Kurland, The Crags and Rocky Road......

Hey Bru's.... (local lingo fitting in nicely!)

A longish post with some info on what we are actually doing here in SA, and the crowd we are working with...

WWISA are a local based community project, running out of a base (Rocky Road) near Kurland vilage, about 30 mins outside Plettenburg Bay. Kurland itself is a township of about 5000 people, that has been developed, with the help of WWISA, more and more over the last 10 - 15 years... It's a township and area that still has many issues and problems that we take for granted, but with the continued work of organisations like WWISA, it is very evidently getting better...

Katya and I have been associated with projects that are directly going to be assisted by our skills....She is currently working with a local ''Safe House', for children who have been abused,mostly through drugs/alcohol, to take care of them and to further their education etc... I am working with the village's school to put on a two play show; one straight, one musical, involving the school children, and also working with a local business (actually a Kiwi called Devon, who runs the longest Bungie jump in the world!) to set up a cultural evening in the extended bungie site, involving dinner/song/dance..... so full systems go!

Everyone in this country is so friendly and giving, it takes a while to get used to! If anyone ever accuses the Irish again of being the worlds biggest drinkers, you need to get them down here..... everything the South Africans do involves beer...so much for Detox! The weather, while still being winter (check those photos), has been amazing on days... and is only promising to get better...

Beyond the work, which is enough reward in itself, we are having a ball; Nights out in the local spots (one of them is called Flashbacks, and lives to the name!), we have already been to the largest avairy/monkey sanctuary in the world, whale watched, taken an 11k hike to a seal colony, zip lined across very large gorges and relaxed in the Rocky Road's built in Hot Tub! I will never get used to the pure beauty here, and the wild Baboons that roam the roads! Upcoming endeavours include;a full weekend in a Safari park next weekend, Sky Diving, and personally, a little matter of the aforementioned Largest Bungie in the world, a 216m drop from a bridge!!!!! (has to be done, dont you know...DVD will be available for perusal on return!)..

The guys we are working with, both the Staff (Rocky, Mac and Meriki) and our fellow volunteers (Sarah, Louis and Charmaine) are as fun and as approachable as you could hope, and as we settle in, I'm not sure if I even want to hit OZ at this stage!

Will get some more photos up (hopefully tonight), and keep you all updated on the progress... I can only say now that I will bug every single one of you to do this when I get home.... truly a life chainging experience.

Someone have a JD for me,

JK