About Freedom Park

5/27/06
This is Lincoln. Back in March I wrote about our trip to Freedom Park with Dr. Neil and it was lost in cyberspace. I’ll go back now to say some of what I should have said back then. Freedom Park is an informal settlement outside of town next to several of the big mines. People travel here from all over Africa looking for work. When they arrive, they find that there is no work and they have no money to travel any where else. This settlement has become an extremely poor and destitute conglomeration of desperate people. Prostitution is a major problem because of the poverty. The mine workers stay on the mine property and work 12 hours shifts and then have 12 hours off. They are payed relatively well and they have 12 hours to kill and money to spend, so they go to Freedom Park to find prostitutes. Obviously this causes HIV to run rampant within Freedom Park. They just recently installed a police station, and there is a medical clinic that Dr. Neil started and visits once a week. I think that it is mostly run by some catholic nuns. There is no water or plumbing. Only the school, police station, and medical clinic have electricity. The homes do not. Across the street is the “New Freedom Park” where they have running water, electricity, and plumbing. The conditions of the houses are a little nicer, but still very run down and basic. The houses in Freedom Park are built out of scraps of tin and cardboard and wood that people have found. They build outhouses over holes in the ground for their toilets. The conditions are appalling to me, but Dr. Neil tells us that this is actually paradise compared to some of the conditions that the people have escaped from in other parts of Africa. Despite the filthy living conditions, the people that we visit keep their houses remarkably clean; and they work very hard at keeping their clothes nice and clean. It really amazes me that in a house with no running water that they manage to keep everything so clean. Most of the shacks are about 12ft. by 12 ft. wide. One lady that we visited shared her tiny shack with her two little children. She had divided the shack into a bedroom and a living room/kitchen. I couldn’t believe how clean and orderly everything was. This woman had HIV and was very positive and energetic as she told us that it was her mission to educate others about the dangers of HIV. This is unusual because most people don’t want to admit that they have HIV because of the stigma that it holds. We visited another lady who was very sick. The care giver that was with us told us that she couldn’t get on the ART medication (the medication that treats HIV) because she had no income and couldn’t eat regularly. Without regular meals, the ART medication is useless, so this woman had no hope for the future. She lie in her shack all day, too weak to rise. Several weeks later Kaitlin returned and the lady had passed away. The children are always excited to see us and chant a word that means “white people.” They know that white people bring food and gifts. We brought food to one family that we visited. The little 4 year old boy grabbed a package of crackers and went outside to show off and taunt her friends that hadn’t received anything. I’m told that Freedom Park isn’t really safe for white people when you aren’t accompanied by somebody that is known there. I have never felt in any danger. Everyone that I meet and talk to is always very nice and welcoming. I look forward to more ministry there.