About School of Hope

School of Hope, part of the Thembalitsha Foundation, is a registered special-needs school for Grades 9 to 12 students based in Cape Town, South Africa. They have 80 students, all with varying degrees of abuse, trauma and neglect. Whether they have spent time on the streets, been caught up in drugs, gangs and prostitution from a young age, or whether their home environments have exposed them to alcohol, sexual and physical abuse, they are all in need of a special focussed form of education and counselling.

They may be two or three years older than the other learners in their grade and therefore unsuitable for mainstream schooling in government. The School of Hope is their only chance of completing their education. They are in great need of funds to employ more specialised teachers and general costs such as food for the students.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Day 2: 19 September

Still no luggage!

My luggage still did not arrive.  My choices were limited, basically boiling down to “do I stay or do I go?".  I made friends with the Naidoo group at the airport the previous evening and they mentioned that they have extra gear with them and would help to kit me out - if worst comes to worst. Which it now has...

Guardian Angel needs a kick up the backside!

So making the decision that I am not going to stay behind and let my group go ahead without me, I scurried around getting most of the things I need. These guys had extra headlamps, warm clothes and LOTS of snacks!  My guardian Angel obviously was making up for screwing up badly on my trip so far as I now had most of what I needed.

I am still hoping that my bag will reach me on the mountain sooner rather than later, we set of to the Leroshi gate.  As we set off very late due to sorting out my luggage, we reached the gate after all the other groups. Here you have to register and they weigh all the bags as the porters are only allowed to carry 20 kg - including food etc. 

Getting under way at last

Bruce, Delmence, Raymond and I only started our walk late afternoon so we reached camp in the dark. Not a good thing if you need to set up tent between tree roots! Walking through the rainforest was an absolutely amazing experience. The beauty of the forest, birds singing and lots of chittering monkeys. Even though the walk was not strenuous, it was a pretty exhausting day.

Feeling filthy, full of red dust, I went to bed, wondering if I shouldn't have rather opted for a week in Mauritius?


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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2010 at 10:57 AM

    Nee man, Mauritius sal nie so exciting wees nie! Hou aan en hou uit, met of sonder luggage! Mwah S

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmandaSeptember 20, 2010 at 12:41 PM

    You can do Mauritius another time. Keep your eye on the ball or in your case...... the mountain!!

    Well done on not opting for out. Like I always say to my kids "dont tell me the problem, tell me the plan "

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 20, 2010 at 11:46 PM

    Well done for pulling things together when you lost all your luggage.Incredibly brave. Now go conquer that mountain. If you see this tell my husband(Raymond)he is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2010 at 4:07 AM

    Wow Karlien! So awesome to read about this giant adventure for such a wonderful cause.
    Wishing you the best of luck for the rest of the journey. Will be making our donation shortly.

    Hope to catch up in December...

    Love
    Ronel (& Charles)

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