Day 3 – Greenside Mine - Mon Sept 24, 2012

Before I start, a quick story that I told a number of the girls as we arrived at the lodge last night, and found a number of large animal statues all around the property.

When we were on our safari prior to the event, we saw every kind of animal - including the big 5 - with the excpetion of the black rhino - we saw white, but never the rare black. On the bus on the way back to Johannesburg, I had been dozing against the window, and when I opened my eyes at one point, I saw a number of animals - right at the side of the road - among them, what looked to me to be a black rhino (though I barely had time to discern what the difference would be to a white one, much lest process what I was seeing!). I bolted up in my seat, shouting "Rhino!" before I could even think about it - waking half the other passengers on the bus - just seconds before realizing that what I was looking at were a bunch of statues!! I can't tell you how funny the locals found that story. "Typical tourist" was the overwhelming reaction, after they stopped laughing!! So in honor of my goofy reaction, I just had to get this shot of myself, pointing out the obvious - Rhino - and obvious - statue!

Anyway, now back to the regularly scheduled Blog post! Today was a national holiday in South Africa - so before I get into our day, a few words about the holiday by way of explanation.

• September 24h is a public holiday on which South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions.
• In 2005, the holiday was "re-branded" National Braai Day, in recognition of the South African culinary tradition of holding informal backyard barbecues, or braais. At the end of 2007 National Braai Day changed its name to National Heritage/Braai Day.

Due to the holiday, there were limited options for planning community visits, so we had a later start today, and just one event.

At the first gas stop, the shop inside the gas station reflected the economic hardships of the area. Many empty shelves and only enough electricity running to power the registers (not even coolers), gave us a real sense of the challenges that people living here face.

As we were on our way to the event, we were joined again by bikers from local groups - about 20 of them - who rode in with us for about the last 30 miles.

 

We would be doing shows at the Greenside Mine for the workers tomorrow, but today the residents of the Greenside community gathered to give us a rousing welcome, and to our delight, a group of children put on a play for us. It wasn't in English, but I asked Raynolda afterwards what it was about - since the audience clearly loved it.

It was the story of a woman whose husband habitually drank his earnings from the mine, and abused her. This was known to all the neighbors, and they gossiped about this woman mercilessly. the woman decided to go to church to look for help. when she came home, her husband came home sober for the first time ever, and asked her for forgiveness. She told him she had already forgiven him. He was shocked and asked how she could have possibly forgiven all his transgressions. When she replied that she had gone to church, he responded that he wanted to go as well.

It was a simple story but obviously one that the locals could very much relate to judging by their reaction. From what I learned, alcohol abuse and domestic violence are very common in these areas. These are also areas where stigmas and superstition are still very prevalent. People with cancer are still thought to be 'bewitched'. Women who have surgeries for breast, ovarian, cervical or uterine cancers are divorced because they are not considered to be 'women' anymore. One of our own survivors, Raynolda, had this very experience. Take a minute to read her inspirational story 'here'. She has certainly come a long way since then, and is so helpful in these communities in getting our message across to the local people and making contacts to come back and work with after the event.

Our performance came after theirs, and John Sithole outdid himself with a leap off of the stage right in front of where all the kids were sitting (one of them, on my lap). They were totally wowed! Myra and Claude were a huge hit as well, and then it was time for the survivors to tell their stories.

We were in the home town of one of our survivors - Linah - who was with the event last year, but was very shy about speaking to a crowd. She had a problem with her front teeth, which has since been fixed (funny story about that to come!), and this year she got up on stage and told her story. Her voice was clear and steady (though we did not understand the language she spoke), but her one hand holding the microphone shook, belying her nerves. It was barely noticeable except to those of us who knew how nervous she was! She ended her story by pulling out her prosthetic breast - waving it over her head - and the crowd went wild! She really stole the show, and the confidence she gained was written all over her face.

Themba, a testicular cancer survivor from the age of 13, also told his story to a very receptive audience.

After the event, we went outside where there was a Braai for the attendees of the show, and all the kids were milling around the bikes. I must have spent a half hour letting kids get up on my bike and taking photos of them. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world to see a picture of themselves on the screen of the camera! I know I took more than 50 photos. It was so nice to give them that little thrill of just sitting on the bike and having their picture taken.

Our hotel for the night was the Protea Hotel Witbank, where Linah works. A very special welcome for her was arranged. Since not all of the survivors are bikers, we try to rotate them on as passengers on the bikes - if they're interested. We made sure Linah was on one of them as we pulled into the entrance of the hotel, and surprised Linah with all the hotel employees and her family lined up waiting to greet her with hoots and shouts and much revving of the bikes to accompany them! It was so awesome to see Linah so thrilled!

