Where is the Love?

Monday, June 28th 2010
-----------
This day, I got back to my classes with the women. We worked on more Microsoft stuff, but because the meeting space that I normally teach in was under construction, we were working in the living room; not ideal, but workable anyhow. One of the women got very frustrated with Word, and pretty much gave up for the day. I told her to call it a day, and that we’d get back to the basics at the next lesson. I think she’ll be ok with the right attitude though.

Tuesday, June 29th 2010
------------
On Tuesday, I thought it would be a day for me to catch up on all my work that I’ve been behind on for the website, but instead, I was told that we were going to CAFDA (a social justice organization that provides for many of the poorer suburbs of Cape Town) to meet with some US volunteers organizing a workshop of sorts.

Six 19 or 20-year-olds attended the discussion, which covered everything from poverty to gang violence. Five volunteers that were working with a different organization here facilitated it with the goal of learning more about the problems that plague communities like Lavender Hill. The discussion was really emotional, and when the children started talking about things like being afraid to tell police about violence ( because the police here are corrupt and often work with drug dealers, rather than turning them in ), or their neighbors getting shot, I suddenly felt incredibly compassionate for these people – no human deserves to have to endure such lifelong fear and violence. Comparing poverty here to poverty back in the US is not even possible; they are on two completely different levels.

Later, the lead US volunteer starting saying some things that upset me. He was saying that the reason these communities lack proper education and have horrendous crime/violence is that no one is standing up against the threats. He said that people should become leaders in the community, turning people into the police, or offering education to their neighbors. But how are they supposed to turn in criminals if they’re afraid of getting shot in retaliation? How are they supposed to educate each other when they can’t afford schooling for themselves or their children (public school is not free here)? And organizations like Philisa Abafazi are standing up for these types of causes. The volunteers that attended the workshop with me agreed, and we tried to explain that the level of problems in Lavender Hill was not one that could be stopped solely by community leadership; it’s time for serious government intervention. We invited him to come back to Lavender Hill and see where we work and what these people are facing; he declined – perhaps if he saw it, he’d have a different opinion. The Black Eyed Peas song "Where is the Love?" came on TV as I was typing this. I think this excerpt from it details how I feel sometimes here pretty accurately:

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

That night, we went to Cubana’s to watch the Spain-Portugal game. I met some new volunteers (yay!) and then Spain won! It was a good night.
More musings upon some of the issues I talked about today to come soon, hopefully. My macbook charger broke, so I have to go find a new one :-\