Sunday, May 07, 2006
Nelspruit, South Africa
None of us expected to endure a prolonged internet blackout in South Africa. I had assumed that the first world prosperity so visible in scores of its towns and cities would have trickled down to the provinces in some useful fashion. However, we have recently traveled through areas that precisely resemble an Africa that none of us have seen since the Democratic Republic of Congo. At my most cynical, I would not have expected this country to fail its citizens so obviously. But the bitterness or resignation of nearly everyone with whom we have spoken reveals that South Africa is not currently impressing its people.
We spent a recent week in a province called Kwazulu-Natal, where approximately 70% of the population—which is larger than that of many small African countries—is infected with HIV/AIDS. We met a number of these people while dispensing food, clothing and blankets with a small organization based in Greytown and then we drove back into the fortified, retreat of its white citizens who shared with us their disillusionment and experiences fighting for the former apartheid government.
I have been continuously defeated in my attempts to write about these experiences and conversations because of my difficulty contextualizing all of the remarks that would instantly be considered racist or unacceptable by an audience who has not spent time in this or neighboring countries. Now that we are mustering strength in Nelspruit, I am prepared to tackle the issue in the following days—along with a description of our last three weeks, which resembled precisely no other part of the last ten months.
In the meantime, we are currently preparing for something of a last stand. In the coming week we are meeting with the editor of a news agency that may be interested in purchasing some of our articles and photographs. If we are capable of reaching an agreement that will support our costs, this trip will have new impetus and there will be a visible flourish of activity. Presently, we are refraining from publishing a couple of stories that may find their way into print before landing on our website. If things work out, we should have some good news and an updated itinerary. If they do not, there will still be a considerable thickening of our South African section, even if that occurs at roughly the same time that some of us start arriving in U.S. airports with tattered clothing and grimy, suspicious passports.
None of us expected to endure a prolonged internet blackout in South Africa. I had assumed that the first world prosperity so visible in scores of its towns and cities would have trickled down to the provinces in some useful fashion. However, we have recently traveled through areas that precisely resemble an Africa that none of us have seen since the Democratic Republic of Congo. At my most cynical, I would not have expected this country to fail its citizens so obviously. But the bitterness or resignation of nearly everyone with whom we have spoken reveals that South Africa is not currently impressing its people.
We spent a recent week in a province called Kwazulu-Natal, where approximately 70% of the population—which is larger than that of many small African countries—is infected with HIV/AIDS. We met a number of these people while dispensing food, clothing and blankets with a small organization based in Greytown and then we drove back into the fortified, retreat of its white citizens who shared with us their disillusionment and experiences fighting for the former apartheid government.
I have been continuously defeated in my attempts to write about these experiences and conversations because of my difficulty contextualizing all of the remarks that would instantly be considered racist or unacceptable by an audience who has not spent time in this or neighboring countries. Now that we are mustering strength in Nelspruit, I am prepared to tackle the issue in the following days—along with a description of our last three weeks, which resembled precisely no other part of the last ten months.
In the meantime, we are currently preparing for something of a last stand. In the coming week we are meeting with the editor of a news agency that may be interested in purchasing some of our articles and photographs. If we are capable of reaching an agreement that will support our costs, this trip will have new impetus and there will be a visible flourish of activity. Presently, we are refraining from publishing a couple of stories that may find their way into print before landing on our website. If things work out, we should have some good news and an updated itinerary. If they do not, there will still be a considerable thickening of our South African section, even if that occurs at roughly the same time that some of us start arriving in U.S. airports with tattered clothing and grimy, suspicious passports.
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