This morning I woke up and saw something that I hadn’t seen yet since I’ve been in South Africa- all the children of Cato Manor leaving their homes in their green school uniforms. As I have mentioned before, South Africa has been under national wage strikes the last 3 weeks and many hospitals and schools have been out of commission. One major consequence of the strike has been that HIV positive people have not had access to their Antiretrovirals for the last month, so it’s projected that with lower CD4 counts, their overall conditions will decline and more and more people will be dying of AIDS related illnesses in the next few weeks. But on the bright side, the strike has officially been suspended for the next 21 days while the government works out wage negotiations. So that means my sister Thah is back at work at the hospital, and that my brother Boy, along with all the other children in Cato are back to school (at least temporarily). Hopefully these negotiations work out.
This past weekend was really nice- SIT put us up in Durban for the weekend in flats right across from the ocean. We went to the beach, shopped at the local markets, and went to uShaka Marine World (a water park and aquarium combined.) It was a great weekend and everyone needed it. I got a very warm welcome when I returned to Cato yesterday though, and was greeted by a little boy who just came up and helped carry my duffel bag all the way home. My little sister also came running and screaming down the hill, and jumped into my arms. It was a nice weekend getaway, but I’m happy to be back “home.”
Funny side note: Last night some of my sister’s friends came over and one of them was literally named “my sister.” I found that really funny and thought I’d share. J
This weekend we will be going to a traditional Zulu Reed Dance. To my understanding, thousands of virgins will dance in front of the Zulu King and he then will pick a new wife (as a new addition to the ten others he has). It’s a very involved process and also includes “virginity testing.” I’ll leave it up to your imagination to figure out how that one works. Either way, I think it’ll be a really cool experience and we are all SO excited to go!
I also wanted to just give you all a brief history about Cato Manor, because I realize I haven’t really done that yet, and there is SO much history in the township. Basically, Cato Manor was an extensive acreage of land granted to George Christopher Cato, a British colonist here in 1865. Indian settlers were placed there to act as a buffer between the whites and blacks during Aparthied, and worked as indentured laborers or on sugar plantations. The Indians then leased plots of land to black Africans because the law prohibited them from buying their own land in the 1920s. A lot of tensions grew between the Indians and the Africans, and riots eventually grew into an anti-Indian war in which thousands of Indians were murdered. Today there are virtually no Indians in Cato Manor. By the mid 1950’s, many political figures involved in the ANC including current day president Zuma were associated with Cato Manor, and efforts were made by whites to remove everyone from the township and place them in racially based housing developments. In 1992, the Cato Manor Development Forum was created to redevelop the area and in 1995, it received R130 million in funding after Aparthied ended. Rebuilding Cato Manor was one of Mandela’s first 7 major goals upon becoming president. It was rebuilt and today is considered government housing, and you can tell because most of the houses are exactly the same dimensions and are painted one of three different colors- red, green or yellow.
Three more days of class, and then off to the Reed Dance this weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment