monkey business

Karen writes:

I have decided to put some of my thoughts down about our time here. I will begin with my impression of Dunoon, a township where we have spent some time on this visit. Dunoon is a small township compared to the likes of Gugulethu and Khayelitsha – but has the reputation of being one of the most dangerous. One of the things that hits is the filth and rubbish around the place (common to all townships I have been into). Perhaps it would be easy to blame the people who live here for the state of it. Why don’t they dispose of their rubbish properly – but how? They don’t have a wheelie bin each, never mind 3 in order to sort the rubbish. Black bags then? Would you buy black bags when you can’t afford to feed your family? But it isn’t just that, rubbish is collected by the municipality sporadically in such places – unlike where we are currently staying where it can be collected on a daily basis should we so wish.

Waiting to get into the yard of the hall where the after school club is held that we have been attending, I was struck by the row of mobile plastic toilet cubicles, similar to those you often see on building sites. Anybody who knows me will know that I have a ‘thing’ about toilets. These toilets are a step up from not having a toilet at all, but can you imagine what they must be like. They service hundreds of people. Who cleans them? Who supplies the toilet paper? I am afraid it is way beyond my imagination. Perhaps this explains the smell emitted from some of the children.

Despite these conditions, most of the children at the after school club have a smile on their face – just like any other child the world over, enjoying doing jigsaws, colouring in, or playing snakes and ladders – a big smile on the face when they go up a ladder, a frown when they slide down that snake.

Michael and I do also take plenty of time out to enjoy ourselves and have just returned from an overnight stay in Hermanus. A place which, at this time of year is famous for the whales that come into the bay. They can be seen coming out of the water as graceful as ballerina despite their great bulk. The male and female frolicking in the sea with their calf.

Regular readers of the blog will know Michael is passionate about ‘fathering,’ or the lack of and how it affects the family. We had a graphic illustration of this on our journey to Hermanus. Driving along we noticed cars in front breaking suddenly. There was a large group (sorry don’t know collective noun) of baby baboons messing about on the road, narrowly escaping death! Rounding the corner we were met with the sight of the parents, on a narrow wall at the side of the road, in a very compromising position. There they were seemingly with not a care in the world “in flagrante delicto”(non-Latin scholars Google it!) despite cars driving past hooting their horns, a 50 metre sheer drop off the wall into the sea, and not least of all their children risking life and limb in the middle of a busy road. As I say an example of parents not giving offspring the attention they need. I have to confess though it raised more than a smile, we giggled all the way to Hermanus. Just wish I had had my camera at the ready, but I didn’t, so this blog will have to do with a picture of a graceful whale!