Johnny boy!

Thinking that I only have three weeks left in my trip is blowing my mind. The fact that I will be leaving the people that have become my family over the past three months is going to be one of the biggest challenges. Not only am I going to miss my friends but the kids here have become such a constant in my everyday life it's going to be so hard leaving them. 

There are certain children that always manage to put a smile on my face no matter what mood I'm in when I get to school in the morning. John, for example, is one of those kids. Since the day I met him, John has blown me away with many different interesting facts and stories about himself. He is secretly a ninja in his spare time and loves showing off his moves, he was once attacked by a dog (that was dead?), he goes shark hunting with his dad on occasion, and he has also recently joined a weekend ballet class. He is definitely a man of many talents, weighing in at maybe 25 pounds soaking wet. At school you never see Johnny boy without a volunteer (or five) close by. He is rarely ever in class and can almost always be found outside by the tap washing his face and hands obsessively. Although he's small he always tries to join in with the older kids when they are practicing the high jump. One day a volunteer made a comment about how small he was and he simply responded with," yeah but little guys can do big things..." 

Days at Christian David

I swear the slow paced life in muizenberg along with all the fun things going on it is very hard not to be distracted from my blog! But this months I have a resolution to post atleast once a week.

I am about halfway through my program at this point and am finally pretty settled in at both school and at home. 

The school I volunteer at, Christian David, is a school unlike any other!

I began my volunteer program at a different school but switched to CD after a week. A switch that I will never regret making.

When I first arrived in SA, I heard many horror stories from the volunteers at this school; being threatened by students, stabbed with pencils, verbal abuse from the kids, etc. I would like to say my time here has been the complete opposite of that, yet that is exactly what we deal with on a daily basis...

The kids at Christian David come from both drug and alcohol abusive homes. The majority of them don't respect authority and have major behavioral issues. But these children have completely changed my life. All they need is positive attention, whether it be a hug or just a pat on the back. They will fight anyone that challenges them but when it gets too much they come running to you crying. They put up strong fronts, but they are still just children. We can't do much to fix their lives at home, all we can do is love them as much as possible during the time we have with then at school.

Sorry for the wait😬

The past week and a half has been so hectic from a tour of the west coast of SA to our crazy school schedule I haven't had much time to post! 

The tour we did up the west coast was hands down one of the coolest things I've done in a long time. In just three days I went on Safari, hungout with lions, walked with elephants, and even rode an ostrich! Needless to say, I was able to cross a lot off my bucket list after this weekend. 

We stayed at different hostels every night  we were gone. Now I've seen the movie Hostel and lets just say it's FAR from the truth haha The places we stayed at were cooler than any hotel I've ever been to. Two of them were right on the beach and the Braais we had each night were awesome too. I would recommend to anyone traveling through SA to stay at these 'backpackers', it's definitely worth the experience. 

Internet Cafes

All I can say is that Internet cafes are the saving grace of traveling abroad! Andddd they have really cheap, delicious food.

For lunch I got a fresh squeezed carrot and apple juice and a greek salad with feta- stuffed peppadews and avocado all for just fifty rand (five dollars). Such a steal! 

First few days...

First few days have been fabulous! Cape Town is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Communicating with home and getting wifi is a little difficult, but I can make due with my daily trips to the Internet cafes! 

We started our first day off going on a your of all the schools everyone would be working with and then got lunch at a great Mexican place, The Fat

Cactus. I opted for some beef nachos which was just some cheese nachos with a delicious beef chili on the side.

After lunch we went to one the local markets called the Green Market. We looked around a little bit and I got a beautiful painting of a lion, shocking I know. I also had my first day of teaching PE at Steenburg Academy today. Definitely very different than any school I have ever been to but the kids were awesome and so well behaved...except the one boy who said he was going to kill me...he got sent home haha. 

But ta-ta for now, ill have more to post in a couple of days I'm sure:)

Starting my journey...

When my mom first told me to start a blog for my trip to South Africa I was a bit skeptical. I have never blogged before and I had no clue how to even get started....until two days ago.
Two days ago I bought my first pair of TOMS shoes. Those of you that don't know what TOMS shoes are, they are a shoe company based out of Santa Monica, CA that operates as a non-profit organization that gives a pair of shoes/glasses to a child in need every time someone buys a pair of their shoes/glasses. The pair that I bought are tan canvas and looked a little dull to me at first, until I had an idea of how to give them some character. This idea has also become the inspiration for my blog.
I have often seen people online drawing designs and painting patterns on their TOMS to make them their own. I decided that I would put a twist on that same idea but instead have the people that I meet in South Africa design them for me. Now I know that I won't be able to have every single person I meet draw on my shoes so instead I will pick certain people I meet during my three months and ask them specifically to either write or draw something that describes themselves on my shoes. I will have five different colors for them to use and only those five: red,blue,green,yellow,and black (the  colors of the South African flag). On my blog I will post pictures and video clips of my journey and also my TOMS walk through South Africa. Stay tuned for more posts....
Visit TOMS.com for more info about the company toms.com