CPT 2011 co-educators attending a Welcoming Braai at Rose's home
Back row: Teddy, Marie, Joe, Siobhan, Katherine, Leanne, Dana,Logan, Kate, Tom, Lianna, Anna, Meaghan, Julian, Taylor
Front row: Ashley, Sharielle, Brenna, Emily, Nicole, Terri, Kayla, Susie
Center front: their new friend Georgia

Human RIghts Training Weekend

Human RIghts Training Weekend

29 April 2011

Tom looking back with hopes for the future


So this is my last blog and I think it’s going to be a short one.  It still hasn’t dawned on me that I’ll be back home on Sunday.  I am very excited to go home, I miss it, but I’m realizing more and more that I simply do not want to leave this place.  I know I will be back, this place means too much for me not to return eventually.  I guess I’m so sad because I wonder what it will be like here when I do return.  Will the drive from the airport still feature the informal settlements on the side of the road?  Will the Cape Flats still look like they do today?  Next time I go to Muizenberg will there be more black people and colored people than white people (they are after all the majority)?  Obviously I do not know the answers to any of these questions but I really hope to see a marked improvement on my return.  Every time I saw a little kids face in Khayelitsha I wondered what his or her life was going to be like.  Were they going to be stuck in the same exact trap as most black people in this country right now?  I would like to think that this next generation is going to be the one to do it – to forcibly drag South Africa to the level that it should be.  When I come back I’d like to see electricity and running water in every home.  I’d like to see no more informal settlements.  I’d like to see all people treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.  As I sit here and type I realize just how invested in South Africa I am.  This place has changed me; it has meant more to me than anyone could ever understand.  It was the exact right place at the exact right time.  I’m finally beginning to understand that this place is home.

No comments:

Post a Comment