Day 5 – Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth city center

After an early morning flight we arrived in Port Elizabeth and met up with our driver and guide, Nelson. Those of you have visited our Company website, will know Nelson as the guy giving Xhosa language lessons to a tourist on a piece of video we have posted in connection with King Me. When I began my research into the Townships around Port Elizabeth, Nelson’s Youtube Xhosa lesson was one of the first videos I found. I ended up hiring him some months later to drive and guide us through the townships.

Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth is an old seaside city. It is quite beautiful and, mercifully for Keith and I, much more laid back and less stressful than Johannesburg. It somewhat resembles Long Beach, CA if you’ve ever been there.

We are coming to understand that South Africa is a bit like 2 countries within 1. There is the country that exists in the cities like Port Elizabeth and then the other country that exists in the townships that surround the cities. We are here to spend most of the remainder of our trip in the townships that lie 5-8 miles outside of Port Elizabeth. I was nervous about this part of the trip because I didn’t know what to expect. We spent the second half of the day with Nelson getting acquainted with and shooting broll in several of the townships we will spend time in.

Lubabalo Kondlo and I outside his Wells Estates township house

This is an amazing place. The townships have their own rules. There is no government financial assistance for the poor here. Unemployment is somewhere between 28% and 80% in the townships depending on who you ask. Instead, they survive on a system called Ubuntu . Ubuntu basically involves people in the community looking after one another. If your neighbor has no food and you have some, you share. If there is trouble of most kinds the police are not called, they sort it out themselves. Knowing this, you start to understand how people often choose to remain in the townships even when they do manage to find a job and make some money. I am no longer worried. These are good people.

We came here to spend some more time with Lubabalo Kondlo, who we first met in Ohio back in September. Tomorrow begins the hard work of documenting his life here on the fringe.

The woman with the axe is preparing a sheep’s head for a dish called a “smiley”. Apparently once you’ve eaten the flesh from the face the sheep will smile at you. Jason is obsessed with eating one while we are here. Keith and I remain un-obsessed

The townships are full of “informal markets”

Post-apartheid township government housing complete with concrete roads and electricity

Students walk home from school, Kwasi Kheli township