My first week

I was allowed to rest my first day here and the only thing they had scheduled for me on my second day was a meeting with my volunteer “boss” Mike Talley. I was told that in the mornings I would be in the Health Care Center where I would to get to know the patients and form relationships with them, pray for them, and just hang out with them, and help the staff when needed. In the afternoons I would be helping the Life Skills Educators at the Kids Center in a township called Oceanview in a section called Mountainview. I would start that on Monday but I was told I could go with Becky (another volunteer) to another Kids Center called Red Hill to see what the Centers are like (I really was not quite prepared for what they were like :S)
So, with a whole set of expectations in my head I set off to Red Hill later that day. This Childrens Center is in a township mostly composed of small shacks. That day it was really cold (I was wearing 4 or 5 layers including my winter jacket…apparently its not normally this cold here this time of the year). I can’t imagine what its like to live in one of those shacks…nor do I want to. We go into the Center (kind of like one of the portables in elementary or high school) where there were already a few kids. Stanton is the Life Skills Educator there and he was beginning to set up. The other kids started coming in, ranging from age 3 to about 13. Some of them I really don’t think have bathed in months but they were all absolutely adorable and were quite friendly. And they can ALL sing and have the most incredible sense of rhythm and beat I have EVER seen. Some of the kids were singing, others break dancing, others doing handstands on tables and chairs, others using pretty much whatever they could find as drums…I was just sitting there kind of in shock at first as the younger ones decided that I made a pretty good chair…or jungle gym…depending on how you want to look at it. It is like a busy public swim…on speed…lots and lots of speed!!!!
Basically how it works is the kids all get something to eat and then the certain age group for that day gets to stay and do the activities (today it was the 10-13 year olds). The activities are pretty much what you would do in Sunday school. After the activity the younger kids can come back and they are given a snack and then we went back home. I managed to get a quick picture of some of the kids, but it’s really hard to take pictures because the kids kind of go crazy pushing each other out of the way and then they all HAVE to see the picture afterwards.
We also got news that we would be moving the next day (Friday). On Friday I got to meet our volunteer coordinator Mandy and the ACTS coordinator for Cape Town Mike Massingham. We got our stuff and headed over to our new house in Fish Hoek. When we opened the gate…and the other locked gate…and the locked door (so much security) we saw how AWESOME THIS PLACE IS!!!! It has hardwood floors, 3 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, a storage room with fitness equipment, a huge kitchen, and cable tv…and is fully furnished with all our kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, living room stuff…it even has board games already. When we went outside onto the GINORMOUS BALCONY and looked over we realized that the beach is about a 45 sec walk away…you can apparently see whales…and sometimes sharks from the beaches here. Just in case there was any doubt in my mind about the whales when I went for a walk along the shoreline the next morning I saw a Southern Wright Whale jump out of the water and come up for air…so cool!
Going to a Baptist Church (King of Kings) Sunday was a bit different from my home Church (charismatic), but it was interesting to see how a different Church conducts its service. We are supposed to go to another Church next week in the township called Masi where the worship is absolutely incredible and the whole Church is pretty much a choir. Ryan said he was going to bring his laptop to record them sometime soon so you can here what is it like. I will post it when I get it.
My first day volunteering (Monday) went really well. At the Health Care Center (HCC) I met with the head Chaplain Moiriece who explained my role further and boundaries for interacting with patients (eg: Cameras aren’t allowed in the HCC in order to respect patients privacy and confidentiality; there is a huge stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS so pictures aren’t allowed). I also met the staff including the Registered Nurse but didn’t interact with the patients very much. The kids center at Mountainview was great! The staff have a lot of energy and pretty much joke all the time so they are great to be around. Living Hope had hosted a picnic/bbq for all of Mountainview and pretty much all of Mountainview had showed up. They had left some of the garbage and hay in the high school field and the birds had gotten into it and spread it out in the field. We were going to clean it up. Getting to watch the kids work (and mostly play) was pretty cool. I was able to get quite a few pictures here. The kids have a spirit that most kids back home really don’t have.
I got to go on a tour of all Living Hopes facilities on Tuesday. They started as a small clinic but have blossomed into 3 facilities including Living Hope (Hospice/Home Care/Mobile Testing and Counselling), Living Grace (homeless ministry), and Living Way (Job Training) that employ about 180 people, not to mention all the volunteers. I will get the story of how it all started (I forgot a lot of it) and put it on later. It is actually pretty amazing! At Mountainview I got to meet more of the kids. One of the younger girls asked if she could play with my hair. I said ok and after a few minutes I was surrounded by kids wanting to touch and play with my hair.
Wednesday was a Holiday (Heritage Day) so we got the day off. We went to the Waterfront in Cape Town and walked around the shops. It reminded me a lot of Granville Island actually. They also have a small aquarium where I got a few pictures (I stole some of Ryans too…he has a much better camera then I do). I found out that I can scuba dive with a guide in the huge predator tank for only about $60CAD…I will be coming back here for sure!!! I also talked to Mike Talley and he said that since I was staying for so long I would be joining the Life Skills Educators in training for the rest of the week (and Saturday) as they prepared for next weeks Holiday Camp (Spring Break) with a team of volunteers from the States. I was pretty excited about the training since the LSE are a lot of fun!