I left my wedding ring and credit cards at home when I went to the dump and sent Brian a text about where I had left the car just in case I never came back. When Anne, an OM employee from Germany, and I got to AIDS Hope, Mpho was there waiting for us. Mpho is a young South African guy who lives in the township of Mamelodi. He lives at a local church and is a former drug addict. This guy prayed for our protection before we left; it was really sweet.
Anne was ready to walk to the city dump, but I was more hesitant. I did not want to walk in the township. Two white women would really stand out. Plus, we didn't know how far it would be to the dump. Mpho suggested that we drive and I'm so glad we did! We would have been walking for hours, in the hot African sun without any water or protection of a vehicle. And, I was wearing jeans!!
First we had to make a stop inside the township to find the woman's number that we were meeting at the dump. Mpho knew where she lived, so he ran to get her phone number while Anne and I sat in the car waiting. At this time I started to get really nervous. I wanted Mpho to hurry back. People kept walking so close to our car that they could touch it. Anne was wearing a skirt, big earrings, and had her hair in a headband. She was wearing sandals before I talked her into changing shoes. We definitely stood out and everyone kept looking at us.
Anne said that she was used to walking through Mamelodi and that she had never had any problems with safety. She said she felt more connected to the people when she walked. Mpho came right back with the phone number and we headed on to the dump. The roads inside the township were very rough. I felt like we were on a safari because the dirt roads were filled with ruts, grooves, water, and rocks. We were in the OM vehicle, which is a manual, smaller than my Corolla. It was also an old car that kept stalling out. We hit one fence post which probably left a good scrape, but we didn't get out to look.
We drove quite a ways before we got to the dump. We came to a road that we thought would take us there. Three large men stood at the entrance and we drove past them quickly. They did not look friendly. In fact, they started following the car as we drove. Once again, I was so glad we weren't on foot. This is when I sent a text to a few people to ask them to pray for us. When we got to the entrance, Mpho ran out (he was always running!) and spoke with the security guards behind the locked gate. He soon discovered that we were not at the dump. We were lost. People were walking down the road with wheelbarrows and carrying loads of stuff in their arms.
We stopped and asked a guy walking along the road for directions to the gate. He didn't know. I bet he didn't even know there was a dump there; he looked mentally ill. Mpho once again got out of the car and ran across a corn field. I didn't know why he was leaving, but then we saw three other men in the middle of the corn field. Once he got directions from them, he was back and we were off. Thankfully, we didn't run into those three mean looking men again.
We pulled up to the dump without any problem. The roads were smooth dirt from all the trash trucks that traveled through there each day. The security guard came to our car and then allowed us through. Although there were people standing and sitting outside the gate, it didn't feel scary. When we got inside we parked the car and Mpho called our contact. She said she would be unable to meet us, but told us to go find the site supervisor. We got out of the car and walked to the building where a lot of people were hanging out. It turns out that they were having a meeting. The supervisor came out to greet us and then we walked right in. He had us stand in front of a group of about 30 people and made us introduce ourselves and start the interview. I asked if we could just take a few people outside to talk to them that way. We ended up getting three volunteers. Mpho was able to translate when we needed it, but one woman had really good English.
They told us the story of the babies that are found at the dump. I'll publish that here soon. Before we left, Mpho prayed with the entire group in his own language. On the way home, the three of us talked about what we had learned. One thing that surprised me is that the women kept asking what happened when they took the babies away. We didn't understand why they were asking, but Mpho explained that they wanted money for finding the babies. They wanted us to help with that. Of course we're not interested in helping in that way at all. But, we're starting to develop a plan about what to do.
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