from penguins to townships...

i got to swim and touch penguins!!!! on thursday we went to boulder's beach which is where all the jackass penguins (now called African penguins) hung out. it was incredible. we walked on the boardwalk which led us to a cluster of close to 200 penguins swimming in the ocean, sleeping in the sand and uh... doin their thang with their mates, haha. after taking about 70 pictures of penguins we decided to go down to the beach and relax. but! there were more penguins there too! so of course, we had to take our pictures with them. then me and naomi decided to go exploring (i cannot tell you how excited i am to have another adventerous person on the trip with me!). we swam around the boulders screaming the whole way (with alissa as well) cuz we thought we were gonna get eaten by the sharks. finally making it to one of the boulders that kate was standing on we all climbed up and just took in the view. the water is crystal clear here. alissa and kate went off to some wading pool while me and naomi decided to climb the boulders and look at more penguins. there was one point where we walked through a narrow pathway with tons on penguins on each side of us, all following us with their eyes as we walked.... ohhhhh man, it totally reminded me of the movie "the birds." though it was dangerous, we snuck up on several penguins and quickly pet their backside before they had enough time to whip around and bite our fingers off, haha, it was awesome! i also found some beautiful sea glass and shells which i will share with all of you! that night we just went out to eat at the waterfront and met up with the other group from bethel who is here just for interim and hung out with them for awhile. on friday we went to the district 6 museum and bo kaap. these areas were both predominantly muslim areas until the forced removals took place. we also visited a mosque which was so helpful in understanding more of the muslim religion and really made me realize how much they have been persecuted as well. many of the muslims have been able to come back to the community now that apartheid is over. saturday we went to oceanview which, in minnesota terms, would kind of be equivalent to north minneapolis. it is looked down upon by many people in south africa as a rough, dangerous neighborhood which no one should go into. oceanview was created due to the forced removals. before the 1960's, there were many blacks and coloureds who lived in simon's town, which was a safe, close and economically stable community. but then, around 1965, the whites decided that they didn't want any blacks or coloureds in that area and thus began the forced removals. ALL of the black africans were uprooted, thrown into a van and dropped off at oceanview within 2 weeks. once given notice that they had to leave, they were given 24 hours before forcefully removed from their homes. the coloured community was gradually removed over a period of ten years. this caused a lot of problems to arise because these people were thrown into an area far away from any stores or public transportation and had to completely begin their lives all over. new neighbors, new churches, new everything. for those that refused to leave simon's town, the whites would come in, drag all of their belongings out onto the lawn and demolish the house. in fact, most of the houses in simon's town were demolished and then rebuilt. all for the benefit of the white afrikaaner. now that apartheid is over, people from oceanview could go back to simon's town but it is extremely expensive and many of them would never be able to afford to live there any more. plus, they don't want to be uprooted from their homes again and start their lives all over. once is enough. as of now, oceanview is very poor and many gangs and crimes flourish there. but so do the churches. we all had a homestay there from saturday to sunday and it was by far the best weeked i've had here so far. me and naomi stayed with a young couple, anita and beary, and their little 2 year old son josh. beary goes to cornerstone college and anita used to. they took us out to cape point where we saw the most incredible ocean/mountain view of my life and baboons!! anita was absolutely wonderful and so easy to talk to (and so was her husband). on sunday i went to the best worship experience of my life. we all packed into this tiny church and seriously brought down the house. WOW. they told us we can come back for a whole weekend sometime soon and we will definitely take them up on that. i wish our home stay could've been in this community. yesterday, on monday, we took a township tour. i was very uneasy about this at first because i didn't want them to think that a bunch of white people were coming in to their neighborhoods, again, and looking at them like it was some kind of zoo. because i know this has happened many times before. the townships here reminded me a lot of mexico except that everything was cramped and in extremely tight quarters. all of the shacks were literally less than 3 meters (9 feet) apart, some as close as only 1 meter apart. this can be really dangerous because fires are very common in the summer time and when a fire starts in one of these shacks, it spreads in a matter of seconds to the surrounding shacks and soon hundreds of people's homes are on fire. because of the 2010 world cup, SA is trying to cover up the shacks that you see as soon as you come out of the airport with newer homes. although it is a nice attempt at trying to get people better housing, many still cannot afford the electricity and water bills. just as it is in america, instead of trying to bandage the problem, they need to get to the root and start solving it. on monday we also went to a bed and breakfast in kyaleitsha (a township) for lunch. the owner explained to us that she hated having people come in and looking at them through the car windows, too afraid to even get out and talk with the people of the townships, and decided something needed to be done about it. she now trains others how to start their own B and B's for tourists they can learn about the Xhosa culture and the townships and experience it with those people rather than just staring out the window. afterwards we visited an AIDS orphange for young children. i wish we could've stayed there all day. we went into one room where some of the young ones were sleeping. i looked in at one that was awake and waved to him. He reached out his hand so i put mine in his and just held it there. then he reached out his other hand, moaning and wimpering for me to pick him up. his eyes just broke my heart. South Africa has such a huge problem with AIDS and it is just devestating the people here. america has so much money and so many resources, we need people not only to give money but to give their time. that would be one of the greatest gifts of all here. when all of us walked out of the children's home, the children followed us and just started bawling. ohhh my gosh, it was really hard to take. i am hopefully going to get involved in something soon. jeannine, one of the ladies here at cornerstone is working on setting us all up with organizations. i hope this gives you all a better glimpse into south africa and also gives you a passion for coming here!
love, melissa