Our First Weekend Getaway: West Coast Wild Flowers and the Fishing Village of Paternoster

We just got back from our first weekend getaway. Though it rained the whole time, and we didn't see many flowers (it has been a cold, wet winter, and so everything is a bit late), we still had fun. Here is a picture of what we were hoping to have seen.

Anyway, our destination was the little fishing village of Paternoster. Edith DellApa, a friend of our family from Boulder, had sent us an article from the New York Times travel section, all about this cool little B&B in Paternoster. The place is called "Ah!", and it was wonderful. Here's their website: http://www.capestay.co.za/ahguesthouse/ So, even though we couldn't get a room there, we were able to book a table for dinner, which was really special. There were 14 of us, and the chef Arnold and his partner, an ex-actress from Johanesburg, are fabulous hosts. They serve everyone together at a long farm table, next to a beautiful wood-burning hearth. The kitchen is right there in the open, which gives it a great homey feeling. The meal was fantastic, the wine divine, and we had great convesation with the other couples there for dinner (they have room for 6 at the inn, but take a few extras each night just for dinner). Anyway, we'll surely go back there, as it is only 90 minutes from Cape Town.

Contrasts and More Contrasts
On the way back on Sunday, we went to a quaint old town called "Darling." And it was just that. We felt that we were in some dutch rural village. Darling was one of the first settled areas by the Dutch. Since the late 1600s, the ranches in and around Darling were grazing cattle and providing meat and butter for the ships passing the Cape of Good Hope, en route to the Far East. That is over 300 years of farming on these hills, farmed by people with the name Duckitt (our new street is named after him), and Van Wegstyn, etc. Here is a link to a web-site fun by the Darling tourism board, so you can get a sense for how this area is portrayed: http://www.darlingtourism.co.za/

We stopped at the local museum, which had a great display of old farming implements, butter churns, lace and other everyday objects. Again, we thought we were in rural Holland! Especially with the green hills surrounding us, with sheep roaming about --ok,that felt more like Ireland. Ironically, we didn't see one image of a black or coloured face in the entire museum. As if those faces did not exist in Darling...

After a Darling buffet lunch at a place called the "Marmalade Cat," with quilts and pottery and handmade sweaters for sale, we set off to head back to Cape Town. As I'm known to do, I wanted to take the backroads, get a different sense of the layout of the land. Well, in about 15 minutes we came across another town, which had an entirely different feel. Not quaint at all. Rather, seemed like an urban housing project plopped down in the middle of quaint, rural Ireland/Holland. Densely packed apartments, colorful clotheslines streaming from every window --this was the most color we had seen, making up for the lack of wildflowers. Coloured and black faces everywhere. Shacks and shanties and muddy alleys. And Alex and Maya in the back saying, "Should we be here?" "Did we make a wrong turn?"

Then, as we left town, we came into this industrial zone, with one factory after another stretching for a few miles. It was kind of eerie, because since it was Sunday, there was not a sole around. These huge factories behind fences, empty. But now the picture made more sense. Housing for black and coloured laborors up the road, to work in these factories. A totally separate reality from the bucolic scenes of the Darling farmlands.

Snapped-us right out of our little European fantasy voyage. And come to think about it, we felt very comfy in Darling; it seemed so familiar and "prosperous" and "safe." The inequality was all hidden from us. And then as we drove through the factory zone, twice, (OK, my fault. I was playing navigator while Naomi was driving, and I must have missed a turn or two, so we ended up doing a huge 20-minute circle, and then saying, "look another Chinese factory, with the same sign as the other one..." ooops!) the feeling of discomfort which is generated by the inequality harshly staring you in the face, came back.

Contrasts. South Africa is rich in lots of things; contrasts is definitely one of them.

Blog ya later!

Seth./.

Inside View of PUBLIC Health in Cape Town

Over the past five days, I have gone to all the sites where the UWC 4th year pharmacy students do their service learning. They work at a very diverse set of PUBLIC health care institutions, including five public hospitals, and five Community Healthcare Centers around Cape Town. The hospitals include the very famous Groote Schuur Hospital, where Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant. It is an amazing teaching hospital, with all the latest, greatest health care toys. They also work in places like Crossroads CHC (Community Healthcare Center) . Crossroads is a black township, and the CHC is smack in the middle of blocks and blocks of shacks and shanties. HIV is rampant, and about 50% of the clients who come in for medicines are getting their monthly supply of Anti-Retral-Virals (HIV treatment). The pharmacy is cramped, and the 2 pharmacists, 3 pharmacist assistants, 1 retired pharmacist helping out as a "volunteer", are moving as fast as they can in the cramped environment to fill the prescriptions and get them out to the dozens of people who are crammed into the waiting room, waiting...

