Report 1

Thursday, September 20, 2001 Capetown, South Africa

Parishioner Mari-Lou Ott at Stick furniture project

Months before the September 11th tragedy, a return journey to South Africa had been planned. We flew out of the Twin Cities late Sunday afternoon. We all admitted that the local newscasters made us somewhat apprehensive. Their hysteria was not in evidence in the airports. Instead there was a somber but friendly atmosphere. The pilot on Delta airlines said as we took off “thank you for placing your confidence with us.” It proved to be one of many supportive comments we heard along the way. The thought was there though, that given what America was experiencing, the word ‘confidence’ provokes thought.

Wednesday morning meant Capetown coffee and your American ear listening to English being spoken with international accents. The waiters and hotel clerks, spotting that we were from the States, would say, “We are sorry for your loss.” In a mall café, I noticed three security guards, so I asked about them. The response was sobering. The young waiter said, “Terrorism is not new to us in South Africa.”

Capetown and cloudy Table Mountain from Robben Island

We had actually arrived late Tuesday afternoon. As one leaves the airport you can turn right for a stunning drive into Capetown. Our host, Jan du Toit, had the cars turn left, and drive three miles into the entrance of Guguletu, temporary home to 330,000 Xhosia citizens so we drove through the streets where cars and people fight for the empty spots in the road. I had the thought that the first thing a Xhosia child must learn was how to dodge cars. Our American eyes were seeing first hand what these sayings we use mean, “third world” and “below the poverty line.” Just as our emotions started to sink with the reality of this city of shacks, our cars turned into the church lot, and there in partial splendor was rising the J.L. Zame Training and Development Centre. All of us cheered because we all had helped in some way. Something good was being built.

Since our arrival, Table Mountain, Capetown’s towering centerpiece, has been wrapped in a cloud cover, so our ritual trip to the top has been postponed. Thursday the mountain clung to its clouds. Ace, our Xhosia driver, said to us “God if he wants us to climb the mountain will move the clouds for us.”

Prison quarters at Robben Island

Not able to climb the mountain, Jan called at 9:15 and said “We must change plans, there is a boat leaving for Robben Island at 10:00 AM, you can make it if you hurry. Ten people, two cars, a couple of wrong turns and we got to the dock three minutes before ten. Much has been written about Robben Island and its role in South African history. It was a leper colony, then a prison, and lastly the island that Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life on. As the guide said, “Race, religion, gender, skin color, our differences as humans, have caused us to do terrible things to one another. But we must remember that during these years of island imprisonment, Mandela studied Martin Luther King and King had studied the writings of Mahatma Gandhi. These black and Indian men have been beacons to many who have taken up the cause of nonviolence and reconciliation.

Chuck MacDonald and his wife Beth are Parishioners of St. Joan of Arc. He is a member of the Parish Council. Chuck also serves on the Board of Open Arms of MN. He is presently actively involved in efforts to help victims of Aids and poverty in South Africa and has traveled to Cape Town three times in the past fourteen months.

For eight Americans half way around the world at a time of national crisis, it was the best place to be, at South Africa’s shrine to the strength of the human spirit. Like Eric Kombela said in the car today, “God if he wants us to climb the mountain will move the clouds for us.”

Mari-Lou and Gene Ott and children of Khayalitsha