Poverty Runs Deep {Thursday, Feb 26}

Today we visited homes again. The volunteers from one of Rev. Tevey’s 5 orphanages went around showing us the places where their orphans are staying. There are roughly 100 homes at that particular care center site that need visited. Today we only got to 15 of them. Within those 15 there are an overwhelming amount of needs. I have learned that the question, “Do you have food here?” is actually relative. Every person says no. We have to look deeper into things…. Are they growing crops on their property? Is there any evidence of food in their home or scraps in the yard? We visited a pre-school today where 2 teachers were watching 40-50 children. We were told their parents were spending the day at the Hazyview dumps looking for food, furniture, and other things they could put to use. Part of me gets frustrated with the people we meet asking for handouts because we are white or American. Don’t get me wrong, I have compassion for these people and my heart breaks for each situation I hear. I want to give them bread. I want to give them a mat to sleep on. I want to give them all of the things that are so second nature to me. But there’s also a deeper problem here. HIV is winding out of control. There are no jobs for the children graduating from Metric. I cannot tell you how many educated people I meet that are my age and cannot find work. There is corruption in the political structure and the leaders. South Africa has an upcoming election and the ANC candidate (Mandela’s party), who pretty much has the win in the bag, is totally corrupt. My brain is all over the place, but those are some of the issues I’m trying to sort through.