Friday, January 07, 2005
Day 5 Amy Biehl Foundation and Swimming
7 Jan 2005
Sylvee Harris writing to you from Cape Town. I know mom that you will be relieved to read this. Don't be embarrassed if there are any mistakes. The consensus here is that it's hard to believe we've only been here three days, but today was probably the best so far.
We started off early this morning with an eight o?clock departure time (bad news for some) and headed to the Amy Biehl Foundation headquarters in downtown Cape Town. Amy Biehl was a Fulbright Scholar who was killed in a township in 1993. Her parents started this foundation in her honor. We were given a brief orientation there and then headed out to the Guguletu facility, the township where Amy was killed. We had our faces rocked off by performances given to us by the children in the music program. They could dance and sing like nobody's business.
They were all under the age of 14, but they seemed so much more adult than any of us. Mom, you?ll be impressed to hear this, but we also received a fine performance from a group of recorder players. The repertoire included Amazing Grace and Titanic, among others. But by far that part was our favorite.
Then we went golfing, well at least Margaret and Dawn did. The rest of us were kind of struggling. The Biehl's have started a driving range and are working on a nine hole course not far down the road from the township. They are doing it in an effort to bring sport and recreation to a people who've had no opportunity for things like that before.
We stopped by the place where Amy was killed.
They have a rough memorial dedicated to her. We got to see first hand how much has been given to this community because of her death. It is one more example of seeing God's hand working through tragedy.
Around 2:30, we headed out to the beach. We dipped out toes into the cold waters of the Indian Ocean, but it warmed up after a while. The coast was so beautiful and we had such a good time frying in the South African sun.
I forgot to tell you about the extra member of the group that we picked up. Immanuel is a student at Cornerstone and is working at the college and we've invited him to come along with us on our excursions. We really enjoy his company and his unique perspective on things we are learning about.
We ate dinner down at the waterfront where we were yesterday. People went all over, but mostly we ate at places that were pretty American. Sorry that we copped out. But it was fun walking around the harbor and listening to the jazz music.
Today was a good day and we're looking forward to climbing to the top of table mountain tomorrow. Check y'all 'round.
Sylvia Harris
p.s. word up dad and ben.