Another Day, Another Challenge

I haven’t been to the City Hall for two days now, I’ve attended a publishing colloquium at Wits and I’ve enjoyed the return to my brand of normality, I have a structured life to return to; the displaced people do not.

“Don’t make it too comfortable for the refugees, hey, or they won’t wanna go home?” This is the advice that several people feel compellled to give me. “Which home would that be?” I ask, repeating the answer Mark gave to me when I gave him the same advice. Do they mean the house that was burned down or the country that they have already fled from? One has to constantly remind oneself that the displaced do not have anywhere at all to go to. When I discuss the situation with people I find that they all have a solution even if they don’t quite understand the complexity of the situation.

The causes for this outbreak of inhuman and unnecessary violence defy any ineffectual examination and analysis that I might try to make; Mark and I are not meeting go-ers, we prefer to listen to the needs of the people and try to match them with solutions.

While the government does or doesn’t do anything, we have the daily challenges of making life work for people who are confined to the makeshift centres they find themselves in. It doesn’t help them to bitch and moan about lack of delivery.

The real problems that face us at the moment are not what’s going to happen to these people in the future – the latest rumour is camps in agricultural areas - it’s how can we get water on-site today so that they can wash themselves, it’s who we can phone to collect and deliver food because we’ve had an over-supply of meals, it’s who can donate identification bands so that we don’t have opportunists walking in and walking out of the centre with free food and clothing and whatever else they can pilfer.

We’ve had to organise trauma counsellors to attend to those who feel unable to cope with their situation, however some of the things we’ve had to contend with might seem trivial in comparison, but they go a long way to easing the stress for the residents at Germiston City Hall. We’ve bought a bottle brush for the bottles in the nursery since trauma caused many nursing mothers to lose their ability to produce milk. We’ve bought a grater and knives chopping boards for the tireless kitchen workers and we’ve bought a long plug adaptor so that people can recharge their phones. Of course you have to appoint guardians for some of these items or else someone will might steal them and make money out of them.

Yesterday Mark delivered two television sets donated by a business associate; Joseph phoned last night to tell us how delighted the people were to have access to the world again. There are no newspapers lying around City Hall, it is disconcerting to be isolated without any news of what is being done in terms of their situation.

There are some people who have money, but most do not. The lack of money is evident by the amount of young men and the lack of tobacco being smoked by them in and around the premises. The longer people wait in limbo, the more likely it is that entrepreneurs will rise up out of the fog of uncertainty that enshrouds displacement. Already a man with a broken leg sells bananas at R2 each. My concern is that entrepreneurs will arise not only out of the ranks of the displaced, but from some people who have access to them. Many individuals who are not related to the media are walking into the centre and taking photographs. I’ve heard the argument that a picture says a thousand words, but my opinion is that it is immoral to impose a lens into the destruction and uncertainty of the lives of people who aren’t living in their present conditions by choice. Personally, I haven’t had to show a single photograph for the amazing charitable responses to our calls for assistance.