Happy Birthday Madiba!

This was the sentiment all through the country on Saturday - celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday! There have been some wonderful tributes on television for Mr. Mandela! Over the weekend my hosts, a beautiful family named Maropefela, showed me a wonderful time from a family dinner to a braai. A braai is the word in South Africa for big barbeque with lots of meat - sausage, steak, chicken, etc. and other foods - beans, salad, rolls, etc. I attended church at Holy Trinity in Turfontain with my host family and found the liturgy to be almost exactly the same as ours across the ocean! Holy Trinity has a very active children and youth education programs, and they are very involved at the refugee camp.

Speaking of refugee camp, we tried on Friday and Saturday to enter the camp so I could visit with some of the displaced people; however, we were not allowed. A new registration program was recently started and some of the people in the camp revolted on the previous Weds. so visitors have not been allowed to enter the camp. Even Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children representatives have been turned away. Because today is the deadline for the registration program it is expected that more violence will break out today. And the South African government says it will close the camp at the end of this month.

The refugees are from countries like Zimbabwe where they fled for fear of being killed and if they register in South Africa they will not be treated as refugees by the United Nations and will not have protection. If they are sent back to their country they most likely will be killed. It seems to be a 'no-win' situation. Someone said that it is only when the situation becomes a crisis that the United Nations will come in and help resettle these people.

I did not take any photos of the camp as photos were not allowed. But the camp was basically a large park that had been filled with large white tents like we would see at a wedding reception. Hundreds and hundreds of families and people - young and old - are living in these tents. The area churches serve the government issued food three times a day. Before the violence, the churches and NGOs were able to provide counseling and assistance. Please pray for the people in this camp, for the government officials and for the countless volunteers and staff and that this crisis will soon be peacefully resolved.