Today I went with one friend I met during the first week, who is probably one of the nicest guys one could ever meet, Joe, to an orphanage. The orphanage we went to is called an SOS Children’s Village. This place is a collection of abused children in South Africa (and other parts of the world since this orphanage is located all over the world) who live in multiple houses with a single “mother“ who looks after each of the children who are assigned to that house. The house is located within a gated community and all on a single street. These children have been victims of physical abuse, prostitution, begging, living on the street. We left the port area around 2 PM after spending some time in the mall area, scoping out things I could buy. Our driver, Andre, was fabulous. He is another great guy. He drove us through some townships, where I learned some new aspects of the townships. I learned from him about the lamp posts, as stated in the earlier post about townships. Also, how most crime that happens here in the townships is against those who are not from the town area. Everyone in a township knows each other and who does certain acts. They do not normally do bad things onto each other but against others who are not a part of the township.
After leaving the township we made our way to the Village. We arrived around 4 PM and soon after arriving we began playing with the kids. Another friend of mine, Cody, and I started to play tag. Funny story about that. We went up to the kids, who by the way are between the ages of 3 and 8, and asked if they wanted to play tag. They looked confused, asking what that was. We mimicked it for them and then they got the hang of it. However, later on, this little girl who took a liking to me asked to play “On,” which is what they call tag. Interesting cultural note I thought. Cody, Joe, Dallas (another guy who went), and I horse played with the kids, chasing them around, picking them up, throwing them around, having them ride us like horses. I spent about 30 minutes at the monkey bars holding kids up and bringing them across the bars to one side and the other. The one girl that took a liking to me, Nikita, I brought across multiple times. I ended carrying her and bunch of her friends on my shoulders, two at a time, for awhile. One of the kids took my camera and ended up taking over 200+ pictures on my camera, of me and of everyone.
After about the 2 hours of horseplay with the kids, the director of the Village took around for a tour of the premises after some of the kids were called back to their homes from their mothers. A cool story. Joe had been here five to six years previous during high school. He had spent a majority of his time with a little kid there and ended up seeing this little kid there as we were on our tour. Not even 30 seconds into our tour, some kids came out to play with us. One kid took my iTouch and wanted to play some of my games. They killed the battery really quick since a lot of them ended up playing with it. There were these two young girls, around 6 or 7 I want to say, who were amazing. They sat on Cody and Dallas’s shoulders and were singing and rockin’ out to Justin Bieiber’s “Baby, Baby, Baby, Ooooh!” It was cool just listening to them. I wish I could back and visit just them, they were great. I had one little kid, his name was Bodi, on my shoulders the entire time. He and I ended up taking some really cool pictures together. What I found amazing is how wonderful these kids were, after everything that has happened to them. Also, how culturally aware they are of other cultures, especially the American culture (which makes it way around the ENTIRE world. Which completely blows my mind as to how much the American culture circulates the world) These kids have experienced some things that most Americans do not even see and yet they are some of the happiest kids alive.
Close to the finish of our time at the orphanage, we played some games with the kids. One of the counselors put this session on and they were a lot of fun to play with the kids. I wish I was back there for how amazing these kids were and they stole my heart. Another interesting thing about them was they were looking through my camera at pictures I had taken. I had a picture on there of Archbishop Desmond Tutu from Neptune Day. These kids were amazed that I had even been in the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This was interesting in the fact that even kids who came from these background, and are as young as they are, know who he is and some Americans do not know who he is.
After we returned to the port from the orphanage around 7 PM, I went out to a restaurant in downtown Cape Town. Mama Africa is a local restaurant with live music being played by local artists. Eating here I had the Mixed Grill of which I ate Crocodile, Ostrich, Springbok and Steak. A great meal to have while in South Africa. After eating we walked around a bit then headed back into port. I went to the jazz café with a few others for a little bit then went off to bed for the night. That concludes the fourth day in South Africa.
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