Where the Sun Shines

Since 2003 I have worked with Canada World Youth and Change for Children in many places throughout Africa and Latin America. This website has served as a medium to share my experiences, to tell my stories from "the field". This year (2010) I will be returning to Mozambique to work as a project supervisor again with Canada World Youth.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Durban ~ South Africa

Only a couple days into my time here, in Durban South Africa, and I already feel I have seen and learned so much. In general things here are going very well. I am really enjoying the warm, balmy weather of Durban. It really is perfect, not too hot nor it is cool, however, it is a bit humid and you need to shower at least twice a day. I am loving the food, lots of tasty n spicy Indian food. Yesterday I had something known as a bunny chow, which is bascially a Durban staple consisting of a quarter loaf of bread cut open with a pile of yummy veggie curry inside of it. Today I had a healthy portion of dahl and veggie byrani for a $1.50. Tomorrow I think I will try some Roti. There is a very large Indian community here, hence all the inexpensive authentic Indian food. I am truly in heaven!
 
Since I boared the plan in Frankfurt and travelled 12hr south to Joberg I feel like I have been learning a ton. On the plane I watched 3 South African films, gaining more insight into the history and present day realities of life in South Africa, which if I could sum it up: very interesting, dynamic, inspiring, and complicated.

I am confident I will learn a lot through my internship placement. I am interning with an organization called StreetNet. You can check them out online: www.streetnet.org.za On my frist day I arrived a bit late and dived right into things, as I joined the weekly stafff meeting, after which one of my co-worker's Rudy took me with him to a Street Vendors' Associaion meeting. It was really quite interesting as the association was preparing for a meeting with the municipality. It is important that they are taken seriously at this meeting as the city has plans to build a large private shopping mall where the current market exists, the exact same place were many of these street vendors make their living. The city doesnt have any plans for where they will all go, but does know how and where the new big shopping mall will go!After the meeting, Rudy took me on a bit of a tour of the large downtown market. We visited the traditional medicial herb section of the market, which was fascinating, and there I met the Chairperson for the SEWU (self employed women's union).

My first day was very hands on and included a lunch out and help setting up my cellphone and finding the public bus schedule and a bus pass. My second day was more informational, and I learned more as to what my role will be working with them as an intern for the next 6 weeks. I will be assisting with the organization of their most recent campaign, entitled: World Class Cities for All. As South Africa prepares to host the World Cup next year, StreetNet is working to ensure the working urban poor dont get left out of the process as the city prepares itself to become a World Class City for the international tourists who are expected to arrive next year for the popular international sporting event. Their main focus in the campaign are protecting the street vendors, as there are all sort of plans in the making to develop the downtown and turn the markets into fancy shopping districts where presently hundreds of people make their livelihoods. Tomorrow I will attend a meeting with the City Developer who will unveil the already approved development plan of a large private shopping mall which will replace the downtown city centre market. I expect this to be a very interesting meeting.

Apart from the campaign I will be working to update their membership database and conact all their affiliates and member organizations as to get updates on their activities and various campaigns. My coworkers have given me a lot of very interesting literature to read through as to better my understanding of the informal ecomony and how they work to negoitate with the municipalities for better conditions for the urban working poor.

We have also already discussed other ideas and projects I could potentially work on such as putting together a powerpoint presentation and enewsletter for the campaign and possibly some short videos highlighting some of their members, personalizing the struggles and realities of the people they are fighting for. All in all, it looks like they will be fully utlizing my skills, and experience and in exchange I will be gaining a lot of insight and increased understanding of South Africa's informal economy and the work that grassroots groups like Streetnet are doing to improve such conditions.
 
I should also point out that I am staying in a beautiful bed and breakfast in an area known as Durban North, an upper class neighbourhood, near the sea. Yesterday I took a walk to the beach and it was soooooo nice... imagine tourquoise waters and a white sandy beach! SO BEAUTIFUL! My only complaint is that I live very far from my work, so I either have to take a taxi or the public bus, on the the bus that means a 30 to 45 minute ride, including quite possibly a half an hour wait for the bus to arrive, if actually does arrive! Today I waited an hour for the bus on my way there and nearly an hour on the way home, and both times no bus was had! I think it was a total test of my patience. Which I know is fairly good, but one hour both ways is a bit much!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home