A Little About My South African Host Family & Surfing Project

Since I am actually in Peru at the time of posting this it is perhaps a bit behind but it is also easier to give a better picture than if I had tried in the first few weeks.

My host family in Cape Town was Derek and Philli Smith. They live in a town called Retreat in the southern suburbs of Cape Town and have two children, a son with two grand-children who lives just to the north of them and a daughter that lives in London. There is also a large extended family whom come over on occasion.

They are in their early 60’s and have been hosting volunteers for 9 years and have seen a lot of people come and go. It was somewhat quiet while I was there as their home can host up to six volunteers, but when I arrived there were just two who were in their last week and another volunteer who arrived a few days after me. So most of the time it was just four of us out of a possible eight in the house.

They have a pool in the back courtyard, too cold to use, the main house, what I will call a guest house/entertainment room and a third storage/fitness/game building on the property. It is not as big as it sounds but it was very nice and comfortable and the Smith’s were extremely generous and hospitable to us. They also have a German Shepard that protects the property, Nina. She has a mean sounding bark but I think the volunteers have ruined her as a guard dog as she was more interested in playing with us. Nina lived in the yard and would sleep outside our door at night when we were in the guest house.

Derek runs a wood flooring business and Philli used to work in health care but I think is retired now to take care of the house, volunteers and their two grandchildren who live in the area. Derek likes to drink whiskey, I like to do this too, and Philli also has a touch of the stuff but I got the impression prefers wine. The both like to entertain friends and family and, like all South Africans I met, they love their Springboks rugby. I hoped to get a picture with them but I did not get around to it and then my lack of planning on packing at the end left me scrambling and I finished only 5 minutes before the car arrived to take me to the airport.

The surfing program is run in Muisenberg by a guy named Chrisjan Bredenkamp who is studying psychology. I thought he was working on a PhD at first but not really sure now, let’s just say he is 25 and working on some type of post advanced degree. He works directly for Project’s Abroad but partners in the space with a friend of his from school named George. Their idea is to turn the café space we work out the back of into a community center that can help people in the area. The community space is just getting under way and they don’t take full possession of the café portion until September when the current lease expires. Otherwise the front is really a lunch café right now but I don’t know when it is supposed to be open. In the three weeks of working there I only saw people having lunch one time. More than half the time the current lessor is not even there and on more than once occasion we have had to tell people who wanted a coffee that the café was closed.

The outdoor cafe space at my project. It is 90 degrees stitched together from my Surface tablet which is why it looks a bit funky.

The surfing project itself works with at risk kids and adults every week. In the mornings we usually have guys from an adult drug rehabilitation center, nice guys who were college students/working guys before getting into drug rehab. We also have juvenile girls from local detention centers who are awaiting trials. They may be charged with criminal acts but they don’t seem to be hard core ones. They are also adults but could easily be in high school when I look at them. In the afternoons we get the school age kids. The young “Village” kids from Capricorn Township come on Tuesday and Thursday and a high school group from Lotus River on Monday and Wednesday. The little kids are a bit like herding cats sometimes but cool to work with and the high school kids are easy. They basically just come and do their thing and we just supervise and surf with them when there is enough equipment. Friday’s are a slow day and there are no groups right now. Chrisjan uses it to get some paperwork completed and the volunteers either do odd jobs or use the time to work on our own surfing.

Chrisjan’s goal is to touch around 100 people each week with the project and right now it is about half way to his goal and he expects it to pick up more once the warmer months arrive in Cape Town. At that time he and George are hoping to have the community space fully up and running and start having measurements in place where he can show the improvement in the people involved in the program from the time they start to six months, one year, etc. in the program.

All and all the whole project is low key for me, which is to my liking. The surfing group has a small number of volunteers in comparison to some of the other projects in Cape Town and it is at least 45 minutes from Cape Town by train. So in some ways it would be like living and working in Skokie outside of Chicago. So this means the party scene is not such a big deal to me and I am generally OK with that. I’ve partied enough in my 20’s so I rather like the slower pace. As for my roommate who wants to go out more, I don’t think he likes this all that much but he is 24. For me the idea was to take time off from work so in many ways the slower vibe of Muisenberg is just right for me.