We left Joburg for Cape Town today. MaAfrika has centers in both towns and we wanted to learn what they do here. We headed for the home office immediately after getting off the plane. From there we met Catherine - who is the head of the office in Cape Town and she fed us lunch and kept us on track to get out to Mfuleni to spend the afternoon (thank you Catherine!).
Cape Town is again a city of amazing contrast. In the heart of the city you have an area as nice as the nicest parts of Columbus, Ohio with actual scenery to surround it (Table Top Mountain and the Coast) including a vibrant waterfront with restaurants / shopping and yes, even a ferris wheel. Just 10 minutes away and you have a community like Mfuleni.
This is where the home office for MaAfrika is in Cape Town -
see the beautiful mountains in the back?
see the beautiful mountains in the back?
Prior to leaving, Catherine set our expectations about the center as compared to Joburg. The centers in Cape town are not as mature as the ones in Joburg. They are more at their beginnings v. what they can be (and what they have planned).
We left home office and drove about 10-15 minutes away for our visit to Mfuleni (pronounced like mmm-Fu-lean-ee) where we would spend the remainder of the day. Our agenda had a new twist to it - in that we would be again leaving the centers and going out into the community this time for a 'home visit' as well as other plans.
Mfuleni was a bit different than the townships of Joberg. There were parts of this area that had established small houses with stucco siding that looked like what I would have called homes. Then in the newer 'sections' (called sections with numbers associated - like section 9) where people had not yet established themselves there were the shacks that we had seen in Alex / Orange Farm. Only this time we were going to go into one of them.
After meeting the team at Mfuleni we were assigned to a team of young women whose job is to go out into the community and assist the people in their homes that are considered in a vulnerable state (with room in the definition of that word for life's realities). Here is a picture of the team:
At Mfuleni as we met our partners for the day.
I was partnered up with Linda (in the photo above she is up and to the left in a pink shirt). I thought that was only appropriate as my loving mother's name is Linda. We headed out into the community and then split up to go on our assignments.
As we walked to our assignments.
Linda and I walked through the township to the home of a man who lost his wife in November of this past year. She considered them a tough client as they are recently having to cope with life without a mother and a wife. We entered the gate of the home (I don't want to call it a shack now because it is their home) and I saw two young children in the doorway to the house. I tried to say hello, get them to say hello but they were very, very shy. Linda brought me inside where I met the father, and a few other neighbors that were there. In all there were 5 children, 1 baby (that I didn't see right away), 3 women, the father and me in 1 room home.
The floor was made of a vinyl tarp covering the sand/dirt beneath. It was as clean as it could be but was made of everything from cardboard, to wood, to sheet metal. I want you to picture going to the local dump at home, picking up materials that you find and then making a house out of it and living there. That's what this was.
I would like to say that we all connected immediately and had great conversations about everything. In truth - it was hard. I came into the house. Sat down in the only chair as the father stood beside me and the women/children on the beds in front of me. Linda led the children in a song, then described for me what she would do there on her regular visits. It was clear (not for her not trying because she very much did) that this was not a regular visit. She sang another song and then we had a few moments of quite silence. I tried to engage the children by singing the first children's song that came to my head - itsy-bitsy spider (which they did not know). I did the hand motions, and they watched / listened and we laughed and talked about it for a bit.
After a bit more silent time (with all 11 of us in a house that would fit in our laundry room) - the father and I started to talk about sports. He loves soccer. We were able to connect together when we talked about sports.
One of the mothers also wanted to know more about me / us - so I did get to talk to her about my daughter Frances, my son Nolan, my wife Sarah and our home in Ohio. They didn't seem to like the idea of snow on the ground.
Then it was time Linda and I left the home. As we were almost all "dismissed" I asked the father if I could have a photo with him. I was touched when the young mother (and a beautiful little girl who remained incredibly shy the entire time) came back from down the street to join in the photo. The mother was the one who wanted to know more about me - she is the one on the left of the pictures below.
This one has the incredibly shy little girl on the far left
This is the family with Linda. They all came together closer
with Linda in the photo which I felt was a good sign - that Linda's
and MaAfrika Tikkun's efforts to help were taking hold.
This was only the first part of the day. We returned to the center and spent the rest of the afternoon helping school children in the computer room, playing sports in the yards, making food in the kitchen, helping with art classes. I will write to tell you more about that in the next entry.
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