By Frerieke van Bree

What a wonderful time to have a post dedicated to family. Thank you Nezi for your inspiring dedication to transformation in your family! (please read her post below..)
Have a wonderful festive season everybody! Whether or not you are with family… Be like family to all the people around you… and show your appreciation..

Here’s to my family: even though this is another Christmas that I am far away from you all …I’m with you everyday! The greatest gift you can give me is your happiness! And I promise you, I am living mine.. Love ya all!

 
By Nezi Busakwe

What matters to me????

My family is a matter to me. We are 4children 2girls and 2boys. Since I was young not even a year old my father was working on mines and he is still working there trying to find something for his family to eat, trying to satisfy us and make to be like other families.

He did this for years and pretends to enjoy it. Sometimes at work the boss would say they are many for that particular mine so the must be others leaving the mine. This had happened to my father many times, first time they gave him not working for about 3 months and not paying him. But my parents managed to give us best education. If I look at our situation at home it always remind what I am here. And the answer came to make a difference to my family.

My parents are always making sure that we get education. My older brother is doing his second year at PETEC. Sometimes I ask GOD why did he made us? Did he made us so that we can be an example of suffering people or what? When I see my brother not going to school because of money, I start to ask myself questions. Why I am a student, busy studying but at the end of the day I would not go to university. The last level of education? but the answer just came and said I was born to make a
different.

Sometimes I feel real bad when my father is ill because of the work he did. My heart hurts that I get food and everything because of my father’s life. Not forgetting my mother who is a star to me, my role model, who always live for her children.

IM HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENT FOR MY FAMILY!!!!!!!

By Frerieke van Bree

Khayelitsha is about half an hour drive from the Cape Town city center. A taxi drive with the minibus cost 20 Rand a single trip! 20 Rand is about the same price as a bread and a bottle of milk…. COSAT students sometimes go to bed on an empty stomach… A trip to Cape Town city is a real treat. Especially a trip that includes going up the 1000m high Table Mountain. And even better when there is the opportunity of climbing that big challenge of a mountain!

Thanks to donations from Raquel and her friends from the USA and Marianne and Paul from The Netherlands, this trip was made possible for 65 of the COSAT students! We all had a great time! Check out the video…

Just before this great outing, I unfortunately sprained my ankle badly when a big wave threw me of my windsurfer…aaai…Who was gonna climb that mountain with the students? I enrolled my colleagues from the architectural firm and my flat mates (including our dog, Luka). This was the best thing of the whole trip. The exchange between those bright COSAT learners and this international, young team of colleagues was so inspiring and empowering for everybody!

The day was grey, their shoes are old…rain or clouds, flip-flops….nothing could stop the students from climbing up! So great! I took the cable car up together with a few students and thought we would have to wait forever…. so surprised to see them all up there after 2,5 hours!

A lunch with music and dance in The Waterfront afterwards made the day complete!

Thanks for all the donations! Thanks Makeka design people! Thanks Michiel for the beautiful pictures! Thanks COSAT students for having the courage to overcome another challenge!

Don’t you just love the new Mobile language? Try to read this one from “Missy B”, one of the students that I received after the outing:

“Hey fre…McyB here..jst wana say thanx a lot,again,2 u n al da ada ppl who were involved in makin 2day possbl…Im very grtful,we al a…We had da BEST OF FUN and dap pl we were wt grt n kpt us tuout da whl hke,pity dou we ddn get a chance 2 tank dam personally so plz do dat 4 us-WE LUV U AL…!!!”

By Frerieke van Bree

Nwabisa Dyonashe is a 15 year old South African girl who lives in Township Khayelitsha near Cape Town. She is a 10th grade student of COSAT (Center of science and Technology). She is one of our inspiring students of the art and leadership initiative that Anasuya and I started at the school.

What inspires me so much about these students is their willingness to learn, to make a difference, to be great. The difficulties that a lot of them have to face on a day to day base are enormous. The responsibilities those 15 year olds have to take, go way beyond what I could have imagined when i was 15. Yes my teenage years were not always the greatest, but i start appreciating all opportunities i had more an more by seeing those students here in Khayelitsha apreciate what they have got.

Enjoy this short, but very powerful text of Nwabisa, together with the pictures she took of her house and family:

By Nwabisa Dyonashe

I live with my grandmother with my brother and sister. She is a pensioner so she doesn’t have enough money for buying everything in the house. So I have committed myself to working in a salon every Saturday and Sunday to help her. I help her by buying things that are finished and buy things that are needed in school and maybe a pair of shoes for either my brother or sister. Doing this for my family really matters to me. I don’t feel like people have neglected us. I just know it’s my life and I am living it. And I don’t expect people to feel sorry for me.