My South Africa

A friend reminded me about this piece by Professor Jonathan Jansen in response to my last blog.  

Professor Jonathan Jansen

My South Africa is the working-class man who called from the airport to return my wallet without a cent missing. It is the white woman who put all three of her domestic worker's children through the same school that her own child attended. It is the politician in one of our rural provinces, Mpumalanga, who returned his salary to the government as a statement that standing with the poor had to be more than just a few words. It is the teacher who worked after school hours every day during the public sector strike to ensure her children did not miss out on learning. 

My South Africa is the first-year university student in Bloemfontein who took all the gifts she received for her birthday and donated them - with the permission of the givers - to a home for children in an Aids village. It is the people hurt by racist acts who find it in their hearts to publicly forgive the perpetrators. It is the group of farmers in Paarl who started a top school for the children of farm workers to ensure they got the best education possible while their parents toiled in the vineyards. It is the farmer's wife in Viljoenskroon who created an education and training centre for the wives of farm labourers so that they could gain the advanced skills required to operate accredited early-learning centers for their own and other children. 

My South Africa is that little white boy at a decent school in the Eastern Cape who decided to teach the black boys in the community to play cricket, and to fit them all out with the togs required to play the gentleman's game. It is the two black street children in Durban, caught on camera, who put their spare change in the condensed milk tin of a white beggar. It is the Johannesburg pastor who opened up his church as a place of shelter for illegal immigrants. It is the Afrikaner woman from Boksburg who nailed the white guy who shot and killed one of South Africa's greatest freedom fighters outside his home. 

My South Africa is the man who went to prison for 27 years and came out embracing his captors, thereby releasing them from their impending misery. It is the activist priest who dived into a crowd of angry people to rescue a woman from a sure necklacing. It is the former police chief who fell to his knees to wash the feet of Mamelodi women whose sons disappeared on his watch; it is the women who forgave him in his act of contrition. It is the Cape Town university psychologist who interviewed the 'Prime Evil' in Pretoria Centre and came away with emotional attachment, even empathy, for the human being who did such terrible things under apartheid. 

My South Africa is the quiet, dignified, determined township mother from Langa who straightened her back during the years of oppression and decided that her struggle was to raise decent children, insist that they learn, and ensure that they not succumb to bitterness or defeat in the face of overwhelming odds. It is the two young girls who walked 20kms to school everyday, even through their matric years, and passed well enough to be accepted into university studies. It is the student who takes on three jobs, during the evenings and on weekends, to find ways of paying for his university studies. 

My South Africa is the teenager in a wheelchair who works in townships serving the poor. It is the pastor of a Kenilworth church whose parishioners were slaughtered, who visits the killers and asks them for forgiveness because he was a beneficiary of apartheid. It is the politician who resigns on conscientious grounds, giving up status and salary because of an objection in principle to a social policy of her political party. It is the young lawman who decides to dedicate his life to representing those who cannot afford to pay for legal services. 

My South Africa is not the angry, corrupt, violent country those deeds fill the front pages of newspapers and the lead-in items on the seven-o'-clock news. It is the South Africa often unseen, yet powered by the remarkable lives of ordinary people. It is the citizens who keep the country together through millions of acts of daily kindness. 

I copied the article and photograph from the South Africa The Good News website.

Professor Jonathan Jansen is the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State.

Crime like a Cancer

This morning I still feel shattered by the bad news I had yesterday. A friend’s husband has been murdered. I feel completely helpless. There should be something I can do. 

It took a while to sink in and I hung onto the possibility that the person who was telling it to me may have got it wrong somehow ... maybe they didn't hear it properly; did they actually see it happen?  Or were they just passing on a message which they didn't understand? It’s as if my brain refused to process it.

There’s a cancer that’s eating away at our society. It is threatening to undo all the hard work that has gone into building the hope which was generated by the hardships we endured in the past. Cancer needs to be fought with everything you have in order to survive. And with a lot more if you want to carry on living a quality life.

That’s what we have to do with the terrible violent crime that is spreading day by day, touching everyone’s life. You cope by convincing yourself that it cannot happen to you. And then, it is in your circle and hits you in the chest. We have to stand up and fight this, before there is no one left to fight for us.

You’re only beat when you think you are and when you give up the fight. Today I am hanging onto that and feeling sad. Tomorrow I hope that I will remember something that helps me pick up the fight. 

My Life So Far Trailer (1999) - YouTube

Being the early bird in the family has it's advantages, like having a  quiet house to myself on a Sunday morning. While the rest of the family hugs the duvet, I potter downstairs to make a cup of tea and get first pick on the Sunday newspapers. 

Some mornings I have still felt like curling up with a blanket although not sleeping and have been rewarded with the most delicious old movies on TV. Like My Life So Far about a ten year old boy growing up in the Scottish Highlands, post-World War I.  

The characters include his eccentric inventor father, his older sister who is of marriageable age and Gamma, the matriarch of the family, played by Rosemary Harris. It is an endearing coming-of-age story taking place in a time when the world was grappling with the changes brought about by the devastation of the war. It reminded me of my new favourite TV series, Downton Abbey. 

Here is a little preview courtesy of You Tube. I am sure that you could rent the movie from the DVD store. 

For the Love of Reading

http://interioralchemy.tumblr.com/page/10#

On the cover of a recent Oprah magazine, she is reclining against a wall, mauve and green foliage in the background evoking lazy summer days, on her lap an open book. I tried to imagine the book replaced with a Kindle or some version of an e-book. Not quite the same.

