GRAPHIC DETAILS ABOUT TOWNSHIP

Just a heads up to everyone I have NO pictures of the actual township I was working in so I will be as detailed as possible explaining the scene. Though I have pictures of the children inside the small gated area with the nursery school (or cinder blocks with colored paint) I was not able to take any photos of what I had to walk around in on a daily basis 100% due to safety issues. Each morning I arrive very early by catching a van which rides up and down the streets simply picking up people randomly. (mostly local people) for 5 Rand (equal to 68 cents USD). Kind of like leagalized hitch-hiking. The van would drop me off to the entrance of a tiny town made up of shacks putting it mildly. It looked like a refugee camp in some ways because it was tin sheets bound together in some clever fashion. The only electricity was from stolen car batteries, gas powered generators or illegally connecting to power lines. No pathed roads or stores, definitely no take-out or delivery. Once I got out of the van I hurried my ass down two very dangerous streets not making any eye contact and always with a stern angry look on my face to give false confidence. Truth is everyday I wonder if "Today is the day??" The racial tension is un-like anything I've ever been witness to. I never took out my phone or slowed down for a second until I got to the children. Oddly enough these little 2 to 5 year olds were my protectors. It was the little ones who were guardians and they didn't even know it. The children belong to the towns people & though the parents do not like the idea of a "white girl from America" being around them and their children they did understand without me & the other volunteers these children would never learn to read, speak English or ever have the opportunity to live safely somewhere else. So I was left alone just enough to work for part of the day then I had to be out of that area each day by early afternoon. The further into the day it got the more dangerous it became for long blond hair and blue eyes. Walking out of the township was the least favorite part of my day because the stares & glares were even heavier AND I had to walk down the main road for only five minutes but when you're in constant fear of having your throat slit or becoming the date of the towns men the walk can seem like hours. Not to mention the time spent waiting for the "random" van to drive by and hopefully stop to pick me up. I admire the people of these dangerous and less desirable places because they know how to survive. Think about it...if any of us did not have electricity, microwaves, cars, cable, play-station, cell phones, Internet and over all structure with a general sense of safety and well being...what the hell would we do? For those of you in NYC when we had the black out just imagine this times 100000000000000000.
More to come!