Reality Check

It’s Sunday. I have had three days of classes and I already have a lot of work. However, I can’t bring myself to study at this present moment. I have a lot on my mind that needs to be written down.

Yesterday, Rats, a Pietermaritzburg local and our new friend, asked us to play soccer with him in the township where he grew up. We eagerly accepted and I was very excited to play against a bunch of comvee drivers. Considering the temperature outside was 37 C, which is basically 100 F, the game was cancelled. So instead, we drove to the township Rats grew up in and went to a few bars (that’s what you do here).

The drive out to the township was beautiful; I wish I could tell you the name but considering I can’t even pronounce it, I’m not even going to try to spell it. It’s the middle of summer and scorching outside, but in this tropical environment, the grass is a brilliant green and the sky is the bluest blue you can think of.

Most of the infrastructure around PMB is pretty solid and it’s only when you go into the shacktowns and villages where paved roads are rare. We drove about 20km past a mixture of houses, mud and wooden shacks, farms filled with corn, and roadside stores selling alcohol or nicknacks. Every once in a while, a goat or a cow would wander into the middle of the road but cars just accept it and drive on.

When we about 2km from the bar, we entered the township that Rats is from. I felt bad, I couldn’t help but gawk at the surroundings. The landscape is thriving and, I have to assume fertile, yet walking down the street are shirtless and shoeless little boys with big, bloated bellies.

My heart sank into my stomach.

In a country who lives by ayoba (Zulu for life is good), so many people suffer. People we have met tell us that we should see Africa as a happy country and the people are amazingly happy. Everyone is so friendly and willing to teach us and talk to us, but it is hard for me to ignore the problems.

In a community agriculture class I am taking, the professor spoke about the thousands of malnourished people living off of bread and porridge. Africa, south of the Saraha, has the lowest amount of calories per person per day available. Even people who get the required 2350 Calories per day do not get the necessary nutrients. 80 percent of this country is anemic due to lack of fresh produce and meats. Kwashiorkor’s, the swelling of the stomach due to insufficient amount of protein, is seen in so many children.

Women suffer the worst because they are supposed to provide for their families and then eat last. My professor told my class that, growing up, his mother would drink tea to sustain herself as she toiled in the fields during the day and then eat 1 meal at night. While the women suffer, the men look for work in the cities or just go to a bar and get drunk. South Africa has the highest rate of alcohol abuse in the world. Being here two weeks has demonstrated to me how common alcoholism is.

The diversity in this country is so great. Everywhere I look there are juxtapositions between lush lands and hungry children, ritzy BMWs and barefoot women trekking down the hot pavement, hard working mothers and boozing men. I do not know whether to be angry or distraught.

But I promise this: As soon as I can, I’m going to do something about it. A country this welcoming and vibrant does not deserve the poverty and discrimination imposed on it. We must work together- ubontu.