I did not sleep well last night because just about every noise woke me up. We also have a heater in our room that fully lights it up so every time I woke up my mind tricked me into thinking it was morning because of the light. All the noise of Buyiswa getting ready for work and then the boys for school also woke me up. With any new place though, I know if you give me a day or two to adjust to the sounds I’ll be sleeping like a log again. WE went to the JL Zwane center in the morning, and my heart literally fell. Noxie picked us up around 7:45, which is when the school children go to school. They either walk or take the bus but seeing the hundreds of children of all ages walking to class. It’s just saddening to me how many kids live in areas like this, specifically the shacks. Once at the center we were talking about our first night and how things went. This morning in general I’ve been super emotional and ready to cry. I’m just sad people live in these places and by how humble and thankful they are. One girl’s mom died 2 months ago, and she was so grateful and felt blessed because of all she had, which compared to me is almost nothing. I also was struggling because nobody else seems to have experienced the culture shock or difference or what ever it was I was experiencing last night. They all have homes comparable to Thotho’s and one house even has an indoor shower. Apart from Zukile’s and possibly ours they all have bathtubs. They were all talking this morning about how fantastic their nights were with their families. I’m not saying mine was bad, after we started talking I enjoyed Buyiswa and her family and everything she had to share with me, just I didn’t feel like I could share how I was feeling because none of them were feeling that so I wasn’t sure they would even understand. Also our group turns everything into a joke and were a really sarcastic bunch so probably as a defense mechanism I didn’t bring it up or even want to because I didn’t want it to be made fun of even though I know they wouldn’t be doing that to hurt me.
The first place we went to this morning was Khayelitsha and meet with Lumkile. He was tested HIV positive in 2003, but for two years he didn’t even acknowledge it. He was wearing a red HIV positive T shirt that we all wanted. Someone asked why he choose to ware it or what reactions he gets from it. He said that his main reason for wearing it was to break the silence and stigma around HIV/AIDS. If people don’t wear the shirts then people act like it’s a topic you can’t talk about so people have more problems then because the topic doesn’t get fixed. He told us how the reason it took him two years before he acknowledged he had HIV was because he thought only deathly ill people had the disease and he still felt healthy. Only when he was hospitalized did he realize he really was HIV positive. Then after he realized that he was the only one he could blame he got better physically and mentally. He then became an activist for HIV/AIDS. For a while and still some today believe you can’t get it if you live in the suburbs. The reason why this is a pandemic here is cause man and wife don’t use a condom even though cheating or having multiple partners is common. Also in South Africa 2 women are rapped every 60 seconds. Two rapes are reported a day just in Khayelithsa, but more probably occur that just aren’t reported because the justice system is horrible. cases get stuck in the system for years and people are scared to come forward because they will shift the blame to the victim. They ask questions like why were you in that area? Why did you dress that way? This all just blows my mind because back home you become a registered sex offender and it stays on your record forever. In Khayelitsha the population is about 700,000 making it the largest township, and it’s also the youngest. Side note: Lumklie’s nickname is Valley because his birthday is on Valentines Day.
After a group photo Wanda came in to talk to us. He works with the social justice correlation and the 3 major problems that occurs in the townships is water sanitation, rape, and flooding. Some township areas have such poor water systems that they have a public toilet for 600+ people. This is actually really dangerous because they watch homes waiting for persons to leave for the bathroom to rob them. People also get jumped to and from the toilet along with getting raped. Overall it’s just a horrible situation. Some homes have porta-portas, which is a briefcase basically that you poop in and keep in your house like under the bed or in the kitchen. He also talked about the poor justice system. Some people can just walk free even though they were arrested for rape. Or it’s just getting dealt with now even though it occurred years ago. They would be willing to work with the local government but the government doesn’t want to work with them. Like already said they just turn the blame back onto the victims. Since most of the community is illiterate they have to spread information by word of mouth, which I think helps build community along with getting the word spread. Unfortunately it’s a really long process and not always as effective in short time frames. They also bring in community leaders from the townships to teach/inform them what they need to know. Then the leaders spread the info/teach their community members.
