Ambassador Of The Month September 2013 – Johan Mellström

Some people's soul lingers on at Project Playground after they leave; their presence has meant so much to us that they are built into our family even if their life continues outside of PPG. Our intern Johan Mellström is that kind of person to us.  Johan stayed with us for 5 months in 2012 and he felt like a member of our family the minute he put his feet on PPG soil. He is hard working, very engaged, passionate, genuine, rational, wise.. well we could go on forever! He is deeply missed by the whole team but we cherish the time he spent with us and hopefully he will stay within Project Playground in some way or the other.

It was a few month since you worked in Langa at PPG, what has stuck with you the most?

At first I didn't want to accept that I wasn't going to be with PPG every day anymore and that memories would fade away like they always tend to do. But luckily they have not. Some things are clear as yesterday and I recall them all the time. The enthusiastic feeling of rolling into a vivid Langa in the morning. The smell of fat cooks in a transparent plastic bag. The sound of pumping tribal house, Nicky's wonderful laughter, snapping handshakes and MOLWENIS! I miss everything and everyone incredibly much and I realize all the time how much I learned during my stay. Even though I did not spend enough time in the forest as Xhosa traditions demand, I can easily say that SA made me become a man.

You are a very engaged person, what during your period in SA got you attention the most, good or bad?

That is indeed a hard question, so many things got my attention in this remarkable country. The South African townships are so complex and filled with so many good things and so many bad things at the same time. So much love, joy and life is confronted with hate, jealousy and death. It is a changing world of extremes and for me as a Swede, always used to things taking place somewhere in the middle, things could be confusing from time to time. What I found completely fascinating was how creative people tend to become when the State and other standard institutions are absent. There is of course bad stuff going on as well, but my main impression was that Langa was a place for innovative self-entrepreneurship where everything is possible!

Tell us a story from an individual at PPG that will stay in your memory for ever!

Oh, so many great storytellers at PPG. Ray is a natural born talent, no doubt, and my uncountable rides in Mapanya's ”Ferrari” contained amazing stories. I always felt very privileged and alive sitting in that front seat, and maybe I even miss the car a bit. Anyways. One story that is hard to beat is of course the one about the boy who went to special classes his whole life because of illiteracy. People thought it was about his lack of intellect and his incompetence to learn how to read. But it was not only about reading, the boy apparently had problems seeing his own finger. When Optiker Branning came to Langa and examined his eyes, confirmed his defect and gave him the right spectacles everything literarily changed. All of a sudden the boy could read the small letters on the board. He was not stupid, he could read, all he needed was glasses. I will never forget that.