The past couple of weeks have been quite "hectic", as most Capetonians would say! The Human Rights weekend was very interesting and nine of us scheduled to participate in a home-stay the one after that. The home-stay was in a township called Ocean View where much of the population is coloured and Afrikaans speaking. The program we went through is called Volunteer Mzanzi Africa.
Rina and I were placed with Auntie Katie, a sweet, soft-spoken elderly woman who was incredibly hospitable to us. She lives with her husband and they have a german shepherd puppy who was so cute! Anyway, the first night there we chatted a little bit with Auntie Katie to get to know her a little and learn where she's from. She briefly explained how her and her family were forcibly removed from their home in Simon's Town and relocated to Ocean View. Their removal from Simon's Town was following the Group Areas Act implemented by the National Party under apartheid. Apparently the government had determined Simon's Town (along with many other area's) to be "white areas" and therefore forced coloured and black people out of any area's with that label.
On Friday, Rina and I volunteered at the Bumblebee Krisch (a kindergarten) for most of the day. While there, we sang and danced with children from the ages of about 4-6. We even taught them a song we had previously learned from Maria on the Human Rights weekend. We thought it appropriate to the name of the kindergarten we were at since it was all about a bumblebee! It took maybe about a half an hour to teach and get the kids to memorize the full song and hand motions. All the children were so adorable and they seemed to really enjoy our company as we did theirs.
Later that day, we went to the pink building, which is about 15 minutes down the road from Auntie Katie's house. We met quite a few people between the ages of about 13 and 18 I would guess. The pink building is where students meet after school to keep them occupied and motivated as people and learners. We played some games outside then made our way into the building to discuss the possibility of beginning a tutoring program on Fridays for anyone who may be struggling in major classes like math and english. Before we left, the tutoring program established itself and would begin the following Friday.
On Saturday, Auntie Katie brought us with her and some of her daughters to the Hillsong Church which was holding a Sisterhood service which is for women only. It was very interesting and it felt like we were actually in a soft-rock concert. (This isn't a service that is held very often and Auntie Katie attends her local church on Sunday mornings). Since this isn't a service that occurs very often, buses come from different Townships When we got home from the service, we had some tea and I began talking with Auntie Katie's daughter, Bonita. Our conversation started on the topic of Hillsong Church and how it's a little odd going there; although is was quite entertaining and upbeat, it didn't seem very genuine and felt forced. Some of the sermon was good and made sense to me, but other parts I disagreed with and thought it could send the wrong message. Hillsong claimed that they take up a cause every time they meet and proceed to send donations directly to that cause. This concept was a bit controversial to us since there are so many issues or "causes" that could easily be attended to in the townships (where most of the women attending the service that day are from).
Bonita's friend Sharon then met us at Auntie Katie's. Rina, Bonita, Sharon, and I all walked to Roxanne's house to hang out and talk. Roxanne is a friend of Bonita and Sharon. We talked for a few hours and we later brought back to Auntie Katie's. But while we were chatting with the woman at Roxanne's, what was really nice was how comfortable Rina and I felt - it was really incredible being able to connect and converse with women who are 20 years older than us and in different stages of our lives. What it comes down to, I think, is that we are all human and living in this one world at this one time, so what does it matter how old you are? In South Africa we have noticed that people have true friendships that span generations. In the US, it is much less likely for people to have close friendships with people that are 10 to 20+ years older or younger.
Those were just some of the major points from the home-stay in Ocean View. I, along with the other young women who went, am so grateful for the love and sense of community that we received over the weekend. Everyone had a great experience and I would recommend the home-stay with Volunteer Mzanzi Africa to anyone who is curious and open to new, gracious people and worthwhile learning experiences.
On our train ride home on Sunday, one of our friends had her purse stolen. But don't worry she got it back! What happened was, right as the train began moving again after one of the stops, a man grabbed our friend's purse and proceeded to jump off the train. RIGHT as he grabbed the purse, everyone around began yelling "Stop him!" and "Stop the train!". To our pleasant surprise, the conductor actually stopped the train and other guys from the same car jumped out after the robber! One of the guys was able to retrieve our friend's purse with nothing missing! So, although the incident was a bit scary for our friends, it was also uplifting. I couldn't help but wonder how an incident like that would have played out in the US; unfortunately most people I imagine would not jump off the train after the robber to retrieve someone else's purse who they have never met before, most people keep to themselves and don't want to get involved in "other people's business". And on top of that, most bystander's may justify their inaction by blaming the victim - maybe saying that it's the victim's fault for not being more conscious of where their belongings are and that's why they got robbed, rather than empathizing with the victim and realizing it could have easily been them.
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