Valentine’s
Day Social – Feb 14
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| Valentine's Day treats! (Photo credits: Dani Strandson) |
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| Some of the girls and I at the party. |
A couple of the girls living in my house came up with the
idea to create a Valentine’s Day Social. It was an excuse for 27 girls to get
dolled up and bake/eat copious amounts of chocolate. That’s what we did! We
invited a few people over, supplied drinks, had a killer playlist of love songs,
and danced the night away.
I was in charge of decorations, I also contributed a bowl of
puppy chow. One really can’t go wrong with puppy chow, it’s almost always a
hit, girls have been jonesing for it ever since. However, they don’t seem to
have Chex cereal in ZA, so I replaced it with a cereal called Pillows. It’s a
thin wheat square filled with your choice of either vanilla, chocolate, or
hazelnut! The puppy chow becomes a little denser, but is still quite
delectable. For my dedicated blog followers, I decided to share it with you.
Lisa’s South African Puppy Chow
1 box of Pillow cereal
2 ½ boxes of melting chocolate (either dark or milk)
1 cup of smooth Unsweetened Peanut Butter (give or take,
some people like an equal peanut butter to chocolate ratio)
1-2 cups of powdered sugar
1.
Place the chips of melting chocolate in a
microwaveable bowl for 1-2 minutes, until melted. Microwaving works so much
better than stove-top!
2.
Stir in peanut butter until smooth, no lumps!
3.
Dump pillows in large bowl and fold the
chocolate onto the cereal until completely coated.
4.
Dump a third of the powdered sugar into a large
plastic bag or Ziploc and add the coated pillows.
5.
Florence and the Machines – Shake it out.
6.
Continue to shake in the sugar until cereal is
evenly coated.
7.
Eat it!
Old Biscuit
Mill – Feb 23 … and almost every Saturday since, let’s be real.
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| Entrance to Old Biscuit Mill |
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| Inside the food building |
The previous Saturday, three of the girls had come home
raving about this open market called Old Biscuit Mill. So, on the next
Saturday, we hopped on a minibus (which at first can be a terrifying experience*) and headed there.
OBM runs only on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 2 pm. Approaching
OBM, you’ll see countless children playing bucket drums just as well as any
college drumline that I’ve heard. It can be uncomfortable because they’re all
so talented and they all just want your money. It’s easy to become desensitized
to poverty and beggars, it happens almost everywhere you go.
Everything changes once you walk past the entrance. Once you
arrive, you walk into an open courtyard of people, who are usually sitting and eating,
crowed on benches, under the tent or simply, on the ground. These people are
the some of the coolest people you’ll seen in Cape Town. Everyone is chill and
unexplainably well-dressed. There’s an element of wealth, in that, everyone
looks good. Secretly you know that they’re probably just wearing their casual
clothing. There’s a series of stores to your right, which leads back to a
building that hosts every type of food and drink you can fathom. I don’t
consider myself a foodie, but after one trip to OBM, I may just be one. The
food is good too, it combines gourmet
with a casual and friendly atmosphere. To the left of the courtyard is a
network of open and enclosed trendy and artsy shops. From home décor, to
vintage clothing, to artwork, to wines. They have a shop for everything I want
in my life. It’s something everyone should experience at least once.
*To clarify
my parenthesis, minibuses are independently run by random local people. They,
legit, look like kidnaping vans. There are two key components to a minibus, a
driver and a shouter – usually of Afrikaans dialect. They drive on main
roadways, whistling and shouting the direction they’re going, either in town to
Cape Town (sounds like “Cap Tee-own”) or the other direction towards Wynberg
(“Vine-bear-guh”). It’s quite an experience but you really can’t beat the
price. During the day, a drive is 6 or 7 Rand (< 1 USD). Be prepared to be
crammed in with a bunch of strangers in makeshift seating.
“Teamwork”
Workshop – Feb 28
Today, the other four New Chapter service learning girls and
I organized a series of teamwork related games for the kids at the after-school
program. One of our goals is to teach the kids basic life skills. About 30 of
the kids who show up are younger boys who love soccer. We thought that as an
introductory workshop, teamwork would be an important and relatable topic.
We tried “Pass the Squeeze”. The whole group stood in a
circle, holding hands. The group leader initiated the squeeze and once your
hand is squeezed, you pass it on to the next. The duration for one full round
should only take around 3 seconds. With our group, it took a few times until it
worked successfully. The kids definitely react more positively these types of
activities.
Next, we tried the pretzel game. We separated the kids into
two smaller groups. In this challenge, you stand in a circle and grab the hand
of two separate people, usually, not standing next to you. You then attempt to
detangle the group without letting go of any hands. It took a little effort,
but the kids in my group were able to untangle themselves. It was fun seeing
them work together and direct one another. It’s often hard for us to
effectively communicate with the children because English is often their second
language, and we have these weird American accents! After winning, the kids
wanted to try the pretzel again. The other group was still working at their first
pretzel. My group detangled and we encouraged them to help their peers. Finally
the second group became untangled and teamwork was a success!!
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| The kids doing the pretzel game |
The kids headed outside and played soccer until the program
was over. It was refreshing seeing the program work. For once, the girls and I
felt as though we were making some progress in the after-school program. It was
a wonderful way to end the month because March came in rolling!
Thanks for reading!!
Lisa
