Where I've Been For The Last Few Days

Well, we've hit the ground running here, busy going somewhere all day and into the evening, and the blazing southern hemisphere sun hasn't given us much of a break.

Yes, i'm really here now.  The flight was short, or at least seemed short (about 10 hours).  I read for awhile and slept awhile, but it was really hard to fall asleep because i kept thinking about Africa being out there beneath my window.  It was a powerful, moving experience even at night -- the land below so dark and yet so alive at the same time, like some monstrous presence out there just beneath me.  a little frightening too -- there is so much darkness on this continent. Somehow it seemed appropriate to see it at night, as if its true nature were coming out.

Landing in the morning in Johannesburg was one of the best airplane wakeups I've ever had.  There were low hills here and there and every now and then a big rocky point.  Pretoria is in a long narrow valley surrounded by hills -- very pretty.  the light is wonderful in the morning and the evening and the temperatures have been great, hot in the sun but with cool breezes all day long.

The place we're staying in Pretoria North is like a little oasis.  We are lodged at the Pangani House (owned by NieuCommunities), which is located in a quiet neighborhood on a hill at the edge of the city.  The Pangani House used to be a guesthouse.  It is an old, rambling, one-story house built in the early 1900s by a British army colonel, painted in bright colors, with antique furniture and a pretty veranda out front with the air of colonial Britain clinging to its shadowy corners.  I can almost imagine Rikki Tikki Tavi showing up on the step. Just up the hill above the house there is a little brick building about 6 little "hotel rooms" where the participants stay.  Andy and I have one of these.  We've got two beds, a fridge, and a shower to ourselves.  Very nice. Very peaceful.  The whole place is shaded by huge spreading trees so that all day long the buildings are covered by a wonderful, leafy, green canopy.  Nice place to wake up.  Nice place to sit and talk.  Nice place to have dinner.  Nice place to come home to after a long, hot day.  Nice place to enjoy the evening breeze.  You get the picture...

We've spent a lot of time out in the city with people from the team here. Yesterday and today we spent time in one of the black townships about 20 miles out of Pretoria. The white government created these townships in the apartheid days to keep the blacks separate and contained. Most people have heard of Soweto -- it is one of the more famous of the townships. Yesterday we were in Hammanskraal and then today in Soshanguve. Both of these are poor areas with small houses, mostly made from concrete (the good ones) or plywood and tin.

I can't begin to tell you the stories now, but today we spent a great deal of time on house visits with volunteers from a black South African organization called "Home of Joy" that looks out for the needs of children who have been orphaned by AIDS. There are hundreds of kids in these neighborhoods who have lost their parents to AIDS. Some of them have been taken in by relatives, some of them live on their own in the tiny houses built by their now-dead parents. You cannot visit a place like this and not be moved.

And, yet, the stories and videos that we've all seen from Africa are true. We were greeted with smiles and waves, treated like honored guests. Polite and dignified adults. Laughing, friendly children. I put my hand on the shoulder of one tiny little bald boy, his head barely up to my waist and that was all it took: he followed me around the rest of the afternoon.

Why are things this way? Honestly, I don't understand it.