Home Again

Firstly my apologies for the lack of posts on the blog while I was away. It was very difficult to find internet access.

I suspect the Ark Teachers and Monitors (teacher aides) will always be in my thoughts. The time with them was amazing. I'm hoping some of them will get internet access so we can stay in touch. They were so appreciative of all we did together. We learnt much from them - their acceptance of life as it is for them, their celebration of their faith. I asked some how they could believe in a Loving God, when life was so tough. They told me they are able to live due to their faith and belief in his love for them and their hopes and dreams for their future is with God. That is a bit hard for me to get my head around.

Clinton invited us to share our final meal with his family in his home on Mitchell's Plain. His neighbour had cooked us a lovely curry. They had gone to a great deal of effort (he told us he had been planning the evening for a year!) His neighbours all popped in to meet the 'white people. ' His mother-in-law spoke to us of how she admired the RATA teachers. She said she knows full well we are all educated and wealthy, and yet observed that we interacted and spoke with her and her family with respect and treated them as our equals. She said for her this was very unique and very special to her. I was saddened that this should be so unusual for her.

This reflected the comments made to me by 16 year old Nicky. Returning to his class after interval I said hello to him, and used his name. He asked me how I knew his name. I replied I knew it because he had told me it earlier in the morning. He then checked this out by asking me to tell him the names of others in the class, which fortunately I was able do. He then told me no one had ever remembered his name, ever. He walks 1.5 hours to school from the nearby Township of Mfuleni. Using his name gave me a great open door - all day the class was talking with me, asking me questions, wanting their photos taken etc. They are intelligent kids, with a thirst for knowledge, but also with a great understanding that others in this world do not live as they do.

These kids all need to be sponsored by someone to attend university. They have no chance of going unless someone pays their fees and accommodation. They already know this and verbalise they are stuck in poverty until someone rescues them. Not one student asked me to sponsor them.... There are no scholarships to apply for - they simply live in hope, that as has happened to some of their classmates, someone, somewhere will offer to sponsor them. I am left wondering how to best help these delightful, intelligent, articulate young people.

Thanks to everyone for their financial support that was all spent on buying resources - Christine and I ended up spending 9000 Rand on books (we bought over 200 books). As we had found a real shortage of books we decided to try google and discovered the "Biblionef" in Pinelands. Clinton left us at the Biblionef for the day on Monday. This place, situated in the Dutch Centre for Cape Town, was an amazing find as it has picture books in the 11 official languages of SA. We managed to get Biblionef to print us labels for each book saying "Donated by the families in New Zealand - RATA 2009" The Ark School was thrilled with your books. Thank you.