TALES FROM A TOWNSHIP - by Christopher O'Brien-Lynch.
When the man in seat 45 F of the Lufthansa Airbus stood up and admitted, in a theatrically plaintive voice, that he “didn’t know what a tracker mortgage was”, to the general hilarity of all within earshot, I knew that my airborne comrades were a good-humoured lot. During a week of very close company with them, I soon learned that, as well as a sense of humour, they were collectively possessed of an overwhelming desire to meet an ambitious house-building target of 200 new houses in a South African township –which they did and how!
My friend Dessie Coleman – one of the greatest scaffolders on this side of the Cape of good Hope-, my son Guy and I had boarded the impressive craft earlier on that (November 2nd) Friday morning at Dublin airport en route to Capetown on the South-western tip of South Africa to take part in the Niall Mellon Township 2007 Challenge. Our odyssey had been made possible by the hard work of my wife Debbie as chief fundraiser, son Robin and, most importantly, the many hundreds of generous and enthusiastic donors to our fund-raising campaign. Now it was time for us to put the funds to good and practical use!
As new volunteers, along with 900 other first-timers, we were joined by hundreds of other battle-hardened souls with experience of one, two, three and four similar, but smaller, trips to the fledging African democracy, to form a massive workforce of 1380 willing tradesmen and helpers - virgins and veterans alike.
We were both excited and proud to be part of the greatest single, civilian, voluntary exodus from the Emerald Isle in history. While we were, naturally, nervous about what lay ahead of us, we had the real comfort of knowing that the Niall Mellon organisation would make everything easy for us, leaving us free to concentrate on our task of creating new homes for hundreds of shack-dwellers. This “comfort zone” had been engendered by our experience of a highly efficient, well-oiled, friendly and helpful organisation to date.
Our trust turned out to be well-placed as the logistics of moving, feeding, housing and usefully occupying the time of almost 1400 men and women (in a country of many challenges) unfolded unerringly over the following week.
When we reached Dublin airport at 06.30 on that mild Friday morning, we were met by smiling, young ladies handing out yellow wrist-bands to help us to feel part of a “family” as we advanced our way through the departure lounge. It sounds “gushy” but it was just the job and it set a friendly tone straight away.
The Press swarmed all around us, treating us like minor celebrities before we had even hammered a single nail in anger, but I soon realised that a great part of the success of the Niall Mellon phenomenon is the ability to generate publicity at every turn, which, in itself, generates more support and ultimately, more success. Up the meedja!
Guy and Dessie and I bought our designer, wrap-around shades in the Sky-shop for a bargain 15 euros each, and they served us well amidst the sand and sun for a week. They are now adorning the faces of a few of our new township friends.
Health and safety issues like sun-glasses, Factor 40 sun-block, the need to drink copious amounts of bottled water daily, advice on personal safety and security, etc., had all been well-aired at a series of public information meetings in various venues throughout the island of Ireland earlier in September. We had ventured to Newry to learn about our up-coming adventure and were sobered by the starkness of the information on the dreadful poverty/HIV/AIDS situation in a country that that gave to the world, amongst other things, the Cullinan Diamond, the Kruger National Park and 2 Rugby World Cup winning teams.
We also learned of the extremely high rate of murder, rape, robbery and other violence in the daily lives of many of the citizens – mainly Black and Coloured – of South Africa, but then Ireland is not exactly a crime-free zone ( though not, in fairness, to the same extent)!
Nothing was shielded from us at that information session so that we were left in no doubt as to the many difficulties that could arise if we did not follow common-sense rules as outlined by our mentors, based on their personal experience. The emphasis was clearly on the side of maximising the potential of the greatest number of healthy, injury-free, live volunteers to complete the daunting target of completing 200 new homes for the use of as many shack inhabitants as the number of volunteers, more or less. This was going to be a working week, not a holiday in the sun.
It was left to ourselves to discover later that a life-changing and fulfilling experience lay ahead for all of us, and that crime and security statistics do not include the incredible warmth, dignity and affection of a grateful community of men, women and children.
