Apr 17, 2010 | South Africa, Stories
We visited another township this morning, and I am wiped! I had the privilege of washing some beautiful feet, some tiny ones and some big ones, and praying for God’s plans to come to pass in the lives of some precious children. Another sixty-some kids received a message of hope and a new pair of shoes. (Some Crocs and some trainers.)
My heart is swimming in circles from all this, and there’s so much more I’d like to say than I think I can communicate effectively at the moment. I look forward to sharing more with you soon, but in the meantime I thought I’d share a couple more pictures from Thursday’s distribution. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway, right?
To me, Africa has never been more beautiful.
xCC
Apr 16, 2010 | South Africa, The Good Word
I don’t know how I managed to catch this little fella with anything other than a smile on that sweet little face.
He was happily playing in the dirt the first time I noticed him.
His joy was contagious.
Sometimes seeing people who have so little and are so happy
challenges me to the core.
When he was giggling and smiling and tracing circles in the dirt, he had bare feet.
I’m glad he was blessed with a pair of shoes yesterday.
And glad he knows how to be happy either way.
“But Jesus said,
Let the children come to me, and don’t try to stop them.
It’s to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”
xCC
Apr 15, 2010 | South Africa, Stories
Guys and gals! I mean it! I have three gabillion stories to tell you. We had our first shoe distribution today in a township not too far from the Muizenberg section of Cape Town called Overcome Heights. It’s a very poor area where some 6,000 people just showed up and built a settlement in three days because just before elections the government made some sort of promises that would have affected people living in that area. I don’t think they made good on those promises, but anyway, that’s not the story, I’m just wiped from a long day, so I’m rambling.
But one real story is, a bunch of kids were blessed today, with a message of hope, with people who care about them praying for them and washing their feet, and with a new pair of Crocs.
Crocs?
Yes, Crocs. Not the fake imitation ones either. Sorry, was that redundant? Crocs committed 1 million pairs of shoes to Samaritan’s Feet over a four year period, and 1,000 of those Crocs are here in Gordon’s Bay for us to bless people with. Ahem, with which we can bless people. I didn’t want to end that sentence with a preposition, but y’all I’m tired. My southern is coming ow-wt! Dern!
You have probably guessed that because I’m so tired, I’m not going to try to tell you all three gabillion stories right now.
But here’s one.
I saw this little boy today waiting in line just outside the area where the kids enter and hear a message of hope.
I was really sad at first because I saw that he had bare feet, and I didn’t think he had gotten in line in time. There were so so many little feet. Little little bare feet! There are always more feet than there are shoes. But I wanted this little one to get a pair of shoes!
Much to my delight, I realized he had a little strand of bright blue raffia around his wrist. The blue raffia was the magic solution when we’d forgotten yarn and we needed a way to count how many kids would be getting shoes. We’d tie a bit on their wrists and then remove it after they’d received their shoes so they couldn’t come back through.
So I rejoiced when I saw that he was going to get a pair of shoes today. Yay!
And then, I happened to catch him again later…Here he comes to have his tootsies tickled and receive a new pair of shoes!
In the end, we were running low on small sizes, and he got a pair that was a little big for him. See below? We passed them along to his mother and he’ll probably be sporting them tomorrow anyway.
It is tough to know what a drop in the bucket those shoes were. It’s estimated that 300 million people around the world go shoeless every day.
If you have time, please take a second to give that number a second thought.
You back? Okay good.
Mother Theresa once said, “If you can’t feed a hundred, feed one.” Today, among the many, there was this one.
And this one.
And this one.
And on behalf of “these ones,” I want to say thank you, Crocs South Africa, and thank you to those of you who have supported our ministry or Samaritan’s Feet. From the bottom of my heart, and from the bottom of many feet, many, many thanks.
xCC
Mar 23, 2010 | South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Happy Tuesday! How’s it going? Sorry it’s almost gone! As promised, I am picking up where I left off last week, with pics from die strand at Strand. And good news! Remember a few weeks ago when we were in Pringle Bay and I forgot to take a picture of Hangklip because I’m a cotton-headed ninny muggins? Well I got a picture for you! Check it out:
Yeah! It’s that third point that you see in the distance there. Don’t I deliver? 🙂 Those dudes are playing rugby in case you’re wondering.
