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

Presidential Cuts

Well folks, I'm off for the week to take the ABF kiddos camping. Hiking, soccer, swimming, team building and just overall bonding are on the horizon for 300 township kids in the next week and I am SO excited to be a part of it. I'll give you the report when I return, but until then, I'll leave you with a sign I walk past everyday.

Did you know that Barak Obama gets his hair cut by Nelly??? Thought so....

R500,000 ($70,500) later....

Well this week has certainly been busy too! I thought once the gala was over I’d have some down time…guess I mistaken.

The Amy Biehl Annual Fundraising Gala Dinner went off fantastically! We had over 300 high profile guests attend the magical evening. Famous performers: Michael Mol, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Mtika, Aviva Pelham, Sans of Time the band, and SA’s Got Talent winner, James Bhemgee all graced our giant stage to give our audience of consulate generals (USA, France and Romania) and managing directors of large corporations (Reeds Auto Group, Clicks, Woolworths, Chevron, Sanlam, and Old Mutual to name a few) a night to remember!

Our theme this year was Gold of Africa so everything from the table décor to carpet on the floor to gift bags was gold. In order to not be too over the top, the accent color was black---black and gold! Mizzou colors!! I was more than excited to help plan this event and even wore my black and gold apparel to several of the meetings (maybe that was a bit much, but oh well).

The guests arrived at 7pm and mingled around the foyer where we had 62 different silent auction items displayed. As they sipped their champagne and Appletiser, we encouraged them to bid on their favorite hotels, bakeries, restaurants, photographers, and local artists—and of course, always reminding them that the money goes to the children. As soon as the bell tolled 7.30, the grand doors opened and our highly talented marimba kids began their upbeat performance to welcome the guests to take their seats in the ballroom. (Ballroom pictured below)

I spent the rest of the evening running around making sure things were in order and people were in the right spot at the right time so I didn’t see much of the performances, but we received good reviews from our audience so I guess it went well! Just after our guests dined on eight hour lamb shoulder with lemon thyme, potato anna, vegetable mélange and merlot jus they were asked to open their hearts and pocketbooks for our live auction. We had so many great prizes including a diamond and ruby ring valued at R98 000, a luxury cruise on the Zambezi River, Safari getaways by Victoria Falls, and a 10-day family vacation for 4 through 4 cities in Italy! I was in charge of the spotters and bid sheets so this crazy fast and hectic 30 minutes kept me on my feet!

Dessert and dancing followed the live auction and guests lingered around the place until just after midnight. In between all the eating and donations, we had kids from our programs perform different numbers (traditional, kwaito, gumboot and hip hop dancing, brass and strings, the choir, recorders, and the marimbas).

After breaking down the evening, closing the silent auction bids and helping guests redeem their prizes and cleaning up the room I suddenly realized that how tired I was. Nevermind the exhaustion, it was time to celebrate! Maike and I made our way home for some tea and cookie making before finally heading to bed.

After tallying up the ticket sales (R1000 per person!), live auction, silent auction, pledges, and spontaneous donations for the evening, we made quite a sum! Factor in our expenses and grand total came to a whopping R500,000 ($70,500)!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!

Throughout the whole process—the late nights, the early mornings, the countless number of runs to the coffee shop and Eastern Foods Bazaar for mango lassis to keep motivated, the hours spent in one excel spreadsheet, the random sentances uttered by the fried brain cells of Ilchen and myself and the day of the event festivities—I lived off the excitement of the event. I loved event planning! Although it was stressful at moments, working towards one big event to raise money for our programs, to give township kids a better chance at life and keep them off the streets was certainly something I was passionate about. Maybe I will put event planner in my next job criteria…..

All in all, the Amy Biehl Gala Event was a hit and tomorrow I will go on a road trip up the West Coast and just chill on the rocky beaches to relax and enjoy the sunshine J

Note: Sorry there aren’t more pictures, I was so busy running around I didn’t have time to take any L Once I get some from the office, I will post them.

