At the Beach

Just had to make this posting for the pictures!

Last Tuesday, I and the other 3 volunteers on my shift, plus Jayne (the woman from NYC I mentioned in my last blog posting, who is trying to adopt) took some of the young ones to Muizenberg Beach. Muizenberg lies on the False Bay side of the Cape Peninsula, about a 30 minute drive from Baphumelele, and is known for its colorful beach cabanas (which you can see in the background of the first picture). We hired a driver, packed lunches, tried to find shoes that fit for them to wear, and piled 12 children into a mini van for an afternoon at the beach. As far as we know, this is the first time any of them had seen the beach or the ocean - other than trips to the hospital on occasion, they rarely see outside the small street where Baphumelele sits. We made quite the scene when we arrived - all eyes on the beach watched as 12 beautiful black children waddled down to the waterline. We had people coming up to us from all directions asking if they could help us, wanting to hold the childrens' hands as they approached the water and to play with them. The children were hilarious - so afraid, puzzled, and in awe of the water at the same time.

But, we had quite a scare within 10 minutes of our arrival there. One of the little boys with us, Vuyani, collapsed and suffered a seizure as soon as his feet hit the cold ocean water. We yelled for and found a doctor on the beach and the doctor, Marta and Vuyani rushed off to the local hospital. He spent the night at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town for observation and testing - unbeknowst to us, he had had a seizure a few months ago as well - and is now fine and back at Bap. We were all very afraid though - petrified - as we did not know exactly what had happened to him.

Other than the incident with Vuyani, the beach outing was a huge success, the children had a great time, and I learned how to put diapers back on sandy children (something that was more humorous than skillful!)