It was an incredibly powerful experience to see such a thorough view of the public healthcare system in South Africa. As overwhelmed as the system is, and as sad as it was to do rounds in a district hospital and see so many patients with TB, HIV, Meningitis, etc., there was one thing I kept having to remind myself: AT LEAST THERE IS A PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM! EVERY ONE OF THOSE PRESCRIPTIONS WAS FREE, AND NONE OF THOSE PATIENTS IN THE HOSPITAL WAS GOING TO GO BROKE AS A RESULT OF THEIR HOSPITAL STAY.

I was also really inspired by the commitment and the humanity of the staff. Working under incredibly stressful conditions, there was a level of humanity and compassion present that was really tangible. [MORE ON THIS...]

But, the most powerful experience was driving from hospital to hospital with my driver, a "coloured" man named Lee. Lee is 38 years old, from a coloured "suburb" as he called it (to differentiate it from a black "township"), and has had a rough life including gangs and prison. He would call me "Prof" --which is the name that most folks seem to use for university faculty here-- but would always speak to me in the third person. For example, he would say: "When does Prof want me to pick him up?" Or, "What does Prof think about life in Cape Town?" But what was most powerful is that as we drove from "suburb" to "suburb" to "township" to "township," he would reminisce, somewhat matter-of-factly, about the limits on his life that he experienced growing up. For example: "Prof, see this hospital entrance here? That was for the whites. This whole side of the hospital was for the whites. The coloureds and the blacks had to go around the back, and only use that side." Or, "We couldn't wait there for the bus Prof. That was for the whites. We had to wait over there in the open, even when it was raining. Prof, what a pain!" Or, "Prof, that was a white neighborhood over there. We couldn't walk through there to get to the store, even though it was right on our way. We had to walk all the way down there (4 or 5 blocks), and then turn left..." Or, something just as simple as "A few years ago, Prof, we couldn't be driving together like this in the same car." --referring to the fact that I had been sitting in the front seat next to him.

Our last day together, I took Lee to lunch. I asked him to choose the place. He chose a "muslim place," which was actually an Indian buffet, featuring the foods of the "coloureds" of Cape Town, many of whom are also muslim and from Malaysian descent. The food was fabulous, but the conversation was even more fabulous. I learned more about Lee's life as a "young gangster," about the lack of options growing up in a "coloured suburb," and finally, he started to share some of his anger over the wasted lives of his friends from the "suburbs." (Again, these are not the "Southern Suburbs" where the white folks like us live, but he is referring to the "coloured suburbs," which were isolated, removed, and oppressed during Apartheid. He shared his commitment to providing a better life for his girls (who are 1 year older than Alex and 1 year younger than Maya respectively), by sending them to private school, and giving them a stable family life to grow up in.

It was an amazing week, as I've come to gain a much better idea of the great work that the School of Pharmacy has done to build these connections with the community, and also, of all the potential work that we can do to get the students "out of the dispensing booth" and "into the community."

Blog ya later...

Seth./.

My First Experience with Service Learning and South African Student Leaders

It is Sunday night, and I just came back from a weekend trip to Pretoria --the capital of South Africa. I had been invited by the US Embassy to do a workshop on service learning for 10 South African college students who had been participants on a 3-week embassy sponsored tour of the US. the students came from all over South Africa, and represented the diversity of this country --a couple of Zulu students from Kwa-Zulu Natal; a couple of Xhosa students from the Western and Eatern Cape; two Venda students from the very north (near Zimbabwe); a coloured (their term) student from the Cape Town; and a white student from Pretoria.

One of the goals of the emabassy with the "Youth Ambassadors" program, was to help the students learn about voluntarism and community service and to hope to bring those practices back to their universities. They had all lived with families in Ames, Iowa for a week, and had commented on how Americans were all into service and volunteerism and community work. the embassy wnated to encourage them to develop communit yservice projecs on their own campuses, and when they found out that I was in the area, and knew something about this work, they invited me up to do some sessions on "service learning and civic engagement."