After this we did a quick bus tour of major points in Gugs such as the Gugulethu 7, Amy Biehl, Kiki Hostels, and a market where they make/sell smilies (goats heads). We had about two hours to sit and whatever in the JL Zwane center before lunch would be served. Hershel quickly sat down next to Riise and Suzie, Catherine, me and told us to ask him questions. He just kept saying “when you get back to UCT Alan is going to keep asking us what we learned and be mad if we say something like A is for apple, B for burgers.” Since he wanted us to ask questions that’s exactly what I did. I noticed some of the shacks have solar power and I was wondering how they got that, because in the US solar power technology is so expensive. He said that the government got them for certain people who make less then 2,000Rand. Even though he thought it was a good idea it just created a huge issue of electricity stealing. Riise also asked about all the stray dogs, which he aid was because people are poor and dogs are cheap security. Most of them aren’t strays just pets with a lot more freedom then ours back home. Then someone pointed out that most of the cars are white or black or gray (no/few colors) and was wondering why/ Apparently here they sell cars by brand, type, and color. If it’s a color it costs more. The darker the color the more expensive it is. A lot of make shift stores here are made of shipping containers. Apparently you can buy these and also pay for the transportation and they just drop them off wherever and you set up shop. I’ll be honest in saying that we asked Hershel a ton more questions and although I probably should put them on here, since they are already written out in my journal I’m not going to. We talked about things like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Mandela, Mailboxes, sports, the new stadium, fires in the townships, jobs and more. What he said to us at the end was “The day you want to leave is the day you break down because your so much more grateful for everything you have.”
After lunch we helped out at the Rainbow after school program. JL Zwane set it up and students come after school and then get help with their homework. We went into a classroom and just helped the teacher out. Some of the rooms have so many students that I questioned the effectiveness of just one teacher helping out. I was in the 2nd and 3rd grade classroom with Megan, Kendall, and Nekey. Those kids are super cute in that they always call Nekey Nicki Minaj. I had a super great time because I absolutely love kids! It also was a great way for me to get back to simpler things in my mind. I was helping kids with their English homework and also with division. I worked almost exclusively with Sazola (Sa-Zoh-La) and Thahbange (Ta-Bong). Sazola needed help on his division and was really confused where as Thahbange had a hard time sitting still and on task so would try and distract the other kids. I kept him on task while guiding Sazola to the right answers. I just felt in my element here even though I was in an area out of my comfort zone. The other students in my classroom that were there that day were Vuyisile, Alutho, Lutho, ZinZi, Inam, Lutwe, and Nomangwane. They all finished their homework about 45 minutes early, but they have to stay in the classroom till 5. Usually they just draw or whatever in a notebook that the teacher keeps, but they’re only allowed to use one side of one page a day, so since I still had my crayons and coloring books in my backpack from the flight I got them out and everyone colored! They don’t get crayons often because they are too expensive for their families to afford so the joy that they had on their faces was priceless to me. I was overwhelmed with a sense of regret. My great grandma often gives me random school supplies and usually they just sit in a drawer for years till the off chance come around and we need it. I was just thinking of all the things I have in my room alone that I could have brought. I just didn’t think that crayons would be something amazing to them because most kids in the states all have their own box of crayons. I was really touched when the teacher at the end of class came up to me and said thank you so much. It made such a difference that I was there because usually she has to spend her whole time monitoring Thahbange so the other students don’t always get the attention that they need.
For dinner every night we always go one of our home stay mom’s place for dinner so that way the group can get back together as a whole and have time to reflect about that day and share different experiences we might be having with the rest of the group. We always get like a feast of food for dinner, and since for lunch I’m typically eating rice and some sort of green vegetable slaw I’m respectably hungry and therefore probably respectably overeat at dinner. My home stay mom doesn’t usually come to dinner though. Her home is one of the farthest away where as the others all sort of live on the same street or a block away from each other. She also doesn’t have a car so she would have to walk to the location. Not that this is a big deal for her but she works in Camps Bay super early in the morning and is fairly active in the AIDS support groups with Nombeko. She also works with the youth groups and all of these things meet at about the same time we go to dinner. Getting back to her place I was nervous again just because of how much I struggled the night before. There were no surprise guests over this time so that deffinitly helped. I don’t know if she knew I was still trying to find comfort and be less overwhelmed or what, but we took it easy and watched soaps. This is when I realized that I have fallen in love with Muvhango a soap about a chief that has two wives. Then he is cheating on his wives with his second wife’s younger sister who just came out of her teens. It’s just so crazy and they love watching our reactions to the show more than the show itself. I was just experiencing a lot of wanting to help. We got to see the library they are going to open and I wanted to just give them all the books in my basement that we still have even though they are directed more towards grade school readers. I just really wanted to do something, but wasn’t sure what or how. That’s basically the way I felt all day, and having become less overwhelmed going home wasn’t as emotional as it was the day before.
