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Published: September 8th 2008
car
A car behind barbed wireSoweto, continued...
Day 4
Saturday (9/6/08) we had set aside for service opportunities in Soweto. My guest house group was late to meet up with everyone at Lebo's because the van sent to pick us up was in a vehicle accident on the way to get us-- a common occurence in Joburg. When we finally arrived, we set off in two groups on walking tours of the township we were in, called Orlando West. Our group brought donations for the children in the area, so our guide, Philip, told us to bring pens and pencils with us to hand out, but NO toys, as they would cause fighting.
The neighborhood kids were the first recipients of our giftts, until Philip asked us to wait to give things out to the kids that really needed them, even though these kids looked "needy" to us. By crossing four sreets from our hostel, it was easy to see what Philip meant-- there were shacks with tin roofs instead of brick houses. There were no paved roads, but dirt ways between shacks with streams of water and sewage running everywhere. Just when I thought how smart I was to wear hiking shoes rather
hanging out
a old mattress is better than the dirt than flip-flops that day, I noticed how many kids and babies were walking around with bare feet.
Most people went out of their way to come look at us-- we must have been a sight. Groups of mostly white people parading through the neighborhood amassing a Pied-Piper type following once the kids caught site of our gifts. I brought a few sheets of colorful smiley face stickers with me, so along with UW Business School pencils (old logo!) I was handing out stickers. One little boy, about two years old, was standing behind a make shift fence, eyeing us like we were traveling salesmen. I reached through the fence and put a red sticker on theh back of his hand, and his eyes lit up as he smiled. I can't describe how happy a one cent sticker made these kids.
Eventually, we stopped at a house that looked like a small row house. A friend of Philip's came out and invited us inside. I promise you, it was no bigger than our living room, and 10 members of one family were living there. They had a small kitchen with a 15' black and white TV on the over-crowded
Pencils
The kids were so excited to get pencils or crayons. counter, and the belongins of ten people lined the walls. I stared at the broken front door lock as he explained that this particular housing group was originally built as cheap housing for miners, where only men would live without their families.
As we continued through the neighborhood, I'd greet people with "Sauwbona!", which is Zulu for "hello" (Zulu is the most common language spoken here), and I'd be greeted in return. People were very friendly and very curious. The group made a pit-stop at a tiny store to buy cool drinks, as it was 85 degrees and sunny (in fact, I haven't seen a single cloud yet! It's been hot and dry, not what we Seattleites are used to.) We had to buy a lot of drinks at one time because most of us had 50 and 00 Rand notes, and there wasn't enough money in the store to make change for each of our 12 Rand drinks.
We moved on to NOAH Orphanage, where a group of girls were playing singing games outside (for our benefit, since the orphanage is closed on Saturdays). This orphanage is a place for kids with no parents, many who were
Soweto
Handing out stickers to little kids lost to the AIDS epidemic here. They come to NOAH for meals during the week, homework help, limited computer instruction (their few PCs looked about 20 years old) as well as sports and art time. NOAH serves more than 200 children a week out of the 4 room building, and when kids aren't there they live with extended famly in the area. I asked what their greatest need is when it comes to donations, and Martin (the caretaker) told me they always need stationary and paper supplies for school work, but also remarked, "And everyone likes money, so we can choose what to buy when we need it." For that reason, I'm including a link to their donation page
here Walking around the neighborhood was a sobering experience, and just when we thought we'd seen the worst of the poverty situation in Soweto, Philip said, "Wait until you see Kliptown-- it's even worse." We headed back to Lebo's for a lunch of Kota, or "Bunny Chow", which is a very popular sandwich type thing-- basically a third of a loaf of bread with the top carved out with french fries, BBQ sauce, lettuce and ickled mangoes (??) inside. It
Watching
A girl watches us as we take a tour through Orlando West. was a complete carb overload, but hey-- I can't exactly refuse local delicacies, can I? No, that would be rude. =) It was actually pretty good for being the strangest combo of food I've ever eaten.
