This morning came all too early but turned out to be an incredible day. Marcellino and Zolani picked me up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am and we headed down to the Table Bay Hotel to meet up with the African journalists here for the CNN Multichoice Awards. After breaking up into smaller groups, we all headed off to different parts of Cape Town for an experience that I'm not quite sure I have even had the opportunity to process yet.
My group consisted of Marcellino, myself, and ten award-winning journalists from all over Africa. We headed down to Hout Bay, which is a holiday destination for many white families but also has incredible poverty among the black and colored communities. Our first stop was the local HIV and TB clinic where we met with the pharmacist and NGO workers who volunteer their time to help the local people manage their disease. The Hout Bay clinic was packed with people waiting in line for their ARV's, standing room only when we arrived. It was heartbreaking to see the many pregnant women and young children who have been afflicted with HIV.
After our sobering visit to the clinic, we headed into the black township for a home visit with one of the clinic's patients. The clinic provides patient advocates to assit the patients with compliance with their medications. Compliance is a major issue for people with HIV because HIV patients cycle through periods of health and sickness, and in periods of health, they stop taking their ARV's because they think they are better. However, once a patient is on ARV's, they need to remain on them for life and it is more dangerous for them to interrupt their medications.
We went to visit Beauty, who upon first glance, is a seemingly healthy and extremely happy woman in her mid-30's. Beauty explained how she was HIV positive but that she has two beautiful girls, grades 5 and 9, and how she is not ready to die and leave them. The strength of Beauty's spirit was inspiring as she described her battles with illness and her struggle to afford food and clothes for her girls. Beauty had been fired from her job at a B&B because her boss found out she was HIV positive. Although, against the law in South Africa, there was nothing Beauty could do. Now, because of a grant from doctors, Beauty is able to send her girls to the white school in the neighboring town in hope of giving them a better life. I was moved to tears listening to Beauty's story of determination, strength, and optimism as we stood her in shack constructed out of tin, plywood, and metal caging. Looking me square in the eyes (I was the only white person and the only woman in our group), she teared up as she talked about death and how she has written letters saying that her daughters will not go to a black family because she does not trust them. Instead, she has requested that upon her death, her daughters must be sent to live with a white family because they will offer her children more opportunities and provide for them in ways a black family cannot.
Leaving Beauty's hut, we headed over to the Hout Bay school for the colored children where we sat in on a life orientation class given by one of the loveLife groundBreakers. Life orientation classes provide the children in the schools with lessons on sexuality, sexual health, and offer an open forum for discussion and questions about equality of sexes, respect, choices, and responsibility. The groundBreaker in this class discussed overcoming the pessimistic outlook of many South African teenagers who believe there is no reason to remain HIV negative because they have no hope for a good life. He encouraged to look at life hopefully and explained what it means to have amibitions and dreams. He advised them to wait to have sex until they are ready, but if they feel they are ready, then to come speak to him for help and protection. He engaged the children in conversation about how to stop the HIV pandemic and explained that it starts with each and every one of us. The kids participated in the class discussions and asked questions openly about HIV and sex.
After our morning of site visits, we all headed to the Castle in Cape Town, which is a castle once occupied by the Dutch in the middle of the city center, for the Nelson Mandela Awards presented by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The Deputy President of South Africa addressed us about issues concerning human rights and the HIV pandemic. The Chief Justice of South Africa presented the first award to Arthur Chaskalson for his work in civil rights. Wangari Maathai received the second Nelson Mandela award for empowering women in Africa and environmental activism. The awards were timely as yesterday was Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday.
I had the afternoon free to be a tourist for the first time so I headed up to the top of Table Mountain to take in the view of Cape Town and the Cape Flats. It was a spectacular day and I could see for miles in every direction. I then headed down to Long Street, similar to Adams Morgan in Washington, DC, for excellent Roti at a small place called Mojitos. I ended my day at Zula, which had a live band that sounded oddly similar to Dave Matthews at times and then Bob Marley at others.
All in all, it was an awe-inspiring day and one that I will never be able to forget. I am constantly humbled by the people I have met here and feel so lucky that we live the lives we do.
Marcellino and me at Hout Bay
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