Food for Life Cape Town had a desire to visit our ‘Matie’ mates for some time. This weekend the Stellenbosch crew hosted us and kindly made arrangements with Mr Madiba for us to feed at Kayamandi. Kayamandi is a suburb of Stellenbosch. The name means “nice home” in the Xhosa language, from khaya meaning “home” and mnandi meaning “nice”. It was founded in the early 1950s as part of the increased segregation during the apartheid regime. It was originally built to house exclusively black migrant male labourers employed on the farms in the Stellenbosch area.
Mr Madiba is a Kayamandi resident, and together with his wife has set up and maintains a free crèche which also hosts overseas volunteers. FFL CT was joined by Rob, Saraswati Devi, Heena Jeavan. From Stellenbosch we were joined by Cronje van der Merwe, Herman Brand, Irene Brand, Ramanandini, Trohan Bekker, Wolfgang Erb and Axl Maas. At Kayamandi we were assisted by Mr Madiba and Zai. Chocolates were kindly sponsored by DewChoc.
The locals were somewhat hesitant to approach us at first, but once they realised our intentions to serve, they happily gathered around us and even joined in the singing and dancing. There was a quick township tour, and numerous invitations to visit again soon. After numerous handshakes and hugs, we said goodbye to Kayamandi. The Stellenbosch crew invited us back to their place and served us a hot, delicious lunch, lovingly prepared by Ramanandini and company. We then departed for Cape Town, bellies full, tired, and smiling fully in our hearts.
