Happiness

So not that it matters but this is now my third time writing this. You would think that I would learn my lesson the first time when my computer dies and nothing is saved but would you believe me if I said that it happened to me twice?

Anyways, I held off on writing this post until the end of this past weekend for two reasons. One, I wanted to include this past weekend’s festivities in my blog. And two, I literally had no time before now (and my two previous attempts) to write this blog and there is an amazing reason why!

This past weekend was the two biggest event for me since I have been in Cape Town. First, The Happy Africa Foundation held their charity dinner at a quaint restaurant in the middle of the city. Even though that whole day I was running around getting things ready for the second event of the weekend, I wanted the fundraiser to be such a success that I didn’t let my fatigue slow me down.

The evening started with campaign and mingling on the front patio of the restaurant with light music in the background. The evening felt like one of those event that you imagine going to once you get a fancy job with some big office but it was so much more intimate and cozy than that. Once the majority of the guest arrived, everybody made their ways into the dinning area to be seated for dinner. At the tables guest were greeted by touching stories of THAF’s impact over the years and pamphlets about the organization. There may have been a bottle or five of wine there to get the guest in the charitable spirit as well.

As people ate their starters and main course some of THAF’s and African Impact’s staff went table to table with fun games and a raffle. To add to the entertainment, there was an amazing illusionist bending forks and coins and flipping glasses and watches all without touching them. I have to say that I am still trying to figure out how he did all of that!

Dinner was followed by an auction that included some amazing prizes! There was this painting of elephants that would go wonderfully in my old living room back in Nashville. There were three trips to amazing locations. But the one I had my eye on was a balloon ride over the wine lands of Cape Town to include a campaign toast during the ride. I would have loved to win that prize but I just do not have enough money to bid on things like that. I’ll just imagine that I won and dream about the balloon ride lol.

To finish the evening we drew the winners of the raffle and said our goodbyes and thank yous to everybody that attended. Even though I didn’t get to eat or see the illusionist properly, I had an amazing time!

The next morning I had to be up bright and early (for me at least) to begin event number two of the weekend! This involved ushering 140ish children around Cape Town Stadium and Green Point Biodiversity Park.

Words cannot describe how much joy this day gave me. As you can guess, I was knackered (one of my newly found words meaning tired) from the already busy weekend but nothing could stop me from having an unbelievable day. The children were just absolutely amazing and well behaved the whole day! Things went as smooth as taking 140 children on a field trip can go. The nicely printed schedule I made was out of the window before the children even arrive (Africa time) but that did not take away from the joy and excitement the kids had for the day.

While half of the children toured the stadium, the other half played games in the park. All of the children were put into teams and given a country (of course I enjoyed hearing USA being cheered throughout the park). Honestly, I could have come up with twenty different ways that things could have gone wrong but there was an overwhelming sense of control and order over the whole day (for me).

The highlight of the day was when the children were in the stadium jail and started singing a old apartheid freedom song about the late Nelson Mandela (please go to my Facebook to see the video). This was the most beautiful moment in my eyes! I am so thankful to be experiencing what I have so far.

With this being my midway mark of my journey here in Cape Town, I am excited to see what the next six months will have in store for me!