The Day the Taxis Stood Still

You don’t have to be in Johannesburg long to understand that taxis rule the road. These white 15 seat vans keep the city and country running by providing inexpensive and relatively safe and reliable transportation for hundreds of thousands of people. With that said taxis are also the bane of everyone else’s existence due to their erratic and aggressive driving style as they try to attract passengers (often holding 19 or more people in the 15 seats). You would drive the same way if held to the same quotas by your Mafioso taxi lord. However, our drive to Kingsway School was much quieter this morning, because the taxi drivers organized a strike.

We have come to realize that striking is a way of life in South Africa. Some strikes end quickly while other seem to drag on too long. For example, one of our first adventures into Johannesburg was foiled by the Metrobus day strike when we first arrived, and becoming the proud owners of Walter (our lovely red Mercedes) was complicated by a week long police strike.* Rumor has it that the strike was organized in response to a government attempt to shut down taxi’s in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. I will do further research into this and post more details later.

Although the other strikes affected our ability to get personal business done, today we were able to see how this strike affected the everyday life South Africans. Our drive was more peaceful, but half of Kingsway’s students were unable to make it to school, and many who made it to school were late because they had to arrange other transport. This is quite notable in school that averages over 98% attendance on a daily basis. The class I work in usually has nine students (it is smaller because it is a grade 2-3 remedial class), but only four arrived on time and one arrived an hour and a half late.

We assume that things will be back to normal tomorrow, because we saw a taxi out on our evening walk, but today served as a poignant example of the true importance of taxis in daily life.

*Don’t worry about the police striking everyone hires private security companies—even the police.

Mid-March Update

Hi all,

Its a little crazy to think that it's almost midway through March. We'll have been in South Africa 2 months this week. Things have been quite busy and we will be posting some pictures and descriptions of our experiences soon.

In short, Mary and I will write on our experiences at Kingsway Christian School (where we're volunteering), chatting with Rotarians, and our trip last weekend to the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.

Stay tuned!

Chris

Cape Town!

Pheww! What a weekend!

Mary and I just got back from a Rotary Scholar Orientation in Cape Town this past weekend and are still catching up on sleep. The weekend was jam packed and Cape Town is such a beautiful place that one can't help going, going, going, all the time.

Because there are so many pictures, I'm going to start up a picassa web gallery and link it to the site so that they don't bog down the blog.

So, quick recap of the weekend.

Friday:

Get up at 3:40 AM to catch shuttle to airport to catch 7:30 AM flight. Pretty much a scene from the living dead.

Visit Mvula school in the Townships of Cape Town. Simply amazing. This is a Rotary Project that took nothing and made a gem. The school is in the middle of intense poverty but is a beacon of hope for the community. We were privileged to have the chance to interact with the school kids. They had a lot of fun getting there picture taken, taking pictures, and showing us around.

Visit Cape Town's city hall and learn about the city a little more completely from the Deputy Mayor.

Go for an awesome hike around Lion's Head (a beautiful rock formation and Cape Town landmark), revel in the beauty, and then finish it off with some African drumming at sunset. Perfect.

Saturday:

Spend from 7:30 to 5:30 at the Royal Cape Yacht Club listening to Rotary speakers on everything from the National Parks to the Constitution. I felt that the most amazing presentation was given Helen Lieberman, who started working in the Townships at a young age and created an industry of enrichment for the people there. Here's an NY Times editorial on her work from 1993 By the end, we were all just exhausted. What's the best cure for exhaustion?

Of course, deep frying calamari at a carnival! We helped out at the Rotary tent that was selling deep fried calamari (I helped run the fryers, Mary was in on the production of squid to go in them). The beneficiary of the carnival is the community chest, a fund in Cape Town (initially started up by Rotary) that provides money for community enrichment projects.

Sunday:

Up early to go dragonboat racing at the Marina. Lots of sweat, splashing seawater, and yelling by our captain/instructor.

Visit to the Red Cross Memorial Hospital for a tour. This hospital is theonly pediatric specialty hospital in South Africa. They do amazing work. Quite interesting as a dietitian to see them serving rice, sweet potato, and deep fried chicken legs to the patients for lunch though:)

Concert at Kirstenbosch botanical gardens in Cape Town. Words don't do it justice, this place is just amazingly beautiful.

Head down to the waterfront to have dinner and a little fellowship with a big group of the 30 odd Rotary Scholars either visiting South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and the South African scholars who are headed out.

Monday:

Fly back to Joburg at 9:40 and wonder where the weekend went. Getting back to reality bites.

So, that's a quick overview of the weekend. It was full of good times and lots of new acquaintances.

Look for pictures soon.

Chris and Mary