Kaapstaad, South Africa, aka Cape Town

There is so much to say about my 5 days in Cape Town that I honestly do not know where to begin. I’ll start with some observations.

1)      For the first time in ten weeks, being white didn’t automatically give away my foreign-ness

2)      For the first time in two months I shopped in an honest-to-goodness supermarket

3)      The weather was sunny, breezy, and 70 degrees no matter what. (Breeze is an understatement… this was WIND)

4)      Xhosa has 3 different clicking sounds and I still haven’t a clue how to make a single one of them

5)      Table Mountain gives Cape Town the most incredible skyline I have ever seen. Google it!

 

During my all too short stay in South Africa, I was able to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, attend the International Jazz Festival, spend a day tasting wine in wine country, see the Big 5 on a safari,  and not hike Table Mountain (due to THE WIND. Which also stalled our departure for oh, 21 hours? Hah.) Out of all of these incredible activities, I think the one most worth while blogging about is my day spent in the townships volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

 

I worked with the organization once before, on a USY mission to New Orleans after my junior year in high school. What a different experience this was. As we drove out of the bright, clean, and colonial style downtown, the homes lining the highway got progressively more impoverished. The townships sprung up in the distance like I expect the dandelions are doing right now in your front yard. Shack homes made from nailed together scrap metal and wood balanced precariously on their soil foundations. These shacks weren’t just sporadically placed in the horizon- hundreds of thousands of sheds formed a sprawling suburbia like I’ve never seen before.

 

After about twenty minutes, we entered the township in which Habitat is currently building houses. We were pretty obvious in our big coach bus, taking up the entire width of the neighborhood roads. As we drove through, children in the streets stared at us through our tinted windows, and when I waved at them, the biggest smiles I have ever seen broke upon their faces. We soon reached to construction site, and were mobbed by the most adorable children… and when I say mobbed I mean they were grabbing our hands and feet, climbing on our backs, our waists. It was the most arduous fifteen paces I have ever walked!

 

We were shown the ropes by a few Habitat workers, given hard hats, and split up into groups- the inside, outside, and roof. We worked together to set up scaffolding, finish the roof, clean up rubble, mix concrete, and finish laying the cinderblocks to form the exterior of the house. Unfortunately, the construction site was severely under supplied. For the twenty of us there was one set of scaffolding, two hammers, four shovels, and no ladders or work gloves. We did the best we could to either be productive, or stay out of the way.

 

After about four hours, we took a lunch break and took a walk around the township. Hair salons, public phones, and general stores were set up in trailers along the street. Little kids yelled out a word at us, which we were later told meant “white,” while they followed us around. When we returned to our building site, the kids all started singing and dancing, and I joined them along with a few other students. They taught us their songs, and we sang things like “Ring around the Rosy” and “Hakuna Matata” which they happily sang and danced along to. One boy latched on to me for the rest of the afternoon, wearing my hard hat and playing clapping games with me as other little boys vied for my attention. At one point, 6 of them broke into dance, doing the best Michael Jackson impression I’ve ever seen. Most of the kids didn’t speak a word of English, but I was able to ask one eleven year old girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said to me, “Miley Cyrus.” It made me wonder… does Miley Cyrus know that when she sings “Party in the USA,” little kids in townships in South Africa want to be just like her? Because I still can’t even really wrap my head around that.

 

Around 4 o’clock, we cleaned up for the day, and were given the honor of personally dedicating the partially built house to its future owner. After seven years of moving up a waiting list, his house is finally in the making, and as a carpenter, he is making his own door. So there was no need to hand over the keys! Between the children, the workers, and this wonderful man whose house will soon become his home, my entire day was filled with unforgettable experiences, highlighted by bright smiles which I will treasure forever.