Happy Festive Season

I left Cape Town on December 20th, a warm, sunny day with a temperature of about 80 degrees to fly back to the US for the holidays. I managed to stay ahead of the snow but did get delayed in both Amsterdam and in Seattle. I arrived in Sun Valley, Idaho to snow and cold weather, about 10 degrees, a very large delta! I went from the sea to the mountains, I can't really complain about that, I am very fortunate to be able to live in both places. I will be in Idaho until January 3rd and will return to Cape Town on the 5th. The centre reopens on January 7th starting with a visit from the VISION Group from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, Kevin Winge from Open Arms of Minnesota and Broadway in South Africa (from NYC, I blogged about them last year) will once again hold a 4 day workshop for the children living in the townships. Stay tuned for more stories from Cape Town!

Hoping you all had a very merry holiday season and here's to a very happy and healthy New Year for you, your family and loved ones!

(I had many people ask me what happened to the 10 orphans who were not accepted at the Bridging Academy. They will continue to be a part of the Orphan Programme at the JL Zwane Centre, continue their education at the schools they were enrolled in last year and continue to live with their current caregivers. Thank you for reading my blog and for asking me questions!)

Photos:

1. View from my flat of the sea (Atlantic Ocean, Capetonians call the ocean the sea).

2. View of the new soccor stadium for the 2010 World Cup from my flat.

3. Winter in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Bye for now...

Bridging Academy

Last Tuesday I went with the Rev. Mel Baars and 30 orphan children to wine country. Don't get the wrong idea, we didn't go to do wine tasting, we went to visit a school for orphaned and vulnerable children. Bridging Academy sits on a 12.5 acre farm about 45 minutes from Cape Town in the beautiful countryside of Franschoek. The area is surrounded by mountains, wine farms and olive groves. The Academy opened in January 2008 by an American couple from Santa Barbara, Dennis and Susan Wadley. Their goal was to be able to offer a safe place for orphaned and vulnerable children and to give them the opportunity to receive a good education along with a stable living environment. The school started with 30 children, in 2009 they grew to 40 and for 2010 are looking to enroll 50 - 60 orphaned and vulnerable children. Each year they intend to gradually increase the enrollment until they reach their capacity of 100 students from grades 5 - 12. Their staff consists of a Principal, 5 full-time teachers, 5 house parents, 3 part-time teachers, a counselor, a social worker and an administrator. Bridging Academy is a fully accredited school by the South African Education Department. Besides their required courses, the children participate in the maintenance of the farm, meal preparation and learning entrepreneurial skills by contributing to the Academy Gift Shop.

The cost for a child is as follows:

Room and Board: $100 per month

Books, Uniforms, Supplies, Transportation, Field Trips, Birthday, etc: $50 per month

Teachers, House Parents, Principal's salaries: $200 per month

The 30 children from the orphan program from the JL Zwane centre were invited to Bridging Academy for the day for assessment into the program. The children were first given a tour of the grounds, the rooms where they would sleep, the school area and the eating/kitchen area. (The buildings are beautiful, the architecture was Arts and Crafts, very comfortable and fit right in with the scenery.) After the tour they all assembled to hear the rules of the school, (I realized listening to some of the rules that many of these children have not been taught certain life skills that we take for granted, ie: proper use of a washroom, how to dispose of garbage, how to take care of the area in which they live.) and the itinerary for a typical school day. After the question and answer period was over it was time for the hard part, the assessment tests! The children broke up into their age groups and were handed the tests that would determine their acceptance into the program. They were very nervous but also very excited. I could tell that many of them were also very scared. After the alloted time for the assessment test they had lunch of chicken, rice and vegetables. After lunch each child had a one on one interview with the principal, the teachers and the social worker. It was a very long day but one filled with excitement and wonderment at what their future held.

That evening I received an email from Mel. The school had accepted 20 children, this was a very momentous occasion. A new relationship was being forged between the JL Zwane Centre and Bridging Academy for the future of many orphaned and vulnerable children from the townships!

Photos:

1. Ready to leave for Franschhoek!

2. Bridging Academy.

3. Girls bedroom.

4. Getting ready for the assessment test.

Bye for now...

World AIDS Day/Food Parcel Day

The other day I was reading in the Economist an article called "How to Feed the World". It started out with the following paragraph: In 1974 Henry Kissenger, then America's secretary of state, told the first world food conference in Rome that no child would go to bed hungry within ten years. Just over 35 years later, in the week of another United Nations food summit in Rome, 1 billion people will go to bed hungry."

Tuesday, December 1st was World AIDS Day. In South Africa it is a day of reflection, prayer, celebration and remembrance. Since 2004, Open Arms has been recognizing World AIDS Day in South Africa at the JL Zwane Centre by distributing food parcels to members of the HIV/AIDS Support Group, the Orphan Program and senior citizens in the Guguletu community. Last year we distributed 350 food parcels, this year due to the financial situation in the US and the devalue of the dollar we distributed 250. Even though it was a smaller amount the feeling among the community remained one of hope and relief. It is an interesting concept to many of us when we say that someone has no food. I remember growing up and being hungry and going into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and just hanging on the door and saying to my parents, "we have nothing to eat" and they would look at me like I was crazy. It wasn't like we didn't have food, oh my word, we always had food, but that day it just wasn't what I was hungry for. Most people in the townships do not even have a refrigerator door to hang on and if they do it is the size of the coolers we take on a picnic, so when they say they are hungry they really are. When I am in the grocery store I look at what people are buying, the most common purchase is a loaf of bread and when I say a loaf of bread that is it. It is normally someone with a child, just a loaf of bread because it is cheap and filling. Open Arms' food parcels are made up of staples such as rice, maize, flour, sugar, oil, samp, beans, pilchards and chicken. The cost of a parcel is $40, it will feed a family of seven for one month. It is more than just a loaf of bread.

