Ann and I arose bright and early to attend an assembly at Emil Weder held on our behalf. Since it began at 7:30 and was 70 miles away, we left at 5:30am, yes A.M.! Emil Weder is in a rural village called Genadenal, so rural in fact that no houses have numbers. Mail is delivered to your name, Genadenal. Somehow it seems to work. My GPS dropped me near the school and we found it in time for the event. The school has around 600 students and this week approx 30 Dutch Students were there participating in an exchange program. I couldn’t help but wonder what they must have thought of the experience. The assembly began with gospel music (reminded me of our church in Atlanta) It was beautifully sung and interspersed with bible readings
After that Browyn Wilson (our guardian) introduced the Cape Einstein Program and invited me and Ann to get up and speak about the program. I explained the program and our involvement while the kids remained incredibly quiet…I’m not sure how much of my “American English” they understood, but nonetheless they appeared interested. Browyn then brought up our 5 CEs and they spoke very passionately about how this program was making a difference in their lives.
Cape Einsteins with Guardian, Browyn Wilson
We next traveled to Caledon where Overberg High School is located. It was a 30 minute drive. Nothing in Africa is close, but it was a relative “walk in the park” compared to the earlier 1 hour and 45 minute drive to Emil Weder. While Caledon is more industrial/agriculture, Overberg High is one of the region’s top performing High Schools and annually matriculates 100% of their 12 graders. That’s a big deal when you consider there are schools in the cape area where only 50% graduate. We met with Francois Groenewald, our sole CE there this year. He is doing well (still very shy) and is deciding on where he will apply to colleges next year. This is the beginning of the school year in South Africa. The year ends in Late November. Their Summer is our Winter so Christmas occurs during their “Summer Break”…seems strange, but for a boy who grew up in Florida, I guess it make sense……In addition, we had a great conversation with Principal Labuschagne about his ideas to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our program. We will discuss those ideas and others when we meet with our supporters upon our return.
Cape Einstein, Francois
Principal, Eddie Labuschagne
