Reflections from Dwight

Today was possibly, not possibly, was the most mentally challenging day of the week. I was placed in a numerous amount of scenarios where I wasn’t used to and will explain in different ways.

Transitions
An up and down state of extremes is what you call South Africa. Due to the rise and fall of apartheid it has caused a lot of waiting issues to occur, one in particular to me. When you look at Simon’s Town you see nice houses, cars, a beautiful beach, like upper class, you stroll like 1 mile doesn’t you will be in average two bedroom homes usually orange, green yellow or white. Kinda
middle class but in poverty. Then you go next door to that and the true effects of apartheid kick in. You see 10 ft high 10 ft wide houses made of scrap metal and no electricity. Scrap metal houses which from far away look like giant garbage dumps. Now imagine that there are 2 million people living in these scrap metal houses 10 ft by 10 ft, now imagine that 1 million is only in
Kheyalitsha. One of the hundreds of others like itself in South Africa. Now imagine a mansion right next to it. You know who lives in the mansion and who lives in the scrap. And its just unreal to see this is a giant spread of these shacks then you approach the biggest mall in the southern hemisphere. And just a mile back people were going into big garbage dumps to get supplies and live off what they can. And further down you notice that as stated by Sam that for the workers that work at the mall and can’t afford to buy anything in the entire mall. I was told about a girl who chose to buy a pair of shoes and then she couldn’t afford to go to school. Man it shocks me to know that this goes on every day and I complain about crap. There is no easy transition there is just what you see is what you get.

Father Xola inspired me on what and how the lives of the people in Khayelitscha. How they do what they can and it made me realize.

Crime.
When talk of crime in the US you think we got it bad and are people so violent but most of it is premeditated. But in South Africa oh they are crazy. You just dies and die and die and they just have incotrolled random violence. And this is not the case at all. But to start I will say I saw my first dead body covered up but I did see it. And on the cover of the newspaper it said 21 people were killed. It makes you nervous til you see and hear the truth. There may be a lot of different kinds of crime but not necessarily without cause. Like Father Xola said after apartheid they are in the stafe of wild and crazy but it will die down. But the crime here is survival of the fittest. They can only do what they need to to survive. They don’t randomly rob you. They are
poor and need money. Im, actually mad at myself for thinking of the people as untamed animals. It is only a small percent of the population commits crime. And again it is last resort. When a child has to steal, like literally roob their own parents there is a problem and it just doesn’t randomly happen. When a parent sells a kid to sex for a few rand and that’s not crime that is just a sign that the system is not working and something needs to be done. Numerous amounts of people have talked about the biggest problem in South Africa. AIDS/HIV which is stronger here than anywhere in the world. I learned the facts and here is the reflection.

Dialogue.
You constantly hear on the radio people talking about preventing the spread of AIDS because it is high in America. After being here that is almost tame. In American 1.28[%] of the populations. Try multiplying that by 30 and here that is just about 1 in 3 people have HIV/AIDS. And it is said that by 23010 when the FIFA world cupcomes it will be 1 in 2 people. Its just unbelievable
that if you come here in 2010 and counted 1, 2, 1, 2 that every second person would already be infected with a disease that is undetectable unseeable and unvincable. I questioned to myself that why and how could this happen there are many groups now to prevent aids through teaching the kids but why not 10 years ago. Then I found out that the government does not acknowledge AIDS as a disease and said it was a white mans trick to run apartheid. It almost like are you out of your mind. It doesn’t exist. Well explain why 1 in 3 people have aids, explain why kids have lost their parents to this plague and have been thrown in foster homes. Explain how you are so stupid that you can believe that be true. When I heard it almost brought me to tears. How could something so devastating to your country not exist. And then I realized it. AIDS has went to the source. Its smart. It knew that it could brainwash the government into believing it wasn’t real they would tell the people and it could spread like butter on bread. And it is succeeding. But thank God for the church who has put it on itself to prevent the spread of aids. Through workshops and the Agents of Change who teach young adults and teenagers about the disease. Let you know that you don’t have to have sex because you have nothing to do, or to follow the trend. Because now with the trend, is the disease. Tell them that it is all right to not have sex that the trend can change to not having sex. And if you do have sex make it with one you care for and one who is willing to wear a condom. Because after all if you don’t have sex how could the disease spread. Yes I know that it comes from the blood and breast milk but you have to have sex to breast feed. And by 2010 you could be enjoying the world cup cheering for your South Africa Team.

And to end for today I have a little something which is important.

Why Are We Here?

I am constantly hit with why are you here
And of this group this question affects every single peer.
We could all say we were on vacation.
Or we are all here to help foreign relations.
We could say we are here to see the beautiful land.
Or say we are here to gain knowledge as a country and where we stand.
We could say we are here to change their lives.
But in my eyes they are changing our lives.
We did not know but I do know today.
And here’s what I say in this rhyming way
We are here to be together and also with Christ
We are here to build as one but still breaking the ice
We are here to see each other’s faces
We are here to learn of each others places
We are here in partnership as one big family
And if we are not that then what can we be
We are here in a way that might seem visionary
In a way that may seem missionary
We are really here to build a bridge all the way across the map
And when that is completed we have closed the gap.

(Received for posting 22 July 2008)
(Editor's note: in line 8 in the above poem, I corrected "our loves" to "our lives". I hope I corrected a typo.)