After a lovely dinner (an amazing buffet spread!) we discovered yet another of Raynolda's talents. As we chatted over coffee, a beautiful strong voice, singing an obviously local folk song, rose up from the other side of the restaurant. We didn't know what to make of it and were still looking around for the source when the familiar voice of Myra joined in. Nobody even knew Raynolda could sing, much less so beautifully, and there she was teaching our international singing star a local folk song! It was one of those moments that makes all your hair stand up on end, and brings tears to your eyes! We gathered around listening for a while, but since we had a 4:30am wake up call in the morning, dispersed to our respective rooms to get some sleep. I roomed there with Marina - another biker/survivor who owns a farm with her husband. After hearing her talk about it, I would love to visit someday! Sounds so different than anything I'm familiar with. It was great to spend some time getting to know her a bit better - sharing stories, and cold medicine!

 

Photos from the day can be found in my public Facebook album here

Day 2 - Tshwane Hospital and Heidelberg - Sun Sept 23, 2012

Another day with just one community visit, but it was a very emotional one, as we set off to visit oncology patients at a local public hospital. The afternoon would see us heading back to Heidelberg at the invitation of Sanette's family to attend a luncheon in honor of her birthday.

It was a beautiful day - and when we arrived at the hospital we all pitched in to fill up gift bags for the men, women and children that we were planning to visit with.

Many of the group wanted to visit the kids, so I elected to visit with the adults. We had lots of Revlon and other goodies to give to the patients, as well as lots of creams and nail polishes in case any of the women (or men!) were interested in a quick manicure or pedicure or just a soothing hand massage while we were visiting with them.

It was a large hospital and quite clean and orderly - much better than lots of public hospitals here in the States. The sisters who worked there seemed very attentive and caring - so on that front it was encouraging. I took several gift bags and headed into the women's ward. There were a number of beds in the ward, and I was immediately drawn to a woman with a bright pink robe and a big bright smile.

It turned out her name was Lilly, and she had been diagnosed in April with cervical cancer. The diagnosis was apparently not early and the cancer had spread to a point where surgery was no longer an option. She had received chemotherapy and was undergoing daily radiation treatments. Though our ability to communicate was limited, her english was good enough to communicate that she was the mother of 8 children - 4 boys and 4 girls - ranging from the oldest in his early thirties to the youngest, who was just 7 years old. Her home was far away so she had been staying at the hospital for months while her treatment was ongoing.

I sat with her and showed her all the goodies in the bag, and she was just overcome with delight. I helped her put her new Revlon buff on, which she found very soft and comfortable on her bald head. These luxuries were probably more than she had seen in her lifetime. She chose a lotion that she liked the scent of, and a beautiful shade of red nail polish, and I set to work, chatting with her all along. She kept thanking and hugging me, even though I did a pretty poor job of the polishing - and made sure she knew which bottle was the remover and how to use it!

Next I saw an older woman quietly resting in a corner bed, and went to talk to her next. Her name was Nora, and the communication with her was not easy, so instead we used gestures and other non-verbal communication. She chose a sparkly white glitter polish that she was so thrilled with she couldn't stop looking at her newly polished nails!

Of course I left Love and Hope charms with both of them as well before we all headed out to the balcony to hear Myra Maud sing her beautiful renditions of Hallelujah and The Circle of Life. There was not a dry eye in the house!

After the visit we also heard an amazing story about how a mother and child, whom Myra had looked in on earlier in the visit, asked Elsje if she could find the singer again ask if she could come back to the room. When Myra returned, they heard singing in the room, and looked up to find the movie Shrek playing on a television, and the song Hallelujah was being sung at that exact moment. The same emotional song Myra sings at every show! A goosebump moment for all!

Other stories were sadder, as we were reminded of the reality of where we were and the possible fates of those we were visiting, as a few in the group witnessed a very ill young man being taken off machines - his doctors saying that death was imminent for him. A very sobering story for all of us.

After gathering on the bikes once again, it was time to head back to Heidelburg for a party in honor of Sanette's birthday. It was a nice lunch at a beautiful venue surrounded by gardens and greenhouses and fountains. It was a very nice lunch with Sanette's friends and family, and Myra sang Sanette's favorite song - The Story by Brandi Carlisle - after which we all joined her onstage to sing our "Cancervive" song for the other guests.

