Today’s plan is to go to the Butterfly House with Marnelle. Thursday is the social day for the HIV positive/AIDS patients. There are also some children who are dropped off for day care and they may or may not be infected. Butterfly House is in Mbekweni and it is an extension of the hospice. The facility does not only work with HIV/AIDS infected patients but extends to those with Cancer as well.
The team began working with the kids first and playing with them in the childcare area.
Everyone tries to mingle but it is still early and there aren’t many kids just yet. Some of the kids don’t speak English so we just play together. I see a little girl so I walk up to her and later find that her name is Jamie-Lee. Marnelle tells me her story: one weekend her mother sells her for 400 rand ($13 USD) to buy alcohol. Then somehow her grandfather gets her and he was her care taker until he passed away two weeks ago. I don’t know who takes care of her now but her mother has been taking some time to see her and spend time with her, so supposedly there is some progress.
Jamie-Lee seems to want to read rather than play with toys. She is little and likes to be held. She wants to open the books and pretends to read them. I read things out loud to her and she repeats what i say- I was counting and she was following me. She said my name a few times too. She is too cute. I did not want to let her go.
Elliot was playing with another baby. This child was a quiet emotion less baby. He was holding her and her facial expression would NOT change. We tried reading to her, making her laugh or just moving her hands and arms – nothing! It was not frustrating but it was sad. I wanted to know her story, Elliott wanted to know her story. Her older brother was playing fine with the other kids and the volunteers. I wanted to hold her and just make her feel okay and understand her.
After, the guys stated after volunteering with soup kitchen they established a relationship with a few guys in the neighborhood, they went on a walking tour of the township.
Tonight we did outreach in Paarl, we went out in the MCM van looking for young women who may be working on the streets. The goal was to spread the word and tell them that God loves them. My goal was to learn more about cause and why someone might be working the street (prostitution). Of course we tried to convince them to get off the street as well. Jacque and his team goes out at least once a week and there are a few other volunteers that are involved with this type of outreach as well. Even Ameaka who manages the Coffee Shop takes time out to go and talk to these young girls.
Madaleine tell us that most of the girls they meet on the street is around 21 or 22 years old. They are fresh out on the street so it could be easier to get the girls to quit prostitution. Many of the women are doing this as a last resort and do not wish to prostitute. There are a couple of women who the volunteers have met that are in their 40′s. Those women have been prostituting for so long that it is much tougher to get them to quit.
Before we begin, Jacque prays for us, then Ameaka reads a passage: Psalm 27:23. Jacque explains how he does outreach every Friday evenings from 10pm – 3am. In Paarl when a girl decides to get off the streets, she can go to any Church in the city and they have to take her in and take care of her but due to lack of shelters for young girls, the girls may end up back on the streets before you know it to make money for survival.
Per Cecillia: the girls look like us, they do not look poor or like they have been on the streets long. They are clean, well groomed and well dressed. Primary language is Afrikaans.
Elliot plays the guitar and the group sings as Jenn leads the short worship. We sang Blessed Be Your Name; Mighty to Save; and Unchanging. Ameaka prays and it goes around the room, ending with Jacque.
We drive around and the team carries a bag of individual chips, some sandwiches with jam in a Tupperware and some verses printed and laminated. This reminded me of doing outreach for Stand Up for Kids when I first moved to California. It was crazy for me to be introduced to all the street kids and leave to go to my apartment when they would sleep behind a grocery store begging for money during the day. Talk about guilt. All those feelings started to come back and yea… it was uncomfortable.
The first girl we met makes it obvious by her expression and body language that she does not want to talk to us. I get out with Cecillia and Madaleine so it is us three vs. her, I would feel the same way. She doesn’t speak much English and I stand there and smile in the most comforting way I know how (probably not comforting at all). She doesn’t really speak and Madaleine does most of the talking. We did not pray for her and later when we walk back to the van Madaleine says that she is 21 years old and has a 5 year old son. Her son is with her parents and she is trying to get back to her family. Madaleine tells her that God loves her.
We drive around a bit longer and it is dark and cold. At one point we stopped deep into a residential area mostly filled with colored and blacks and everyone got out to walk around where we saw groups of young people. We walk up to a strip mall type building and approach a parking lot where there is a group standing outside what I think is a bar type place. The young guys who were just standing outside disperse and leave so we don’t bother them. They probably know why we are here (I think to myself). There is an older gentlemen standing there and he looks homeless. He doesn’t speak much english and Jacque talks to him. Jacque asks us if we have any questions and I ask him if he has a prayer request that we can pray for him. He tells us that his left leg is injured and is in pain so he asks us to pray for that. We all reach out and touch him while Jacque prays. It is wonderful for him to experience a group reach out and pray for him. We were actually touching his leg during the prayer. Talk about healing through positive energy.
We march on to the gas station where a few young guys are working and hand out the sandwiches. The first guy does not trust the sandwhich and request that Jacque take the first bite, so he does. We talk to them and one guy says he lives in Mbekweni and the other lives over in the area we were in because he is a Xenophobian. I feel sad for the guys that they only live in certain regions of the city because of their skin color and where they may be from.
We see across the street that there are groups of young people walking down so we cross the street. The street we are running towards does not have street lights and seems more dangerous because it is next to residential homes as opposed to businesses where there would be more traffic. Please note that since it is winter, it gets dark pretty quickly and even when we are in the bed & breakfast neighborhood which is mostly whites we don’t walk around on the street after 6pm (ish) and never alone.
We go across and talk to the two boys. One is holding a bible and Jacque is speaking Afrikaans to them and finally they all begin to speak English. The boys are very nice and finally tell us they are going home from Church and one even sings a song for us about God. It was touching. We visit a few more areas and even approached a few of the same people we have seen before. One group of young people that some of our team members approached were very friendly and really opened up. The girl was the sister of the guy who was watching over her (not sure if she is forced to be on the street but it was assumed). Tyler was disturbed by this and when he came back to the van and told the story, it made me think of the book I am reading about how sometimes slavery happens pretty much anywhere in diverse situations.
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