The Healing of Memories (scroll down to the text and read that before looking at the pictures)

Today I met a lot of people living in great destitution, and I visited sights of some of the most deadly, infamous incidents occurred during apartheid set up in the form of memorials.  I'm not really ready to write about it yet because I'm still trying to process it all.  It hit me even harder than when I visited Kennedy Road, maybe because I met so many children, or because I got more or a chance to interview people and even see inside of their homes made out of pieces of cardboard and garbage bags.  

Here, children and adults take part in violence due to the extreme frustration they have to deal with day after day.  Some of them have been waiting for houses for 30 years, but the government that claims to be an all inclusive democracy could care less about their plight.  Little kids living on these streets came up to us holding our hands and wanting to leave with us, and I met a 9 year old girl named Nikita who has become a part of the anti-eviction campaign through writing letters to the government to give her people, whom she feels such a deep connection with, the houses they need to survive and the care that should be given to all people, but unfortunately is not.  

As I said, I don't think I can write details today as it is an experience that is still sore in my mind as it only happened a few hours ago.  I need to process through it all myself before I can full share it with others, which is what these people want us to do-share it with the world so that people will hopefully come join in their fight.  The man who led us through these eviction shack settlements believed that as American students we had the power to bring about great change, and he also acknowleged that there were impoverished, and other suffering people in America as well.  His point of view, was that we have a responsibility to help those Americans, and the suffering in South Africa simultaneously, not by sacrificing one for the other.  I've heard the argument several times that people need to start taking care of our country first before we can move on to others in the world, and to an extent I've began to agree with this way of thinking.  But something this man said truly struck me; he said that if we make our struggle, their struggle, there won't be a need to help one group of people before another, but instead help each other together.  

In other words, if we make the struggle of the suffering in America, also the struggle of the suffering here in South Africa (of which I've learned there are a great many), the struggle of the suffering in Darfur, the struggle of the suffering in Iraq, etc...then we'll be a stronger people where no one will have to be ignored.  This is an inspiring mode of thought that brings wonderful dreams of possibilities to the imagination-now the next step is to find out whether or not it is possible in reality where there are much more complicated issues that seem to prevail time and time again.  

At the Institute for the Healing of Memories which I visited today, I learned that there are ways to heal the pains of the past through realizing that there are those who care, and realizing that a smile can bring more to a person than what we can imagine.  Since I'm an internet cafe in Cape Town right now which has a stronger connection, I'm able to upload more pictures of my rural home stay famile-you know, the one with the 14 kids :)  They bring a smile to my face, and I don't want to depress you guys too much.  So I'm keeping my promise that I would share more pictures of the kids with all of you.  Enjoy! 

P.S. And yes I realize that the pictures are above this entry, so I'm sorry if this sounds anti-climactic, but I can't figure out how to put them below the text.  I guess I should have written my entry before uploading the pictures.  Just look at the pictures again after reading this and then my writing will make more sense :)