The Beauty in Ugly

So, today we went on a Township tour of Langa and Gugelethu, the first and second oldest townships in Cape Town, respectively. It's hard to describe them without witnessing them first hand, but the easiest way to describe them is simply that they are large, race-demarcated ghettos, but the housing varies greatly from township to township and within each township. In Langa, you can find hundreds of shacks (small wood or corrugated metal huts), old homes that have been inhabited by generations of families, all the way to brand new government built apartments and town-homes. While parts of the townships definitely reminded me of the villages in Nicaragua, there was definitely a different feel to them. While the people and villages in Nica generally didn't have any job or source of income, these people do have jobs and cars and homes. They weren't made out of desperation or necessity, like the ones in Nica were. Rather, they were made purely to separate the races, and "naturally" the economic divisions grew. So, there are people who live in the Townships who are actually rather wealthy (comparatively speaking), but continue to live there because that is where they have always lived. Our tour guide (who is amazing by the way) compared it to celebrities today who come from poor neighborhoods, and even after achieving fame go back because of pride for where they are from. It was really amazing to both hear some of the stories of people from the townships and go on to be incredibly successful, but it was also very moving to see some of the worst living conditions first-hand. I think what made it the most difficult was that in Nica you see terrible conditions, but it seems like everyone is more or less in the same situation. Here, however, there are a lot of incredibly wealthy people in Cape Town. It is a very developed city, and South Africa has by far the strongest economy in Africa, despite not having any oil. Yet, there is still so much poverty left as a result of apartheid. I have to wonder how people who live here can simply overlook it, but, like so many things, when you're constantly surrounded by something, whether it be a beautiful mountain, or vast poverty, you simply stop noticing it.Well, everyone seems to be really exhausted so I'm probably going to get to bed early. My roommate already moved out (that was quick!), so I have my room back to myself (yay!). Tomorrow, we start our first class with Anre and then in the afternoon we're visiting Leap College, but I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Till then,

Good night!

Jason