Time flies when you're having fun

Hey everybody,

It’s me… again! :-) I’m enjoying myself more and more in Cape Town. I have seen and learned a lot during this last week. Emelio took us to a colored township last Thursday. South Africa is the only country that has colored and black townships. All the other countries in Africa only have black slums (only South Africa uses the word township). It was a very interesting experience for me. I’ve been to other slums before and I was curious about the townships of Cape Town because I work with kids who live in these townships. The township is called Manenberg. Patricia, our guide who lives in Manenberg, showed us around and spoke with full passion about her neighborhood. The problems in Manenberg represent a lot of the problems that South Africa has (in my opinion). A lot of school dropouts because of lack of motivation, HIV/aids is still a stigma and the crime number is high. I’ve met a very interesting and inspiring man: Joseph Hendricks. He’s a greengrocer in Manenberg. He used to be a gang leader. He has been a gang member for over 30 years, in and out of prison (there is a big difference). He told me about his previous and his current life. His faith has let him away from the gang life. He really inspired me. I can see that he is a role model in the community. Another role model of the community is pastor Henry Wood. He works for City of Refuge where they try to make a difference for the kids in the community. I’m glad that Manenberg has got people like Patricia, Joseph and Woody. They are the rocks of the townships who’ll try their best to make a difference for the future of their neighborhood and country.

Another highlight of previous week is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an orphanage in Cape Town where the YFC-people volunteer every now and then. We go there to help out with the feeding and just to love the babies. The babies who arrive at Ubuntu get adopted within two week up to three months. I think this is something that I’ll keep on doing, because I really loved it.

I also visited Kylemore for the first time. Kylemore is where the other YFC-house is. It is truly a magnificent place. The YFC-volunteers and interns live in the middle of the community where they work. They work at the local primary school and high school.

Things are going really good in Cape Town. I’m starting to get to know the kids at Vissershok and SOS better and vice versa. I’m really exited about coming Monday, because than we’ll start the children’s programme at SOS. I’ve got so many ideas of what I can do with the kids, really can’t wait to make it happen!

A week passes bye quickly in Cape Town. I think that it’s because we’ve such a busy schedule AND time flies when you’re having so much fun. I’ve been driving a lot as well. People drive on the left side in South Africa. I haven’t caused any accidents (yet :-)), so it must be going well.
On Mondays we all have dinner at Rolf’s house. He’s YFC’s centre director. He cooked a traditional Afrikaans dinner for us last Monday; Porky. It’s a kind of a stew with chicken, potatoes and vegetables dish that you eat with rice. It tasted really good.

Thanks for all the emails and text messages; you really don’t need to worry about me. I’m having a blast here in Cape Town!

Lots of love,
B-N