DAY 6 -12 Oct
We had a meeting to confirm plans of action for the day in Alex.(Who we wanted to meet/speak to)
We then went to Alexandra and surrounding areas in Bez valley and spent most of the day there.
In Alex, we first went to a Day Care in Alex CBD and met a caregiver called Portia. She told us about the setbacks the day care centre experiences and her interaction with the children.
There was a problem of flooding, rodents(rats).They also have not started recycling as yet because previously the recycling containers were stolen.
She said there were people that were hired to clean up Alex and the Jukskei but they were from other communities like Thembisa or Mamelodi.She said that did not make sense because it was not sustainable- if their own members of the community were chosen it would firstly provide them with jobs, as many people were unemployed and also it would give them a sense of ownership of Alex ie this is where “we” live and that is why we will ensure it is always clean.
The refuse collection trucks (Pikitup) come everyday to pick up garbage.We visited a Presbytarian Church on 12th Ave ,the Reverend Moake Masango was overseas and so we were unable to speak to him.
We passed by a muthi shop in Selbourne street (Alex CBD) and walked in to find out from the healer, if they used water from the Jukskei in their potions.They were aware that the water is infected with harmful bacteria and could not be used for human consumption.
Later in the day we went to Siyakana in Bez Valley Park, a permaculture organic veggie patch.We met with Mandla Tshabalala,who works with Prof Rudolph from Wits Medical School on this project.There are nine people that work at this garden and the Jukskei river runs parallel to it (a bit further down in the park).Mandla who is a vegan and prepares most of his food from his very own garden.He spoke to us about the dangers of many animal products and how most of it is contaminate with hormones and chemicals,which has made disease rampant.
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