And I just have to add this weird side note about these chairs they had there. Some of you might remember that a few years ago I came across these fabulous red leather "alice in wonderland" chairs while on a trip to Washington DC - they were at a sidewalk/yard sale in Arlington VA, and I was crazy about them and they were like $70 for the pair, but I didn't get them because I was flying home in the morning and had no idea how I'd get them home. But I couldn't stop thinking about them and tracked down the guy who held the yard sale the following week to see if they were still available. Alas, they had gone. Well lo and behold at this venue, in Heidelburg South Africa, in the bar, there were the exact same chairs! In black/white fabric instead of red leather, but still! How's that for a coincidence?? Made the logistics of trying to get them home from Arlington Virginia seem like a piece of cake by comparison...Maybe they are still in my future somewhere, somehow...

After the luncheon, it was back on the bikes, on a beautiful sunny day, and off to our accommodation for the night. This ended up being a gorgeous ride, and along the way we were joined by a group of local bikers (fellow club members of our survivor/biker Yolande), and about 30 or more bikes ended up roaring into the Stable Inn Lodge in Spring

The evening's accommodations were - interesting! It was a large property, and the buildings with the rooms were very spread out. After much searching and backtracking and zig zagging (the building blocks were designated by letter, but were not in any alphabetical order), I finally found our building - much further than I thought anyone should have to walk with luggage! Once I found the door to the building I discovered that it was a 2 bedroom rather rustic cabin, no screens, no ac, the ceiling fans didn't work, and we were sharing a bathroom with the girls in the other room. I was feeling a bit snarky until I reminded myself that many of the people we had met today, and would meet along the way, would look at this place as luxurious. So I counted my blessings and set off to find my roommate for the night, Amy, get our bags, and get changed for dinner.

A wonderful buffet of typical South African fare awaited us - roast chicken, beetroot salad, yams, and various veggies, we went around the room sharing our stories from the day and feelings about the event so far. It was a very special evening of sharing and bonding with each other, and for me in particular, gave me additional insight into this incredible group of survivors and supporters that I'd be sharing this experience with over the coming week.

See link here to the public Facebook album, and enjoy the video of the day!

Day 1 - Kagiso Township Visit - Sat Sept 22, 2012

One of the few mornings on the trip where we did not have an early start, in part due to the scheduling changes to accommodate Sanette's funeral, as well as a party celebrating what would have been her birthday tomorrow. Breakfast followed by a briefing meeting allowed for an almost leisurely morning. I had brought some charms with me to give as mementos to all the team members (and also lots of extras to hand out on the stops we would make along the way). Heart shaped "Love" charms and round "Hope" charms with the words on one side, and the Chinese characters on the other were well received by all. Other participants were doing similar things, like Donna passing out her tri-colored ribbons for everyone to help decorate their bikes.

The late start was also much appreciated because we woke up in the morning (and went to bed the night before) to pouring rain and thunder! Not exactly the way to start out our first official day - but raingear was packed by all the riders, and finger crossed that by the time we left, the skies would clear. Which they did - thankfully!

This was our first visit to a township, Kagiso. First, a little background on townships in general, and on Kagiso in particular - for the uninitiated. Like me. :)

Kagiso is a township situated in the Krugersdorp area in Gauteng Province, South Africa. It was established in 1920 by ex-miners and squatters The township is currently occupied by nearly 190,000 people.

In South Africa, the terms township and location usually refer to the often underdeveloped urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites. Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities. During the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into segregated townships. Separate townships were established for each of the three designated non-white race groups

Kagiso has had a serious environmental problem since its inception. The environmental fallout was caused by 240 hectares of a slime dump perched on the edge of the township. Between 1970's and 1980's, a time when the gold was being actively mined, the extracted waste products in the form of sludge, was pumped into the slime dam located some distance from the residential area.

In 1991, the mining operation closed but the dried sludge continues to be problematic in the form of dust. Scientists have proved that slime dams and mine dumps contain very fine poisonous particles which are easily inhaled, leading to a high risk of increased incidents of cancer and birth defects.

(Sources: "Kagiso Historical Research Report", compiled by Vusumuzi Khumalo; Wikipedia)

On our way we ended up on smaller and narrower roads, potholed and without shoulders, and the housing around us got smaller and more run down as we went. Still, people were coming our and lining the streets in droves to cheer us in as we got closer to our destination. What a sight to see for me, the crowd lined up to welcome us.

