CatchUp, RealTalk: Tuesday Brings A Change Of Plan

Manifestations In Langa Create An Interesting Start To Another Great day. 

Today kicked off with drama. Originally the sports crew were heading to Langa - the same place as yesterday- which I was super excited about because I enjoyed it so much. Plus, this time I would have my phone on me so I could take some great pictures of our sport lessons, with Table Top Mountain in the background. However, that's not quite how it unfolded because in the morning we discovered two situations that would cause problems for us.

Number one was that all the train lines in and around Khayelitsha were out of order, so some of our staff members couldn't meet us at HQ in Observatory. So instead decided to rendezvous at the school.. But as you can probably guess from the title, that was not a simple journey:

RealTalk

All this stems from the conversation I had with Thulani (the bloke trying to meet with us, a knowledgable and talkative guy whom I trust for news like this.) So, there are two roads into the township Langa, and both were blocked in protest by unhappy residents. Recently the government is trying to convert parts of the informal settlement into formal houses, built by the government. However the waiting list is so long that people are become restless as the rate at which construction is taking place simply isn't quick enough. With limited houses being given out, they were unhappy about the selection process - with rumours of corruption. The people just want a secure place to call home.

So in order to show that they are unhappy they shutdown the township by blocking roads and burning tires. Not in a malicious way to hurt anyone - just to disrupt people's daily lives and make the news so their voices will be heard. Nevertheless the police showed up in force to refuse entry to the township, protect the new houses.

CatchUp 

We had to be flexible and adapt, so we picked Thunlani up from the motorway and headed to the other primary school in Khayelitsha. Our coordinator Vicky matter-of-factory said to us it's 'just what you have to deal with sometimes in (south)Africa.' So some kids got to have some extra sport lessons! They were very excited about this - especially the little Grade R's (preschool age.) With whom we played many games like 'Sharky Sharky' with lots of different animal combinations where we had to make the sound of our animal before they ran. It's was super fun and they are just the cutest! They will happily do whatever you ask of them which is perfect for us coaches.

Then in the afternoon we travelled to the HomeFromHome project nearby, which means peanut butter jelly time! Plus we brought some string and scissors to make bunting out of the craft people the children made the day before. When we hung it up in the library room where all the mamas and teachers stay they couldn't believe how good they looked! Saying that they wanted to get some larger pieces of fabric so they can copy the designs and sell them! It was really sweet and I was very proud of them all.

On Tuesday's we do sports with the group instead of crafts so today we played a lot of team games like 'tomatoe ball' and the 'caterpillar game' which was fun. But we noticed that the girls were losing interest and the lads were getting rowdy in rough and tumble so we commenced a game of football. I had a blast playing for the orange team - despite the 4-3 loss and getting too sweaty I'm the process.

In the evening after project we planned our weekend - we're going on a community tour of Khayelitsha led by Thulani which should be incredible. Ideally followed by a cable car to Table Top Mountain. Then Sunday is SHARK CAGE DIVING followed by camps bay beach! So it's action packed and I hope to make full use of my pay check from Chatsworth today!

Love to all my familly xxx see you tomorrow!