29. My Friend

You know, it’s funny the way things work!
Sometimes, even when we don’t realize it, our stubbornness can keep us from really good things. I fought so hard against meeting the person who turned out to be my best friend in Cape Town, all because of a stupid mindset I had.
I’ve learned a life lesson through the whole experience and built a lifelong friendship that I will always cherish!
I had been living in Cape Town for several months when some of the kids told me about this “other American” girl. They were always trying to get me to meet her and I wasn’t interested.
In the time I had been there, most of the Americans I met were those “know it all types” with all of the “answers” for the street kid problem, and then after they get robbed a few times or the kids make them angry for some reason, they go back to America.
It was wrong for me to have those judgements, but I did.
But the kids were adamant that I meet this other American and they were actually trying to hook us up. I thought that was funny!
Little did I know that they were also telling her about this “other American” guy, and they were trying to get her to meet me. She was just as hesitant as I was, for the exact same reasons as I was.
Finally, it was destined to be and one day, when I was walking around downtown, I came across this girl sitting with two of the kids and reading a children’s book to them. When the kids saw me, they called me over and introduced me to her, “Ryan, THIS is Brooke!! The other American!”
We made small talk for a while and then I was on my way.
I saw her a few other times after that here and there, when walking around town and then one day she called me to ask me a question, and I was just about to go visit a kid that was in a child’s reformatory, so I invited her along.
She accepted my offer.
It is a long drive out to the reformatory and we talked the whole way. I don’t know about her, but for me, it was like something clicked and I was sorry that I hadn’t taken the time to get to know her earlier.
She had first come to Cape Town with a marketing company and she met the kids and fell in love with them. She decided to quit her marketing job and stay to work with the kids.
Her style in working with the kids was a lot like mine and we saw eye to eye on a lot of similar things. From that day on she became my best friend. I love Brooke! She is one of the most real people I have ever met in my life! She is full of energy, life, and she never ceases to amaze me with the kids.
She volunteered at a dropping center that offers a daily program for the kids every morning.
When she was finished at the center, she would walk around downtown and meet and talk with the kids. She wasn’t scared to go anywhere downtown and she would also go anytime she felt like it.
She spent MANY days and nights on the streets reading children’s books to the kids, and just hanging out, which I was impressed by. There were so many times that just having Brooke around to talk to really helped me work through stuff I was going through.
She got married in Cape Town and eventually her visa ran out so she had to move back to the States. Brooke and her husband live there now with their newborn daughter.
I miss Brooke a bunch and all the kids do too.
Sometimes I think about if I would have remained in my ignorance because of my mindset of Americans, I would have never met Brooke! I would have definitely missed out!
I have learned a lot from Brooke, but the biggest thing that I have learned from our relationship is not to judge someone before you get a chance to really meet them!