Time for Reflection

In the last few days I’ve been exposed to “The Tale of Two Cities.” As we drive through Cape Town, we have seen instances where there will be million rand houses on one side of the street and tin shacks on the other side of the narrow street. The houses look nice and most of them have gates guarding their doors along with armed response signs.  Many shacks consist of tin roofs and are not equipped with any sort of security measure. These are clearly contrasting qualities of life and it’s astonishing that it occurs within such a small space.

The thing I’m struggling with the most is how the people that live in the houses can live with themselves without feeling like complete jerks. In the US, trailer courts are often in a secluded section of a city or town. I always thought this was because trailer courts were thought to be shameful and the city wanted to hide them. But, I began wondering the other day if it was actually for a different reason. Both of my reasons are probably completely wrong, but maybe trailer courts are secluded because people in houses felt pity on those in the trailer court and didn’t want to flaunt their lifestyles. The problem with secluding townships though is that they wouldn’t be secluded, but rather the houses would be secluded because they appear to be outnumbered. I can’t make sense of how such a tragic life can exist in such a beautiful. I guess the phrase a beautiful mess is a good description of the lives of many in South Africa.

After listening to Alison describe her experience in townships and her goal of getting abused children out of townships really made me question why any families stay there. I understand that there are financial and discriminatory reasons like District 6 for townships existing but then why are there houses in townships? If families are able to afford a house why wouldn’t they move out of the township? My goal for the homestay is to get a better grasp on the values of community because a loyalty to community is the only reason I can think of right now for families to remain townships. Does a commitment to family and your community mean that you have to risk your health and safety in order to be near the ones you care about? Understanding “The Tale of Two Cities” may be my toughest challenge while being here but I hope I get better insight.

Also, this is a struggle for me to wrap my head around because I think to myself that it would be so easy to break this vicious cycle if only people could be as courageous as Alison. But, possibly the people of the townships think that if they were to leave the township the violence and health issues would follow them, so what’s the point in leaving. I was just about to suggest that education could be a solution but then I realized there would also need to be a large job demand. Although I want to have a deeper understanding for the socioeconomic structure of South Africa, I know that I won’t be able to even begin to think of solutions because this is clearly one of the greatest adaptive challenges that I’ve observed. I hope next week will shed some like on this tragic issue by speaking to people of Guguletu and JL Zwane but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully comprehend it.

Thanks for blogging,

Brittany