Red Card Campaign and Vuvuzelas

Today marked the start of my experience of World Cup 2010. The South African government announced that today at noon, everyone in Cape Town was to bring out their vuvuzelas (big plastic trumpets) and make as much noise as possible for five minutes. The city responded in full force. It was truly amazing. Kat and I happened to be caught in the midst of it because luckily we were running an hour late to leave on our work trip. The energy was incredible. There were hundreds of people out making as much noise as they could. We tried to participate with our own vuvuzelas. Kat had much more success than I did. Apparently, it's a talent. It was a great taste of what's to come though. I am actually really excited for a sporting event... who would have thought!

We headed to Atlantis about an hour later. Atlantis is a township north of Cape Town along the west coast of South Africa. Sonke is launching a new campaign called the Red Card Campaign which is basically a campaign against child sexual exploitation. Today, we initially went door to door through the township. It was really interesting to get to see the homes - they are basically all one room with entire families living in them. After we did that for about half an hour, people gathered in the main square and there was an education campaign/dance party. It was really powerful, despite the fact that most of it was in Xhosa. There is a man at my work who is also a preacher, and he is the most engaging speaker. It was a really great afternoon.

I expected townships to be scary, and they really are not (during the day with a large number of local people watching my back). The people there are so eager to talk to you and so excited to have their pictures taken. They are so kind and so warm. All in all, a great day.