Townships

On Sunday, my service-learning group spent all day touring around 2 different townships. For those of you who don't know, a township is an area of land that the government of South Africa forced all coloured and black people to move to under the apartheid regime. (yes, there is a difference between black and coloured here, you should look it up) It is the essence of poverty here in Cape Town. You know when you see all those little tin and cardboard shacks all shoved together in rows on tv? They all look like they could fall over with any sort of wind, nevermind leaning up against them, right? Well, that's what these townships looked like and that's where I'll be working this semester.

The first one that we went to was Langa and our guide grew up there so he knew all the ins and outs of the community. We were able to go into people's houses and play with the kids there, I even bought some jewelry from a really sweet lady. It was so interesting to see all the people there out playing around and having a good time. We also went into a shebeen which is where they brew home made beer in the townships. Now, there are certainly no federal regulations for any of this and I'm pretty sure it's illegal, BUT we went into one man's little hut and had some true South African beer. I don't think it gets any more authentic than that! It was in this old tin bucket and we each passed it around taking a sip each time it came to us. Now, I don't like beer in the States, and this stuff was a milky color and really grainy--DISGUSTING!! I actually faked my last two sips because it was so gross, but I tried it! Not many Americans can say that they have had homemade (in a shack no less!) South African beer.

The next place we went was Khayalitsha and it is where over 1/4 of Cape Town's population lives. That's over 1 million people living in tiny shacks for as far as the eye can see. It was really hard to just look over that vast expanse of poverty and to realize that this wasn't just the result of a social racism--this was the result of a planned community by the Afrikaaners in the 1950's. That's what broke my heart, that an entire political plan was based entirely on race and if you did not have pure white skin you were automatically less human. Sick! I know I'm only one person, but if I can change the minds of even a few blacks in the community or help a few people realize that not all white people are evil, then I can consider myself successful. Anyways, that's what has been going on recently. I've started school on Monday, but I will have a post about that later in the week. Hope you all are enjoying the summer!

P.S.- Enjoy the pictures!