RUTH, A LONGTIME CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY AND FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES, DECIDED TO TAKE A BREAK FROM HER USUAL WORK AND SPEND TIME VOLUNTEERING FOR GLOBAL CAMPS AFRICA IN SOUTH AFRICA. FOLLOW ALONG AS SHE SHARES HER EXPERIENCES AND HER PERSPECTIVE AS AN AMERICAN AT SIZANANI.
Day 3: The Lay of the Land
I packed up so I could move Airbnb’s and Ubered to the office in Braamfontein, part of the Central Business District of Johannesburg. Still getting the money down, thought at first that the car cost $40 and wondered how I could Uber to and from the office with any regularity. Again the (or this) newcomer’s ignorance of norms/expectations. Greeted at the office by KB, Camp Sizanani’s Camp Director, and his adorable but ailing little boy, brought upstairs by Nkosana (aka Big Fish) and Ntandi, two camp counselors. Then Ditlhare, Sizanani’s Senior Social Worker, showed me around. Reminiscent of Southern Prisoners Defense Committee in earlier years but tinier and less equipped. Shoestring budgets for the poor. As with many experiences here already, familiar and not.
Dilthare is another tremendous staff person. A social worker with 5 students working under her. She spent 3 hours plus with me, explaining Sizanani , the clubs, the work. We started though with a current problem: the inability of children without birth certificates to get vaccinated against COVID-19. These kids are entitled to schooling, they go to school, but they have no papers. Child may be from another country. Parent is expected to go back to that country to get papers on the birth. There are hundreds of children in this predicament. I’m not clear on what else they are missing out on — nearly everything I suspect— but it makes no sense to deny vaccination yet send them to school. Dilthare is on it, asked for lists from the schools of kids in need. Got one list of 84 so far, just a beginning. She is undaunted.
Dilthare hopes I can help here. She goes to Lawyers for Human Rights regularly (they have an office in the same building; perhaps less shoestring but not holding my breath). She gave me a copy of the South African Constitution: I remember learning back in the day about how progressive it is. But how to implement, get access to these “rights”? Haven’t a clue. Going to see what I can find online later today. This has to be resolved. I don’t need to be told that this is one of a thousand obstacles these children faces.
I Ubered back. (Had hoped to go to the Apartheid Museum but it’s closed for COVID.) New “apartment” not quite ready, sat outside at Proud Mary for coffee. Chatted briefly with the (Zimbabwean) barista (even that fancy word seems incongruous here) when a man also coffe-ing outside there struck up a conversation. Then I had to go meet the man with the keys at the Airbnb.
Answered more emails and WhatsApp’s, did some food shopping then tried to work out the money. Think I’ve got it now.
This evening I met up with a new connection, Jackie, and her husband for Jackie’s birthday. Boy did I love meeting them. Jackie is warm and smiling, her husband opened up too. (I believe his name is Lumkile based on a WhatsApp message: my ears have yet to accurately take in names.) They were warm kind and embracing. I know I asked them too many questions. Jackie runs a literacy program for kids (“Literazi” though I couldn’t find it online, another I’m sure in a series of misspellings). It’s new, she’s funding it with small donations (mostly from their savings, it sounds), and appears to be a(n as yet undiscovered) cousin to Sizanani. Again, the need, the small program hundreds of children flock to, the exquisitely created drop in the bucket.
These were wonderful people. Jackie’s husband will be away but I hope to see her again over the weekend before I leave. I learned quite a bit about the country, but mostly delighted in their company.