Every volunteer had earned his or her (225 women took part) right to be included in the Great Niall Mellon Get-away by raising 4,000 euros or equivalent (the team included 62 volunteers from 13 countries outside the island of Ireland).The multitude of stories of fund-raising activities undertaken to accrue over five and a half million euros would fill a decent-sized book on its own. Amazing and exotic enterprises as well as more mundane raffles, table quizzes, sales, haircuts, living in a shack for a weekend, mock weddings, and, in many cases, volunteers’ personal contributions.
Debbie’s garden, Guy’s Duleek Drama Group, Robin’s Black Bull quiz friends, Dessie’s builders, Susan’s garden and many, many personal donations given with so much love for a cause that is now a household name for practical and enduring self-assistance, were the mainstay of our fund-raising. Irish people are so generous and the people in our region were no exception. Thank you –your donations were put to good and long-lasting use –we have the photographs!
People do not give up such time, energy and endeavour for nothing and it soon became apparent from conversations that many volunteers had very personal reasons or commitments in their involvement with the Niall Mellon trip. For some, it was just a natural thing for them to help those (extremely) less fortunate than themselves; for others, there were more profound, achingly (in some cases) personal causes, some disclosed, some to remain just that –personal.
Many volunteers donated much more than the stipulated amount of sponsorship, so that more building materials could be provided –more materials, therefore more houses, therefore more security, therefore more chance of changing the shack-dwellers’ statistic of 80% unemployment. One lady from the Midlands was enduring in her praise of Brendan Shine, who had filled out her local hall to the delight of her many dancing friends and had thereby added to the ICA raffles, bring and buy sales, knitted tea-cosies, etc,. so that she was proud to hand over 20,000 euros on her own behalf. She generously offered to give me Brendan’s number in case I ran out of garden for next years’ trip. Justin Timberlake, eat your heart out!
The Niall Mellon organisation is a wonderful animal. Like any good species destined for survival, it has adapted to its environment and responds to its needs in a practical and intelligent manner. Again, like any species that wants to stay around for a while, contribute and compete, it does its homework constantly and is in a constant ste of preparedness. It “gives the talk and does the walk” and, unlike most species, has an insatiable desire to change the environment for the betterment of those who, through no primary fault of their own, have found unfavourable conditions of existence.
This desire is fuelled by example and by the continuing challenge offered to ordinary, boring souls like ourselves who are stimulated to act extraordinarily for a short period of time to change the lives of others –Messianic in spirit maybe, but deeply-rooted in practicality and no-nonsense real world action.
The charity doesn’t “do” administrative costs – Niall looks after all costs personally – so all of your donation, every hard-earned cent of it, goes towards the direct cost of flying out the volunteer workers, housing and part-feeding them, bussing them to work to maximum effect, and, mostly, towards providing the direct cost of building materials for the houses built by the same volunteers. No waste.
By 2010, Niall Mellon will have personally donated 10 million euros to the project.
It needed five large aeroplanes and a strong headwind, leaving from Dublin, Shannon and Cork to carry the enthusiastic party of tradesmen, labourers, medicos, team leaders, and enthusiastic (but necessary) “gofers” to get the 2007 Niall Mellon Building Blitz off the ground, along with their assorted power-drills, measuring tapes, trowels, cordless screw guns, hammers, saws, paint-brushes, monkey wrenches, pipe cutters, floats, spanners, hack-saws, spirit-levels (would the bubble be upside-down in the Southern Hemisphere, we wondered to ourselves?) and spirit without the levels, in some cases, to while away the 12 hours aloft. There were probably a few Rosary beads as well!
In addition to the steel-capped boots (a must for everyone),the sun-cream and the shades, there was a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of teddy-bears, soft toys, clothes, colouring books, GAA, soccer and rugby jerseys of every hue (even a Kilkenny football shirt, unused), pens, pencils, markers, copybooks, hair bobbles, shoes, etc., etc. I was happy to carry, as hand luggage, a football bag of 32 Meath jerseys, compliments of the County Board. It was felt that the fact that the jerseys were adorned with a former sponsor’s name would not be an impediment to the mindset of their new owners.
