Habitat for Humanity

            When I first signed up for the SAS program I had wanted to sign up for as many service projects as possible.  This turned out to be very hard.  Out of the four I signed up for, I only got to do one.  Today was the one I got on to.  At 8am we met at the docks to do a project for Habitat for Humanity.  It was an all-day thing.  At least an 8-4pm thing.  We had to stop at a gas station on the way so that we could all pick up something to eat for lunch later.  We took a bus to a township (a different one than my last post) and immediately started to paint the undercoat for a house.  It didn’t take a long time since there were twenty of us and one house.  Around 11am they brought us these pastries called fat cakes (I think).  They were amazing!  They were so hot it was hard to hold them.  I got a cup of apple juice and put some apricot jam to smear on my fat cake before sitting down to eat it.  I was covered in paint and turpentine and I am pretty sure I was starting to sunburn, but it tasted really good.

                Robert, our project leader, locked all our brushes and paint back inside the house before taking us on a tour of the township.  It was interesting traveling with Robert.  Whenever he saw someone that looked suspicious he would have us all stop walking until the person passed.  More than one time I heard him point out a thief to someone in the group. 

On the way back to the ship we stopped at a day care.  At first it seemed empty.  There was just a building and an empty playground.  Then the stampede came.  I wish I had been quick enough to take a picture, but I missed it completely.  At once we were surrounded by kids.  At least three pounced on me for hugs before their teacher called them off to perform for us.  They did a little dance and song before they broke off and we were able to spend time playing with them.  It was really fun.  The kids were all very excited to have us there and I think I was tackled at least five times during our short stay.

Finally we were forced to say goodbye and head back to the house.  We didn’t have much more to do and we were finished in a couple of hours.  We took a final group picture and headed back to the ship.

I went back to the ship for dinner and then went to the Waterfront with Matt, Liz O, and Liz K.  Liz O wanted to find internet and Skype with her parents (I didn’t want to take my computer off the ship in Cape Town in the dark, since it is supposed to be our most dangerous port…  And then pay for internet), so the rest of us just walked around for a little while.  Matt and I have decided to work on our British accents, so know we speak in British accents all of the time, which is pretty cool.

Back on the ship we watched a few episodes of the Office and then headed to our cabins for the night.