Jocelyn was willing to be so caring even when her cousin was being so rude.  I asked the girls, if they could be anyone else who would they be? One girl said Nelson Mandela and another girl said Shayvon (a therapist on tv that gives advice to people who have problems). I thought those answers were pretty cool and it points out that these girls aren’t looking for an easy life, they are looking for a life that has meaning. Another girl said that she wouldn’t want to be anyone else, that she liked herself, which was really cool as well, because this particular girl has a lot of problems fitting in with her family, and she is always treated as inferior to the rest of her siblings.

                On Tuesday I got to tour the great city of Cape Town. We had our very own tour guide who happened to be my neighbor, so it was cool to get the perspective of everything from a local. We rode in a taxi then a train all the way down to downtown. It took a good 45-50 minutes. I couldn’t imagine having to take that commute everyday! The first stop was to the Castle of Good Hope. It wasn’t really what I was expecting for a castle. I felt pretty dumb when I asked if kings and queens lived in it! Lol, it was the castle that the Dutch built when they settled in South Africa to say “hey we are here!” Then we went to the museum that exhibited the slaves of Cape Town. It definitely explained a lot about why the coloured people all look so different. Their ancestors came from all sorts of places, like northern Africa, Asia, India. Coloured people are the mixed race. When the Europeans came down they would make babies with the slaves and that is how this race started. Many coloured people don’t like to talk about their heritage because they either don’t know where they are from or they don’t want to recognize their history as being a slave. Another place we went was the District 6 Museum. It is crazy how all of the races  lived in harmony together, and then the slim minority (the Dutch) took over the government and put up all these stipulations – from always carrying around their identification card, not being able to be out past 8pm, and having to relocate. Can you image getting a pink slip on your door saying you had to move out of your house in 2 hours? You would have no time to pack or say goodbye. The cruel history is so sad. It really put into perspective why things are the way they are now though. Many people have forgiven history and moved on, but many still remember white people being such jerks to them and their families, that is why me, Austin, and the Princes still get looks for walking around – even though we had nothing to do with it. Male authority problems still exist because of the past as well. When the families got kicked out of their homes, the father’s mainly, got the most frustrated because they couldn’t protect their families, and in turn, they started beating their wives and abusing their kids because of their pain and that was the only thing they still had control over. It is so easy for evil to have a dominos effect unfortunately. For lunch, we went to this Indian place (kind of scary because I am not the biggest Indian food fan) but it was basically this long hallway with all these food joints. I played it safe and got the pizza. We met a Turkish guy, who goes to college in Germany, and now is taking classes in Cape Town. It is cool meeting some randos!

Overall a great and informative day! Glad I got the experience to learn so much about Cape Town’s history, and now I know why things are the way they are here!

Sarah put up a blog that I wrote on her website. I think all of you guys would find it informative on everyday life through a child here in Ocean View, so check it out! http://looklistenlove.org/2011/09/233/

Also, Austin Dietz (a Raleigh boy) has a blog and has a really nice camera so check out all his stuff!

austininsouthafrica.com

South Africa – Expect the unexpected

I had lots of fun this week! Today I went to the “Scratch Patch.” Basically, it is a place with thousands of rocks on the ground and you get to keep any of the ones that you found and fit in your bag. Yes, I was the oldest person in there besides the parents, but Kieran came with me so I didn’t look too silly. Plus, there were quite a few kids that fell into the water, so I was glad that my party left dry. We also went to Boulder’s Beach and saw the penguins. The sign said that the penguins were always ecstatic – well not today, but it was pretty cool to see live penguins. There was a penguin underneath the steps that I got a picture with. I went to pretend to touch it and the penguin made a horrible noise and snapped at me. Luckily, I didn’t get bitten but it scared me and Kieran as well!

