#South Africa

This past weekend was South Africa’s first weekend under Level 3 lockdown, during which we’re allowed to move around more or less as we please within provincial borders. So like many South Africans, I got out of the house – for real – and went to the African Accent spaza shop in Katlehong.

Yesterday I took pictures at the Melville food parcel program again.

I arrived at the church a few minutes after 7:00 a.m., just after the sun rose. I was nearly too late because the bulk of the 365 parcels had already been distributed by the time I got there, and the line outside had completely dissipated.

I was talking on the phone with a friend this morning. I can’t remember her exact words, but she said something to the effect of, “I thought things would feel better once we moved to Level 3. But instead they feel worse.”

I wrote about this program in detail last Thursday. This week the process was the same, except: 1) The volunteers gave out more food this week than last week; and 2) The distribution moved from Tanya and Sean’s house on 3rd Avenue to the Heritage Baptist Church at the corner of 7th Avenue and 5th Street.

It’s Day 62 of the South African lockdown. But I barely care about that right now because I’m just excited to write about cool things I saw and did today in Melville – like I used to do on this blog before there was a pandemic.