So. Strand. You gotta say it with a soft ‘ah’. The Bear is now carefully making his way out to the surf of False Bay, the big bay that Strand, Gordon’s Bay and lots of other pretty places sit on. See that mountain in the background? The almost flat looking one? That’s Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain. This picture is looking at it from the “backside” — it’s more impressive if you see it from the usually-photographed-side facing Table Bay, but either way it’s beautiful!
Now that he’s made it to the surf, the Bear is ready for Dad to come and take him out deep!
While they went for a swim, I took some shots for you! I even asked this cool surfer girl if I could take her picture just for you guys! Don’t say I never do anything for you. Her name is Megan.
I love her red board, purple leash and green board shorts. Thanks, Megan! And amusingly, this big-ol’-pointy-building right here is a condominium complex called Hibernian Towers. I can’t get away from Scottish football if I try. (The “Hibs” stadium was near where I first lived in Edinburgh.)
Here’s another slice of the general vicinity…
Yay, they’re back!
It was difficult to convince the sh-sh-shivering bear that swim time was done.
But when he got hold of someone’s beach tennis ball, he was nicely distracted.
And not keen on returning it. We eventually managed to give it back. 🙂
So here’s the finish-with-a-favourite moment. I don’t know why I like this one so much. I think it’s the funky tree on the right. I love how the beach is right there, so close to the street.
Sigh. I know you wish you were here right now, but just think: March 21st started spring for you, and autumn for us. We’re heading towards winter now! It probably won’t quite be a winter like what you’ve had in the northern hemisphere… but still.
Hope you enjoyed this TT! Did you think it was Strand-tastic? tehe Enjoy your adventure today!
xCC
Mar 16, 2010 | South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is going grrreat! Hero Hub’s folks are still here and we went down to the Strand beachfront yesterday, so his Dad could buy a pellet gun, and the Bear could have a little swim. Strand (Afrikaans for “Beach”) is the next town over from Gordon’s Bay, if you’re headed towards Cape Town. So we were at die strand at Strand. 🙂
I took a few quick shots of the market, and lots at the beach. Hope you approve.
Here’s hubs and his folks haggling for the pellet gun. I didn’t want to get too close because our nice camera might’ve made them decide we could afford to pay more.
See the bit of mountain in the background? That’s the same set of mountains you see in lots of the pics in Gordon’s Bay. Does that help orientate you?  Good, you know where we are. Let’s press on.
This is something we haven’t quite figured out yet.
Where does this stuff come from? Why is it so cheap? Yes, that’s Oil of Olay…Centrum…Head and Shoulders…??? It doesn’t feel right to buy this stuff here, knowing that it is very likely that the people who worked hard to create these products will not be getting a cut. That’s our guess anyway.
Would you like to see a little more “marketing?”
Where do these things come from? These girls are selling them too…
Where else can you buy a leather belt, fake crocs, an Australian flag and an Arsenal (Emirates) soccer jersey, all in one store?
And just a few doors down you can get a Hannah Montana backpack! Hot!
Okay. So I was mistaken. I actually took a lot of pictures in the market. And now I need to make lunch for every body. I woke up this morning dreaming about making proper southern biscuits. (For my British and South African friends, I don’t mean something like cookies–they’re more like scones or rolls).  And so I need to get started because we’re having some for lunch! Will you forgive me if we pick up the Strand Travelling Tuesday with a Part Two next week? I took some pretty pictures and it’ll be worth the wait, I’m sure!
xCC
Mar 12, 2010 | South Africa
Oh my friends! I have so many thoughts to share with you and things I’d like to ask your opinion about, but at the moment I am enjoying the company of my mother and father-in-law, visiting from exotic Bloemfontein! Plus there is the issue of working on making this website a pretty place for you to come and visit now that I have integrated the ads from BlogHer. What a challenge! (Btw, if you have any design skills and would like to help make this a prettier place, let me know!)
I thought I would just give you a taste of the loveliness of enjoying grandparents with the Bear — as I’ve told you before, there is just something special about seeing grandparents and grandchildren together that tugs at my heart strings!  We’ll be enjoying this slice of life for a few more days…
Clearly the Bear is being polite and not smiling because he has a mouthful of food.
We just need to convince Hero Hub’s sister to come for a visit at the same time and we really will have the whole gang (that lives inside South Africa) here!
HH and I will even have a date night tonight with Gun-guh and Granny holding down the fort! Our first one this year! More to come, but in the meantime, do you have any special traditions you’d like to share when you get the gang together?
xCC
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