Last week... Knysna Oyster Festival.

The busiest week of the year for Knysna coincides with the winter school holidays. In the past, the Knysna Lagoon was a the oyster capital of South Africa, due to changes in the environment the oyster beds have been shut down... but the festival still continues. Eleven days filled with bicycle races, fun runs, yacht races, carnival rides, cooking classes, children's art and culture workshops, oyster eating contests, music, dancing, art exhibits, flea markets, etc... something for people of all ages!

2 events included the involvement of YFC (with more planned for next year):

The 2 day "Sport Fair" provided over 2000 children the opportunity to try their hand at a variety of sports and games from dominoes to cricket, surfing to soccer, archery to fishing. YFC staff member Johannes worked the rugby field, running drills while Nico brought kids from the informal settlements to enjoy a day of fun. Our friend Warren brought inflatable soccer fields from Johannesburg, while Nathan and I had the tough job of taking photos!

The Knysna Forest Marathon is an annual fundraising event for YFC Options. 18 volunteers met at 4am on Saturday to set up refreshment tables for the runners. Due to the location of the starting line in the forest, and limited parking, almost all 8,000 runners were bussed to the starting point. Waiting up to 3 hours for all the runners to arrive - coffee, tea and hot chocolate was served to the athletes. While Nathan proclaimed that he has "done his time freezing his bum off in previous years" (and therefore he kept warm in bed) the Lord blessed me with the warmest ever morning in the history of the race... I didn't even need my jacket! By 10am I was back home and preparing my Children's Church lesson.