Actually I love South Africa

The question beggars to be asked: Why live in South Africa with all the incompetence, indifference, crime and poverty.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, especially since I’ve been writing in my blog of the problems and challenges of living here when life in Canada is so safe and familiar.

When I arrived in South Africa on June 9, 2000, I remember flying for an hour over the most barren low mountainous terrain, a dull reddish brown as seen from the air.
Circling Table Mountain and the bay I first noticed what can best be described as exquisite beauty, Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa with only Antarctica as the next stop south. I came to visit, yet I knew as we were landing that something momentous in my life was about to unfold. Both excitement and fear shared my thoughts that day.

Driving from Cape Town I was immediately reminded of California, especially our highway the N1 which is much like the Ι5 running from Sacramento to Mount Shasta. Here we have bougainvilleas between the 4 lane highways in blossom most if not all of the year. The vistas are staggering.

Traveling further north east one passes through the majestic Franshhoek Mountain Range via the Huguenot Tunnel, a medium length 2-lane tunnel exciting into the Du Toitskloof pass. One can’t help but imagine the white settlers’ long journey through this pass with oxen, surrounded by high mountains, and also remembering that earlier for a period of 50,000 years the Khoi San freely wandered this very land, genetic ancestors to all people on Earth; then on to Worcester known for its Worcester Sauce, and then as the N1 continues north to Johannesburg we take Route 60 to Robertson, the centre of our abundant wine region starting East of Du Toitskloof, then to Ashton where Tiger Brands cans fruit and vegetables and ships them world wide, Canada included.

Traveling a little further one enters onto Route 62, as famous in South Africa as Route 66 is in the US, then passing through Kogmanskloof we enter a short tunnel or hole in the Longeberq mountain range It always reminds me of the rainbow tunnel coming north off the Golden Gate into Marine County. For some reason, passing through either of these tunnels appears to impress on me some physiological imprint or altered awareness, like entering a new realm or leaving behind an old one. All the Montagu(ers) I’ve revealed this to say they feel the same, the relief at seeing and entering the tunnel followed by a second relief crossing the bridge into Montagu where a proud sign states that since 2002, Montagu has been South Africa’s favorite village. Kogman’s Kloof also reminds me of the climbing canyon into Taos, New Mexico, driving north from Santa Fey, which likewise has a river running along side, though not as grand as the Rio Grande.

On Route 62, passing through the ‘hole in the mountain’ which is topped by an ancient British Fort, or actually a small 4 square meter stone hut where the British Empire’s troops could control the coming and goings through the pass, one then enters into the Klein Karoo, the land so humorously depicted in the movie ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’. Here lies our exceptionally beautiful heritage village of Montagu snuggled into the joining of two mountain ranges, fed by two rivers and an agricultural bounty of tidy fields bounded by flowers and full of life, vegetation and sunshine.

It is perhaps best stated for me to say that I absolutely love living in South Africa, and why, one asks, since I write about all the problems? First, it is the beauty that surrounds me constantly, the living an outdoors lifestyle while having the comforts of home and indoor life as an integral part of it. My courtyard is my living room year round, my large gardens the fields I walk and work in. Beside the gardens runs both the lei water (original brick water way to irrigate the early homes and farms, and still running) and beyond that the Keisie River which although mostly reeds, runs year round. It is bounded by thorn trees with an abundance of birds of many species, even raptors.

Additionally I accidentally struck a fresh spring flowing from Mount Blopunt immediately above me and under whose majesty I reside. To have a fresh spring from which to draw drinking and cooking water seems miraculous to me, as is my ‘boorgat’ (a well) which waters the gardens, although this latter is not suitable for drinking, having too much iron in it.

It is also the people who I find so fascinating and satisfying. There is constant interplay, though often only verbal or work oriented, between the whites, the coloured and the blacks, each a very distinct grouping with specific challenges and levels of power. Unfortunately it is only a few who desire and can actually graciously accept the ongoing societal change for the good of all, who appear to be contributing to a more egalitarian non racist development. And therein I believe, lies the difficulties and challenges any government in South Africa faces. If any country represents the challenge of racism, it is South Africa. Racism as you know is everywhere in the world, but in South Africa, it is everything, the ‘numero uno’ of our daily lives.

If I was to be asked what one component in South Africa would change everything for the better, and considering that at the recent G8 gathering the sentiment that ‘a better world is possible’ was put forth, I would say that an enlightened awareness is desperately needed, one that recognizes ‘we are all in this together’, that ‘all are one’, that each of us is a part of the whole with an important role to play daily with those in our life. There isn’t a problem in South Africa that couldn’t be successfully met with this awareness. The problems and challenges are actually quite basic and simple. The answers to most of these challenges have already been grasped and implemented in other countries of the world.

Failing that, and knowing our many problems will remain for years, for now free and quality broadband internet and communication would change this country overnight. Our rates are 10 times that of the greater world and the speeds 100 times slower. I pay five times my rental costs for basic communication and I’ve witnessed startling growth in individuals who have easy access to the world’s knowledge on the net; unfortunately those who can afford access are few and the companies who supply the service are greedy to an extreme, traitorous I would say. They significantly hold back this country with their greed. Imagine this company Telkom, owned by the Brits and members of the national government, which makes 1,500 percent net profit over expenses in a year….. and this in a country starving for growth, education and a reduction of poverty.

Although the majority of people of South Africa and Africa do live in poverty they seem, as similarly described in the east Indian book, City of Joy, incredibly happy and acceptant of their station. The vast majority of people I meet and interact with appear to me as good people, some wanting to help and not knowing how, others, the majority simply not caring, but nevertheless appearing happy and welcoming of friends and visitors.

