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Published: September 29th 2005
Victoria Wharf, Capetown, South Africa
The fog on Table Mountain sits today, never letting the sun have it's way!Today is my birthday… I won’t mention which one but I will say that I have been dreading this one for a while. (By the way those that know how old I am, if you say it on the blog, I will not put it onJ)
Spending this time in Africa has given me a new prospective on life and this is wonderful! I have made it to Cape Town, which is truly a striking city. It’s mountains and ocean are truly beautiful. I see why it is the top tourist location in Africa.
As you fly into the city, the fog sits on the city and Table Mountain like a hat, on a lady, going for British High Tea. The air is crisp with the winter feel, but warm enough so you are still comfortable outside. A gentle rain falls by the sea, but not enough to make you wet. However, there is enough to let you feel the sea air, which breaths life back into to me, after an exhausting day.
Table Mountain stands high over the city looking down on its occupants, as a securing parent, that is always there to reassure their
I love the water
Most who know me the ocean is special to me, it was by design I came here when I did! children. Again like Jo-burg, it is a western city. There are malls and fast food restaurants. The privileged can enjoy the life between the sea and the mountains.
Like Jo-burg, you fly over squatter towns that surround the airport, which reminds you, that this beauty has a dark side as well. I haven’t gotten to explore much yet, but I spent a good deal of time at the Nelson Mandela Museum, at Robbins Island. What is so striking is, this was not that long ago. The winds of changes here were positive, after such a horrible past history. There is still much to be done here. South Africa, in 20 years, could be a real model of a nation that worked hard to mend the wounds of their history. This means moving toward a nation where everyone is included in the vision. (I have hopes that a female, as vice president, paves the way for that inclusive vision)
I will tell you that the top story in Africa right now is the problems in Zimbabwe. It’s funny before I left there, they had managed not to get front page coverage or lead news story, on TV. But two
A govenment housing project
Instead of a person own home, this is the Zimbabweans government idea of better for it's people. There is one room a piece where families squeeze into, is this better?? days ago, along comes a video that was secretly taped and it has become the lead story on every paper and news station. I don’t know how much press it is getting in the US, but finally here people are stopping, watching, and talking about it.
I mentioned to one of the bellmen in Jo-burg that I had just left Zimbabwe. Soon, after we spoke there was a knock at my door. There were chambermaids, bellmen and waiters wanting to know what I had seen. They wanted to know if it was as bad as they had heard. I showed them my pictures of people waiting, walking and picking through their devastated lives. I told them about the worthless money, that even their own major hotels won’t take. I told them about the great fuel shortages, that make life there extremely difficult.
It was truly amazing how they listened like it was their home that was falling apart. I realized that South Africans know how lucky they are. They realize that, just in 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 16 years, he could have easily promoted hate instead of forgiveness. Their country was only
moved towards democracy in1994, so they know this was and could still be them. They know the pain of a government, which is not for the people, but against them. This is why they listened and then passed on the information to others.
I got in my taxi this morning and the driver asked me about where I was coming from. He said “Oh you are the one that showed the pictures of Harare. I am glad that we could hear from someone like you, with no bias, just truth.” He said “ maybe if people talked about it enough, that will put pressure on the those in power to do something, before this becomes another Africa tragedy”. I agreed!
Like I said before, in a previous blog, this is a boiling pot that is about to boil over, if something is not done, by the world leaders. We shouldn’t look away this time as we did in the Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo. And like all the other African nations that have been pushed into civil war. It’s estimated that over a 300, 000 homes have been destroyed leaving a million homeless. Imagine this in
one of our cities; we would not stand for it.
Many of you who have commented on the blog are very passionate about what is it we can do to help. You have come up with excellent suggestions about ways to make a difference and, for that I thank you.
I will say this, coming here has made me a student of poverty, not a teacher. I am trying to understand why it started and why in 2005, it continues.
Poverty and disease are like caped villains, with no faces. For whatever reason, they can’t be caught and grow more powerful with the passage of time. Not many in our world have seen them, unless you are one of their victims. For so long, I was behind a glass wall where if I looked straight ahead, I wouldn’t see it (the poor). From time to time, I would have to look at it because of my work, but I could just turn around, when I was done, and look forward. The glass wall is sound proof and the countless millions with nothing in the world could stand screaming and I would not really hear them. I
would not really listen for them.
But here, if you want to listen, that wall is torn down, when you walk in a hospital and the sick and dying are outside in the rain. When the children fight for pens and cry hard if you have no more. Where 500 people share 6-8 porta potties. Where the deformed and the injured lie in the streets begging for food. The wall comes crashing down! You hear the screams, and honestly, it is completely overwhelming. What can I do? I have asked myself continually, just me, how can I make a difference in these people's llives? I have asked myself that since the day I arrived on African soil, what can I (we) do?