Diverse Perspectives on Service and Civic Engagement
The students were amazing. Incredibly outspoken, articulate, committed, and able to engage with each other's different opinions and perspectives. Those with limited exposure speak two or three languages, those with more considerable exposure speak five or six languages (English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Venda, Shangan, Suthu, etc.) It was really inspiring. I was hesitant to try and further their indoctrination into the American concept of "volunteerism." They were very eager to see the U.S. as a place full of the spirit of volunteerism and community service, and were quick to talk about the lazyness, and sense of entitlement that seems to be common in South African society today. (These themes of "lazyness" and "entitlement" are themes that I will sure to come back to as the year progresses. It is a very common complaint, as people struggle to make sense of the current economic and political context. So, rather than teaching about the great U.S.ofA., I started by trying to tap into their own cultural understanding of issues of "service and civic engagement." After a great opening conversation sparked by their reading the article by Remen on "helping, fixing or serving," (which they totally loved), I asked them to tap into their own cultural backgrounds, and come up with words or phrases that express the concepts that we call "service" or "civic engagement." One by one, they came up and wrote words or phrases from their cultures that communicate these concepts, such as (forgive the mis-spellings):
-Umntu ngumntu ngabuntu (a person is a person through other people -Xhosa)
-Batho pele (people first -Zulu)
-Howe nehela (giving your all, wholeheartedly to something -Suthu)
-Umnsinsi wokluzimilela (the sense that you belong here; citizenship -Zulu)
-Vhudifhinduleli (responsibility -Venda)
-Diens (service -Afrikaans).

It was so cool! For one thing, they all were embarrassed that their spelling was not as good as it could have been. One Venda woman said, "My mother would scream 'shame' if she saw this poor spelling." They realized that their cultures weren't as void of "responsibility" as they had made them out to be, and that there was a rich history related to issues of service and social responsibility. HOWEVER, one student made this powerful observation. He said: "while each of our ethnic groups have these concepts, they really relate to folks within that ethnic group only. 'Umnsinsi wokluzimilela' only relates to those Zulus; 'diens' is for Afrikaners to be of service to the Afrikaans community. We don't have a concept that reaches across the ethnicities, and that brings us together. That's what we need to focus on: multicultural citizenship."

Well, I nearly jumpted out of my skin. This was exactly what I was hoping to get to, and it just emerged at the heart of the conversation. The students went on to say that even though the universities are now integrated, there is really very little interaction. Students hang with their cultural communities, and there is really no discussion about the long-standing and still powerful prejudices that people hold about each other. On the other hand, with 30% unemployment nationally, the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world (25% of folks in the state of KwaZulu Natal are HIV positive!), and slums housing millions of people in deepest despair, and the sense that with the end of apartheid, they are now living in a "post-racial society," its easy to see why spending time on the seemingly soft concept of "multicultural civic literacy" seems less important.

Well, with this beginning, we had a great framework for the rest of the workshop. I gave them a simple way to think about designing a service learning project, introduced the idea of reflection, and helped them to focus on one "BIG ISSUE" related to social justice in their community. I even handed out copies of "The Prism" (our CSUMB model for social justice-oriented service learning curriculum development," and they really got into it.

So, considering this was my first time working with South African students, and the first time trying to work with our CSUMB curiculum development concepts, I felt it was really successful. I did realize that the concepts of experiential learning, reflection, and "student-centered learning" were new to the students. They get a strong dose of rote learning and memorization, so the idea of tapping into their own experiences as valid learning, is a new concept for them.

How Many Cows is Your Future Bride Worth?
In the van on the way back to the airport, we all got a great education on the intricacies of the dowery payment in Zulu culture. Our Xhosa teacher had given us a homework assignment to find out about the role of the "clan" for Xhosa and Zulu people, so I asked the Zulu kids in the van to tell me about the significance of their clan names (not their "last name," but their clan affiliation). They said that it was most significant with regard to the rituals around marriage, and started to explain that in the Zulu culture, when you wanted to get married, the man had to buy 11 cows for the family of the bride! Not 10 (unless she happens to NOT be a virgin --then you get a 1 cow discount), nor 12 (unless she happens to have a master's degree, in which case the price goes up!). But the magic number is 11. And at around $1,000 per cow, that is quite the expenditure, especially when a good salary for a South African is around $20,000/year. So, you've got to save your pennies, and make sure that you find some nice plump cows! And, oh yes, if the family of the bride can't acommodate the cattle in their 2nd floor apartment, then they will always accept cash!

Blog ya later.
Seth./.

