Day Two: Alexendra and Diepsloop Townships

We started our day celebrating the grand opening of the Ronnie and Rhona Lubner Child and Youth Care Centre at Phutaditjaba ("poota di jobba") in Alexendra Township.  Compared to the very rural Orange Farm Township, Alex was the most densely populated townships thus far.  Thousand upon thousands of shacks, side by side, across several square miles.  Astounding.  The celebration was fantastic.  The children of the centre entertained us with song and dance, the opening and closing prayers were wonderful giving by Pastor Rita who runs the Orange Farm Centre.  Miss South Africa was the keynote speaker, and she spoke so highly of MaAfrika Tikkun and the lives it impacts.  Her two focuses are education and teen pregnancy, and MaAfrika Tikkun is a key partner in addressing these very issues.  It was a wonderful celebration.

We departed for Diepsloop Township which was much like Alex, perhaps not as big.  Abject poverty, obscene unemployment, hopelessness, dirty and filthy.  I am sure I am failing pitifully trying to put into words what we saw.  Then, nestled in between shacks was an amazing area--the Diepsloop Centre of MaAfrika Tikkun--children being fed, taught life skills, treated medically and socially, staying healthy with lessons in karate, cycling and other sports.  For many children, their only meals come from MaAfrika Tikkun.

What strikes me right to the core is how amazingly friendly these children are--they swarm us with warm greetings, smiles a mile long and then they stick out their thumb, touch it to yours, pull it away in a twist and say "shop", which means, "everything's all right".  Every single child knows what it means.  All of them want a turn twisting the thumb, saying "shop. Therein lies the irony--the most disadvantaged children in the world, with a semmingly hopeless life, many without parents, living in squaler, smiling and saying "shop"--"everything's ok".  Ok, lump--now time to leave my throat or I will neve finish this entry.

I then worked on math with 3 boys who were 11-13 years old.  Two were named Clifford--one was the other's nephew.  The younger Clifford (yellow shirt below) was a math whiz, all things relative.  He was multiplying 3 digit numbers by other 3-digit numbers.  He was so proud to show me.  He winked at me and smiled--his way of saying "hello".  He has 2 younger siblings--both parents are dead. We had good  fun looking at pictures of my family in Ohio.  I showed them snowmen that we built and they were fascinated.  I  showed them a picture of my 8 year old and 6 year old, hugging in bed, and they were astounded to know that each had their own room.  The younger Clifford looked at picture of my wife and three girls, his eyes lit up and he said, with his native African accent--"Beautiful". 

The older Clifford (taller one on left below) saw my wife's picture, smiled brightly and made some silly teenage boy sound, and saying nothing, shrugged his eyebrows up and down, up and down, smiling even more, knowing that I knew what he meant. 

We then went for a bike ride through the township and the poverty..out on a country road, cars flying past us--easily the most un-nerving bike experience--we walked the bikes a good way in the gravel and sand b/c we didn't want to get run over by the cars.  A bit of humor popped up when I saw the following billboard:

I had fun with the kids, pretending to take my finger off and putting back on.  Silly little thing my dad showed me when I was a kid--all of them wanted me to show them how.  Xonda ("Tonda") is the name of a VERY cute boy who said almost nothing, but said a lot with his eyes and his smile.  He followed us around, more so than the other kids--I wonder what he was thinking.  Take a look...

Yet again, an experience of a lifetime.  The donations that people make to MaAfrika Tikkun go SO far to making the lifes of these children better.  To me, the centres, tucked in the middle of impoverished townships, are the only postive thing I saw. 

Tomorrow we fly to Cape Town to see a two more MaAfrika Tikkun centres.  Sometimes people will say, "Shouldn't we help the children in our own city, state, country?  Why support a charity across the globe".  Children are children are children.  ALL deserve a chance to be happy--a chance to be healthy, a chance to be loved...

Thanks for checking in...

-Brian