South Africa

My time in South Africa was short but a great experience.

I visited, firstly, the Ethembeni Children's Home. Ethembeni (Xhousa word meaning "place of hope") is a home catering to 60 children under the age of 5, all affected in some way by HIV/AIDS. Most are waiting for foster placements or adoption, many will end up 'graduating' to another Salvation Army children's home in Johannesburg. The logistics of such a place are mindblowing. Just think of the bottles and nappies involved in caring for so many children!

From there we went to Soweto. I was excited to put a place to a famous name and see many landmarks along the way (including Ellis Park Stadium for the rugby fans out there). Soweto is obviously a challenging town. While there we attended a Salvation Army service with all the trimmings - I mean "all" the trimmings including a march of witness, timbrels and even lots of women in their Salvation Army hats.

Johannesburg is a modern city and obviously a fast paced one. There are many challenges there. While it is impressive to see the vestiges of apartheid are gone, the challenge of integration continues. In some cases there is reverse discrimination, and I spoke with white officers who now fear for the continuation of The Salvation Army's english speaking work, but are afraid to speak out for fear of being labelled racist.

From there it was on to Uganda...