Rough day...

Today was a really good, but hard day.  I won’t lie, going out to the townships everyday is very exhilarating and is much more exciting than sitting cooped up in an office all day.  At the same time, however, seeing these structures and these children and how they have to live really weighs on your soul.  I met a boy today at one of the crèches, Lilitha Educare I believe.  He followed me around wherever I went while we were doing our inspection of the crèche, the whole time he holding onto the backflap of my jeans’ pocket so that he could follow me. His teacher smiled at him and told me that, “he can’t see or hear well at all, but I love him so much.”  I nearly lost it there.  I stopped what I was doing for a bit to play with him.  He was a really nice little kid.

Today I finally felt like I was in “real Africa”.  Cape Town is this mirage, this ivory tower that makes you think different of a place than what it really is.  I kept telling my friends here that it still hasn’t hit that I’m in Africa.  Today it did, and it hit hard.  Seeing that little boy and how many health problems he has, and realizing that he is just one of many, and that they are all in these informal pre-schools which are nothing more than day cares, it hurt.  I know that my project is to go to these pre-schools everyday, and that I should be prepared for this, but I’m not sure that’s possible to prepared for what you will see.  No matter what people want to say about the American education system and what it lacks, it is so much better than this. 

This fact doesn’t make me proud or happy, it makes me angry.  Given the chance, these kids would love to have an opportunity to learn.  You can see it in their eyes.  They’re so bright and curious, and to see them when they have grown up, and seeing that brightness become dulled is heart wrenching. 

It’s the same with the dogs in the townships.  They are all running around, pet or stray, it doesn’t seem to matter, they’re just names we bestow upon them that have no real meaning to the animal.  It just runs around searching for food.  The puppies are all puppies we’d see in the States, little rolly-polly, jovial balls of fur, eyes full of brightness and youth.  Then you see a dog a bit older, and it hangs its head and walks cowardly, afraid of people, afraid of not finding food.

I’m sorry that this is such a downer of a blog update, everyone.  But, I guess this blog is supposed to represent my thoughts, and these are my thoughts right now.  I think everyone needs to know these things.  Please don’t take anything for granted, my friends.  We all lead great lives in our own ways.  Please be thankful.