TRISCH’S REPORT ON ...

It’s summertime and the living is easy... or is it? 

While holidaymakers were basking on the South Coast beaches, with Santa sweating in his suit at nearby shopping centres, just 30km inland is country side more beautiful than ever imagined yet seething with abject poverty.  Where goats are a family’s source of nourishment and a cow is seen as a prized possession.  Where children, and many adults, do not see education as a right, but rather as an opportunity.  Where cell phone reception is non-existent and cars the exception to the norm.

Christmas Day is bleak here.  The heavens are crying.  So is my heart.  Too many children here do not have food to eat, never mind a gift waiting under the Christmas tree.  In fact, there aren’t any Christmas trees here.  This is not because the people do not celebrate the occasion, rather they just have other priorities for their riches, which, mostly, is hidden under mattresses, or carried close to the heart secreted in their underwear.

Here in this beautiful land, where the valleys are deep and the mountains hold mysterious treasures which have not yet been plundered, I wonder at the simplicity of life.

The quaint bungalows are lovingly tended to; their front yards swept clean by the matron of the house, using dead branches as her broom.  Washing is hanging on a single line, fluttering in the dismal light, colours each as murky as the other. 

Rays of sunshine struggle through grey clouds, settling on surroundings clear of electricity pylons, TV antennae and satellite dishes. 

This is where children find pleasure playing with old pram wheels fashioned into wire cars and the last born is substituted for a doll. 

Beside these homes, and on hills so steep, I marvel at the agricultural ingenuity of the people, growing simple crops which feed not only the family, but are shared with the neighbouring community.  This is ubuntu.

Here a child’s face transforms into wonderment when he is handed a hot dog and a fizzy cold-drink.  To him, this is as good as the turkey and trimmings being tucked in to at various resorts and hotels along the coast.

This summer I had the privilege of working at both ends of the scale; being part of a team of volunteers entertaining and handing out buckets and spades to children holidaying with their families to feeding orphans and underprivileged children in homes* hidden away from these upscale establishments.

Above : A family with their goodies from Dis-Chem

Above : One of the sandcastle entries

Brent Staples, DJ-extraordinaire, kept crowds of teenagers entertained, playing summer music at decibels loud enough to be heard in outer space.  Gym bunnies gave instruction to bikini-clad girls on the latest fitness techniques while Break Magazine and Dis-Chem Pharmacies held sandcastle building, and talent competitions.  Dis-Chem also sponsored buckets and spades, beach balls, and Frisbees which were handed to every child on the beach by the Itsanytime team.

Above : One of the Mini Miss Break contestants is
given encouragement by Brent Staples

Kids collected water in their buckets, carrying them up the beach to fill the moats around their sandcastles.  Teenagers ran around catching Frisbees instead of playing games or socialising on their cellphones.  And parents, Dis-Chem’s loyal customers nearly passed out from blowing up the beach balls!

 

Above : One’s never too old to play in the sand

But a bucket and spade, and a frisbee too, have very different value for the kids of inland KZN.   While they too enjoyed playing at the beach with us, some only seeing the ocean for the first time in their lives, getting back to their beautiful countryside that night, practicality came flooding back. 

Buckets become receptacles for eggs collected from the chicken run and frisbees, turned upside down, turn into great plates for those hotdogs** we’re handing out.

Despite my perception of people existing in poverty in these majestic surroundings, living  might not be easy here, but it sure is good.

* To protect their identity, we have been asked not to display photographs of the children and/or the homes we visited.

**Sincere thanks to Chris Merch of Scottburgh Pick ‘n Pay for his generous contribution of food and drinks for the underprivileged children.