National Women's Day: Part 1

Every year South Africans celebrate National Women's Day on August 9. Schools are closed. Government offices shut down. Even many businesses are closed for the national holiday. In a world where women are still oppressed, it's awesome that a country celebrates female power. The holiday commemorates the day in 1956 when 20,000 women marched in Pretoria to voice their objections to the Urban Area Act of 1950, also known as the "pass" act. This legislation required any native black or coloured person to carry an identification document on them at all times. Without the pass, one could easily be detained in jail. These 20,000 women strong marched to the prime minister's office in downtown Pretoria and left a petition with 100,000 signatures of Africans who felt the law was discriminatory and unjust. They stood outside the building, waiting for the prime minister to acknowledge them, singing an African protest song translated to "Now that you have touched the women, you have struck a rock."

I was honored to be in South Africa for this year's Women's Day and participate in the activities planned by Come Back Mission. I awoke early and joined my South African "sister," Corrien who was tasked with picking up 12 or so female Come Back Mission volunteers in the combie (or mini-bus in South African speak) to transport them to the organization's rural recovery center, a.k.a., the farm. Our first stop was in Kliptown to pick up Auntie Grace (posing with me in the photo above), beautifully dressed in her traditional African attire complete with decorative face paint. Before I left Houston, I had packed a separate suitcase full of donations, including a bag of plastic beads that Rob had leftover from his crafting days before I met him. Corrien had given the beads to Grace to see what she could do with them, and once on the combie, Grace presented her handiwork. I was amazed that a bag full of colorful beads could produce such gloriously beaufiful necklaces in only the matter of a few days.

After picking up the remainder of our female passengers and driving 30 minutes to the farm, we all disembarked from the combie and joined the others that had already arrived, as well as they young women who lived on the farm and participated in the Hadassah Women's Center substance abuse recovery program. The few men present were outside busy cooking traditional African potjie (pronounced poy-kee), a meat and vegetable stew cooked in a three-footed, heavy iron kettle over hot coals. Meanwhile, the women gathered on the brick patio under the warm, winter African sun for tea and coffee, muffins, fresh fruit and juice.

Just after noon, all of the women (and me) gathered for the program in the large living room of the main farm house. Auntie Lucia, a nurse at a local hospital, spoke about HIV/AIDS and the stigma that cripples much of the community. Her words moved many people to tears, especially one of the young women in the recovery program who had recently been diagnosed with HIV. After a brief candle-lighting ceremony and prayer to remember those who have died of AIDS, anyone who was "living positively" was encouraged to come forward and speak from their heart about living with the disease. The young woman who recently learned she is HIV positive bravely spoke about her struggles coming to terms with her diagnosis and her quest to recovery from an addiction to drugs.