Friends... Cape Town Day Three

Today was a pretty crazy day. It started relatively innocent enough; we went to the University of Cape Town to meet with someone there. Unfortunately the person’s car had broken down and was unable to meet us, and so we watched a local station for a while. This daytime drama was pretty weird, illustrating women as the ones who were asking for sex, and were liars as well. They also somewhat showed males as the weak person being bullied into such things. Kind of a twist on things no?

Afterward we went to the UCT book store, and while buying some shwag I met one of the students in line. He was buying accounting books for class, and so I asked him if he was studying math. I found that he was actually majoring in Engineering and is interested in electrical engineering sort of stuff. I wished him luck with his classes and we then went to the UCT cafeteria, there were different stations or venders in the cafeteria and I was just sort of lost about what to get. Standing their confused I found my friend again and so I approached him to ask him for guidance. He directed me towards the chicken burger (which was actually pretty decent), and then I got to talk to him further and he was really quite interesting. He actually grew up in a township and thinking about it, it is quite an achievement growing up from a township and making his way to actually study at the University. I can’t imagine the struggle he must have gone through in order to get where he is today. Much like the other children that I’ve met, I managed to get him to write his name in my journal; Mashilo Moabelo. It was really neat to make this contact and be able to talk to someone in the same position as I am (in schooling) and be able to see eye to eye. He’s currently taking six classes this semester and is very stressed… sound familiar? Mashilo had to go and so we said our farewells. While waiting for the group to get ready for the bus I noticed some kids sitting around a table playing a card game, I tried my best to be outgoing and went and talked to them as well. They were playing a card game called Klaw Chess (which is Dutch, there is a lot of Dutch influence everywhere in the area), still unsure of the rules but they were incredibly friendly.
From there our group piled back onto our bus and made our way to Ikamya Youth (an afterschool youth organization). There we met Joy and Luyanda, two incredibly interesting people who were running this innovative group. They are sort of the pilot program for other youth programs in the country. There is one specific program that we found to be incredibly interesting called “Media Image and Expression.” From this program “learners” (students) are able to “polish” their computer skills. Joy mentioned that in some respects learners attend the program because the computer lab is a safe place for these kids. Apparently there are a lot of gangs in the area, and recently some of the xenophobic violence have even touched this area. I’d urge people to visit their website, and their blog, through Ikamvayouth.org. I haven’t had a chance yet but I’m sure it’ll be enlightening. We gathered a lot of information from Joy and Luyanda but I’ll just post some remember able quotes (and information) from them here now.

June is the youth month.

“People are either infected or affected by HIV.”

“Educational games are the way to go.” ~Luyanda

“Mobile phones would be the best way to reach the children.” ~Joy

Next we were able to actually enter the class rooms of Ikamva youth and sort of observe and help out with the youth there. This was so extremely awesome… we were able to go around and actually help students with their homework, although some of the subjects being covered were ones we hadn’t seen since high school (Biology, algebra, and some history). I was able to go and talk with some students who were doing research on one of their computers. I talked to a boy named Themba about what he was working on, and he was actually working on a play with some other boys. In this play all the actors are animals and they felt that they could address equality through these animals because then everyone is an animal and there aren’t any racial lines. I asked them to elaborate on this and they spoke of the recent xenophobic violence in their community and they felt the incredible need to address some of these issues. I found this incredibly fascinating that these youth were really trying to address a monumental issue (yet I should be used to that sort of thing). Themba talked about games that he plays with his friends and one specifically is called Sastsan, in Sastsan (I don’t know the official rules or anything) there is a lot of singing and dancing including music from many different cultures (and places) to promote equality. It seemed as though these kids were really into community based play… I keep calling these new friends “Kids” yet I have to keep reminding myself that they were 20 years old. They looked much younger, and when I told them I am 21, they laughed! I was confused and asked why they thought it was funny, and they said that I looked much older physically. These “kids” were fascinating, they were running their own “Shi Shi Ravi” classes, and have made their own group called Tafari (meaning “Conqueror of Judah”). Tafari is meant to be a nonprofit youth organization that these 20 year olds are running… Fantastic…

I was also able to sit down and just chat with a boy named Khanyisa Gwangaa, and was able to have a really casual conversation with him and some of his friends. About all kids of things like movies, and even fun stories from home. They told me about their home lives and I talked about my own stories from the farm in which they loved =) Before I knew it I was laughing and joking with these kids without any problems… no kinds of social or cultural barriers percent, just two kids laughing and talking together. What I hadn’t noticed, until I started talking to people from our group again, I had started talking like them and I hadn’t realized it. My voice had become lower keyed, I talked with a different accent, and even my vocabulary had changed somewhat. I felt sort of silly and had to make a conscious decision to be like “oh wait this isn’t how I’m supposed to talk.” Yet as weird as this sort of was, I really valued it and felt as though it helped me connect with these new friends… Zinzi Maureni, Thabile Nelani, Aviwe Thyinkala, Banele Adam, and more.
Another little note on this there was this girl who was showing me pictures of her home from her camera. While showing me pictures she showed me one of this little girl, and I asked her if this was her sister. She then told me that the girl was her daughter… she’s 17 years old.

I’m incredibly lucky and touched to be here in this place. I also couldn’t help but think of home some today as well. I wonder how my America’s Army group is doing, and can’t help but wonder how our meeting with our presentation went in my CIMIT group as well. I hope they are well and striving forward, I can’t wait to talk to them when I get back. Through this my thoughts have also been to Alicia, hoping that she’s surviving training and how I wished she was here to share this experience with me. Also to my folks, and how I can’t wait to share this incredible experience with my family. So many are in my thoughts…

That’s enough for now…