on your MARK, get set, go!: Eye Opening And Tears

Good Evening,

I started my day by heading over to Kusasa's Headquarters just after breakfast. I was pumped to dig right in to whatever they had in store for me! I quickly had the pleasure of meeting most of the staff and a few of the other volunteers. What a delight. From there, I hopped a ride to the local preschool in the neighboring township. I spent my morning working with 4 and 5 year olds helping them learn to write their names! Each of the 20 students I worked with took such great joy out of accomplishing this task. It was amazing to see. Of course, a few of the boys were drawing pictures of animals and of the girls sitting next to them, but that doesn't fly in my classroom! I got them right back to task. Half the kids speak Afrikaans. The other, Xhosa. Needless to say, we didn't discuss politics. However, just like my pal Kenny said to me before I left, " A smile works in any language" and boy is he right. High 5s! are good too! My hand is sore and I love it! My only regret was forgetting to take my watch off before entering the classroom. I have made a very conscious effort to wear neutral clothing and little to zero logos of any kind. I dream of a future where happiness is achieved through finding fulfillment in what really matters in life, not Ironman watches. I let myself down. I made it about 20 seconds in the classroom before every kid was grabbing at my stupid watch. They all wanted it. I have a lot to learn :(

From there, I went back to the office and pieced together some workbooks for the 5th grade kids. I quickly reminded myself that I am not smarter than a fifth grader! (This would be proven a few more times during the day. Frown face)

After lunch, My new friend Sintu, who works at Kusasa, took me on a tour of the township that each and every one of the students I will be working with comes from. The township is only located a mile from the center of Franschoek. However, it mind has well have been a different universe. Downtown Franschoek attracts some of the richest people in the world as vacation residents. It looks like the center of town on Nantucket . I stepped into a few real estate offices and saw plenty of multimillion dollar price tags. On the other hand, I'll let the pictures describe the township. It was beyond heartbreaking. I was crying within 30 seconds of seeing it.

After the tour, Sintu and I went to the middle school to talk to one of the teachers about me putting together a running club and a soccer team for me to coach! Very exciting. After this, Sintu took me to see the soccer field. From the field, I could see the beautiful mountains, multiple cows eating the what little grass was left on it, and the crushing reality of the lives these children live. The field separates the school from the township. Nobody, and I mean nobody deserves to live in a place like what I saw today. I could hardly breathe and found myself crying once again.

After all this, I made my way over to an after school study program. I was expecting the 3Rs. Reading, Writing, Arithmetic (are those the 3 Rs? That makes no sense…) However, I quickly felt like I did before every exam I took after the 3rd grade. Not qualified to pass!. The first student that asked me for help was looking to balance his ledger for his accountancy class. The only ledger I could think of was the name of the newspaper I delivered to the wrong houses in grade school. The second student was looking for a hand in solving equations that had letters in them, not numbers. Ahhh, this isn't going to work out I thought. I will do after school programs until midnight, gladly, but I think I may need to stick with the primary school children, not high schoolers. My saving grace was that I found a younger student that needed help rounding numbers to two decimal places. After figuring out that commas serve as decimal points here in South Africa, I crushed this activity! More importantly, so did the little boy!

My day ended around 5:30. I came back to Otter's Bend to unwind for a bit as today was pretty overwhelming. I then took to the street and walked to town to find some dinner and an alarm clock. I found dinner. No such luck with the clock. I have asked to start my day earlier than school in order to help feed 500+/- kids breakfast first. If they are hungry, how can they learn? If Kusasa doesn't feed them, most won't eat.

I then made my next mistake of my trip. (someone keep count for me.) I hadn't taken notice that the streetlights here in town end shortly after you break from the main road in Franschoek. Still having about a mile to go, I had to make my way through some wine vineyards on the outskirt of town in the pitch dark. I wasn't sure if I had reason to be concerned for me safety or not. However, I'd have loved to have taken one of my 3 flashlights with me so I could see farther than an arms length in front of me. Nothing like learning the hard way.

Well, that was my day.

Mark/Chops