Another Chapter

Good day to all of you!  I feel like its been forever since I updated last; sorry about that, I haven't had internet access in so long and I've been running around like crazy doing about 1 million different things!  

Anyway, just to update you all on the things that have happened so far, as of right now I'm in Cape Town and starting a new chapter on my expedition.  Cape Town is the city in South Africa that is shown to all the tourists and dreamers who wish to travel.  I can't contest this completely as it is an absolutely beautiful place with some of the most gorgeous scenery that a person will ever see.  I can't believe that I have the opportunity to experience a place with this much incredible ambiance and some people never get to leave their hometown.  On the flip side however, this is only my 2nd day in Cape Town and already 3 homeless people, including 2 street children have come up to me begging for money or food.  Tomorrow we're going to be visiting the miles and miles of shack settlements (just like Kennedy Road which I talked about in a previous entry) that the government hides from all of the traveling foreigners.  Somehow I don't think it will be that much of an eye opening experience considering that I've seen hundreds of those all over South Africa already-a sad fact but unfortunately true.  

I also just finished a home stay with a bi-racial family whom I could relate to being bi-racial myself.  Although I was only there for 3 days I was able to make a strong connection with everyone I met.  The hardships they've experienced is beyond belief and I never thought I'd meet anybody who has been through something quite like what they went through.  My home stay mother's daughter was murdered less than a month ago by her boyfriend and the boyfriend hung himself in jail as he was stricken with guilt for his crimes.  The murdered daughter and the boyfriend left behind a 4 year old daughter who my home stay mother is now raising as her own.  She is also housing her 14 year old niece whose parents are both severe alcoholics.  I had an amazing older host brother named Gregory who I swear has to be one of the most gentle, compassionate, caring men I have ever met, and I feel for him so much at the loss of his sister in such a tragic way.  

On a more positive note yesterday we toured the prison on a place called Robben Island where Nelson Mandella was held and we got to see the cell he was kept in as well.  To give you an idea on the size of his cell, think of the size of your closet and cut it in half.  But the island is now a place of great scenic imagery which is a big change from the desolation that the people living there once experienced during the time of the prisons.  The prison Nelson Mandella was in is no longer a prison and is now a site for tourists who want to learn about the struggles of freedom fighters in South Africa during the apartheid era, and the other prisons on the island are being used for schools and community meeting places for the 350 people now inhabiting the island.  Change really is possible!  The people on the island are thriving and as I was there I couldn't help but think that I wanted to stay.  There were penguins on the island and I got to stand right next to them and take pictures!  I'll upload when I get the chance.  

Lastly, to let you guys know that I'm also doing fun things and not serious things, I went to South Africa's woodstock (kinda) called Splashy Fen!!  It was awesome, especially for a music freak like me :)  I met some really cool hippie people and even got to hang out with some of the bands!  Don't worry it was no one really famous or anything, just some people who want to spread some great music.  I've also decided what I'm going to do for my month long ISP; I'm going to be working with the Phoenix Restorative Justice Program-the same organization I met when I talked about the prison in an earlier entry.  I'm going to be working with an art therapy program that is being done with some of the prisoners at a maximum security prison called Empangeni.  I'm going to get a chance to interview prisoners on their experiences with violence prior to their incarceration and see how those experiences have affected them, and then I'm going to see how the art therapy program is helping them to express themselves thereby, also helping them to heal.  I'm excited, but nervous at the same time.  

I'll talk to you all again soon I promise!

Racism, Reconciliation, The Past, Forgiveness

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."-Nelson Mandella

I took a picture of the large plaque over the pond at the Apartheid Museum with this quote etched into it, but unfortunately I haven't been able to upload it onto here due to reasons I've already mentioned in previous entries (stupid network :( ).  Last night I attended a panel discussion at the University of KwaZulu-Natal about racism in South Africa and across the globe.  It was an extremely intense discussion with very impassioned African students standing up and voicing their anger that Apartheid, although the legal system itself has been abolished, still reigns in the cultural constructs of the country.  I'm not sure if any of you heard about the incident that occurred here in South Africa recently at one of the universities where 2 white students harassed 2 black maids doing janitorial work in the dorm rooms, by making them drink urine, and hazing them in other horrifying ways.  The white students made a video of it at the end making the statement, "this is how we feel about black people."  The tape leaked out to the media somehow, and it has made international news creating a new uproar in the country.  

Something that one of the professors by the name of Mark Maharaj said last night during the panel discussion that has been turning around endlessly in my head since attending, was that the world has failed to address the issue of racism.  In other words, his point was that the world hasn't done its job to take care of its people in this manner.  But South Africa he mentioned, has the power to change all of that this day and age, because unlike the United States, in South Africa it is the majority who is discriminated against rather than the minority, thereby giving this country enormous amounts of power to eradicate the evils of racism.  Since the majority is oppressed they have a greater voice that can be heard across great distances if enough of them are given the opportunity to stand up.  The U.S. doesn't have this ability or this power on their side.  

