Talking to Terrence, advice from Maureen

We have been thinking a bit about how our 6 weeks in South Africa has changed us. One difference is simply that we have slowed down a bit - and actually started to take time to listen to people. Not just hurrying past as usual in our everyday life in busy Stockholm.

The other night we spent some time with the humble and kind night guard Terrence at our hotel. Terrence lives in Khayelitsha (one of the townships outside Cape Town) together with his brother’s family. He works from 7 pm to 7 am and wanders around the facilities making sure that no intruders disturb the guests of the hotel. Every day he has to travel for 1.5 hours to get to work – train into Cape Town, then the dangerous but efficient white mini-buses to Camps Bay and finally a walk up the hills to the hotel. Here starts his 12-hour shift. Finally 1.5 hours to get back to home. Considering that in most of the townships only around 25-40% of the citizens are employed, Terrence is one of the lucky ones.

In Johannesburg, we enjoyed our daily chat with our very animated cleaning lady Maureen. Maureen lives in a township outside of Soweto (South Africa’s most well-known township, home of Nelson Mandela, etc.) with her seven children. Maureen was troubled by the fact that she could not afford to send all her children to school (schools are free for the younger children, but you still have to provide funding for school uniforms, food and books, etc.), so one of her boys had to stay at home. At least she anticipated that she would have enough money in March, so hopefully the poor kid would not have to miss out that much.

Maureen liked that Sara had been to Soweto, but claimed that Soweto was now so nice and “upgraded” that it was not longer the real township experience. (Sara could not really relate to this, since she thought visiting some of the poor families in the miserable shacks of Soweto was one of the most painful moments she had ever experienced). Interesting perspectives. After Sara and Maureen’s discussion regarding poverty and townships, they naturally (!?) came into the topic of health and beauty. Maureen complimented Sara for being very pretty, but gave the advice that she really needed to loose some weight. She then pointed out exactly where this excess weight was located and suggested some time in the hotel’s little gym. Fortunately enough, Sara was in a good mood and could appreciate the advice with no offence taken. :-)

We left a large tip when we left, and hoped that this would help to get Maureen’s boy back to school. When discussing this kind of problems, then all our daily issues and concerns at home suddenly seem so utterly insignificant and silly…

Perspectives

We have now spent a week at the CIDA school in Johannesburg. Sara, who visited the school in March last year, was deeply touched by the visit and wanted to return.

The many years of apartheid and oppression have denied the large majority of the black people education, leaving them doomed to a life in poverty. With an average monthly salary of around R1000 (SEK 1300), and university costs amounting to several times that amount, it is still impossible for most black families to send their children to any form of higher education.

This is where CIDA comes into the picture. The CIDA school’s philosophy is simple: Take the smartest kids from each village, and give them an excellent education that they can afford. Or rather, the village can afford. The monthly cost for food and housing of R500 (SEK 650) is gathered through contributions; an auntie giving R10, the school teacher R15 etc. Finally let those kids go back to their village, and spread what they have learned. In Africa an old proverb says that “it takes a village to raise a child”. At CIDA, they say: “it takes a child to raise a village”.

The school gets funds exclusively from donors, and has been very successful in getting support both in South Africa and abroad. Donors include Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, and many large companies in SA.

We participated in one of the first lectures that was given by Dr. Melanie Brown from New York for the first year students. The topic was “greatness”, how we all can find the greatness within us, and that it is not only a few persons that can be “great”, but all of us. Throughout these session it was moving and encouraging to listen to these young guys and girls in various exercises talking in front of the group about who they admire most, their life goals etc. It’s hard to describe the feeling of hearing a boy from a poor and troubled background express admiration of his mother and boldly state that his goal is to become happy and to share this happiness with his community!

Our main task during our week has been to explore how volunteers could be put to better use. The interest in working with CIDA is high, but it is difficult to accept visitors without a clear purpose and process. This work was done together with philanthropy power-woman Christine Downton and in the end presented to parts of the CIDA management.

In addition, we had a large number of one-to-one discussions with students, who wanted to ask questions about everything from how they can succeed in their mathematics studies to how they could start a micro-bank. We have been impressed and moved by the students at CIDA and we’ll be back for sure!

Ps. A special hello to any student from CIDA reading this!! Good luck with your studies and with achieving your goals.

Entabeni Private Game Reserve

Visiting Entabeni is quite an experience! It’s a privately own 13,000 hectare wonder world where thousands of animals roam freely. Lakeside lodge, where we stayed for two days, is a peaceful lodge just by a small lake inhabited by huge hippos. The terrain in the game reserve is a dramatic mix of plains, bush land, mountains, gorges and forest. Among a multitude of species, all of the sought after “big 5” are present: elephant, leopard, rhino, lion and water buffalo.
Fortunately for us we ended up with our own private ranger/guide which was a blessing. During our stay, the day normally started early with our trusted ranger Craig knocking on our door at 5:30. After a quick cup of coffee we would head off in the large open jeep for an early morning drive.
Entabeni is definitely something we will remember! We’ve seen lions hunting(!), giraffes close-up, rhinos, hippos, hundreds of cool warthogs, jackals, monkeys, a chameleon, baby zebras and lots more. One thing is certain - seeing documentaries is not the same as the real experience.
http://www.entabeni.co.za/index.asp?pgid=31