Catching Up

(Vineyards in Stellenbosch, see below)


Hello All, It is Monday night, and we're back on-line. Our internet at home went down on Wednesday, and it took until today for us to get back on-line. Many many calls to Telkom (the South African phone system) finally resulted in some action, and our line was repaired. So, lots to report on. I was thinking of doing a long blog related to service learning--as that is what I'm supposed to be doing here. BUT, so many other interesting things have happened in the last week, that I'll just touch on a few random topics, and save an in-depth blog on service learning till later.


Moving on Up to Constantia...
Well, after some difficult moments wondering whether it was the right move or not, we have decided to move on up in the world! As of September 1, we will be moving to Constantia, a suburb about 10-minutes south of here, where we will be taking care of the house of a UCT professor who is going to be at Yale for the year. The house is gorgeous, on an acre of land, with a beautiful pool and a jacuzzi off the master bedroom. So, for those of you who were hesitating about visiting, thinking that we wouldn't have the room to put you up, hesitate no longer. As of September 1, we'll have plenty of room, and of course, we're all about sharing!


While Constantia is only 5-10 minutes south of where we are now, it is one of the most elite suburbs in Cape Town. When we tell people that we're moving to Constantia, the response is always something like: "well la di da... How did you make that happen?" Constantia is home to the oldest vineyards in South Africa, planted in the mid 1600s. The area today reminds us of Carmel Valley: vineyards, beautiful large homes, horses, baboons in the forest...OK, there are some differences. In any case, we can't wait for the move. The house is really lovely, and we're going to be very happy there --not to mention the fact that we'll be saving some money. We're definitely getting a good deal, spending less for our new "mini-estate" than we have been spending here. Here is a link to some pictures of our new place: 27 Duckitt Avenue, Constantia, 7806, Western Cape, South Africa: http://sabbaticalhomes.com/Home_Rental_House_For_Rent_Cape_Town_South_Africa_35887.htm

Also, there is a great gym and a tennis club very close. So watch out. You are going to be looking at a couple of "buffed-up 50-year-olds" when we return!

Xhosa Class at UCT
Last Wednesday, Naomi and I started a Xhosa class at UCT. Xhosa is the second most widely spoken language in South Africa, behind Zulu. It is spoken throughout the countryside in the Western and Eastern Cape --the homeland of Nelson Mandela. There were about 20 people in the class, all staff and faculty from UCT. The language has 3 different clicks, which makes it really distinctive, and fun to learn. Hopefully, we'll get the chance to use it. Definitely NOT in the gym in Constantia!

Activists, Religion, Social (and Personal) Change: Dinner with Jeff and Wadida
Saturday night we were invited to dinner at Jeff and Wadida's house. Jeff is chair of the department at UCT where I will be working. He is married to Wadida, and they have a daughter in 11th grade at Alex's high school, and a son in 7th grade at Maya's school, and they live just a few blocks away. They invited us over to dinner with another family, Peter and Leigh, who also have two kids, one in 11th and one in 9th. What a fascinating dinner. They all met in the 1980s, as activists working with the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF was created in 1983, as an organization mostly of Coloured, Indian and White activists. At that time, the African National Congress was banned, so much of the anti-apartheid actions were being organized by the UDF. For a history of the UDF, check-out: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo19/history.html

Well, Jeff is white and Jewish, and his wife Wadidah is coloured and muslim. So, over dinner, I asked them how they met. Wadidah was quick to say: "He was one of the whiteys who came to our house after my brother was arrested." It turns out that Wadida's brother was the head of the UDF in the Western Cape, and spent a number of years in "detention." Jeff was active in the UDF, and they met through the struggle. We saw pictures of their wedding, in 1990 --the same year that Naomi and I got married. At that time, it was ILLEGAL to marry outside of your race. Whiteys had to marry whiteys. Blacks had to marry blacks. Coloureds had to marry coloureds, etc. So, Jeff and Wadida were not allowed to get married legally. But they could have a religious ceremony. BUT, the religious leaders had all signed documents stating that they would not perform "illegal" marriages. So, there was an easy fix to this situation. Jeff spent a year in the process of converting to Islam, and then, they got married! They are now raising their kids in the Muslim faith.


The other couple that was there were also activists with the UDF. Peter, who is now a computer programmer for a large South African bank, was a mechanic at the time, and arrange and fix-up cars for the ANC. He would borrow cars from his white liberal friends, and lend them to the ANC for various actions. Then, after the actions, he would do the necessary repairs, and get the cars back to their rightful whitey owners in "just-as-good" condition. His wife Leigh teaches at the local Waldorf school, where she focuses on "life skills for the New South Africa." Go Waldorf! Peter is Christian, and Leigh is Jewish. Peter converted when he married Leigh, and they are raising their kids in the Jewish faith.


