The other side of Cape Town

I know a lot of people have been asking how work has been going. It's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just that once I start talking I just start gushing. Work is hard and emotionally draining. I will use this post just to let it all out today.  There are two parts of South Africa I have come to know.  There is Cape Town where people drive Audi's and BMW's. The morning bustles with commuters coming into the city as most people don't actually live in Cape Town, but in the surrounding suburbs.  Cape Town is expensive and to actually live here would mean you work to pay your rent' that's it.  Monday to Friday I head out to the surrounding towns. I work in the areas of serious poverty. Shanty towns. One room shacks with no running water. Two beds but ten people living in a room not big enough for five grown adults to stand in comfortably. One of the offices I work out of has one of the highest cases for child abandonment. We are called out to investigate children left in drains, left at hospitals or left in fields.  Mothers attend the office in droves to drop off their children. This week I've been dealing with a woman who is 27 with five children. She doesn't want this life and doesn't want her kids. This is very common. Teenage pregnancy is on the rise along with HIV/AIDS as condoms are still taboo. I'm told that Sex is not something discussed at home. Children are sent to the clinic. At the clinic they learn more about sex. Birth control is free but people still prefer skin to skin. I ask' but what about HIV? .. the young girls say they want to keep their men...

I walk down streets on cold mornings to see children playing in drains with no shoes no pants no parents. Some days I feel like my heart is just going to tear apart. I'm just going to start crying and not be able to stop. Today we came upon a child with down syndrome no older than 2 left on his own, just crying. On day's like today I feel so small so inadequate... I just want to take him home.  We discovered a case today of a small child that was being molested. The mother is distraught and has no idea who's been doing it or when it might have happened. With so many people coming in and out the possibilities are endless. The system here is backlogged I'm told...she has been waiting for help for almost five months. I go to the bathroom to release my breakfast. I'm angry, I'm disgusted, I'm frustrated! I cry for a good 10 seconds... then return to work.  I feel the world has gone mad. I know there is purpose but when there are so many days like today I really have to search deep to stay positive. Cat say's I'm optimistic beyond rationale at this point. She says that after everything we've seen this far my outlook is distorted. However, I must hold onto hope that there are still men and women striving to change their life and the lives of their children. They are the reason why I do what I do.

A large number of school aged children don't attend primary school... instead they roam 

In the Shanty Village there is no running water inside the shacks. You have to walk to the communal areas to use the bathrooms. This is where many of the young girls are raped/attacked

 Children play in these open areas and in the drains ... the child below was just off to the side with no parent around playing in the sewer