Sorry for not staying in touch more, tis been a busy week! As previously mentioned, Holiday Club has started and gone we so far. Wednesday was a public holiday so we had time off so I played hockey for Fish Hoek in Cape Town city centre. Running/walking around infront of Table Mountain was marvelous and winning 3-2 was even better. I got a new nickname ‘boike’ which is Afrikaans for ‘little boy’ but for all the banter had a good game and was awarded Man of the Match. Better still my opposite number was from south London which made the game a little rougher at times but still enjoyable. Will definitely play again on a weekend after the world cup is over and the season starts again.
Thursday saw more holiday club, the story of Gideon with around 80 kids attending which was the highest turnout yet! African children’s work, especially in Redhill, varies dramatically dependant on the weather and so the large number coming on Thursday was probably due to that. The afternoon saw the first of 3 days of community festival which brought all of Redhill together. A group from Australia called Fusion came to help us run and manage the activities and crafts. Basically, there are centre games using a large rope and then facepainting, craft, circus skills and other games around the outside. I was in charge of the circus skills and was appropriately dressed as a clown! I taught the children Diablo, juggling, plate spinning and did a few cards tricks too. The best part of the whole event, Friday and Saturday too, was to see people of all ages coming together to join in the event, something very rare in Redhill. As many people do not have jobs they are so used to sitting around and doing nothing so this event was a bit different to them, meaning they didn’t get fully involved at the start. However, after a few games and seeing it was a friendly and good place to be, people started to join in and the event grew quickly. Praise God for the opportunity to work with the community in this way and for the Fusion team who greatly helped us. Friday was very similar although we had 3 hours of street football first rather than the usual holiday club setup.
Saturday, what a day!
Standing in the doorway of the airplane I still felt nervous. The equipment weighed heavily against my back and the floor strong against my feet. The straps pulled tight on my legs and shoulders. Taking a few strong breaths, I leapt. 10 seconds later the wind supported me and held me at constant speed (120mph). There was an exhilarating rush of adrenalin as I soared through the air. Spinning around, I saw Robben Island and Table Mountain looming below and coming quickly. We dropped 5000ft overall before coming to a sharp halt as the parachute opened. Wow. As we continued to descend, albeit a little more relaxed, my buddy Jason allowed me to drive the parachute, spinning us 360deg one way and then the other. He then took back over and did some more spinning (feeling sick now) before driving us close to Carley (another volunteer). Having spend a few seconds saying hi at around 2000ft, we descended further towards the sandy landing strip and touched down. My body was shaking but I was back down (parents sigh some relief!). Skydiving is a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to see the landscape from a whole new perspective. Seeing the curvature of the earth whilst speeding towards it was weird and very hard to explain. One thing that could be appreciated though was how strangely quiet it is at 4000ft even with a strong wind blowing.
Today has been remarkably different, church morning and evening with some penguin watching in between! We went to the local jackass penguin colony about 10 minutes drive away and saw the little furry friends. They were very relaxed and quite tame although I got told off for touching one as that was ‘too close’ apparently. They have thick oily skin, as expected, but also very soft, different to the coarse feel I was expecting. It was great to see them all waddling around and I am sure I will go back as we were only there a few minutes.
That is all for the mo, a few days of holiday club this week and then I am taking a trip to Port Elizabeth for the football which will be great! Speak soon!
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