Talking to Terrence, advice from Maureen
We have been thinking a bit about how our 6 weeks in South Africa has changed us. One difference is simply that we have slowed down a bit - and actually started to take time to listen to people. Not just hurrying past as usual in our everyday life in busy Stockholm.
The other night we spent some time with the humble and kind night guard Terrence at our hotel. Terrence lives in Khayelitsha (one of the townships outside Cape Town) together with his brother’s family. He works from 7 pm to 7 am and wanders around the facilities making sure that no intruders disturb the guests of the hotel. Every day he has to travel for 1.5 hours to get to work – train into Cape Town, then the dangerous but efficient white mini-buses to Camps Bay and finally a walk up the hills to the hotel. Here starts his 12-hour shift. Finally 1.5 hours to get back to home. Considering that in most of the townships only around 25-40% of the citizens are employed, Terrence is one of the lucky ones.
In Johannesburg, we enjoyed our daily chat with our very animated cleaning lady Maureen. Maureen lives in a township outside of Soweto (South Africa’s most well-known township, home of Nelson Mandela, etc.) with her seven children. Maureen was troubled by the fact that she could not afford to send all her children to school (schools are free for the younger children, but you still have to provide funding for school uniforms, food and books, etc.), so one of her boys had to stay at home. At least she anticipated that she would have enough money in March, so hopefully the poor kid would not have to miss out that much.
Maureen liked that Sara had been to Soweto, but claimed that Soweto was now so nice and “upgraded” that it was not longer the real township experience. (Sara could not really relate to this, since she thought visiting some of the poor families in the miserable shacks of Soweto was one of the most painful moments she had ever experienced). Interesting perspectives. After Sara and Maureen’s discussion regarding poverty and townships, they naturally (!?) came into the topic of health and beauty. Maureen complimented Sara for being very pretty, but gave the advice that she really needed to loose some weight. She then pointed out exactly where this excess weight was located and suggested some time in the hotel’s little gym. Fortunately enough, Sara was in a good mood and could appreciate the advice with no offence taken. :-)
We left a large tip when we left, and hoped that this would help to get Maureen’s boy back to school. When discussing this kind of problems, then all our daily issues and concerns at home suddenly seem so utterly insignificant and silly…
The other night we spent some time with the humble and kind night guard Terrence at our hotel. Terrence lives in Khayelitsha (one of the townships outside Cape Town) together with his brother’s family. He works from 7 pm to 7 am and wanders around the facilities making sure that no intruders disturb the guests of the hotel. Every day he has to travel for 1.5 hours to get to work – train into Cape Town, then the dangerous but efficient white mini-buses to Camps Bay and finally a walk up the hills to the hotel. Here starts his 12-hour shift. Finally 1.5 hours to get back to home. Considering that in most of the townships only around 25-40% of the citizens are employed, Terrence is one of the lucky ones.
In Johannesburg, we enjoyed our daily chat with our very animated cleaning lady Maureen. Maureen lives in a township outside of Soweto (South Africa’s most well-known township, home of Nelson Mandela, etc.) with her seven children. Maureen was troubled by the fact that she could not afford to send all her children to school (schools are free for the younger children, but you still have to provide funding for school uniforms, food and books, etc.), so one of her boys had to stay at home. At least she anticipated that she would have enough money in March, so hopefully the poor kid would not have to miss out that much.
Maureen liked that Sara had been to Soweto, but claimed that Soweto was now so nice and “upgraded” that it was not longer the real township experience. (Sara could not really relate to this, since she thought visiting some of the poor families in the miserable shacks of Soweto was one of the most painful moments she had ever experienced). Interesting perspectives. After Sara and Maureen’s discussion regarding poverty and townships, they naturally (!?) came into the topic of health and beauty. Maureen complimented Sara for being very pretty, but gave the advice that she really needed to loose some weight. She then pointed out exactly where this excess weight was located and suggested some time in the hotel’s little gym. Fortunately enough, Sara was in a good mood and could appreciate the advice with no offence taken. :-)
We left a large tip when we left, and hoped that this would help to get Maureen’s boy back to school. When discussing this kind of problems, then all our daily issues and concerns at home suddenly seem so utterly insignificant and silly…
posted by Sara at 11:43 PM
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