Sallibonaane (sally banana) – hello. Well Steve is not impressed that I haven’t written any blogs yet, so Harry has said I have to for a while. Today we went to Sidojiwe, a very very poor suburb on the outskirts of town. Whole families including grandparents, children, grandchildren & even cousins all live in tiny little units. The units are about 4m x 6m divided into half by curtains, one is used as a lounge & the other as a bedroom – the whole family will sleep together in this room (so tiny that four of us could not fit in together comfortably). They have a communal kitchen with only a sink & a wood fire BBQ type thing, they also have communal bathrooms. These units were all condemned a few years ago, (but people still live in them & are charged rent)! You can not imagine the smell, darkness & dampness of this place. A preschool is run in one of these units for the local kids from 3 – 6 years old, they have about 15 – 20 kids. The two teachers do the best they can with nothing. The kids sit on sugar bags on the cold wet cement floor. So sad to see this & to think the kids have no future & no life to look forward to, but they do not know any better.
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