Day 5 - apartheid and townships

This morning we had a speaker come to our class from the Amy Biehl Foundation which was formed after the murder of Amy Biehl, a 26 year old woman who was living in South Africa trying to help prepare the Black Africans and coloureds for their first free voting since the apartheid. This foundation is meant to be a safe haven for children after school and to educate them, teach them arts such as dance and music, and to keep them off the streets of the townships and hopefully out of trouble.

            This afternoon we took busses into the townships to see tour it, see how the people there live, and see the programs that the children are involved in after school. The bus got eerily quiet when we entered the townships, everyone was in awe at what we were seeing. It was very difficult for me to picture myself in their shoes, to actually try to imagine how their daily lives must be was and still is very tough for me to imagine. It’s just another one of those things that made me realize how truly blessed I am to have a warm house, loving family, and live in a free country.

            After riding through the townships, we stopped at one of the schools of the Amy Biehl Foundation. As we were walking in, we weren’t quite sure what to say, what to expect, or how to act. Some of the kids don’t speak English, how were we to know? We were then told that the kids would be performing for us, so we aligned ourselves in an audience and watched while they brought out the bongos, xylophone-type deals, and other instruments. Then the show began! My heavens, we were all shocked to see these kids that couldn’t be any older than 14 dancing and playing those instruments like real legitmate semi-professionals! They were fantastic. The little girls who were dancing were mostly around the age of 10 and were completely together in their dance and were shaking their hips like MTV was filming. The music was fantastic also- very well rehearsed. These kids had some serious talent. The people on staff at the schools informed us previously that by the kids having the opportunity to cultivate some of their talents, their self-esteem was improved and they felt that they had something to be proud of.

            By the time we left the townships, most of us had changed our minds from our first impression from entering the townships. You would think that the poverty these people lived in would bring them down, but they weren’t sad or angry- it was easy to see the abundant joy in their smiles. 

            Once we came back home and had some time to wind down from the day, many people decided to go to Zorba’s for dinner, which is a Greek restaurant right outside the hotel.