Reality

Apart from the long lunch breaks, the half-days on Fridays and the champagne receptions on national days (and there are over 50 countries with representations in Pretoria that all celebrate their national day...), one of the things I like most about my job at the Embassy is that I get insight into a much wider range of topics than when working at the Treasury.

But while I enjoy working on social issues like HIV/AIDS and education, the things I am learning often highlight a side of South Africa that is oh-so-easy to forget for the fortunate few, but a sad reality for many people.

During a recent visit to a community project in central Johannesburg, one of these realities became painfully obvious. I wrote an article about it for our website; here’s an extract:

We visit Victoria, a Congolese woman, who fled to South Africa with her three daughters. Victoria welcomes us with a smile on her face and her grandson in her arms. Her two teenage daughters join us and we ask what they learned in school today.

Looking at the floor, the girls hesitate and Victoria tells us that they did not go to school today.

“Why now? You must go to school!” we say, “Why did you not go?”

The girls remain silent and stare at the floor; Victoria mumbles “No food”.

We look at her in confusion: “No food? Since when?”

Lulling the baby in her arms, Victoria looks at us and says “Friday.”

It was Monday afternoon.