Not that we're keeping score, but... notice how both men converted to marry and raise their children in the faith of their wives! So, who's got the power?


An Afternoon in Stellenbosch with Trev and Jessica
On Sunday we drove out to Stellenbosch, a wine-growing area 45 minutes from here. We were invited by Trevor, who is a history prof from San Francisco State, and has been here since January as a Fulbright. Tevor is actually South African, though he lived much of his life in the US. His parents left South Africa during the apartheid era, though they have both stayed connected. Trevor's dad is an applied mathematician at UC Berkeley, and does work throughout South Africa in game management; and his mom is a teacher who organizes partneships between schools in Marin and schools in South Africa. So, clearly we have a lot to learn from Trev!


So are we really in Africa? Stellenbosch reminded us a lot of Marin, with a dutch twist. Vineyards and gorgeous homes and wineries. We met Trevor for lunch at a great italian restaurant, and then strolled through town for a cappuccino and then a gilatto, before heading back to Trevor's home in a gated Stellenbosch community. We also met Matty and Sadie. Matty is one of Trevor's students from SF State who is here on a study abroad program; and Sadie is her childhood friend who is a student at USF, and here for a 5-week visit. It was great to hear their perspective on life as young people in South Africa. They've clearly had very powerful experiences, getting to know life in the townships --the "Black Label" tour (the local beer) as opposed to the Merlot and Pinot Noir tour that Naomi and I have signed up for.


(A typical Stellenbosch home)

So, Is this Africa?
Wineries, vineyards, gilatto, and beautiful farmer's markets. Pools, hot-tubs, and gated communities. Is this Africa? Clearly, it is not Mali, a land still dominated by subsistance farmers. But it is an Africa I am coming to get to know: still trying to come to terms with the legacy of colonialism; massive inequality; building a nation that brings together very modern and very traditional cultures.


Gotta go to bed. Blog ya later.

Trip to Khayelitsha: Who's Serving Who in the Townships

Khayelitsha means "New Home." It is a township that was created in the 1980s for blacks who were legally living in the Western Cape. During the apartheid era, the government was focused on creating separate neighborhoods for whites, coloreds and blacks. Khayelitsha was one of the neighborhoods that was created for blacks. Today, it is home to over 500,000 people. Here is a nice web-site about Khayelitsha: http://library.thinkquest.org/28028/home.html.

SHAWCO's Work in the Community
On Tuesday night I went out into the townships with members of the Board
of SHAWCO (Students Health and Welfare Centers Organziation), and two visiting faculty from Williams College. My colleague Janice is on the SHAWCO board, and I will be working with them during the year. So, this was my first chance to meet them, and see some of their work in the community.

SHAWCO is a student-run service organization at the University of Cape Town, that has been around since the 1940s, doing service work in the townships. They started as a bunch of medical students who saw there was no healthcare in the townships, and so that started to go out into the community and see patients, deliver food, provide blankets, etc. They have a great web-site with lots of great information about their work (http://www.shawco.org/). Every year, about 1200 students are involved in 14 SHAWCO projects, focusing now on two areas: HEALTH and EDUCATION. The med students run two nightly mobile clinics. Each night, around 10 med students supervised by a volunteer doctor see about 30-50 patients, who otherwise would have difficult access to medical care. We went with the team to Guguletu, and watched them set up their mobile clinic. When we got there, a dozen women with babies were already waiting for the team to come. There was a community outreach worker who had already gotten everyone lined-up and ready, and they were just waiting for the students to start work. It was incredible.

The other part of SHAWCO focuses on education. They have five different tutoring centers in the townships, where they work with kids from 3rd - 12th grade. This is a very popular program, and tons of students from UCT are involved. Also, this has become very popular as a study abroad service learning program, with lots of American and European students coming for extended visits. The SHAWCO Centers give the foreign service learning students great access to real life in the townships, and are doing meaningful work by providing tutoring support to the kids.

We visited a Center in Khayelitsha, one of the largest townships in the area. After driving for blocks and blocks through shack and shanties and cargo containers made into homes and stores, and strips of dirt serving as soccer fields, we arrived at the SHAWCO center. We met the site supervisor who is in charge of the center, and she gave us a tour of the facility: a gorgeous Bill Gates-sponsored computer lab with 32 computers all with wireless internet connection; a library with shelves of donated books and tables where the kids practice their reading; another separate study space; and a large covered reception hall which is where we parked our cars.

