When Kevin Winge was living in Cape Town in 2003, besides working with the JL Zwane Centre, he visited and quickly befriended a senior citizen centre, the Cape Peninsula Welfare Organization for the Aged (CPOA). The CPOA branch in Guguletu is the branch where our friend Mary Sili supervised until she retired last December at 67 years old and after 14 years of service. Mary is the woman I blogged about that is currently running a soup kitchen from her home. Mary remembers the day Kevin walked into the centre to find out what it was all about and introduce himself. Kevin's visit to the centre was around the holiday season and he asked Mary if she needed anything for the seniors and offered her some rand so she could buy some food for their Christmas party. Mary suggested that instead of just giving money for a meal that maybe Kevin could put a small food parcel together. He started the food parcels for the seniors that day and 5 years later the "old people" are still receiving food parcels from Open Arms. On Wednesday we had Food Parcel Day at the centre. Along with giving out 80 food parcels, we had a 20 member choral group made up of boys and girls from the neighboring townships perform for over an hour. The old people danced and swayed in their chairs to the music. Mel, the assistant minister from the centre came along with me to help put the parcels together and to say a prayer for the old people. We all shared a meal of chicken, rice, potatoes, pumpkin and peas that Mary and Singbongale prepared in the kitchen. Mary was working the last two weeks filling in for the current supervisor who is on vacation. Also at the centre is Skhumbuzo "Teach" Majokweni, he is a retired teacher that has been volunteering at the centre for 19 years, he receives an honorary salary of R150/month, which is about $20. Teach will be celebrating his 82nd birthday on December 14th. Each time I have visited the centre in the past I have had my picture taken with Teach and I always send him the photos. He carries around a little photo album that Mary gave him that consists of all the pictures I have sent to him over the years, it is so cute and I feel so honored. Mary and Teach gave me a Xhosa name a few years ago, it is Nolothando, which means "Lady of Love"! The pictures above are of the parcel bags, the choral group, the old people listening to the music, Mary and Teach dancing, Mary, Mel and Teach, and of course it wouldn't be complete without a picture of me and Teach!
Bye for now...
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