My Journey through Africa: Wednesday June 3rd

This morning we had several awesome speakers. An influential couple who assists the Sir Lowry's Pass township by providing money for feeding the children there.... They spoke to us about being successful and achieving our goals. Aside from providing food and spending lots of time in the townships over the past several years, Leoni has also started a reading program in several high schools where she gives the struggling students "pocket money" as they complete her assigned books. The various books were about success - determination - self enrichment.. etc. Her program has really taken off and a boy named Josh, one of her participants, came to talk to us about how he has turned his life after only a year of being a part of her reading program. I went and spoke to both of them after the talk and told them how touching it was that they came to spend time with us. I wrote down the books on her list - I'd really like to read most of them.

After the speakers - Eric, Kristy, Lia and I went to Canal Walk (the largest mall in the Southern Hemisphere) to use the free internet at Mugg and Bean. Upon arrival we realized that the "free internet" was a free 10 minutes with the purchase of food/drink. So, we ended up eating lunch there and then walked around for a bit before we saw a movie. We went to see "White Wedding" - a South African movie. We loved it because it was filmed in many places where we have spent time and the soundtrack had songs we learned on the garden route - Eric and I were pretty much screaming the words in the theatre. Kristy and Lia were embarrassed.

After we came home from the movie - Eric made pasta and we went to see "My Father is Jewish, My Mother is Italian - and I'm in therapy." We laughed the entire time. It was a one man show - basically stand up comedy... the show was in a newly renovated theatre - very old building right downtown on Long Street. After the show we went downstairs to the restaurant/bar attached to the theatre and had drinks with Michael Richard - the man from the one man show. We also made friends with Tawas, the bartender. He is a Zimbabwe native who migrated to Cape Town to find work. He and his brother came together. He had to work in the grape fields for a few months and was finally hired as a bartender. He sends money home to Zimbabwe every week. Eric and I are going to go back to the theatre next week for the show "The Prisoners" and we're going to take Tawas some American money when we go. (American money is the main currency in Zim.) We are doing that as a part of one of Global LEAD's challenges to the participants.