This morning we headed out to the township of Khayelitsha. One of the reasons that Cape Town is such a
lovely city is that giant Table Mountain blocks the city from the
townships. Of course, the townships are
the areas that, under apartheid, houses all the poor people of color, most of
whom still live there. The largest
township, Khayelitsha, has more than 3 million people (second in size only to
Soweto outside of Johannesburg). It is dominantly a township that houses a lot of urban Xhosa people, which is especially interesting as we spent so much time in a traditional rural Xhosa village last week. As we
drove around and over the mountain, the terrain got drier, trees and vegetation
got less frequent, and the land became flat and dry. The ocean and all the beauty of Cape Town was hidden behind the mountain.
We drove into the township, the roads lined with tiny houses
in various states of repair, to the area where we were going to work
today. This area was always what the
apartheid government called a ‘green area,’ which was in reality just a central
unbuilt piece of land that was used as a landfill, park, and meeting place
amongst the crowded homes. The first part
of this ‘green area’ looked flat, unused, and strewn with bits of rubbish. But
we rounded a corner, we saw the garden and the park. In the early 1990s, residents of the area,
aided by NGOs and local organizers, created what they called the Peace Park in
part of the land. It is called the
Manyanani Park, which is the Xhosa term for bringing people together. We first walked in the park, which is more of
a large lawn with some small trees.
There is a small community center, a small playground area, some picnic
tables, a basketball court, and what is obviously a much used soccer
field.
We were there to work in the new community garden. This garden is part of a larger garden
project that is using organic gardening to help rebuild these communities. Parts of the garden are for individual
families to grow food for themselves (after they are trained in gardening
techniques). And part is farmed by the
community group that runs the garden, which trains and employs local
people. They sell the produce to help
fund the community center, which runs a number of programs, although they
struggle with funding. There are a
number of individuals and organizations that are involved with helping to make
this community project work. While we
were there, we met a small delegation from a farmers organization in the
Netherlands that provides some funding and much of the training, and we also
met a representative from Rotary, which helped provide the funding to get the
project started. We gave a donation as
well: $120 of our trip money was given
to the community leaders to buy plants, and for that money, they were able to
buy almost 400 plants and small trees, including medicinal herbs and edible
plants. We showed up to work with the
community gardeners to plant all those plants.
It was hard work and an excellent morning. We met the local woman in charge, Christine
(also known as ‘Push Push’ for her organizing drive). And she spoke to us about the project. Then we met David, the head gardener, who had
laid out all the plants before we arrived.
All the gardening equipment was kept in a metal shipping container, and
consisted of a number of wheelbarrows and shovels and rakes. The garden was in sections, with neat rows of
vegetables planted and in various stages of growth. We were planting the perennials in rows along
the edges of each section; the hope is that they will grow into larger
windbreaks over the years.
David showed us how to use the shovels to dig larger
square-sided holes about a foot deep for the plants. So some of us did the shovel work, into what
was almost pure sand instead of soil.
The next step was to mix some compost into the soil, so some of us
hauled barrows full of compost and mixed it into the sand in the holes. Then we removed the plants from their bags or
pots and fit them in the holes and packed more sandy soil around them. We made sandy rings around each plant as we
tamped the soil down, and then we filled each ring with dark black mulch that
will serve to keep water near the plant and to feed the plant nutrients as it
decomposes.
We worked alongside the regular garden workers, mostly older
“aunties” and young men from the community.
Not all of us were great gardeners, but we had a great spirit and even
as the day got hotter and we had worked for hours, we still had a lot of
positive energy. We planted every single
one of those plants!
A number of the local aunties spent the morning in the
community center cooking us lunch. Now,
this was quite a feat as there was no kitchen there and they used a kind of
large gas grill to do the work. They
served us the local fare, more of the cornmeal and spinach dish that we learned
to prepare in the Xhosa village last week, a squash and pap dish that was slightly
sweet, a kind of hominy (more corn!), a
wonderful bean and vegetable stew, and tripe.
And yes, a few of us actually ate the tripe! We also had some more of the delicious Xhosa
bread that we were introduced to last week, and some types of jam made from
local fruits. It was all wonderful, even
more so because we had worked so hard and we were eating all together with the
people who lived and worked and made this community center such an amazing
place. It was a great day.
Tomorrow we head to school…
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