Sacred Heart Marist Brothers' College and the start of FIFA!

Our day began with a trip back to Sacred Heart College, our third of the Marist family. We met up with the principal and several staff members that we had chatted with last night and they led us on a tour of the beautiful campus. This is one environment that truly cultivates success stories and the moral character they are dedicated to. The five pillars resonated not only with the education offered at the Marist school but the values of the community: simplicity, love of work, in Mary’s way, presence, and family spirit. The school prides itself on being able to offer a quality education to all students yet its renowned excellence attracts children of some of South Africa’s most prominent leaders such as Mandela and Zuma.

Although the school has begun winter break early for the start of the FIFA World Cup, we got to see the campus’s impressive amenities of which included newly renovated boys and girls bathrooms, planned, designed and contracted by the school’s 11th grade females. The school gave these young women a budget and with it they were able to create state-of-the-art restrooms; just one of the many approaches Sacred Heart uses to empower its students.

One of the school’s unique programs is an after-hours education for refugees (grades three through six). The classes are taught by former refugees, now teachers, and the students after learning English, focus on literacy, numeracy and life skills. We were able to see one workshop where the students were beginning to create a book based on a collection of their refugee experiences. One method of funding for this alternative education program is the school’s new café; all proceeds go directly to scholarship and learning funds. It was here that we all enjoyed not only great cappuccino but excellent conversation; we were able to get a better idea of the institutions vision. The experiences we have had with our extended Marist family have made us realize the importance of forging and maintaining relationships that we wish to continue, utilize and carry back home.

Decked out in Bafana Bafana gear we joined native South Africans for food fun and world cup festivities. Exuberantly, vuvuzelas trumpet the sort of South African patriotism that has been emanating from the people. This epic event did not fail to awe us with its opening ceremonies, nor did the brilliant performances of all four teams in the first two games. Between the two games we enjoyed a performance of South Africa’s history through the medium of its rich music culture. Tomorrow our stripes of green and gold will turn to red, white and blue as proclaim our true allegiance.