Destroy and Rebuild

my brother has this motto, that the reason that he went to school and on to get his cfa was so that he did not have to do any physical work. so whenever my dad used to try and get us to help fix the drive way, or to paint, or some sort of physical activity, my brother would say he went to school so he could pay someone else to do that.

this past weekend here in capetown, my good friend sp signed me up for a habitat for humanity build to help build houses in a south african township. it's true that it was the first time in many years that i have had to get my hands dirty, which some of my fellow builders could tell by what they said were soft, non-calouses hands. but it was a great time, and i met a lot of cool people. there were a group of about 60 irish people that were some of the craziest people i ever met. and they got even crazier when we went out to party that night.

if you have never seen a south african township, i'm sure you'd be shocked by the type of living conditions that millions of south africans live in, i know most of my classmates were shocked when they first saw one. (i'll post some pics when i get back over there). but anyways, the way this program works is very interesting so let me just explain that. the whole group was building six houses in the township for six families. they are chosen from a list, based on certain criteria that they can meet, such as being able to earn a certain amount of money. they must also do a course in home owning, because most of them have never owned a real home, they must learn how to pay for electricity, that they must fix things when broken, etc. as well they are required to help others in the community when other homes are being built. in addition, groups such as ours will only continue to build houses in the community if the community as a whole has a repayment rate of 70%. the way it was explained to me is that the community then learns how to look after and work through their own problems, because if one person decides they do not want to pay, then the whole community will suffer by not getting any more houses built. this fosters a self policing community.

this was most evident by a real south african moment #2.
while on the build, one of the kids was walking through the township, when he was approached by a stranger and mugged. it turns out that the stranger was not from the community, so a group of locals to the township chased him down, and beat his ass. and i mean beat his ass. and after that, they took him to the police station, where i'm sure he got his ass beat again.

welcome to south africa.