(personal note)
i've been writing letters to my Grandma and other loved ones and realized that i don't have nearly enough envelopes or money for postage (or time) to handwrite you all a letter. so, here's a little update about me here, since it's been awhile since i've written something personal.
it's almost the 2 month mark here, and the past few weeks have been very busy. i've moved from the backpackers i had been staying at to the house of a professor emeritus, who had an extra bedroom. it's nice and quiet, plus he has designed his house and surroundings as a mini botanic garden, so it's full of lush trees and flowering plants, birds, baboons, and of course, all sorts of wierd insects. i'm only a 5 minute walk (up hill) to the university, where i can easily get to the Centre for Civil Society's Resource Centre, so it's a much more convenient place to be than before, where i had a hilly half hour walk ahead of me in the hot sun.
since i don't have a car, i'm at the liberty of other folks at the centre, but usually it's my feet that get me places. there are "taxis--" private mini-bus companies that shuttle people who can't afford a car-- to and from a given location in Durban and the city center. but, similar to my experiences in Zimbabwe, it takes a few tries to figure out which of a couple dozen taxi ranks downtown will take you where you want to go. i spent a frustrating afternoon last week hunting for the taxi rank to take me to the Clare Estate area, where Kennedy and Foreman road settlements are located. in the end, after asking a number of people who all pointed in different directions, i ended up at a city bus stop and a (privately-run) bus came by headed to Kennedy Road.
i think i've finally figure out where i need to go, there's a place called the "market" downtown, a huge open air market where people have stands selling all sorts of everything, from clothes and shoes (pumas are really popular here), bags and hats, to cell phone accessories, fruits and vegetables, any number of kitchen appliances and cookware, and all sorts of other things. it's also a big hub for taxis. so, cross my fingers, when i head there tomorrow afternoon i'll get to the right place.
i'm spending some time helping put some fliers together for a small organizing committee at the Foreman road settlement, just down the road from Kennedy road. the councilor in the area has basically sworn off getting any support from residents at Kennedy Road, so he's focusing now on people who live at Foreman (see the article in the previous post).
most people who live in this community of about 1,000 or so shacks are angry about the lack of delivery of desperately need services. Toilets are few and far away, there are few water taps, no electricity, community hall or daycare center. Streams of sewage and water run around and through some people's homes. Promises of upgrades to houses with real walls and roofs have yet to turn into reality.
now that there is an election in just over a month, the councilor apparently has promised to move about 50 families to Mount Moriah, an area about 15 or so kms away, where families from many different informal settlements are supposed to be relocated. but this is far from the jobs that people have, and to pay for transport to get back into the city would cost more than a day's wage. many residents now walk to work nearby (as domestic servants, gardeners, security guards, gas station attendants) because they already can't afford to spend money to take a taxi, only 2 rand (about 35 cents) for a local trip.
long story short:
are people completely fed up with promises that they won't believe this new one?
or is this enough incentive for them to vote again for the ANC's chosen candidate?
the problem, as foreman road organizers see it, is that this choice was not made by them. "We are the ANC," they say. because the ANC candidate for counselor in their ward is not someone they trust, they will not vote for him.
but, they also will not vote for anyone else. they won't vote against the ANC.
so it's an interesting dilemma to observe. and now it's about 35 or so days until the election, and i'll be watching my friends at Foreman Rd try to organize their neighbors into their campaign of "No House, No Vote."
abahlali as a whole, about 25 different settlements around durban, has been attracting a lot of media attention. so much so that there are now a lot of stories on the news about similar protests against empty promises of housing and other service delivery all over the country. apparently there were something like 7,000 protests just last year. it might mean that municipal elections all over the country, and not just in durban, may be affected by a similar vote boycott.
today i'm supposed to be editing a flier to be distributed at a rally this coming Sunday, but the office i was planning to use is locked. oh well, things always take at least twice as long here as i expect them to take.
***
anyway, so i'm writing about the struggles in the informal settlements, and doing lots of reading. it's hard spending so much time on my own, and i have to admit that solitude is making me impatient for the trip home, back to what's familiar. i'm trying not to let homesickness get the better of me.
things are unfolding slowly here, at a pace i'm slowly getting used to... but it does allow a lot more time to think about the big picture. like, what i should be doing when i get home? and how should i spend my time? also things like how long it takes to figure out being in a new place. how easily language barriers affect understanding, something that happens to me everyday here when i try to talk to people. what community means, here, where so many houses are surrounded by 8 ft walls and electric fencing, and everyone else lives without any privacy; what it means to be in a familiar setting, and to have a real sense of a place; what safety means here, and why breeding really nasty guard dogs to live with you on your property is considered a good idea; what wealth does to people when surrounded by so much poverty and inequality, and conversely, what poverty does when surrounded by so much wealth and separation of classes... i'm sure i could go on and on.
it's supposed to be getting pretty hot and humid here over the next month-- February is the worst part of summer, people say-- so, my motivations might slow to a crawl. but with so much coffee available everywhere, i'm not too worried. plus i'll be housesitting for the next week and a half at a place with a good internet connection, so i'm hoping to catch up a whole lot.
