Monday = being a sponge in Cape Town!

Literally…I am trying to soak it all in!  We had more orientation today about our placements and what we will be doing.  I am going to be volunteering this week in the Langa Township at a shelter for children who have been abused, orphaned, abandoned, removed from parental care and/or that might be suffering from HIV/AIDS that will eventually be placed in a foster home.  Many of the other volunteers are working in schools, day cares, providing physical therapy for children affected by Cerebral Palsy, and an elderly home.  We talked a lot about things we might expect and rules we need to follow while volunteering.  Please understand that I will not be able to post pictures of the children I am working with online because of confidentiality and their safety and well being.  I know many of you will want to see what I am doing but I will have to do my best and describe it to you in another way! 

I have to be honest…I’m not quite sure how to talk about everything I am seeing here which means that I am having to really rethink how I am able to communicate with all of you on this blog.  I want to make sure that I am not giving a bad impression or inaccurate perception of the life here in Cape Town.  These are purely my observations but I am struggling to talk about all of the things I am encountering for the first time in my life.  Although things have gotten better and things are moving forward the aftermath of the Apartheid is still strongly apparent here.  The oppression and adversity that many face on a daily basis makes life for many a constant uphill battle.  Hopefully I can do my best to educate you on some of the history of South Africa, my volunteering and my life as I see it, live it, breathe it while here for the next 5 weeks.  Education and knowledge are key in this whole experience and I can tell you that South Africa and its people have suffered way too long from the ignorance of many o   

We then went on a tour of the Townships.  Before I get into that more, I should probably give you a little more background on what Townships are and the role they play in Cape Town.  Here is a little more information on Townships in South Africa.

In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the (often underdeveloped) urban living areas that, from the late 19^th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and Coloreds, but also working-class Indians). Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities.  During the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into townships. Legislation that enabled the Apartheid government to do this included the Group Areas Act. Forced removal from city centers to townships has continued in post-apartheid South Africa. The difference is that under apartheid all black people faced forced removals to townships while now it is only the poor living in shack settlements that face eviction to townships on the peripheries of cities. In Cape Town and Durban this has given rise to mass resistance.
The new townships being built to house people forcibly removed from shack settlements have much smaller houses than those built under apartheid and are often, but not always, even further from city centers than apartheid era townships. Townships for non-whites were also called locations or lokasie (Afrikaans translation), and are often still referred to by that name in smaller towns. The term "Kasie", a popular short version of "Lokasie" is also used sometimes to refer to townships.  Townships sometimes have large informal settlements nearby.  Most South African towns and cities will have at least one township associated with them. Today they are often viewed as just one of the many suburbs that an urban area might have.

The thing about the Townships is that here is South Africa during the Apartheid people were split up into 3 different groups, whites, blacks and coloreds (anyone who is not white or black or that is of mixed descent).  The use of the term coloreds is not considered offensive like it would be back in the US and in fact those people who are labeled as such are very prideful of it.  From reading above you can see that people were completely uprooted from there communities and moved into new neighborhoods so that “all white” neighborhoods could be created.  I can’t imagine being told that I needed to move just because the color of my skin.  There is no nice way of “forcibly moving” mass populations of people…it was violent, disrespectful and entire communities were bulldozed leaving only churches. 

We had a tour guide named Mama Ivy who is very well connected in the Townships and knows the community members very well.  We started out in District 6 and she explained the history of an entire community and 60,000 + from that community alone being forcibly moved to the Cape Flats.  We then moved on to the Memorial site of the Trojan Horse Massacre.  This was a very moving experience.  I have included links for you to read about the events that took place and why there is a memorial to those who lost there life on this tragic and senseless day.  You can read more about it and see video clips at:  http://www.athlone.co.za/heritage/history/0604200601_history.php and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qxwdJoz1v0.

We then traveled to the Langa Township and actually were given permission to see how many of the people live.  I was shocked and humbled by the conditions that people are forced to live in.  In the housing unit we walked through there were families that would be sharing rooms that are much smaller than an average 10 x 10 room and each family has a twin sized bed that they share with at least 5 family members.  There are usually at least 2 families to a room and there is no running water, bathrooms or heating elements in their homes.  It is shocking to see how beautiful of a city Cape Town is and how developed it is in the central area but how underdeveloped it is within the Townships.  I did not take interior pictures because frankly I was embarrassed to even be walking through their home and didn’t feel it was respectful to take pictures even though they said we could.  It just didn’t feel right to me and made me appreciate the little things we take for granted every day that much more.  People are poor…yet they have all been kind and friendly.  You have to give them credit for being able to make the best of their circumstances when everyday is a struggle for survival.   

We traveled to several other Townships and it was very powerful.  I’m posting some pictures of some of what I saw.  Need to get to bed…I start my placement tomorrow and need to be well rested for what tomorrow will bring.  Love from Cape Town-M