Room with a view

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Here I am in Cape Town. It is starting to feel like my second home. The place I am staying at the first two weeks seems like the perfect place for writing. I'm staying at an old English house in what once were the quarters of the maid. The view is fantastic. I look out at Table Mountain with Cape Town at its feet. This is the city where I will encounter people and listen to their experiences with and in the city. Craig and Brigid, my host family are not the typical "white" Africans. There is no resident staff. Most of the well-off families have resident staff. I come across the 'maids' during my daily walks in the afternoon. They are usually strolling the dogs, wondering themselves why those animals need to be walked every afternoon. I became acquainted with one of them. She wondered why I was walking and even more without a dog. Did I get lost? I said no. I just arrived from Belgium and I can do with some excercise. She started laughing. Just a little walk without anywhere to go? Yes, I told her. I'm going home, she told me. I live just outside of town but am actually originated from the Eastern Cape. I visit my family monthly. But I do not like to walk, she said with a big smile and wandered off. Every day we meet, and she is letting me a bit more into her life, calling me the crazy walker without a dog. Cornelia is Zulu, a young grandmother and her youngest daughter is changing schools. Her bosses are paying a part of the tuition of the youngest daughter. She is a good student and schools in their neighboorhood are not very good. Most schools in the townships are not so great, she says.
Brigid, my hostess, explains me in the evening - sitting in the family lounge by the fireplace with a cup of tea, because it is winter in Cape Town and there is no central heating in the houses - that education for the black and coloured population is poor . Especially in the latter group there is a lot of 'gang' violence. Coloured are not really helped by the black government. Brigid is actively involved in educational projects in the townships. We often hear these heartbreaking stories, she continues. One of the teachers told her recently that a boy of seven came to tell her that his father told him him that school is not important because he could earn more and easier money from drug dealing. After a while, you become desperate, concludes Bridged.
It is distressing and unfortunately it is a reality for a large portion of the population in South Africa.
However, not all stories are so hopeless and sometimes you have to admire the creativity of these slum dwellers. While passing one of the slum areas Craig pointed out the many satellite disks on top of the sheds. The inhabitants buy a satellite disk and charge money for others to come and watch tv. They organize a kind shebeen, a home bar. If you don't possess anything, you have to find other ways to make ends meet.  Further on we drove by a neighborhood with the typical township 'matchbox houses'. They are being built to replace the slums. The houses are fully subsidized and people can live there for free. Coming from Belgium, it was not strange for me that sheds are being built behind the houses. Every railway user in Belgium knows the sheds behind the houses. In the townships of South Africa they know the phenomenon as well. The people are building these  'provisoire sheds in the back, go live there themselves and they rent out the main house. Capetonians call them the backyard dwellers. And yes, this is also a way to have an income. There must be thousands of fascinating stories on living in the townships. However, I came here looking for the 'Afrikaner' speaking population. They somehow intrigue me. It is a strange mix of good and evil. There is that terrible history of apartheid that they carry with them but they are part of South Africa as well. Afrikaner people have been living here for centuries and generations of ancestors are buried on South African grounds. What do they think about the past but even more so what do think about all the changes the country is experiencing, what is their hope and how they see themselves as a group in the future? Can they push their boundaries and look beyond the Christian conservative Afrikaner identity. Not only do you have the white Afrikaner peole, but there is also a large group of Afrikaner speaking coloured people, how do they profile themselves and what is the connection with the Afrikaner language and identity. With the view from my room on Cape Town, a literally divided city, even geographically, rich and poor, white, colored and black, I know there are certainly fascinating people out there who without any doubt want to tell me their experiences of their world they live in.