Day 4

Hello our blog followers,

You’re lookin’ mighty fine this evening! Thought I’d get you in the mood before the news of our extravagant day. Ya dig it?

Today was an absolutely beautiful twenty-eight degrees! We woke up to the sun shining and the birds chirping. A few of us...who shall remain unnamed, woke up a tad later than the others. Great night. (thumbs up). Five of nine made their trek to Checker’s (closest supply of food), while the others slept a little longer. That place is amazing! Two of nine got some gouda, some pastrami, some yogurt, two buns, some protein bars, and some pasta salad. This all cost approximately ten big ones Canadian. Back at the homestead, nine of nine ate the typical Ashanti lodge breakfast..consisting of toast, yogurt, fruit, muffin, cereal, juice, and coffee.

Entering bus: New bus driver today....he’s a beauty. We made our way to the Rainbow Center and met up with all the Allstars, Ricardo, and Wewe. Our goal for the morning was to introduce time management skills and daily, weekly, and monthly scheduling. We accomplished this in one of the learning rooms of the center. We were each partnered with an Allstar, mine being Luyolo and Sarah’s being Cee. Jo did a short schpeel on the importance of time management, procrastination, and prioritizing. To implement this plan we had the Allstar’s write down their top 5+ priorities in everyday life, and their everyday tasks. We had them make a simple pie chart which indicated the amount of time that they allocated to their everyday tasks. In doing so we were able to see how well their priorites matched these tasks and the allotted time shown. One of the teaching aspects was to make apparent the comparison between the priorities and everyday tasks and in turn, figure a plan to better match them. For example, Luyolo said his first priority was family, but on his pie chart it came sixth in time spent. We spoke of ways to make changes so that they better maximized the use of their time. Cee spent a HUGE amount of time on Facebook everyday, so Sarah decided it was smart for her to deactivate her account....she just laughed. After charting, we had them make a weekly and monthly schedule, quite detailed, that indicated their daily, weekly, and short term goals.

We had a cute little break and played a game of ketchup...otherwise known as Tomato. In short, you all stand with bums high and try to get the mini ball through people’s legs by hitting it with two fists. When it goes through, you lose an arm...when it goes through again, you stand backwards with the use of both arms, and so on the pattern goes. We ended the game with a few bleeding fingers, sore nose, extremely bruised thumb, and high morale. Lunch was a treat.

Kristen got her hair braided by the twins and it was superb. We were worried that she was going to burn her scalp so Salina dabbed sunscreen on her head. Cutest thing ever!

Two of the groups were sent to Khayelitsha and another to Phillipi. Sarah, Bart, and I...Andrea, were off to Khayelitsha. We got to present the gear to the school (jerseys, pinnies, pylons, whistle, stopwatch, ball pump, and balls), and they were extremely appreciative. Bee tee dubs...This township was massive! Absolutely HUGE. (Hard to describe how BIG it is). There were two teams and a soccer match took place. We were lucky enough to lend our “talents” to the pitch and got to play! It was a blast. Bart even sniped a gino! We were given nicknames by the fans, Kristen was Rooney, Sarah was Messi, and I was Ronaldhino J. After the match was finished and alllll the kids went home, we waited another hour with Vee and Daniel for Charlie (our previous driver) to come get us. We played a couple rounds of World Cup with the boys and a few MVP’s. Sarah fell and her tail bone is for sure in pain.

We headed to Camps Bay to lounge on the beach, Jo and I attempted to play beach volleyball and were harshly shut down. Sarah and I headed for the large shelled boulders, while the others jumped in the ocean without notifying us. Kind of bummed that we were not invited, it sure sucks being a rookie. After the sunset we headed for Nando’s and ordered our individual meals. I enjoyed the vitality plate while others had a variety of peri-peri, corn, rice, chicken, and greens. Bart claims that Nando’s is similar to Swiss Chalet. We then got ice cream from Sinnffull Ice cream shop. It was so good.

We had a few challenges finding the ‘right’ taxi, however Sarah, Jo, Salina, and myself, were able to locate the ONLY female taxi driver in all of Cape Town, South Africa. After arriving at our hostel, we all cleaned up and headed to the hostel pub to watch the ManU game. They won, and now we sit here blogging at this late hour. Don’t worry we will let someone else write the blog tomorrow.

Hope ya have some beautiful dreams,

Andrea and Baby Benson.