Day 3

Alright. Today is the day. I can not believe how much my worldview has changed over the past 24 hours...

I sleep in the bottom bunk of a two bunk bed, and it turned out that Alex, the dude who was sleeping in the top bunk, is quite a sleep talker. He woke me up quite a bit throughout the night, and at about the fifth time he had woken me up, at around 5am, I decided to move into the common room to sleep. It turned out I couldnt really sleep, so I decided to go outside for a nice African view of the stars. As I sat next to our pool, and watched the last of the SA stars glisten, a cat jumped over the wall. I knew deep down that I really shouldnt have, but against all my natural instincts, I decided to "Ce Ce" (not see see, rather it is tch tch, welcome to Xhosa) until the cat wandered over to me. The cat, without a collar mind you, rubbed itself onto my sheets I had brung with me and my hands, up until the point where I rubbed the cat all over, especially behind the ears and on the back (Im allergic to cats, so this was a big deal). But the most mystifying part was not the rubbing but rather, it was the metaphorical color of the South African cat. It was all black, except for its pawes and underbelly which were white. To me it represented the fact that SA is 70-80% black and 20-30% white. No matter what has happened in the past of SA, the gov't and the people are working their hardest to reinstigate a completely equal country. I love you SA. I love you.

After the cat had had its fair share of rubs, it wandered off and jumped up onto the surrounding wall, and soon dissapeared into the dark. I returned to the house soon afterwards, but I couldnt fall asleep, so I decided to do some dishes. After 5 or so minutes, Neal joined me, and we had quite the discussion for a 20 minute period or so. I will say this right now....Neal is the ultimate homie. Dad, I love you, but Neal (not Neil) is the ultimate homie. I love the dude. He is so similar to me, he just doesnt know it.

After we finished doing the dishes, it was about 645 am (we were leaving for our first day at the Masupumalele township school at 745) and we decided to get 15 more minutes of shut eye. 15 minutes of napping later, I was up and about, waking everyone up for our early morning start. After a wonderful breakfast with the whole GYSA family (including our cook/cleaner Belinda, who is an absolute saint) we all headed out to our first day working at the school.

We arrived in Masupumalele, and immediately I was struck with a new sense of reality. Not 30 seconds before we hit the town, we had been surrounded by first class houses. And all the sudden, we were in a shanti town, with both stores and houses being composed of simple carboard and decomposing metal. We were, GYSA, officially beginnning our project. Soon enough, after many interpretations, I found myself staring out onto the soccer pitch of the school. I cant even explain to you what it looks like....trees, holes, bricks, logs, you name it, it was on the pitch. Completely unplayable, the pitch was an absolute joke when compared to the rest of the first class pitches that you would find around the world. Alex and I decided that it was our job to repair the field. After an hour of cutting down trees and pulling up roots and moving bricks and moving logs, only 1% of the field had been repaired. I have no doubt in saying that it was the most depressing moment of my life. I sad down ont he pitch with Alex, and we began to talk about the haves and hoave nots of the globe that we live in, and I realized how much I had on MI. I really, truly believe that I will never, ever return to MI the same. At this point in my life, I am utterly disgusted with the life that 99% of my friends live. Masupumalele is a township where 90% of the population recieves one meal, if that, every day. They live in shanti shacks. And, somehow, they smile 100% of the time. They hold onto their happiness and dignity because they literally have nothing else...and people from my hometown consider themselves depressed...........live one day as a Masupumalele citizen, and then you will forever appreciate what you have, opposed to what you dont have.

So after Alex and I had had our depressing moments out on our basically unchanged pitch, we returned to our sport court to enjot ourselves some basketball and football fun. After 30 minutes or so of messing around with the PE classes, I somehow found myself in a classroom (a portable, in american terms) without any teachers. There were 40 kids, about 1/10th of which spoke a little bit of english, and the other bit spoke Xhosa. I spent two hours in the classrom messing around, making drum rythyms, wandering around the english alphabet, breaking up fights, singing, reading, doing whatever was right at that given moment. I have never truly fallen in love in my life, but I will tell you now, I fell in love with that portable. Those kids climbed all over me (as they were 8,9, 10 yrs old, tiny) and I tossed them around as if they were my little brothers and sisters. I will tell you this right now, after "teaching" one day in the portable, I have decided to change from PE to teaching. The smiles I see on the kids faces when I explain to them the angel mother I have, or the brilliant father I have, or the broyiest bros I have, or the cutest lil sis I have, make my life worth worth living.

After I finished with my kids in the portable, I ran home to gather my footballs, and returned to the Masupumalele school that I once was at. Will and I had an excellent discussion after our ride home to collect the balls which consisted of how one could achieve a PHD in discovering why people who have so much tend to focus on what they dont have, and people who have so little tend to focus on what they DO have. It was about 2:00pm, and so it was the time to begin the soccer traning. It ended up being just scrimmage after scrimmage (which is what I believe in) and it was fantastic fun. Right when I went to get a water break, there was a volleyball game going on, and I was invited to join, so I did. It was great fun, not as much as the football, but still great fun, and soon enough I found myself being called by Chana as it was time to go.

After school. the girls decided tp gp hpme, but us boys decided to go help out with a rugby tourney, and we had so much fun. The boys constantly wanted to goof around, and I joke you not, we thru them around for an hour straight. Literally an hour. Probably the biggest workout of my life. The boys were so funny, so happy, so fun. After a couple of rugby matches, will picked us up, and we returned to our house.

We had some xhosa lessons from a wonderful man named Thomas, whos life story I will telll you about tomorrow, and after dinner and a few drinks at the pub, we returned home and the majority of volunteers passed out. Here I am, a changed man, waiting in anticipation for tomorrows challenge. I cant wait to see the new loves of my life. The Masupumalele children will change my life, and in turn will change those around me lives, forever. I cant wait to go back.

Ma and Pas quote of the day: My love for you is like a Masupumalele child. He/she may have seem to ahve very ittle, but the extent of my giving will never end. Smiles until I die.