Fun and Heartbreak: Malungeni, Day 2

Tuesday morning came with a surprise: no hot water. Spiwo said that the electricity would be at a minimum until he added more to the meter. I didn't think that meant the geyser (pronounced geezer, it's the South African name for a water heater) was shut off. I haven't had to take a cold shower since Boy Scout camp in 1976, and I didn't like it any better than then. Then again, I couldn't complain because I HAD WATER. No one in Malungeni has running water, except when their rooftop rain collection systems are full. Given the choice of a cold shower and trekking a couple kilometers to the river, I'll take cold water any day.

This was the day to relax, since there wasn't much happening. We did have to go into Mthatha to make arrangements for the food parcel distribution on Thursday, but other than that it was easy living. So we started the day by driving around the village to get acquainted with the surroundings.

Spiwo and I first went to the site of the new church that he's building (with the support of some US-based churches). It's an impressive brick building that will have a main hall and round entry area where they can have a pre-school or Sunday school. Spiwo was a little concerned about how the roof was put on. Originally it was supposed to rest on the brick walls like a normal roof would do. However, the builder didn't think that would work so he constructed a frame out of beams and built the roof on that. That created a sizable gap between the top of the walls and the roof that will have to be bricked in. The builder thinks this will take about 18,000 more bricks at a cost of about R30,000 ($4,300) plus labour. Financing that is going to be tricky, but Spiwo seems to have a way in mind. In any case, there's several months of work left to be done before the church is ready for its dedication.

I also had the chance to look closer at the homes. Historically, Xhosa people have lived in round houses called rondevals. Most are about 20 feet in diameter and are made of bricks with plaster overcoats. There are still some in the village that were made from sticks laid horizontally with mud placed in-between. These don't hold up nearly as well as the brick ones, though. The bricks were traditionally made of mud from regular soil and dried in the sun. Sometime back the people learned to add cement to the mud and it made for a much stronger brick. Now the homes are expected to last for decades. (There are brickyards along the river just outside Mthatha. The men take the thick soil from the river banks and press their bricks, allowing them to dry in the sun. The bricks have a deep red color. Sadly, while the bricks are pretty the river banks are being destroyed by all the excavation. Erosion will probably occur soon, and the brick makers will need to move elsewhere.)

The older rondevals have thatched roofs made of grass cut from the local fields. Newer ones, or those with roofs that need replacing, have corrugated zinc roofs. (Note the two in the picture above - one has a thatch roof and the other a zinc roof.) The zinc allows the homeowner to collect the rain using gutters and pipes to shunt the water to huge holding tanks. One tank probably has enough water for a month, given that they homes don't have showers or toilets (or washing machines, or dishwashers, or any other modern appliance). Accompanying the rondevals are small rectangular, one- or two-room structrures. Sometimes they act as a bridge between two rondevals, and other times they sit on their own.

The great thing about the villages I saw is that people take the time to paint their homes. This is very different than Cape Town, where many of the homes' exteriors are faded, peeling, or just run down. Every home is a different colour - orange, turquoise, yellow, white, blue - so they create quite a nice picture when seen from afar. Almost nice enough for a postcard. And, there are very few power lines to obstruct the view.

Because, of course, not all villages have electricity. Malungeni is lucky. They had power lines installed about 4 years ago. Now, assuming they can afford the power, every house has light at night. I noticed a couple TV antennae, but only a couple. I never heard music coming from any of the homes, so I'm guessing most people don't have radios, either. It was very peaceful walking the roads, with only the sheep and goats making noise.

Most everyone in Malungeni has land. They are granted property by the village chief. He decides who gets land and how much they receive. Most people appear to have a plot that's about 20 yards by 50 yards, maybe a little bigger. Some have considerable more. In any case, the plots are large enough to have a vegetable garden and keep some animals. People with the smaller plots usually have chickens, goats, and/or sheep. The folks with the larger plots can also add cows (steers, really) and horses. Again, this is assuming people can afford them. Chickens, bought as chicks, cost about R2 ($0.30) each. Sheep and goats run about R700 ($100) each. Cows are about R5000 ($750), as are horses. Feeding is not too expensive, since nearly everyone takes their animals to communal pastures to graze. Because of the limited grazing area and the number of animals, the fields are seriously overgrazed. But, since there's no alternative, people keep on using them.

The fact that people have land and can grow some food makes it quite different than Cape Town. Here, having land is not guaranteed. If you do have it, you have a very small plot with just your house. You can't grow anything on it, and you certainly can't keep a cow there. Sure, you can sell your plot and house to make money, but chances are you will never get a title deed again in your life. Some people do raise goats in the township, but only because they can wander through the trash heaps on the side of the road and get their food. If it were me, I'd rather be in the rural area where I have a chance at survival.

(Spiwo has talked with people who have a differing viewpoint. The best, or worst, reason to be in Cape Town came from a young man who moved here from the Eastern Cape a few years ago. He said, "When you live in a rural area and have nothing, you have nothing. When you live in Cape Town and have nothing, at least you know you can find a rubbish bin that has pizza in it." That just about says it all.)

After the church, Spiwo took me to meet his mother. She lives just up the road from the bunkhouse. She has two rondevals and a large house on her property. We found her in bed, not because she was sick but because it was cold and rainy outside and she wanted to be warm. She is a very pleasant woman, with a friendly manner and a great smile. Spiwo has been trying to get her to move somewhere better but she doesn't want to go.

After that we headed into Mthatha. Thebo came along with Spiwo and I just to have something to do. Since Spiwo had about an hour's worth of errands to run, he dropped Thebo and I at the shopping mall to look around. That took about 5 minutes, so we headed outside to walk around the town. Mthatha is a decent sized city, relative to the area, but it's still small, about the size of downtown St. Paul. For being a big city there are surprisingly few big city stores there, certainly not any chains that exist in Cape Town. Most of the shops are independant, family-owned stores, many originating our of Durban (which is only a few hundred kilometers away). To say that the assortment of products is eclectic wouldn't describe it. A store can have clothes, bikes, stereos and stoves, all in a space the size of my living room. They're more like surplus stores than proper shops, with everything crammed into small spaces.

I also saw something I haven't seen in Cape Town: a row of men with wheelbarrows waiting to help people with their purchases. Most people arrive in Mthatha by taxi, minibuses that hold 12-15 people. When they finish shopping, they need to haul their packages back to the taxi rank to catch a ride home. The wheelbarrow men are available for hire, for a few Rand, to be the mule and cart. The taxi drivers pile everything on top of the vans - we saw more than one with 25kg bags of mealie (corn) meal and flour with mattresses stacked on top of that. And they still drove at breakneck speeds down the rural roads. Yikes!

When Spiwo picked us up we headed over to the store to sort out the food for the parcels. We arranged to have the items pulled and ready for us on Thursday. Spiwo was a little worried about finding a truck to haul the goods to Malungeni, but he "had people working on it" so everything seemed to be under control. We headed back home to have a leisurely afternoon.

When we arrived we found that Xolani, the Centre's driver, and Niwo, the man who handles fumigation at the Centre, had arrived from Cape Town. They drove, taking about 15 hours to reach Malungeni. Niwo is going to teach the house's caretaker the proper ways to handle pest control. Xolani came to help with the food parcel program (and to drive Niwo). So, we have a pretty active house now. Xolani has offered to drive around tomorrow, which should be a very interesting day.

Next up: Schools, reunions and future plans.