Xenophobia has reached Cape Town

Hey everybody,

First of all, thank you very much for all your concerned emails and text messages. I am more than okay. You might have heard about the xenophobia (strong dislike of foreigners) in South Africa. A lot of foreigners have been murdered over the last week or two in South Africa. This mainly happened in the townships of Johannesburg (Jo’Burg) which is far away from Cape Town. I’m safe and doing very well in Cape Town, so don’t worry about me.

The xenophobia has reached Cape Town though. Western foreigners like me really have nothing to fear about, because this xenophobia is mainly against foreigners from Africa. South Africans are afraid that they (the foreigners) will ‘steal’ their jobs away, since the unemployment rate is so high in this country. People are threatened away from their homes. My friend Mumba is from Mozambique and studies here in Cape Town. He came over last weekend and told me that while waiting at the traffic light, the people (five men) in the car next to him told him to better leave South Africa, otherwise they will kill him… ABSURD!
I work at the primary school Vissershok. Most of the kids live in the township called Du Noon. There are a lot of foreigners living in this town ship. Last weekend they have been warned to leave Du Noon, otherwise they will burn their houses down and kill them. I don’t know how the situation in Du Noon is at the moment, but I hope that everybody is safe and still alive!

I haven’t been to Vissershok this week, I’ve been helping out at His People Church. I received a phone call from my centre director last Saturday night. He told me that hundreds of people are looking for shelter at His People Church because of the xenophobia. His People is a HUGE church where I go to every now and then (next to Kaleidoscope). Rolf, my centre director, asked me to gather the other volunteers & interns and to go help out on Sunday and so we did.
We arrived at the church on Sunday morning and the church was absolutely pact. There were people from His People attending the service and there was about 500 people looking for shelter and this number was increasing during the day.
I was very impressed that His People has set up the shelter so quickly. Yes, there was chaos, but the chaos was in control and everything was pretty organized. We helped preparing the breakfast and lunch for about 700 people, because there were more people arriving. I talked to a lot of moms and played with the kids. It is amazing to see how strong these people are. One lady had to leave everything behind, all she owned was a blanket. Fortunately the HPRC (His People Relief Centre) is looking after her and her three kids now.

I talked to Rolf and we decided to cancel all our YFC projects (besides from SOS, because this is in the evening) so that we can come and help out in the morning. So this is what I’ve been doing this week. The shelter is run by some staff members of His People and a lot of volunteers. People are so generous in South Africa. So much has been donated to the HPRC, it’s truly wonderful to see how giving people are. I’ve been preparing and serving breakfast and lunch this last week. It is great to be able to help out. Today I was responsible for the children. Well actually I wasn’t, but I just took charge, because the coordinator was a little bit stressed out. This was pretty understandable, because he’s been working so hard. The kids are in ‘school’ during the morning. Some volunteers come and help out with the kids, which is truly great. Today I played games with the kids, we coloured, we sang songs, I showed them an animation movie about Adam & Eve and I was a math teacher for the older kids. I LOVE these kids, they are so cute! Sometimes things get hectic and I don’t have time for every kid… just like today, but the funniest thing happened; one kid, about 1,5 years old, couldn’t wait for me to feed him yoghurt, so he decided to do it him self. Well, he tried… it was a mess! Very cute mess though… take a look at the photos.

I have no idea how long His People will have the Relief Centre. I hope the situation will calm down fast in South Africa so that the people can go back to their homes and live their life as they used to do. Until this day comes, I’ll probably keep going to HPRC and help out. It’s the least that I can do for these people.

Again, don’t worry about me… I’m not in danger at all! But thank you very much for being concerned about me. You can do me a favour though… keep the people of the HPRC and everybody who’s affected by the xenophobia in mind. Thanks!

Lots of love,
Bao-Nhi