So I've been out of reach for a few weeks...I was privileged enough to return to South Africa to serve on a mission trip for about 2 weeks in late February and early March. It's been a busy week and a half since returning and I haven't had too much time to reflect and process all that's happened on my trip. I will try to put in some serious time this week to catch you up.
I will start my first post by giving some basics on this trip. I am a returning veteran on this trip organized by Justice and Mercy International (JMI), part of my old church in Nashville. We've been working with an amazing organization in Cape Town called Living Hope for the past 5 years. Living Hope serves the townships in the cape penisula, about 45-60 minutes south of downtown Cape Town. It was founded by pastor John Thomas to care for the communities devastated by HIV/AIDS. Living Hope started orginially as a hospice organization to aid those infected and suffering in their last days of life, but God had greater plans for pastor Thomas. Living Hope continually expand into an organization that equips people with job skills, teaches/mentors the youth, and cares for the homeless and people with substance abuse problems. It's amazing to return each year and see how Living Hope grows beyond my imagination.
As you probably have heard Cape Town is a beautiful city but don't let its beauty fool you, there's much despair, poverty, and illness among the less affluent residents of the city.
View of Cape Town from Table Mountain, on the left is Lion's Head and Signal Hill. Robben island can be seen here. By the water is the soccer stadium where they hosted the World Cup in 2010.
View of Table Mountain from the city...the clouds are called the Tablecloth
We are fortunate to have 16 on our team this year, divided into 4 workgroups -- the construction team, kids team, medical team, and counseling team.
The 2011 Rolling Hills/JMI team on Table Mountain
JMI has worked in a specific community called Red Hill for the past 4 years and of course we are blessed to be able to work with this community again. Red Hill has about 500-600 residents and unlike bigger townships, it's in a rather isolated location and due to the small number of residents, services and transportation options are very few and far in between for them.
Red Hill was established a couple decades ago when the landowner turned over his plot of land over to the city to allow the migrant workers to establish a community. The original residents of Red Hill mostly came from the Eastern Cape moving to Cape Town seeking better job opportunities. Over the years, 3 distinctive "sections" developed in Red Hill -- the lower, middle, and upper camps. The lower camp has become mostly English-speaking, filled with immigrants from Zimbabwe. The middle camp is mostly Xhosa-speaking and is the hub of the community. The clinic building, stores, and community center are all located in the middle camp. The upper camp is home to mostly Afrikaans speaking people.
While no official statistics is kept for this small community, HIV, TB, cancer, and substance abuse are fairly common here. I remembered a couple years ago there were a lot of adults hanging out during day time due to unemployment, however this year it seems to me that many more are employed so I hope it's a sign of progress. Cancer has become a recent concern in this community and particularly I note more anecdotal reports of pediatric cancers.
On the far left is the Lower Camp, Middle Camp in the middle, and portion of the Upper Camp in the far right of this picture. Note the proximity to the vineyards by the Lower Camp.
The yellow building in the middle is the clinic - it has been our home base for most of our activities during this trip (except for Kids' Club).
I'll try to put up a few stories this week about this trip. But in short, the trip has been wildly successful.
Recent Comments