Township/Ghetto

Anyway the same city tour bus thing we did all day yesterday has 2 routes, red and blue. We did red yesterday so we got a two day pass and took the red one up table mountain because it was a really clear day and it is usually really foggy so the lady in the office made us do it!! After that we got on the blue bus and went to a township. They had a guide meet us at the bus and then the bus would picked us up 45 min later. We didn't really get to see much because he took us into this local bar/pool hall. The guys, of course, went crazy but we had pretty good conversations. We met 2 men from Zimbabwe that had just moved to that town ship. Our guide then took us to his shack and we met his wife. It was a two bedroom shack with a kitchen about the size of my bathroom at home and a living room maybe the size of maybe half of my bedroom at home. After that we walked around, in and out of the houses. It was absolutely crazy. I have never seen anything like it. The shacks were all literally 2 feet from each other and they just went forever and ever. They are built out of whatever scraps they can find/steal. Little kids 2+ were just running around the town with no one watching them and just doing whatever. We saw another shack that was worse than our tour guide's. It was a TINY bedroom, all it had was a twin size bed, actually like the ones we have on the boat I think they are smaller than a twin, and he had a tv in the corner next to the door and there was a little aisle he could walk through to get on his bed. It was the actual length of the bed and probably 3 feet out from the bed. Our guide told us that no one pays for water, electricity or rent. He said that they are supposed to donate money somewhere before the house becomes yours but it is basically based on the honor system which they don't have much of. I asked if anyone ever got kicked out of their homes and he was like no way, this is our town, we help each other out. Oh yeah and that guy that had the tiny tiny shack had no bathroom or shower. They have these 4 showers/bathrooms. Literally a shower and no toilet but used as a bathroom. Sick huh? Once we got on the bus we talked to the guide on there and I was like how do they make money to drink and stuff because ALL of them had drinks. And we also asked what they do all day. He said what we saw is literally what they do and they make money by stealing and he also said there was a lot of drug smuggling going on.

That was the e-mail to my mom, but I will add a little more. They had no paved streets and walked up steep rocky streets. They have a rule that everyone can have a dog but they have to pay for the 2nd dog. There are a million dogs that are basically homeless because the family doesn't want to pay for it. We went to that bar and had a drink with them, we watched very closely when they were opening our drink! But then they brought us out a covered plate and said we had to eat this to have the whole experience. I still don't know what it was. I had a bite because I really didn't wanna get the shits and it was like chunky on the inside, the outside looked like one of those long sausages that are rolled. I asked what it was and one of the guys said dog and I almost threw up all over him, he is lucky he said he was kidding. We found out later that we were actually in the "good part"of the township and the further up we could go was where all the violence was. 

We walked by a group of kids who were probably around 8-10 and they were coloring in books and our tour guide said they were doing homework. They have such a poor education system that they color and don't do math, science, or anything. No one wants to teach at the schools in townships so a lot of the teachers volunteer, but are not qualified at all. It was amazing to me how much some of the people we met wanted and liked living in the township. Our guide had grown up in one and went to college and lived out of the township for a few years and then came to this one and has been here for 18 years. A couple of the older guys we saw had gone to college as well but when they were done they moved right back into the township. I don't know how people live like this.