A Typical Day

I know that I just posted yesterday but I received an email from a friend who asked if I would blog about a typical day for me at the centre. I can tell you that the only consistent thing each day is getting up and going running. That is if I am going to be at the centre at 8:30. Once I get to the centre my day varies. I think this is what I love about being here. Each day brings a new experience for me. I may not even get the computer turned on and someone wants to see me. These visits can be young people wanting to share their dreams about furthering their education but do not have the funds. Like so many in the townships, they want to break out of their cycle of poverty. The next visit might be a young man or woman struggling with their sexuality and they know that the JL Zwane Centre is a safe haven to be able to talk about who they are. The townships are not a place where people can live openly gay. Like a person diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, they are stigmatized and can be ostracized from their families and friends, that is why there are so many that are not open about their sexuality or their HIV/AIDS status. Johanna, the social worker at the centre, will come and ask me if I can drive her to visit a person dying of cancer, or visit a woman who has had both legs amputated from having HIV/AIDS and whose wheelchair doesn't work, to visiting a school to find out how a young boy of 18, who has been living alone after losing both his parents to HIV/AIDS over a year ago is doing, and finding out he is not passing. He is lucky though, one of the teachers took an interest in him and he will be starting a new school in January where he will learn life skills, ie., how to manage money, a bank account, a checking account, how to shop for food and make his own meals and learn a skill that hopefully will help him earn an income. He was given a new home from the government after his parents passed away, it still does not have electricity or running water, but he is hopeful.

I also have many experiences of hope and joy. We visit the local creche (daycare) where the children sing songs and dance, they are all smiles, just wanting some love and affection even for a little while. Visiting the senior centre and sharing lunch and a conversation. Getting a visit from a young man who just completed his college exams after being given a scholarship from the centre to study for an accounting degree. Taking an orphan shopping for a new school uniform after a donation was made to the Zwane Centre, watching her face light up as she twirls around in the mirror admiring her new look!

What I struggle with most is that at times I think I am becoming desensitized to what I see but what I realize is that I have limitations at what I can do. I struggle deciding what situation needs the most attention. Who am I to decide who to buy food for, how come this person and not that person. Is this little child more deserving of a school uniform than the other one? Which young man or woman will be the one chosen to attend college so they can break out of the cycle of poverty they are living in? I work closely with the staff at the centre because they are the ones I look to for making the difficult decisions. They live it daily, I am just a visitor living in their world for 6 months.

I received a text last week from Mandla Majola who runs the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in Khayelitsha. I blogged about TAC in my entry on xenophobia. He was desperate. Over 100 shacks in Khayelitsha had burned down. Four of those shacks belonged to comrades (volunteers) of TAC. "Comrade (he calls me) is there anyway you can help in this situation, they have lost everything! Please, I need your help." I immediately SMSed him that I would help. The ironic thing is that these people are volunteers with TAC, they live in shacks, they have no income, no money and pretty much own nothing, the fire completely decimated their lives. What they owned before the fire was probably similar to when you left college, you had your clothes, mementos of your fun college days, possibly a peach crate filled with your albums (for those of you my age!) and maybe a small piece of furniture. We had support from our families and a future with a college degree and the opportunity to find employment and actually earn money to buy a house, a car, more clothes and CD'S!. They have no support and no future. On Friday I went with Mandla and Kent and David from Open Arms to survey the area and meet the people from TAC who lost their homes. It was overwhelming. One person perished in the fire, it is incredible that there was only one death due to the fact that there are no fire hydrants, sprinkler systems or the infrastructure to get a fire truck into the settlement, everything was destroyed. (The first photo is before we visited the site, note the smiles, the second photo is of Angie (a comrade) and her daughter, they lost their shack, the next 3 are of what we saw as we walked.) Most of the people we met are now living with relatives, so instead of 5 to 6 people in a shack there are now 8 to 9 people. We visited one woman and her son who had a new zinc shack but it had no windows. They couldn't afford that luxury. The weather has been in the 70's and 80's and will continue to get warmer, their shack was already stifling and it will only get worse. School starts mid January and the children lost their uniforms in the fire. TAC is working with the government to see what subsidies are available to the people of the fire. As I drove home from Khayelitsha into Cape Town towards my flat on the ocean, it struck me that it could have been me living in a township which lead to the deep question of who decided it would be them and not me?

