Hi this is Brooke writing the update!
We're finished our second week of camps here at 6 different schools - Hillaria, Duma, EJ Singwane, Sheshela, Yedwa, Phumalo. They went amazingly! It seems we got most of the kinks sorted out this second time around. The Canadian team is having a great time! They've now gotten to know the Youth Leaders as friends which makes it a lot easier to help lead activities. Every aspect this week went a lot smoother. The kids are loving the camps as well. We've got soccer and white people, what's not to love?
Actually, that's truer than you think. Caucasian people are very rare in the townships. We get some of the funniest looks! It's been really cool though. Every day when we do our Discovery Bible Study (DBS) the first thing we talk about is what we are thankful for. It's amazing how many kids say they are thankful for the Canadian volunteer at their school because most of them haven't ever been outside their township and have never seen a Caucasian person. By just being there and loving these kids, we are changing the stereotype that all umlungus (Caucasian people) are rich, arrogant, and don't care about them or their circumstances.
The first day of camps the kids are usually pretty shy towards the Canadians because they don't know what to do, but by the end of the week they can't let us go! They love teaching us the language and they laugh at us when we try to speak it with our horrible accents! Enock spent the week travelling from school to school to meet and interview some of the children. So many of them are single or double orphaned and have many significant needs. He will be writing their stories and sharing them soon!
One of the Youth Leaders wanted to end off by commenting on the success of the camp:
"As one of the South African Youth Leaders I learn more things from Canadians. More soccer skills, including preparations of soccer match. But what have touch my life about Canadians it's the way they worship the Lord. They showing more interest so we learned to be serious when we praising the Lord. They show love to us but they learning hard to know our language and we are trying to teach them. And about the camp, everything it's awesome!! We have shared the same food without complaining because some of our food it's their first time to see it but they manage to share!! Their belief is black and white are the same!! And the camp have saved more child on trafficking because of the World Cup. So the camp is awesome and people are enjoying it and the communitites too!!!" --Daniel
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