Well, the short answer is CARE. These images are stained in my brain, like black ink, on white carpet. I will always wonder what happened to the children in the orphanage. The old women with the flies on her face. The taxi driver’s nephew with AIDS. It is overwhelming at times. I will always wonder and remember!
All this to say, it is not an easy task to decide to help, it seems too big. I agree with others since I have been here that giving handouts, only help as long as the giver keeps giving. It is easy to say we can give $5 to send a child to school, but what happens next year or the year after. Does the giver continue to give?
So as a student, I see to rid poverty, it has to be supported in a way where people can get help in the beginning, but then are able to provide for themselves. An example of this is a new beautiful hotel that sits right on Lake Tana in Bahir Dar. It has now sat empty for the last 4 years. All the furnishing are there, but the owner ran out of money, before he could open it. Now, taxes owed prevent this hotel from being a positive impact on the economy, in one of the poorest places on the continent. How many jobs could this hotel provide? How many tourists would be brought to the area? This would mean additional business's such as: shops, restaurants, tour operators, airlines, buses and more.. The additional jobs and tourist’s money would bring more taxes. This revenue could go to the schools, hospitals, public works and some could improve a worker's living wage.
But the hotel sits with no offers and no possibilities for the future. That is the tragic nature of Africa, all the potential in world, but no one but the greedy and the corrupt willing to take stake in this wonderful place.
So what can we do, a lot actually! This best thing that has happened to Ethiopia was Brad Pitt. He came and he saw and like me was haunted by what he saw. He came again and brought the US celebrity obsessed public with him. Unfortunately I have a loud voice, but no celebrity status so my voice is small. However, with many people the voice becomes louder and with that change can be done.
We can do simple things like sign the One petition to lobby the G-8 to give more aid to Africa. We can write our Senators, particularity those on the African relations committee. They need to do something about not only the disease, but, the needy. Leaders like Mugabe must feel the pressuref rom the World, that his actions against his own people will not be tolerated.
If you want to send money, you must pick organizations that truly make a difference. I suggest giving to ones that not only provide aid, but empowerment, so that charity is not the only thing people can hope for. Most of all we can keep talking about it. We can not leave it behind a wall, that we have our backs too! We can share this with our children. They must have awareness that there are those who are not as lucky as they and that as humans on the same planet we need to help one another.
What I am going to do is much of these same things. I am also going to try to seek out some funds to help improve the conditions of that hospital in Bahir Dar. I have some ideas on where to obtain some funds for basic things like; a laundry facility for clean bed linens, patient curtains, so people can have a bit of privacy in their darkest moments. There are other things that are not expensive but would change things drastically.
I am going to try to secure some grant funding for HIV prevention programs, particularly geared to the rural areas, where the HIV infection is the highest. This campaign needs to be well designed and different from the urban campaigns, since these people's reality is completely different. And finally, I am going to try to use my voice to tell the stories of the people I met here to those that have power to make change; like our Senators and Congress and yes as many suggested Oprah. J I would love to tell her about people like me and you, who want to reach out all the way around the world to help. Maybe, with the power she wields she can put her Angel Network to work. (Maybe, we should all ask her !!!)
I am truly blessed to have come to on this journey. Again, I can’t thank those enough who have made this journey possible. I could have never have done this without the help and support of many. I would not have come if I didn’t know that my children were going to be safe, happy and taken care of, without me. I thank you Toren and Tiffany for stepping in while I have been gone. I thank you Brandon and Devon and Erin for understanding that Mommy had to do this! I love you more then words can express for letting me go.
I thank all of those who logged in to see what I have been up too and cared enough to send me their prayers and support. All of you have made this journey special because I have never been alone. But, with many carrying me through Africa, I have been reborn.
It is nice to know that even people I have never met before have followed along with me. Technology is a gift that I won’t take for granted anymore. I have some more time here and I promise to send you more pictures, along the way. I think that my words have dried up for a while. I need to silence my mind, so I can concentrate on my tasks ahead. It’s funny I have not read any of my blogs. The words turn over and over in my mind, like a the car driving across the continent, only stopping to rest briefly, but always going. I now need to stop the car at a long rest stop. I need to be refreshed for the much longer journey ahead, called Solutions. Thank you again for keeping me company, it is not so bad when you have friends along side you..
Love and Peace,
KIMBJ
PS Don't worry I still will be logging on to see your thoughts. They are very important to me and of course, if I have something to say I will say it, I always do! 😊
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