Friday, May 15, 2009

JBay

Ok, I should probably write a little about the town that has currently captured my heart, Jeffreys Bay (better known as J-Bay). You know the story of how I ended up here. I am living with my new friend, Fortune in her apartment right across the street from the beach. One block down the road is the Wax CafĂ©, the best coffee shop in J-Bay, and where I spend all my online time. Upstairs from that is the Moroccan Lounge, which is a cool room with lots of cushions, Persian rugs, instruments to play and hookahs to smoke. It’s a really chill place to hang out in the evenings. Fortune’s apartment is across the street from a really nice surf spot. On the other side of town is Supertubes, the site of a Billabong pro competition every July.
The street kids project is progressing at light-speed, and now has a name, the Imveliso Youth Project. Imveliso is a Xhosa word that means a variety of things related to healthy growth and development. I’ll write more about that later. We surf with them on Wednesdays, play soccer of Thursdays, rugby on Mondays, and feed them on Fridays. It’s tough to take care of them for a little while then see them back wandering around the streets. It’s also tough to see a lot of them without shoes and jackets, since winter is coming and the nights are cold. I can’t wait until we have a home, and can feed them everyday. Fortune currently pays for everything out of her pocket, but as soon as we get the paper work sorted, there are businesses that want to help us out.
I am in the process of extending my visa so I can stay as long as I want, up to a year. I’m just going with the flow at this point, so I have no idea how long I’ll stay. But, it’s a pretty ‘kiff’ place to hang for a while, and I am having a lot of fun and even learning to speak Xhosa!

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