Every single week here gets better and
better. On Wednesday one of the doctors took the three girls and I out to lunch
and paid for the whole thing. When we asked her why she paid for it, she told
us that “here, the people treat you the way they would want to be treated”.
It’s such a simple task but I can’t even tell you how good it feels to be in an
environment that cares about your wellbeing. I’m not going to pretend and say
this happens everywhere because it doesn’t even happen in our nice neighborhood
in Rondebosch. But I do appreciate how receptive my co-workers have been to a
group of American teenagers.
Thursday was another good day because I
got to meet Ainsley’s mom and finally get a nice mom hug. I talk to my mom
every couple days here and I’m never very homesick, but seeing one of my
friends so happy and having a mom to hug has been just what I needed. I’m very
happy here but I do miss my family and friends back home a lot. I wish they
could come and see everything I’m going through because I really feel they
would appreciate it and their lives back home so much more. After that great
day, Friday came and was actually relatively stressful. I had started to feel a
little sick that day but I decided to power through and get up to go visit
Nyanga for our activist project. We finally got to see the room they call a
library which is basically just a room filled with filled with broken shelves
and random desks/chairs. And as happy as they were that we were there they
seemed to want a lot. They asked us to hire a carpenter, paint the entire room,
and put up bars and a door so the librarian could store her computer in the
room. There are also only five free weekends left for three unexperienced
teenagers to complete this so I repeat if anyone has any monetary donations or
books they would like to donate please contact me at Patrick.clarke@uconn.edu. I would be
happy to explain a little more about my project.
 |
| Anna, Patrick, and Allie meeting at the school in which they will help create a real library for the learners! |
( Learn more about Books for Nyanga at http://www.gofundme.com/booksfornyanga?pc=fb_d )
After crazy Friday, Saturday came.
Granted each day here is the new best day since I have been here but Saturday
was one of the best days of my life. I woke up not feeling too great but my
friends really wanted to go to the Gay Pride Parade in town so I decided to tag
along. We got there semi-early so we decided to walk around a little and
happened to stumble upon the end of the parade. People were yelling at us to
just get in line and we ended up being in the actual parade. We were dancing
and running through the streets living completely freely. I’ve been thinking about how here I am just
living. I’m not thinking about anything else but living my life. After that we
went to a cool Middle Eastern food bazaar which was this huge venue with all
halaal food. I hadn’t really been exposed to many other cultures so this whole
experience has been amazing. After that we went to Holi which is the Indian
celebration of color which Cape Town interpreted as a huge music festival where
they throw colored powder everywhere for 10 hours. After a long 5 hours of that
we came home and jumped in the pool since we were so dirty and it was extremely
hot out. I can’t even describe how much pure happiness I’m experiencing here.
Every day is filled with a new adventure. Even the next day on Sunday, I went
to church and then volunteered at a soccer tournament in a poor township called
Khayelitsha. I think all this fun is finally catching up with me because I’m
starting to get sick. Regardless, it was awesome and the best week since I’ve
been here.
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