Soweto's Underbelly

The first place in Soweto where we disembarked from Alan's car was a decrepit section with dirt streets and no running water. It was abject poverty on par with what I had only previously witnessed in the Philippines and Cambodia. It is very humbling to visit such a place as a well-to-do westerner. You immediately feel "expensive" as you become conscious of the watch on your wrist, the cell phone in your pocket, the camera attached to your belt, and the sneakers on your feet. At first, we were a little unsure as to how secure it would be, but Alan and our subsequent neighborhood guide (whose name escapes me, but he is pictured below in the Bafana Bafana jersey talking with Bill) assured us we would be okay, and that it was okay to take pictures. So pictures we took.
Our guide first took us to the tiny Embizweni day care center/school for young children, from 2-10 years old. Here's the sign out front...
The children's artwork on the wall...
The scant books, toys, dinosaurs, and other educational supplies...
The woman who runs the day care center asked us to sign a guest book and make a donation. She says that almost all of their funding comes from donations from tourists. Now we knew why this was our first stop--it was an excellent opportunity for these people to separate Bill and me from our rand. We were fine with that, and we agreed to her request willingly because this place needed the money.

Down the street from the day care, this house has corn and other crops growing in the front yard...
A woman getting water from the neighborhood well...
It was a Saturday, so all the kids in the neighborhood were out in the street playing. This little guy hammed it up for the camera...
A couple of girls...
A youngster juggling a soccer ball...
Much of the country's soccer talent comes from streets like these in Soweto. Indeed, not too far away from this neighborhood, Nike built an immaculate multi-million-dollar training center (um, priorities?). The best players go on to play for Bafana Bafana and professionally for the local Soweto club teams: the fantastically-named Kaizer Chiefs or their arch-rival Orlando Pirates. These teenagers were kicking it around...
This group of guys thought strategically when they noticed I had taken their picture. Once I snapped it they asked to see it in my camera. When I let them, they used the opportunity at close proximity to ask for a few rand to get something to eat. We gave out a few rand to several of them...
At the top of the street, where Alan was parked, this guy and several colleagues were selling both vuvuzelas and their handmade art. Bill and I both bought small handmade stone sculptures, and I also picked up a handmade beaded figurine blowing a vuvuzela.
Everyone we met in this neighborhood was as nice and as welcoming as anybody we met throughout our trip. The living conditions have not affected their spirits. We asked Alan what was the number one thing that Soweto needed to pull all of its people out of poverty and into the middle class, and he responded, "Housing." While many parts of Soweto are nicer, there are simply too many people living like we saw in this neighborhood who will have a very difficult time creating a better life for themselves. The poverty we witnessed is both an ugly legacy of apartheid and a major challenge facing the South African government.