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!

Hello everyone! Glad to hear everyone was okay after Hurricane Irene. Hope you all have power again and are getting back to a normal routine. The hurricane must have been pretty extreme because news and radio stations here were reporting it like crazy. Lots of prayers have been going your way this weekend!

I think I am 80% over my cold/flu I have had over the last few weeks which is great news! I hadn’t been feeling well at all so it is such a relief to have energy again and be able to taste food! (Well, sometimes I am glad I can taste the food!) Still having a few problems sleeping with the noise and waking up itching at times but besides all that things are going great! I am in full swing with volunteer stuff and hanging out with kids in the neighborhood so down time is hard to come by sometimes!

Had a really fun and full weekend! On Friday we took all the Ocean View youth and the Ubuntu boys to Hillsong to see Team Impact. Basically, they were these huge muscle guys that broke apart cinder blocks with their forearms, tore phonebooks in half, broke steal baseball bats, you know stuff the average American do, haha. They actually were Americans (one was from Myrtle Beach!), and some of the girls were loving the huge muscles and accents despite them being in their 40’s. The kids were fired up after seeing these guys in action and it was so cool how they listened intently to these guys testimonies. During some of the songs , I felt like a kid again jumping around near the stage. It got a little bit dangerous though and I decided it was best not to join in the chaos. South Africans don’t really have any regard for others when you are in the space they want to be in, so after I got knocked around a few times I was glad to get out of the craziness. On the ride to and from Hillsong from Ocean View, we rode in this van/bus thing. We all squeezed in. There were 11 of us total in my van. Our driver was a little big dodgy but we all had loads of fun. He had NO idea how to get us to Hillsong, blared the music like we were in a night club, and even pulled over so he could get out and pee off the side of the road. When we rolled up, the youth group was loud and proud that we had arrived, oh the joys of being a teenager.  But ya, Friday was a lot of fun and Team Impact definitely impacted a lot of lives while they were here in Cape Town.

On Saturday, we were back at Hillsong again for an event called Sisterhood. Women of all ages and colors come together for this event to worship, relax, and be empowered. Especially in communities like Ocean View, women do almost everything for their families. Many families do not have males to help at all and it can be such a tough environment, particularly for single mothers. A few great messages came from Sisterhood. 1.) Be yourself and love yourself. Particularly in the white culture, people are really into how they look and compare themselves to others. We all want to be the best looking, have the best figure, be the best at something. The truth is, God created you exactly how he wanted to, so what is the point in wasting time comparing yourself to others or trying to be perfect? Being healthy is one thing but too many girls today put way too much emphasis on looks and weight and having that burden isn’t the way to live. 2.) Be the change you want to see in the world. Simple enough. If you are passionate about a particular issue – do something about it. One lady made up a cupcake program. She goes to schools and all the kids have a cupcake and they all celebrate and have one big birthday party. She teaches the kids how special they are (since a lot are not getting this attention at home). The program is so simple, she likes kids and she likes to bake, and she is changing lives from it. There is so much crazy stuff going on in this world, from human trafficking to starvation, if we all contributed a little bit, think about how much we could all do together. 3.) The biggest message for everyone, especially these ladies, was “Making Excuses.” We all have our pasts and we all have our stories. I have heard so many painful stories of people here as well as people in America. From deaths of loved ones, to abuse and neglect, rape, you name it, it has happened. There is so much hurt, but making excuses won’t get you anywhere. Sometimes bad things happen so you can learn from it and rely on God more than ever. I also believe that you can make a bad thing into something good. If you have gone through something before, you can help others that are going through the same thing. What an impact you can make! “Tell your story for his glory.” Perseverance makes you stronger. Life is short and excuses only waste time.

On Saturday night I saw Johnny Clegg in concert with some friends. The music was really cool. He sounded a bit like Sting with an African-y Dave Matthews type twist to it. He had a great voice and on top of that – he danced like nobody’s business – even for like a 65 year old. I don’t know how he didn’t tear a hammy!  Back when apartheid was still in South Africa there were 3 types of white people. Some who were 100% for it, some who didn’t necessarily agree or disagree – just wanted peace, and some who were extremist. Johnny Clegg was an extremist. He became a part of the zulu culture (south African tribe basically) and wrote music with both English and zulu lyrics in order to help get equal rights. He totally emerged himself into the Zulu culture and learned the language as well the dances and everything. Interestingly enough, his only audience for awhile were people from his college and zulu townships. Since he had both types of lyrics – English speaking radio stations wouldn’t let his songs on the radio and Zulu speaking radio stations wouldn’t let his songs on the radio. However, England played a few of his hits on the radio (Go Brits!) and that’s how became so famous. Most Americans have never heard of him, but all the South Africans have, so I got some props for going to the concert.

