Sunday in the Park



Another sunny day in African winter. Temps have been in the 70s even though the nights are pretty chilly. Today, I went to church and spent the afternoon with some pretty cool youngsters from the Child Haven orphanage in Roodeport. It is supported by Every Nation, an international missions organization.

If I was in their position, I would have though today was awesome. I thought it was pretty awesome anyway and I am three times their age. It started off with church. There was lots of singing and dancing, and upstairs where the kids were, there was cupcake eating as well as some learning about forgiveness and coloring. After church there was Chuckleberry's Burger Heaven, where the kids were taken to lunch as a special treat. Chicken burgers all around. Our food took 6 years to arrive at our table, but other than that it was good. There was even a trampoline and a playground at this restaurant. I guess they figure they need to distract you if the food is going to take so long. But none of the kids seemed to mind.

Then we went to Delta park which is a gigantic, brand new playground. As if that wasn't enough, a generous donor had provided the money for all 13 kids to get a Bafana Bafana (the South Africa national team's name) jersey to support them during the world cup. Then tried to organize a game of soccer with the kids, but it didn't get very far. The girls were just happy to kick the ball while the boys were angry with them for picking it up with their hands to get it in the right position or to control it. The sun was shining and I think everyone was enjoying their day. Lots of pictures were taken and THEN the kids got "ice cream". I learned that different nations have different words for what is considered ice cream. We gave the children orange popsicles, and the English people there were calling it a lolly, much to the chagrin of the youngsters. (NO! It's an ICE CREAM!) Whereas I would have just called it a popsicle. Oh well.

But the kids had a great day and I was sorry to leave them. I had to get back to say goodbye to another one of my new friends who was heading back to the states today from South Africa. I also needed to steal his leftover food and cooking pot which I don't have in my room. In any case, it's a lot quieter around without my international friends but some of them will return on Wednesday. I am looking forward to getting to work tomorrow and also to going to the pool on campus which I just joined and had my first swim in yesterday. It's heated so I can still swim in it, even in the winter. Running on campus is proving to be a real toughie. The hills are killer and I have to get creative to get the distances I need. However, it's good that the campus is quiet so I don't feel quite so silly as I usually do when I run in a foreign country.

Here's to the start of my first full week in South Africa.

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