Kayelitsha...the slum

Today we went to the Township of Kayelitsha. It was probably the toughest slum we have been in. In Cape Town it was a beautiful, clear, blue-sky day, but on the drive in, there was this aweful fog that seemed to hover over the slum and nowhere else. Kayelitsha is in the lowlands, the Cape Flats, surrounding the gorgeous costal Cape Town and the juxtaposition of these two extremes of wealth and poverty, beauty and darkness is truly incredible. If you think the wall between Chickasaw Gardnes and Binghampton is significant, this place makes Memphis look egalitarian. We were with an organization called Grass Roots Soccer, which is using Soccer to do HIV/AIDS prevention in many communities throughout Africa. They are really gearing up for a lot of programs as the World Cup approaches. We sat in on the beginning of a "coaches" training sesssion in which GRS broght in members of the communities, primarly Kayelitsha and began to train them in their AIDS prevention curriculum and program. There is a lot more to it, but I won't get into the specifics of the GRS program and curriculum.

What was most apparent was the way AIDS affects communities more than idividuals and even nations. You could see in this training session the value of community. The "coaches in training" were just every-day people from the community who were essentially unemployed (the unemployment rate here is unbelievable and these people were very smart and motivated, many had a college degree or some education after high school). What was neat about the group is that you could tell AIDS had impacted almost all of them in a very significant way. They came together because they all hated this evil of AIDS and wanted to stop it. They wanted to prevent it spreading and destroying more lives, homes, families, and communities. It was a really neat experience. Most of the training was in Xhosa, pronounced (click) O sah, so it was difficult to follow, but you could just see and feel the group comming together in order to beat this disease that is so destructive.

One of the most clear things we have learned down here is that AIDS is a social disease as much or more than it is a medical disease. It is hard to wrap our heads around when we come from a world of Western "medical miracles" where science and medicine can figure it all out and conquer everything. However, it seems so clear that AIDS will not be defeated until the people, the communities, decide they have had enough. I am not sure there is a miracle cure. The cure seems to be resolve and determination. Until people decide to change the culture and the norms and the perspective on AIDS it will continue to spread and nothing scientists or doctors can do to stop it.