Being a minority in the United States and even a minority here (as I'm half black half white-or "coloured" in South African terms-and most here are black), I've gained a perspective that I never intended on gaining prior to coming here.  I've realized how much race and racism is not talked about nearly enough in the United States, and few people truly know about how racism effects its victims in more than 1 in our country.  With Barack Obama's recent speech I feel this is as good a time as any to discuss this.  What I saw last night was inspirational in that it represented the true power of speech and speaking out about what one believes in.  America I feel appreciates silence too much on the important issues, and silence is what destroys and causes ignorance.  Additionally "we need to put our personal stories on the table" as that same professor also mentioned, so that people know what the oppressed is forced to experience day after day.  People aren't willing to speak enough in the States I feel, and this needs to change.  

This week I've been placed in the focused study of reconciliation, and one of the things we've talked about are the issues of forgiveness and healing the past.  Is it possible for blacks to forgive whites in South Africa for decades of oppression and sorrow during the Apartheid era?  Is it possible for a White family to forgive the Black perpetrators who murdered their daughter, who was a white American activist in South Africa during Apartheid standing up for the rights of Blacks, just as in the case of a young woman named Amy Biehl?  How can people heal after experiencing great oppression that has been so ingrained within the general society for years upon years?  Can we reconcile the past with the present, and forgive ourselves and others?  These are the questions that I've been grappling with for the past week, and after hearing Obama's speech, it's something that our nation must also begin to think about.  

The most important themes that I believe Obama portrayed in his speech were understanding, and hope.  He used the word "must" in saying that it is imperative that we come to an understanding of one another by realizing that people's anger about these sensitive issues is very real and legitimate.  I witnessed that anger last night at the racism forum-it was an anger that I've never seen directly in front of me before, and that I've never heard in the voices of so many.  Just as Obama said in his speech, these students who spoke last night, feel that the past still isn't the past.  We must move forward, and we must deal with these issues if the world and our nation is ever going to survive.  

Maharaj is right in saying that South Africa has something to teach the rest of the world through their unique circumstances, but Obama believes that America could have something to teach the rest of the world as well through our sense of hope, and through developing a desire to understand each other on a level deeper than what we see on the outside.  But in order to do this, we're going to have to deal with, and attempt to heal the past through integrating it into the present.  I ask you all, what does this mean, and is this possible?

Please if you get the chance read and/or watch Obama's speech.  I got a copy of it for the first time today during our reconciliation discussion, and I tell you that is nothing that I've ever heard before.  While reading tears were on the verge of reaching the surface of my eyes.  Everything that I've hoped for and everything that I wish to work for in America is specifically talked about in his speech, and I have to admit, I was skeptical as to whether or not someone was actually going to say something.  Now someone has, and I can't tell you how much hope it brings to me.  Obama could have easily been talking about South Africa in his speech as the situations are so alike with so many individuals deeply affected in both countries in very similar ways.  Is this the moment of change that we need?  If so, lets not let it slip away.  

Family Ties

 


These are some pictures of the children in my host family in the rural area!  I hope you enjoy them as I know that I do very much.  As I look at them I continue to think about the conditions of the rural schools and I wonder whether or not my little sisters and brothers will have the opportunity to reach their full potential.  I hope so, as the light and spark in each of their eyes is way to special to not be given that right.  

On the top is little 4 year old Senele-she's gonna be either a wrestler or a ballerina one day; 

The next picture below Senele is of (from left to right) Bongeka & Sbahle-I got really close to these 2; 

Unfortunately I'm having some trouble uploading anymore on the SIT network, but once I go to the internet cafe again I'll hopefully be able to upload more.  Sorry!

Hope you enjoyed!

I'M BACK!!!

Hey everyone!! Long time no see!! I am officially back from the rural area and our 3 days of post-rural activities, and I now have internet access again :) I can't even decide where to begin telling you about my experiences over the past 12 days, there's so much to say.

My rural homestay was a lot of different things all in one. I suppose the main questions you'll want to ask have to do with the living conditions I was in. To begin, the family I was living with did have electricity, but some of the other students' families actually didn't. My family had a tap outside in their yard where we had to get water as there was no running water inside the house. I slept in a hut that the children called a "roundy" haha, which was pretty sweet, except for the nightly cockroaches who would try to make friends with my homestay partner and I in the middle of the night. One night it downpoured and the hut started to leak-fun stuff. The most interesting part was the bathing situation. There were no tubs or showers, so we took basin baths that were about half the size of a kiddie pool. You should have seen my try to wash my hair, what an experience! And lastly was the bathroom; once again to running water or sanitation inside the home, so there was an outhouse that wasn't flushable that we had to walk out to in the middle of the night.

Totally different and more challenging way of living! I actually got sick for part of it and now many of the other students are getting sick as well, but we survived I think. While we were there we went on a lot of excursions to different parts of the rural area called Ohwehbede. We visited a traditional healer called a sangoma who spoke of attempting to connect with western doctors to try and combine information in order to come to an understanding about the idea of healing.

