Goodbye SA

South Africa was such an amazing place. It kinda felt sad to write this entry from my home address rather than posting some information from Westville Christadelphian Church, which had been my home for just over 2 weeks. The eclectic mix of friends, volunteers and locals I had met in Africa continue to fill my head space and put a smile on my face. People spoke of Africa as being a dangerous, hostile and violent place - this was not my experience. I was part of a (sub) culture that consisted of Brits, Americans, Australians, Africans, Indians and Zulu's that all mixed into a friendly society that worked well with one another. The South African flag itself is made up of many colours and I read somewhere that this was to demonstrate how SA sees itself as an ethnically mixed society that values each person. Nice. SJ brought me a buff with the SA flag on it. Very nice!

My last few days in Africa were not as busy as my first week but proved to be fun all the same. It was sad to leave Happy's School behind but I was pleased to have the memories of such an experience firmly in my head. Am not sure if I had an impact on the lives of pupils there, but they had an impact on mine. The only real work carried out in the last few days was when we went on a 'work day' to help out a local Township. This day was spent cleaning and tidying up the local Church and it's surrounding environment. Loads of folk mucked in together and much rubble, rubbish dirt etc was moved, windows were cleaned, bins were put out and various tasks were completed. I spent a whole bunch of time with the children of this Township. We had treated them to face paints - sure enough they painted their faces but they painted SJ, Kim and I too, all in different colours.  The kids were given chalk too with which they chalked the road. What the kids drew and wrote was amazing. These kids are very young and poor and one child wrote 'Dear Lord, I love you because you help me' and another drew a figure of Jesus on a cross. These kids have little to be thankful for, yet they thank God for everything. Amazing. Humbling.

Those that read this blog, know I like to talk about food. In Africa I ate very well. I ate my best curry ever here. Food was so good, I even remember some place names where food was served. Mmmm. I ate snails at the Woodcutter, bunny chow at Moyo, Steak at Nourish and had the biggest serving of carrot cake at Mugg & Bean. However, what I remember most is the kids at Happy's running up to hug me with chicken feet sticking out their mouths!

Hope you have enjoyed reading about my experience of SA. Maybe, in time, I'll visit Africa again and be able to share more experiences. Meanwhile, I am going to get back on my bike but keep Africa in mind and plan to fund raise for a clean water (well) project in Kenya. If you would like to have an impact on the lives of needy individuals living in Africa and share my latest vision, then please sponsor my next project here: http://www.agapeinaction.com/tim_taylor.html