the bird sanctuary

Another day at home. Slept in late, then cycled down the road to the dentist. Thought I'd get a cheap, familiar check-up while i was here. Tash came over after lunch to say hi. It was a glorious day, so we took a walk down the road to the Glen Austin Bird Sanctuary. It really is looking beautiful: water, grass, bird-life, veld and big sky (and no trees everywhere!!!) It is one of the gifts of living out in the plots and not in the city proper.
It may seem like an idyllic picture, but all is not paradise. Thanks to Apartheid's Groups Areas Act legislation, a few kilometers over the hill (nicely out of sight) is Tembisa - an ever-expanding township with informal settlements and zink 'shack' houses. This is where society's inequalities stare at you out of every home, and the poverty cannot be ignored.

South Africa - the land of life-giving tensions and contradictions. It is still good to be home.