We arrived on Monday not really knowing what to expect. Tuesday we were all shocked at the level of need in Orange Farm & Hillbrow. Wednesday we visited Alexandra & Mfuleni. Two things that really struck me were the happiness of the kids and how totally excited they were to see us. I have never seen such happy kids and one could easily argue that they have every excuse not to be happy! But, that's the beauty of childhood is it not? I seriously had such an awesome time interacting with those children! If I ever have the opportunity to do this again I am going to bring over little things that I now know those kids would really go wild over. Like an instamatic print camera - little video games, toys, etc. The kids were going crazy just to get their pictures taken & look back at them in the camera!!
The second thing that really impressed me was the fact that the MaAfrika Tikkun centers were in most townships the only safe go-to places the community had available to them. Also, the full circle of services that MaAfrika Tikkun provides is well beyond what I realized. We have also visited the nice touristy area's while in SA. One of my fellow travelers described our journey as "bitter sweet". Just around the corner from all of these great spots full of natural beauty & affluence you will find the insane level of poverty that MaAfrika Tikkun is fighting against. As soon as your cab gets a little ways down the road you'll see it all around you again...soberly reminding you of how very important our support of MaAfrika Tikkun really is...
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