Weekend Update: Crossing the bridge

August 01, 2013

Weekend Update: Crossing the bridge

I grabbed a window seat in the bus on purpose, I new that my camera would be constantly clicking as we made our way throughout the township and I wanted to get everything. If you haven’t noticed by now, I have a picked up a few weird travel habits, one of them being that I take about 1million pictures everywhere I go. Our guide for the day had informed us that we were going to walk around the township for a while, go to a community run art center, have a traditional Xhosa meal, and end our afternoon visiting a orphanage.

For those of you that know me, I’m sure you can guess that the orphanage visit was going to be the major highlight of my day.

So in a massive van of 20 people, we start off at the top of the settlers monument and slowly make our way towards the township. Near the edge of town there is a single bridge with which a literal divide is created. The bridge separates Grahamstown from the Township, and the moment you cross it you wouldn’t have believed that you were within walking distance of a prestigious University. The divide between these two places is much greater than that tiny bridge. It is economic divide, it is social divide, it is a technological divide, it is a political divide. Crossing over the bridge we entered a new community and a new culture. After driving around for a bit, we got out and walk around for a brief time, all of which I spent taking pictures I and our guide was rambling about cows. This went on for a good 10 minutes until I herd the worlds, “60% unemployment rate.” That is not a statement that can be ignored. 60% of the people living in the townships are unemployed. If that is not a number that breaks your heart, you may want to check if you have one. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people living in the township have little or no means of income and to make matters worse, most of these people have children. I was standing on a street-corner when he said that, and I’ll never forget watching the woman across the street hanging her laundry and giving me a look of disgust as she did so. Who was I to come into her town, into her home, take pictures of her life and invade her privacy with my expensive camera? A camera that is worth enough to pay for a car in South Africa. We were shuttled back into the van, and headed deeper into the township, that number still ringing in my ears. So much poverty so near to

Driving through the hills of the townships I was struck by the diversity of houses. Our guide told us that the government comes in every once in a while to “help.” They started by knocking down old houses, building some new ones, and rebuilding some that were preexisting. We saw a street of normal looking brick style homes with windows, fences, and some with front porches, back to back with homes made from nothing more than crumbling cinderblock and old scrap metal. I’m not sure of the method used by the government to determine who gets a new house and who doesn’t, or maybe its not like that at all, maybe they are rebuilding the entire township but taking their grand old time, I honestly don’t know, but regardless of their reasoning change needs to come to the townships soon. In a country so committed to equality for all, South Africa is missing one of their largest problems- income equality as well as unemployment and opportunity. Standing on the hillside and looking out a Grahamstown and Rhodes in the distance, I finally saw the view from the other side, the hillside in the distance of my picture. Standing on that hill I couldn’t help but feel resentful towards the town, towards the students, towards the government. How is it that just across the valley there is economic prosperity? Why hasn’t it crossed the bridge? You’d think that this feeling of resentment would be common among the people living in the township, and to a point extend to those of us on the tour (and I’m sure among some people in the township it is), but from those I encountered in the township, I experienced nothing but kindness, generosity, and hospitality (minus the woman who’s privacy I invaded- If i ever have a chance to see her again I will apologize to her).

We traveled to a warehouse style building that hosts the Egazini Outreach Project. This program brings together artists throughout the township and gives them a creative space to make, display, and sell their art. I was truly blown away by the detail and attention paid to every single piece (almost all were prints carved out of wood or rubber blocking). These artists clearly put their hearts into every singe piece, and I had an amazing time just walking around the gallery and taking in the diversity of prints. Egazini is set up in a way that both the artist and community benefit from their work, so from every piece sold 85% of the profits goes to the artist while the remaining 15% goes back into the community. We were all so impressed by this spectacular grassroots program that we swarmed the store and began purchasing everything from cards with prints on them so full sized, framable, prints. We reluctantly left Egazini and made our way to Mama’s house (We called her Mama [insert last name], but her last name is escaping me so for the sake of this entry I’ll just call her Mama).

Our van pulled up to a small yellow house and outside Mama was waiting for us, all smiles and waves. We all packed into her tiny home and enjoyed a delicious traditional Xhosa meal. I’ve never had Xhosa food before, but my motto has always been to try everything so I went for it and was not disappointed. And then theres Mama...The only word I can think of to describe Mama is jolly, she’s just one of those truly happy people. She’s the kind of lady you just want to hug because she has such a warm smile and infectious laugh. And to top it all of the woman is a damn good cook. After lunch she taught us some Xhosa songs, took some pictures with us, and sent us on our way with a very new cultural experience. I couldn’t help but smile at Mama’s kindness and generosity, as well as her willingness to open up her home to 20 foreign strangers.

Unfortunately we had spent so much time at the other activities that we were unable to go to the orphanage, but the good news is that I will probably be volunteering there soon. One of the main reasons I decided to come to Rhodes was because of their community outreach program, and on Saturday I begin my training to work in the Township communities! My dream would be to help in a children’s home, AIDS clinic, or primary school, but just being able to give back in any way is more than enough for me.

Cheers,
A thankful American