People are still in a difficult mood this morning because of yesterday and because we had to say goodbye to home stay families that we have been getting so close to. We went to Thembalethu School for children with special needs. Thembalethu means our hope. They take in children that have CP, polio, amputees, and other things. From what I understand they teach at the same pace normal schools in the area do so they can’t take in students with learning disabilities. I thought this was so different because in the US we pretty much only consider special needs as learning disabilities. We got to look around in the classrooms, at the playground area, and then in the specific rooms where they work with certain disabilities in helping them use a computer, work on speech, or fix/maintain wheelchairs that are custom for each student. Then some of the kids gathered in the cafeteria area and started singing songs for us. Seeing these younger kids that are faced with such difficulties singing happily together for us put a huge smile on my face. It was a great way to say goodbye to Gugs. I guess we were supposed to stay there for a few hours and do crafts with the kids, but the Reverend wanted us to come back so we could talk with him about the week. When we got there it was basically just us asking him questions. I recorded the whole conversation, but I’ll admit I had a hard time remaining present. It was only when someone asked how the GLBT community was treated or if there were any support groups when I got really interested in the conversation. Reverend was acting like he didn’t want to talk about it or like he didn’t know so he called Charlie and got him to come in asap to talk to us. I was so surprised what Charlie had to say. Charlie was born a girl and now identifies as a boy. He came out one day and told the Reverend who accepted him for who he was. God makes everyone and that was enough for him to accept him. Charlie then had to give a presentation to the members of the church explaining everything and he even put on a play about it. He says that everyone is perfectly accepting of him, and even though according to all his documents he’s still a girl they let him join the men’s group. Members of the church/community that had children who were GLBT and they kicked them out came up to him and said how eye opening everything he did was. How they wished that they could go back and time and make things right. What baffled me the most about this is back in the states churches are typically the last people to accept anyone of the GLBT community. One also typically thinks it’s the highly educated and well off people that know more and there for should be more accepting and it’s the complete opposite in this township. I also was just so surprised because we’ve been talking about how racism can still be seen and remnants of apartheid are everywhere. Charlie couldn’t stay long because he had other things to do but I’m so happy we had a chance to talk to him. It gives me hope that one day everyone will be accepted by everyone else.
It was sad leaving Gugs back for Riverview Lodge but my eyes have definitely been opened. Sometimes you have to lose something before you can really appreciate what you have and this helped me realize things. This whole week was such a challenging experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Tomorrow were going to the Wine lands intentionally just so we can see the opposite end of the spectrum.
