Some quick highlights/updates from my last two weeks! These will be expanded upon in my reflection post upon returning home L
Both our residents had some big, and positive developments in their cases the past few weeks. Again, for confidentiality and safety of our residents I cannot share specifics, but we are VERY thankful.
Me and the other volunteer, Lina, took the two residents to Robben island last week. We had told them that we were going to a surprise outing and when we arrived at the Waterfront and told them what we were doing, we were greeted with the sweetest, most excited reactions. Neither of the residents have ever been on a boat, let alone Robben Island. It was a beautiful time seeing their joy and excitement about riding on the ferry, the passion and emotion with which encountered the stories on Robben Island, and the thankfulness they expressed for this experience.
It has RAINED A LOT in Cape Town over the last weeks and it has turned into proper winter. The days are cold and windy but we are all so thankful to see chilly drops of water falling from the sky, finally! I have also encountered more rainbows in the last few weeks than I have maybe ever in my life. Every time it rains, I see rainbow and that is a magnificent thing!
I finally got a proper African meal, pap and chakalaka (minus the meat) at Mzoli’s, a famous restaurant in Gugulethu, a local township. I was met with much surprise when I greeted the people there in Xhosa 😉 They didn’t think this umunglu could speak Xhosa! (given I know only a few words, but some is better than none!!)
I have seen the sunrise almost every morning, and each day I learn a little something new about myself and the world.
We have a big fundraiser tomorrow, which is a culmination of many months of planning and effort, so for that I am very excited.
We have had some incredible, divine intervention moments with needs being met, and important connections being made with the right people. It is a very exciting time for S-CAPE and the way we are growing to serve more women and kids who have been trafficked in South Africa.
I submitted a grant for S-CAPE that I have been working tirelessly on. Which was a big goal of mine for my Lumos project.
I went back last night and re-read some of my goals, journal entries and reflections I have written over the past five months, and it is amazing to see how much I have grown. I wrote things I am proud of, I read a LOT of books by people who I admire, I have listened to a lot of podcast, I have had conversations with incredible people who are very different from me in all sorts of ways. I have become more open minded and compassionate with myself and others. This season has become more than I ever anticipated it would or could be.
There has been a lot of unrest in Cape Town recently, especially places near Muizenberg. It is odd how close to home it is, yet how far removed I feel from it. It is a strange dichotomy and a reminder of how my privilege follows me everywhere, and begs the question of how I can use that privilege as an agent of social change so that the it will be on earth as it is in Heaven.
These last few days a very busy and I hope to expand on all these points, along with other reflections upon returning home and having some time to reflect on what has occurred here.