"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!!!!!!