Our first morning started o ut a little rough, it was pouring down rain and Table Mountain was closed, our first stop of the trip. A quick adjustment and we headed to Boulder Beach to check out the penguins. The penguins were wondering what the crazy Americans were doing standing out in the cold rain but the kids were happy to see penguins walking down the road and playing in the surf.
Next stop, Robben Island, we made our scheduled time as the ferry arrived on at the dock. Everybody was so excited until I reached the ticket window with my prepaid tickets. The cashier informed me that they had canceled all the Robben Island tours for the rest of the day and all day Saturday because of rough seas. I was totally bummed.
Later Paul told me that happens all the time, especially on Friday and Saturday because the employees want the weekend off. It looked like our whole first day was a bust. We released the kids in the market and with nine girls they weren’t too upset but I was. It was going to be one of our highlights of Cape Town and with our tight schedule I was sure that now the kids would not get to see Robben Island or Table Mountain. Hoping that we could rearrange our schedule I called Vivienne. She is totally amazing, within minutes she had totally changed our braai (barbecue) from Sunday to Saturday and we able to reschedule Robben Island for Sunday. Yeah!
Later Friday night I had planned for all of us to go to the premier of one of South Africa’s hottest musicians, Craig Hinds the lead singer for Watershed who just released his solo album called Ordinary Boy, was doing a premiere concert in small venue in Cape Town and Paul helped me get tickets. The concert rocked! Before the night was over Josh was dancing with the waitresses and everybody had a smile on their face. He played the whole album of songs. It was a great finish to a tough day. Go out on I-tunes and check his new album out.
This morning we headed out early again, this time our destination was Stellenbosch and our first community service project. We stopped at a small orphan home where they had not been able to grow grass in the yard, so the kids had to play in mud and it was constantly being tracked into the house.
In Africa, a law was passed that no one could run an orphanage with more than 6 kids per house mother because people getting government money were taking on 20 or 30 kids to collect the money but did nothing for the kids in their care. The kids dived in with a passion turning and smoothing the soil to prepare it for laying some artificial grass. Some of the kids took off to help cook food for the braai and some started playing with the orphan children. The rain finally stopped and cleared up to finish the project and just in time for the braai.
By the afternoon, kids were playing, food was grilling and Josh, Kendra and Vonda arrived with their side dishes. Everyone was hungry and dove in, the food was awesome, the kids were so cute and our Globetrotters were incredible.
We ended the day with hot chocolate at a vineyard and a play called Solomon and Marion. Day one was a bust and day two was a bomb but we were able to reschedule Robben Island and Table Mountain for tomorrow. We got another evening braai scheduled for tomorrow night.