Friday 6th
Mattia arrived back and I had managed to get us booked onto a tour of a township. We went on a walking tour of Langa one of the first townships to be built. It was a very interesting tour we got to hear and see how the community live. There is a class system in the township those that have their own land and house, those that rent off the government and the rest who live in shipping containers, hostels or shacks. They said that they don't want to move out of the townships they just want to make their way up and they want to say as part of the community. The people living in shipping containers will only have half of it for their family; the other half will have another family living there. Those in hostels will be sharing one room with possibly another 2 families (families meaning a mum, dad and upto the most 5 children). We were invited into Hasshadrack Dano's home, he lives in a shack. He is now a pensioner and said that he has illegally built his home and the government are unlikely to knock these down because when it comes to voting that party want the peoples' votes. He said he got feed up of living with other families and wanted more of his own space. He lives rent free and only has to pay for electricity which he gets from a neighbour and they split the bills. He is so hopefully that one day he will be able to move into a proper home that the government have promised to build for years and years. We met many children playing in the streets on the tour, they don't have a playground to play on but they were having fun pretending to be cars and using crushed pop cans as a steering wheel.
Mattia arrived back and I had managed to get us booked onto a tour of a township. We went on a walking tour of Langa one of the first townships to be built. It was a very interesting tour we got to hear and see how the community live. There is a class system in the township those that have their own land and house, those that rent off the government and the rest who live in shipping containers, hostels or shacks. They said that they don't want to move out of the townships they just want to make their way up and they want to say as part of the community. The people living in shipping containers will only have half of it for their family; the other half will have another family living there. Those in hostels will be sharing one room with possibly another 2 families (families meaning a mum, dad and upto the most 5 children). We were invited into Hasshadrack Dano's home, he lives in a shack. He is now a pensioner and said that he has illegally built his home and the government are unlikely to knock these down because when it comes to voting that party want the peoples' votes. He said he got feed up of living with other families and wanted more of his own space. He lives rent free and only has to pay for electricity which he gets from a neighbour and they split the bills. He is so hopefully that one day he will be able to move into a proper home that the government have promised to build for years and years. We met many children playing in the streets on the tour, they don't have a playground to play on but they were having fun pretending to be cars and using crushed pop cans as a steering wheel.
For Mattia it was off to a surf lesson but I went back to the hostel for a rest as I hadn't been getting much sleep and it was too windy to sit on the beach. It's hard to sleep when you have late nights, people are coming and going from the dorm at different times, the sun rises sooo early and 3 windows didn't have blinds.
When Mattia returned we took a walk down to Green Point to watch another sunset.
It was so cold due to the howling wind and the sea was very rough and you could see the tops of the waves being blown up in the wind.
The sunset was beautiful but ended early as there was cloud on the horizon. We were hungry and I realised that I had not eaten for 11 hours so we found this lovely restaurant near the sea front and had a 3 course meal - dessert being a cocktail. Then off out to a bar, we decided we really wanted to dance the night away so off to the club. Oh no! Change of plan, Mattia recieved an email to say his flight has been cancelled due to the snow in his connecting country Turkey. It was back to the hostel to try and sort out another flight but no answer from the airline so off to bed it was.
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