alcohol take-aways

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Today was not nearly as eventful. We spent the first half of the day with Derek and Bungani explaining to them how they would be helping us out with the GPS/GIS portion of the study. We have to map 72 neighborhoods total in our 3 communities of interest using a handheld GPS system. We then take the waypoint we marked and put them on a map in google earth, which marks them on maps of the townships. We will them use the maps to randomly select neighborhood to be in each arm of the intervention—the individual men and women’s HIV prevention intervention, or one where each member of a couple attends individual sessions, followed by a few sessions together as a couple.

Anyway, Derek had set up a meeting with the owners of a shebeen in Mitchell’s Plain. Turns out it was only a take-away (carry out) place where patrons come to the bar-protected window and order bottles of beer, wine, whisky, or whatever. The people were very nice, explaining the whole process to us. They do not serve anyone under 18 (the legal age here), anyone already visibly intoxicated, or any woman that is pregnant. They also told us that there are no more sit-down shebeens in Mitchell’s Plain, except for the few that are legal. With the crackdown on illegal places, I guess the other ones have shut down.

I talked to one of the owners for quite a while, and he said tik (crystal meth) use is thriving in Mitchell’s Plain. Because it is so cheap to manufacture, it has apparently become the drug of choice. He pointed out a tik house across the street from his take-away shebeen.

We then visited another take-away, this one being run by 2 women. They took us into the back room behind the barred windows and gate. The one woman started ranting about the new shebeen laws that will soon go into effect, closing down illegal establishments and cutting back the hours that alcohol can be sold. This obviously effects the income of shebeen owners, so she was pretty upset. “You may like South Africa,” she said, “but this country is shit! Their laws are shit!”

It took a while to pry ourselves away from her ranting, but it was interesting to talk to people in the community about alcohol consumption and violence. Mitchell’s Plain is supposed to be a very dangerous place, and yes, we did see gang members hanging out on the street corners, protecting their territory. But never did I feel unsafe. And it was a lot nicer than I was expecting—single family homes, lots of people with cars. Certainly not as in need as those in Khayelitsha.

Tomorrow I take a break from the community work to help run some focus groups with men on sex, drugs, and violence.

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