The one thing that is continuing to nag me is the conditions of the schools there. The primary school (in American terms that would be similar to an elementary school) didn't have running water, electricity, and 60% of the children are AIDS orphans or else abandoned. There are 4 teachers for 500 students, and no after school activities or funds leftover. The kids spend more time in breaks outside than in the classroom due to lack of teachers and resources, and because the area is so poor and so many families have so little money, there are 15 year olds who are still in the 5th grade or lower. This is also because after the 3rd grade classes begin being taught in English, although the students are hardly able to speak it, they speak Zulu. For some reason there is this idea in the government here about the superiority of Western European/English speakers-they don't feel that Zulu speakers have much worth. In the high schools there is a rate of no more than 5% for students going off to university, and there are many dropouts. Teen pregnancy and drug use is very high, and even if students do pass the 12th grade exam called the matric (which many of them don't pass as it is once again in English and for other reasons), they still won't be able to go off to college. Many kids give up even trying, and teachers can do very little as there are only 5 of them. The high schools also had no running water or electricity.

Part of the reason why the issue of the horrible school system of the rural area is still entering into my thoughts is because of the close connection I was able to create with the children of my homestay family. I stayed with a family of 14 children ages 3 months-16!!! These kids were absolutely phenomenal, I cannot even begin to describe how much they were able to give me. They had so many responsibilities that I never had when I was their age; the 4 year old did her own laundry (which had to be done with scrubbing in was basins by hand-no washers or dryers here) and was showing me how to do it as well! The 4, 6, and the 7 year old girl named Sbaihle who I became very close to, took care of the baby all by themselves when the mother wasn't around-she even carried the baby on her back! They did the dishes, gathered water, cooked, served us, and even rounded up the 74 cows and however many goats there were on the family farm!

Most of all what I loved was the way they played with one another. No one living here had any toys to play with like so many American children do from Toys R' Us. So, they had to improvise. They were incredibly creative; they would use plastic bottles for balls-I played a game with them where we kicked the plastic pop bottle around to one another and then threw it to each other in a football sort of way. Then other times they would take a sock and fill it with sand, tying it together with plastic bags and use that for a ball! I taught some of them handclap games from my childhood which they loved, and they used a huge rope they had in one of their huts for a jumprope!! Another great example of the resourcefulness these kids displayed as well as their use of nature for activities, was when the 5 year old girl Ndomisu (who I also became very close to) created play food out of dirt and styrofoam.

I cannot express enough how much I miss these kids and how sad I was to leave them on Monday morning. On Sunday the day before we left the rural area, some of the kids took me to the beach near the area right along the Indian ocean. Sbaihle found out that I was leaving the next day and asked me if I was going to come back. I almost started crying when I said no, and she had a saddened look on her face as well. I have to back one day. I'll give you a list of all of their names and ages in my next entry...:)

For one final thing as I know this entry is extremely long already, I want to talk a little bit about what I did on Monday. After we left the rural area we went to go visit a prison in a town called Eshowe. We only visited the women's section of the prison, and we got a chance to talk one on one with some of the prisoners about their lives in prison as well as prior to their incarceration. While I was there I learned that many of the women prisoners have experienced some form of heavy abuse as children from a male figure, and many of them have experienced other forms of domestic violence. Fraud and stabbings were 2 common reasons for incarceration amongst the prisoners there, and our main topic of discussion on that particular day was the idea of motherhood-as many of the prisoners have children of their own, 2 of the inmates have babies in prison with them.

This was an extremely emotional experience for the prisoners to open up to us, we had some intense discussions. After the prison we visited a small art exhibit displaying art created by the prisoners to express themselves. The organization we worked with was called Phoenix, and their whole model was the idea of restorative justice. Art therapy was a major part of their work. I also learned how awful the prison system is here in South Africa, as well as in America even. America imprisons more people than any other country in the world and South Africa is close behind at #3. The director of this organization was a passionate man with a great deal of heart, and his comment that prisons are not conducive at all for "curing" crime like so many nations seem to want to do, but even more than that, they are not in any way shape or form conducive for rehabilitation. He feels that the world would be much better off if there were no prisons at all.

Although during our discussion with him no one had any real solutions or answers as to what should be done with people who commit very serious crimes such as child killers or pedophiles, still we can no longer afford to keep treating prisoners like animals. Simply locking anyone who commits a crime up for 10 years or more isn't going to do any of us any good-especially when those who commit very serious crimes are rarely even convicted-most of them remain on the streets, at least in South Africa that's the case. This experience has made me look at things so much differently, and in fact I think it might have even changed me somewhat. We're all human no matter what circumstances we are under, and it's time that more people began to realize that.

That's all for now. I'll actually be working more with the prison starting Monday for the focus study I'm on dealing with issues of reconciliation. I'm so excited! Hope you guys enjoyed this LONG entry, and on my next as I said I will give you a list of all of the kids in my homestay family, as well as hopefully some pictures of them :)