On Day 2, some singers woke up early to explore the grounds before breakfast. Breakfast was served at 7:30 and we met Enrico at 8am on the bus, where we traveled to the St. Mary’s Church in Woodstock to perform and participate in the service. Afterwards we took some photos as a group and with the priest and were invited for refreshments, where we mingled with some of the church members. They generously gifted us multiple trays of leftover snacks, which we had along with dinner later. Then, we embarked on a walking tour of street art in the neighborhood of Woodstock right by the church with our tour guide two of his sons, through Juma Art Tours. The culmination and conclusion of the tour was when we got to contribute to a mural on the wall of a boys’ foster home, depicting several boys, some of whom were based on boys from the home, lifting their voices, with Nelson Mandela in the middle. Our job was to paint on uplifting words and phrases. They hope to have the mural displayed in public for at least 10 years. We then entered the foster home, where we were offered more delicious snacks. We performed for the boys in the courtyard. After we sang Shoshaloza, Kimani asked if any of the boys knew it, and one did, so Kimani asked him to rate our performance and give us feedback (he gave us a 9). Their director showed us some movements we could add in, and he and Kimani accompanied us on drums. Then they taught us a South African song, with half the lyrics in English and half in Afrikaans. Next, the boys brought out a speaker to show us and played music through it, which one particular boy danced to. We ended up having a dance-off (Joanne and Jonathan were our representatives), but were badly beaten.
We got back on the bus after saying our goodbyes, and drove around to some of the city sights. We drove up Signal Hill where we were met with an astonishing view and took some pictures. We then drove down to the beach area (their “little Miami”) and took more pictures with a beautiful ocean and mountain backdrop.
We drove back to the retreat center where we had some downtime and then dinner. Afterwards, singers went their separate ways, with many heading to one of the common rooms to watch Devil Wears Prada!