Slummin' in the streets

When faced with the challenge of having to immerse myself in a surrounding that I wasn't familiar with, I found myself absolutely unsure of what it would be that I was going to indulge myself in for an hour/s.

My options were as follows:
1)I could go to the township, mingle with the beautiful people who make up this historical town…and pretty much get to know them...but, I’ve lived in a township and pretty much grown up there, so I wouldn’t find this experience new.
2)I could sit in an unusual part of town, say the highest point of a building, the cathedral for example, and vent on my own, escape in my individual thoughts…it would be a kind of therapy I guess…but, that wouldn’t give me much of an experience now would it…no!
3)Or, I could just take a walk through all of Grahamstown and not stop. I could just keep walking till my toes hurt, and the soles of my shoes wear out…and that sounded like a plan.

So, it’s no surprise that my final option was what I chose to do. And, since I like taking random walks anyways, I thought why not, and the soles of my shoes really are close to non existent already, but that in itself is a story for another day.

Saturday was the day, 25th of October, the weather was walkable, and off I went.
My journey took me past the well known Grand Res, where not much appeared to be happening, and so I moved right along to walk by the ‘Frontier Hotel’. Now, walking past this monument was a bit of a difficult experience because this spot, as all Rhodes students know, is the place where busses like “Greyhound”, and “Translux” take us to destinations we call home!...and so my trek continued.
I chose, then, to take the regular route up High Street, and took a bit of a recess by Checker, and that’s when my exercise began to get a little exciting. I came to meet two street kids and these were their stories…


His name was Akhona, well at least that’s what he told me, and he is 18 years of age. He dropped out of school at the age of 17, last year, and is now roaming the streets and working as a car guard every day.
That’s when I thought to myself “let me get to know this young fellow a little more.”
Akhona explained to me that his parents were unemployed, and he dropped out of school because of pressure from his high school peers.
Now, Akhona’s story grabbed my attention because he ultimately chose to drop out of school, he chose to leave school a year before he could’ve had the opportunity to matriculate, and it angered me to hear that he chose to take such a drastic step. He carried on explaining how he was finding it difficult to live on almost no money everyday, and he went to bed hungry sometimes because he no longer lives at home, but with friends. He explained to me that his parents kicked him out of the house because he’d started doing drugs, and became uncontrollable, so to say.


My second subject, however, was a young man, who didn’t reveal much of his identity to me. He wouldn’t tell me his name, nor would either of them let me take pictures of them. I didn’t understand why Akhona didn’t want me to take a picture, but young man number two had been to jail,so I took this as being the reason. He was also strongly affected by poverty. He told me about the head policeman in Grahamstown who won’t let him, and his buddies make money off of washing the cars in the parking lot, in order to make some form of an income. He explained how when they try not to commit crimes, and make a way of living, the system works against them, and so they turn to crime. This young man says he does not enjoy going to beg people for money; the every day struggle to survive isn’t anything that anyone should experience. I couldn’t imagine how degrading it must feel for someone to beg others for money, but when our own police force restricts these children and young adults from doing little things to try to better their lives in some way, I begin to understand why they choose to rob and steal. This makes me wonder whether they really do want to protect us. Here I was being told, blatantly, that I was sitting with a criminal, but he had no other choice because he has to buy bread, some food, in order for him to stay alive, and if washing cars isn’t going to work, then he has to make other means to stay alive.

And, as fast, and as unexpectedly as my little exercise had come to its end, I left Checkers with an empty feeling in the depths of my soul. I want to help Grahamstown’s society, I want to help Grahamstown help the children on the streets in some way, but if the authorities aren’t going to let them at least try to better their lives in some way, then will the crime that happens everyday, in each and every corner ever end. Will the poverty that we, as a country see, hear and have knowledge of ever cease. And, could an idea of starting a car wash be a viable entrepreneurial plan, for someone who has nothing, to actually be something that has the potential to be a business being tarnished by one non-understanding upholder of the law.

If trying to better your life and its condition is a crime, then we would all be criminals because that is what we all work toward doing every day, even though we don’t always think about it that way. The harsh realities of life cause for some to want to take action, and this young man was my teacher for the day when it came to this lesson. The only thing left to ask now is: Will the crime ever perish in this little town called Grahamstown if people have no other option but to inflict pain on others when not granted the permission to make their own amends. And, will this cycle of crime ever end in the world as a whole if people aren’t granted opportunities to better their difficult situations…I am not quite sure it will!