South Africa

In the summer of 2006 I took part in what was titled a “Cross-cultural experience” in South Africa, spending 3 weeks living in Capetown. This trip came at the end of my gap year, during which I had been volunteering for Youth For Christ (YFC). They had planned the entire visit with CMS (the Church Mission Society) and I had managed to raise the extra funds necessary to go along.

On the 21st July, the team (whom I had already gotten to know through training weekends) all met up at Heathrow airport and we headed out on our roughly 12 hour flight, via Frankfurt.

Arriving was interesting - being fairly naïve, as several of us seemed to be, and unsure what to expect weather wise - we were surprised to find low temperatures and pouring rain. However, something that we were soon focused on was not the cold or the wet, but the township and shacks that we drove past on the way to our accommodation. This in-your-face poverty was new to us.

Our time in Capetown saw us do a range of different things. Hooking up with Capetown YFC they involved us in several aspects of the work that they run in the area - schools, clubs, a hospital. It was an awesome time and we saw loads of stuff happen, but time and again we were reminded of the seemingly huge divide between rich and poor, and largely between “White” and “Non-White” due to the apartheid that was so prevalent until recently. During those times, people were split up into groups labelled “White”, “Black”, “Coloured” or “Indian”, and these distinctions are still used largely in the country.

The children’s hospital that we went into had only “Non-White” kids there, who were all going to be there for a number of weeks for various reasons – broken leg or arm, amputated limb/s or illness. It was a hard time for some of us, one young lad would just cry continually when he was on his own, wanting his mother who we found out was only able to visit about once a week. There were even a couple of toddlers in little cots who were bed bound. It was a time that moved each of us there – but the joy that the kids got out of playing with us and with the toys that we brought lifted all our hearts.

We also visited a couple of orphanages, where kids who have no parents or whose parents cannot look after them (they usually either have aids or have died from aids), live with a house mother until about 16 years old. They have school there and live with several other youths of varying ages. Again, we spent time playing with a lot of the young ones, who wanted to climb on your back, or have a group of their friends bundle you. The house mothers are amazing women who willingly give up 10 years of their life to stay there and help the kids, volunteering to forego relationships for the young people’s sake. A youth group that we led at one of these places was great fun – the young people were lively but also thoughtful and friendly. During a Bible study one of the guys spoke into a team member’s life, showing a deep relationship with God which challenged us all.

We went into a few schools whilst we were there, with varying experiences. One school in a very rural area was made up of entirely “Black” kids, with a small building, but just as lively. Another school, where we took a couple of assemblies and sat in on lessons, had a mixed population and was in a more central area. Then, nearer the end of our visit, we visited a larger, richer school on the other side of the city. The school was “White” majority, but now has a lot more “Black”, “Coloured” and “Indian” young people in it. It is a school with fairly high fees, but the headmaster was an amazing guy and the school board allows in a cross section of students – from some who could probably pay the fees several times over, to a couple of kids from a township who the school don’t charge. None of the students know how much anyone pays and there was a real atmosphere of acceptance – something that South Africa is really aiming for following the oppression during the last century.

At one point the team was split up and we spent time with different families from around the city, whilst another time we were with different families in a rural community. In both places we were looked after very well and made to feel very welcomed, although each place was different. The rural sets of families were all “Coloured”, whilst the city dwellers were nearly all “White”. We were again made aware of the large divide between rich and poor, which was also mainly a “White” and “Non-White” divide. Having said that, more “Non-White” people are in the richer areas than there were a couple of decades ago, so there is improvement in that sense. However, despite the vast improvement in equality that is occurring throughout South Africa, there can still be found a lingering resentment. Whenever we spoke to any “Non-White” people we found that they were glad that things were improving and grateful for the positive changes that had been put in place. The “Non-White” community seem happy to move on and forget the ills of the past, looking for more improvement. The only time that didn’t seem the case was when we went into a township and were constantly warned about the danger for “White” people there. Our experience of the “White” community was also varied. A lot were fine with how things were and happy that they were getting better, but a couple of people we came across ruined this view. A couple presented rather racists remarks about how “Black people are taking our jobs” and so on. In the main though, we found that the younger generation had a real grasp on equality, having now grown up in a free South Africa, which is good for the country’s prospects.

As a team we also spent time exploring the area – Table Mountain, Robben Island, the District 6 Museum, but one place that drew my attention and thinking was a place called Moyo. This was a large restaurant type place offering a rich African experience – it was in marquees, there were open fires outside, we had tribal face paint, singers coming to our tables and a long buffet table with many varieties of food to try. All of these experiences were class, don’t get me wrong, but I was caught between enjoying them and considering the township we had visited – Khayelitsha. Driving through, having been in to see some of the work going on to help people there, we saw stretches of shacks and were told that the population is over 1 million people. I found myself wondering how many people were going to be without food that night whilst loads would be wasted at this restaurant. I thought about how I had raised all this money to go out and whether it would have been better to have put it into the work in the township. It was very strange to drive and within an hour have gone from being surrounded by mansions to being able to see miles of shacks.

Having come back and had time to reflect and pray about what I saw I have decided to do some fund raising this year to send some money out to work in Khayelitsha. I am hoping to raise money equal to what I raised for me to go out there. Also I will be continuing to look into the work going on in this township and try and keep up to date with the developments in South Africa.