Day 284: April 10
A long time ago I wrote a python script to manage the dates in this blog a long and tell me when important milestones occure. Today happens to be a very big one: one thousand days since I got on a plane with 44 people I hardly knew and flying off into a world I knew nothing about. One thousand days of being in Africa.
As a special post today I'm going to overwhelm you with photos. The reason why I focus on just one thing each day is to give a slow detailed understanding of Emjindini and Barberton through a volunteers eyes. That works pretty well, but one of the hardest parts about South Africa to wrap ones mind around is the extreme contrast in standard of living from urban to suburban, from town to township, from rural to inner-city. That's something that can't be captured in isolated photos, and so todays post will show one afternoon in Barberton and Emjindini.
Yesterday a friend dropped me off on one side of Barberton and over the next five hours I walked through town, into the township, past my house, and back into town. The trail I left was as circuitous as any in Family Circus and if going direct walking between any two points in all these photos wouldn't take you more than an hour. During the course of the walk I took over 500 photos. Below is an edited selection of 150 that taken together illustrate some of the complexities of modern South African life.
Every photo you see below was taken during a single walk in a single Saturday afternoon.
We start at Barberton Info wall with a nice touristy map of town which I wouldn't really trust to get me anywhere accurately. Let's start by exploring the area on that map: town.
Four pictures from what were the heart of Barberton back in the late 1880's. The second photo is the Lewis & Marks building which in 1887 was the Bank of Africa in Barberton. The second photo is the Phoenix Hotel which was build in 1886.
Next town hall, the police station and since local elections are right around the corner one of the many polls covered in election signs. It's interesting to note that none of the signs are in English, even though it's the only language you can guarantee everyone will know some of.
What's left of the first stalk exchange in the Transvaal. Built in 1886 this was one of the first double story buildings in Barberton.
The main street of Barberton might be full common South African retail stores like Pep and Jet (I've never been into either outlet in Barberton), but the streets are also full of street vendors. Take your pick of nicely boiled russians (hot-dogs), belts and wallets, or the latest Nigerian films and a few pirated Hollywood ones – be sure to test the quality on your DVD using the portable DVD player.
You can find a guest house with rooms from R200 to R900 a night in town. And if you want to book a session at the message therapist you can do that too.
There are several car dealerships in town and at least four gas stations for all those cars and even more taxis.
The town museum is filled with historic pictures and artifacts of Barberton. It's always really quite and since all the information is in three languages it was a great place to go and practice my SiSwati – each exhibit is like a Rosetta Stone.
There are numerous cell phone shops that sale and repair phones, phone covers, chargers, batteries and just about anything else associated with phones. The guy who owns the shop in the second picture has a brother who lives in Virginia – I stop by every now and then to see how the weather is back home. The last few pictures are of the inside of one of the many family run variety stores. They are much more fun to go in than the chain stores since you never know what you'll find – or the quality of it.
There are some really nice houses all surrounded by large walls. There are also empty lots (also enclosed in walls). As well as a few apartment buildings.
There's a pizza parlor, a Wimpy – South African hamburger chain, a King Pie opened up during the World Cup, and of course there's South African's favorite: KFC.
There are at least four butchers (not including the ones in the grocery stores). Several hardware stores, and a few more family owned variety stores with everything from buckets and soap to TVs and stoves.
I'm never sure how Barberton – even with the large township population – can support so many similar stores. Here are three furniture stores right next to each other.
And two stores down another furniture store.
Yep, go down the street 100m and there's another one.
We end our tour of town with the tennis courts, rugby field and golf course.
A quick pass through what was formally the Indian and Colored area and acted as a small buffer zone between town and township. The business district here is full of self owned and run shops. There are several churches and as well as a Mosque and I can hear the call to prayer even from my house.
Now we go to the industrial area off to the side of the township. It is full of metal working shops, scrap yards, lumber yards, a cardboard recycling center, and brick makers. On a Saturday afternoon it is quite quiet.
Now down the road and past a small electrical sub-station.
And we enter a different world. Dingindota end Emjindini Extension 14. This is the edge of the township and on the opposite side from where I live.
It's a place where hand build wood shacks have satellite TV connections. Most houses have construction going on somewhere as well as small farms with corn, cabbage, and even papaya.
Currently water comes from pumps on the main road, but the municipality is working on extending taps to each yard.
With an arcade game for 50 Rand cents the local spaza shop is a great place to hang out or on a hot Saturday afternoon you find some shade and play Canasta.
There is also a soccer match between two local teams going on just down the street and of course the opportunity wasn't missed to sale some sweets and snacks to spectators.
In fact shops in the township literally lay on almost every corner. Theres Kilowatts Crew barber shop and many a garage have become a hair saloon. You can build a big store that stock eggs and maize meal or just small lean-too with a few jars of sweets and airtime.
Where ever you go there's definitely much more happening in the township than town. At this time in my walk it is approaching 4pm – on a Saturday that would mean the streets of Barberton are mostly empty Not so with the township, people are out and about. Every single one of these photos is taken of people who called me over to talk to them.
The roads are full of all sorts of vehicles.
And so you need a mechanic shop and lots of car washes. As you can see I passed this car wash late into the day as it was getting dark, but it's still busy. Washing cars is booming business.
More cars also mean more road work.
I've never been able to count them all but I would bet there are over fifty churches in the township. Some even meet in buildings you would hardly guess are a church; the only time I've ever seen the building in the last photo being used is Sunday morning – therefore I conclude it's a church.
There are playgrounds of yesteryear where kids are free to be kids. Where it is taken for grated that at some point the other kid is going to let the teeter-totter come crashing down, the jungle gym is about 2m to tall, and the slide is tall enough so that when you come back as an 8th grader its still almost as tall as you remember.
Every street of the township is filled with its own group of kids. They're jumping rope, having a dance party, kicking a flat rubber ball, playing pool, making their own political parties, and returning from the corner shop with maize meal, airtime, eggs, or toilet paper.
It is Saturday evening and people are starting to come out. This guys cooking up some chicken for a night rush. The shops are still open and the local tavern is just opening up.
As I was walking down the street someone invited me into their back yard to chat. So I took pictures.
Some things just seem out of place, but their part of life here too. I wasn't to surprised by the sports car and giant mining pick up, but the mini-van really surprised me: I think I've seen about five in the last 1000 days.
Another playground that has a prefect bridge for a game of tag and also makes a great place to look at stars at night.
Most people are going home, but Joe – the man in the second picture, is heading off to work the night shift at the mine.
The laundry is still drying right off the main road.
The sun is setting as I enter one of the older sections of the township with many built up established stores. I even heard the band saw in a butcher going in a few of these.
The low light and cheap camera caused the images to come out a little blurry, but I wanted to show this picture of the old two room government houses. Now the government builds four room houses three times that size. Two houses away someone is building a big addition to their now six room house.
Parts of the old township are well kept up, while other parts look like they survived a war.
It's now way to dark to take pictures.
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Well that is it for the afternoon tour, I still feel like I hardly touched the surface. It took me over eight months to really truly feel connected here. When you enter Peace Corps they tell you not to have any expectations, and I thought I didn't; but what ever I didn't expect was nothing like this.
