Rehab

Yesterdayevening I went to a rehab home here in Cape Town, thats a home where people can kick off of drugs or alcohol addictions. Its very different than the homes we know at home, mostly by the fact that the person who runs it is in fact the mother of a drug addict. She doesn’t get any funds for what she’s doing, but somehow manages to pay the rent and buy the medicines.

The people I’m staying with visit the rehab sometimes, bringing distraction to those who live there. We bought some drinks for the evening and played guitar ( well, Terrence did. I can’t play :( ). Its a good way to learn about society, because on these places you’ll hear and see things you never would otherwise.

I talked to several people, one of them was an ex-drug addict and criminal. He gave his testimony to the whole group, and I must say it was really shocking to hear his life story. He witnessed the murder of a 7year old girl, shot through the head with three pistols because she was a prostitute. I’m not going to write everything here but now you know the kind of things I heard…
When I went back this morning I heard he ran off early, I’m guessing he couldn’t deal with the stress and pain you get from kicking off. I hope he’s coming back, but fear that he’s falling back into his old life.

Another person worth mentioning is Sarah, she’s a 14year old girl kicking off from a heroine addiction. I talked quite a lot to her, yesterday evening and this morning. She already tried to commit suicide a few times, her arms wear the marks of fresh cuts and scars from previous attempts. She ran away from home a few years ago, and lived on the street before she went to rehab. Bad friends, worse boyfriend. They need to cuff her to the bed at night to make sure she doesn’t commit suicide again or runs off to her past. According to Terrence I created a band with her, she doesn’t seem to talk to a lot of people here. I’m hoping I got through to her, maybe changed her life for the better.

Jeffrey’s staying there too, he’s a real Cape Town skateboarder. Lives in his own dreamworld, but its a really nice guy if you start talking to him. He’s kicking off from a few addictions, I think he tried everything and got stuck with a lot of it. I’ve been talking to him for an hour or two yesterday evening, and had a quick chat this morning ( he made me coffee :) ).

Rosalyn’s a - beautifull - 20*something* year old woman, staying at the rehab center along with her brother. She kicked off from her addiction and is now pregnant from her brother. For those of you who don’t know, increased sexual activity is one of the symptoms from kicking off from a drug addiction. As you can see it’s pretty hard to get through this period, most people don’t function normally.

Church

This morning we went back to the rehab house, to see who was interested in going to church. You should know that church and religion here in South Africa is very different than what we know at home. People really believe that God has a path for them and mention God and Jesus in every other sentence. God is really in their lives, and guides them wereever they go. I can’t explain it, you’ll have to see it yourself.

Anyway, we picked up Rosalyn, her brother and the guy that helped me repair the TV ( yes, I repaired the TV at the rehab home yesterday. They were very thankfull ;-) ) to go to church with us. It’s strange to see how such young troubled people have such an interest in God. At the church I could see how the people here really “experience” god, they don’t just believe he exists. During the service a guy collapsed while singing a few rows in front of me. At first I thought it was just another nutcase, but near the end of the service I saw how people really believe and give themselves to a higher power. I’m not a great believer myself, so to convice me that its real you have to try very hard ;-)

As I said, I’m not a believer. I believe in God but thats about it, I don’t like all the Jesus stories and I honestly think the bible is only usefull if there’s no toilet paper left. It’s a great experience for me to witness a church service like that, although I think they talk too much but only some of them come through with actions.

At the end of the service ( a service takes two hours ) you can come forward to get blessed. I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to get at the front, but my friends were. Even the troubled drug addicts, which may seem odd to you.
I saw how people gave themselves to God while being blessed by the priest. After the blessing they feel a peace, as if God has decended and entered their body. Some of them even fainted and fell flat backwards on the ground, they were covered with a blanket untill they woke up a few minutes after. It was hard for me to believe what I saw, I sat on the front row and saw it happen a few meters before me. After witnessing the blessing I no longer believe that these people are just making stuff up, they really believe in something and for them it’s there, in the chruch and in the daily life. I’m still not a believer myself, but I do believe that there is a higher power for them. If you really really believe in something or someone its there for you, but its a personal choice.

I spoke to several people afterwards, priests, believers, sceptists and converts, and I enjoyed hearing their stories and how they are living their lives, how they live with religion and spirituality. Maybe my presence here has a purpose as they say, I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ll probably never believe like they do, but I’ll learn a lot from their stories and experiences.

Enough about that. I went to the fitness too ( and i feel it, ffs ), went to Dewalds mother to eat lunch, visited Tiger Valley Mall and bought a book to learn Spanish. We didn’t have power here for the better part of the day, so I think I’ll really use the book ;-)
I was thinking of buying a 3G internet box, but it seems too expensive for three months. Atm I only have internet at the office, so don’t expect me to reply to mails quickly or pop up on MSN.

Ok, will do something else now. Cheers !