Molo! Greetings From South Africa

Greetings from rainy Capetown. My journey here has been one that has greatly pulled, stretched, enriched, rewarded and enlightened me. One of the greatest joys of being here came within week two of the journey when I was placed within Fezeka High School in Khayelitsha township. Fezeka, though lacking in teachers, resources and space, is considered to be the best within the township. The school has no cafeteria, no toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms for the kids, there is certainly no gym or sports teams. This week the students are in exams, which means that they must sit in classrooms with broken windows with the cold rainy air around them and ceilings that leak water in desks not even five feet away.

I met a boy named Lwondo Magwaca on Tuesday the 2nd who told me he walks 45 minutes to school everyday...with the way it has been raining non stop for the past week, I cannot even imagine what this is like. Lwondo's name means 'gift', and he certainly lives up to this meaning. Within five minutes of meeting him, he read me three of his beautiful poems that are still haunting me to the day. My hope is that he will alow me to share some of these poems in the printed edition of Phem that comes out this summer so that you can see at least a bit of what I have seen since I've arrived.

Lwondo has had a wonderful outlet for his writing as a member of the newly established Poetry Club meetings that Alex, a English teacher here with Education Without Borders has set up. Establishing programs like this that allow the students to share their experiences with one another in such a creative and expressive way is a wonderufl gift to be able to give back. Today I am hoping to reconnect with Lwondo and the rest of the poetry club that is here and listen to their words; words of hope, of pain, of connectivity and of truth...the truth that I hope to be able to portray to my audience back home.

I can't wait to share photographs, stories, words and reflections of my time here in capetown with everyone--internet is a luxury, along with time, as we try to do as much as possible within our small window that we are here. In the meantime, here is a small sample of some of the highlights we have witnessed here.

The beginning of the trip: at JFK Airport During Layover

celebrating Dr. Fish's Birthday

Bo-Kaap on Sunday Morning

evening dialogue

local delicacy: smilies (goats head) in Khayelitsha Township

kids in Khayelitsha

Mama Thope sharing wisdom on women's empowerment

Some of the group with Mama Thope


the group at Camps Bay High School

Some of the choir at Fezeka High School

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Some of the choir at Fezeka High School

Some of the choir at Fezeka High School

MORE TO COME SOON

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