Day 4, Tuesday October 4^th.

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi!!!

We began today by visiting with young social activists in an organization called the Social Justice Coalition in the township of Khayelitsha.  Khayelitsha is a huge black township that was established in 1983 with an estimated population of 1.2 million people.   One of the biggest social issues that the people of Khayelitsha face is poor sanitation, and so the Social Justice Coalition began a “Safe Toilets” campaign.   Many of the residents live in “temporary” houses made of corrugated metal, wood and plastic with no indoor plumbing.    I put “temporary” in quotes because some of the people have lived in these houses for 10-20 years!   The public toilets that the Government provides are little more than concrete Port-a-lets, and most of them don’t work.   The people have been petitioning the Government for years to get better sanitation, with little positive result.

After the discussion we took a walking tour of a couple sections of Khayelitsha to see the township and the toilets up close.   I’m glad I have a cold.

The children of Khayelitsha were fascinated by the large group of “white” people touring their neighborhood.    We felt like pied pipers as we walked along, with a huge group of small children following close behind.  They were also fascinated with smart phone cameras and loved to have their pictures taken.  All of the children spoke English so it was fun to be able to talk with them.

This afternoon we met with A. Rashied Omar, an Imam of the Claremont Main Road Masque in Cape Town.   He has studied and written a lot about Christian-Muslim relations.   His studies focus primarily on the roots of religious violence and how inter-religious dialogue might help bring about peace.  He also works as a part time professor at Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN.  

One of the things that I find so stark about the places we are visiting is the vast difference between rich and poor.   In the morning we walked a neighborhood with terrible sanitation conditions where families live in corrugated metal shacks.  In the afternoon we walked around a high-end Mall with anything money could buy at our fingertips.  We face some of the same injustices in Indiana, but the difference appears much more drastic here.

I hope you have a great week.   Please continue to remember our group in your prayers.   As St. Francis would say...“Peace and All Good.”