Johannesburg, South Africa— I spent a day in Alexandra Township last month, where half a million people live in organized squalor in three square miles. Everyone seemed happy to see outsiders come to visit them. Our guide said it meant that we cared enough to bother.
Some teens danced for us at Joe’s Butchery, where we had lunch. Kids walking home from school crowded around the perimeter to watch.
All day, kids jumped into pictures, then crowded around the camera display to see themselves. They couldn’t get enough of it.
A street-side butcher (through a rainy window). Possibly the source of our lunch?
The people of Alexandra live in extreme poverty. My group was traveling in extreme luxury, what my late brother-in-law used to call “wretched excess.” The dichotomy made me queasy.
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Alexandra had great energy, everyone was busy trying to make money, smiling, and happy. No beggers, lots of individual industry. Remember the ladies making lovely bowls out of telephone wire?