February 7, 2009
Yesterday we drove around to some of the townships around Cape Town. For the last 2 weeks I kept thinking that Cape Town doesn’t feel like a huge city, it’s not like Chicago or LA. I couldn’t figure out where the3 million people were, because it has felt like a city more the size of Pittsburgh. But now I know, there are millions in the townships. They are slums. Those who are more fortunate have shacks built from cement. Those who are less fortunate have shacks built of corrugated metal. Most were lined up one right next to another is long narrow rows with foot paths in between. We started in an area were coloreds lived, most of it government housing, apartments where families shared small spaces and played in the streets with anything they could find. One little girl jumped on a stack of old mattresses with springs sticking through as if it were a trampoline.
Then we moved on to another area where blacks lived. They had a meat market where you could buy a variety of meats that they displayed on tables, protected from flies and bugs only by wands that resembled sparse pom-poms which the sellers waved back and forth over their product. There was nothing to protect from the heat. If you purchased meet though, there were people working over large fires and grills behind the food stands who would cook it for you, so you could eat in that common area and enjoy your meal with family and friends. I was told that it was quite a gathering place for the locals on weekends. Every part of the animal is used and sold as well. Many stands had piles of offal from a variety of animals for sale. One man was selling sheep or goat heads. They had been skinned and boiled, but still very much resembled the head and face of the animal. Outside, we saw a group of men preparing the goat heads, they had piles of them sitting on the ground outside their hut where they were skinning and boiling them.
After that we moved on to another township where the shacks were stacked closer and tighter together than you can imagine. After driving about a mile through the township I was amazed at how huge it was. After the second mile, I still couldn’t see the end in any direction and wondered when we would get through it. I don’t know how long and far we drove, but I would guess that it took 30 minutes to get from one side to the other. I don’t know how many 10 ft x 10 ft corrugated houses were in the distance and I couldn’t see the back side on either side of us, but there were thousands upon thousands, with over a million people living there. On the far side of this township the houses were spaced much further apart and all built upon the sand, as it got closer to the shore. It was almost as if people had yards in that area. We pulled in to the township and drove a little way back to an education center for children. There were about 30-40 kids under the age of 5, being cared for by half a dozen workers. The kids swarmed around us inside and outside, wanting their picture to be taken and then wanting to see the image on the camera screen. It made them giggle and squeal. A few of the kids followed us everywhere we went and wanted to hold hands and receive whatever attention we would offer. One woman let us go inside her house. It was corrugated metal on every side and the roof. She lived there with her 5 small children, but I would guess it was no larger than 8 feet by 16 feet. We were inside for about 2 minutes and were soaked with sweat when we walked out. It was like a hot box baking in the sun. We were told that in the winter time, huge eastern winds come up from the shore creating near freezing temperatures for shacks that are insulated as little in the winter as they are cooled in the summer.
No one had any water or electricity in their homes, but the government has built public water wells where people can go get water in buckets from pipes that come out of the ground every few hundred yards. I also saw very tall street lights throughout some of the townships and wondered if they were lit at night.
We were told that there are very few organizations working in the townships to make living better or more hopeful for the millions of people. At the first township we went to, we stopped at a little Christian center that had been transformed in to a place of worship and fellowship, after being used for years as a hang out for a gang. We were told that the walls had seen many repairs because when they took it over they were full of bullet holes from exchange of fire going in and out. I didn’t hear how the change took place, but you could see that the community was being transformed and one young man told us his testimony of going from the gangs and being shot to becoming a Christian and working for that particular center. We also went to another center in the middle of a fairly rough area where our guide works as the director. They take in 15 young men for 9 months in to their program where they work and are trained and discipled. One of this years interns completed that program and it is a part of his testimony and transformation through Christ.
It is an area in great need spiritually, physically, financially, and emotionally. South Africa is the wealthiest nation in Africa, but the wealth is incredibly unevenly distributed. The majority of the people are unemployed, with no hope for employment, and they waste their lives away.