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Published: September 9th 2006
Inside Villa
Pretty decent huh? Except no phone, internet or cable...and surrounded by monkeys. I kind of like the monkeys.Hey y'all -
So I've entered two new worlds in one week. I'm not sure which is more foreign - blogging or MBizana, South Africa. They don't even have a drop down box for Mbizana on this freaking travel blog web site. A little background on the project and then some extremely intellectual observations about my experiences so far.
I'm here six months on a UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) project. The UNDP's goal is to support infrastructure development (e.g. running water, power, sanitation) to help alleviate poverty. UNDP is focusing on two municipalities in South Africa because these areas are in very, very bad shape. The numbers (which we have been reviewing closely the last week or so) are pretty ridiculous - unemployment 75%, HIV/AIDS unknown, but at least 30%, illiteracy 50% and bucket sanitation in many areas. The local government is supposed to ensure 'basic services' are provided, so we've been analyzing how / why the local government is failing. The work is very interesting and very different from any problems I've ever seen on consulting assignments back in the states. One small example - in response to the prevalence of mud huts and shacks, the federal government
View from Villa
This is the view from my villa in Port Edward. Notice the beautiful shark infested waters of the Indian Ocean in the back, oh my! starting giving away the equivalent of $5,000 bucks to people in poor areas to spend on a real houses. So what happened…people took the money, continued to live in shacks made of scrap metal and put the money into banks. For many, the interest from the federal grant continues to be their only income. Stuff like that is why people still don't live in real houses (or water, power and toilets) despite big $$ subsidies from federal and local government.
Observations so far. Ok - South Africans eat more KFC and "Wimpy Burger" than any other group of people I've ever seen in my life. It's amazing - even in poor areas, people seem to find a way to stuff themselves with the garbage...seemingly walking for miles to do so. To be fair, I haven't really seen the truly poor areas yet, so I'm guessing the per capita KFC consumption will decrease. The beaches here (Indian Ocean) are great for surfing. They're also great for shark attacks. There are warning signs everywhere for Tiger Sharks and Great Whites - even in areas with shark nets, which are supposed to keep the sharks out of shallow areas. Umm, what else...beer is cheap - you can get a bottle of Amstel Lager (not light - nobody drinks light beer here) for the equivalent of $1.25. I've been drinking Hansa and Castle (domestics - pretty good). I haven't seen any Budweiser, but coke is pretty popular. I tried Ostrich for dinner last night - a delicacy. I'll take a Mama T's chicken parm here over Ostrich any day. Oh...monkeys are everywhere in my villa in Port Edward. They're the little kind that used to hang around the asian kid ("Shorty"?) in India Jones and the Temple of Doom. I've been trying to get a picture to put up on the web site here, but the little guys climb into the trees when you get close. I'm going to try and lure them (they hang out in packs of 5-10 generally) with a banana or two next week...we'll see. I assume monkeys actually like bananas, right?
What else…White South Africans seem to love karaoke. The few local bars all have karaoke nights. Most of their songs are american...typical stuff (no bon jovi yet though, which is perplexing). I heard one dude in the local area singing a karaoke song in some strange language which I found out later was "Afrikaans" - the old language of the Boers (mix of Dutch, German and some other stuff). Some people still speak it...probably to 'keep it real' sort of like how rednecks in the south fly confederate flags. I'm not sure about this though, so I'll have to learn more. I haven't really heard too much Khosa (the local click language), but I'll be meeting with the government workers next week and we'll have a translator for some of them. "Khosa" by the way is pronounced ("KHO" (with a click) "Saaa")…not to worry, I’ll learn enough words for a pick up line or two for the chicks at Dewey Beach when I get home.
That's it for now.
~ Mike
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Spider Monkeys
That's what those little bastards are called, the same ones that are in the movie "Outbreak." Good to hear from you, 'oke. I have a friend from Johannesburg I lived with in Madrid for a month and he would always use "oke" instead of "bloke." I'm sure you've heard that a few times down there. You're going to have an awesome experience, man. I've always wanted to visit South Africa. Keep updating your blog. It's interesting stuff. Take care, man.