Monday, 9 August
After a whirlwind week of touring the 3rd largest Township in the country, including a chat and a dance with traditional healers; experiencing some of the tragedy, hardship and hope of some schools, orphanages and palliative care centers in Informal Settlements; learning of the history of liberation from Apartheid at the Biko Center; living with the families and children of several schools in the mountains northwest of East London; and the wonderful, beautiful outdoor education center at Hobbiton on Hogsback Mountain, suddenly we found ourselves entering the university city of Grahamstown.
This proved to be a respite, transitional day for us. We had an appointment to visit with Bill Demeris of the Center of the Transfiguration, an Anglican theological seminary in a lovely residential area of Grahamstown. It felt like we were in driving through the campus of Hamilton College or Colgate University. We were to meet with the seminarians at the school to talk with them about some of the projects in which they are involved around the city.
It was a beautiful but cold and windy day for a walk. But walk we did around the seminary campus and then through the campus of neighboring Rhodes University, named after the famous British explorer and empire builder of the nineteenth century. Again, we could have been walking through any campus in New England or New York. It felt so different from the South Africa that we had been experiencing.
We had lunch at the seminary and toured a couple of the projects in which the seminarians are involved: a school and orphanage for boys. As it turned out, the available seminary students and the tour of the projects were limited because it was Women's Day in South Africa, a national holiday. This meant that many students were away and projects were on holiday staffing mode. We were happy to learn about Women's Day from the leader of the Moravian contingent of our Group, Frances Titus.
Frances shared some background with us that she found on Wikipedia.
On 9 august 1956, 20,000 women staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950. They left bundles of petitions containing more than 100,000 signatures at prime minister J.G. Strijdom's office doors. Outside they stood silently for 30 minutes, many with their children on their backs. Those who were working for whites as nannies were carrying their white charges with them. Women sang the protest song, composed for the occasion, "Now you have struck the women, your have struck a rock." In the 54 years since, the phrase "you strike a woman, you strike a rock" has come to represent women's courage and strength in South Africa. Since 9 August 1994, the day has been commemorated annually and is known as Women's Day in South Africa.
During our tour of Grahamstown we also went to the museum commemorating the British takeover of the city during the reign of King George IV. There is a fort next to the museum with the cannon pointing down the steep promontory commanding the city. One South African pointed out that his ancestors that fought the British artillery with spears didn't stand a chance.
That night we were glad to accept the peaceful and beautiful hospitality of a community of Benedictine monks at their monastery. The rooms were lovely, complete with windows overlooking a beautiful valley and the best showers we had experienced to date! We shared dinner with them that night (delicious soup, bread and salad) and breakfast (in silence) with them on Tuesday. We were not able to share in worship with them. Women's Day was a holiday for them, too. So, they were did not follow the normal schedule of "offices".
We did have a group meeting that night to prepare for our upcoming visit to the Scotia and Addo Game Reserves and the subsequent visit to the Moravians in the Port Elizabeth area. Afterward I posted some overdue blogs about our trip. Internet access is less available in South African than in the USA. Fortunately, the monastery had it!
Blessings,
Rick Cowles
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