Food parcel day is a great day to bring the many friends of Open Arms together. We had 2 white South Africans, 2 coloured South Africans, a Canadian and 7 Americans that were visiting from different areas of the US. They all came together as one group with one mission, to help some of the 1 billion people in the world to not go hungry. We started unloading the truck at 10:00 AM, by noon all the parcels were assembled. It took a lot of teamwork, sweat and muscle. People started coming around 1:00 PM to wait to be called to receive their parcel. It is done very orderly. Rev. Spiwo and his wife Zethu call out the names and the people come and take their parcel. Due to the weight of the parcel and the number of items, many of them have family members or friends to help carry the food to a nearby taxi. (Remember most of the people in the townships do not have their own form of transportation.) The most frail of them all somehow manage to lift their buckets with a smile on their face and a big hug for us. By 5:00 PM all the parcels had been distributed. It was a very long day filled with many different emotions but I think we all went away with the knowledge that there were going to be some very full and happy stomachs that evening!

I had an interesting situation occur the other day. I went into the Woolworths (grocery store chain in South Africa) store near my flat to arrange to pick up 50 of their reusable grocery bags. These bags are very colorful and Open Arms uses them to distribute small food parcels to senior citizens at the CPOA in Guguletu. (We will be distributing 50 bags this Thursday, December 10th.) The manager asked me what I was going to do with all these bags. I explained about Open Arms and our work in Guguletu at JL Zwane and the CPOA Senior Centre. He asked if we were a charity organization. I said yes and than he asked me to write a letter to Woolworths telling them about Open Arms and our programs and to bring it to him the next day when I picked up our bags. I brought the letter the next day and thanked him. Around 8:00 PM that evening I received a call from Woolworths telling me that they would like to donate food to the JL Zwane Centre but that I would have to pick it up the next day at noon. I said I would be happy to and would it fit in my car. "No", he said, "you must bring a bakkie (a pick up truck)". I called Spiwo and arranged a truck, driver and two young men to help. They were right on time at Woolworths to pick up the food. We brought it to the centre and unpacked everything. The next day was church service and to the surprise of the congregation we were able to offer them bread, fruit and vegetables. Once again we could smile about the fact that more people within the community would not be going home hungry that day. I also felt so grateful to Woolworths for their compassion for the people of South Africa.

Photos:

1. Unloading the truck from Elite Foods.

2. 5 gallon buckets filled with food.

3. The Food Parcel Brigade.

4. People waiting for their food parcel.

5. How about this for a balancing act!

Bye for now...

Refugee Service at JL Zwane

Last Sunday, November 29th, JL Zwane hosted a special church service to welcome refugees from the Cape Town Refugee Centre. Instead of preaching to the congregants Rev. Spiwo Xapile made the following statement: "My intention is not to preach today but to listen to your stories." The refugees came from all over the continent of Africa; the Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola, Zambia, Rwanda and Burundi. Appeals were made for South Africans to rid themselves of xenophobia and accept African refugees as human beings. The senior manager of the Western Cape Immigration Office, Richard Sikakane, attended the service and remarked that the influx of foreigners was an overwhelming challenge for the Department of Home Affairs. He commented that: "They are people like us. Let's look at them and treat them like people." It is stated that black-on-black hatred is a big problem in South Africa. One Zimbabwean remarked "Other races don't hate each other but black people hate each other. In Zimbabwe there is no South African or Congolese. We are all one nation." Having to leave their homes, family and country is hard enough for many but to not be accepted in a country of fellow Africans is very confusing to them. They have had their dignity taken away from them and hope someday to be accepted and treated with respect. A young woman from Angola stood on stage and recited a poem she wrote on xenophobia, the congregants were on their feet applauding her, this time she felt loved and accepted.

During the course of the service, Siyaya, the musical group from the JL Zwane Centre, performed songs of hope and love inspiring the congregants to get up on their feet and dance and sway with exuberance. Great Sound of Vision, a band made up of blind refugees from Zimbabwe assisted by Zimbabwean musician Patricia Matongo, had the crowd screaming for more. Near the end of the service Rev. Spiwo asked all the children to come to the front of the stage. They all ran up together, his words to them were: "All I want you to do today is go out there and play together, just play together as children!"

Those words ring true for both children and adults, just go out there and play together!

Photos: 1. Rev. Spiwo, elders of JL Zwane and Rev. Mel assisting in the service.

2. Siyaya performing their songs of inspiration.

3. Great Sound of Vision and twins Obey and Gracious.

Bye for now...

