My New Cape Town Family

Wow, I can’t believe I spent the last two weeks of work away at camp and I cannot imagine a better way to finish off the year. Round two of camp was certainly different, but such a great experience. It started off with the realization AFTER we got all the way to camp that somehow 10 extra kids snuck on to the bus. Because we already started off with a larger number of children than before, we didn’t have enough beds for everyone to sleep. We were not about to send any of the kiddos home so in true African fashion, we just told them to share a bed. No complaints there—everyone got to stay!

A few highlights from the trip include waking the children up with water guns, life guarding at the swimming hole, gazing at the bazillion stars in the sky, watching my talented kids perform a play they wrote on gangsterism, and getting married to Easy during an impromptu ceremony in front of the kids. That’s right, you can call me Mrs. Nofemela from now on J

I think it’s safe to say that the theme of this camp week was bonding and strengthening of relationships. The facilitators grew much closer together and really worked like a family to make the camp run well for the kiddos. All of us started the week tired so we took turns filling in for each other when needed. Despite our tired bodies, we ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning most nights under the stars talking about life and learning from each other’s different backgrounds. It’s crazy to think how differently we all grew up (most of the facilitators live in the townships) and how differently we live our everyday lives, but also how quickly we’ve all become friends. More than friends…we’ve become family.

We greet each other with hugs, we shoot each other with water pistols, we joke around, we ask for help, we share our struggles, we share our dreams. We share a common bond by working together to better the children of South Africa and give them a new chance to build their skills and develop their mindset. These people are my new community, my home away from home. They teach me about their culture and I teach them about mine. We pool our ideas together to make a better camp and a better program for the kids.

And speaking of the kids, I had a great talk while walking back from the swimming hole (I only had to save 2 kids from drowning this time around, but that’s a whole other topic). The 4 little girls, probably around 10 years old, were so giggly and so full of life. They spent the entirety of the 20 minute journey back to camp asking me questions about my name and teaching me Xhosa phrases. I was astounded at how well these small girls spoke English and how quickly they were able to retain everything I told them about America. As we walked through such beautiful scenery (a red dirt road with orchards on the left and vineyards on the right) I marveled at the exchange between cultures. I’m finding it hard to explain the connection that I felt with these girls as we walked home. Here are four small girls who are growing up in difficult poverty. Girls who experience drugs, alcoholism, abuse, gangsterism and so much more on a daily basis (I wish I was exaggerating here, but sadly I am not) and now they are able to be away from the pressures of their home life and can just be kids. You could see the relief in their faces and the safety that they felt by being away at camp.

As wonderful as it is to give these kids a rest and a safe haven from everyday life, it breaks my heart to watch them get off the bus and know that they have to go right back to it. One child said in his evaluation that the best part of camp was the fact that he got to eat everyday. Not only did he get to eat everyday, but we served them 3 meals a day. These kids certainly go through more than I will ever know in their home life, but I’m glad the Amy Biehl Foundation is there to give them a chance to experience new things.

And the Amy Biehl Foundation has been so good to me as well. I finished up my last day of work yesterday and can’t believe that my time here is drawing to an end. Only a few more short days in this beautiful city and I’m back to the winter. My last few days in Cape Town will be quite hectic so I may only get to blog one more time before I’m in the northern hemisphere, but you can expect me to continue blogging from that side. There will certainly be a lot to digest and think about once I’m removed from this continent so if you’re still reading and still curious about my thoughts, stay tuned.

Camp Photos

Here is just a snapshot of the camp we took the kids on last week. I'm headed out again tomorrow for round two of fun in the sun with these great kids! I think I'll just sleep on the plane on the way home...too much to do for now :) Enjoy!

Obligatory all-camp photo

Swimming Hole

What's camp without a few goofy faces?

Kids eat a lot of spaghetti

Two very talented singers/breakdancers

200 Condoms Later...

Well this week was certainly one I will never forget! The Amy Biehl Foundation took 93 kids out of their township life to a campsite about an hour north of Cape Town for some much needed time away. The week was spent hiking, swimming (at least attempting to), playing soccer, roasting marshmellows over the fire, conquering obstacles courses, performing talent shows, making new friends, learning new languages, and simply overall bonding in a new and different environment.

