No Better Day, No Better Place--Diepsloot, July 9, 2016

Day 1, July 9, 2016

Yesterday was a wonderful day.  Team USA had time to have a good breakfast and then practice their presentation a few times in the morning before the official activities of the day began.  We are all very happy with the way the presentation and our design are developing.  Then we had a quick lunch and visited with some of the other teams and with Dave Viola, from IAPMO.  It felt like coming home--and that was even before we got to Diepsloot!

At 1:00 PM we had a short introductory session to go over some safety and security guidelines and to meet the staff from WASSUP who will be with us for the week.  Then we were really on our way!

Our home base for the week is the Father Louis Blondel Community Centre.  We are guests of the Catholic church this week--we deeply appreciate their hospitality and their commitment to the Diepsloot community.  

Pictures  are courtesy of Gallo Images, taken by Lefty Shivambu.

We got our first look at the units that we will be working on this week, which really started to make this real.  

Then we had an opening ceremony, starting with a prayer by Father Isaac, and short speeches and introductions.  

Father Isaac

                         

David Donald, from Healthabitat

Father Isaac, the ladies of the 
Wot-if? trust, and WASSUP
representatives.

Then we got a surprise!  Christopher Rowan, the Consul General from the United States Embassy came for the afternoon.  We had a chance to talk with him and get pictures taken and he went into the community with us to see the sites where our refurbished toilets will be installed later in the week.

We talked to Mr. Rowan about the student from Fox Valley Technical College that we had a chanced to visit with earlier this spring.  We all laughed about how small the world is--he said that student has been participating in a nine-month leadership and community development program that he has been involved with.  

Driving through Diepsloot was fascinating.  It is very hard to do it justice because virtually every building has a wall around it.  I tried to take pictures as we drove down the very rutted--sometimes almost impassible streets--so that you can get even a small sense of what it is like to be here.

We tried not to take pictures of people on the street, so as to be sensitive to privacy and respect, so I know this looks pretty bland.  There were lots of people on the street because it was Saturday.  Lots of shops selling vegetables, clothes, everything you can imagine--people carrying live chickens home as well.  Doug said it reminded him a lot of Jamaica and Peru.

We also saw "our " street, where our units will go, with the existing inoperable units in place.  that certainly is a wake-up call about what we are working toward.

"Our" street had houses along the street, with the fences and barricades we are becoming accustomed to.  Children were running and playing in a stream of untreated water/sewage that was running down the middle of the road.  All four teams said they saw similar conditions as they went around town.

Our special guest, the Consular General, was splashed with unmentionables as we all tried to get out of the way of a car on "our" street.  Fortunately he said he is still interested in coming back later in the week to see our units installed.


In contrast, below are two pictures of brand new units.

After our tour we came back to the Louis Blondel Centre and had wonderful music and dramatic entertainment.

And then, this happened!

This appears to be what happens when Martha has her first Carling's Black Label since college!

Then it was time to go home, with the day rounded out by a demonstration and a vehicle stand-off as we left town!  All around, this was an exciting first day!

Tomorrow will be ASPE Day for Team USA, and we will have pictures of actual work being done!