Ikamva Labantu and Hope Initiatives

Ikamva Labantu:

In 2007 ANSA International partnered with an organization in Cape Town, South Africa called Ikamva Labantu (it means the future of our nation in Xhosa). IL was started by Helen Lieberman 45 years ago during the time of apartheid. Helen started working with women in the poverty stricken townships around Cape Town. IL is an umbrella organization working with and assisting various sectors of the population: children, youth, families, seniors and those physically challenged. In October, ANSA did a site visit to IL to review the current programs and discuss going forward for 2010. Since I am currently the interim director of ANSA it was my responsibility to set up the itinerary and organize the program for the week. There were four people total. Three people from Seattle (including a state senator) and one person from Boston. We spent the first two days visiting the programs in the townships starting with creches (day care centers), care givers (foster mothers with up to 11 children) and senior centers. IL is in the process of building a wellness centre in Khayelitsha (a township with over 750, 000 people and an HIV+ rate of over 20%) which will benefit the community by sponsoring a daily meal to providing training on food safety and security. There will be access to health services and the ability to be referred to a specialist. The wellness centre will be called Enkululekweni, Xhosa for Freedom. You can learn more about Ikamva Labantu by visiting their website at: www.ikamva.org. ANSA also met with TAC (Treatment Action Campaign), spent time at the JL Zwane Center, visited HOPE, a program for HIV+ children at Tygerberg Hospital and met with the woman at Monkeybiz. It was a very busy week for the ANSA team but they were able to visit the many beautiful tourist sites of Cape Town also.

Hope Initiative:

The other organization ANSA partnered with in 2007 was Hope Initiatives in Windhoek, Namibia. I did blog about HISA when I was there in February. That time I was visiting as a representative of Open Arms, this time I was representing the ANSA International Program. ANSA sponsors a nutrition program for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's), HIV/AIDS Support Group and carers (the carers are the woman who look after the orphan children), the salary for the nutritionist and two community gardens. Early November I traveled to Namibia to meet with Patricia Sola and John Mafukidze who founded HISA in 2004. There was only one other ANSA member besides me, Doug Gosling, a master gardener from Sonoma County, CA. Doug was also on the visit in February where he and a few others constructed the first community garden. Doug trained the garden team about crop rotation, insects, fertilizer, irrigation and composting. On arriving to Kilimandjaro (the site of the food program and the community gardens) we were amazed at what we saw. The garden was beautiful. We had been told that the garden was producing vegetables for use in the kitchen but until you actually see what was being harvested it is hard to believe. The garden is helping to feed over 650 children and adults a day. The purpose of this trip was to construct a second community garden and to review the existing programs. Doug started working with the garden team in preparing the ground for planting. It took less than two weeks to complete the garden along with a beautiful stone walkway and planter area. It was a very productive week and I look forward to seeing the second garden flourish.

Tomorrow is December 1, World AIDS Day. Open Arms will be providing food parcels to 250 people; members of the HIV/AIDS Support Group, orphan children, senior citizens and members of the Guguletu community. Each $40 parcel contains enough food for a family of seven for a month. It is not too late to purchase a food parcel, log on to the Open Arms website at: www.openarmsmn.org. (Sorry, you know I always have to plug OA and their programs!)

Photos: 1. Ikamva Labantu and ANSA Team: Me, Ishrene (CEO, IL), Eileen (Community Servings, Boston), Helen (Founder and Honorary President, IL), (back row) Ed Murray (State Senator Seattle), Steve (Congressional Hunger Center), Eric (Board Chair: Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Seattle), David (Executive Director: Lifelong, Seattle), Lulama (Nutritionist, IL)

2. Creche

3. Original garden Feb. 2009 Namibia

4. Original garden Nov. 2009 Namibia

5. John and Patricia, founders of HISA

Bye for now...

Where in the world is Jane?

I can't believe my last blog was dated Oct. 17th! Ok, the following are my excuses: Oct. 19-23 the ANSA group from the US was here. ANSA stands for Association of Nutrition Services Agencies, it is an umbrella organization based in Washington D.C. that does advocacy work for HIV/AIDS and nutrition programs for member agencies like Open Arms of MN. As I mentioned in my email to all of you when I was returning to Cape Town I was going be taking on the position of the interim director of ANSA's International Program. ANSA partnered with a non-profit organization in Cape Town, Ikamva Labantu in 2007. The group was here doing a site visit and working on the program for 2010. Oct. 23-31 I was in Paris with John. Ok, that was not work, that was a vacation. We met in Paris and spent the week taking in all the beautiful sites of Paris. The weather was cool and sunny, perfect walking weather. Nov. 1-6 I was in Windhoek, Namibia with the second group from ANSA visiting Hope Initiatives, the other non-profit organization that ANSA partnered with in 2007. Nov. 8-19th my sister Mary and her husband Ray came to Cape Town to visit me. We spent a few days in the townships and other days doing the touristy thing. Unfortunately for Mary and Ray the weather precluded them from visiting the major tourist attractions of Cape Town. We did go on a 3 day safari in Sabi Sand near Kruger. It was the perfect ending to their vacation. We were able to see the big 5, the only animal we didn't see was the zebra. I will be expounding on both ANSA programs in my next blogs. My main objective for this blog was to let you know I was still in Cape Town!

While I was in Namibia I received a call that my friend Teach had passed away. I mentioned him in my blog last year and also this year. Right before I left for Paris I stopped by to visit Teach and to bring him some food. As I left him I started to cry, I had this horrible feeling that I might not see him again, I was right. I was able to go to his memorial service. Being that the service was in Xhosa I had my friend Ben translate for me. A neighbor of Teach got up to talk about Teach and how she and her son took care of him by making sure he had food each day. She also made a plea to the congregation to please not leave electrical wires on the floor of their homes. Teach had just moved in with his niece and in the middle of the night he got up to use the bathroom and on his way back to bed he tripped on the electrical wire on the floor, fell down and hit his head, he never woke up. If the wire had not been on the floor Teach would still be with us today. I miss him, I drive by the Senior Centre everyday and think of him. In honor of Teach, Open Arms will be doing food parcels for the Senior Centre for Christmas this year.

