As an American in South Africa you soon realize that you are very fortunate/spoiled in where and what you came from. Back in the States we take a lot of things for granted and tend not to truly appreciate all that we have.
In South Africa all resources are finite and you soon begin to appreciate the small conveniences in life, such as water. There is a water shortage in South Africa. Much of the recent political coverage has been focused on water resources. Prices for water have been rising, water supplies have been diminishing, and municipal workers have been striking.
The other night we arrived home after a long day of traveling, only to find that we had no water and no opportunity to wash up. The next morning we woke up in the same situation. Finally, one of the maintenance workers from where we were staying came to our door yielding two large buckets of preserved rain water. Apparently the municipal workers went on strike, for reasons unknown to me, and decided to cut off water supplies to everyone within their service zones, which included the entire town we were staying in. I thought it interesting that they would be allowed to withhold a vital resource from their people, but apparently it happens quite often. A couple months ago in Grahamstown, my host city, the people were without water for a week due to mismanagement of the resource. This happens more than you would think, and the people are quite used to it by now.
So, we used the rain water to wash up and to flush the toilet, as those were not working either. But, the rain water was not sufficient and we went in search of a better way to clean up. Our solution, to go swimming in the Mac Mac Pools, a popular sightseeing stop along the Panorama Route in the Mpumalanga Province . We went early in the morning, before all the other tourists had arrived, soap and shampoo in tow. The water was cold but clean, and the falls acted nicely as a shower. It was a refreshing dip. We cleaned up and were on our way before anyone else arrived, although I am sure that we were not the only ones with the same idea that day.
Luckily the water strike in Mapumalanga only lasted one day, and the water was turned back on that night, although the larger municipal utilities strike is still ongoing. For example, as we were driving back to our cottage that night I looked up into the air and saw what appeared to be hundreds of vultures circling something, which was a common sight in the Kruger National Park but we were no longer in the park. Upon closer evaluation, it was clear that the turning mass was a garbage tornado. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever witnessed. The garbage tornado was turning above the town we were driving into, and it was filled with materials such as paper and plastic bags. As we drove through the town the streets were littered with garbage. There was paper, plastic bags, rotten food, and broken bottles littering the whole town. Now this was the second time we witnessed a town in this condition, so we knew there must be some connection. We had driven through many towns, large and small, and these were the only two that were littered with trash. This sight is not a common occurrence in South Africa. That night on the news we saw reports of rioting throughout the Gauteng and Mapumalanga Provinces, where the municipal workers on strike were marching through the streets and destroying all the trash receptacles and littering the streets with trash. What we witnessed in those two towns was the aftermath of municipal workers rioting. In some bigger cities, such as Johannesburg, the rioting was so bad that the police nearly opened fire on the crowd. Luckily things have cooled down, and we have our water back.
During the short time I have been traveling through South Africa my eyes have been opened to all that I have back home. We are very fortunate in all that we have. Beside our lives being filled with material possessions, we are very fortunate to have basic utilities and infrastructure, where as this is not always the case in other countries.
