Crime

Last week I wrote a long weblog post on my personal frustrations and random sad, discouraging stories that are part of the culture. This Tuesday my motherboard took her last drag off the power cord and called it quits. So along with many other valuable pieces of data- so went my blog.

In a fit of need I went to town that same day and purchased a notebook. As I walked to the computer store I wore my jeans, sunglasses, smile, and backpack. I was weaving in and out of pedestrian sidewalk traffic at a brisk pace, per usual. When suddenly I felt a tug on my backpack- I spun my head to the right and spotted a man dabbing his nose with a handkerchief. Alright, maybe I was just bumped, fine. Not 3 seconds later I felt a more distinguished tug again. I whipped my body around and grabbed the man’s wrist with fierceness. He started shouting “Vhat? Vhat?. . . ” and I caused a scene with words. I threw my backpack in front and found the zipper of the outer compartment fully opened but the items (Nalgene bottles and gum) untouched. As the man disappeared into the crowd I walked on with shaky legs, elevated pulse, and a series of conversations with the women who witnessed the incident.

Crime is happening everyday in every South African community. (Not to say that it’s not that way in America.) There’s the non-profit managers who take money that’s meant for the OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children), the various governmental departments who spent 60% of their allotted funds on salaries, the police who work primarily on bribes, the payoffs for elections, the list goes on and on. Corruption is prevalent from the ANC all the way down to the school teacher.

Ubuntu means “I am because you are;” it’s a way of life. In the various South African cultures emphasis is on the group instead of the individual. If you come to my home, anything in the fridge is yours, your children sweep my yard if they play here, and there is always enough room for one more person in the given room/coombi. But ubuntu is not so idealistic in its reality. It is also a way to keep people from leaving the group, from succeeding. It is a way to use mass force to pull the individual back down to the level of the norm.

Example one: A man who lived in Troya,Marapyane owned a shop. As his shop flourished his neighbors began to envy him. In January they came into his home and injured him slightly, they came back last month and killed him.

Example two: My headmaster, Patrick, has turned an average school into a highly effective one. English is the medium of instruction; the learners are actually learning and performing well on exams. Consequently, the enrollment is 760 learners from 12 communities. As you can imagine the principals of these other community schools are not happy to see their enrollment dropping. (Keep in mind other schools probably have one/all of the following: teachers who do not know or teach in English- which is the language of national exams starting grade 4, teachers who sleep during class, those who choose to not teach, those who sit outside, those who don’t come, schools without books, without computers, without organization, etc.)

His success and drive has caused him so many issues. Next week there are SGB elections and principals from schools in the area are supposed to partner for the process. No one wanted to work with him, so he is the only person working alone. (Keep in mind many of these principal’s children attend Patrick’s school.) Yesterday we had people from the Department of Education here going through paperwork because we are under investigation . . . why? The only reason those in charge can figure out is because of all that’s right, the department believes something must be wrong. Then just today Patrick showed me a text message he was sent, written in Sepedi that said, “If you want to live, you must leave Mannyetha(the school).”

But, as Patrick says: “But what can we do? We must go on; we must go on.”