It’s a very cold and rainy day. Many struggled to get out of bed this morning
due to a long week and a long night following the Red Sox victory. It’s even colder on the other side of the
mountains in the informal settlements where we’re working.
The purpose of today was for our team to visit the
settlement of Langrug to start forming connections with the community, begin
assessing the WaSH facility built last year, and to find out what the community
expects of us. Olwethu, one of our
sponsors from CORC, picked us up at the lodge and drove us through the rain to
Langrug. Our advisors, Scott and
Lorraine also met us there for about an hour before they had to meet with
another group. Once there, we talked
with Trevor, the elected leader of Langrug who is very passionate about getting
what is best for the community. He is
intent on getting more facilities with flush toilets in other areas of the
settlement. We got to see a different side of Scott as he negotiated with
Trevor and made him understand that we’re here not only to assist Langrug but
to advance the project centre’s research on WaSH facilities. That’s why it’s important that our first week
be spent analysing the usage and costs of the facilities that are already
there.
Once Scott and Lorraine left, we began our work by
interviewing Trevor on how the new WaSH facility has impacted the
community. We wonder if he exaggerates
its effectiveness so that he can convince us that Langrug needs more. We then talked with three women who are paid
to maintain the facility, and two women who volunteer because they are friends
with the workers and want to see the facility flourish. Trevor is fairly well educated and speaks
decent English. There is however a
language barrier with the three caretakers.
They can communicate in broken English for basic greetings and simple
questions, but for more in depth answers regarding the facility’s maintenance
we had to translate through Olwethu. We
would have walked around more of the settlement and met more people except for
the cold weather. So cold in fact that even I was cold. One of the women noticed me shivering in my
hoodie, and insisted on giving me a towel she was using for additional warmth.
Another one of the women leads a support group for those
suffering with HIV AIDS. They hold some
of their meetings at this WaSH facility because it is a central location with a
table that they can sit at. If the
facility had been a full multi-purpose centre as intended, they would have
their own space to meet that would not be so open and near the toilets. Yet as I looked into her yellow eyes and
toothy smile full of decaying teeth, I saw how excited she was at how the group
has grown, the work they have accomplished, and their plans to raise awareness
of the disease in the community.
Trevor and Olwethu left to get more toilet paper and
cleaning supplies for the facility. The
caretakers entertained us by teaching us childhood games (one very similar to
Simon Says) that got us moving to beat the cold. When the men came back, it was
time to leave. Olwethu drove us back to
the lodge, and we took him to lunch to one of the local restaurants we have
begun to frequent (Hudson’s has fantastic burgers and milkshakes!)
Prior to today, we had interacted with Olwethu the least of
our liaisons at CORC. However we really
got to know him pretty well today. He
was raised in a rural area and studied to be an architect. However, he was always concerned about the
fact that many architects work for wealthy clients to build urban
structures. He used to teach and taught
his students to think outside the box, especially when designing for the
poor. CORC found him and hired him to
design re-blocked informal settlements.
He told us about some of the other projects he is working on now. He is very proud of his Xhosa origins, and wants
to someday be a consultant for CORC and get recognition for his own work.
Talking with Olwethu and the women who selflessly work to
better their community, I am awed.
Though we truly enjoy this project, we are doing it as a graduation requirement
and in six weeks will leave while they continue to work. Like the donuts on the bus, our lives will
return to normalcy while the settlements and those working in them are left
behind in this third world. My thoughts
return to Trevor’s question: Why are we here?
How will we leave the community a better place? Perhaps we will find out tomorrow as we tour
the settlement and look at the other, less elaborate toilet facilities in
Langrug.
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| My ladies and I |
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