Newsletter: August 2008

Feeding Program

She came in her party dress and her sister models her new sweater! They are sisters of the Shange family of eight.

It’s a happy day for the fortunate families receiving food hampers.

It’s also an enjoyable day for me! Elizabeth and I choose a suitable day mid month and I head off in the morning to Makro for all the dry produce. With my list in hand I drag a noisy flat bulk trolley into the store and head for the goods! Shelf packers now offer to help me after noticing me lugging 10 kg bags of maize meal and bulk packs of sugar. I now get ‘best price’ advice, loading assistance and check out assistance! I’m done in a quarter the time! The car guards know me now and pull my loaded, still noisy trolley to the car and load it up! Hmm, lots of ‘loading’ here, so much so that I then make a stop at E’s house to off-load before heading for Fruit & Veg City, to load up again!

I need a mini van now so that I can make one trip with all the food items! I’ll take pictures of my hardy VW Polo loaded 2 times around!

At Fruit & Veg. I fill the first trolley, ‘park’ it somewhere ‘sort of’ out of the way and close to the till before I get the second one; both filled to nearly overflowing! Shopping here is a delight, the shop is jam packed with such a variety and excellent prices, and they give me less 10%! The staff is all friendly and as the trolley heads out of the store, a smiling helper whose section I would have parked in, appears, to push my trolleys and load up the car.

With the fragrance of fresh produce I head for E’s house in Slangspruit, a very old township.

Slangspruit seems to be lost in time; women do their washing at the taps on the street, collect water to take home for domestic use through the day. Some are lucky, like E. to have a tap on her property, but pretty well no-one enjoys water borne sewerage at this stage. The municipality is prompt about changing the buckets when requested E. tells me.

The homes have electricity and folks buy prepaid cards to access the service. Property owners pay rates to the city for services in the township. One might appropriately ask; ‘what services?’

Many people rent rooms from these owners and use the services offered such as they are. This is cheap accommodation for renters and income for the landlords.

Garbage piles up in dry river beds or ‘designated’ garbage dumps.

Pigs, goats, cows stroll, devouring and grazing whatever is available along the roadside. Residents own them so they are personal property that no-one touch, amazing! It’s impossible to have a garden let alone vegetables without a sturdy fence.

Health hazards are shouting at you by now and imagine all this in summer when our temperatures reach high 30’s and low 40’s °C!

When my friend in Victoria, Elias Cheboud, told me to use my ‘white privilege’, seeing that I have it, to bring about change and make a difference, I took it to heart.

E. and I went to see the Municipal Manager! We had things to discuss! He is delightful, interested, open and keen to improve life for all in Pietermaritzburg. Let’s see what unfolds…….