TV Sets and Township Life

Wow - time flies by so quickly. I have just 2 weeks left here in Cape Town before I head up to Tanzania for the summer. It’s amazing to look back at what I’ve done and realize that there is still so much that I wish I had time to do. Cape Town is such a great city and there is so much to explore in South Africa. I guess I’ll just have to come back here again sometime!

I want to apologize for not writing as frequently as I did when the quarter began. As usually happens, work has piled up and I have been trying to spend all the free time that I have seeking to experience as much as I can. This pace doesn’t lend itself very well to sitting down and writing blog entries, but I hope that I can fill you in a little bit now.

Though my week was very busy, several experiences I had in the townships proved very influential and so this entry is about life in these areas. Last night, I had the opportunity to spend the night in Tambo Village, a township near Guguletu outside Cape Town. Stanford offered us this opportunity through a travel agency because they thought it would be educational and about half of the group actually came along to do it. I was afraid going in that it would be very focused on poverty tourism, but upon arrival it became clear that this was not the case. Another student and I stayed in a really nice house that featured two televisions, quite spacious living conditions, and several kids’ laptops (similar to the one laptop per child laptop). We were met by the Tata (father) of the house when we arrived and pretty quickly realized the focal point of the home – the TV set. When we arrived, the world rugby league final (which featured two South African teams) was on and Tata was glued to the television set, having been a rugby player himself in his youth. It was understandable that he would watch this sporting event, but what was not understandable is why the TV was on the entire time I was in that house except overnight. After we got back today, I discussed this with the other students who had stayed with different families and they all experienced the same thing. Each family was simply watching American shows on TV with all of their free time. What a great influence America has had here.

After we had eaten dinner, I got to see some of what township life outside the home looks like. One of the sons took us out into the community to walk by the bars around the house we were staying in. On our way about, we met quite a few people in the younger generation. All of them were very friendly, but at the same time there was an undeniable message hidden in our conversations. We were welcome to be there and they enjoyed having us, but we should not get comfortable because if we do it will not be safe. The man taking us around was sure to be within arm’s reach the entire time and we could sense that he was very alert. Each person we talked to was equally alert, even if they had been drinking because it was evident that anything could happen at any moment. When we learned this we decided to walk back to the house and call it a night.

As I witnessed in my time in the township, the younger generation is much wilder than the Tata we stayed with. There is a different attitude about life that is carefree and not so focused on obligations. These people are ‘seeking’ jobs, but not living their life as if that is a priority. I want to close out this entry with a story from my time at Philani that relates directly to this attitude of the younger generation. Back in April I wrote about a mother who brought her twin sons into the clinic. She was a relatively young mother and these two children were her first. I hadn’t seen the mother since she came back in April, but on Tuesday of this week she returned – with one child. One of her twins had passed away the week before. The mother had access to all of the resources she would need to take care of the child – free milk and porridge from Philani, a clinic through Philani as well as a clinic in town, a social worker to help her figure out how to better manage the children, and support from an outreach worker who visits several times a week. Despite all this, the mother kept behaving the same way and neglecting her child, and now she has only one twin to care for. The other twin that she did bring in was much worse than it had been before. She kept complaining that she didn’t like this one as much because he cried more than the one that died. This child is in danger of having the same fate as his twin. How do you respond to this situation? You can try to take the child away, but to where will he go? How long will it take before the legality is worked out and will the child still be alive then? Is there a way to help support the mother that she hasn’t already had access to? There are no easy answers – only more questions. And while we keep asking the questions, another child may be joining his brother on the other side.