Sunday, July 30, 2006
Langa Township
We were a bit apprehensive about doing this tour, not because of any safety concerns but because we didn't want to just drive through on a bus and peer at it all through glass. There are probably better ways to spend more time with the people who actually live there but we didn't do too badly, and our guide did actually live in one of the local townships and obviously knew a lot of the locals.First stop was the home of the local traditional doctor. He wasn't around but we were allowed to look around the 'surgery', which actually looked a lot like a two car garage except that instead of car parts lying around there were items such as dried lizard skins hanging up. Most of the other bits and pieces weren't easily identifiable and it was probably best left that way!
Visiting one of the local 'pubs' was quite an experience. It was basically a large garden shed, inside which two local ladies were creating the local brew in something the size of an oil drum. There isn't really a price for drinks in these places, just a daily rate. So apparently you pay 5 Rand a day (less than 40p) and sit there and drink as much as you like (Yes Phil and Andrea, you read that right!). The price goes up at the weekend, to about 50p, but to be honest neither of us could say that we were great fans of the 'beer'. It was drunk from a can which looked like it may once have been produced by Dulux. In fact it looked a bit like what you'd get if you whisked up the dregs of a tin of 'Brilliant White' with lukewarm water, and had a taste which suggested that you'd made up that very concoction and chucked in a bit of Fijian Kava for good measure. Having said all of that it may still taste better than a certain inexplicably popular brew from the west side of the atlantic..... True!
As a result of our previous days of rest we'd ended up doing this tour on a Sunday. This meant that we were not able to visit the local museum which tells the history of the townships, however the alternative activity on Sundays is a visit to the local baptist church. As you might imagine this is a fairly lively event, and although the tourists were all seated at the back we were by no means left out. You may notice that there are very few photos of the service, this wasn't because we weren't allowed to take pictures (we were), but because most of the shots came out as a blur of motion! We did take a couple of short videos so we'll try to add in a link to those later. The minister started off by asking all those who were visiting the church for the first time to stand up, this included a few locals but it was mainly those of us at the back. Having asked each of us where we were from (the service was mainly in Xhosa but some parts were in English) he proceeded to welcome us all and invite us to join in. In place of songs sheets or hymn books they use an overhead projector, so it was quite easy to follow along, although to be honest our Xhosa pronunciation was not really up to scratch!
The proceedings followed much the same pattern as any other church service although one particular section brought home the fact that we were in a very different environment. Unemployment is high in Cape Town but we were told that it is over 40% in the townships. So when the minister asked for those who had found jobs or gained promotions during the past week to stand, they were very few in number but received rapturous applause and congratulations from everyone.
The rest of the photos are here.
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