"On the Road Again"

Arm in Arm in Africa: Thursday/Friday, February 27th/28th, 2003

Having left Cape Town, we will not have good internet connection for a while. There will be fewer pictures, but we hope you stay connected with those of us on this journey. We appreciate the many messages we’ve received via e-mail and will continue retrieving them as frequently as possible. Thanks!

We are making our way from Cape Town in the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape. Remember, South Africa is about the size Texas x 4 (big). That means many miles in the van. We will admit to making stops along the way, visiting various craft centers, shops and tourist locations. The most recent were the Congo Caves, where many became bruised and battered as we had an adventure tour crawling through small spaces in more than 2Km of underground caverns. Call it a “team-building” experience! Yes, it was beautiful, like so much we’ve experienced in this country. I’ve never seen baboons at toll-plazas, ostriches crossing roadsides or proteas lining the roadways before. Tomorrow, we hope to visit an elephant ranch.

Wondering what a proteas is?? Proteas are a family of shrubs with unusual and beautiful flowers. Most South African proteas occur in the Cape, hugging the coast and mountainous regions eastwards to Port Elizabeth and spreading up the west coast to Vanrhynsdorp.

The people of South Africa have varied opinions of Americans. Everyone is thankful that we’ve come and are doing what we’re doing, many are very surprised. People are also interested in learning more about our perspectives. It’s surprising to see how much they know about world events, even though they may be unaware of circumstances for their neighbors in cities and townships just a few miles away. It is also refreshing to find people willing to freely express their opinions and challenge what they hear.

Talking to men in the townships we’ve learned that they’re concerned about getting jobs, trying to provide for their families and worrying about how they will survive. They are very concerned about the possibility of war in Iraq. To them, they know it means their basic supplies could be cut-off. Since people are already worried about getting anything to eat, it hurt me to think that our efforts in the Middle East would have a serious impact to people well outside those boundaries.

The talk about America and war is not unique to the townships. Similar discussions occurred in restaurants and establishments in the major cities. Some people of South Africa really consider America to be “war-mongers” who are stepping outside their boundaries for their own gain. The South African Minister of Health explained that the reason monies were not available to HIV/AIDS programs was because South Africa had to meet long standing arms purchase agreements. People wonder why South Africa would need a submarine, so expensive it would have funded nearly all the required anti retro-viral programs. Here too, there is concern about the balance of spending for social programs and military build-up.

We shift our focus to the next day. It’s time to re-pack and get ready for another early morning. Our next stop is one of the poorest and most isolated areas of South Africa, where white people are seen infrequently. In Malengeni, people are focused on the basic concerns of food, shelter, employment, health, education and happiness. It is sure to make the bruises from our cave visit, theft of a cash card and other inconveniences along our route seem trivial.

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.