I forgot to mention that I had a very interesting experience. On Friday, Oct. 16th my friend Richard invited me to attend a mass at St. George's Cathedral where Archbishop Desmond Tutu was officiating. The mass was to start at 7:15 AM. I wrote in my datebook 7:15 but in my mind I kept thinking 7:45. I left my flat at 7:15, got to St. George's, found a parking spot and started walking into the vestibule where the mass was. As I am walking in I notice how quiet it is (my shoes were making that awful click-clack sound) and to my horror I realize that I am walking in during the middle of the mass, they were just getting ready to give the sign of peace. I quickly walk in, find a seat and sit down. I see Richard and he smiles at me and motions to me to come and sit by him. Everyone starts to get up and give the sign of peace. Archbishop Tutu gives the sign of peace to each member and comes to me and says welcome. When he returns to the altar he says "Richard, please introduce us to your friend." Ok, I could just die, I am so embarrassed. Richard gets up, introduces me, says that I am from the US working with a non-profit, Open Arms of MN at the JL Zwane Centre in Guguleu. Seriously, this is so excruciatingly painful for me. After the mass we all line up to greet the Archbishop. It comes to my turn, he shakes my hand and says, "Thank you for joining us today Jane, nice meeting you." He remembered my name! I have this feeling he remembers everyones name. I was invited to have coffee with the group after mass so I did join them. I wasn't able to sit next to him but I met some very interesting people that morning. He is a small man but his persona is huge.

I was able to return to the centre on Friday, everyone kept asking me who I was, it was very funny. My next blogs will be about Ikamva Labantu and Hope Initiatives so you can meet the ANSA International partners.

Bye for now...

Photos: In honor of Teach and the animals from safari.

Lydia and Neo

I introduced you to Lydia and Neo last year. Lydia has been HIV positive for 15 years and her son Neo, 6 years old, is also HIV positive. Lydia is a member of the HIV/AIDS Support Group at the JL Zwane centre and when she is feeling good she volunteers as an AIDS educator at Neo's primary school. Over the past 6 months when I was in Minneapolis, my friend Mel would keep me updated on Lydia and Neo. Their health is like being on a major roller coaster ride. Each week it would seem that it was either Lydia or Neo going to the hospital. Both Lydia and Neo struggle with their ARV treatments, Neo suffers from epileptic seizures and Lydia also has breast cancer. Before I returned home last March I brought a group from Minneapolis, Arm In Arm in Africa, a non-profit that raises money and awareness to assist with food, education, hospice and health related issues to people living in Guguletu and Malungeni (the home of Rev. Spiwo Xapile, minister and founder of the JL Zwane Community Church and the JL Zwane Centre, in the Eastern Cape) to visit Lydia. At the time of their visit Lydia's home (her shack) was becoming a health hazard. The shack had mold, a leaking roof, was drafty and did not protect them from the outside elements. The JL Zwane Centre had been trying to do what they could to help Lydia with small repairs but it was becoming apparent that the small repairs were not enough anymore. AIAIA to the rescue! They very generously offered to build a new home for Lydia and Neo. This was a dream come true, they were going to have a new home! We hired a local builder, Ikhayalami, who were so moved by Lydia's situation that they reduced the cost of the shack and even threw in extra cladding! The new home is made of zinc, has windows, a door, flooring and is safe from the outside elements. You may be picturing a home with a separate bedroom, bathroom and kitchen like the homes we live in but the shacks in the townships are normally one room without plumbing. They do have electricity so they have lighting and the ability to cook food and watch TV.

I left Cape Town before seeing the completion of their new home. Edwin, director of the JL Zwane Centre, would send pictures so I could see the progress each day. (The old shack was taken down and the new home put up in one week.) Upon returning to Cape Town I immediately went to check on Lydia and Neo and see their new home. I can't tell you the emotion I felt when I saw their home with my own eyes, they had painted the zinc a beautiful red color (Lydia wanted her new home to be seen), it looked sturdy and was warm and cozy inside. The smiles on their faces said it all. AIAIA you should be so proud of what you did for Lydia and Neo. They look forward to your visit in 2010 so they can show their gratitude to you in person.

The Photo is of Lydia and Neo in front of their new home!

Bye for now...

I'm back!

