South Africa Project
photos
In the Township 5/5/03
by Claire Darrow (from Midcoast Meeting Newsletter, June 2003)
I struggle for words to describe what I’ve seen today. But let me begin at the beginning…
Our reason for coming to South Africa was that my husband, Rick, had been invited to teach a 5-day intensive course in Cape Town on environmental economics. We took advantage of this wonderful opportunity to book ourselves into a game park next to the Kreuger National Park. We would see animals in their native surroundings, without bars, free food, or interference. This we did for four days and enjoyed it thoroughly. Rick, an avid bird watcher, added over 100 birds to his life list, and we took wonderful pictures as momentos of our trip.
We then made our way through Johannesburg to Cape Town, where
we planned to enjoy the town and its environs for a few days before Rick’s
course began. We went down to the Cape of Good Hope, at Africa’s southern
tip, and saw where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. It felt as though we
had journeyed to the ends of the earth. I couldn’t help thinking about
all the sailing ships that had rounded that cape on their way home and the joy
the sailors must have felt to finally be on the last leg of their long journey.
I had been told that there was a Quaker meeting in Cape Town, and I joined them
on First Day. I was welcomed warmly. I brought greetings to them from Midcoast,
and they sent theirs back to us. After worship they had tea and cookies, and
I had a chance to talk with people.
One of them was a woman named Georgina Mbomba, who works at the Quaker Peace
Center across from the meetinghouse. She is a mediation trainer, and she does
work in the townships, the areas where the Blacks were moved after being “removed”
from their former homes in Cape Town when apartheid was instituted. The townships
are achingly poor—homes there consist of tiny shacks made from pieces
of scrounged wood and tin, minimally heated, and with no water or sanitation.
Unemployment hovers around 30%, sometimes higher.
Georgina is a warm, gentle woman, and I felt able to ask her if there was some way I could get to one of the townships and see for myself what it was like, without seeming to be just another tourist. She smiled and said, “Of course, I will take you myself and show you our gardens.” I didn’t know quite what she meant about gardens, but we made plans to go the next day.
When I arrived at the Peace Center I had a chance to speak with the director about the center’s work. It is the only Peace Center in South Africa, though not the only one on the continent. Trying to counteract extreme violence, unemployment, poverty and the underlying disease which results from the AIDS pandemic and TB, the Peace Center has an enormous job to do. (Many older people are raising their grandchildren after the parents have died. A very full cemetery lies nearby, with many new graves.) One of the Peace Center’s most successful programs is mediation training, which helps people to solve some of their problems themselves. Their successes give them pride and hope, which are often in short supply.
As we drove to the township in Georgina’s car, she told me more about the area and her work there. In addition to mediation training, which is a totally voluntary program, she has been instrumental in helping people organize community gardens. In the township, the houses are so small and so close together that there is no space for gardens near people’s homes, so the community gardens have offered a solution. Individual plots are in great demand and are given out only to the unemployed, who are in most need of something to do and a way to find satisfaction in what they can do. We stopped at a chain-link fence, through which I saw the first green things I had seen in the whole area. As we walked in, we were hailed by several round, middle-aged women, dressed in long skirts, with scarves around their heads. I was introduced all around, and they led me through the garden and proudly identified each growing thing. Their crops included cauliflower, cabbages, onions, eggplant, some tomatoes, and lots of Swiss chard. There was not a weed in sight. The soil was black and rich, full of the compost they had made themselves. The women were so glad to show it off to me, and I shared their joy in it. I deeply regretted having left my camera behind, but I was afraid of looking like just another tourist.
We then went over to what looked like the body of a big truck without wheels and went through a door, to the inside. There sat more women on well-worn wooden benches, and I was introduced all around again. They were so glad to see me and greeted me with big hugs. I’ve seldom felt such a warm and joyous welcome.
