South Africa is the oddest mix of 3rd world meets 1st world. What they call ‘Townships’ here are slums, some with no water or electricity, filled with shacks made of whatever wood, metal, and cardboard scraps can be found. In full view of beautiful, expensive well manicured homes you would see in the nicest areas of America. The Apartheid in South Africa ended only 20 years ago and the social change is a slow and precarious process. Apartheid was full segregation and relocation of Black people. They were isolated in every way and a devastating gap between the Poor Blacks and Rich Whites was fueled with fear and hatred.
Danger is on everyone’s mind here. Every home and business are surrounded by barbed and/or electrical wire with bars on every door and window and full security systems in place. The people here have perfectly clean cars because they cannot leave even paper or books in their car or the windows will be smashed to steal the contents so they put EVERYTHING in the boot (trunk). Many of the people we have talked to have a robbery story. An impoverished desperation combined with a sense of entitlement to what the ‘rich’ have and a belief that white people owe them for years of Apartheid is a dangerous combination. While we were here the power to the entire city went out for hours because a man was trying to steal the electrical cable that feeds the city and was electrocuted in the process.
Some of the greatest obstacles to change in South Africa are gaping holes in the education system, widespread government corruption, an overcorrection in the job market, and a sense of entitlement among the poor. In Kenya, we stayed in the slums, but there, we saw a desire among the people to better themselves and their families. In Kenya, they had no public sanitation, electricity or running water and had to pay for everything. The education system was better and people had a desire for their kids to go to college and improve their lives. Here, the education system is very poor and many of the people are content to stay in their township where the government pays for what little electric and water they have and supplements them with stipends for food and such. We worked with the Human Dignity Project (more to come in another blog) that is doing a great job in working to give people a true hand up and not just another hand out. They are giving hope to families and helping them learn skills they need to make lasting changes.
Here, all of this is happening on the outside, but as soon as we step ‘inside’ we feel like we are in America. I will share more on this and how lovely and welcoming our Church family here has been in my next blog :0) But the deep difference we experience speaks of the mountains of change that are still needed for this country to truly flourish.
