The Brick Wall

Shortly before coming here we received an email containing images from the townships, images which touched me. However, when actually driving through to Bush Camp, we saw the townships in person. The images became even more harrowing when we visited Missionvale yesterday. Missionvale is a township with approximately 130,000 residents in a space in which only 15,000-20,000 would live in a residential area in the US. The shacks, for they can be called nothing else, are built with building materials with roofs held down with rocks. Running water and plumbing are unheard of here. Outhouses in the backs of yards are a dangerous place in the evenings (especially for young girls) for violence is rife in this place, brought on by gangs, drugs, and alcohol. Missionvale Care Center, the place where some of us may be volunteering (hopefully I will be one of them), is an oasis of help for this area. The care center holds 9 departments, including, but not limited to, a nutrition center, a school, a food shelf, a garden, a nursing unit that provides home care for the area (traveling to the homes to deliver care), and several skills learning centers. Sister Ethel, an Irish Catholic nun, who saw an extreme need for aid in the area, founded the center. She set up under a tree and her operation slowly grew to the much larger settlement with several buildings, with the help of over 200 Irish workers. The conditions in which they live hit me like a brick wall, but what hit me much harder was what came next.

            The most amazing part about this center was the overall attitude held by workers and those receiving aid alike. Smiles are in no short supply here, nor are waves or a look so friendly your heart melts. The children peer into your eyes with such happiness and hope that your heart cannot help but break. I cannot fathom going through the horrors these individuals go through on a daily basis and even being civil, much less so friendly and compassionate. The attitude held through in the House of Resurrection, an AIDS Haven for children. The attitude spread through to the township we toured today. Such smiles in the face of such destitution give one hope for life. They give one a sense that God will provide and will help people to at least be happy. Such smiles make you realize that we must give them more than smiles. We must help to give them cause to smile in some way. I hope from the bottom of my heart that our work this semester at the very least helps us to give them more smiles.