May 21, 2009 (Thursday)
No Water?…Really, there’s no water in all of Zonki?!
Yup! Out of all the things I just knew to prepare myself for while living in Zonki for two weeks, I never imagined that the entire township’s tap could be turned off at any moment without a notice…two days in a row and there is NOTHING you can do about it.
I know you all are thinking, “What? You couldn’t drink water?” That was the least of my worries. What I was most concerned about was how 60 children and 10 staff members were supposed to each a starch-filled meals and use toilets that wouldn’t flush. As I rudely found out in the middle of the night…we would just “do it.” LOL. The toilet stories never end.
So now I will drink the last of it…lol.
Wow Courtney, we know just what you are experiencing. This story reminds me when Uncle Santiago and I were in West Africa in 2003. For 4 days the water was shut down --- 4 days. When we travel we always buy huge jugs of water and keep it in our room. Having this "saved" water on hand was our houshold's saving grace for eating, cleaning, and bathroom-ing.
ReplyDeleteThat's Gangsta...you better than me :-)
ReplyDeleteThis entry about the water being cut off was posted two weeks ago.Like Yvette said it helps people raised in the West come to terms with the limitations of an urban upbringing, as well as the problem of the 21st century for Europe and North America: water, and the lack of it.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if you are in Cape town by now, but while there be sure to visit the District Six Museum, the Center for the Study of African Cities, the Slum Dwellers International Office, the Community House in the Observatory neighborhood,the University of the Western Cape, the Worker's College, the International Labor Research & Information Group [that puts on a yearly Globalisation School], and look for evidence of unpaid slavery (1652-1838) all over the state. In several of these places you will have a chance to verify the gap between a Hollywood version of the anti-apartheid struggle and the (1975-1988) events in Angola, Namibia and Cuba that really made the end of apartheid possible.
I trust you visited the Apartheid Museum near Soweto, Johannesburg for evidence of waged slavery and the impact of those same (1975-1988) events mentioned above. The thrust of those efforts has been continued by Via Campesina, which also works there in South Africa coordinating the efforts of farmers and peasants in South America, Africa, and Asia against subsidized agro-industries elsewhere.
While you are still there and after your return I would encourage you to check the Center for Civil Society web site at the University of KwaZulu Natal regularly, (especially the writings of Patrick Bond & Ashwin Desai) for news about academic and intellectual events all over the country, that will be of interest for your continued pursuits.
Good luck and don't stop posting so we can follow your progress.
Santiago
Miss you Court! Love Aunt yvette
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