Out Into the Townships

Today - Saturday we went out into the townships. These were established during the apartheid to give the black people a place to move when ousted from the white cities. It was much like the Indian Reservations in the USA. These people were given the "leftover" land - dry and undesirable for most any purpose. We drove past shanty towns - some legitimate and some that were just filled with squaters. If there were official electrical lines to the structures, then it was one established by the townships. We drove past rubbish heaps like the ones some of the children we saw yesterday were found. The goat in the picture will be used for a sacrafice to ancestors to pay for their sins. What a great time to tell them about Jesus' once for all sacrafice - Easter Weekend! The building in the top is a school - government run school. All schools cost money. Government ones are about $300 a year. There will be 60 or more students to each teacher and about 10 books. The herd that we had to stop to allow to cross the road belongs to a "wealthy" man. You could tell by the numbers of animals and the mixture of goats, sheep and cows. Some will be used for food and some for sacrafices. The women carry the children 2 and under on their backs -held with towels wrapped tight. The children's visual perception development is effected and they often end up bow-legged as most of their ltime is spent in this position. At every robot (stoplight), someone was selling something, doing a mime or begging. Often it would be a woman and a toddler child. The child would just sit in the median all day long, while Mom begged. You see people walking everywhere. It is odd to glance out over a field of tall grasses and see a few heads bobbing along. There are trails through all the grass lands where the people walk. They are not safe at night for anyone and dangerous for women alone. Strangely there is little wild life other than the birds. No, rabbits or mice or such. Most have been eaten already. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." I Peter 2:24