Bye for now...

Food Parcel Day for Senior Citizens

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...

Ongx and A World AIDS Day Event

When I was in Cape Town last December, I met a young man named Ongx. Ongx is 23 years old, an unemployed blues musician from the township of Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is the township I blogged about last time that has a very large geographical area with a population of almost 1 million people. Last year Ongx was the winner of an American Idol type amateur talent contest sponsored by Nedbank, a large commercial bank in South Africa. There were over 100 participants from all over South Africa with the final performance in Johannesburg. To be the winner is quite an accomplishment for a boy from a township. The prize, a Toyota SUV. Now, for Ongx, this was rather ironic because he doesn't have a drivers license, a place to park a car or the money to pay for petrol. Ongx decided that the smartest thing would be to sell the car and use the money to buy a home as an investment. Ongx currently resides in a shack on the beach in Khayelitsha. The funny thing is if this was in the US it would be prime property for beachfront condos near the ocean. Ongx's shack is one small room, no electricity, running water or bathroom facilities. The first picture is of Ongx in front of his shack. Ongx was finally able to sell the SUV and has purchased a home in the township of Phillipi. It does have electricity, running water and a bathroom. It even has room in the back to add another room or a shack for someone else to live in, known as rental property! Ongx is standing in front of his new home in the second picture. Ongx earns money by booking gigs as a solo performer or with a band in venues around the Cape Town area. Ongx has been having difficulty making a living as a musician and has decided that an education is the only way to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty that he currently lives in. With the help of some very wonderful people in Minneapolis, as of Friday, Ongx has registered at City College to pursue a career in sound engineering. With the stability of having a real home and a chance at an education, Ongx now has the opportunity of pursuing his dream in music and moving on up much like the Jefferson's!


On Saturday I was invited to participate in my first South African World AIDS Day program at a grade school in Gugs. The program was organized by Lydia who has been HIV positive for 14 years and who is a member of the HIV/AIDS Support Group at the JL Zwane Centre. Besides being HIV positive, Lydia was diagnosed this summer with breast cancer. On Dec. 10th Lydia will have surgery to remove one breast. Lydia has a son Neo, he is 6 years old, he is also HIV positive and also suffers from epileptic seizures. Neo did not respond positively to his first round of Antiretroviral (ARV's) treatments so he is on a second course that doesn't look very promising either. You would think with all this happening in her life that Lydia would be at home, but no, she has been volunteering at the Lehlohonolo Primary School for 3 years educating the young students on HIV/AIDS. Along with the principal and a few teachers, Lydia planned this event. It was wonderful. To be among so many children who sang, read poems and performed plays which focused around HIV/AIDS education and how it affected their lives made me think of the 5.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and the 370,000 young people that die annually. We had a candle lighting ceremony and Mel, the assistant pastor at JL Zwane, said a prayer and we remembered all of those who have perished from this awful pandemic and prayed for the young children who hopefully will learn from the World AIDS Day Program that through education and the love from their community they have the ability to control their destiny.

Kent from Open Arms arrives tomorrow with his partner David to participate in the food parcel program that Open Arms supports on World AIDS Day. I am so looking forward to seeing them and hearing news from home! It will be a busy week but I hope to find the time to blog so I can keep you updated on what is happening here in Cape Town and Gugs. The weather is wonderful, sorry for all of you back in Minnesota and the northern states. Kent, David, Mel and I will actually be having a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings at a restaurant here in Cape Town. I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends. After almost 2 months being in Cape Town I realize how much I have to be thankful for! Thank you family and friends for your love and support and for reading my blog!

Bye for now...