It was 5:00 pm when we got there, and the afterschool tutoring was over, so the place was empty. It was somewhat shocking to see this room full of gorgeous computers sitting empty and unused, in a place where there are so few resources, that EVERYTHING is being used for multiple purposes! We had a very interesting discussion about the role of SHAWCO and the SHAWCO centers, focusing on the question of whether the centers should be made available to other community organizations to use for meetings and other activities when they need them, or should they be reserved for the tutoring program. SHAWCO is struggling to define its role, and considering giving up the centers, and just providing services directly through the schools. That makes sense from a resource perspective, because it costs a lot of money to maintain these centers (staff, insurance, utilities, security, etc.), and for much of the week, the centers remain empty. Who is that serving? And yet, if they are turned over to the community, then the centers might not be available for the UCT and American students to come and do their service. And SHAWCO is very committed to the fact that these are student-driven programs.

So, Janice, the SHAWCO director Varkey, another board member who is a sociology prof named Johann, a UCT adminstrator named Sonwabu and I had a powerful conversation about: who is really serving whom? Is SHAWCO really serving the community, or is it serving the UCT and foreign students who come from worlds away (even if it is just across town) for a brief exposure to life in a township and a brief chance to help? This is an incredible resource, and yet, is it benefitting the community to the extent possible? The director has a budget to meet, and they are making money by hosting the American students. So in a way, running the service learning program for international students helps SHAWCO make ends meet. But is this a case of tail wagging dog? Are we accommodating the international students to the extent that we are not as in touch with the voices of the community? This will surely be an intersting theme to explore with the students and the SHAWCO board.

Blog ya later.

Seth./.

Progressive Baker's Dilemma

We had our first afternoon visit to the home of a South African family today, and it was fantastic. Lara is the room mom in Maya’s 6th grade class. She and her husband own a bakery that makes delicious, natural artisanal breads. Michael is from Germany, and came to South Africa in 1985 to work as a chef in a hotel. He has since worked in a number of 5-star restaurants and hotels, and a few years ago, started his own baking business. He now employs 25 people, and his bakery runs 7 days/week, 22 hours a day. They have 52 regular customers that they deliver to each day, and another hundred or so who come to the factory’s own coffee shop. They also sell at a farmer’s market on Saturday morning, so they are busy. We felt honored that they invited us over to spend Sunday afternoon with them, as we know how busy life must be for the local baker!

Michael is a very interesting and passionate man, with a deep spiritual practice. He is a follower of Saibaba, and Indian spiritual leader (http://www.saibaba.org/) , and has a beautiful meditation room off the living room. The outside of their home has a sign saying: “om shanti,” or PEACE. You could tell that Michael was deeply committed to his craft as a baker, and was very proud of the quality of the natural ingredients that he used, and the “craftsmanship” that all his breads show.

At the same time, Michael was really struggling in his business, even though he was pretty successful financially, he was struggling with the goal of inspiring a commitment to excellence and pride in craftsmanship in his workers. He was frustrated not being able to figure out how to get his workers to come on time, to work with the same degree of focus and commitment that he expects to see. And, he is paying his workers well, in relation to the local economy, and is coming from a very progressive, and spiritual place. He recognizes the struggles that his workers have living in the townships, having long commutes, having to support many un-employed family members, struggling with crime and drugs and horrible living conditions. Still, he expects to be able to inspire a sense of pride and commitment to this special product that they are producing. However, they are not connected, they are not feeling committed, nor inspired. It breaks his heart.

He said: “Not one time since I have run my business has one person come up to me and asked, ‘please teach me how to be a baker. I want to learn this business.’ I would love to share what I know, but nobody has ever asked.” He then went on to use words like “entitlement” to characterize the feeling of his workers. That they weren’t willing to show the commitment, and do the hard work, but rather, felt entitled to getting a bigger piece of the action!

My response was this: “They ARE entitled! They HAVE been ripped-off over decades by this system of apartheid, oppressed, marginalized, treated like dirt. They ARE entitled to a bigger piece of the action. BUT, should this entitlement get worked out in their current employment relationship? Should the decades of mis-treatment be remedied at the expense of running a profitable business? Is the gulf that has been create so huge, that no individual sees themselves as worthy of being mentored by Michael?

There is so much going into this puzzle, but it seems at the core of this process of turning what was two very separate societies into one. Lots of bridges to be built, and unfortunately, very little common building blocks to call on.

Blog ya later.

Seth./.