As we parked the bikes we quickly realized that there was a bit of a panic going on among the setup crew. Turns out there was no electricity - meaning no microphones or speakers for the show! Elrie and her crew were busy trying to 'borrow' electricity from a nearby source, but it appeared to be time to improvise!

In the meantime the community had planned a show for US! What a wonderful surprise with a group of young people performing a tribal dance for us.

By the time that was done, the crew had resigned themselves to a cappella performance, and true to the saying, "the show must go on", it did - and it was amazing how the team improvised and got the crowd involved at the same time. . I have to say in looking back, it was probably one of my favorite shows just for that reason.

The lovely and brave Carina took the stage to tell her story of survival - of an extensive family history, the presence of the BRCA gene, losing her mother when she was only 10, and nursed her grandmother through to her death as a young woman. She had lived under the threat of a diagnosis her whole life. The screenings she herself had from a very early age revealed her cancer when her daughter was just 3 years old. A touching story and reminder of the importance of early detection, and increased vigilance for those with a high risk factor. Raynolda translated for Carina for the locals, as she did for many of us along the way!

 After the entertainment and education, we mingled with the crowd as the Revlon gifts were handed out to all the attendees, and I spoke with several survivors in the crowd - one whom was sporting an Avon T-Shirt! How cool was that?? I handed out Love and Hope charms to the survivors I met, and also to some of the young girls, who thought they were great! We also met a biker chick who rode by herself quite a way to see Zanele - one of our supporting riders/road marshalls.

As we watched dark clouds gather in the distance, we hurried up and got back on the bikes to start making out way to Pretoria, where we would stay for the night in another City Lodge property. They treated us very well with all the sponsored rooms! By the time we got to our lunch stop, I was starting to feel a sore throat coming on - which unfortunately did nothing but get worse as the afternoon wore on. Elrie's husband Villy was kind enough to take me to a pharmacy to stock up on some local medicines which were a huge help over the next few days to me and others as this virus made it's way through our ranks! We were dropping like flies throughout the week. Bit of a bummer, that...

We all ended up gathering together for dinner, and I roomed with Amy for the first time, and we were fast friends by the time we finally went to sleep - after talking and laughing - again, into the wee hours! Sleep would have to wait for after this event it seemed, though probably the lack of it likely contributed to my susceptibility to catching that damned cold!

Link to Facebook Public Photo Album

Official Sendoff/Departure - Fri Sept 21, 2012

We had an early wake up call for breakfast and after dropping our bags off for pickup and gathering our gear, we set off for our first stop - a fundraising event that was being held at the University of Johannesburg in Auckland Park. This was the first time we got to experience the talents of Myra Maude and John Sithole - as well as the amazing voice of local television personality, master of ceremonies and coordinator extraordinaire - Claude Pretorius.

We had not yet been united with our motorcycles - instead traveling to the event (through murderous morning rush hour traffic in Joburg) in cars and vans. We were late for the event - (this would not be the last time either!), and then one of our vans got stuck behind a car in the parking lot with no obvious owner - so were before we even officially started the event, we were behind. Rushing around and then waiting would become familiar modes of operation throughout the week. But as a testament to the organizers, we always managed to pull things off - improvising where necessary. More on that as we go!

Once we got unstuck, it was off to the Revlon offices (I think that they were trying to make me feel at home with the traffic!! it was as bad as Chicago at it's worst!), through more traffic. But now everyone was anxious because we were now running late for the big send-off. But we ended up getting there in enough time, and as we got ourselves acquainted with our motorcycles, more than 650 people gathered to witness our official departure. Now about the motorcycle! I didn't even know what I'd been assigned - though had test ridden the Triumph Thunderbird at a dealer here in Chicago and LOVED it. I found Arnold - the big boss - Triumph SA Brand Manager - to ask about my bike and he pointed me to the only white, red and blue bike in the group. specially selected for the lone yankee in the group - the bike was nicknamed Captain America at the dealers. Very appropriate! And what a great bike. Though it had a tall windshield on it which at the first gas stop, had to go in the van. I just can't ride with a windshield that I have to look through - as opposed to over. So ended up riding without one for the week since there were no spare shorter ones. Wearing a helmet with a full face shield made up for it though, and I was used to the bike in no time. Absolutely loved it!

Now it was time for the first 'full' show - with John Sithole drumming and dancing, Myra and Claude singing, and the lovely young actress Smiley as the storyteller weaving all the song and dance together with her story of the Circle of Life. I know I wasn't the only one in tears with all the emotion the beautiful words, music and performances evoked. It would happen to me every single time I witnessed these amazing performers. How lucky I felt to be a part of this amazing group! And we'd barely gotten started.

