the best weekend EVER!

this weekend has seriously rocked. on friday i went to orientation for, well, about 1/2 hour and then skipped out on the rest...ooops, my bad. but it was SO boring and all they were doing was teaching you how to write a research paper and i've definitely done that before so i just went to the computers instead :) afterwards, me, naomi and sarah met up with joelle, who is a student at Cornerstone and went over to her house for lunch. Joelle is SUCH a cool lady. She came over from england about 4 years ago to be a missionary in south africa. she has started up an amazing soccer ministry for girls but has decided to take a year off for school. however, she is still coaching one soccer team, which is something she is very passionate about. she has a foster daughter named Odi who really wants to come to America to study and play soccer... and marry an African American man, lol. personally i think the african men here are way cuter but that's another story... so anyways, joelle took me and the other girls to The Arc, which is a homeless shelter run completely by the homeless. it is a HUGE complex with around 2000 people living there. There is a range of all types of people, young and old, families, single parents, teenagers, young children and babies. Sadly, for the kids who are here with no parents, no one can adopt them because somewhere, they have parents that are living. this means that these kids are living completely on their own with no loving parents to take care of them on a day to day basis. however, everything that is needed is provided at the Arc. There is a school, cafeteria, beds, showers, etc. but none of it can compare to a nice home. i would highly doubt anyone there gets any real privacy. despite all this, the kids were extremely happy and greeted us with open arms. so many of the kids just craved for attention, jumping into our arms at every opportune moment. we also got to me some of the older girls who joelle has recruited for soccer. oh, i should also mention that the arc is in kyalietsha, which is a poor township about 45 minutes outside of cape town. i really hope to come back and continue volunteering with joelle as much as i can! after leaving the arc we headed deeper into kyalietsha to visit one of the girls on joelle's soccer team who had just had a baby. this girl was probably about 16 years old. we pulled up on a sandy road and walked a few feet up to her house. the homes in the townships are very much like mexico's poor areas: small shacks made of tin, usually with only 2-3 rooms inside. walking in we were greeted with a hug and kiss by the mother who was so sweet! we met the 16 year old and her baby as well, who was absolutely beautiful. there was also another girl living with them who had just moved in recently. the mother of the house found her alongside the road all alone with no family anywhere in sight. the amazing woman that she is, she took her in as one of her own and the young girl (about 8-9 years old) has now been living with them for several months. i tried talking with her but i dont think she spoke any english, only xhosa. but that didn't matter, i just smiled at her and she stretched out her arms and i held her for the entire time we were there. it reminded me so much of mexico and how love has no barriers. you dont need to speak the same language or enjoy the same things in life to love someone, it just comes from your heart. this young girl was also an awesome dancer! the mother of the house told her to show us some of her dances and WHOA, the girl jumped from my arms and brought down the house!! it was so cute cuz as soon as she finished her dance we all clapped and she got so embarrassed that she would run over to me and hide her fance in my legs and then reach up with her arms, asking to be held again. out of the entire day, she is the thing i will remember the most. her beautiful smile and laugh and her loving heart. i've gotta make it back there too. once the day was done with joelle, she brought me back home just in time to help prepare for my host mom's BIG 55th birthday party. and i thought the day was almost over... there was food everywhere and i helped to set up the tables and things. people started coming over around 6:30pm and didn't leave til around midnight!! they sure know how to party here! i met auntie dottie here who i will talk about later in the blog. we talked about her job (she works at the HIV/AIDS ward in the Red cross Hospital) and her foster daughter (who is 2 years old... auntie dottie is probably close to 70!). i didn't get to talk with her long but she definitely sounded like an amazing woman. she, along with the rest of the folks (there was probably close to 40 people there) were almost all from our church, Athlone Baptist. the rest of the night i helped auntie luverne (who is our neighbor and was hired by auntie sandra, my host mom, to clean the house and stay during the party and clean) wash dishes and clean up. chez, my host brother hung out with me the whole night as well, talking and helping to clean up (with a little push from me of course... but thats how all men are, hehe).

the next morning, saturday, we woke up at 7:30 to go to Langabon, which is a lagoon about 1 1/2 hours away. me, chez and uncle desmond drove together which was a lot of fun. on our way in we saw a baby tortise so of course, i had to jump out of the car, run to the turtle and touch it and take pictures of it, haha :) we got to the beach about 10 in the morning, had a little breakfast and then hung out. i met beth, a girl from oregon, who just got to south africa a week ago! it was so great to talk with her and we exchanged numbers so we will definitely hang out again soon. someone brought this kayak/surf board looking thing that i attempted to try and use. it is shaped just like a surf board but has a little dent for your butt and two littler dents for your feet and you have to balance and use a paddle to get yourself around. me and chez got a good laugh out of trying to use it... i think i fell out about 7 or 8 times before i finally got the hang of it! there were also quite a few house boats in the distance and so we snuck up on one that no one was in and dove off of the dock which was super fun! i layed on the beach for awhile more after that and then me and chez went for a walk on the beach... ok, so i know what you all are thinking... "hmmm, melissa sure is spending a lot of time with this chez boy"... NO! he is just a friend people, JUST a friend... but he is kinda cute ;) but for real, he's just a cool guy/brother to hang out with so dont worry, there is no future here! when we were taking our walk we saw sand sharks because the tide had risen and so they were swimming all around our feet, which kinda freaked me out a lil bit! the rest of the day we just ate, talked, swam some more and relaxed. unfortunately, i forgot about the power of the sun out here and didnt think to put sunblock on my back or my upper thighs... boy was i hurting that night!!! my back looked as red as a tomato! luckily, chez has connections to a pharmacist and so i got free stuff for my sunburn, woo hoo! on sunday we went to church, did homework and were just luming (afrikaans for hanging out/chilling). today, monday, i headed over to the red cross and got a grand tour from auntie dottie. if all works out, i will hopefully begin volunteering there next week! i hope you all are doing well back at home, i hear it's a little cold out there, shame :( lol. love you to bits! melissa