Well I am a bit embarrassed at the realization that my last blog was dated March 5th because I didn't leave Cape Town until April 3rd. I can only use the excuse that Kevin (Kevin Winge, Executive Director of Open Arms of MN, the organization I am here representing) came around that time and it seemed we were busy from the day he arrived until the day we left. I hope that is a good reason/excuse instead of actually telling you that blogging isn't really my thing! I was going to do a blog to tell you how it felt returning home after 6 months but that didn't happen either and now 6 months later I am back in Cape Town. I can tell you this, I feel like I never left. I left Minneapolis on September 27th, arrived in Cape Town the evening of the 28th and was at the centre the 29th. I was fortunate to be able to rent the same flat, rent the same model of car and I am working with the same wonderful people at the centre. I will tell you the one fear I have each time I go away and return: did anyone I know and love pass away while I was gone and there wasn't a way to let me know? One person I think about on a constant basis is Teach. I hope you remember him from one of my first blogs. Mary and Teach ran the Senior Centre in Gugs. Mary was the director for many years and Teach was a volunteer and than became a salaried employee. I am able to keep track of Mary because her daughter, Marilyn, lives in Johannesburg and has computer access so I email Marilyn on a regular basis to get a "Mary" update. Teach on the other hand has no family that I am able to contact. So upon my arrival to Gugs I immediately went to see Mary to give her a big hug and find out how she was coping (in my January blog I wrote about the death of Mary's youngest son Nandile). I also asked about Teach. Mary said that she hadn't seen him in a while and hadn't talked to him. I had his cell number but she said that his cell had been stolen so that wasn't the correct number. When I hear this kind of news I immediately start to worry so I asked Mary if we could go to where Teach was supposed to be staying. Mary's oldest son Lulu took us to the home he thought Teach was at, we knocked on the door, the window and yelled his name to no avail. Finally Lulu went to the back and was able to get in the house. There was Teach, lying in bed, very sick, he had pneumonia and was all alone. He said he had tablets for his pneumonia and had been to see the doctor. We had brought some juice and some bread with us just in case of this very situation. Teach was so happy to see us and I have to say, I was so happy to see him alive! He is 82 years old, very thin and with very poor circulation. He has trouble walking because his little feet are so swollen. I have never seen Teach without a tie on, here he was without a tie and wearing a hat and heavy clothing to stay warm. My heart broke, my fear of coming back and losing someone I love didn't come true but I felt it had been too close. The next day I went back to see Teach with a bag of food and happily found out that Teach was going to go live with his grand daughter and her family. It was such a comfort to Teach and to all of us that there was someone to love him and to take care of him. He is smiling so big in the photo that you forget he is so sick. It was so nice to see Mary and Teach together!

I have been in Cape Town almost two weeks now. I have been able to visit some of the friends that I had introduced you to last year and I will continue to update you on how they are doing and to also inform you of new things happening in the townships and in Cape Town. Hope you will stay tuned!

Bye for now...

Namibia

The other reason I was a bit delinquent in blogging last week was the morning after John left I flew to Windhoek, Namibia. This was my second trip to Namibia. John, Kevin Winge and I went there in November of 2006 to check out a food programme called Hope Initiatives. HI was started by Patricia Sola, a woman from Zimbabwe who had received her masters degree in psychology from the UK. Patricia had been working with children in refugee camps in Zambia and came to Windhoek to visit her sister who was very ill. When she saw what was happening or actually not happening, she decided to stay and be with her sister and do something for the children in the townships. Thus, Hope Initiatives began. We were impressed with the programme and with Patricia and her husband John. Open Arms belongs to a national organization based in Washington DC called ANSA. ANSA stands for Association of Nutrition Services Agencies. Open Arms was the first agency to sponsor a food programme in Africa. Two years ago ANSA developed its own International Programme based on the relationship between Open Arms and the JL Zwane Centre. Hope Initiatives was the first programme to be adopted by ANSA and a few of its member agencies. I was invited by Mary Reed, who developed the ANSA International Programme, to come and participate in learning about two different garden programmes. A traditional organic in-ground garden and a low-maintenance container box garden.

Hope Initiatives had recently completed their new building in a settlement area called Kilimanjaro. Previous to this they were serving meals out of a centre in a nearby settlement which was farther for the children to walk to. Their new property is big enough to have a soccer field and a garden area! The idea was to supplement the food programme with fresh fruit and vegetables that would be harvested from the gardens and also sold at the local markets to generate income for the programme.

The in-ground gardens were designed and implemented by Doug Gosling from Food for Thought (also a member agency of ANSA) in Sonoma County and Steve Bolinger from Development in Gardening (DIG), a non-profit working in Senegal and Uganda. (Note of interest: Laura and Jenna Bush visited Steve and DIG in Senegal) Jonathan Norton from Operation Lionheart from Johannesburg, South Africa, educated us on the container box garden which is called the Earthbox. The Earthbox is made up of a plastic box that has a lifetime warranty. The soil is shredded coconut, shelf life of 4 years, fertilizer, which you replace once a year and a cover that has a dark side for winter and a light side for summer. You can plant either seedlings or seeds in the container box which takes about 5 weeks to become full grown plants. The amazing thing about the Earthbox is you don't need land space, it takes less water and less time to have full grown fruits and vegetables. I think this is the perfect thing to introduce to the JL Zwane Centre due to the issue of land space and water. This would also be invaluable for individual families in the townships. Jonathan is working with schools and HIV/AIDS programs in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Their goal is to be everywhere on the African continent. This program has been available in the US for a while now. Jonathan's company bought the rights to market the product in Africa. The cost of the Earthbox is between R295 and R395 (about $30 to $40) depending on quantity. I now know what my next fund raising project will be!

I digress, back to the gardens. The idea for Hope Initiatives was to incorporate both types of gardens to be able to enhance the feeding programme and to use the gardens as an educational programme for the community.

The land is extremely rocky and it took many hands to clear the garden and dig the patches for preparation of the garden. But in one week there were 14 in-ground plots and enough room for 122 Earthboxes that will be shipped in two weeks to Kilimanjaro. I must say, it was an incredible experience for me to actually be a part of a hands-on project like this. As you can see from the pictures, a lot was accomplished in one week and the smiles on the faces of all involved show how proud they are of all the hard work they did to bring their community together.

Picture #1: View from the garden area of the new Hope Initiatives building.
Picture #2: Patricia and John, can you guess what well known painting they are trying to replicate?
Picture #3: The children enjoying their meal.
Picture #4: The organic garden space.
Picture #5: Jonathan explaining how to create the Earthbox.

Bye for now...

