Afternoon in Kaliche Township

A few nights ago, I met a man on the street named Robert from Zimbabwe. Not Robert Mugabe! We had a great chat about life in general, and then arranged to rendevous the next morning so I could head out with him to some of the non-distinct neighborhoods of Capetown. Robert is one of those absolutely pure guys in life, who does anything and everything possible to help you, and asks for nothing in return....a guardian angel and a new friend for life. Many people from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria, Mozambique, and every other African country flock to South Africa for a chance to work. But none smile larger then the Zimbas! We went out to one of the townships called "Kaliche", where his cousin and friends live. Townships are the squatter towns where people live in cardboard boxes, corrogated metal, plastic bags, wooden pallet, and anything else you can think of shacks. It makes the slums of Latin America look like the high life. It would have been absolutely foolish to go in there by myself, but fortunately I was able to go with Robert and his friends. I must have been then only white man within a 5 mile radius of the place! The people just stared at me as a curiosity. Occasionaly, a tour group will charter a van to take white tourists into the neighborhood with police escorts. So needless to say it was a shock for them to have me shaking hands, smiling, and buing apples. I went into a nursery school where the children slept like sardines. The two women who ran the school had never seen a video camera before, and it was fun to playback footage of themselves on the screen. They laughed and laughed and laughed. The most amazing thing to see was the three men with an open pit fire, whom were throwing whole entire hairy sheep heads in the coals with bent pieces of rebar. If one of the heads just rolled onto the filthy ground from the pile, they would pick it up and throw it back on....I took video footage of this. Today Robert and I headed out to Stikland, which is where there is a huge pile of old cars, that you can pick up for cheap. We found a red VW Golf that seemed like the perfect one to pick up for $10,000 rand (About $1100). But I have to wait until Monday, when the police inspectors office is open to make sure it is not stolen! (protocal here). There must have been a reason I wore my red shirt today! So say a prayer that the car is still there Monday, as Africa is hard to digest without transport. But with a car, I have the freedom to strike out where I want to go, and I can camp inside the national parks... Well, I have already lost a bit of weight, and have never slept so little in my life but am ever smiling! Love to you guys....jg