The Global LEAD faculty chose a few participants as student leaders to help facilitate our time in Sir Lowry’s township. Friday, a select group met to design a mural to brighten up the community school. Yesterday, we planned to start priming the walls and meet with the principal and other community leaders. However, our intentions changed when we pulled up to the school. As we stepped out of the car, the cutest kids in the entire world swarmed us with the hugs, kisses, and smiles. Instead of painting, spending several hours of “Little Sally Walker” and net ball seemed much more enticing. One little, three year old girl named Ashley attacked herself to me for the rest of the day. She owned one of two soccer balls in the community which she proudly kicked and threw to me over and over. When she wasn’t climbing on my back or giving me kisses, Ashley used my hair to practice her stylist techniques. I didn’t look half bad! She definitely has a profession in the making.
Once we realized the sun got closer to the horizon line, we tried to distract the kids so we could actually start the mural project. While I love painting, playing with the kids was much more entertaining. Most students don’t begin learning English until they reach seven or eight so an obvious language barrier existed. I noticed that several of the boys constantly practiced their Michael Jackson and breakdancing steps on the edge of the basketball court. I broke the language barrier by having them teach me their favorite dances. We immediately connected when we both knew the “Beat It” dance by heart. I sense a talent show in the near future. Besides dance, they all crave attention and love. Even though they have so little, they only want someone to love them. I think we could all learn something from these precious children.
I came back to the apartment to a surprise from my roommates’ favorite group of boys down the hall. These sweet boys made our apartment a scrumptious fish dinner with salad and bread all fresh from the market. (Yes, girls, they do exist.) Of course, we had to bring something to the table. Gooey brownies and ice cream could not have gone better with the atmosphere. While the dinner was phenomenal, the boys singing High School Musical may have topped off the evening.
Stuffed, we somehow made it to the Goldfish concert in downtown Cape Town. Earlier in our trip, locals suggested that we attend this original Cape Town band when they returned to the city for their last show of the tour. Why not? None of us had no idea what to expect but knew it would be a good time nonetheless. Moral of the story… I may have a new top five favorite band. Goldfish has created the most original mixture of acoustic music and techno sounds. Can you imagine rave music with a saxophone and a flute? Look them up on You Tube. They will completely change your opinion on the definition of music.
No comments:
Post a Comment