Long day. Lots of love.

For our final house event organized by one of my RAs, Martina, we spent a full day exploring and being part of the community in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town's largest township. The apartheid government created the township in the 1970's for displaced coloureds, who still make up the majority, if not all, of the population there today.


The team leader of our security guard staff, Andrew, lives in Mitchell's Plain and has lived there his whole life. Martina worked with Andrew, and Andrew's family, to organize a day full of activities for us so we could get a feel for the township and interact with the community.


We started the day with eating breakfast at Andrew's mother-in-law's house. We had a huge meal, and were not allowed to help clean up one bit. They truly treated us like guests.


I almost felt like we were in Ocean View again. Everyone we met was completely happy living in Mitchell's Plain. Although the original foundation of the township was created by the apartheid government, many of the people who live there, including Andrew's mother-in-law,  moved to Mitchell's Plain about 30 years ago and do not ever plan on leaving.


Our first stop after breakfast was a huge church in town. Apparently it's the largest church in the Southern Hemisphere, but for some reason, I couldn't find those details on Google, so I'm not sure if that's completely accurate. It was a huge church though, that had multiple auditoriums with televisions so those who couldn't fit into the main chapel could still watch the service while in the church.

After driving around a bit more and learning about Mitchell's Plain and Andrew pointing out the different areas that house various gangs, we headed to the huge open field around the corner from our home base, Andrew's mother-in-law's house. There, the DJ was setting up and people started gathering. A neighborhood block party erupted from that point. The boys played soccer. Some of the kids showed their rehearsed dances. We painted kids faces (the South Africa and Brazil flags were very popular requests). We handed out goodie bags to the kids and hot dogs to everyone there.

Once the neighborhood party wrapped up, we went to several different homes in the area to see their houses and talk to them about their experiences in Mitchell's Plain. Everyone was very welcoming and willing to answer any and all questions!

The night concluded with an all-night dance party and delicious food, again, cooked by Andrew's family. We didn't get back home until about 2 a.m. that night, which made for a long, but very fun, day.