We have done a lot of fun, amazing things while here in Cape Town but there have definitely been some more sobering and serious moments that I’d really like to share with my family, friends and my housemates families and friends. While at my internship one day this past week I struck up a conversation with the copy man (the man who fixes our irksome copy machine, which loves to break every 2 seconds) and was surprised at what he asked me. Upon learning that I was American, he told me that he was Muslim and that he really wanted to visit the United States but that he was afraid to because of the attacks on Muslims he had been hearing about and the general attitudes of the American people towards Muslims and those who looked like Muslims. This hit me very hard as we had recently watched a film in class entitled “Divided We Fall,” which I HIGHLY recommend all about the attacks on Sikh Indians in the U.S. He asked me what I thought he should do, was it safe for him to visit or no? I didn’t know what to say and it upset me. I wanted him to visit my country, especially because he really wanted to but at the same time I didn’t want to lie to him and say he wouldn’t encounter any threats or stereotypes of Muslims while he was there. I hated that I came from a country that had such negative attitudes about a group of people who meant us no harm. At that moment I did not want to be American.
Another moment that hit me very hard was during our first few weeks here in Cape Town. We had gone to church and were coming home and driving through the township of Khayelitsha on our big touristy bus. I saw three little kids playing on the side of the road in a pile of garbage. One of the boys picked up a broken crate to play with and I watched as a little girl whacked him over the head with a piece of garbage because she wanted to play with the crate. These kids were literally fighting over garbage because that was all that they had to play with. I nearly burst into tears. I could remember fighting over toys with my brother when I was younger and they were certainly new, clean and innumerable.
Another similar moment to that occurred just a week or so ago while in Johannesburg. We played with some children we encountered in a market and it was their greatest moment of joy when we let them use our cameras to take pictures of us and themselves. The little boy among the group had been rolling a dirty old tire along with a stick as a toy. A man came along with inflatable toys and some members of our group immediately wanted to buy a toy for them so we did. Seeing the kids faces light up at small inflatable Winnie the Pooh or Spiderman for 5 rand nearly broke my heart in all the right ways. It was incredibly hard to stay at the Balalaika Hotel and see the Gold Reef Casino knowing the extreme poverty that people suffer in the townships right next to these places of luxury. Doing all of the amazing activities here, especially the ones that were paid for for our group, is such a privilege. Many of the locals I have spoken to have never even climbed Table Mountain because they can’t afford the transportation to get to the base or to get into the park and they live below it their whole lives. I am only here for four months and I have already gone climbing three times.
And a final moment of sadness was when we went to the Hector Pieterson memorial and walked through the cemetery remembering those who had been killed at Sharpeville, the youngest of whom was only a 9-year-old girl. Seeing a tipped over gravestone emerged in water and realizing that even in death these freedom fighters were not awarded the respect and dignity that they deserved really got to me. You cannot see what I have seen in this country and not be changed as a person. I can see my housemates changing around me and I can see the change within myself as well. Seeing the hardships and poverty that we have all seen has brought us closer together as a group and bonded us. Yes the days are full of fun such as surfing, climbing mountains and eating tasty goodies but the days and especially nights are full of meaningful thoughts and at least on my part, journal entries questioning who I am and why and what I did to have all that I do have. You cannot visit this country and leave without wanting to help people somewhere, it is impossible. Cape Town and South Africa have made a great and lasting impact on me that I will never forget or regret.
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