Surrounded by beauty! All I can do is be amazed!

The photo on the left is the mountain in the distance. I stood at the very top of the mountain peak on left:) The picture next to it is one of the incredible views of the Atlantic from way up!

The past three days have been full of sunshine and beautiful sight seeing!! We started our weekend off by taking a climb up Lion's Head Mountain. Rock climbing to the most beautiful view I have ever seen!!! We sat at the veryyyyyyyyyyyyy tip top of it. We were surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the City of Cape town.

<-- other members of the group on the climb down!

Six of us made it up to the top and hung out for a while.

Later that night we went to a restaurant called Mama Africa with the other study abroad group from California where we were encouraged to try "game" food. Interrrrrrrrrrresting night! After that a few of us went to an outdoor hang out spot called the Waiting Room and we hung out on the roof of a 4 story place in the middle of down town underneath the beautiful African sky!

Sunday we were blessed again with sunshineeee!! We headed out for a day of ocean and amazing views. We did the Cape peninsula tour, stopping at lots of bays. We went to visit the penguin colony! They were so funny! They were called jackass penguins because of the noises they make, but they were hilarious to watch. They were everywhere! About 9,000 just in this colony alone!

We next traveled to the Cape of Good Hope which is considered the southern most tip of Africa! My words cannot express the beauty of all this! I cannot wait to show everyone my pictures! We had lots of free time to walk around and take pictures and enjoy the day. We were warned about the baboons here! We werent allow to take bags off of the bus because the babooons are known for "mugging people " They were actually described as gangsters, haha. Luckily, i had nothing they wanted!

On Monday we had class, and we all presented our historical briefs then we hopped on the 2 oclock boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was in prison for 18 years. After reading his autobiography since we have been here it was amazing to be walking the same halls as he did! We saw the garden he started, the lime quary which he worked in, the tennis court he helped build, and the cell he was in 17+ hours a day. Our guide was an ex-political prisoner named Sparks who was in prison during the time Mandela was. All of the tours are either given by former prisoners or guards, so it is amazing what we got to learn from people who experienced everything first hand.

To the left is a picture of Mandela's cell (sorry i cannot figure out how to rotate pictures on here!)

On the boat ride back we got to watch the sunset on the ocean for an hour! breathtaking!!

And here is the view of Cape town from the middle of the Ocean! Table mountain (the big flat one;)) Is the one that we a few of us are going to go climb tomorrow if weather is nice and we have time.

I cant believe I have been here for a month and only have 3 days left here! There is still so much left that I want to do! I guess this means that I will have to come back.. :)

Anyways, not sure if I will have time again to post before I return back to the States!

Get ready America!

Penguin love!!

"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. " Desmond Tutu

The top left picture is two cuties from the preschool in Langa who loved having their photo taken! The rest of the photos are of the murals we did! The top right is the Xhosa words for house and mom. Directly below is the amazing crew that turned a plain white wall into a fun, educational and positive learning center. What a day!!!!! Included in the mural are the SA flag, animals, people, soccerball, hands, friendship, love and the English and Xhosa translation.

To the left here is the rainbow wall and the word UBUDLELWANE which means FRIENDSHIP. and below translates to COMMUNITY OF THE RAINBOW NATION. We had fun getting messy here!

Welll! the days here keep going faster and faster!! We just finished our time with the Olive Leaf Foundation. Friday and Monday we did the mural in the resource center. I am sooooo excited about it! Everyone helped out and did a fantastic job, we had a great group collaboration!! Everyone claimed they had no artistic ability but they lied! :) We only planned on doing one wall that they originally asked us to do with the word alphabet on it, but we ended up doing so much more! On Tuesday we split into groups and went to visit preschools. We took toys and games to the kids and just got to play with them for the whole afternoon. Some of the kids were only two!! Some of the cutest kids I have ever seen!!! We of course did not speak Xhosa, and the children did not speak English, so we did a lot of dancing at first. it was so much fun! The little kids did what ever we did! They sang us some songs, and we sang them some. We did a lot of repeating games with rhythms and clapping. They just seemed to be having so much fun! We then got the toys out, some colored, some did puzzles, the little girl I was hanging out with was having the most fun by sucking on a pink crayon... and did not appreciate it when I took it away from her, but then I think she forgave me because she took a nap on my lap. :) It was sooo much fun! Seeing how schools here were ran was really interesting. There was over 30 little tikes all in on room that was soooo small.. There was hardly enough room for us to be in there with them. The whole place was ran by one,sometimes two women. We also went into a weaving warehouse/shop where women work and do everything by hand. They make a large percentage on what is bought there and this is how many of them support their families. Their work was incredible! I will miss all of the people we met through the OLF.

Last weekend was also really fun! We got to experience the Cape Town night scene. Zwai, someone who works with OLF took us out to lots of different places. We spent most of the night at a place called Zula's listening to a band called Rudamentals, and some really fun reggae type music.

The most valuable experiences here have been through talking to locals. Hearing how their life has been and what they have been through. There is so much to do, listen to and take in here!

The rest of this trip will be jam packed with more amazing experiences. I really hope the these rainy mornings stop! We were going to go to Robben Island today but the boat could not take us because the ocean was too choppy. We rescheduled for Monday so I hope its a nice day!! I really want to visit the place where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life.

It's incredible how much I have learned in the past 2.5 weeks. About South Africa, about people in general and about myself!

We have been lucky to have amazing guides such as Luke and Arlene who have pulled so many strings to get us places. We have even managed to be allowed into Parliament tomorrow and Friday! Today was President Zuma's first address and we all watched him speak on TV today and tomorrow we will be in the room while the opposition has their turn, and Friday we will be in there to hear Zuma's response. It's all so surreal!

This weekend is all dependent on the weather! We will be joining a group from a university in California who just got into town here for a hike up Table Mountain! I have been looking forward to this since we arrived in Cape Town!! And Sunday will hopefully be the tour of the Cape of Good Hope and the penguin colony, as the weather has kept us from going other times :( PRAY FOR SUNSHINE HERE!!!!!!!!!

I cannot believe that we only have ten days left here! There is still so much to do! Tomorrow before Parliament I am going to go to the Art Museum, Planetarium, and Slave Lodge Museum.

Much to update on soon!:)

African Love!!!!!!