And Nana, and Grandma...I knew this would be my issue with having a blog! I think that it was Aunt Pat's authoritative, teacher-like scolding that was the final push I needed to finish this post (by the way-thanks for the email Aunt Pat!! My godson is the smartest, most awesome child out there! It's a fact.) Sorry to those of you who I have left hanging--so much has been happening these last three weeks! Get ready for an action packed, edge of your seat blog SUPERupdate (name inspired by the Colbert superPAC).
I'll start with the street kids because yesterday we had a major breakthrough in fundraising for their program and I'M JUST SO EXCITED THAT I CAN'T EVEN CONTAIN MYSELF AHHHHHH!!! Alright, got that out of my system. I know that I have touched on this programme in the past but to recap we invite street children (homeless children), ages aprox. 13-21, to the YMCA on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to practice soccer as a team, take a hot shower in our facilities, and eat a warm, free meal together. In addition, literally minutes ago, someone called the YMCA and offered to provide cooked soup and bread for the boys on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--I have tears in my eyes. Three more days a week my boys will have food in their bellies. I just can't HANDLE IT!! Ok, so maybe it's not all out of my system. Back to the fundraising breakthrough. So there is a man staying at the YMCA named Kevin who is currently a citizen of the UK but was born here in South Africa. Because of a long, irrelevant set of circumstances he has been staying here at the Y for the past 2 and half weeks. Kevin is a sports journalist and he worked with several newspapers here in South Africa early on in his career. Because he has kind of been stuck here with not much to do, he decided to come down and check out the street kids programme on day. Like any person with a soul, it broke his heart to see that these boys live on the streets. They are just so sweet, polite, and funny that it is so hard to fathom the things that they have experienced in their young lives and absolutely heart wrenching to realize what most of their futures hold at this point. So after Kevin met these boys and talked with Swazi and me about the needs of the program, he set out to try and contact some of his old journalist buddies to explore options for getting a corporate sponsor for the program. Our dream for this program is to be able to take it a step further. To give these boys beds to sleep in and the rehabilitation and support they need to do something with their lives. Every child deserves that and so much more.
It wasn't easy, but I genuinely think that it's happening. Kevin got in contact with the CEO of a large business who he has worked with in the past and I convinced the director of the Y here to stop messing with our plans and let us go and do this.
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