Pei-Ru's Thought Bubbles (and photos): Away From Trouble; A Moment to Be Happy

If nothing else, Etafeni is a place that they are allowed to be happy. Filth, poverty and any other day to day problems get blocked off, when the HIV positive ladies and children (some are also affected) come in in the morning. Let’s put your worries aside. Everyone should be entitled to happiness.
At the day care center, children are cared for and fed. They can play in the garden, one of the only green places in the township, and they can just roll around and be kids. The after school care program is a chance for kids not be doing nothing in the townships but learn something and just play. Then, for the HIV positive ladies at the Income Generating Program, they get to be comfortable and be with the people who understand what they are going through. Empathy is powerful. Here, HIV/AIDS is talked about freely like any other subjects, and I’m sure it helps them face the disease more easily. Today, a visitor was sitting with the beading ladies, one of whom was coughing quite a bit. Buhle walked over and put her hands on the coughing lady’s shoulder and said to the visitor, “It’s okay. She is sick. She is HIV positive.” And then, they both laughed. They laughed as if what she said was nothing special. They laughed as if HIV was just another thing like a cold. It is, really, isn’t it. It is not a disease; it is simply a condition. Can you even imagine that? I was dumbfounded. People don’t even say, oh no worries, he has cancer. Together, these ladies cope with their condition and accept it as part of their lives. They don’t take it so seriously; they don’t look for pity; they laugh about it. Another day, Teresa was talking about the ridiculous recommendation of consuming of garlic as a cure for HIV/AIDS by South Africa’s minister of health. “Buhle is such a bad cook. She made stamp one day and she probably poured the whole can of garlic. It was basically garlic stamp. That day the virus in our bodies must have been so crossed. All that garlic.”
I can’t believe I’m leaving Etafeni today. These people taught me the art of living. Life is too short to take it seriously. Although, their temperament also caused their staggering improvement in health, employment rates and all the areas us Westerner deem important, but at least, they manage to be happy.
As my car pulled away from Nyanga, I saw the perfect image that speaks for my South Africa experience on the patch of dry grass next to the highway. Sun was shinning in at a slant, creating silhouettes of a group of children playing soccer with a felt ball. The ball got kicked so high that looked as if it almost went over the sun. Behind them, a high fence separated them from the township. Hills of falling apart shacks and suffering. Hills where death is taking away premature lives everyday. Problems are looming. But, for now, for now, they are simply happy. And that is what life is.