Georgina told them I was from America, and we managed to talk a little about that, a little about the garden, and a lot about mediation. All of them were trained mediators, and the “container,” as they called the space we were in, was where they met with people requesting mediation. At times, quite a long line of people stands outside, awaiting their turn. Word has gotten out that mediation helps, and people feel comfortable asking their peers for assistance. The women expressed their wish for a second container so people wouldn’t have to wait so long to be heard.
After a bit, and good wishes all around and more hugs, we made our way to another community garden, this one on the grounds of a Presbyterian church. We walked past 2 young women sitting with 9 or 10 toddlers, who looked at us shyly. In another container we met a few more women, including a Canadian woman who had come to see the area and simply stayed because she saw a need and felt she could help. She was in charge of this particular garden.
Here they had taken the project a step further and were raising their own seedlings, rather than spending money to buy them. They had styrofoam “boards” with coin-sized depressions about 2 inches deep which they filled with compost and one seed. Each seed is precious and they were able to make their small supply go much further this way.
Again I was given a complete tour of the garden, and I felt as though I was being introduced to each plant. The plots are nowhere big enough to supply a family for a year, but the satisfaction in the few fresh vegetables they lovingly raise is priceless.
As we left, we again passed the little children, 7 of whom were now sitting in a dry wading pool, no more than 3 feet across. I waved and said good-bye, and they now smiled and waved and said good-bye back to us, over and over.
As we drove through the township, we passed an open-air market which offered secondhand shoes, battered cooking pots, used clothing, laundry baskets, and lots of other recycled items. Passing houses, we saw some which had clapboards painted aqua or purple, with perhaps a red tin roof. But most were unpainted. Laundry lines and refuse piles were the most common sights, with a dog here and there. A few youths gathered at corners. I felt a great deal of energy everywhere, with lots of calling back and forth. Everyone knew each other, and in spite of all the problems, this was their community, their home. I wished for betterment of their living conditions, but not at the expense of losing their sense of community again.
On the way back, Georgina told me a bit about herself. I missed some words, as the African accent can be very broad sometimes, but I didn’t want to interrupt her story. She was born crippled and underwent many surgeries, which necessitated being parted from her family. Finally, at age 16, she had a last surgery and left her limp behind. She went to university in the UK, studying social work. I think she got to South Africa by answering a want ad, but I am a bit fuzzy here. She was a Quaker in England and took that with her. She has been with the Peace Center for 8 years. For a while she took time off to teach a short course on poverty at the University of Cape Town. Her work was well received, as she insisted on taking her students around, showing them what poverty really looks like. The university wanted her to continue and offered her an assistant and a BMW as enticements. But she was appalled and said her work was with the people themselves. That’s where she felt she could do the most good.
And so we parted, having spent several good hours together. She thanked me again for coming and caring. We will keep in touch. As I left, my head was spinning with new sights, sounds, and information to be sorted out. I am very grateful for the gift she gave me of her time and energy. She told me, “Now you are an ambassador,” and I said, “I know that.”
Container Project Update
by Claire Darrow (from Midcoast Meeting Newsletter, September 2003)
Direct mail letters
We have had very good response to the mailing, and newspaper publicity is still bringing in some more. Have a look at the pictures of South Africa displayed on the piano (if they haven’t fallen off). They show what I saw in the townships, and show the life and living conditions of the people there.
African Dinner
Andy Burt has taken the idea and is running with it. Dottie Albright has offered to be one of the cooks, and we will need more cooks, also kitchen and serving help, perhaps from some of those who helped with the Seeds of Peace dinner. We will send out the call when plans are a bit more firm. We have secured the Second Congregational Church for October 4th, and hope to get it for free. We need people to help with publicity, and a good level of enthusiasm always helps. Another development in conjunction with the dinner is a probable program on Restorative Justice here in Maine, which complements the work of the mediators in their container. We have interested people who may speak, and it promises to be a very rich evening after we have all had a good dinner.
Silent Auction
I have talked with a Friend in Portland Meeting who has done this
with good success several times. She says it is a good way to get to know people
you would otherwise not interact much with. By August 31st I will have handouts
on how it works. If you didn’t get a copy, look for one on the credenza.
