Cape Town

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

by Naomi Zacharias

We woke up to our last day in Cape Town. Laurie took on another hike in the early morning hours and I tried to catch up on a few hours of sleep after my third night of wide-eyed, jet-lag-induced insomnia. When she returned we ate a hurried breakfast and then began a short day in Cape Town before heading to the airport for our evening flight.

We went to see a Home from Home house currently under construction and tried to stay out of the way of activity as Pippa and the architect went over details, including the wrong colored roof panels that had been recently installed. I realized the many hats she wears and the various areas of expertise she has had to claim, from non- profit administration, to child care issues, to brick laying and square footage. She is remarkable.

From here we visited a school in the community of Vrygrond. It was recently built in a less affluent township and stands impressively due to one man’s commitment to “pay it forward” to his home town and a community that decided to work together for the good of the whole. It’s a beautiful facility and, in addition to providing education that includes art and music classes to 600 students, they provide two meals and a shack to each child every day. For many students, this will be their only nutrition for the day. After spending some time with the Administrator, we left and went to the community library. It won the branch award in the Western Cape in 2006 and its very proud administrator, Beulah, glowed as she told us what made her township different. She credited this to the strength of women in the community. I remember an Eleanor Roosevelt quote I once read that said, “Women are like teabags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.” From the women in my life to the ones in Africa, this seems to hold true. This library encourages literacy and language lessons and also provides basic needs like shoes and clothing to children who wander through. Laurie and I asked many questions, and as we walked away, we still pondered what it was that makes one community embrace its challenges together to affect change for the next generation, while another allows their circumstances to make each one fiercely concerned for the self at the cost of both the individual and others. This seems to be a question for human nature, rather than any one culture.

We discussed various NGO’s in the area that provide job training and placement for men and women, educational needs, and medical care. When I am there in the future, I plan to visit selected organizations to expand our efforts in Cape Town.

After overnight travel, terminal confusion, and a bit of baggage issues that required quite the circus act, we finally boarded the last flight of this route close to midnight.
When we wake up, we will be in The Netherlands.