On Sunday, we went to Hillsong yet again for regular church. The story of Jesus feeding the 5000 was told. Jesus was entrusted with only five loaves of bread and two fish yet he turned that offering into a blessing that fed the whole crowd. A quote that is profound reads this: “I know how many seeds are in an apple, but I don’t know how many apples are in a seed.” Two of my favorite people (I won’t say names) have given such generous contributions to the Ubuntu program and I know that that money will  exceed any expectation they ever had for it.

Monday’s are going to be a cool day for my health volunteer stuff because I will be able to see more of the clinical side of things. I shadowed Amy, a nurse at living hope. Nursing is tough work, from keeping medications straight to all their other responsibilities – I have so much respect for all the nurses I know! Since most of the people at the clinic have both HIV and TB they have to take like 15 pills every few hours, kid you not. This Monday was pretty low-key for me but the rest of the Monday’s I will be able to help out with in-home visits and things like that. I can already tell that I have grown so much. The first week when I went to an HIV support group I was freaked out (I know it sounds bad) but I definitely have become more comfortable when I am in situations like that.

One of my favorite little guys, 4 year old Zuun, has a tumor in his head. I only found out when it looked like a huge boogar was coming out of his ear and he told me, otherwise he acts like a normal little boy. I don’t know how bad it is or any details but he has to go to the hospital at some point (not sure why it doesn’t seem more urgent) to get it taken care of. Be praying for him though!

I can’t believe it is almost already September! I know it is super hot over there, but I can’t wait for more days in the 70’s! Hope you all are having a great start to the week! Love and miss everybody!

Oh by the way I forgot to put Sarah and Casey's blog information, visit: http://www.looklistenlove.com/

Hello, hello! Another good week going on at Cape Town! New pictures have been uploaded on facebook that you should all check out. Sarah and Casey also have a new blog:  (___) that you all would find interesting about the area and what is going on! I’m starting to feel a bit better…this cold has been lingering for some time now…yuck! I also have developed either like bed bug bites or flea bites (from the kids )on my left arm that aren’t too cute! Really weird that they are only on one part of my body so I don’t know what that is about but I hope they go away soon! Hope everyone is alright after that US east coast earthquake…how wild! Also, welcome back to school UNCW students!

So, Friday was a pretty chill day. I went to Living Hope for a few hours and finished up the Asthma part of the curriculum. A bunch of kids came over to Sarah and Casey’s house so I played with them for awhile. The high schoolers came over for youth group that night. We unfortunately didn’t get to go to Hillsong but we are going this week. We all watched the movie “Easy A.” You might say it was a little inappropriate for a youth group meeting, but I don’t think they really got everything going on, and hey – it sparked good conversation about dealing with high school stuff. It’s so funny thinking about all the petty stuff that went on during those years. 

The Ubuntu boys got another win on the road on Saturday. We went to this real ghetto field to play. In past games, some of the boys had heard gun shots at this place (nice!). The field house had barbwire all along the fence and there was trash everywhere, but soccer is soccer, and it doesn’t take perfect conditions to play. A bunch of younger neighborhood boys kept getting me to kick with them even though all I really wanted to do is hangout. I felt bad though and would go with them because I couldn’t let them kick with a ball without me there. (The balls aren’t mine to let them steal, eek.) After the game, Michael (one of the coaches) and I went out to lunch with a few of the boys. One in particular is a kid named Josh. This guy needs lots of prayers, so be praying for him! Casey and Michael have gone out of their way a number of times to get him to come to practice. They go to his house to ‘fetch’ him but he never comes to practice anymore. He has had a really tough upbringing with both of his parents being possible alcoholics and he lives in a shack with ten other family members. You can see the anger radiating from him. For some reason he wanted to come to the game on Saturday. He was upset when he didn’t get played and both of the coaches explained how it wouldn’t have been fair since he hasn’t been at practice. I thought after going to lunch with him and Michael talking to him about everything he would have been more willing to come to practice, but he has missed both practices this week. So basically at this point he has dropped out. It’s upsetting that he won’t let himself take advantage of such a great opportunity and how much potential he is letting go to waste. The coaches are still hanging on and going over and beyond to reach out to him. The fear is that if they don’t then this kid will end up in a gang/in jail so quickly, but is it fair to keep this kid on that doesn’t pull his weight when so many other boys would love to have his spot on the team? 

