Chatham Hall in South Africa

Sorry there’s been a delay in posting – the Hotel’s wireless went out!  I still can’t get many pictures up, but they’ll come as I can load them.  As you’ll see below, several students added blog sections talking mostly about the primary school where we spent most of our day.  We are working with the I-Care program of Grace Fellowship Africa.  The director, Carol, guided us to the school where we spent several hours with the children, playing games and preparing and serving breakfast and lunch for them.

At the end of the school day (2:00), we drove the 5.2 km back to the township where most of the school’s children live.  The school has been asking for a bus for years with no response, so the children walk – or they don’t.  Of a student population of 244, the principal told us on many days they only get 60-90 kids – in bad weather it can be even fewer.  In the township (which was once an illegal “squatter town”) we stopped in at a hospice care center called Eagle’s Rest.  It housed 15 beds in two rooms (one for men and one for women) – the beds were all full and the director told us they are always filled to capacity.  The vast majority of their patients are HIV-positive and several also have tuberculosis.  We were told that the HIV rate for Bloekombos is 62%, and the TB rate is 69%.  The sudden shift from the joy of the schoolyard to the solemnity of the hospice had a profound and sobering impact on the group.

After Eagle’s Rest, we had the honor of being invited into some homes within the township of Bloekombos.  Divided into smaller groups, we were welcomed into the houses of some of Carol’s “clients” to meet them.  The houses in the township ranged from one-room tin shacks to multi-room cement homes.  Inside some of the homes were barely furnished at all, and some were clearly better equipped.  Alan pointed out that this township was neither remarkably poor nor particularly well-off.  Throughout our time in the township, we were consistently greeted with gracious smiles and waves – and much curiosity.