The great SA divide...

Hi all

I've seen some interesting things in the last week. Most notably the divide between rich and poor which is also still pretty much the white and black divide. I met some students thro RAG which is a group of uni students who raise money for community projects tho i find some of their motives questionable - eg their weekend of community service involved quote 'going down to the beach, having a big braii and getting really drunk on saturday and then on sunday when we're really hungover we'll play with some blind kids for a few hours then come home' - those lucky kids! But I did end up going out with RAG to an evaluation of request for funding. it was a school for kids with disabilities and they were requesting funding for equipment, furniture and educational toys. I said they looked legit and should get the mula but I don't know if they did or not.

Anyway - point was that's how I met Zama, and she and her friends Nikki and Lyndall work at this community centre in a township called Inanda, and more specifically in Bhambayi. So Amy and I tagged along and heard about what they do as social workers doing their honours year. Some of their clients are HIV positive - one lady is really scared about passing it onto her kids so Lyndall is arranging the health care worker to meet with her and discuss exactly how it is transmitted. Another of Zama's clients has been left by her husband who refuses to pay child support, so she is mediating to try and help. It was really interesting but sad too. Most of the kids don't go to school despite the fact that the constituition says all kids have a right to education coz they can't afford it. So they literally kick around the township all day, in bare feet when there's glass and rubbish everywhere. One little guy we met Sindile (no idea how to spell it, that's my phoentic attempt) - the one brandishing the plastic knife has recently had scabies.

His parents have died and he lives with his sister but she doesn't really take very good care of him, she doesn't bath him so we went to talk to her about why she has to fulfil her responsibilies as his guardian. He looked cleaner about 1 hour later. But Amy and I were back in the township 2 days later and he was grubby again... so its an uphill battle mostly.

Here is some of the houses.


Here the people were packing mud onto their house, it sets like brick pretty much in the sun, tho I don't know how warm it is comparitively...



but then there are houses like this too.... ok i only saw one but still i don't want to give you the wrong impression



I also saw the other extreme when I went out with Lyndall (the one white girl) on Sunday. We went out to Ballito - her dad's girlfriend's house. But I saw her house too. Both homes are in gated communities. Its so odd - they're all so neat and tidy and identitical - all green roofs. There is no imagination there at all! There are apparantly 7 architecs (sorry James I can't spell) but to be honest I struggled to tell the difference between the houses. Lyndall said its the only place where you can leave your house unlocked in SA.

So that seems to be the 2 extremes. One half doesn't meet most of their basic needs despite a constitution that says their entitled to them while the other side builds bigger fences and moves further away so they don't have to deal with it! I know its not that black and white, but sometimes these fences and razor wire get to me. I just feel like its such an aviodence of the problem. If people tried to tackle the reasons why people steal they wouldn't need such insane security measures (eg the armed security officer I saw standing outside some beachside residences).

What else - my classes are so far very disappointing. One of my lecturers reminds me of Yoda, but unfortunately is far from insightful. He speaks very oddly in the arrangement of his words and repeats everything like 6 times! I know English isn't his first language - but I'm not convinced that is the root of the problem. He also likes to end every sentence with the word 'clear' and jumps up and down a lot.
We're busy looking at the definitions of projects in my community development class rather than how to actually faciliate a project. I keep telling myself its only early days... but its now week 4 of a 16 week term... oh well i wouldn't trade the experience of being here for anything! Actually its not so bad - i had a tutorial today and we almost looked at some serious issues, so i will persevere!