Sitting at the backseat of a police car

Things happen for a reason, even when I’m not wise enough to see it at the time.

Well, that is what happened to me three weeks ago. I went for a drive to clear my mind. A car from the opposite direction thought he could turn right before I would pass him, but this was not the case. I had to hit my breaks fully. I couldn’t turn left, because then I would have crashed into the car and I couldn’t turn right, because there were cars driving towards my direction. So I had to go straight and hit the curb pretty hard. Result: two flat tires and the car wasn’t going anywhere no more. The car that is responsible for it just drove off and left me stranded. So there I was, young white female all alone stranded on the side of the road after sunset in Cape Town.
Fortunately I’ve saved all the emergency numbers on my phone, so I called the police. They were there in 10 minutes to help me out. I got to sit at the backseat of their car, while I waited for Josh and Gabe to come and help me out. I had a great chat with the police, who were really nice to me. They asked if I was scared, since it is South Africa and all that. I said, well the only thing I’m worried about is how I’m going to explain this to my centre director and project manager. It all worked out fine though. The car is fixed (took me a while, but it is fixed now) and Emelio was really understanding of the entire situation. It wasn’t my fault and the car and I are both fine.
At the time I did not realize why it happened to me, but the week after that night I drove passed two car accidents. The first one was when I drove to church and I saw a body being covered on the side of the road. The second one was about a minute away from the house. A truck hit someone and I could see a man being trapped underneath the truck. After seeing that I just realized how lucky and blessed I’ve been. My accident could have ended differently, but fortunately it didn’t and I’m grateful for that. So I guess my accident happened to make me realize that I should be grateful for life, because you never know what might happen.

The projects are still going very well. I’ve started the program for the younger kids at SOS last week. I absolutely loved it. I walked in to the village and the kids were already waiting for my arrival. I had 25 kids to do my program with and they all behaved really well. I haven’t finished the manual yet, but I will try to do this soon. I just need to do more research about the history and the current situation of SOS. This means talking to a lot of people at the village who are extremely busy, so I need to be patient to get the information that I want.
Vissershok has been really GREAT lately. We’ve finally started rehearsing for the production that YFC is putting together with the kids. I’ve set up the planning for this and to see it actually starting is really fulfilling. The kids are busy dancing and singing. In a couple of weeks they will perform for their own school during the assembly.
Another project that I’m involved in is the Farm Kids. There are a lot of farms near Vissershok. There are many families who live together in a small community. The fathers work on the fields while the moms and the kids are at home. Some of the Farm Kids go to school at Vissershok. YFC volunteers and interns go there about once a week just to play with the kids. Theres and I took some of the kids out to see the play Aladdin two weeks ago. They had a blast. The kids at the farm don’t get to do much, so going to KFC and a play was a pretty big thing for them. I loved seeing their cute faces lighting up during the day. It was a perfect!

The fun keeps continuing here in Cape Town. I went to see Plush play again. This time they preformed at Kirstenbosch, which is the National Botanical Garden of South Africa. I’m not really a nature person, but it was beautiful there. Plush preformed with a full orchestra, it sounded SO GOOD!
We’ve had two parties at the house during the last two weeks. Jana gave a party for her 18th birthday and the girls who are leaving gave a goodbye party last Friday. It was good fun; just hanging out with people and chat with them.

Many of you asked me how I feel about South Africa now I’ve been here for a bit longer. Well… I’m still loving it. I’ve noticed that I’m smiling more ever since I arrived in Cape Town. I’m not saying that I wasn’t happy before, it’s just that my daily laughter level seems to have reached a higher level over here.
People who know me well, know that I’m not the most open person in the universe. I’m spontaneous and out going if I want to, but if it comes to the personal things I don’t really open up. Some how I did a couple of weeks ago; during staff meeting Rolf, our centre director, asked us about our defining moments in life. I don’t know what happened, but something triggered me to open up and share one of my defining moments in life. It’s probably a once in a lifetime thing though, ‘cause I felt pretty strange after my sharing so it won’t happen again anytime soon.

I’ve posted some video’s on my YouTube:

http://nl.youtube.com/user/titivu

There are video’s from the view from the beach near my house, SOS Children’s Village an audition at Vissershok, Claudine singing for us and Gabe singing on our latch. Feel free to watch them if you want to.

I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everybody who has sent me letters and cards. It means a lot to me and I really appreciate it! If you haven’t send me anything, DON’T WORRY, you don’t have to, this is not a ‘send-me-post’ announcement! ;-)
I discovered that some of you have sent mail to my house, but it hasn’t arrived (yet). Well, welcome to South Africa! I’m supposed to receive them, but sometimes things just turn out differently in Cape Town. The safest way to sent me mail is to send it to the YFC office. I have posted the address before, but just in case:

YFC Office
Bao-Nhi Vu
4 Stella Road
Montague Gardens
7441 Cape Town
South Africa

I’m really sorry for the long blog this time; I’ll try to post more often from now on so that it won’t happen again.

Take care everybody!

Love,
Bao-Nhi