Visit with Archbishop Makgoba-UPDATED

With Rachael

Connecting

I had an unexpected and extraordinary visit today with Archbishop Makgoba at his residence called ‘Bishop’s Court’.  What was unexpected for me was the meaningful and sincere connections His Grace made with the singers.  Particularly when he learned that we had 5 or so singers whose families were from Haiti.  He told us a deep personal story of when he visited Haiti after the earthquake.  He told how the despair and destruction that he witnessed was so difficult for him personally that he believes his life was changed profoundly as a result.  He works very hard today with earthquake relieve efforts and told us of an upcoming fundraiser he’s planning this September.  When a few other singers gathered around to hear his story, he asked us all to please look at his pictures.  There we were about 12 singers gathered around his personal PC and he showed us pictures of his time in Haiti.  He connected so closely and personally with the kids that some were moved to tears (even I was overcome.)  What was supposed to be a quick 30 minute audience turned into a 90+ minute visit.  The singers couldn’t seem to stop talking to the Archbishop and I believe the feeling was mutual.

Archbishop shows us his pictures

 We spent three hours at the botanical gardens where we were given a fun tour from Leonard and had a picnic lunch. (Miss you Javier!  You would have LOVED the gardens!)  For the rest of the day the kids are in a recording studio working on a CD – (look for these as holiday gifts!) while I walked around for about 2 hours looking for an internet café.

Gardens at Bishop's Court

Gardens at Bishop's Court

Botanical Garden - the most spectacular beautiful day!

Leonard starting the area that was built for the visually impaired.  We closed our eyes and followed the rope.

Guinea Fowl

Statue

  Singer of the day recently was Renee: for constantly being the first to volunteer to help whenever asked, and for her personal accomplishments during the very strenuous hike on the peninsula tour day. 

Some notes about yesterday from Maya and Drew:

Today we got up and drove to the SANCOB Bird Rehabilitation.  There we got an entertaining presentation by Weston with an adorable, dancing rockhopper penguin, which had a stellar “Michael Jackson” hairdo.  We also learned all new cool interesting facts about all kinds of birds like the cormorant, and the cape gannet, and of course the cute adorable penguins.  Then after a quick petting of the penguin we got a view of the home for all the birds and learned a few of their stories of how they got there.  We also gave the staff a quick song of Tocholosa.  Then we soon were on our way to a quick stop of lunch and then to our last primary school.  There we shared our music and songs and we got to mingle. It was so much fun to learn about their culture and then comparing them, Drew and I got to talk a lot about the differences of sports in South Africa and the U.S .  Today, everyone had lots of fun and we can’t wait for another great day tomorrow!

Maya and Drew

Listening to the presentation at the bird rehab

 A description from Isaiah:

On August 3^rd BCS went to Aquila Game Park. As soon as we all got off the bus we were all greeted with warm welcomes and grape cider. We had about 30 minutes to explore a little before lunch time. At lunch we had a huge buffet and were stuffed, after we all went to our rooms. The room I shared with my group was amazing. There were pictures of the big five, two beds, one master bed and an outdoor shower. After seeing our rooms a few of us were brave enough to go swimming. The water was freezing. I didn’t go in until a few other people went in first. When I finally went in it was so cold I got out immediately, when I did get out it was so cold I felt like I was getting pierced by a thousand knives.

At 4:00 we went on a game drive to see the big five and a few other animals. The first animal we saw was an ostrich which is the second fastest land animal in the world. The next animal was a hippopotamus. There were three in the water resurfacing occasionally to sneeze or snore. Then the springbok., the capebuffalo, rhinos and zebras.  The rhinos were dangerously close and the leader of the pack was pointed at us with its head down.  Next up was an elephant which came almost close enough to touch.  Last but defiantly not least were the lions. Some of them so close to the truck we thought they might have jumped into the cart. Eventually we went back to the game park had an amazing dinner, stayed up for about 3 hours and then went to bed.  - Isaiah