One always learns a lot while traveling, but sometimes it's funny how one learns abroad about things back in the area one comes from. Elim had taught us a few things in Europe.
We came across this town by pure coincident. Our beloved google decided to stop telling us where to turn at this T-junction, so we had to stop shortly on the way from Cape Agulhas to Hermanus. Then we figured that this town looks somewhat different. The houses here look pretty European. However not like other European style houses we usually see in South Africa, which are usually posh, big and well maintained. The houses in this town are small, and some of them rundown. We saw a tourist information sign and decided to find out the story.
It took us a bit while to find the information place, which is tucked away in a corner of the town by the dirt road. The color of the "i" sign is somewhat washed out and the entrance looks old and deserted. We tried the door and it was locked. There's a bird nest above the door so our assumption is that this place must "have been" the information center before but somehow deserted. Then we thought, this town is been abandoned like many remote towns. Just when we turned around and ready to leave, an old lady walked up to us and greeted us. "You want to see the museum?", she asked. "Yeah, but it seems to be closed." We replied, and meant that we thought it's closed for good. The old lady then said, "Oh no no, I was just out for lunch."
Then we got to learn that Elim is a town found by Moravian church missionary from Germany back in 1824. The Moravian church started religious reform 60 years before Martin Luther from Czech Republic and then went to Germany. The church had served an important role in the early 19 century for the slaves brought from East Africa and India. After the British government abolished slavery in 1848, the slaves were freed from the farms in these region. Because they have been coming to the church in Elim before the abolishment of slavery, they came to settle in Elim.
The town is currently still run by the church and he houses are property of the church. People are extremely friendly here. After the visit of the Museum, we took a walk in the tiny town of less than 1000 inhabitants. A man was looking at us from his hous across the street. We thought he was just being curious. But then he greeted us, we greeted back and prepared to walk on. Out of a sudden he decided and shouted at us, "have you seen the church?". We shouted back, "Oh, we don't know it's open to the public." He shouted back, "I will open it for you....".
End of our walk, a teen girl came over and asked us where we are from. Then we chatted for a while. She is preparing her exams and wants to apply to study occupational therapy in Cape Town. I asked her if she's gonna miss Elim. She told us that she will come back often. There's a Elim living in Cape Town running a taxi service and they know him well. (Everybody knows everybody well here). Usually the Elim would give him a call and he will send a taxi over to take them from Cape Town home. Later on we learned from a blog written in 2011, that life routine of people in Elim is to go to local elementary school, and then high school in Bredaadorp, then college in Cape Town. The life routine didn't seem to change so much after 2011, the major change was probably the tarred road leads to Elim now.
We said goodbye to her and wishes her luck for her exam and application, and carried with us this very special encounter of Elim, at the very end of our journey in South Africa. There are still lots about Elim that I can't write in detailed here, like their heritage and flower festival, their old mill, the 12 fountains, the famous thatcher from Elim that sought after from the world.. one has to come here to hear the story oneself.
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