Hanging at the YMCA... Not the Village People version.

After a fun weekend of mayhem around Cape Town and Camps Bay with the Creme de le Creme of the social scene it's time for me to get back to real life and back to the grind. I can't even say grind without laughing, because I love what I'm doing here. Neil, Simon, Bertha, Elbe, Yendi, Paul, Nadine, Paul and the rest of the fabulous crew thank you for so much, I had a blast!

Today I met with the Cape Town YMCA and was able to see real heroes in action. Llowelyn, Carmen, and Adorian as well as the rest of the staff are living angels. This group runs after school programs, summer camps, drug rehabilitation and a violence intervention and prevention programs. Through "Seeds of Empowerment" I will be running a story telling workshop with their young adults as well as teaching their leaders how to run these sessions so they can empower their youth long term. Everyone has a story....

Llowelyn and Carmen took me to another YMCA office and this one was in the middle of the Athlone Township. I got a crash course in the youth and violence that they are up against. The gangs in South Africa idolize the "American gang". This makes me so sad. As they drove me through the township I was able to see the graffiti and what block is owned by what gang. The numbers that are in the graffiti show what kind of gang it is. 26 means commercial crimes - theft etc, 27 means assault, 28 means sexual violence. The gangs tag (graffiti) might be called "American - British Flag -26". In order to get this number you have to get one in jail. This is the cycle they are trying to break...

I have had a few lessons since I arrived in South Africa - the difference between a black person and a colored person and how the people were put into these townships by the color of their skin, texture of their hair, size of lips etc... Growing up as a Twinkie, being categorized by the color of your skin is so foreign it's hard to wrap my hands around.