Today was my second day in South Africa, and I am starting to fall in love with this country. We went on a Cape Tour that lasted the entirety of the day. We drove through downtown Cape Town and along the coast. I saw the first South African surfer out on a wave, and needless to say, I am dying to go surf - it is making me antsy just talking about it, so I’ll move on and pray that an opportunity to surf Cape Town will be coming up soon. We made our first stop at Boulders Beach where we saw South African Jackass penguins, they were super cute. If I were a penguin I know what kind I would want to be.
We also drove out to the Cape Point, which is the southwestern most point of Africa where the two oceans meet. We went to Cape of Good Hope where we made a short walk up to the lighthouse - the view was absolutely fantastic! We came on a day where it was very sunny, not a cloud in the sky (which I guess never happens). So that was super fun. Oh ya, and I saw my first African wildlife up close, a wombat (I think?) It came ridiculously close and freaked both me and my friend Kate out, lol.
The best stop that we made of the day was at a township called Oceanview. (A township - for those who don’t know - is basically a town located outside of a city where the people are living in extreme poverty and is very low income. The black and colored populations were forced to live in these townships during the apartheid years. Unfortunately, South Africa still has not nearly recovered from the effects of apartheid, in that the townships are still as big as ever and solely consist of black people. Townships are places known for poverty, rape, substance abuse, and the prominence of AIDS. ) We had no idea that we were going to do at the township as we drove in with our 8 tour buses full of 400 international students, and the people looked very intrigued and everyone waved as we drove by. We stopped finally at a community center, where we were greeted by young adults (about our age) from the Oceanview community. We brought gifts to donate to the kids of the community. We were welcomed in and to our surprise discovered that the township community center had already cooked us lunch, and was going to feed all 400 hundred of us. We ate there (an interesting dish of rice and meat) and after we were done eating they explained how although living in townships is rough, there is a lot that the community is doing to try to break the cycle of abuse and poverty through community efforts and education. After that we watched some of the young local talents perform (and boy were they talented!). They sang gospel, played blues, performed hip hop dances, and did some amazing break dancing. They were super talented, and my favorite of the performers were two little boys, about ten years old, who danced a tribute to Michael Jackson. It was so cute! It was such an amazing experience, and I was truly blessed by seeing how hopeful and uplifting the youth in the community were. I am so excited to start volunteering in a township, hopefully I’ll be working in a medical clinic and also serving in some sort of a children’s program.
I am so thankful that God has brought me here. I am amazed at the amount of hope existing in even the most poverty stricken places and I cannot wait to serve and show God’s love. God is working in people’s lives all over the world, and it is truly incredible to witness! Cape Town is such a gorgeous place, and I have met some extremely passionate and awesome people. Pray for me as I continue to try to make friends here that share similar interests as me (and that I will be able to surf soon! :) Miss you all!
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