Wine tasting, Townships, and Courtney's Birthday

We started out day with a Happy birthday song to Courtney who turned 19 yesterday and then quickly moved on to a tour of the wine country here in Cape Town. The students learned the history of the French in Southern Africa as well as the history of winemaking here. Many of them also learned techniques for tasting various wines along the way. From there the remainder of our day was spent in the townships. First we went to Goldens who has made a business of collecting old cans which he turns into beautiful flowers. Then a stop at Rosie's soup kitchen where she has been feeding the children and adults in her township three meals a day for years!!! She also teaches the children about social issues and what they can do to help their own community. From there we had a birthday lunch for Courtney with love music and traditional foods. The students were dancing, drumming, and playing the xylophone. Our next stop was Langa, the oldest township in Cape Town. Townships are where Black people were forcibly relocated to when the Dutch and British took their land and unfortunately even though Apartheid ended legally in 1994, it still exists on the ground as all races in and around Cape Town remain segregated for the most part. In Langa we walked through the township and met many of the people who love there. Some tried traditional dishes like lamb face and liver while others watched! We ended our day at Happy Feet Youth Dance Project, which was started by our guide Siviwe Mbinda. There are two OSU dance graduates also working with the program so the students got to meet with them and see how far a degree for
OSU can take you in the world.

It is an after school program where boys and girls choreograph their own dances as well as their own drumming rhythms. We watch the children dance then we danced with them and played football (soccer). We ended by serving food from the soup kitchen also started by Siviwe...I know it is a birthday Courtney will never forget.