I hope you all are doing well, and see you in 6 weeks.
love,
steph
(ps-check out tan me)
it's almost the 2 month mark here, and the past few weeks have been very busy. i've moved from the backpackers i had been staying at to the house of a professor emeritus, who had an extra bedroom. it's nice and quiet, plus he has designed his house and surroundings as a mini botanic garden, so it's full of lush trees and flowering plants, birds, baboons, and of course, all sorts of wierd insects. i'm only a 5 minute walk (up hill) to the university, where i can easily get to the Centre for Civil Society's Resource Centre, so it's a much more convenient place to be than before, where i had a hilly half hour walk ahead of me in the hot sun.
since i don't have a car, i'm at the liberty of other folks at the centre, but usually it's my feet that get me places. there are "taxis--" private mini-bus companies that shuttle people who can't afford a car-- to and from a given location in Durban and the city center. but, similar to my experiences in Zimbabwe, it takes a few tries to figure out which of a couple dozen taxi ranks downtown will take you where you want to go. i spent a frustrating afternoon last week hunting for the taxi rank to take me to the Clare Estate area, where Kennedy and Foreman road settlements are located. in the end, after asking a number of people who all pointed in different directions, i ended up at a city bus stop and a (privately-run) bus came by headed to Kennedy Road.
i think i've finally figure out where i need to go, there's a place called the "market" downtown, a huge open air market where people have stands selling all sorts of everything, from clothes and shoes (pumas are really popular here), bags and hats, to cell phone accessories, fruits and vegetables, any number of kitchen appliances and cookware, and all sorts of other things. it's also a big hub for taxis. so, cross my fingers, when i head there tomorrow afternoon i'll get to the right place.
i'm spending some time helping put some fliers together for a small organizing committee at the Foreman road settlement, just down the road from Kennedy road. the councilor in the area has basically sworn off getting any support from residents at Kennedy Road, so he's focusing now on people who live at Foreman (see the article in the previous post).
most people who live in this community of about 1,000 or so shacks are angry about the lack of delivery of desperately need services. Toilets are few and far away, there are few water taps, no electricity, community hall or daycare center. Streams of sewage and water run around and through some people's homes. Promises of upgrades to houses with real walls and roofs have yet to turn into reality.
now that there is an election in just over a month, the councilor apparently has promised to move about 50 families to Mount Moriah, an area about 15 or so kms away, where families from many different informal settlements are supposed to be relocated. but this is far from the jobs that people have, and to pay for transport to get back into the city would cost more than a day's wage. many residents now walk to work nearby (as domestic servants, gardeners, security guards, gas station attendants) because they already can't afford to spend money to take a taxi, only 2 rand (about 35 cents) for a local trip.
long story short:
are people completely fed up with promises that they won't believe this new one?
or is this enough incentive for them to vote again for the ANC's chosen candidate?
the problem, as foreman road organizers see it, is that this choice was not made by them. "We are the ANC," they say. because the ANC candidate for counselor in their ward is not someone they trust, they will not vote for him.
but, they also will not vote for anyone else. they won't vote against the ANC.
so it's an interesting dilemma to observe. and now it's about 35 or so days until the election, and i'll be watching my friends at Foreman Rd try to organize their neighbors into their campaign of "No House, No Vote."
abahlali as a whole, about 25 different settlements around durban, has been attracting a lot of media attention. so much so that there are now a lot of stories on the news about similar protests against empty promises of housing and other service delivery all over the country. apparently there were something like 7,000 protests just last year. it might mean that municipal elections all over the country, and not just in durban, may be affected by a similar vote boycott.
today i'm supposed to be editing a flier to be distributed at a rally this coming Sunday, but the office i was planning to use is locked. oh well, things always take at least twice as long here as i expect them to take.
***
anyway, so i'm writing about the struggles in the informal settlements, and doing lots of reading. it's hard spending so much time on my own, and i have to admit that solitude is making me impatient for the trip home, back to what's familiar. i'm trying not to let homesickness get the better of me.
things are unfolding slowly here, at a pace i'm slowly getting used to... but it does allow a lot more time to think about the big picture. like, what i should be doing when i get home? and how should i spend my time? also things like how long it takes to figure out being in a new place. how easily language barriers affect understanding, something that happens to me everyday here when i try to talk to people. what community means, here, where so many houses are surrounded by 8 ft walls and electric fencing, and everyone else lives without any privacy; what it means to be in a familiar setting, and to have a real sense of a place; what safety means here, and why breeding really nasty guard dogs to live with you on your property is considered a good idea; what wealth does to people when surrounded by so much poverty and inequality, and conversely, what poverty does when surrounded by so much wealth and separation of classes... i'm sure i could go on and on.
it's supposed to be getting pretty hot and humid here over the next month-- February is the worst part of summer, people say-- so, my motivations might slow to a crawl. but with so much coffee available everywhere, i'm not too worried. plus i'll be housesitting for the next week and a half at a place with a good internet connection, so i'm hoping to catch up a whole lot.
I hope you all are doing well, and see you in 6 weeks.
love,
steph
(ps-check out tan me)
posted by stephatriseup at 1:45 AM
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