South Africa - A day in the life...

Cafe view across Gordon’s Bay to Cape Town

JOURNAL ENTRY Grabouw, S. Africa (1 hr east of Cape Town)  - 4th Oct, 2014

8am - We're sitting in the garden of our cottage in the hills, outside the township of Grabouw. Needles of strong light are piecing through the alpine-like trees, trying to find their way to us as we sip strong tea, our bodies cupped inside old basket chairs. The air is cool, but we are promised a hot day. 6 days ago, when we arrived from Kenya, it was more like 5 degrees and I was longing for my cosy ski hat. What a change.

We're mostly silent, both of us reflecting on the past 3 days and the energy it has sucked from us. We've run a community Leadership for Hope in a church hall in the middle of the township. We had hoped for 150-200 people, but only 40 attended. Two weeks ago ANC provoked riots rocked the community here and the police arrived with rubber bullets and showed no mercy. Buildings and homes were trashed and burnt and those with thoughts of boycotting the protests and going to work or school were threatened with beatings and death.

We were invited to Grabouw by Tim and Maz Walker from the Thembalitsha, "Village of Hope". They, and their amazing team of 40, care for children with HIV/AIDS, TB and cancers. They run a wonderful residential unit as well as clinics, support groups for sick adults in the community and a whole network of sports outreach for the youngsters....and much much more. This is serious stuff and the impact on the community of 60,000 is awesome.

Maz & Tim Walker from Thembalitsha, Grabouw

Above photo: Click on the link below to hear Vivian’s story

http://www.thembalitsha.org.za/


It's hard to get your head around the devastating impact that HIV/AIDS has here...and I mean devastating!! ....a scary 33% are infected (a mind numbing 6 million across S. Africa) and the rates of TB are the highest in the world. The un-employment rate among youth is 50% and the population is growing exponentially with services that are busting at the seams.


This is what hopelessness look like: tough, gruelling, bitterly cold, friendless...nowhere to go, no one offering answers, no possible chance of change, no one bringing answers... it's a cauldron of complex needs. So tensions rise and the people perish in their own bitterness, anger and frustration. There is no vision for a better life... all hope seems dead.

11am - We're now in a beach cafe in Gordon's Bay (on strong coffee now), the tension of the past week is slowly ebbing away.

The sky and the sea are competing for who is displaying the most exquisite show of beauty. The mountains of Cape Town in the distance keep the heavens from losing themselves in the ribbon of turquoise below. No words come close to expressing what we're gazing at.  The homes banked up the hillside with prime views of the bay are immaculate, the flora and fauna stunning - like a Chelsea Flower show exhibit. I'm hit by the contrast.

Coastal drive through paradise

This is a country dripping in contrasts, like an unhappy bride. It is entrenched in cultural strife and division still. Black people hate Coloured people and 'Colours' detest 'Whites' (I can't believe that I'm writing using such labels, but that it how people speak all the time here). Is apartheid still an issue?...YES, of course, it yells at you everywhere.

Leadership for Hope group (Leroy is centre of front row, crouching in white hoddy.

I'm wondering what part we have to play in this country's struggle? Or am I being just pretentiously naive to even think such a thing?

Grabouw, an often forgotten and dismissed township, a place of discord and tension, poverty, sickness and fear, needs a revolution of change - Change of Mindsets (a radical change of thinking), Change from Hopelessness to Hope, Empowerment and Liberation.

Is this possible? .... I choose to say YES, for we know that it is possible for small sparks to set a whole forest on fire.

2pm - While eating lunch this email arrives onto our iphone:

"I was really blessed by the training. The knowledge imparted was so highly valuable. I really needed it as a booster to fuel my faith so i can move the mountains out of my life. Indeed something highly spiritual was released and not just a mind shift but a change in what one's heart beat should be as a leader. It also had profound things hidden in between and breathed life into my life to raise my spirit up again, so i can put up a fight for my life. I'm surely not gonna give my pen up again. 

God indeed sent you be a light, impart the spirit and personality of hope as a living entity that can transform the world through leadership designed for the full development of the human potential. Also to be truly human one must lead life in a way that it benefits those around and by giving them the pen of their lives back to them, their life story comes to life.

Simple lesson! we all need each other to complete our life's story and write the story of this world. In a way that we can plant trees of hope in the earth that can bare much fruit a for generation to create a type of lifestyle where strongholds of poverty and its mind sets can be broken in this world. I will now use this to transform my community, other communities, my country and other countries. I did not come all the the way from Hout Bay, a fishing village on the coast, for nothing. It was worth travel and 3 days out of work

Thank you Trevor! you just gave my pen back to me. You are truly a gift of God to the nations of this world. May you continue to impact the world with your gift. May the doors of the nation open to you and say come bless our hearts with the wells of wisdom given to by God. May the waters that flow through quench the thirst of those so desperately needing hope and may it cause the seed that people have within them to come to life as you inspire-(breathe life in it, as you said) May it cause an exponential growth unheard of in the earth. May all the high hills become a plain, every rough path smooth. May you fly over the wall and even as you continue with the dispensation of the grace you possess to change the world. 

I was truly blessed to hear you speak life into others. You have awakened the lion in me once again. I will not give my pen away to people and the issues of life. I will fight till my heart stop beating." 

Leroy Sias 

Baby whale in the bay (mother basking by its side)

4pm - We’re watching Whales in the bay at Hermanus in the dazzling light of a low sun. They have come here to meet their big chums, play, have calfs and mate (all the good stuff of life). On the coastal rocks we're watching them and feeling a silent electric energy of deep wonder.
Again, we’re lost for words...


“Come to the edge”, he said.
They said, “We are afraid”.
“Come to the edge”, he said.
They came. He pushed them...
And they flew” (Apollinaire)

 - JB