The children at the House on the Rock are wonderful and it has been great to spend time with them and the 7 Americans. Things work very different here and I find myself comparing the situation of the country to the United States in the 1800’s. Especially in the area of Social Work and children’s homes. Another thing that I have noticed is who does the back breaking physically strenuous work here. All of the physical labor workers at the House on the Rock are black and they are paid basically a dollar an hour. This is not just at the House on the Rock but is the accepted practice for here. The workers start at 7:00 in the morning and work until 5:00 and do not have proper tools for the work they do. Their ... read more

We may have internet, cell phones and cable t.v. but I feel like I am in the 1950's in the book "life is so good". specifically the part where the main character who is an African American is expected to eat his lunch on the porch of a white families home with the family dogs. The discussions I have had with the privelaged white South Africans are very disturbing. Mind you I am still focusing on listening and try not to steer conversations in any direction. This morning I talked with a former policemen who now works for the cancer institute. I heard statements such as "the blacks sleep around and thats why they have AIDs" "i am a racist" "If I would have had more ammunition back then there would have been more blacks dead" ... read more