Today was one of my days off and I had planned to have Ursula take me back to the townships to buy some souveneirs. You can find a lot of that stuff anyway, but I specifically wanted me money going back to them. I'm sure they've made some of the stuff that's being sold in the stores, but for whatever reason I just felt better about buying directly from the people who made it.
Anyway, another girl, Rachel, came with. Rachel is from England and volunteered with AVIVA last summer at Home of Hope. She came back this summer on her own to volunteer again and this time to do more on the social work side of things. So anyway she wanted to come too.
First we went to the township of Langa. Here I bought this sand painting of a giraffe. I don't know how to explain it but it's pretty cool. From there we went to another township, Khayelitsha, to a community center where they do weaving projects. The whole thing is actually called the Philani Weaving Project. There are women learning the trades and making all these rugs, bags, jewelry, tablecloths, and aprons to sell. This provides a small income for the women, but it's also a project to provide funding for children in the area--specifically for nutrition and health care. I put the link to the project up in the post below this if you want to get more in depth information. I ended up buying 4 bags, 2 bracelets, and a lanyard because I couldn't choose!! Some of that will be souvenirs but anyway, it was a good shopping day :)
Tomorrow I'll be doing my Cape Point tour, which I hear covers A LOT of stuff, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to say and more pictures will be coming soon.
