Rainy Saturday...

It's a rainy Saturday morning here after a beautiful, warm week~ winter in Cape Town! Becky has come to spend the weekend at my friend Janna's house in Sea Point~ a bit of a culture change from being out on Mitchell's Plain. Cape Town is a huge and interesting area~ still quite a stark contrast between the haves and the have-nots. Sea Point (as indicated by it's name) is right on the shore, with lots of shops and restaurants... quite posh. We will likely do some sight seeing today and will go out for dinner with friends tonight.

The week has been overwhelming. It is somewhat hard to explain the area of Mitchell's Plain~ it is a relatively small (maybe 5 square miles, i'm estimating) expanse of flat land which is inhabited by about a million people... the area is broken up into neighborhoods, many of which are defined by culture~ Samora Michel, for example, is overall a Khosa area~ it is also what is known as a squattercamp... so there are no proper houses~ it is a huge neighborhood of shacks made of tin and any other available material~ this is so hard to describe, I'll try to get a good photo of the area to post so you can at least try to imagine it... it's an unbelievable sight~ and then you meet the kids who live there and they are happy go lucky, well cared for children... the kids in the U.S. could learn a lot from these guys!! Other areas are made up of houses or buildings, simple concrete structures, many of which have shacks built on to them to accommodate family members. Some of these other areas are made up of what South Africans call "colored" people... mixed race people who mostly speak Afrikaans. The cultures are quite different from one another, and they speak different languages, so that adds another interesting element.

We have yet to see any other white people in Mitchell's Plain (except for 2 other volunteers from the YMCA who are from Australia and England)~ this is an area where people of color were forced to settle during the Apartheid area... and has since become home to millions... it's unreal. Still an incredibly segregated area where resources are minimal, at best.

The Cape Flats Y is in a nice little neighborhood called Portlands~ they have created a beautiful little slice of peace there. All the folks who work and volunteer with them are amazing~ Ricky, Sonya, Ayanda, Wendell, Norman, Chwayita, and all of the others we have met so far are so cool. Most of the people are volunteers, and when you consider that they are from this area themselves, that is even more incredible... b/c they could be working for money some place else.

The issues in Mitchell's Plain are extensive. Many of the same issues that exist in Hartford, however on an entirely different scale~ drug addiction, murder, gang violence (a major problem... some of the gang names are "The Sexy Boys" and "Americans".... hmmmmm... they don't sound too intimidating, but they are wreaking havoc on the community), lack of medical/dental care, profound poverty, HIV/AIDS, sexual violence, abuse, etc... however, amidst all of this, most of the children we have met so far have had a true sense of joy and hope about them. And I think the people at the Y are doing an incredible job of influencing people, one at a time, to make change in their communities~ a truly daunting task here.

There is so much to take in... I feel like my mind is overflowing. We have been welcomed with open arms, invited to people's homes, churches, parties, etc... and we've just been here a few days. I think we have a great deal ahead of us...

I hope you all are well and enjoying summer. It's great to get your little messages on this blog~ so keep them coming!!!!
Much much love to you all.

(hopefully posting more picture soon, need a computer with the capacity to do it...)