Today we had 3 very interesting and informative experiences. First off we visited a sustainable farming operation run by Vanderbiljpark Rotarians, notably Rita Benecke whom we helped celebrate her 80th birthday on Saturday. Rita is a local mover and shaker, head of the Benecke Group of Companies. The operation is completely organic and grows a wide variety of vegetables as well as starter seedlings for 44 other gardens run by community groups such as churches. They also operate a “soup kitchen”, literally a large commercial kitchen were they produce 1800 liters of soup PER DAY🥰. The soup is made in four large stainless steel vats and the cook was just beginning today’s batch. The soup is distributed daily to charities such as Meals on Wheels, schools, churches and real soup kitchens. While we were there a young man was loading the trunk of his car with 5 gallon plastic buckets of hot soup and loaves of donated bread and butter. He will travel to one of the client churches or schools for immediate distribution.
After our tour we journeyed deeper into the “Township of Bophelong” Bophelong means “Place of Life” in the Sotho language, one of the 12 official languages of South Africa. Townships are communities on the outskirts of the cities where the blacks were only allowed to dwell. The most famous is Soweto near Johannesburg. Since the end of apartheid, blacks are not confined to the townships. Those with the economic means to do so will move out and into the cities proper. Those that can’t, including poorer whites, continue to live in the townships. In fact they are growing as the economy deteriorates and the gulf between the haves and have nots continues to widen.

The destination was a restaurant where we would dine on a selection of local cuisine. Interesting and very tasty to say the least. Chakalaka,a spicy mixture of beans, onions, peppers and carrots; pap, a creamy mixture of corn meal similar to polenta; potjiekes, a stew like dish made with a variety of meats and vegetables and potatoes and the requisite “Brazilian”, South African bar b q, in this case chicken legs. All of this washed down with jugs of homemade ginger beer. The restaurant was actually a night club, complete with a bar extending the length of an entire wall, leather sofas and a dj booth. Probably a rocking place in the night time.
After a post lunch chill out then a little dancing on the nightclub dance floor to get the blood flowing and the food settled we headed to an after school program run by a local newspaper publisher Simon. As the presence of a group of Canadians was a hot topic in the township, he wanted to interview us and as I am the team leader I was chosen to speak for the group. He asked what my impressions of South Africa were and I repeated my earlier assertions that I was impressed by how welcome we were made to feel and also how proud South Africans seem to be of their country. We went on to talk about the power and magic of Rotary worldwide. I suggested that if you want something done, get a Rotarian excited about it and it will get done.
We visited Simon’s after school project were he provides space and guidance for up to 90 school children from about 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM every day. He personally picks up all the children from their schools and then drives them all home afterwards. He is assisted by older student helpers and is doing this on a shoe string for funding. I suggested he needed to enlist the support of the local Rotary club.
After being entertained by a group of boys who sang us a lovely song, we piled back into our van, headed back home for a nice quiet evening and bed to recharge for another busy day tomorrow.