Inina Craft Agency

October 27, 2008

Left the lodge at 8:00 am and traveled south to the Africa Centre (an AIDS research center just north of Mtubatuba).

Continued on to the SA town of Eshowe and with some help from Duncan Hay of UKZN via cell phone, found our way to the craft centre offices. Signage wasn't great, so I went inside and was greeted by Thandazile Magubane, whom I did not immediately recognize. Turns out Thandazile has a sense of humour much like my own! When I asked if this was the Inina Craft Centre, Thandazile says in a perfect dead pan, "I am sorry sir, I do not know of any such organization". I started to tell her who I was and how I got my directions from Duncan Hay at UKZN, and that I am certain based on these directions that I am both on the right street and in the right neighbourhood. Then she bursts out laughing and tells me I am in the right place and that she is Thandazile!!!

So I fetched everyone else in from the sunshine bus and we had a wonderful meeting with tea and several cakes. And you were expected to have multiple servings of all of the cakes! We also met the director of Inina, Aurelia, a retired nurse, and were powerfully moved by her message to us. She told us so many things about her life, the craft centre, the children at her day orphanage, and her views on life in general and how to fix the world! We met also Thandika plus two other senior staff people whose names escape me at the moment. After much conversation the ladies presented us with gifts of decorative clay plates in very elaborate packaging. And I presented them with T-shirts from Masai, which they were very pleased with and insisted on putting them on immediately and wore them for the rest of the day! And also I gave then a package sent by Pam Cooper which included several photographs and a copy of the great series of articles that appeared in the Mercury several weeks ago. It was a perfect gift for Thandazile! She read every article and could not believe how the kids pictures in the centre section of the paper were outlined with the Bracelets of Hope.

After much discussion about the craft centre, we went out for lunch and a tour of the town.

Then we all went to Aurelia's day orphanage to see it and meet some of the workers and the children. Time had gotten away from us and most of the children were gone for the day, but there were still 100+ kids aged 5-10 years at the orphanage and we were immediately mobbed by them! It was a powerful thing to witness, all of these children experiencing the high point of their day as they were just loved and appreciated and taken notice of by the workers at the orphanage. Aurelia took me inside where the last two dozen kids were getting their mid-afternoon meal in surroundings so sparse it hurt to look around at the room, and probably their last meal of the day! Their next would likely be breakfast the following morning, right back at the orphanage.

Shelley had taken many pictures of the kids last year, and thoughtfully had printed copies which she passed onto Aurelia for distribution at her discretion. Many of these kids would never have held a photograph of themselves in their hands before.

Aurelia introduced me to a sad looking little girl of about ten years of age who had just finished eating. She did not speak. Like most kids, she was cute and lovable and Aurelia hugged her and sent her on her way. Then Aurelia turned to me and said "this one was raped six weeks ago while walking home from school. She came to the orphanage after it happened, but she could not speak about it and still does not speak at all when she comes back here every day".

How do you compartmentalize something like this? How does this little girl recover? Does she ever? I stood in the dirt yard crying and there is not a damned thing I can do that will make a difference for this kid. Even tears are pretty meaningless. I was numb for the rest of the day.

It was hard to say goodbye to Thandazile, who I have corresponded with for more than a year, and never thought I would ever meet for a certainty. And then I get this wonderful opportunity to meet her, and just six hours later I am saying goodbye and wondering if I will ever see her again!

That night at the George "Hotel" in Eshowe, I sat in a comfortable bar room, had five or six drinks too many, and then went to sleep in my room after killing at least ten cockroaches. (I got several more in the night, and three in the shower stall before I could take a shower in the morning).

Sometimes Africa is beautiful and always it is powerful, but sometimes it hurts to witness some of the realities of life there.