Another Brick in the Wall...
March 4, 2006
I love this place and I loathe it. The people here are amazing and perplexing all at the same time.
We had a wonderful day at Yatela. It’s a satellite mine about thirty kilometers from here (18 miles). We have several students that live there so we piled a couple more into En Sha Allah and headed off to see how the other half live. We had a fun day of foosball, games, and swimming. It was a nice change of scenery. Sometimes that’s all we need; a change of scenery.
Later on, we played volleyball and then hung out at the club. It’s an interesting mix of people. I will try to explain, even though I don’t really understand it myself. The mine is run by a corporation called S.E.M.O.S. Administrative duties seem to fall primarily on AngloGold. They contract out most of the actual digging/blasting. A company called Moolman Brothers runs the heavy equipment. Both Anglo and Moolmans are South African although many derogatory remarks get made about the caliber of worker Moolmans tends to hire. We are oblivious to all of this. We would be hard pressed to distinguish one company from the other. Apparently, however, Moolmans pulled one of their senior managers in and reprimanded him for spending too much time with the S.E.M.O.S. folks. As if there weren’t enough walls up already.
It seems to be a staple of South African society this “us and them” mentality. This is not to say that this pattern of thought does not exist in the good old U.S. of A., it just doesn’t seem as prevalent to me. Maybe I have simply never been aware of it before. Perhaps when I travel home in July I will see walls I have previously been unaware of. I don’t know. It makes me uncomfortable and it pisses me off.
We have met some amazing people. They are folks we will definitely try to keep in touch with once we leave. I get the sense from some we have met that they merely tolerate my opinions, humoring me in my beliefs. It’s a strange existence as we are locked in here. There are no opportunities to truly get away. Everywhere we turn there are people we have met and will see again. It seems like we should be tearing down walls, not building them up.
MJR
I love this place and I loathe it. The people here are amazing and perplexing all at the same time.
We had a wonderful day at Yatela. It’s a satellite mine about thirty kilometers from here (18 miles). We have several students that live there so we piled a couple more into En Sha Allah and headed off to see how the other half live. We had a fun day of foosball, games, and swimming. It was a nice change of scenery. Sometimes that’s all we need; a change of scenery.
Later on, we played volleyball and then hung out at the club. It’s an interesting mix of people. I will try to explain, even though I don’t really understand it myself. The mine is run by a corporation called S.E.M.O.S. Administrative duties seem to fall primarily on AngloGold. They contract out most of the actual digging/blasting. A company called Moolman Brothers runs the heavy equipment. Both Anglo and Moolmans are South African although many derogatory remarks get made about the caliber of worker Moolmans tends to hire. We are oblivious to all of this. We would be hard pressed to distinguish one company from the other. Apparently, however, Moolmans pulled one of their senior managers in and reprimanded him for spending too much time with the S.E.M.O.S. folks. As if there weren’t enough walls up already.
It seems to be a staple of South African society this “us and them” mentality. This is not to say that this pattern of thought does not exist in the good old U.S. of A., it just doesn’t seem as prevalent to me. Maybe I have simply never been aware of it before. Perhaps when I travel home in July I will see walls I have previously been unaware of. I don’t know. It makes me uncomfortable and it pisses me off.
We have met some amazing people. They are folks we will definitely try to keep in touch with once we leave. I get the sense from some we have met that they merely tolerate my opinions, humoring me in my beliefs. It’s a strange existence as we are locked in here. There are no opportunities to truly get away. Everywhere we turn there are people we have met and will see again. It seems like we should be tearing down walls, not building them up.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 12:49 PM
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