Mandela Day

Nelson Mandela's birthday was on July 18. To pay tribute, Mandela Day is on July 18. The concept is to spent 67 minutes of your time giving back to the community, because Nelson Mandela spent 67 years making a difference in the world.

University of Cape Town has an organization called SHAWCO, which goes into local townships to teach children. For Mandela Day, SHAWCO organized various trips throughout the day to different locations. At 12:40, four of us from the Arcadia program boarded the bus to go to Nyanga.

 Nyanga is one of the oldest black townships in Cape Town, made up of 98.8% black Africans. It is also one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of Cape Town.


The bus drove through Nyanga, a town with many shacks as houses. I was talking to a friend from Uganda about the shacks, and he asked where I would put the shacks in the United States if I had to pick a place. I honestly could not think of a place these shacks belonged, I have never seen anything like it. I could not even see my dogs staying in one, let alone being an appropriate place for humans to live and for children to be raised. These are the kinds of homes people hear about, but do not want to believe actually exist. I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for the home I live in, and the home I grew up in. I will admit, while growing up and living in the United States, I have taken many things for granted because it was all I knew. Even being in Africa for a little over a week now has opened my eyes to see things I will never take for granted again.




The bus arrived at the Nyanga library, where I noticed a young boy and his mother standing on the side of the road. The mother had the biggest smile on her face, and the boy lifted his arm to wave to all of us on the bus. I noticed other families and children walking out of their homes, and the children kept waving at the bus.

Soon, we got off the bus and walked into the library. The library was fenced in, and had a small area for children to play in. Inside, there was one big room, and a small room that was filled with books. One of the first things I noticed while inside was a sign that said 'This is a gun-free zone'.

We walked into the big common room and the children stood around in a circle laughing and smiling. The energy was incredible, and it truly felt like a community. There is a concept created by Mandela called 'ubuntu', meaning togetherness. This concept was well recognized in this room. I could not help but smile just by being in there.

Soon, children started to go outside to play with balls and meet other volunteers. Children stood around in groups looking at us, and would start giggling. I tried going up to children to say hi, but barely any spoke English. In Nyanga, 90.2% speak Xhosa, while only 3.0% speak English. I stood with another girl from my program, Ally, and we both looked at each other and said we felt stupid. Maybe this would not be as easy as we thought.

Some children began to go inside to read books and color. As a group of children rushed to the door, I began to walk and felt a small hand grab mine. I looked down to see a small boy who grabbed my hand, no more than three years old. He looked up and smiled at me. I bent down to say hello, and pointed at myself and said, "I'm Steph". I don't think he understood me, but his smile did not fade at all.


Once we got inside, children had blank coloring pages of Nelson Mandela and the South African flag. One girl came up to me and gave me a pink crayon and her coloring page of the flag. I sat on the ground next to her and she pointed to her picture, wanting me to color. I colored one section, as she looked at my face watching me. She started moving closer to me, and I knew that despite the language differences, these children were excited we were there with them.




The girl wanted to read a book, and brought me one about animals. I began reading it, and at least four other students ran to sit around me to listen. As I read, I pointed at a picture of a cat. One girl spoke in her language, telling me that is was a cat. I said 'cat', and she repeated it to me. Every time I saw her while we were there, she said, "cat".

At one point, a girl came up to me and started touching my hair. She would giggle and walk away, just to come back a few seconds later to do it again. Eventually, I put my hand over hers to tell her that it was okay to touch my hair. She bent down to show me her hair which was braided. She looked back at my hair, noticing the obvious difference that my hair was not braided. She began to braid my hair (which was definitely the best braid I've ever seen). Other girls noticed her playing with my hair, and started playing with it as well. Eventually, all the other volunteers were having their hair braided - even some of the male volunteers!

A short hour later, it was time to go. I cannot even begin to explain the emotions I had while leaving, nor count how many hugs I got. It made me realize that despite our differences, including languages and living conditions, we are all human. We all can interact and relate - a smile truly is a universal language.

On the way home, I heard a volunteer on the bus who was native to South Africa talking. She explained about Nyanga, "there's a border between the nice life where the free people live and those who aren't."
I began thinking about it, noticing how throughout Cape Town there are white dominated places that are wealthy and places like Nyanga which unfortunately are not.

This truly was an eye opening experience that I will never forget. I am joining SHAWCO at University of Cape Town, and hopefully going to Nyanga on a weekly basis. Volunteering was a huge reason I came to Cape Town, and I am definitely thankful for my decision.