Bring on the weekend!!!

So the talent show and Westlife rendition was a pretty good way to end the week. After we finished up, the five of us volunteers went with Beronique, one of the stars, to meet her family and see her home. Her mother is blind so she has to do most of the things around the house. It was so touching to be invited in and her family were so welcoming, thanking us for the opportunity we had given their daughter. We took pictures with her little brothers and chatted for a while before we left. The house holds 7, with some of the younger boys sleeping on a mattress in the living room. It’s such a small house but they really have made it beautiful, with pictures of their children and grandchildren all around the walls. They are a truly loving family, very supportive of their kids, which I’ve come to learn is not necessarily the norm around Helenvale.
Since Tsitsikamma got postponed to next weekend, Eef and I decided to go whale watching today. And can I just say OH MY GOD!!!! We had to be there for 8 am but was so worth it. We say an island colony of little penguins they were so cute! And the scenery was breathtaking; the bay is huge and was flat calm this morning. Nothing better than the sea on a sunny day with gentle waves rolling under you. Well nothing better til we saw a whale breach five feet from the boar!!! The sound they make as they breathe out take yours away! I was mesmerised! It was fantastic. We watched it til it disappeared then moved on to find some bottle-nosed dolphins….we found a school of about 60! Just hanging out along the beach playing in the waves as they broke! We were all transfixed, nobody wanted to move. We just watched and watched as they broke the surface and dived again, enjoying the sunshine like the rest of us. The sheer number of them was the most incredible thing; the school stretched the length of the beach! Eventually we had to go back to shore but it was so worth the early start and the R600 (E60).
Tomorrow we’ve been invited to the church of one of the project leaders, Franklin. Everyone attends, and everyone sings. Everyone includes all the local gangsters (including gang leaders). This I find a strange contradiction. Every Sunday morning they turn up for church, and on Sunday afternoons they often end up in fights, fights which regularly end in death. I saw three walking through the school on yesterday, they were only about 15 and one of them was holding a gun. They had hoods and scarves over their faces, and dead eyes. Even without seeing the gun I felt terrified by their presence. I can honestly say it’s the first time since I arrived that I have been really scared. So I’m looking forward to seeing how church fits into this strange gang morality where it’s ok to walk by pre-schoolers holding a gun. After church we’re going to the market to have a look! And we’ll probably head to the jazz bar tomorrow night since it was such a great night last week! They play live music, put their own spin on lots of popular songs as well as traditional Afrikaans songs it’s an electric atmosphere! Everyone dances and it’s totally integrated which is amazing to see!
So that’s all for now I think! Hope everything at home is going well and I love hearing news from you all so keep me updated!

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