Monkeybiz and Siyaya

Once again I am behind in blogging. John was here for almost two weeks and just left. We had a great time together, did many things even though I went to work everyday. He has the routine down now so I don't feel guilty about leaving him, but remember it is Cape Town, so don't feel that sorry for him. It was his last visit for my six month stay, I have one month left to go and I will be home. It will be a very bittersweet day for me!

Many of you have received gifts from me over the years of colorful beaded artwork from a non-profit here in Cape Town called Monkeybiz. Monkeybiz was created in 2000 by Barbara Jackson, Shirley Fintz and Mathaps Ngaka. Monkeybiz is an income generating program that supplies glass beads to 450 women living in the township of Khayelitsha, about 40 minutes outside Cape Town. Many of these women are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. These women are able to work from their homes and are now able to take care of their children and avoid the high cost of transport to the city each day to find work. Once a month the women bring their creations to the home of Mathaps' mother, who has trained most of these women to bead, for market day.

The last market day was February 18th and Monkeybiz and the JL Zwane Centre collaborated with Siyaya to have a market day celebration. The market runs from 9:00 AM until 12:00 PM. Siyaya was there to perform while the women stood in line, well, I should say danced in line! The celebration of the women was a wonderful event. Siyaya kept them entertained and dancing for over an hour. We were also fortunate to have a group from Minneapolis come to the celebration. Arm in Arm in Africa are funders to the JL Zwane Centre, I believe this was their 10th trip to Cape Town and they are frequent visitors to Monkeybiz!

Open Arms has been promoting Monkeybiz products for the last 4 years selling them at their annual World AIDS Day event. All the proceeds from the sale of Monkeybiz products go back to the programs that Open Arms supports in South Africa. Open Arms supports a soup kitchen every market day which provides a meal for the women and their children, this day there was soup, sandwiches and fruit.

This was Monkeybiz's first market day after the December/January holiday shutdown. Many of the beaders go back to the rural areas to be with their families so the day was a reunion for many of them. The day marked the beginning of a new year and a new friendship between the JL Zwane Centre and Monkeybiz.

I want to introduce you to the Monkeybiz family. In the first photo: front row: Joan, sales and administrative assistant, Elizabeth, bookkeeper, Barbara, co-director and founder, Mathaps, co-director and founder. Back row: Zaki and Siya, both ordering and packing assistants.

The second photo is of Siyaya performing. Third photo is of the children and adults enjoying the music of Siyaya. Forth picture is of Mathaps doing quality control on the beaded artwork. Every women has a bank account and once market day is completed the money is put into their accounts so they don't have the stress of having to go to the bank or to be a victim of theft walking home with money in their pockets after market day. Fifth photo is of the beaders in line to receive their meal from the soup kitchen that Open Arms supports through the generous donations made by you!

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Monkeybiz family!

Bye for now...

Table Mountain and the Taxi Strike

I have been to the top of Table Mountain many times. It has the most spectacular views of Cape Town, from the city centre to the beaches, to Cape Point in the distance, it is breathtaking. Jean Claude, my French conversation teacher, who is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo has lived in Cape Town for 3 years and has never been to Table Mtn. Actually, he has never been to any of the tourist destinations that support the economy of Cape Town. Jean Claude isn't the only person I have talked to that has not had the opportunity to visit these beautiful sites, most of the people in the townships have never had the opportunity either. If they don't have a car, or a friend who can drive them, or the money to afford to pay a tour guide, they will not be able to visit the penguins at Boulders, climb up to the light house at Cape Point or get their picture taken in front of the sign at Cape of Good Hope, they rely on us to tell them how wonderful their city is.

Jean Claude and I meet once a week at a coffee shop one block up the hill from where I live. One evening as Jean Claude and I were finishing up our French conversation, a young man stopped me as I was leaving the cafe to ask me what I was doing in Cape Town. He said he had heard me use the word "orphan" as I was talking on my cell phone. He was in Cape Town doing modelling work and would be here for 7 weeks and wanted to get involved in something other than modelling and was wondering if there was something I might be able to suggest to him. His name is Dale, he is 26 years old from Toronto. It turns out that besides modelling, Dale is a certified chef. At the time that I met Dale, the centre lost 2 people in the kitchen. I called Edwin and Spiwo and asked if I could bring Dale out to the centre. It was perfect timing. Dale came in for the first few days and helped get the meals cooked and served to the Support Group and the Rainbow After School Program, the meal programs continued without a hitch. Funny how just meeting someone happenstance can work out to the benefit of so many.

Last Sunday I brought Dale and Jean Claude to Table Mountain. One had been here 3 years and the other 3 weeks. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day. We walked all over the top of the mountain and learned some very interesting facts. Here is one: there is a small animal called the Dassie that is similar to a woodchuck, it turns out that he actually descends from the elephant family. It is very hard to believe that something so small could be related to something so large but it is a fact we learned at the top of Table Mtn.!

(The pictures are from our trip to Table Mtn.)



