I arrived in East London Friday afternoon, after two and a half weeks of rural (extremely rural, in some cases) Africa. East London has a population of over a million people-the largest place I’d been, other than passing through the Johannesburg airport. And since I simply stayed at a guest house overnight, I can’t say that I experienced much of it. But it was still a reminder that I was leaving the slower-paced and somewhat older Africa that I had so enjoyed. It was with some mixed feelings that I boarded the plane Saturday morning for two nights in Cape Town. I did consider that it might be a good thing in terms of slowing reacquainting myself to modern living.
Cape Town was wonderful-I would love to return to spend more time. I didn’t make it to Robben Island, and there are several areas that would be fun to explore. Cape Town is one of the sites of the 2010 World Cup-there is a great deal of construction going on and I realize there could be some changes (hopefully positive) before my next visit.
As I was brought into Cape Town from the airport, we went past the townships and many many tin shacks. The townships started with actual houses-but as relatives arrive, shacks are built to house them-and unless one finds a spectacular job, the options of living elsewhere are very limited. Unemployment was estimated to be around 20% by my guide.
My guide was interesting as well-she is English, but married an Indian years ago-during apartheid. She has lived in a township (illegally, of course-no whites allowed, she could have been arrested and jailed simply for marrying her husband). She provided another perspective for me-I feel that I have been privileged to have seen Africa through the eyes of different people and it has enriched my experience immensely.
The guest house that I stayed in is in the Waterkant area-formerly the slave quarters for the Malay slaves. Nearby was the “Bo Kaap”, neighborhood of brightly painted homes.
Mapoch is a rural village about 40 minutes outside of Pretoria. In 1953, under apartheid, the village was moved from its original location, resulting in a loss of grazing lands for cattle, as well as the homes they had had for years. In 2002, the government helped set up a “cultural village”-with the idea that the people could benefit from the tourist industry. Unfortunately, as is often the case-the thought was not followed up with funds or direction. The village was becoming rundown and of course getting nearly zero tourist action.
A few years ago a couple who run a company called Voluntours stepped in. Since then they have helped route volunteers from around the world through Mapoch. They have helped (immensely) improve a preschool (pics on my site) and set up a “bicycle project”, which has given some community members a way to earn a living (delivering everything from groceries, TVs, to running taxi service getting kids to school!!)
This was where I spent Sunday night. As we arrived, we crossed a bridge that is only one lane, due to the fact that it got partially washed out and this area is low on the list for improvements by the municipality. The power was also out (not a rare occurrence, I’m told) so dinner was by candlelight and I was grateful to have a flashlight. There was also no hot water.
In the morning I had tour of the village by one of the members. The 260 people who live here are all descended from one chief and two wives!! The “gogos” or grannies earn money by selling beaded items. The men and some younger women earn money by working in Pretoria-a two-hour commute each way on public transport (the only option if you don’t own a bike, most don’t have the money for a car).
The people were all very friendly, happy to show me around-and the kids of course loved having their pictures taken and seeing them afterwards! Hooray for digital!
4:30 am (probably latest I’ll be sleeping in for a few days…)
Yesterday was great. We worked “the pit” from 6-10 with John, Lucky, Tsabo (very briefly) and ? Martha and I cleared for the hour or so before the boys got there-I shoveled, she manned the pick-ax. We got all the gravel in, the pipes laid, and maybe half of the dirt back on. I repacked the pipe from the tank (which we had jarred loose when we put on one of the extensions-probably need to seal it today. Today we’ll finish covering the drain field with soil. The metal is supposed to arrive today, so we are hopefully going to be installing the potties on that-which I’m guessing may involve more pipe-joining (fun!) Despite what we’re working on, as I told Martha yesterday, the point is that we are helping move the project along. As in, “every job is important”.
At Martha’s suggestion, I brought my ipod to “the pit”, and we quit a few minutes early and recorded the boys singing. First was the three of them (Lucky messed up so they want a redo) and then John doing a solo (hymn?) When I was on my way back from the job site Lucky found me and asked if I could record his brother on the guitar-so I got a third recording of from 5-8 of the kids singing-one girl, the rest boys (using the term loosely-many of these “kids” are closer to 18 or 20, John is about 30) I told them that today I would bring my camera over during one of the breaks and we could make a movie. (remembered later that they use a different video system, but I’m guessing the software will (hopefully!) allow for that after recording. Guess I’ll find out)
Rome had us quit at lunch, and took us to the Leribe Craft Center and Ficksburg. I met Wendy’s friends (and took photos) and bought a scarf, a few cards, and a small basket. In Ficksburg we hit up the internet café so I was able to read and send a few emails. The drive was wonderful-great scenery, we saw the ubiquitous cows and donkeys, also sheep which I hand’t seen earlier. It would be fun to come back again to be able to see (and photograph) more, but I’m not sure there’s much in the way of tourist services (as in, places to stay, at least right here) We saw lots of women carrying amazing things on their heads-probably the best was the three rolls of cheese puffs (bags about a meter long!), also the plastic garbage can-type thing and the crate full of stuff, including a bunch of apples!!
Today is our last work day-we leave here at 5 am tomorrow for Johannesburg) Tonight is a dinner with the nuns and the kids who have been working. I imagine I will sleep well tonight…
added more to my construction resume…septic tank/drain field installation! Martha and I worked on installing the pipes and gravel for the first one, then moved to the second which is completely “our baby” :S
John, Tsabo and two other of the “boys” (since John is about 30, the term hardly seems fair…) did the hard work of digging, although I did manage to move a few shovels full myself J
It was a tad challenging-the trenches from the tank to the field had been dug at what would seem to me rather sharper angles than would be called for-and were fairly long. Anyway-the net result was that we extended the pipes from the tank and had to have the boys do a fair amount of digging to expand the drain field. Hopefully tomorrow before 2 we’ll be able to lay the pipe, pour the gravel-and maybe (hopefully) cover the whole mess with dirt and seed it.
After work I went for a walk up the trail outside the school-toward the hills, although I wasn’t planning to head up. Three girls caught up with me and announced they were going to go with me. We had a nice walk, they of course wanted lots of pictures, which I indulged them with-(boy do I have some work to do on technique!!) On the way back we ran into a boy they knew, who pulled out his camera phone to take a picture of me (but wouldn’t let me take one of him). However…his phone was a RAZR, when I asked about where I might buy a charger, since mine wasn’t working, he offered to lend it to me JJ. He promised to bring it by tonight, which he did-so now I’m all charged and hopefully will be able to find a charger either at the airport or on Monday after the safari. Barring that I guess I’ll rent a phone-not really my first choice…
At dinner Rome asked for feedback on the project, everyone had good comments, also discussed whether she might do another and if so where it would be. It sounds like she’d stick with doing something for Holy Names nuns-which had options of Haiti, Peru and Bolivia. As much as I’d like to do something in Haiti, I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable there. We’ll see-it sounds like it would be two years anyway. I did ask her about the Leribe Craft Center-since tomorrow is really our only shot at doing something “outside”, and she suggested that perhaps we would break off work at 2 tomorrow J and go to the craft center. Keepingwhat my fingers crossed. It would be fun to be able to carry messages for Wendy-and also leave some money in the community, rather than leaving it all in South Africa…
Had dish duty today-I ended up deciding that we’re close enough to camping that I’m not going to worry too much about less than perfect!
Tops on today’s memories-the boys singing their way back behind Martha, then singing/dancing in front of the workrooms. I’m so glad I got the camera J
