Reposted from 7/30:
I am writing to you from the Cape Town Airport, as I wait to board the 1st of my 4 flights home. As I reflect on the meaning of these 9 days in South Africa, it strikes me how poverty is in some ways the same throughout the world, and yet it is not….
One thing that is the same no matter where you experience extreme poverty, is that once you see it in person, you cannot fail to be moved. Your life is never the same. You feel you must speak out, or do something, or both.
My first experience with poverty in shantytowns was in Hong Kong when I was 22. In a way, I was lucky to have this experience so young, because it placed my world in a much larger context early in my adult life.
One thing I can tell you is that from the depths of poverty comes some of the most amazing creativity, and some of the most open and loving hearts. I was privileged to meet many of these special hearts in the last week, and that will remain the highlight of the trip. Traveling to a Clover Mama aftercare center, which services over 300 orphans and impoverished schoolchildren living in a shantytown, was an experience I will never forget. (Yes I have photos!)
The group of US quilters with whom I traveled, were many of those joyous open hearts. The last night of the trip, on the way to a farewell dinner in a township, we got a singing and dancing Motown review in the back of the bus…with harmony!
I have posted 75 photos from the Johannesburg quilt show on my photo page, so you can start to look at those as I fly home today. There will be more photos from my South Africa experience, once I get home and have a day to rest. Please also click through to our video page to see the first video filmed in my new studio – on Indigo and Ikats.
The quilt above is by Cathy Knox, and represents a seed pod. (See the whole quilt on my photo page.) The zebra is in the Pilanesburg Game Reserve.
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