Kid’s club is where this week’s craziness was at, surprise, surprise right? I thought I had seen it all at Kid’s club already – drugs, violence, and chaos, boy was I wrong, no pun intended! I went outside to play with a few of the girls and one of the older boys (who is about 12) rolls up with this huge, white, veiny, plastic man part, with exchangeable tips. 1. I couldn’t believe things that size were created 2. I couldn’t believe he brought it out in public 3. I just couldn’t believe it. 4. I’m just going to stop right there! I asked him to please go take it back home (probably should have told him to burn it and take a bath…but yeah) he finally took it home! That was part one of Kid’s club craziness. Part two and three involves one little girl named Tammy Anne. Tammy Anne is super, super cute, roughly 3 or 4. You can never get mad at her even though she is quite the menace! On Thursday, she thought that it was okay to bite me. She didn’t want to bite anyone else, she just wanted to bite me. So, for awhile I tried to shield by body whenever she would come around, which was actually quite hard when you have 3 girls hanging all over you. She got the best of me, and ran all the way around to my backside, where she then took a big bite of my right butt cheek with her baby snaggle teeth – I don’t know if they are so little because of them being rotten or because they are growing in, I think more because they are rotten. To make matters worse her brother saw this going on and decided to bite the other butt cheek. A tetanus shot maybe in order!  So, now to part 3. You have to forgive and forget quickly because the kids are really just out of control, but anyways, a few minutes later Tammy Anne had calmed down and she came up to me and reached her arms up. I try not to pick up the kids because I know all of them will then want to be picked up, but since she is the youngest I thought it would be okay. I kept her far away from my face though, in fear that she was going to pull a Mike Tyson and bite off my ear or something, which was actually a great idea, because she had a burp-throwup. She threw up all over her jacket and a stream of throwup went from my shoulder all the way down to my shoe. So thank you, Tammy Anne, for always keeping it interesting!

Yes, the kids are crazy. Some are crazier than others! This story is actually quite uplifting. One of the girls down the street, Tomia, came up to me on Tuesday and said that her mom wanted to talk to me. I asked what she wanted to talk to me about and she said “My mommy wants a book about Jesus and so do I.” I told her that I would be looking for a good one for both of them . I thought that was so cool though that they were trying to learn more about Jesus! Tomia also asked me if I could sleep over at her house. I am such a softy that I agreed to it as long as I got my own bed! So that will be a real Ocean View experience. Tomia and I sleeping in bunk beds next to a bed with Tomica and her mom – that’ll be something!

Austin has arrived in Ocean View and is fitting in quite well. Can’t wait to do more touristy things now!

Congrats to Casey, Michael, Treswill, and the A/B U13 Ubuntu players for getting first place in their leagues! We all are very excited for their success this season!

I hope everyone has a great remainder of their weekend!

Love you!

