Khayelitsha

Today we visited Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town. 

Here we performed the programs we prepared yesterday. My groups’ presentation consisted of an ice breaker (telephone telephone), a skit (The Felicia Show about teen pregnancy and empowerment) and a debriefing Q & A session. 

my group!

For the telephone telephone ice breaker we gave them this sentence: "I'm going to Cape Town to buy condoms for R24". They giggled the whole time, but everyone participated and it was so cute! 

We gave the hour long presentation to two groups of learners, grade 10 and 12 in Bulumko High School. This school is located inside the township and it holds lots of students. The school is public, but the students have to pay a couple hundred Rand, and uniforms to attend it. The parents often pay for this and it shows that the parent community knows the importance of getting an education. The school itself is pretty rundown, but the learners were all excited to be there, it seemed. We presented in a science classroom and I found these in the teachers office: 

This made me smile

This entire day was extremely humbling for me. The learners were super participants and brought up important questions and concerns. They were really in tune with their environment and how that affects their day to day life. One learner expressed his concern with bullying to and from school with neighboring gangs. We didn’t know what to say, but we listened. The take home message for our program was to encourage using barrier methods to prevent unwanted pregnancy and HIV, and to increase empowerment for young men and women to take initiative in bringing up using barrier methods. All the learners understood our presentation and they actually ended up teaching me more about their lives and culture than I taught them.

Another way this experience was humbling was how happy and motivated all the learners were. This has been a theme throughout the trip so far. And I don’t know why I expected many of the South Africans who were oppressed, imprisoned and are living in poverty to be bitter or unforgiving. Maybe because I have never experienced anything like that and thought I might be bitter or unforgiving in those situations (even though I would hope I wouldn’t be). I can’t put myself in their shoes, but I can learn from their graciousness and humbling attitudes.

 After leaving the school we stopped by a Braai, which is South African barbecue in the township. I did not partake, because they were cooking large chunks of meat that had been sitting out beforehand, but other people said it was tasty. These Braai are really really popular places to hang out and build community. 

The Braai

Me, Chava and some of the UWC HIV/AIDS peer educators!

Then, we went to TAC or Treatment Action Campaign. This organization is located all around the country, but they have multiple sites in Cape Town. One is located in Khayelitsha. They give out free condoms to all the house holds, arrange for testing and treatment of HIV/AIDS and work closely with Doctors without Borders. There are 750,000 people living in Khayelitsha and 20,000 of them are receiving ARVs for HIV treatment. 

Shopping Market

View of some of the township

We debriefed as a group in the amazing apartment that some people moved to. It's so cool. I will take pictures soon, cause I want to go to there.  These are from the roof:

When clouds over Table Mtn like this they are called "Table Cloths"! yes.

Cheers!