‘to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world’

I cant believe I’m almost a month into my South African journey, Cape Town is feeling more and more like home everyday and the exploring is never-ending. Last Thursday was day one of my service learning at Ilitha Labantu (http://www.ilithalabantu.org.za/) and the day could not have gone better.  Everyone at the center was incredibly welcoming and expressed their gratitude over and over again for my presence, surely not something I was expecting. Xhosa is their first language yet they graciously made a conscious effort to speak only English in order for me to feel included. Hopefully by the end of the trip I’ll be able to hold basic conversations in Xhosa, they are teaching me a few words a day and attempting to show me the different clicks- vastly different from English! I went to St. Mary’s Primary School with Mansa and Suthu from Ilitha in the township of Nyanga and spoke to 5th, 6th and 7th graders about the risks of teenage pregnancy and the importance of prevention methods. The kids immediately put a huge smile on my face as they clapped and screamed the second I walked in the door and literally tackled me afterwards to touch my hair.. they kept asking if it was real! I wasn’t able to go today due to strikes and riots around the city but tomorrow I will be back in the schools with Suthu. Last Friday we had our first Theology of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Justice class with Chris Ahrends, a good friend of Desmond Tutu and prominent activist in the Cape Town community.  He began by saying that we would succeed in the class as long as we put effort into both discussions and our ‘body maps,’ life-size drawings of ourselves depicting our transformation over the months to come.  He gave us insight into Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela’s well-emphasized Ubuntu Theology (the notion that a person is a person only in relation to other persons) and explained that most of the class will consist of guest speakers including Linda Biehl (Amy Biehl’s mother) and a weekend-long retreat with John de Gruchy.  We also found out that this Friday we will go a service said by Desmond Tutu and attend a breakfast with him afterwards, something I have long been awaiting.  Saturday morning Jamie, Patrick and I decided to spend the day hiking Lion’s Head and on Sunday a group of fourteen of us went white water rafting on the Palmiet River. David (the man who owns Kimberly house) and his wife offered to drive us about an hour and a half outside of Cape Town on the other side of False Bay to the Kogelberg Nature Reserve. This area was absolutely spectacular, surely the most pristine and untouched place I have ever been. We geared up in full wetsuits and helmets and hiked (carrying our two-person boats) with three guides to a ‘pool’ in the river in order to learn the basics of falling out and dealing with rapids and strong currents and then we were off for a three hour adrenaline rush. David offered to take a few of us to spend five or so days rafting down the Orange River on the border of South Africa and Namibia in early November, so hopefully this was just a taste of what’s to come! Today was cold and cloudy so unfortunately we had to forgo our surfing trip but decided to try a different hike up Table Mountain through the Kirstenbosch Gardens. This weekend we’re planning on making it out to the Stellenbosch Wine Festival and hopefully doing some bike tours of other vineyards in the area. Wish me luck, everyone who knows me knows that I haven’t been on a bike in a looong time : )

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