still busy in Fran-town

Sorry that we did not post yesterday, but we had such a busy day. If you are able to get onto Facebook, you'll see lots of photos on our profiles of the school children, nursery school children and just the squatter town area.
Yesterday, we started the day off early by heading into Cape Town to pick up Beth. She got in a little bit early so we were able to make it back to the Dalubuhle School just in time to be a part of the weekly assembly. The assembly was a great thing to see and hear... there were several prayers and songs in Xhosa. At the end of the assembly, 15 children were recognized for partaking in a 5K race last weekend. Doug decided to get Beth involved right away and had her help present medals at the assembly. Following the assembly, the three of us taught an art class to 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders. We supplied them with paper, pencils and crayons, and asked them to draw their families and homes. It was definitely a successful project, and we're hoping to hang the finished products up in the new library. There were two things that were humorous about the art class... the children would rather wait to use our new pencils than use the ones they already had. As well, Beth became the dealer of crayons. The children decided that rather than passing crayons to one another that they would all turn them into Beth and then pick another color. It was a hilarious to see and we were able to take some photos.
After spending the morning at Dalubuhle, Sintu was kind enough to take us throughout the squatter town and to visit two nursery schools. Both schools were fabulous but very different. The first one we visited has some funding from the government and is a small home that was funded by a group from the Netherlands. However, the second one is the nursery school we had mentioned in a previous blog, which is run by Ms. Umdaba. The nursery is open from 5am-6pm, there is no charge and she feeds all those children herself. The Kusasa Project has been helping her to get lunches for the children and help out in any way possible. They would love for her to move up to the old Dalubuhle campus. We have been told that Ms. Umdaba does not want to move to the school, because she is scared that other nursery schools may perform black magic against her. It's unfortunate that this is one of he main reasons she won't move to a larger space.
Back to the rest of our day...
We got Beth settled into her room at Paul's house and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather for a bit. Then it was off to a tasty dinner at Burgundy's. We chose Burgundy's b/c it was the most crowded restaurant. However, Paul and Doug have informed us that there are far better ones in town so I think we're all looking forward to trying out the rest of them. Of course after dinner we were off to the Elephant and Barrel for the rest of the evening. We were joined by Doug, Paul, Sintu and Paulie. We also met some new folks Noel, Rob and a guy wearing a University of Miami sweatshirt. It was very exciting for me to meet a South African that supports the Canes, but I'm sad to say that he was a dud.
I can definitely say that today has been a much quieter day. Fridays are very laid back here and they admit to not really doing anything on Fridays. Don't we all wish that this could be said about the states?! Anyway, in the morning we completed organizing the library...yay! As I mentioned, we hope to decorate it with posters and the drawings done by the children. Other than that task, we have been resting and getting ready for a jam packed weekend. Tonight you know where you can find us and the rest of the town knows as well... Tomorrow we will be going on a hike with Paul and Sintu. I definitely hope to get some great photos over looking Franschhoek.
Well, as you can see we are still having an AMAZING time in Franschhoek. I hope that everyone will be able to take a look at the photos. If not, we will definitely try to upload them to a website so that everyone can check them out.
Peace and love.