29 April

Today we first went to a community meeting set up by Tia in a so called "Shack" neighbourhood which basically means all the houses are shacks. So far we had only been in the better off parts of Motherwell and I never realised that there were such big differences in the Township, but what we found there reminded me of the images organisations like UNICEF use to atract donations: starving stray dogs, children playing around in the dirt and houses made of cardboard and sheet metal. The meeting was in the church, but first we had to retrieve the chairs from a nearby shack where someone used them to host a funeral. The church was the biggest and best looking building in the neighbourhood, but was still made of sheet metal and wooden slates on the inside. Tia was trying to get a program of the ground in which mothers who can't afford a crêche can take their child(ren) to a house in the neigbourhood where a local mother supported by a professional can take care of them whilst the mothers work. The locals seemed enthusiastic enough, and after a prayer and a song the meeting started. Tia speeched and a thamsanqua worker translated. A lot of people signed up and after another song the meeting finished and we drove to a thamsanqua house to fix some things. We replaced a door, fixed a closet door and accidentally left the fridge unplugged for 20 minutes. Tomorrow we're going to another house to fix some things there.