Thursday: 15-hour plane ride to Johannesburg
Friday: 17-hour stay in the airport, overnight
Saturday: 18-hour bus ride to Cape Town
Sunday: 2-hour shuttle from Cape Town to our ministry
A 4-day journey that finally brought us to the beginning of our World Race… Our final shuttle dropped off the other B-Squad teams one by one around Cape Town and its suburbs until Team Entrusted were the only ones left. Out the windows, we began to see one-story shacks, sidewalks strewn with dust and broken glass, kids wandering unattended through the streets, stray dogs. The shuttle then unexpectedly rolled to a stop in front of a tiny concrete building amidst all this. Our home for the month.
Our expectations of playing soccer in the urban center of culturally-rich Cape Town quickly dissipated as we hopped out onto the dusty, busy little street. We learned that we were in a township called Masiphumelele (or “Masi”). It’s in a valley – we see the surrounding mountains everywhere we go – and is the only black community surrounded by wealthier white communities. One of the first things we were told was that people who live here are very open, which has proved true. People socialize outdoors on the sidewalk, anybody can act as a parent to any kid that is running around, and as we introduce ourselves to residents, they drop what they’re doing to listen to why we’ve come and to freely share about their lives. The main language here is Xhosa, (it’s one with those awesome clicks in the middle of words!) though many can speak some English.
Our host bought us one of Masi’s favorite snacks… chicken feet.
One of my favorite moments so far actually happened within an hour after we arrived – we went to a Baptist church just a couple streets away. During the service we couldn’t understand a thing, but every so often a single woman’s voice would soar up on the opening line of a song, and others would join on harmonies… After a few songs, a little light bulb went off in my head. They were singing hymns, hymns I knew! Melodies that I knew as calm, straightforward, and reverent were now raw, a cappella, with funky great harmonies. It was so bizarre to hear familiar songs altered that way, and so beautiful…
Though we feel acclimated already, we have been sheltered here. We spend our mornings with sweet little children in a day care, our afternoons with those in the community who welcome us into their homes, and evenings with each other and local Christians.
At the day care
So far, we’ve only heard stories of the darker side of this place. The HIV rate is very high. There are many, many witch doctors – you can recognize them by the white paint that masks their whole face. We’ve heard story after story from our contacts here… but I want to share one particular moment with you. The kids of the town have gotten used to coming to our house to play, and yesterday we were hanging our laundry out to dry outside. A little tired and busy, I was ignoring their pleas to romp around, until one kid grabbed my shirt as I was kneeling. (I recognized him – he’s about 4 or 5, and comes to our day care.) He shook his finger in my face and screamed “Shut up!!”
He thought that using some of the little English he knows would incite me to chase after him and tickle him… but all I could do was stare into his sweet face as he started giggling. How many times did he watch that in his home… or how many times was it shouted at him, that it was ingrained in him enough to shout at me?
It was a little moment, but it did remind me that there’s so much here we haven’t seen yet.