At a recent gathering of fellow writers, we bemoaned the demise of the book. One person in the group mentioned that a friend had recently moved and given away all her books since she was now into electronic reading. We were horrified...giving away all your books?! Sacrilegious! I cannot imagine not having bookshelves laden with books in my home.

But it seems we are the cross-over generation - the ones who can embrace the change brought about by technology but still appreciate the benefits and delights of holding a book, turning the pages. You can’t miss something you never had, or you never knew.

On all our travels around the world we have always come back dragging heavy suitcases filled with books which we simply had to have...On our recent trip to Italy I knew that my daughter had finally relaxed when I saw her curling up on the bed with a book she had been meaning to read for probably a year.

I remember my son for all of his prep school life walking around book tucked under his arm, ready to whip it out if he had a free moment. His school had encouraged this love of reading we had instilled   into both of them from a young age. Sadly, I don’t see him reading much recently. He seems to be spending more and more time on the computer. However, he still has a bookshelf of favourite books which he won’t pass on and I think that it won't be long before he is inspired to pick up a book again.

On the other hand, I don’t mind what they read as long as they read...

Maya Angelou's Autobiography - all six volumes

 I first read Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings many years ago. I clearly remember the hardships of growing up as a black child in the American South of the 1930s that she described - the discrimination and poverty as a background to the trauma of her parents' divorce and her rape by one of her mother's boyfriends.

Recently, I came across the reprint of all six volumes at the local bookstore and decided to tackle them all. I loved reading the first volume again and it remains my favourite. I didn't find the last two as interesting, even though it dealt with the civil rights movement and the deaths of her friends, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. It seemed to lack a certain depth - like she had left something out on purpose.

Perhaps I missed the beautiful descriptive passages which were so abundant in the earlier volumes and which made me feel like I was looking through a window to her past.

Below are some of the gems from her first book...

...barbers sat their customers in the shade on the porch of the Store, and troubadors on their ceaseless crawlings through the South leaned across benches and sang their sad songs...

...the pickers would step out of the backs of trucks and fold down, dirt-disappointed, to the ground.

...the old ladies took up the hymn and shared it in tight harmony...the humming crowd...like tired bees, restless and anxious to get home...

The summer picnic gave ladies a chance to show off their baking hands...chickens and spareribs sputtered in their own fat and a sauce whose recipe guarded in the family like a scandalous affair...

Maya Angelou has lived a rich and varied life as waitress, singer, actress, dancer, activist, writer and poet, in the US as well as in different countries in Africa. Her books celebrate her life.

The other volumes in the autobiography are:

• A Song Flung up to Heaven
• Singing and Swinging and Getting Merry like Christmas
• All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes
• The Heart of a Woman
• Gather Together in My Name

Making a Difference - Project Playground

Frida and Sofia with the PP soccer team

I first met Frida Vesterberg and Sofia Hellqvist during the 2010 soccer World Cup when they were about to embark on setting up Project Playground in Langa, one of  the oldest townships in Cape Town. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and vision of these two young Swedish women. Now two years later, Project Playground is flourishing with 239 children and 25 employees (all local).

What does the project do? 

They are an NPO which runs after-school and holiday programs for disabled and able children. The disabled children attend in the mornings and have individual therapy and participate in programs designed by their OT, Aimee Jansen. The rest of the children come after school and participate in sport activities such as soccer and BMX extreme biking; art and cultural activities like dance, marimba & djembe, vocal sessions, photography, as well as debating and homework support. 

Project Playground is based on the conviction that everyone has a right to a childhood (as stated in the UNCRC: article 31). They believe that self esteem is partly built on sport and recreational activities, and that strong individuals contribute to a society with decreased crime, teenage pregnancies, violence and poverty. 

Frida says that providing children with a safe place where they have a sense of belonging, where they can be kids and develop through sports and play, contributes to their self esteem and self image. She continues, “…the more you believe in yourself and your abilities, the harder you will work in school, and the more you'll invest in your life.”

PP also links with various outreach programs aimed at strengthening and educating the surrounding community. All the activities, transport and food is free of charge. They are not bound to any political or religious groups. 

Why do you do it?

“Since we were little girls, Sofia and I dreamt about doing this. I am unbelievably blessed to do what I do. Furthermore, I believe it is my duty to contribute in the areas I can. Imagine if we all just put a little bit more effort into being the change we want to see! 

I do what I do because I believe that every selfless and caring act contributes to peace; I believe by doing good where you can, in speech, thought and action, you will send out ripples of hope - and that those energy ripples create currents which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and evil.”

Frida likes the saying by Michael Beckwith:

“We are unlimited beings. We have no ceiling. The capability, the talents and the power that is within every single individual on this planet, is unlimited.”

You may also like Making a Difference - Leanne Keet

Socialising in the 21st Century

The modern version of having friends around...

The school holidays have whizzed by. My daughter is still at university, so for the first time it has hardly felt like a holiday -  everyone has carried on doing what they normally do, except for my son.

Well, I say hardly felt like a holiday except for the "men" lounging around in our living room, playing games, pretending to be socialising with each other!  They looked up only when they needed to refuel and then actually spoke to each other.

It is an ongoing challenge trying to instil a balance - there is so much interfacing with technology. Granted, they did spend hours playing hockey or soccer followed by hours on the couch...so I guess it does sort of balance out. Plenty of time to think about creative ways of engaging before the bumper end of year holidays...any ideas?