The East Rand in Jo'Burg

Jo’burg is a formidable challenge. It is large and spread out like L.A., but with more traffic. And we are staying in a motel in the armpit of Jo’burg, a few hundred yards from the off ramp of the N3 highway, so I hate to complain, but…. we aren’t in Limpopo anymore. This is our only peri-urban site, although once inside the townships, the rural and urban settings can look somewhat similar.

Our little VW was packed to the gills with the 3 of us, our belongings, two jars of almond butter, 75 prisms, reams of pre-and post-test measures and 23 anatomically correct brown rubber dolls. We drove 5 hours straight to our second training site—KELRU, where no one has been paid in about 5 months. Still, like Thusanang, the staff here sing and pray each morning and afternoon and go about their work with great zeal, showing faith that their director will soon find money. The government has also promised them funds, but so far, nothing.

The first day of training we followed directions but ended up in something out of The Road, by Cormick McCarthy, if any of you have read that post-apocalyptic novel. Imagine the first 10 miles of the NJ turnpike, but up close and personal, as in....without a turnpike. On the left were hundreds of new Mandela houses—houses provided by govt. in an initiative started by Mandela. I remember reading that in the 50’s in Appalachia, most houses, even shacks had t.v. antennas. Here, most Mandela houses now have t.v. satellite dishes. On the right side were informal settlements, the likes of which neither Faith nor I have ever seen in our years of travel throughout SA. We later found out that this area, without even a name, is where the refugees from Mozambique and Zimbabwe are living. Hardly anyone has papers, so it is hard to get work, and the settlements are very far away from anything that could be useful to them.

The training went well our first day, and everyone seems especially interested in learning about the brain. I ended up doing the cooking for lunch, because we wanted all the trainers to attend the am session. No knife, no can opener, and a flood in the kitchen while I was hard at work. Not my best chicken curry, but it fed all 20 of us well enough to get on with the afternoon: an HIV/AIDS Jeopardy Game that really got people going.

Monday return to training again through Thursday, then on to Mpumulanga. Stay in touch!
xxoova