The Show Must Go On!

We've had to batten down the hatches over the past few days because the protests over service delivery in Grabouw have descended into riots. The kids can't go to school because the schools are shut, we are struggling to get supplies because the shops are shut, the local hospital is shut making access to medication difficult and the main routes in and out of town have been closed. To top it all off, our House Moms, who live in the community amid the violent protests, are being threatened with death if they attempt to come to go to work. They are extremely scared and have had to witness some terrible things. It is horrendous and tough.

With our wonderful House Moms unable to come in to fulfil their duties it was up to us (the Dream Team as we like to call ourselves: Barbara, Emma, myself, Johan (our trusty maintenance man) and Nigel the gardener) to pick up the baton and keep the unit going.

Yesterday was quite hilarious as we tried to continue the usual routines that the House Moms make out to be simple! - Clothing, washing and nappy changing 13 kids, keeping them entertained and fed and happy. It was slightly chaotic but a lot of fun too and the children were very kind to us!!

We were very relieved when back up arrived in the form of Monica (our MD) and other wonderful Thembalitsha staff from Somerset West  - Who had to drive the long route around to get here safely. I don't know what we would have done if we'd had to cover the night shift too! Thanks guys!!

Yesterday afternoon we had a party because one of the little girls turned two. It was nice to have a bit of normality and a brief respite from thinking about all the tensions that were happening in town.

We are very fortunate to be mostly out of the way of the hot spots and thankful for all the prayers and thoughts that are being sent our way. We have definitely felt a sense of peace and protection about the place.

Please continue to pray for all the Thembalitsha staff and people we know who live in the centre of town and are still in the thick of it. Today seems calmer and the roads have opened again - although there is still a heavy police presence. Heavy rain has also arrived which should help to deter the protesters.

Please also keep praying for resolution - there is a lot of anger and frustration on both sides and no simple solutions.

Thanks

Emily

The View From The Fence

Photo by David Morris

With Tim, our semi-pro resident blogger, away on a break, I am attempting to take up the blogging mantle on behalf of our current and unusually reduced Village of Hope team (Three of the core team, Tim, Maz and Mel, are all abroad at the moment!) So apologies in advance – it is not my natural calling!

We’ve been toddling along relatively successfully over the past couple of weeks, filling in the gaps where we need to and trying to keep the project running smoothly in its routine. Barbara, Emma and Johan have been legends!

The extra challenge today has been continuing the routine whilst negotiating the protests that have begun once more over service delivery. We couldn’t take the kids to school or preschool because the schools were shut and we had to cancel the afternoon sports programme because it wasn’t safe to be in some parts of the community. Switching over the day and night shift House Mom team is also sometimes a bit hairy!

Over the past few years the strikes have almost become part of the calendar so we’ve developed  a plan of action for when they occur and suddenly the fact that it’s happening doesn’t feel unusual or particularly dramatic – and that in itself is slightly surreal.

You don’t have to look very far on the internet before you find reports of what’s been happening here. Hundreds marching, rocks thrown at cars, major roads closed because of the danger, shops in the main road closed either because of risk or purely because the staff can’t get into work, teargas – but we all know that what we read online is only one snippet of one side of a story.

It’s complicated and it’s hard to know what to feel about it. It’s a very uncomfortable place here on the fence!

These people are protesting because of lack of housing and other basic services. We get that. There are plenty of people who we know and love in this community who are living in desperate, desperate situations. People who’ve been waiting for housing (like some of our House Moms) for years and yet get overlooked and overtaken by someone else, sometimes new to the area, who miraculously skips the line. That’s unfair, isn’t it?

Many of these people have nothing left to lose and don’t know what to do but to turn to burning and vandalism to get noticed – and this approach has got them what they want in the past. What would I do if I was in their situation?

However, there are also many desperate people who do not see protest as a solution but are being pressurised by certain members of their community and told that their homes will be burnt if they attempt to go to work that day and not join in. That’s not fair either? Surely a person should have a choice whether to protest?

And how come these protests that are billed as being peaceful deteriorate so quickly into something more violent? How will burning a town and throwing rocks make any difference?

What affect are these protests having on the children in the community? Will they learn that the only way to make a change is to get violent because that’s what they see there elders doing? Will they really benefit from having their education interrupted and compromised further than it already is?

And is it fair, to demand so much from a municipality who has had to absorb so many new arrivals over the past decade, many of whom don’t have the means to pay the rates required to keep a town maintained, let alone developed. What money should they be using to magic these homes and services into existence?

Mainly I’m just left with a lot of questions! I don’t think there is a right and a wrong, this is just another example of the huge disparity between the haves and have nots and quite simply the result of a very unfair, broken and selfish world.

It is particularly hard when you can see the potential of what this town could be if there was a bit more balance and togetherness – a little less politics and a little more loving! But who is going to be the first to hold out the olive branch and say enough is enough?

So I am left with the conclusion that all we can do is our best with what we have been given. We need to protect the children and staff in our care as far as possible, we need to try our best to be mediators and advocates for peace and we have to cling to the glimmers of hope we are privileged to witness in our daily work: The adolescent sports mentors empowering and equipping the younger children in the community and setting good examples, an HIV+ child reunited with their mother or provided with a fantastic foster family, House Moms who are dedicated to their work they make their shift come what may….

Please pray for resolution for this town.

Emily