After lunch a few of the kids came over to Heidi’s house. Two of the girls did my hair (haha). I promise I didn’t make them, they wanted to! It turned into a mad house. Tomica put so much makeup…everywhere! On her eye lids, under her eyes, and ON MY BED! She was a sight to see with purple and pink all over her face as well as her burned scabby lip. Zuun, the cutest 4 year old boy, loves hanging with his older girl friends, and instead of doing hair and makeup like the rest of us, he decided to touch literally all my stuff. I only had a mild freak out when my camera lens got a little bent. All is not lost though, the camera still works, my hair got straightened, and I didn’t want that box of cereal they decided to eat anyways. 

Saturday night was so much fun. We went to this really cool bar/restaurant place right over the waves and rocks. I tried to get some pictures of the waves but it was too dark. The dancing is a bit different than in the US, but the music was really cool. It was this African band playing all the classics. I am so glad that NC has smoke free restaurants and bars though, because I was dying by the end of the night. I got to spend the night out with Rose at this really nice house (she’s house sitting). 

On Sunday, we went to Hillsong Church. It was really cool. For all the Wilmington people, it is a lot like PC3 but bigger and the preacher is Australian. The building used to be this huge night club. The bathrooms even have saunas in them; I bet that club was outrageous! The message was really good, it was about giving. It was quite rejuvenating as well. Sometimes I get distressed and anxious about seeing everything here and being away from friends and family, but it helped me to realize that giving my time like this is actually a brave thing to do, so I shouldn’t be so hard on myself when I’m feeling not so brave. Another message is that obedience brings blessings and God brought the best for you so you need to bring your best for him. 

After church, we walked around the Cape Town Waterfront. The mall there was way nicer than most malls I’ve been to in the US. We ate lunch at this German restaurant. I have no idea what I ate but it tasted pretty good. I even got a free beer-lemonade mix. Note to all: beer-lemonade still tastes like beer. Michael, Rose and I hung out at the nice house for the rest of the rainy afternoon and watched Slum dog Millionaire. I forgot how much that poor guy goes through!  

On Monday I went to the Primary School up the street for Ubuntu afterschool program. The field was actually a basketball blacktop. I was super afraid that one of the kids was going to smack their faces on the cement, fortunately they didn’t. It was quite the site to see all these boys trying to pass and dribble around cones with their school uniforms and dress shoes, but yeah, they kind of did it. We also had our first bible study for the high school girls on Monday. Six girls showed up so that was pretty cool. Since we are studying the book of Esther (who becomes Queen) I had us all make crowns. Kind of silly I know but they all thought it was fun and some of them even clipped them into their hair and wore them! I asked them if they were queen, what was something they would change/do with their power. I was happily surprised that all of them had quite mature responses that involved helping other people. I am glad to know that even when they act silly and immature, they understand different needs going on in the world. I have a feeling we are all going to learn a lot through this study.

Timia (who is Tomica’s sister – don’t know why the names are so darn close) came over after that and I helped her with her homework. It is so much easier to deal with one kid and not five. She’s really cute and wants me to go to school with her one day. She also wants to have a sleepover at my house and to go shopping. Oh yeah, she also wants me to pay! I told her that it cost me about 7000 rands to get here and that I was broke. She said she was going to faint thinking about how much money that was (uhhuh me too girl!). She comes over everyday now and is relentless about me coming to school with her and is even giving her teacher my email address lol. 

Tuesday is Kid’s club day. I’m glad to announce there was no KNOWN drugs on site at this particular kid’s club. There were these really elaborate paper guns some of the boys brought though. The paper guns really were phenomenal and it had to have taken some intelligence to make. It is a shame that that brain power wasn’t used for any good though. Tuesday night I had my first legitimate curry. Can’t say I am the biggest fan of this food but it was edible and a real African experience/(isn’t it from India?) hm who knows. I have been eating some random foods, some that I know what it is, some that I have a guess of what it is, and some that I have no idea. Still alive and kicking though!

So this is crazy…my new friends Michael and Rose (who are brother and sister) are from Zimbabwe. My good friend from UNCW, Tinashe, is also from Zimbabwe and they all went to the same high school. What a small world!  

Pretty much all settled in now so I don’t have nearly as many “oh, sh*t” moments anymore lol. God is constantly showing himself in so many different ways and I love the lifestyle of hanging out and volunteering all day. I know I must get a job and pay bills once I get back to the states and in no way do I want to neglect my responsibilities, but for right now it is nice not having to worry about the hustle and bustle of the busyness of the US. Don’t get me wrong, there are many worries here, but they are way different and it is a good change of pace for awhile. 

Thank you so much to all of you who I have been getting emails and messages from. I miss you all and am always thinking about you! Hope you have a great rest of the week! 

Love, 

Amanda