Basically, people look at what they can give, be it an item or a service. When
you think creatively about what you might do for someone else, we all have a
lot to give each other, whether it is a ride somewhere, a dinner cooked, babysitting,
and many, many more things can pop up as you think about it. We do need a person
who is willing to coordinate this, and it really is not a big job. Think about
taking the plunge.
So Friends, we are well on our way, and I am encouraged and excited about it.
For some of us the dinner will be reminiscent of our meetinghouse fundraising
way back in ’93 and ’94, which was a great deal of fun. New people,
come join us! It has always been apparent to me that in working together, we
come to know each other and bond in a very special way. We need everybody in
on this.
South Africa Letters
E-mail exchanges between Claire Darrow and her South African contact,
Georgina Mbambo, of the Quaker Peace Centre, Cape Town
(from the Midcoast Meeting Newsletter, December 3003)
From Claire Darrow to Georgina Mbambo, 10/13/03
We had a wonderful time at the fundraising dinner and silent auction
last Saturday, although the rain was pouring down. The auction alone made enough
to fund a whole container! I was very pleased. After the dinner we had a program
on restorative justice, which I gather has been used in South Africa, and perhaps
in your area. It seems like a kind and thoughtful way to deal with people, though
I’ll bet it’s hard to do.
I will be away for ten days, having a small vacation with my husband. As the
money is still coming in, I don’t want to send a partial remittance unless
you want it right away. (If that is the case, let me know before Wednesday.)
It should be enough to get you some help for your educational projects. It might
be as much as nearly $3600. I‘ve been overwhelmed at how much people have
been moved by my story about you and interested in you and your mediators. I
was SO glad to get their pictures, and one of you!! Thank you very much. I am
still being asked about a picture of a container. It’s just because people
are so interested.
Take care of yourself, my Friend Georgina,
Claire
From Georgina Mbambo to Claire Darrow, 11/11/03
Claire You Are Very Special,
First of all is my apology as usual, I am so bad at time management especially here at QPC, we quite often work on crisis because of our environment, which has crisis all the time. My working schedule has been very busy away from Cape Town in remote areas with no electricity and no laptop. Two of us had to go out to deal with conflict for just more than two weeks just before you came back from your vacation with your husband. Then it was report after report and planning for next year, then it was deaths of one of the women mediators you met and two other grown-up children of those women you met—because I work with them, I was pulled to help with so many issues.
Last week we were at a 3 days workshop away from the townships using the remainder of the money you sent for the container with the same women mediators you saw in order to discuss plans on how we can be more effective next year, how are we going to reduce the violence which we are experiencing. The scary part was when we spoke about HIV/AIDS as it has affected almost all our mediators, this is an emotional topic, but I said it must be discussed, and now people are beginning to be open about it. It is the only way to deal with the issue, some women will now talk about it to other community groups.
You can see how special you are with your Meeting. We told the women that part of the money which has enabled them to go out and reflect on their lives came from you, they were very happy as some of them have never been out for such an experience. They send their many thanks to you and the Meeting. We have our training for this year and are working very hard on next year’s plans, we are definitely going ahead with training on democracy and human rights next year, as many of our people suffer because they are uninformed about their rights.
The money that you send will be used in the coming year starting last week in January. I am trying a video for you, which will incude the container and meetings held to discuss mediation, and some mediation, I hope. My friends, let me wish you all to be well and do extend my sincere thanks for what you are doing for the QPC (Quaker Peace Center).
I must go home and cook for my family now, it is 18 hours to the clock. I just wish I had my own computer then I can also work from my house. I am trying to save to buy a second hand one, I am sure I’ll do it early next year.
In peace, Georgina
Here are some photos sent by Georgina,
the contact person in South Africa,
who helps train the mediators.
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Some of the mediators, posing in the community gardens. |
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The community garden compost heap. Organic gardening methods are used. |
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Some of the gardeners. |
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Georgina in the community garden. |