One Big Hill - Aaron Handelsman

For my dispatch, I’d like to tell the story of a beautiful man named Kenny, 34 years old, our leader and guide through the crowded township called Soweto. Father, historian, optimist, survivor, sage. Kenny was a young boy during the last dark years of Apartheid, but as any member of this trip will tell you, the effects of that most inhumane system are clear to this day, especially in Soweto. A black South African, Kenny never received a formal education. He has every reason to be bitter, yet he is one of the most intelligent, knowledgeable, and open people I have met on this adventure—and there have been many. I tried to write down as much of what Kenny said on the tour as I could, but there is one particular quote that will remain with me. I was talking to him about history and the relative disinterest with which most Americans, particularly members of my generation seem to approach our own history, one that began with the colonization and destruction of our indigenous people and their culture and continues to play out in an increasingly global community. “Kenny, there is so much suffering in our world, and it is often met with apathy. I sometimes find myself lost in the face of it.” He paused briefly and said in a dignified voice I wish I could reproduce, “No one has a monopoly on human suffering. The hill goes on. It’s very important not to see it as our hill and their hill—it’s one big hill, and this is where we are now. Most people understand how we got to where we are, but we need to know and understand the past so that we may have the energy and the knowledge to make it through the present and the future.” He paused again. “Nothing good comes out of anger. [Pause]. You know, all of the good things we have were built out of love. That is the only way beautiful things are built.” The love that I have experienced in South Africa, especially as a blond-haired, blue-eyed white man only 13 years after the fall of the nationalist government, which was literally founded on hatred, is something that has both overwhelmed and inspired me. It has changed me. Kenny finished with another observation: “What is amazing is how people unlearn the hate.” Indeed. Equally amazing is how people who have every reason to despair and to hate, to give up on humanity, manage to embody its best and most beautiful qualities. That is the lesson I have learned from South Africa, and from Kenny. Next year he will be attending the University for a degree and will continue to share his story with those who will hear it. Thanks for listening.

Signing off.

Peace and respect,

Aaron Handelsman

Pedagogy of Action ’07 Team Member