I had an unexpected vacation this past week. Tuesday evening I went to the theatre with my friend Elizabeth and her son Chad to see "Where the Boys Are", a musical based on growing up coloured in the 80's. The 3 men were hilarious, especially to my friends who spoke Afrikaans since a lot of the musical was in Afrikaans. They translated it for me so I could understand what they were laughing at. The music transcended any language barrier, it was wonderful and energetic. As is the case for theatre and restaurants, I had turned off my phone before entering the theatre. When I returned home and remembered to turn my phone on I had missed two phone calls and one SMS. Mel had phoned me to tell me that I was not to go to the centre tomorrow. There was going to be a taxi strike in the townships and there was fear that it could turn violent and Spiwo had asked us not to venture into Gugs. The taxi strike was against the proposed idea from the City of Cape Town wanting to institute the monthly bus pass to include and cover the usage of the taxi cabs in the townships. The township taxis refused to be a part of this proposal and therefore decided to strike for 3 days. This left the townships in total chaos. Remember, many in the townships do not have cars and therefore rely on taxis to get them to public transport, ie. buses and trains. From what I was told, people were walking in droves all over Guguletu to try to get to the buses and trains so they could get to work in the city. I was also told that violence did occur in the townships, they had stoned a few cars that were transporting more than 3 people in a car. Siyaya had a performance on Thursday night and Xolani, the driver, insisted they have police escort from the centre, he feared retaliation due to the fact there would be at least 12 people in the bus. The taxi strike has been called off and we are able to return to Guguletu on Monday. A group from Minneapolis is coming next week and I need to complete their itinerary so I am anxious to return to the centre.

Looking forward to your visit Arm In Arm In Africa, and I will do my best to make sure your itinerary is completed!

Bye for now...

Profiles of Spiwo, Zethu and Siyaya

It has been two weeks since I last blogged (sounds like the start of a Catholic Confession!) and I really have no excuse other than I have been busy and the weeks went by so fast. Last week officially marked my 4 month stay in Cape Town. I am shocked and amazed how fast the time has gone. I realized that I have not introduced you to Rev. Spiwo of the JL Zwane Centre, his wife Zethu and one of the programs at the centre, Siyaya.

Rev. Dr. Spiwo (his name means "gift" in Xhosa) Xapile is the minister at the JL Zwane Presbyterian Church. JL Zwane was named for Jeremiah Zwane who came to Guguletu in 1952 to help reestablish the church community. In 1989, Rev. Spiwo came to JL Zwane to create a model for community focused ministry. Rev. Spiwo was the first minister to openly speak out about HIV/AIDS and educate its congregants about the problems in their community. When I visited the centre the first time in 2001, there was just a hole in the ground where the centre now proudly stands and where I work. The church itself was a dilapidated building that needed a lot of loving care. Spiwo reached out to the international community to find funding for the centre. What a wonderful sight it was for me when I returned in 2002 to see the completed building and realize all the work that went into building a foundation for the programs that have been established at JL Zwane and the relationships that have developed and grown over the years. The church hall is painted in vibrant colors with paintings and stenciling of bible verses that were done by a couple from the Netherlands. There are over 1000 congregants at JL Zwane who are very proud of their church and centre.

Zethu (her name means "ours" in Zulu) Xapile is a nurse and director of the Browns Farm Clinic in the township of Phillipi. The clinic has officially been named "Inzame Zabantu" which means "Peoples Initiative" by the South African Government. Zethu has been at the clinic since 1997. When I visited the clinic in 2001 it was a building made out of 6 shipping containers. Patients would line up outside the containers at 5:00 AM, even though the doors didn't open until 8:00 AM, just to try to be seen that day. In 2006, the government funded a new building that now has a waiting area and a system in place where the patients can actually make an appointment in advance and not have to wait hours to be seen.

Spiwo and Zethu have two children, Salume (his name means "stand up" sort of to be strong) and Nonkie (her name means "helpful").

In 2004, Spiwo and Bongani Magatyana, an accomplished musician and composer, formed the group "Siyaya" (it means on the move in Xhosa) to bring HIV/AIDS awareness by educating people through music, dance and theatre.

Siyaya is made up of 6 singers and 4 musicians, ages 20 to 25 from the townships surrounding Cape Town. Siyaya's music is a fusion of tradional African songs, opera, jazz and pop. Nearly all their songs are originals, with music, lyrics and choreography created by Bongani. Siyaya teaches the ABC's of AIDS-Abstain, Be faithful and use Condoms. Through highly entertaining and moving performances, their shows pierce through the powerful stigma of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, exposing the myths and risks of the disease. They perform regularly at schools, churches, community centers, health clinics and public events.

Siyaya has performed in the US three times. Their first visit was in May of 2005 in three cities. In September 2006 they opened in more cities and venues, even performed at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. In June 2008 they did a six city, six week tour traveling from NYC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Dallas and Pensacola, FL. They are a group of energetic, talented and caring individuals.

On Friday I went to a high school in Phillipi with Bongani to watch Siyaya perform for the students on a fund raising day. The students held a Braai (a BBQ) and Siyaya performed for free because Bongani had been the music director at the school and he wanted the students to see Siyaya and be inspired by them. As I sat and watched the students singing and dancing to the music I wondered if the uplifiting music and energy of Siyaya could help make them forget, at least for an hour, the fact that their school was in utter decay with broken windows, desks with no tops, chalkboards that weren't even usable. Looking at their faces and hearing the screams emit from the crowd I think Siyaya performed their job well!

(pictures: Zethu, Rev. Spiwo, Bongani, Siyaya, high school in Phillipi. I have no clue how the pictures ended up lined up this way!)

Bye for now...