It was so great to take these kids out the their usually every day surroundings and transport to some place away from the pressures (the drugs, the alcohol, the abuse, the cracked family structures) to a safe area. One boy told me on the first night, “I’ve never been outside of Cape Town before. It’s so nice to be somewhere quiet. To be away from all the trouble.” Pretty crazy for a 14 year old right?

This was the first time the Amy Biehl Foundation mixed 2 different cultures on a camp. We recently opened a new center in Manenberg (a coloured community) and gave them the opportunity to come on camp with the Xhosa kids. Now, if you are reading this from the States, you might think that I’m being un-PC when I say coloured kids and black kids, but here they are 2 very different cultures. They speak different languages (Afrikaans and Xhosa respectively) and there is a lot of left-over prejudice between the two groups that is left over from Apartheid. These two groups met with some opposition at the beginning of the camp, but by the end, barriers were broken and new multi-cultural friendships were made.

The camp started off with quite an upset when one of the girls claimed that the Holy Spirit had come to her and said that someone in our camp was going to murder someone else. This girl was able to rally most of the kids around her and began to yell and scream in Xhosa. We tried to break up the group and go into our next activity, but the kids were too terrified to not listen to her because of what she said. Girls were crying and saying they were too scared to go to sleep that night or walk anywhere alone in the dark. Boys started to second guess their friends as they tried to figure out who the murder would be. After some deliberation and some sensitivity to the different cultures, we decided to send the girl home. We couldn’t have the kids terrified for the rest of the week or this girl leading the kids. Let’s just say it was a very startling start to our camp. I don’t know how the rest of the facilitators felt, but I sure started to wonder what I had signed up for… Funny enough though, the kids woke up the next morning and seemed to have forgotten the whole episode. They went about their activities as if nothing every happened…and nothing did happen. We took all 93 kids back from camp safe and sound.

World AIDS Day happened to be on December 1^st and because South Africa has the highest AIDS rate of any other country in the world, we decided to tailor our activities to educate our kids. We held a debate during the day with different topics pertaining to relationships and safe sex practices to get the kids actually thinking about the issues. It’s not taboo to talk openly about these things and the kids were more than willing to give their views. In the township culture, many of the kids are sexually active by the time they are 13/14 so they were no stranger to such topics. (This is a whole other issue that I can’t go into now, but a huge problem in not just Cape Town, but South Africa as a whole)

To finish off the day, we split the kids up in to 6 groups and had a giant water balloon fight. Buuuttt, when we were in town looking for balloons, we ran into a few obstacles (mainly the fact that would couldn’t find water balloons) so we had to improvise, South African style. After asking around a bit, we found the local clinic and were able to receive a box of 200 condoms (they are free in this country). While the kiddos ate lunch, Lesedi, Lungisa and myself managed to…yep, you guessed it—fill 200 condoms with water for our AIDS Awareness fight. I don’t think our fight will actually end AIDS, but hopefully the kids have a better awareness?? (Sorry if this topic is offensive to anyone, it is everyday conversation and life here and I feel a bit desensitized to the whole thing now)

Some other highlights from the camp included teaching a few of the kiddos how to swim, an impromptu camp-wide water fight on the hottest day, a facilitator vs camper soccer game (I played soccer with incredible talent…eish!), learning Xhosa songs, leaning about different cultures and seeing the incredible talent that our kids have during the talent show. The camp was so great that I’ve decided to go with the next group of kids going next week. It will be my last week of work and instead of spending it in the office doing office work, I’ll be out with the kiddos—the whole reason we do all the admin in the office. I can’t wait!!! I will try to put up pictures from the camp either later today or tomorrow so you guys will be able to get a little taste of the environment.

I still can’t believe I come home so soon! One more week at Amy Biehl and then a few more days and I’m headed for the good old US of A. Weird…. If anyone has any requests for something from SA send them my way and I’ll see what I can do J