The First Few Days....

I haven't had much time to spend on here over the last five days, so here are a few highlights:

Friday night, after we arrive and settled in to the retreat Center in Constantia, Erin and I decided to go with the Majors Booth (the Divisional Commanders in the Western Cape) to South Africa's Next Top Model, a fashion show that one of the Corps Youth Groups was putting on that evening. There was some fantastic dancing by a group of boys (I have video, but its too large to upload from here), a great runway show by the teenage girls and the little siblings running around were very interested in everything about Erin and I. The picture to the left is a couple of the boys who were there that night.

Saturday morning, we went to the Athlone Corps and went out into the surrounding community to talk with the people who live nearby. We went to an old run down building that people are living 8-10 people per room. But at least they have running water, and some of it is hot. We spoke to one woman, Ethel, who lives there and shared her fear and anger because the government wants to move them out so they can remodel the building and use it as a hostel during the Soccer World Cup next year.

That afternoon, we had free time, so we took the cable car up to the top of table mountain. It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular!

We had lots of time to walk around and see a bird's eye view of Cape Town and the surrounding area.

On Sunday, we divided into three groups and attended morning services at different places. In the afternoon, we joined up at the Langa Corps Kid's Club where the program for the day was an 'Olympics' competition. Langa is a township (shanty town) in Cape Town. The final game was a tug o'war - kids against leaders. It's amazing how much joy and laughter is present in these children who live in conditions that would be considered deplorable in the US.

Ok, thats all I have time for right now. It's only a peek into what we've been up to so far, but I wanted to get a couple of pictures up. More to come soon....