Broadway in South Africa

The centre reopened on January 12th with a bang. We have been so busy that I forgot to blog. The first week we had a group from New York City called Broadway in South Africa. BSA is a non-profit comprised of 14 New York City based professional actors, dancers, singers, directors, musicians and producers with such Broadway hits as "The Lion King", "Rent", "Wicked" and "Hairspray". They came to Cape Town to conduct a 4 day arts intensive workshop with 50 children, ages 7 to 14 and chose the JL Zwane Centre as their venue. The work to coordinate the event started before I even left Minneapolis to come to Cape Town. I received an email from Spiwo asking me to work with Sean from BSA. I organized what the centre needed to do to accommodate BSA but all the really hard work was done by 4 people, Nceba, Bongani, Ntutu and Nkcubeko, the last three are members and the director of Siyaya, the musical group from the centre. (I will be blogging about Siyaya in the future.) They went to five different townships, both coloured and black, and auditioned children for 5 days to find 50 to participate in the workshop. Nceba even videoed the children. I was able to watch one of the auditions and it was incredible. The children were lined up outside the centre, there were over 100 of them. They were so cute, groups would come in with matching costumes, many songs were modern hip hop dance tunes and a few traditional African songs. The children were so excited and tried so hard to become one of the 50! This was not an easy job for our judges but they were always positive and I thought of American Idol, we just had all Paula's, not one Simon on our panel!

So for 4 days the children came to the centre each morning at 9:00 AM. We organized all the transport, you have to remember that most of the families of these children do not have cars or rand for taxi's, so to ensure the children would arrive each morning we had 3 drivers go to 4 different sites to pick them up. They would have a breakfast snack before classes began, the classes would run until 1:00, then they would break for lunch and continue the classes until 4:00 PM where once again they would be transported back to the meeting sites. Some of the parents even came along to watch their children perform. This was the first time for these children to participate in a program like this, they were able to meet other children from different townships, they formed friendships that they would have never had if not for BSA. The final day of the workshop they put on a show. They were divided into 4 groups. Two groups performed plays that they had written and two groups sang and danced to show tunes along with their instructors. The finale was the whole group singing a song from "High School Musical". The hall was filled and they were given a standing ovation after the final song! They were magnificent! There is definitely a lot of talent in the townships surrounding Cape Town, if only they had the opportunity to participate in programs like this all year long.

Besides Broadway in South Africa, we had a group of 14 from Louisville Seminary. The group was made up of two professors, 3 clergy from different religious organizations and 9 Presbyterian seminary students. I took them on a tour of Guguletu to see township life. We started out visiting Lydia (Lydia was the woman who I introduced you to on World Aids Day), her son Neo, who is 5 and is also HIV positive and suffers from seizures and her mother who they live with. We brought her a food parcel and she told her story to the group. After Lydia talked about what it is like living as an HIV positive person we all said a prayer together and as we left her home I noticed that there was not a dry eye within the group. Home visits can be very emotional and draining on both the visitor and the visitee. You feel a bit of a voyeur, but you have to understand that Lydia wants to have visitors, she feels that by telling her story that they will go home and tell her story to other people, and in doing so it helps to make her feel like a person not just another statistic. HIV has a face and this face has a life that needs to be known and cared for.

After Lydia, we drove past the Amy Biehl memorial and the Guguletu 7 monument. These are two places that represent the history of Apartheid. On to Khayelitsha to meet with Mandla the leader of TAC that I blogged about in an earlier entry. After TAC we went to Philani. Philani is an NGO started in 1979 by a Swedish doctor and community health workers. The focus at Philani is child heath and nutrition. Philani is known for their rug weaving and textiles programs. These are income generating programs where the women are able work on the premises and bring their children to a creche (day care centre) that is provided for them.

After Philani we returned to the centre for lunch prepared by Nkqo and Eureka (you met them earlier also!). Spiwo gave a talk on Justice and Reconciliation after Apartheid. After Spiwo it was time to return to our tour of Gugs. We went to Mitchell's Plain, a coloured township where we visited another NGO, St. Luke's Hospice. St. Luke's has 20 beds for HIV/AIDS patients and 6 beds for cancer patients. The patients come to the hospice for two weeks, after two weeks the social worker makes the decision if the person is able to return home or needs to be transferred to a hospital or another facility for longer term care. There are 14 carers at the hospice with funding coming from PAWC, private donors and bequests.

From there we proceeded to drive through the hostel area, this area represents dwellings that were initially inhabited by the men that came from the Eastern Cape to find work in Cape Town. They have since become homes for families, they are brick buildings much like townhouses but in very poor condition with each unit housing more than 7 people. I am not sure if I explained the different styles of homes. There are brick and stucco homes, hostels, and shacks made out of zinc, wood or any other material that can be scavenged. Near the hostels we visited Noluyolo who is 19 years old, an orphan who has been raising her 9 year old little brother Aso for over 2 years now. They actually live in a zinc shack donated by friends of her mothers after she passed away. Noluyolo also received a food parcel and shared her story of raising her brother on her own and with the help of the zone (neighborhood) she lives in. There are many times that Noluyolo goes with out food and her neighbors help out so when she receives food from visitors and the centre, she also shares with them. On to another home visit. Priscilla is a 62 year old go-go (grandma) who is raising 12 orphans (yes 12) after raising 4 of her own. She lives in a brick home with 2 bedrooms. Priscilla can only receive government support for 6 children, she relies on help from the JL Zwane Centre and from visitors like Louisville that brought a rather large food parcel.

We returned back to the centre emotionally and physically drained. It was a long day for the group but they wanted to see and experience as much as they could in one day. I hope this gives you an idea of a township tour. There are many more things to experience and see in Gugs and hopefully you will join me again soon.

Pictures: The finale for Broadway in South Africa, The Broadway in South Africa group, Lydia and Neo, Philani children, and Priscilla with her children!

Bye for now...