I order the club sandwhich all the time, and I'm not even a member, I don't know how I get away with it.

Another day, another post. I am currently sitting on the balcony of my hostel overlooking Lower Main Road, with my gaze on the sprawl that is Cape Town. With the mountains surrounding me and the ocean in the visible distance, it makes for as nice a time as any to write.

Hey, its my street!

So this turned out to be another hectic week. I am constantly on the go, which makes today that much sweeter with no real responsibilities. So first on Tuesday, me and Vimbai went to a meeting at the LEAP School. The LEAP School is a very interesting and slightly controversial education NGO. On one hand it takes obviously bright students from strictly township backgrounds and moves them into their school, one which gives them a proper education and a better chance in their future endeavors. However, there has been backlash within the townships schools (even in my own), in which the idea and practice of taking the best learners out of these schools takes away the opportunity for these schools to show real success. By taking out the best students consistently, they are in a way fostering mediocrity in the township public schools by leaving others less qualified behind. Who do the schools "champion" and help foster an attitude of education success if the learners that can make that change are constantly being moved? It's an interesting argument in which I see both sides. What was very cool about the meeting though was that it brought together a room full of "movers and shakers" in the community development and education world. It was insightful and slightly inspiring to hear colloborative efforts on all of our parts to share ideas and problem solve issues that any of us have. The attempted goal of creating an overarching education NGO database and action plan, while in my mind wishful thinking at best, is another hopeful way in which all of these different organizations can continue to integrate and work together more efficiently and effectively.

While there are other things I want to write about, I believe some of them deserve there own post and therefore will hold off slightly. Especially since this is getting a tad long. I did want to note one thing however.The longer I stay here the more I realize that these learners that I work with are not so different from kids I've worked with before. Sure, their circumstances are incredibly grim. You just have to look around Gugulethu to understand the poverty, violence, drug abuse and overarching malaise that these children face on a daily basis. Yet, through this they care about the same things that children the world over do. They love looking nice or feeling "cool", they date, they try to scrape together the money for candy and soda, they play sports, they enjoy school and hate homework. Its interesting to see how that while the circumstances are different, kids are generally kids.

Phumulela got a hold of my fake Ray Bans and started doing his best Blue Steel impressions