Hana Mattern: January 2012 Archives
I know, "life is how you make it" seems cliche, but it is true to me. To explain this further, a girl in my class made a statement that "life is 5%, and 95% of how you react to it." A good example of this relates not to life, but to death. In a documentary we watched in class last week, a black lady said, "When people have died, if you mourn them too long it demoralizes your spirit. When we buried them we didn't cry, but we would sing." Simply stated, if a person dies you can cry, or you can celebrate the life the person had lived on earth by singing.
Will you cry or sing in times of trouble? I know I try to sing (not very well though)!
A Daycare in Delft
Today was a hard day for me in the township of Delft. We went to a family owned daycare as a group, so there was 25 Americans and about 17 children. If we would not have been there today, the one caregiver would have been in charge of feeding, changing, and entertaining all of the children by herself. At first, I was super pumped to see kids, paint faces, throw around the rugby ball, etc, but after the first hour I had a sad realization. Most of the kids had not bathed in awhile, the floor had not been cleaned in awhile, and the toys looked ancient. The realization for me was that I have the luxury of thinking about what I will be going home to in less than a week. I will be able to go home to a spotless apartment, a warm shower, my education, and a supportive environment.
I can say today was the first day I almost understood what it would be like to not only visit the township, but actually live there. I'm not saying I have more power, but I do have more privilege and I know what it's like to have nice things. I cannot relate, and I will never truly understand, but I am humbled by the life in the kiddos and the other genuine people we have met while spending time in Delft.
This is a question the white minority of South Africa had to ask themselves over and over again during the two years of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC): What have we done?
I don't think this is an easy question to answer, or even to ask. After watching a documentary in class today called "Facing the Truth", compiled by Bill Moyers, I started to examine this question. As we have been learning about Apartheid, the fact of the matter is that the white minority legally controlled the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1994. The documentary showed real clips that were broadcasted publicly on every tv and radio station for the two years during the TRC. At one point, one of the interviewers asked a white minority leader, "Why is it so important to tell your story?" His response was, "because I wanted the world to know what happened." After the world knew what happened, the oppressors could start to answer the initial question, "What have we done?"
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a conversation between the people of South Africa in order to make peace with their past. This is a very interesting concept, but why haven't more countries tried this? After watching the documentary, I have realized that forgiveness from the oppressed to the oppressor is easier said than done. One thing that helped me come to this realization was the natural human reaction to a tragedy such as Apartheid. Our instructor Nate said that first human reaction is to know the truth, THEN to have a desire for justice. If someone knows the truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God- how on earth do you prevent the desire for justice? Or throwing the oppressor in jail or committing the same acts upon the oppressor as they did to the oppressed? This is the very place where forgiveness by the people of South Africa was chosen. In the documentary it was stated that, "The oppressors wanted amnesty. The oppressed wanted justice." The minority and the majority had to compromise, and the act of forgiving as a whole nation was born.
Desmond Tutu played a huge role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and one of his lines from "There really is no future without forgiveness" states the importance of forgiveness for the future.
"Our experiment is going to succeed because God wants us to succeed, not for our own glory and aggrandisement but for the sake of God's world. God wants to show that there is life after conflict and repression- that because of forgiveness, there is a future."
I think this is such a powerful statement because as HARD as it may be to forgive, sometimes that is the only way to move on with life. This does not mean a person has to dismiss what has happened in the past, but at least the feeling of anger or resentment can begin to leave a person, and the soul can be restored. Forgiveness is a powerful healing mechanism, but it is a process I am still trying to accept and apply to not only my mind, but also my heart.
Hana
The chorus from "The Time of My Life" in Dirty Dancing is this: "Now I've had the time of my life, no I've never felt this way before, Yes I swear it's the truth, and I owe it all to you."
When I was thinking about this blog post, I realized time has been on my mind the last five days in Suid Afrika (South Africa, in the daughter language of Dutch, Afrikaans). We had the incredible opportunity of spending three days in the mountains at the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness area retreat when we first arrived in the country. I literally had the time of my life, and I had never experienced some of the emotions before the retreat, hence the song lyric for this post. :)
The first time I truly felt time stop was during "solo" time up on the mountain during sunset. Before sunset, our group practiced an Educo Africa tradition by gifting a journal to another person. Once everyone received a journal, we were invited to choose a place to sit, and reflect upon the "things we left behind." This question can be a deep question, or it can be answered on a materialistic level. My mind started racing, and deep thoughts about the meaning of life, love, happiness, and my past were forming faster than I could organize them. Everything came so fast, I decided to lift up any past worries, or struggles to the sky, and to write down the "things I wanted to take with me."
This is a short laundry list of my ideas to change the world I took with me:
1. Provide education for EVERYONE
2. Make healthcare accesible for EVERYONE
3. Ensure comfortable housing for EVERYONE
4. Live in a world in which the only race is the "human race"
I know these ideas are very broad, but I was trying very hard to picture a world without so much greed, selfishness, anger, and hate. After being at the District 6 museum today, I realized these changes may take 1,000s of years, but it is worth it. Right now, I plan to soak up as much information as I can about living in a community and the power of forgiveness while I'm living in South Africa. This country is beautiful, and as of now my truth is only comprised of the things I have learned and been exposed to in the past. I am very excited about my transformation into a global citizen and I can't quite imagine what is yet to come in the future for myself, my generation, and OUR world! <3