I'm Not Dead..I Promise

Sorry I've been such a stranger recently!

The Amy Biehl Foundation is hosting its annual Gala Event Fundraising Dinner and I have been deemed event co-ordinator along with one other woman in the office. It's been pretty hectic--coming in to the office early and leaving late, but I've so much enjoyed the work. From obtaining hundreds of donations (juice to wine to luxury cruises on the Zambezi river to phoning FW de Klerk) to literally writing the order of events, managing the RSVP spreadsheet, and meeting with the florist, artists, staging crew, and MCs of the evening, my time has been pretty full!

But, as always, I've found time to fit in a few fun things recently.

Almost 2 weeks ago now, we took our Foundations Phase kiddos out to the park for a braai and some play time. It was so great to give these kids a chance to play outside of their usual township environment and to really just goof off, eat cotton candy, and play in the mud.

Next up on exciting things in life---SKY DIVING!!!! I seriously can't give this experience enough credit, but in a nutshell here it is:

You suit up in your harness which isn't much more than what you would wear rock climbing (although you do have straps over your shoulders) and sit in the airplane hanger waiting for your turn to do something completely against all common sense. I can honestly say that I think I was more excited than nervous about the whole experience. The 20 minute plane ride while sitting on my instructors lap and literally crammed into a tiny tiny aircraft with 6 other people was so exhilarating as we climbed up to 9000 feet. The views were absolutely STUNNING!

Next thing you know, the side of the plane opens and I'm hanging my feet over the edge and falling and ignoring all gut feelings and falling out of a plane. After 35 seconds of complete free fall and absolutely LOVING the rush and craziness of the whole situation, the parachute was pulled and the next 5 minutes I slowly drifted to the ground (all the while making left and right turns by pulling strings on my parachute). And just as soon as the door to the airplane opened, I was on the ground again...ready to jump back in the plane and go for round 2! Maybe I should put "become a sky dive instructor" on my bucket list....

I guess you could say I've been keeping busy with things in both work and play. In other news, I went to the Bafana Bafana vs USA soccer game in the Greenpoint World Cup Stadium which is a whole other experience to talk about. In short, it was incredible, the USA won 1-0 and we were interviewed on live TV for being Americans. I've posted a picture below, but I'll explain more later. For now, I should get some sleep. Morning comes early and the gala dinner is only a day away!

I Play My Vuvuzela in B-Flat

(note: this was supposed to be uploaded on 4 Nov)

So today I was back at work again for the first time since Monday. With my illness nearly gone, I returned to a pile of papers on my desk and 68 unread urgent emails (never mind the other un-urgent ones), and a stack of 10 laptops to inspect. No worries though, I had a good 5 hours to get some quality work in before heading out to the township----right….. In true Cape Town fashion (or is it Amy Biehl Foundation or South Africa or Africa, I just don’t know), we were interrupted today for a good three hours by nothing less than a vuvuzela workshop. That’s right, those lovely ‘instruments’ that gave the world a headache during the World Cup would now be tooting and blaring for the next little while in our small office space. So much for getting that work done!

It was actually quite hilarious as this white man in his late sixties, grey moustache, South African flag bandana and zebra print shirt pranced around the room showing us the many ways to use a vuvuzela. He even brought his friend (apparently a famous South African cellist) along for accompaniment!

Throughout the morning, we proceeded to work on singing, humming, and blowing the South African National Anthem through the small plastic tube. Who knew there was more than just crazy loud buzzing that could come out of such an ‘instrument.’ Our facial haired friend vibrantly instructed us on the appropriate usage and volume for these vuvuzelas which is not quite as boisterous as a World Cup game.

In true random African fashion (and admittedly kind of cheesy) we finished the day out by singing Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up as an entire office while standing in a circle and holding hands. I was waiting for Kum-bayah to be sung next, but it never happened….oh well, maybe next time.

At the end of the day, I guess you could say I know a bit more about vuvuzelas than the average joe so if you need help or want lessons to improve your skills, just give me a ring and I’d be more than happy to help!