Saturday is Funeral Day

Arm in Arm in Africa: Saturday, February 22nd, 2003

Today was a day of amazing contrasts. We began at the Golden Girls Orphanage in Langa, the oldest township in Cape Town. Many of the children came running to greet us and covered themselves with stickers as quickly as we could hand them out. We created quite a commotion as we handed out tooters and toys and stickers!

Mark Heymans was able to spend some time with some of the more disabled children. "I saw two children that looked as if they hadn’t been hugged or touched for a long time. I went over and sat with them, hugging and talking and touching them. When I got a smile from one little girl who was severely disabled, the emotion went straight into me. The intensity of the human connection was very powerful. It’s difficult to put into words just how I felt."

After the orphanage, we went for a drive through Guguletu. It is hard to believe people live in these shacks, side by side, for as far as the eye can see. We stopped briefly at a "hostel" - housing that was originally built for young single men who came to the city to work. At that time, only men were allowed to live there and had to have a permit to work in the city. Since apartheid has been lifted those work restrictions no longer apply, and many families have come to the city to be with their men. In the hostel we visited, there was a single communal kitchen and several small bedrooms. We were told there were two families living in each of the bedrooms - 8-10 people per room. As Americans, we cannot imagine what that lack of privacy must be like.

We then stopped back at the J.L Zwane Memorial Church and were able to participate in a funeral, which is nothing like the funerals we have in Minnesota. It was quite a loud, joyous occasion filled with the most incredible music. We followed them out to the cemetery where numerous funerals were taking place. Saturday is funeral day, and it’s not unusual to have a dozen funerals taking place simultaneously. The music is overwhelming!

At the Cape!

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing around the Cape. Cape Point is the southern most point of the African continent. We saw penguins! Who knew? 85 degrees out and we saw penguins. We also drove out to the Cape of Good Hope and did a lot of walking. The views were breathtaking. We stood high on the cliffs and saw the Atlantic Ocean to the West and the Indian Ocean to the East.

It's a very long day and we must sign out. Hopefully more tomorrow!

Jeff and Rita Nohner have volunteered to act as scribe and shutterbug for this journey to South Africa. Jeff is also the designer of the www.ArmInArmInAfrica.org website which we encourage you to visit.