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Africa The journal Vignettes
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Journaling has been fun and therapeutic. These are journals that I sent while in Africa with my impressions and reactions to what I experienced. I hope you enjoy them.
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They are called back yard dwellers. There are families who live in the townships of Cape Town who can’t afford the meager homes which have been built. Instead they live in a shack in the back yard. Such is the case for Thulasizwe or Thula as he is know by his friends. He lives with his single mother, who suffers from epilepsy, and his sister in a 2/3 meter wooden and iron home. The three of them live in this single room. They sleep there, they eat there, they argue there, they laugh there and Thula did his best to study there. Sometimes he would study late in to the night at a friend’s home. Because the house was so small, the floor space was all taken up for sleeping and the door could not be opened. Thual would squeeze himself though the small single window to get back inside. Born in 1989 he started Christel house in 2002 as a fifth grader. If the reader wonders about the existence of miracles, here is one. Thual graduated as a member of the first graduating class. But that is what Christel house does. It takes the poorest of the poor and gives them an opportunity to raise themselves out of poverty and into a richer life; one built upon respect, responsibility, integrity and independence. Thula was one of those students who never missed an opportunity. He was elected head student in 2005 – 2006 and was chosen as the Christel House ambassador addressing audiences at special events in the Cape Town area. He was a member of the Marimba Band and a prominent athlete. Today Thula is attending a local university, T.S.I.B.A., with a 40,000R scholarship to study business management. It is a long road from the back yard to the college classroom, but Thual has taken that journey. We are very proud of him and the promise his future holds. ------------- I went to the train station to pick up my Premier train ticket yesterday. I entered this huge structure full of people move from this train to that door… hundreds of people. Mothers with young kids, drunks, packs of single males. Some were lingering and watching. Some were walking the ‘jive’ trying to pick up girls… some were just stoned. I was the only white man in view. I walked down the hallway wiping that tourist smile off my face trying for all the world to look like just another bored traveler. I walked deliberately, staking my claim to be there with every step… no fear… A black man was approaching me walking in my same path. He was 18 or so with a look of many more years in his eyes. He was walking deliberately, staking his claim to be there with every step. 20 feet away and already I could feel we were in each other’s space. Who would be the chicken? Our eyes locked and we stared with deliberate nonchalance as we approached the point of decision. White man or black man, who owns this path? I flinched and bent my path to walk around this young/old man. There was a slight smile across his face as I walked by. ------------ Another story of success: Sitting in his college classroom Rozario looks like any other college freshman. He is attentive, a little perplexed by the newness of classes, professors, and |
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books. None of the other students know he earned a 40,000R scholarship to attend. They do not know he comes from Christel House. Rozario looks at his books and the daunting task of completing 4 years of college and he is sure on one thing. He will finish with great success. If it is one thing he knows it is how to endure overwhelming odds. After the divorce his mom and 4 children returned to Cape Town. With no other place to go grandmother took them in to her already crowded home. This small 2 bedroom space held 7 adults and 10 children. 17 people in a two bedroom home. Rozario struggled with the loss of his father and the mental toll it took on his mom. Unable to work she tried to manage raising her family of 4 in a small disability pension and help grandma out where she could. Rozario knew that the uniforms he wore and the food he received from Christel House were a big help to his family. More than that Rozario knew that this Christel House education and the values he was being taught were his way out of poverty for himself and his family. He worked hard in school shunning the ever present gangs, drugs, and social pressures in his neighborhood. But life would not be easy for him. Just before the very important Matrix exam he and his family had to move. He was responsible for the moving, and the cleaning as this family of 4 moved into a on room shack. With some help he made it through the exams and immediately found a part time job giving all the money he earned to his mom. Fate smiled on his diligence and he won admission to college and a scholarship to pay for it. The value of persistence paid off for Rozario and in fact it changed his life. -------------------- We were substitute teaching today and in a eighth grade classroom the subject turned to gangs. These 30 kids who are 13, 14 can tell you all about the gangs in their neighborhoods. They know who has the cash, and they know that where the drugs are. They know all about sugar mammas and sugar daddies. 12 year old kids who hook up with an elder for money, sex and security. They know about the danger too. 25/30 raised their hands when I asked who had seen a recent shooting. 25 out of 30 babies… They protect themselves by learning to be street wise. They know the mood of the neighborhood and where to run. They know where to go to get protection. They go to the “one who must not be named” to buy a armband that has special powers to protect you from bullets Some pray in church. These kids know gangs are a danger. They know all about the murders and retributions. But the classroom is alive with electric excitement. They are fascinated… like moths to a flame… ----------------------------- A mom came in to talk about her child. He is a smart kid, sensitive and quite a good writer. He describes anger as “bugs eating at my heart.” She is worried about him because she has reoccurring cancer and may die this time. Depressed, she is on medication and so is he. A suicide attempt over Christmas break by her son really scared her and she realized he needs help. She asked me if I had a piece of breads so I gave her my lunch lying that I wasn’t very hungry today. She knew I was lying. While she ate she explained that she took part of the 20 Rand I gave her son to buy a few more hours of electricity. The money as for a diary [about $2.60] so he could write down his feelings and she now thought that was a good idea so she would try to use the last part of the money to buy one. Finishing my lunch she thanked me and gave me the only gift she could afford. She washed out my bowl.
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When I was 8 Santa brought me a globe for Christmas. It was quite a nice one with a light bulb inside so it would glow it night. I would use it as a night light and fall asleep dreaming of far off places. I would study the ocean currents, country names, latitudes and which countries were on the same level. What is the tropic of Capricorn anyway? Tracing a route around the world it soon became clear there was only one way around and that involved passing through the straits of Magellan and the Cape of Good Hope. What would it be like to stand there at lands end? I walked down a long path from the Cape light toward a little finger of land that crept out into the clashing seas. The Indian Ocean on one side; the Atlantic on the other. 150 feet above the jagged rocky coast the wind blows cold with waves sounding a warning as they break furiously upon the shore. Here I am 8 years old and at the end of the world! |
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