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by Stephanie Decurnex
Monday:
Most of the day was spent at the hairdressers getting my hair braided. As I stayed there for seven hours, I heard a lot of stories and pretty much got a sense of how people interact amongst each other here. Between Rosie and the two other women, one a refugee, we talked about their way of life and about marriage.
Here men are legally only allowed to marry one woman, but that doesn't stop them from having many other lovers on the side. We talked about AIDS, which is very prevalent here, and that with the husbands sleeping around, the wives are thus at potential risk without a choice, so to speak, unless the husband was at least wise enough to protect himself.
In turn, I described how the whole matrimonial scene happened in North America, and the women all wanted to come back with me and move there.
Meanwhile, in the same hair shop, people were coming in with items such as cameras and phones for sale or these items were equally available for purchases. The salon also seemed to serve the purpose of a US money conversion center.
After the long and arduous process of braiding was completed, Jim came back from posting the information on the site and we walked back to the house.
That evening was spent going over the route, and talking about the next steps that needed to be taken so we could clear our bikes through customs.
Tuesday:
We woke up fairly early in the morning, had a little argument as to the route we should take, and decided to have a day to ourselves.
Jim went off to spend the day at the customs building, dealing with the South African Revenue Services [Note from Jim: that was hardly having a day to myself] and I went to go buy the things we still needed for camping.
After a rickety bus ride to the Waterfront, I shopped around a bit and then went and had a bite to eat. As I was sitting outside eating my food, there was a little girl beside me that was resting against the concrete absorbing its heat.
It didn't take much to realize that she was a street child. Her clothes were very dirty and her shoes worn to the sole. The wind was fairly chilly and she looked at me and said, "Do you sometimes get cold at night?"
Well, I started talking to her. I asked her if she had a family and where she slept. She told me she had been living on the streets for about 5 years and that she had no one.
I know that there are going to be many children along this trip that are going to be homeless and in need of help, and that I can't help them all, but I couldn't walk away from her and not try to do something. I don't want to write this story to have people think, "Oh,what a good deed," but I want to tell you what happened because it is informative and interesting.
As Candace and I talked, I asked her if she knew of any shelters she could go to so she could have a bed and some food. She claimed to not know of any.
I asked her if she was hungry, which of course she was, so I went and got her a sandwich and some juice. I left her there to eat and I went to the information booth to see if I could find out where some shelters were located. The lady gave me a couple of addresses and we called a couple of the shelters to find out how it all works.
The children stay there for about 6 weeks, are given a bed and some food, and after they are transferred to a Children's Home where they are given the opportunity to go to school. I went back out to talk to Candace and asked her if she wanted me to take her to one of these shelters. I explained the fact that she could sleep and eat there and again asked her if she had any family (to make sure I wasn't going to take her away only to have someone looking for their daughter later).
She agreed to come with me and so we went and called a cab (well, a Rikkis van). While we were in the cab, I told her that we could go inside and see these places - if she liked it and wanted to stay she could, and if she didn't like it I told her I would take her back to the Waterfront. The first place we stopped at was an all boys' shelter so we were directed to the only shelter that admits girls.
Once we were there, Candace said she had been there before and that she did not like the place. I went in anyway to talk to the lady, who claimed to know Candace and who told me that she didn't think that Candace would stay there. She was right.
I went back out to talk to her and I asked her why she didn't like it
there. Her answer was not what I expected. She said that it was the other children she didn't like. She said that all they wanted was money, that they were rude and mean. She preferred returning to the Waterfront than staying there.
We hopped back into the cab and headed back. At this point I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I had tried to help and hadn't succeeded in doing anything which made me feel helpless and sad.
On the other, I was amazed that the conditions were so unfavorable at the shelter in her mind that she preferred sleeping outside in the cold where she told me that sometimes she can't sleep at night because she thinks someone is going to come and kill her.
I didn't know what to do.
In the end, I returned her to the Waterfront and decided that I could at least get her a blanket to keep a little warmer at night. Now that was a mission in itself. Candace accompanied me inside the mall, but a lot of security guards in the stores would not let me in with her. Candace was kind enough to explain to me that these guards thought she was like the other street children who just want to rob.
Finally we found a blanket and some socks and I said goodbye to Candace. Before leaving I asked her if she knew how to get back to the shelter and also explained to her that if she went there for just six weeks they would put her somewhere nicer where she could go to school.
I don't think she'll go back.
I guess it's up to you to decide the moral of the story. I mean, people have set up shelters for these street children, but if the children don't go because of the other children then something needs to be done at that level.
The thing in Cape Town (and I am sure in many other places) is that some children ave learned to survive by ganging together and attacking people at knife-point. Yet other children, like Candace, do not turn to violence.
I won't write my personal opinion because this site is not about that -- it's about awareness, so that is the purpose of this story.
[Note that Save the Children does do work throughout Africa, but not, as far as we know, in South Africa]
