Our Time at Living Hope

Our time at Living Hope started with a day of touring all of the different community centers and projects that Living Hope has. We started at the main center, which is best described as a campus. There were a couple of buildings that house offices and workspaces for staff, and in a separate building is a healthcare center. We visited several community buildings within different settlements that Living Hope is involved with.

One settlement we visited is called Ocean View, which is a coloured community.

*You may have had a big red flag when you read "coloured". Side note: there are about 4 different racial groups in South Africa. The most commonly known are black and white. Black people make up around 75% of the population, white people make up about 13% of the population. A third group is the coloured population, which makes up about 9% of the population. A smaller fourth group is Indian, which makes up about 3% of the population. ALL of these terms: black, white & coloured are politically correct and not offensive. Its hard to get used to, but trust me.

Anyway, Ocean View is a settlement that looks different from other usual settlements. Because most of the buildings are "real" buildings, as opposed to shacks, it gives Ocean View an appearance of not being such a bad place. Unfortunately substance abuse, unemployment and abuse are giant issues in this community. Here are what the homes looked like:

The streets, in my opinion were eerily empty. In the other settlements we visited there were people walking in the streets, out and about. What is interesting about the homes is that often you will see small little luxuries....often people who have little to no money will own a television and a dvd player, or a cell phone, or other items like that. For a long time this was a confusing thing to me. It seems as though it is very clear--eat or watch tv? But its not as clear cut as that. At a certain level, a person needs to keep their sanity, to live life in a relatively "normal" way, to be connected to the world....and sometimes thats what a cell phone or a television can bring. Many of us would probably be willing to give up a few things if it meant we could keep our cell phone, even if we pretend to hate it.

It was an interesting place, to say the least. We met a woman who runs an afternoon program for children in the community, which provides a safe place for children to spend their afternoons. There is also a small meal that is served to children who attend. We met the woman who runs the program for the 62 children who attend....all by herself! To make things even crazier, she runs the program out of a room that is smaller than the size of my living room. It is a teeny room, and somehow this brave woman runs a program to give these kids a safe place, food, and love. Its a beautiful thing.