"Rich in Our Hearts"

While visiting Soweto, our students were fortunate to visit Kliptown, a suburb of the township.  They were able to visit the home of one its residents and walk around the streets to get a feel for the community before visiting the Kliptown Youth Program.  One of our students, Antima, describes her experience:

"Mo, an administrator of Kliptown Youth Program, took us into a house that belonged to this very nice lady. The house was quaint and did not have things we consider basic necessities like a refrigerator or beds for everyone to sleep on. Even without the basic necessities, the residents of Kliptown seemed very content with their life. The media usually portrays people living in poverty as sad and depressed, when in reality that’s not the case at all. The stereotype was broken for me as soon as I started the tour. The kids we met in Kliptown seemed genuinely happy. I’m not saying that it’s always sun shine and rainbows for them, but it’s also not all sadness like we see on t.v. and stuff.  Seeing and hearing about what their struggles are put my struggle into perspective. My struggle might be my internet not working for a few minutes, when the struggle of the people in Kliptown is having to go to a specific room to access computers. I am not claiming that my life is better than theirs because I have all these nice things, what I’m trying to point out is that my experience in Kliptown really made me appreciate everything I have more. 

Seeing and visiting Kliptown was a very nice experience. The people of Kliptown are the ones that actually made an impact on me. The way the community seemed to be one really made me question the unity of my community. The community seemed to help each other and really pushed each other to become  the best versions of themselves. My favorite thing from the entire experience will be Mo saying "The community might not be rich in gold and silver, but we are rich in our hearts." The community was for sure rich in their hearts. The boys that taught us to dance were so welcoming and nice and so was everyone else that I came to contact with during my visit in Kliptown."