After the official thanks to our sponsors, and ceremony of handing over the keys, we got to get on the bikes and make our official departure to a huge amount of cheering, filming and picture taking.

Unfortunately our next destination was a sad one - and not originally part of the official event. Just a week prior to the ride, one of the most loved riders from previous years lost her battle with cancer. Plans were changed around in the week preceding the event in order for the group (all of whom with the exception of some of the media people and myself knew her) to attend her funeral in her home town of Heidelburg - about 35 miles southeast of Johannesburg.

Though the majority of the service was in Afrikaans, there was a lovely video that our very talented Alecia put together, that painted a picture of a beautiful woman - friend, mother, daughter, sister and wife - who was much loved and missed. She fought a hard battle for many years - losing a young daughter to a tragic accident along the way - and I found myself feeling the loss of my loved ones at the same time as others were feeling the loss of this lovely young woman. As I was crying along with the others at the open grave site, with all her family and friends around, Claude came to me and said "But you didn't even know her". To which I replied "I didn't have to". Such is the nature of loss. And my sympathy for the grieving her loved ones were experiencing.

We had a somber but beautiful ride back to Joburg, and enjoyed a free night drinking some wonderful South African wines and great food followed with my new friends back at the City Lodge OR Tambo. I had a second night rooming with the vibrant and lovely Lee where we again stayed up late visiting and sharing our stories with one another before settling in for another (short) night's sleep.

Follow this link to the Public Facebook Photo Album

Starting from the Beginning - Arrival Johannesburg Thurs Sept 20, 2012

Finally catching my breath, and starting to catch up. I'll be posting my notes, pictures, links and maps as I get caught up. I'll post most of the pictures to my albums on Facebook, but since they're public if I have the links here anyone can access them. This will save me in captioning things in numerous places. Anyway - I know I posted already about the first couple of days but since I'm trying to organize myself, I'm going to go day by day here... Thanks for tuning in!

Arrival back in Johannesburg - Thursday, Sept 20, 2012

Donna and I were dropped off from our safari at the OR Tambo City Lodge Hotel to a whirlwind of activity - as the only new participant this year, I must admit, I felt a bit out of place at first, but the warm and welcoming South Africans treated me like an old friend. We were assigned rooms and roommates and given a brief time to check into our rooms before our first official group meeting. It was at that meeting that I began to realize the kind of production that I was now a part of. As the crew were introduced - professional photographers, videographers, sound engineers, a public relations consultant, 2 medics with their own ambulance that would be traveling with us, 3 Triumph employees (2 who would ride with us as marshalls/blockers and a third to coordinate activities behind the scenes as well as drive the Triumph van with the trailer) 4 cars plus a gear van, as well as full time coordinators for all of this activity, AND on top of that, the 'talent'. I was absolutely blown away. There were as many crew as there were riders/survivors coming to a grand total of 50 for this entire entourage. An amazing amount of work and planning had been taking place throughout the year that I was totally unaware of. To be honest, I left that initial meeting in a bit of a daze - with packages full of shirts, riding gear, gifts from Revlon and Triumph and others - that I was now having to worry about fitting into my already pretty full bags! To say I was feeling overwhelmed would be putting it very lightly! Thankfully Lee De Jager, a lovely and spirited young (33 yr old) breast cancer survivor was assigned my roommate and as a veteran Cancer.vive participant, was extremely helpful in getting me sorted out and up to speed. We stayed up talking and (re)packing and preparing for the coming days until the wee hours - the first of many late nights and early mornings that came to be the norm for the entire trip! Little wonder there was not a spare moment to write or work with my photos. We were scheduled within an inch of our lives every day. After the meeting it was up to the roof to learn the gumboot dance that we would be performing for the crowds during every show of the week. Poor John was an absolute saint in being so patient with a bunch of us clutzes trying to coordinate our stomping and slapping with various degrees of success! lol.

Some background on the gumboot dancing (which is well known in South Africa, but was completely foreign to me!)

It was conceived by black miners in South Africa as an alternative to drumming—which authorities restricted. The sounds would be codes to say something to another person a short distance away. It was basically used to communicate in the mines as there was strictly no talking. The wearing of the boots was a solution to a problem of often flooded gold mines in which men otherwise stood in knee-deep water at their work stations. Many of the steps and routines are parodies of the officers and guards who controlled the mines and workers' barracks, and the percussive sounds are made by stomping and slapping the boots while performing the dance.

No pictures from this first night or links to anything - just warming up here. Stay tuned...