So, today was a really interesting day, the kind of day that you need when working for a NGO, the kind of day that really drives home that there is some purpose, some point to sitting in an office working on something that you really see no point in. Today we went to a senior centre in the township of Philippi East. The centre recently had all of its electricity wiring stolen, and there was evidence that some of the township’s citizens had tried breaking into the building to steal other things (security doors that were nearly destroyed, appearance of fencing being tampered with, etc.). We went with Helen, as her guests (there is something flattering about being referred to as a “new boyfriend” by a 70 or so year old activist, as if activist truly captured everything that she has meant to this area and its people) to visit the senior centre because the city of Cape Town is trying to reclaim part of the land it rests on, and Ikamva is fighting them because we believe that we own the land. It is this squabble, this unclearness on ownership, which brought Matt and myself from America to Cape Town. We hope that we can provide them some sense of ownership before we leave.
On our way back from the site, we made a stop at the Philippi East Food Bank (not actually the name, but work with me here). Helen wanted to speak with the manager of the food bank to introduce herself and make some connection between Ikamva Labantu and the Food Bank. We ended up finding out that they have an excess amount of baby food/formula, which they (the Food Bank) agreed to give to Ikamva. Helen proceeded to ask me if she could use my “boot”. After a perplexed look from me, she thought about it and goes, “your, um, your, um, um, your trunk.” After realizing what she meant, Matt and I quickly moved our car up to the building to be loaded with the formula. We ended up taking with us, in two cars, 86 boxes (each having 6 canisters of formula for a total of 516 canisters) of formula that Ikamva will now take to the numerous orphanages and crèches in the townships of Cape Town. There are many many more boxes of formulat at the food bank that they will deliver to us, as this was all that we could fit into our two cars. I hope that there may be a chance for Matt and I to help deliver these boxes, as I would really like to see the crèches and orphanages from a different perspective than the one I have while actually working on my project. Also, do not worry; we will put up plenty of pictures later this evening.
We also got to speak with a man named Johan and his associate David. They are consultants to Ikamva (Johan for business/management and David for IT) and are now working with Matt and I to install a database for the properties. They actually took down all the spreadsheets that we had created and are using them, so its really amazing to think that we will actually have some lasting footprint, even if we are given no credit for it. It’s a great feeling to know that you are part of something special to so many people. David told us that he believes that the database will be loaded up inside Microsoft Access by perhaps tomorrow afternoon. If this is true, this will be amazing news, because we are going out to the townships tomorrow to actually start documenting everything we see, and it will be extremely helpful to be able to quickly enter the information into a secure location on a computer server. Helen gave Matt and I full disclosure to discuss our projects and to share pictures with all of our family and friends, so expect future posts to detail more of what we’re doing, as well as more and more photos in the following weeks. Everyone, please say a prayer for us as we prepare to embark on this incredible journey. Over and out.
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