SHAWCO Day 1

An organization I joined at University of Cape Town is called SHAWCO. SHAWCO is an education program that goes to local township schools. Its vision is 'working together towards informed, healthy, and thriving communities', while its mission is to 'practice and promote responsible citizenship in the South African context through health, education and social entrepreneurship initiatives. We create a supportive space for experiential learning and teaching, addressing inequality through innovative and sustainable approaches to community engagement.' Each student that joins SHAWCO picks a location, program, and day of the week to volunteer.

I decided to pick a program in Nyanga, where I volunteered for Mandela Day (Nyanga is a township only a few minutes drive outside of Cape Town. See previous blog post for more details about Nyanga.) I picked Nyanga because I loved my experience, and because the specific SHAWCO program is geared for the youngest children at the foundation stage. Every Monday, I will be going to Nyanga from 2-5 to teach literacy and counting in English and Xhosa to the 'Little Moon' students.

Today, the bus left University of Cape Town at 2pm, with about 15 volunteers on the bus ready for our experience in Nyanga. While driving through Nyanga, I noticed the same heart-wrenching conditions of families living in shacks. I even noticed shops in shacks and trailers from backs of trucks. On one corner, there was a small blue shack with the words 'surgeon' painted on very messily. My heart dropped because I couldn't imagine what it was like in there. Just like many things I've realized are taken for granted, sanitary health care and surgery is something taken for granted in the world we live in in the United States.

Once we arrived at the school in Nyanga, a swarm of children were coming around the corner because school just left out and they were going home. Obviously, there were no big yellow school buses there to take the children home, and from what I could tell, children were left to walk home on their own. Nyanga has a reputation of high violence, so I could not imagine having my own child walk home through the township. However, it's their way of life, and they don't know anything different.


Children noticed the SHAWCO label on the side of the bus, and started waving and smiling. The bus pulled into the courtyard of the school, and children continued to run towards the bus smiling, yelling, and waving. Once we got off, we noticed students coming up to us, giggling, and walking away. Once everyone was off the bus, we gathered in a circle to sing an opening song. There were probably about twenty kids there, unlike the norm of having 80-100 children (the principal forgot to make an announcement).

School in Nyanga

After the song circle, we gathered into a classroom with a dirty concrete floor. The walls were decorated with hand-made educational posters, and desks and chairs were all around the room. Children sat down, and the volunteers were asked to sit down next to a child. I sat down at a table with several children, many of whom pointed and giggled at volunteers. I felt uncomfortable for a bit, but was reassured of my purpose for being there.

Soon, each volunteer was assigned a child. With the child, we were to have them do subtraction, counting to 100, reading/writing the alphabet, and more. My child's name was Mpho, a six year old in grade 1. Mpho began doing the subtraction problems without my help, as he covered his face to avoid making eye contact with me. Eventually, I started covering my face too (two can play this game!) and he looked at me and started laughing. From then on, he opened up to me, and we began doing subtraction problems together.
I was amazed at Mpho's ability to understand English, write the alphabet, and count to 100 (which seemed like he did in one breath!).

Mpho

At one point, Mpho got up to run outside in the courtyard, as other SHAWCO staff told him he needed to come back inside to finish his work. I went over to him, and told him to run as fast as he could until I counted to ten, then it would be time to go back inside. I wasn't sure if he spoke enough English to understand (he spoke Xhosa to his classmates), so by the time I got to 10, I was holding my breath to see what he would do. He smiled and ran over to me, grabbed my hand, and took me back inside.

From there, we were talking about our favorite colors, foods, and animals. I was wearing an elephant scarf and he kept telling me he hated elephants. He was pleased to hear that I was not going to wear it next week! We even made a secret handshake, which he always wanted to do!

We went outside to read a book, one in Xhosa which he read in a whisper, and one in English which I read to him. He was distracted when friends were around, but quickly got back on track. At one point, another after school group started to dance, and him and I watched them dance together. Mpho told me he loved to dance.
Once it was time to get juice and an apple for snack, it was about time to get back onto the bus. While getting back onto the bus, one child came up to a volunteer holding the apples, and held his hands out repeatedly saying, "please". I could not help but wonder when the next time he would eat would be.

Next to a braai in Nyanga

I am constantly amazed by the fine line between freedom and wealthiness of some, and the extreme poverty of others. Children are born into a wealthy world by luck, while others unfortunately are not. I wonder how many wealthy people in Cape Town make conscious efforts to help those in poverty, or if many just live in a little bubble, staying out of areas where the poor live.

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.

Ocean View Township

On the first day of orientation through University of Cape Town, all 400+ international students from countries around the world went on a bus tour throughout Cape Town. At about 10:45am, we ended up in a township outside the city, where many residents were hanging out of the windows just looking at several tour buses that drove through their town. The bus driver announced that we would be stopping to have lunch as we pulled into a dirt parking lot. All the students proceeded into a building, very similar looking to a small warehouse on the outside. Everyone was extremely confused about where we were and what was happening.

Once everyone sat down, we were greeted by community members from the township we were in, Ocean View. Ocean View was a township established in 1968 for colored people who were forced to be removed from "white areas" during apartheid. Even today, the community still represents how it began. There are close to 30,000 people who live in Ocean View, facing several issues such as drug use, alcoholism, gangs, prostitution, and violence. About 8%-13% of residents live with HIV. More information of Ocean View can be found here.

The speaker, Alan, was a citizen of Ocean View. He explained that there are three schools in Ocean View, two primary schools and one high school. Each school has approximately 1,000 students, and a student to teacher ratio of 50 to 1. Many of the students have lost their parents to HIV, violence, or other poverty related incidents. For about 20 years, an organization has been running on Ocean View that uses dance and singing for a way to 'escape' the issues of their every day lives. Today, there are over 800 students involved in the organization.

Out of the 800 students, only 10 parents are involved in the organization with their children. We had the pleasure of watching one family, a son and mother who was 50 years old, ballroom dance together. Other performances we were able to see was children and teenagers dancing, and hearing the 'divas' sing Hero, Man in The Mirror, and Rolling in the Deep. Wow - South Africa has talent! The singers have even tried out for South Africa's X-Factor!

When we got back into the bus and drove away, we noticed the citizens of the township still hanging out of their windows, standing on the side of the road, and standing in front of their houses waving. There were several people making hearts with their hands. As we drove down the road a little more, more of Ocean View was visible. We saw a village of small trailers - not like the ones we have in the United States, more like metal boxes. In the village, clothes were hanging everywhere and trash was piled on the hills and visible everywhere. Looking farther into the village, everyone was outside of their homes. Children were playing and adults were talking. As Alan told us, there is a strong sense of community there. Everyone knows each other and watches out for each other.

I cannot even begin to explain how touching this experience was. Please always be thankful for what you have in life, to live in a house, to have friends and family, to have access to decent education, and to even have things we take for granted, like trash removal. Always be grateful for the people in your life and tell them you love them, they truly make life worth living. As seen in Ocean View, when things are rough, they are always there for you.

To my friends and family back home - I love you all dearly and you all mean so much to me. xoxo

This Time For Africa

Last time I studied abroad in London, I (tried to) blog every experience and got worn out within a month of doing in. This time, I've decided I will blog about different experiences in Cape Town that were very eye opening. Of course, pictures will be posted on my Facebook (www.facebook.com/steph.feinberg).

Enjoy! :)