#Townships

UPDATE (March 2017): I wrote this post six years ago, at a time when I was pretty clueless about life in South Africa and how to write about it. I regret the title of the post and the poverty-porn-like tone that much of its prose conveys. But I have a policy of never deleting any of my old posts, so it will stay.

Soweto, the largest township in South Africa, is a country unto itself. About a million people live there – the same population as Swaziland. It’s a cultural and economic hub for black South Africans, and legendary for the historic events that happened there in the decades leading up to the end of apartheid.

Yesterday was Sunday and it was warm. Joe and I decided to go hiking. We got a late start (slept late and needed provisions from the store) so we picked Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. It’s 45 minutes away and easy to see in a couple of hours.

Yesterday I visited Johannesburg’s two poles.

Unemployment is about 30% in South Africa and new numbers this week indicate it’s on the rise. Joe is working on some stories related to that. We left mid-morning and stopped to photograph two men pushing a cart of recyclable trash up a steep hill. These men scratch out a living sifting through garbage (or rubbish, as it’s called here) for plastic, glass, and metal that they exchange for money.