Miracles in Soweto

Last night in Soweto it rained hard. It always does, or seems to, when we are about to meet for our weekly Beginners’ Programme, in Zola North, one of the poorest townships of Soweto. We meet on Tuesdays. Khayo (my wife) and I drove through the rain past Dobsonville and into Zola, on our way to Thathane Primary School, where the programmes are held. There were a number of new people last week, four ladies in all. We were thirteen on that day. One, in fact, had been there before - a few months back. But we hardly recognised her. She is a matric student in a nearby high school, but observing how she didn’t have problems with raising her Kundalini as new people tend to have that problem, we asked whether she had been here before. She then reminded us of her visit some months back. How happy we were. But the other three were indeed new people, and there was one whose shyness was quite remarkable. She was withdrawn until after the programme when a few songs were sung, spontaneously; and that seemed to do the trick, and she brightened up. She like the others told us their names when we all introduced each other. But I quickly forgot them. And we had not brought our register. We still have to get better organised with certain little things. But that was last week.

Then this week, driving through the rain, we were wondering how many would dare the elements. It’s not unusual that people don’t turn up when the weather is bad. And when my cellphone rang, just before we passed the Dobsonville Mall, I thought it would be someone saying - ‘Look Buti (elder brother) it’s raining, so maybe we should call it off’. It was Khantu, one of our most ardent Yoginis in Soweto. and she enquired how far we were? I told her we were just near the police station, and she said she only wanted to warn us that the key to the classroom was not there, as the child who normally collects it had not been to school that day. I thought, ‘That’s it. They are going to cancel’. But no, she said : ‘We will meet at Nonhlanhla’s’. I agreed.