Becky experiencing the specialness that is Cape Town

Becky at Moyo

As I am sitting here reflecting on everything we have done during our orientation, I find myself thinking about the people I have met so far on this trip. I was so excited when we went to my internship at Thandokulu. Ever since I first found out about the opportunity to teach children I have been so excited for this day to come. I have been inspired by the idea of helping children who are less fortunate, never considering that there were people who never had the opportunity to go to school in the first place. My happiest memory thus far in Cape Town happened only yesterday and it was completely unexpected. I went over to the house at Loch Road to spend time with everyone there, and found out that the house cleaner needed help with her math homework. Everyone suggested that I should help her (which it didn’t take much to convince me) and try and teach her how to do it. There was an obvious language barrier, but she was learning something I learned about ten years ago. She was probably in her fifties or sixties and was trying to work on problems using order of operations. Every time I helped her through a problem and she found the answer, the sweetest most genuine smile appeared on her face and she looked so happy. It was the most rewarding and eye opening experience for me because before I only thought that I should be helping the children who are trying to learn math. Now I see that my help should not discriminate by the age of the learner, but I should want to teach anyone that wants to learn. The feeling I got from helping this woman with her five math homework problems is something I cannot yet describe, but I hope this feeling will continue throughout my stay here because I have never experienced something so rewarding.

           

Something else that I find so amazing about the city is how friendly everyone is. I have felt more open with people here and tend to smile even at strangers walking down the street or sitting next to me in a mini-bus taxi and my kindness is always reciprocated. I feel as though the love of one person can spread to everyone in this city whether is be making a house cleaner smile by helping her with her math homework or just a simple smile to someone on a train. It is so refreshing to see and experience so much openness. Even when we went to the Sivuyile Baptist Church in Guguletu, which is one of the townships, the people there had so much love and passion for their lord and I felt an overwhelming sense of community while I was there. There is something about this culture that is so special and I can’t wait till I feel immersed in it.