I am amazed that I have slotted into South Africa so well, and have been accepted to the point that I’m now a player in my community, something I’ve not been before, not significantly anyway. I’m known to represent, as a ‘white’, the needs of the poor and am treated with enormous respect by most. A friend here once said to me in discussions about why many of my white friends no longer socialized with me: “People say you are just doing these things because you yourself get a kick out of it.” I was rather stunned and replied: “You are a nurse, why did you go into nursing? Was it just to make a living, or did it also include the desire and satisfaction you achieve by making a difference?”

I love it that I have a domestic, and that on government grants I have three men and equipment to support various agricultural enterprises on behalf of the people. Although these men have worked with me for about 3 years, none of them speak English, two sign with an ‘X’. My domestic, an elder and activist in the community has the personality of one who is always happy and cheerful, yet works tirelessly with the weak and ill in her community.

With all those who I come to supervise as their ‘baas’, I insure they are paid well and with regular bonuses via items they need. For me it is an incredible experience sharing their daily lives and this daily experience feels to me like true community. It has its fill of poverty, illness, death, despair and victim hood from crime, but there is a comforting cohesiveness in the mutual support given within the community.

As for living in a residence, my wee house is a two room cottage, about the space on a 40 ft great lakes trawler, a bit like living aboard. However, I have a large brick courtyard under two majestic trees with high spreading branches, and a braai where I cook most nights under the stars and twinkling Christmas lights I use for night light. My best friend Madeleine lives 20 metres away in a large heritage house. Between that house and the neighbours are a medium sized garden and labyrinth, then a house of a close friend which we have joined as one property. I put in a small bridge over the lei water channel so we can walk back and forth easily. Then around us on three sides is the environment with Mount Blopunt towering above us and mountain peaks in all but one eastern direction.

At the end of my gardens is the entrance to what is known as Lover’s Walk, interesting enough it is where a close companion of mine was violently raped at 14. It is the most beautiful park in Montagu leading to the kloofs that cut up into Mt. Blopunt. Across from us is my favorite South African couple in their Victorian house, large lawns, large dogs (Great Danes) and two beautiful young children. They always appear to live the perfect family life, the father being a good father, attentive, and a good friend, a cheese maker and active president of our local Rotary Club, the prince in his established South African family line.

I love seeing the baboons, the owl that perches on my wall at night, and the long tailed otter which hunts the river birds, even the snakes, the cobra and the Puff Adder. These latter are deadly but part of our life here, as is the scorpion. The Adder, also called Night Adder, has a nasty habit of not moving when approached and unexpectedly strikes straight up and backwards over its head much like the ‘wheel’ in the yoga asana. I think it is the most feared. The Cobra likes to warn you, the Adder doesn’t. We lost a well loved local white resident this year to Cobra. She had just completed eye surgery and was not seeing well. She walked into it at her front door just down the street.

The weather is exquisite and I think it is something I will never wish to give up. Even our winters with lows occasionally reaching frost, on average about 12 nights a year, often produce temperatures in the 20’s during the day, sun brilliant and shining in our most lovely Klein Karoo. It is Cape Town which has such horrendous winter weather from the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Our air is fine and clean here in an agricultural belt with only the brick works a significant polluter, while Cape Towns’ pollution is producing some of the worst city pollution stats in the world. On winter days (four months) I dress warmly in layers in the late evenings and early mornings, and then during the day as the temperature heats up I peal off layer by layer, often removing my undershirt completely while working. Today at the beginning of mid winter, and as it has been for over a week, the sun is shining; the temperature will likely be 24 degrees, perhaps more.

Another reality however, intrudes daily. We’ve had three cases of prominent women hiring young men, teenagers as hit men to murder their husbands. A young girl, age seven, who disappeared a week ago in a community close to us was found last night having been raped to death and stuffed under a bed. When police arrived, the accused was drunk and ignoring the smell of her decomposing body. Everyone is sad today as the news circulates. The volume of crime will go on possibly for ever, humans beings being what we are, as will all the other horrid things that happen in Africa, but day by day South Africa’s citizens continue cheerfully (well in many cases) and I can see the positive movement in the political and public action undertaken to improve South African life, hopefully designed to leave racism and indifference behind.

It’s all relatively new for South Africans to live under black democratic government, only 14 years since Madiba’s inauguration, and the subsequent emplacement of a government whose members were tailored mostly in jail, and in the jungles while in militant exile, poorly educated, never prepared and barely able to take on governing what was and still is the most prosperous country on the continent.

Now, moves are afoot for a USA on the African continent, the ‘United States of Africa’. I support the intent. Stay tuned.

Most here pray that the monster who is our immediate neighbour, Mad Bob Mugabe of Zimbabwe, will be out by end of year, then charged under international indictment. I have a number of Zimbabwe friends who wait with bated breath as do many South Africans. All but the elite black comrades of the ANC who see him as their untouchable liberation brother, regardless of what he has done and continues to do to his people, pray for his demise. Watch the unfoldment… it’s about the future of all the many countries and peoples of our ravaged continent.

Life goes on, and although I miss Canada, its mountains, rivers, people, my family and comfortable life there, I think it will be a while yet before this Canadian boy leaves his adopted home here on the southern tip of Africa. It’s simply too interesting, too fascinating, its Africa!

Cheers,
Solinus, June 24, 2007
Onder Blopunt
Montagu, South Africa