Hello! 
First off, I would like to just thank all the past and present armed forces that fight for our country as well as remember all of those who have fallen from September 11, 2001. We will never forget the sacrifice you all have made! I can’t believe it has already been 10 years. 
This week has been filled with a few ups and downs, but it ends just right. Today was a 1st for a few things. 1. My first rugby world cup!!! After church, we all gathered around the t.v. to watch South Africa take on Wales. I almost felt like a traitor cheering for the Springboks because Daniel’s family is from Wales…but sorry Roberts! I had to cheer for my current home – the green and yellow! It was a very entertaining game and South Africa did indeed win…by one point! Rugby is a crazy game. I feel like it is a combination of so many sports plus insanity throwing your body around like that. I look forward to watching more games because it is quite entertaining!
2. Today was also the first ‘prayer walk’ for the churches of Ocean View. Ocean View is a rather large community, but even so, to have over 200 churches in the area is outrageous! I doubt Raleigh even has that many churches and it is way bigger! So a bunch of the churches came together and prayed for different areas of the community. Many people are very passionate about having the churches come together. It is a shame that Christians, who all believe in the same God and Jesus, can be so hostile towards one another. These walks are to gain unity amongst all the churches and with the new strength, make a difference in making Ocean View a better place. 
I was really put to work this week on the Ubuntu front. Being the only girl volunteer at this point, they had the perfect job for me. Basically, it was a job that the rest of them didn’t want! I had to tape together ribbon around 70 invitations for the fundraiser! The ribbon was super small. The task was on the tedious end, but hey, if it gets people to come to the fundraiser and helps to raise money for the teams, I’m on board, and the invitations look awesome! 
At Friday night youth group, I heard some disturbing news. Two of the youth, one girl in 8th grade and one boy in 9th grade, got mugged at knife point in broad daylight at the entrance of the neighborhood. Obviously, it’s unsafe to walk around at night, but for kids to get mugged in the daylight is pretty frightening. The weird thing is, the kids knew the guys that mugged them, I guess the guys were really desperate to have a few cell phones. On a brighter note, after youth group I came up with a brilliant idea to play charades. We actually all had a lot of fun acting and looking super stupid. The last act was “pretend like you peed your pants and don’t want anyone to know.” The girl did a pretty good job acting it out. This 12 year old boy screams “You had your period.” Sarah and I almost died laughing. Sorry for all those that just got weirded out by reading this, but it just goes to show how outrageous and open these people are here!!!
Sorry, these last 2 blogs have been kind of gross! But anyways, it has been fun having time hanging out with the middle school/high school aged kids. At first when I came, they were a bit intimidating and they love to make fart noises all the time, I mean allll the time, but it has been great getting to know them from church events. They are always going out of their way to walk me home and different stuff and I know they all have my back which is sweet. They are starting to open up more too. One of the girls, actually the one who “peed her pants,” I hung out with a lot today. She told me that she hates going home and always looks forward to going anywhere and everywhere. She said that her mom and brothers aren’t very nice to her and make her cook and clean and do everything around the house. I thought that since she was only in 8th grade, she probably was exaggerating about the whole mom thing, but it is true. When I was with her, her mom was super rude to her and cold. It is sad to think that sometimes while I am here I think about how much I miss home when others are wishing how much they wish they could never go back home. 
The low part of the week came when I was at one of the schools for after school soccer. Flying to South Africa and staying in Ocean View, I didn’t expect people to fall over and tell me how gracious they were for me to be here, I really didn’t. I don’t think you are going into volunteering with the right attitude if all you want is for people to show appreciation to you. To my surprise, some people are indeed grateful for my time while some people are indifferent and could care less that I am around - I can handle that though. When I was at the school some of the little boys said straight to my face, we don’t want to play because Amanda is here. Immediately it was a big blow to the gut. Granted these guys are fourth graders and I hadn’t done anything to them in the two previous weeks that I had been around, but I still took it personally. I know that they probably only said it for one of these reasons. 1. I’m a girl 2. I’m white 3.They kind of blow at soccer and I’m half way decent or 4. They don’t have the best home life – so they don’t know how to treat people. Even though I knew all that, it totally ruined my day. I had ridiculous thoughts like why am I wasting my time and money if people don’t even want me around. It’s funny how one negative can make a whole bunch of positives seem less. Luckily, I was basically over it 24 hours later, but it really made me think and I came to this conclusion. People will disappoint you, some intentionally, some not intentionally. The trouble is if you work for people, a lot of times you will get inner rewards, but sometimes you will get let down, even if all you ever wanted to do was help. That’s why you have to work for God. With whatever you do, work, volunteering, or both, if you do it for God you can never get disappointed. 
I have been hitting the sack around 10 or 11 each night, but unfortunately have been waking up at 4am. Luckily, Sarah gave me some neon orange ear plugs so hopefully I will be getting more sleep! 
So my little buddy Zoon, it’s actually Zuan but who knew, I still have trouble with the accent, only has an ear tumor not a brain tumor (still kind of gross) and he will be going to surgery in a few weeks. I talked to his mom and she said that Zuan is really excited about his surgery, which is kind of strange. She also said that the surgery isn’t that dangerous and the worst part about the tumor is that his ear starts to smell really bad if they don’t clean it out every morning (barf!!!) 
A Raleigh boy flies in on Friday so I’m excited to be able to do more touristy stuff when he arrives. Everyone pray for a safe flight and courage for Austin, he will be here for 9 months! 
Hope everyone has a great week, love you!
Amanda

