Vrygrond Township

The second last trip had arrived: a visit to the Vrygrond townships. The Herschel bus took all the exchange girls, with cookies, stationary and a good mood, to the other side of Cape Town. The other side of life. Situated near Muizenburg, Vrygrond is home to about 10,000 men, women and children. Up until this moment, we had only seen one side of life in South-Africa, really. The life of the more privileged South-Africans, who are able to afford a good education for their children, enough food to eat and a nice house to live in. My visit to the township changed my entire point of view on life. Seeing what I have seen that day, made me realize how fortunate I am with what I have. When we arrived at the township, we saw many shacks, a few containers and a lot of dirt on the ground. People were walking around in very old and dirty clothes, some with babies on their arms. We visited the crèche first, where we found about 40 children in one container, having breakfast. Breakfast was served in a plastic bowl, and it looked like a white substance, I wasn’t sure what it was. As soon as they finished eating their food, they started running towards us and hugging us, not willing to let go. There was some competition between the kids, all wanting the same amount of love. Some kids even started fighting when they couldn’t give a hug to the person they wanted to get to. Everyone tried to give them as much love as they could, considering the fact that they didn’t get much at home. We left the crèche for a tour around the township, guided by one of the inhabitants. He told us a lot about how things worked in the township and we learned many things about life in a township. In Vrygrond, there are many volunteers trying to create opportunities for the people and trying to make life a little bit better. We met a Dutch guy, teaching about 40 adults how to use a computer. His computer lessons took place in a small container, and included teaching people how to use simple things, such as Word and the internet. After talking to some of the inhabitants, we learned that it was one big community living together in the township. One big family. Even if people got the opportunity to move out of the township and live in a better place, they wouldn’t do it. Around 1 o’clock, we went back to the crèche to play with the kids and give them cookies. It was really nice, even though they were a bit aggressive sometimes. We left the township with a new point of view on South-Africa and on life.

The rest of the week would be spent at Herschel, with the boys visiting us for a day on Friday. This will be a whole new experience for them, for the fact that the Herschel girls are not used to having boys around in school.