I can’t believe it’s been an entire week since we
came home from Joburg/Kruger! I had a great, but busy week with internship,
class, homework, and lots of fun activities we are all trying to cram in before
leaving. After internship on Monday, a few of us went to Langa Cultural Center
to get lunch and buy pottery from the local artists. We went into the city to
explore Green Market Square; Maddy and I walked around Loop Street for a little
and found a few cute cafe’s that we want to go back to. Tuesday afternoon
Maddy, Karen, Sara, Laura G, Laura T, Taylor, and I hiked up part of Lion's Head
for the sunset and full moon. We wanted to find Wally’s Cave, but instead we
found a dead end around the corner where we were able to enjoy the sunset with
no other people around. When it’s full moon, there are an overwhelming amount
of people on the mountain so that’s why it was so great to find a quiet spot
for us to eat dinner and enjoy each other’s company. Once it started getting
dark, we began to make our way back down. As soon as we turned the corner, the
full moon was right above us so we stopped to take a bunch of pictures…I
finally figured out how to take moon pictures on manual!! On Thursday, we
accidentally found an outlet/mall in Kenilworth when we were trying to find
uniforms for the Fire Fighters.
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| Ethan, Rav, Sara, Maddy, Kaitlyn, Bongi & Claire |
This weekend, the Fire Fighters held their first
annual soccer tournament! We dedicated our whole weekend to help out and do all
that we could to ensure the weekend ran smoothly. We didn’t really know much
about what was happening until we showed up Friday morning. Oscar, a
guy we hadn’t met before, was pretty much organizing and running the entire
tournament by himself. He lives in Khayelitsha does all the behind the scenes
work for anything soccer related there. He is absolutely amazing and knew
exactly what he was doing. Karen and Laura T came with us on Friday, which
was a HUGE help! Karen was our photographer for the day and Laura T helped us
out at the gate. Claire, Laura, and I stayed at the gate most of the day,
charging entrance fees for people and cars, while Sara and Maddy dealt with the
chaos of twenty three teams registering the morning of the start of the
tournament. Saturday we brought peanut butter and jelly so that we
could make sandwiches for the Fire Fighters. We walked around with Bongi,
taking pictures of all the teams and supporters watching on the sidelines. We
made about 60 pb&j sandwiches for the team and tournament staff and then
went to go watch the Fire Fighters play in their 1 o’clock game.
Bongi sat with us and a bunch of local children, many of whom are on the Junior
Fire Fighters team. Bongi told us all about South African words and phrases
such as “shame”, “now now”, “sharp sharp”, “eish”, and many more that I don’t
know how to accurately spell. We played music, watched the game, and enjoyed
the beautiful weather. Today we took a city bus to Khayelitsha for the first
time, with Bongi, and it took a full hour to get there. Ethan and Nikita also
came with us today! Today, I walked around a lot to take some more pictures and
put my zoom lens on so that I could get action shots of the players during
their games. We also got the chance to watch the Junior Fire Fighters play,
since there was an empty field and Power wanted to give them some game time.
Even just sitting watching the senior teams is so fun for me; it makes me miss
soccer so so much. I’m so glad I chose to make this my activist project and
spend a lot of my free time in this environment. We made another big batch of
pb&j sandwiches for the players again today, but then left to catch the
mini bus home so we could get to the grocery store before it closed. Oscar was
so SO appreciative of our help; he mentioned it multiple times each day and
kept reiterating how the tournament would have been a mess if we weren’t there
to help. Since he did most of the general tournament organization, it was nice
knowing we were able to help him be a little less stressed. We loved being
there and I’m just so glad we could actually help make a difference and ensure
that the weekend ran smoothly.
I cannot wrap my head around the fact that we have
less than two weeks left with everyone! Time has flown by way too fast.
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