Hello again from the Rainbow Nation! Internet was out for a while after lightning fried our router. Sorry if I've been slow to respond to any communications...now you know. I've also been super busy the past couple weeks with events both random and planned. To start off, here's a picture of Venus and Serena Williams talking to the youth and parents of Soweto about working hard, supporting the next generation, and finding passion. It meant a lot to have them come out and hit with both able and disabled kids. My neighbor's daughter Makola got to play with them!
Cop cars providing security just outside the center where I live! The courts are a two minute walk away.
Yum...here grilling is called having a braai. Below is an awesome mix of burgers, steak, and boerwors. This particular event was on the night after seeing the Williams sisters. It was incredibly fun and a great way to get people together on a Saturday evening for good fun and community bonding.
Here's the crew: Me, Phillip, Fumani (who makes many later appearances), Bongi (our next door neighbor's niece who will be getting her matric and heading to varsity next year), Makola (the tennis star), Julius, and Siyabonga (Bongi's cousin)
Here we are the day after starting a garden project which was conceived at the braai. The tree on the right has since been whittled down into future braai wood, but is proving difficult to remove from the ground. Also, we had to take a break to allow a mother mouse to move her squealing babies after we disturbed her nest during our digging and chopping. Hopefully I'll have future pictures of a bountiful crop, but I think we've missed the spring planting season and might have to wait out summer for the fall.
On Saturday Nov 10, I was the MC at the annual DAM Gala Dinner which is a fundraiser for our Orphans and Vulnerable Children program. It was slightly intimidating getting up in front of everyone and suddenly becoming the point person for a chaotic but star studded evening. Especially since I volunteered to MC at the final planning meeting the Thursday before (which coincidentally was also the first planning meeting I attended). Luckily I had a good support crew.
We had amazing latin dancers, an excellent boy's choir, hip hop dance stars, and a local celebrity speaker come out to entertain the guests. More than 300 people showed up! Considering I was naked in the shower when the thing actually started (since I was working all day to prepare the hall, get the DJ's equipment, and prepare the waiters) every thing turned out very well. This first picture is of my favorite table (because 11 is my favorite number). We really worked hard to do the hall up nice. All the work was worth it knowing proceeds support the kids I work with on a daily basis to feed, teach, and befriend.
Here I am looking fly for a white guy with Fumani (my self proclaimed South African mother) at the event.
Here we are on Monday after working all day Sunday and half of Monday to clean up the hall and tear down all the beds we set up for guests to spend the night. Luckily DAM sponsored a braai to thank us for all the work we put in.
Loving this place and looking forward to reuniting with my other SA YAGMs in a week at our first retreat. You can look forward to pictures from the Drakensberg Mountains and Lesotho.