After lunch, we piled into 2 vans "Soweto Style", with 18 people in one van and 17 in the other for the 10 minute ride to Kliptown. We were supposed to visit the Soweto Kliptown Youth Project (SKY), which provides an outlet through arts like singing, drama, painting, dance, etc, for the kids in the township. We also heard before we left the states that the NBA would be there at the same time through the Basketball without Borders program. We initially changed our schedule so that we would miss the NBA, who were supposed to arrive in the morning, but found out that they had arrived late and at the same time we did. This ended up putting a damper on our time there, due to ridiculous security measures that didn't allow our group anywhere near the NBA program. Funny, I didn't think we looked like terrorists, but after observation it seemed they may have been more concerned with white Americans messing
brothers
Two boys watch our group through the fence. up their footage and photographs of the players in Africa. The unexpected part o fi tall is after experiencing Soweto, our students had no interest in the NBA players, only and interest in getting to know the kids in Kliptown. I was really proud that our typical American celebrity-worship had been overthrown by Ubuntu-- the spirit of humanity and the idea that "one of us is the same person as all o fus". We were definitely the American group that I would have chosen to be a part o fthat day, rather than the highly insulated, less-than-interactive, stop-off-in-Kliptown-before-returning-to-our-5-star-hotel NBA program. Not that the players and coaches are to blame, but it was a little embarassing to see these kids perform dances and songs that they've worked on all year for a group who's security rushes them in, donates money, gets photo opps, and rushes them out again (obviously my opinion, anyway).
While we couldn't spend as much one-on-one time with the SKY kids as we would have liked, we did get to see a lot of Kliptown. I wish I could capture everything I saw and felt on film, but looking back, my photos don't do it justice, so
Kliptown
Kids in Kliptown's SKY program you'll have to rely on words. Kliptown has about 30,000 people living in a few square miles and the majority of that is shacks with no electricity. If a family wants to use an electrical appliance they have to run it off of a car battery, which is why they have a large Battery Center building for recharging. The dirt and muck and smell of sewage is pervasive, yet as we walked through town, happy little kids would grab our hands and walk along with us. It was a study in contrasts, and everywhere you turn you can see scenes resembling those commercials that beg you to "Feed a child on $1 a day", yet the people are welcoming and willing to talk about their experiences. There were quite a few times I found myself tearing up (I know, shocking! I'm a cryer...) but I also felt like, what right do I have to cry over this situation when the people who live here are smiling??
We stopped off in a neighborhood square where the government built a large monument to the Freedom Charter. Locals explained that to them, it cost billions of Rand that could have been spent
Rooftops
The tin rooftops in Kliptown are held down by rocks and old tires. More are added during bad weather to keep the roofs down. on infrastructure in Kliptown. They all see the monument as a slap in the face because the 10 articles of the Freedom Charter are memorialized in stone, but aren't put into practice in the surrounding community. To add insult to injury, the government is erecting apartments which were originally hyped as the way families in Kliptown could improve and have electricity, etc. The problem is that while rent for the shacks is currently 15 Rand ($2), rent for the new places will be R1500 a month ($200)-- how can this be for Kliptown families when they typically bring home R1000 a month? There is a lot of frustration, made worse by the dashed hope that things would improve rapidly once a black government was in place after Apartheid ended.
On our way out of SKY, kids were haing us sign their t-shirts (proving again that they didn't know the difference between us and NBA players. For the record, they were the tall ones.) and hugging us good-bye. Some kids are familliar with internet, and exchanged email addresses with us. Another group of boys followed us to our vans, broke into song and then asked us for money for their
Escorts
During our walk through town, kids would grab our hands and walk along with us. singing.
Back at Lebo's that night, we had dinner and relaxed, but the mood was admittedly more somber. I was proud to hear continued conversations about the day, and students talking about how they could get involved at home by hosting sales or fundraising drives for the organizations we visited. I hope they follow through. It's hard not to be effected by what we experienced and there is definitely a sense of wanting to give back.
There's a day or two of lag time between my writin gand what we're doing, but tomorrow we're going to Kruger National Park! So excited! I miss everyone at home (Jeremy-- is this the longest we've gone without talking since we've known each other??), but it feels like the trip is flying by. Also, please excuse any typos or misspellings, as any internet time I can get is hurried. I don't have time to go over every entry for errors! Hope everyone is doing well at home. Thanks for reading, and of course feel free to send the link along to anyone interested. Thanks!
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CJ
non-member comment
I teared up...
I loved this entry! And I'm not a cryer!!! This is something that will stay with you forever Jen. Enjoy the National Park...do get too close to the Lions!