Well hello again.
It is the end of my second week in Cape Town.
Yesterday I went with colleagues to do ECG's, cardiovascular measurments, on some of the participants of the PURE study. We went to Langa, a township about 15 minutes by car from the city center. As this is a long term study, the participants have worked closely with the University staff, completing surveys, blood tests, and many other health measurments. In order to organize which participants we were to see, we called about 20 people living in Langa, close to where we would set the equipment up. However, when we arrived, close to ontime, we found that about 1/4 of those whom we had contacted had arrived. In order to make our trip worth it, we ended up walking to participants houses and asking them to come with us to complete their ECG's if we gave them a ride there and back, about a 10 minute walk.
The township of Langa is quite large, and a very tight knit community. Children run up and down the streets, playing games and splashing in small brightly colored plastic pools. Men, just returned home from work, sit drinking a beer while women chat to their neighbors and sho children from their kitchens. Four kids run up the street all in one hulahoop, the game being whoever is not dragged along behind wins. In the afternoon sunlight the township is a show rich in culture and community.
However in Langa, and all other townships, infrastructure is visibly beginning to fail with the pressure of growing populations. On the drive home I was given a tour of the real Cape Town, formed of many townships and shanty towns, from a man who grew up here and has returned. As a result of the lack of jobs, corruption , and failing politics in the Eastern Cape province people are looking for a place to move to. So one family member moves to Cape Town, in the western province, builds a shed in a shanty town, gotten a decent job and invited the family. These areas have a huge population influx, up to 200 new people daily.
Shanty towns are government land where people have moved in and build homes out of medal and wood. Water generally comes from one pump which supplies about 50 homes, and electricity is skillfully wired from a "near by" light post or traffic light. Electricity is stolen as a result of the government not ackloedgeing people living there and providing it. Therefore the lamp posts have tanlges of wire which wrap around and around the pole, and then could stretch accross the road, in a few ditches and than be split to provide 5-10 houses with electricity. Some Townships have been recognized by the government, and as a part of their constitution, the government is required to provide adequet housing, including electricity, for citizens.
One of the largest problems with the townships, is that they are placed so far from the city center, where many jobs are located. Buses are pretty expensive, therefore trains are generally the only option. Townships are also the center of much violence in Cape Town, which generally occuring between locals in the townships.
However, despite the many problems with infrastructure, those living in townships have a much richer community than most areas in the U.S. As a colleague who grew up in a township said, "They may live in a shack, but they are not a shack. They go to work and sit next to you on the bus, they just go home to a shack."
I have not taken any pictures of these communities, but if you look up townships or shanty town in Cape Town, there is a mass of information, this is just my first impressions and thoughts so far.
The experience has left me pondering, my instinct is that they are living in terrible conditions, and this must change. But when the problems are so large, and there are so many, where do we start and how do we learn from the richness and support found in these communities? How will the segregation and unfair facilities resulting from Apartheid change, and when?
I hope to have more experiences, rather than just glances of townships while I am here, and I hope to meet more people who live here in order to further understand the culture.
I would love your thoughts on all of this as well.
I have also posted a few pictures of the view from my apartment and the beauties in and around Cape Town.
Much love.
Cheers.