Katutura

Hi all,

Yesterday we traveled to Katutura and informal settlements. During apartheid black Namibians were forcibly removed from Windhoek to worse land outside the city center. When the land they were moved to was found to be desirable, they were moved again to Katutura. The translation is loose, but it basically means something close to "place we don't want to live." The residents of Katutura walk to Windhoek to search for work during the daytime. It is very similar to our day laborer situation in the U.S. Every third day or so they find work, and typically get paid $5 US for a full days work. They have a concoction with nutrients similar to baby formula (they use it for baby formula occasionally) that they drink in the morning that sustains them for the day.

The government houses in Katutura each have one running outdoor faucet and two rooms with an outdoor bathroom. Typically very large extended families fill all available space. When moved to Katutura people were divided by tribe, and those divisions remain in the community.

Past Katutura are informal settlements. These shelters are made from whatever material is around, usually with tin walls or roofs. There is no individual water, but water points every 500 meters where people line up. Some are fortunate enough to have toilets set up by the Spanish government that operate without electricity or water to condense effluent and over a period of years turn it into fertilizer. I was pretty impressed with this because it makes sanitation available without traditional infrastructure. (I quickly googled how this works...http://www.oursoil.org/drytoilet.php)

Past the first informal settlement are the more recent settlements. About 400 new settlers arrive daily. These also have no electricity or water (other than undependable water points) and absolutely no bathrooms. They go up to the bushes in the hills, which results in safety concerns at night and serious sanitation problems when it rains.

Overall the wealth gap is staggering. And it was sobering to see how people live just minutes away while we enjoy many luxuries. But there also seemed to be such possibility for improvement with just small efforts. The Spanish government donation is one example of a small contribution that has a large effect of quality of life. That small efforts can have huge impacts here was encouraging, and a vivid reminder of the power of aid.

Touring a poor neighborhood was somewhat awkward to start. I was not sure how people would view us coming to see how they live. It helped that our tour guide was from Katutura and started this business that employs black Namibians as guides. The people were exremely welcoming and gracious. Some were excited about Obama (One Black African Managing America, I was told) and others wanted to share who they were and what they did for a living. The one dependable conversation starter is music, and in case you are interested they have two dueling hip hop artists named The Dogg and Gazza, and people seem pretty loyal to one or the other, but rarely both. Another that we hear a lot is Sunny Boy, but music from the U.S. is also played a lot (we heard TI in a Katutura bar).

Below is a link (i hope it works) to a video of a meat market in Katutura...it was delicious :-)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2180335&id=203345#/video/?id=203345