Hello, hello! I hope everyone is having a great labor day and didn’t have to work/go to school! Unfortunately South Africa doesn’t celebrate Labor Day rather they just constantly leave early and that sort of thing! Sometimes no news is good news, so I am happy to say nothing crazy has happened in the last week! 

Kids club last week went quite smoothly. One kid flicked me off because he couldn’t sit next to me and another brought a pocket knife, but when I asked if he could put it away he did it without hesitation. (This little boy was one of the nicer ones so I knew he wasn’t going to use it on anyone, I just didn’t want someone else to take it and use it!) So yeah, fairy successful on that front! 

Treswill has started a feeding program for the kids in the nearby flats/community. Most of these kids don’t eat breakfast so it is a great thing to give them some energy before a long day at school. Thursday was the first early wake for the program. (6:30 ahh!) Porridge was served to 20-30 kids, it was great! Most of the kids ate till they were stuffed (which wasn’t that much) and then saved the rest for lunch. Since they never really get full meals, they just constantly snack on candy and chips, their stomachs weren’t used to all the food. 

This weekend we had a lot of chill time to watch movies and chill. Casey, Michael, and I went on a 9 mile run. (Haven’t run that long in awhile!) The temperature was only like 60 degrees so it was perfect. A bunch of neighborhood kids wanted to run with us, they are crazy! It just proves how desperate they are for attention and they want to get energy out! Maybe I will start running around the block with them, it’ll give us all something constructive to do! 

Today, I went to Kleinburg primary school for after school soccer. A third grader that lives a few houses down from me came. He is so funny, he gets a new puppy like every week (no joke!) and he’ll come show them to me because he knows I love them. Since most of the boys at the afterschool practice are a few years older than him, me and him passed back and forth and we worked on volleys and headers. When it came time to play a little game, I could tell he was itching to get in with the older boys. I told Treswill to let him play. Kid you not, my boy was the leading scorer lol. Granted the other boys set him up nicely but he did really well being years younger and a foot shorter, so that was exciting to see! The best part was that you could just tell that he felt like a million bucks. 

Today also was a milestone. It was the first in-home care morning. I was kind of excited about it. The first few houses were fine. I helped take blood pressure and we talked a bit about how to lower it, healthy foods to eat, little exercises, that sort of thing. The next few homes were a bit more dramatic. I had to pray to keep from vomiting on the floor. I feel bad saying it, we will all be old someday, but old people nakedness for bathing and diaper changes are totally out of my element. All the caregivers out there that have to do it, major props. Sores and fungus toenails are gross to. I’m a terrible person for saying all this, but yeah all of that was such a humbling experience. I hope no one is eating while reading this! I feel for the people lying in the bed though. My grandma Higgins died last November. While it was super sad, I am almost relieved that God took her back when he did before she was bed ridden for the rest of her life. A few days before I left for South African, a few of us had a talk regarding death when people are at such fragile states. While it is easy to say, “I hope I am never stuck in a bed with people having to bathe me,” my grandpa Cunningham made a great point. He said that God is keeping you on Earth for a reason, even if you are just laying in a bed. If nothing else, the people I saw today have taught me a lesson about compassion and humility, and even though I am still grossed out, I am glad for the enlightenment. 

A very interesting thing, however, were the condition of the houses. Some houses were nice. Some were held together by cardboard, roof caving in, and flies flying around. It makes you so grateful for what you have. 

Almost halfway through this crazy adventure! Love you all and miss you!