We had first visited the township of Langa to take a tour of the community center and the surrounding town. What I was initially overwhelmed with was the observation that everyone seemed to be incredibly upbeat and positive. There were kids running around and playing and people seemed very willing to talk to us about their stories.
The next day we went into Langa again to go to Dinner at Mama Sheila's. This inspiring woman owns a Lelapa restaurant in the township and over the years managed to keep expanding on her house and eventually buy her neighbors home until the restaurant is as we see it today. Hearing this womans' story about how she ended up in the restaurant business was inspiring. And I won't repeat the whole thing because my rendition couldn't do her justice. But essentially she started out working as a maid in several peoples homes, until she ventured out and started selling clothes, and finally fell into the restaurant business as there became a demand for tourism in the township. This to me is the most interesting trend that I've seen here is people's creativity and ability to create something out of nothing. Even many people's homes that appear to be just little shacks on the outside are vibrant and quite homey on the inside.
No comments:
Post a Comment