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.
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
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