As new kids on the block, it soon became apparent that the more confident volunteers proved to be those, naturally, that were on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even their 5th (about 30 in total) trip to build houses. We stood a bit in awe of them –they weren’t smug, just a bit more content in themselves. One day, we said, we’ll be as good as them!
A two-hour delay on our flight only served to enable more liquid refreshment to be consumed, thereby making many of the volunteers even happier than before, and guaranteed a longer sleep for some on the 12-hour long flight. We subsequently learned that some of the other planes had longer delays, long, hot fuel stop-overs in Ghana (with no toilets working) and, in some cases, a 19-hour flight with missing luggage. But, you know, when we later spoke to these unfortunate fliers, they just shrugged their experience off and didn’t complain. They had arrived and were rarin’ to go!
After all the delays and detours, the planes all landed at Capetown airport within a short time of each other (having started at greatly different times).
Niall Mellon was on hand to personally shake hand with every volunteer as they walked through passport control and a lone (but very enthusiastic) piper, along with a welcoming party of friendly faces, struck up a hearty fanfare for all of us as we emerged from Arrivals to board our pre-ordained buses.
What a way to go!
All the volunteers were billeted in five adjacent hotels, all of a very good standard. Niall Mellon firmly believes that you can get more work from workers who have slept well in comfortable surroundings. He’s right.
There was a great sense of excitement that we were about to get stuck into some physical work after all the fund-raising and anticipation and talk. After a light snack, we all got to our bedrooms at about 04.00
There, we found our Niall Mellon kit bag, which included our name tags (which were subsequently worn at all times, and were a great job), seven T-shirts , one polo shirt, one bandana, one sun-hat, one hard hat and a rain (yes rain!) jacket. Also included were a very useful “Volunteers Rough Guide to the 2007 Blitz” and a health and safety guide. The colour of the T-shirt meant that Guy and I were destined for the Yellow team (little did we know!).
Dessie, who was in a different hotel, turned out to be destined for the White team, which were comprised of supervisors, and included Niall Mellon. One up for Dessie!
But then, after 40 years’ experience as a top-class scaffolder, it was a good coup for the team, and it meant that he wouldn’t be on our backs; God help Niall Mellon, we said!
We dozed off at about 04.30.
When the first shrills of the hotel wake-up call sounded at 06.30 (with a second call 15 minutes later) we knew that Niall and the crew weren’t joking when they spoke about “hitting the ground running”.
Following a nutritious breakfast (plenty of choice), we all (1380 of us) assembled in a giant marquee – “The Arches”, which had been erected in a grass area between the main hotels and would be the after-work meeting point for the rest of the week. During the following evenings, it included a very long bar with lots of barmen ready and willing to serve (cheap) beer to tired and thirsty builders. For this Saturday morning, it was the focus for the rallying of the troops on their way to the township by Niall Mellon and his team.
It was a very moving experience for us to see almost 1400 volunteers sitting down in one place with their kit-bags ready, bursting for action. I can’t imagine what it was like for Niall, but his voice seemed to be under control when he addressed us.
Niall speaks simply with simple words and sentences, to which people listen, with quiet admiration and not a little emotion. For many in the audience, the tears rolled freely as the magnitude of what he was outlining was about to unfold with us as the unfolders.
He has a habit of diverting all the credit away from himself and onto his team –whether it is his full-time staff or his volunteer “army”.
He made the virgin volunteers welcome and the veterans proud by asking the 900 “novices” to show themselves off and then each group from the previous four “blitzes were asked to stand up and take a bow. Proud and humble at the same time!
He went on to praise the 125 volunteers who had “started the ball rolling” by building 25 houses in 2003, increasing in capacity yearly until now when, between the 2007 Blitz and the ongoing work of his permanent team in South Africa, his target of providing 5,000 houses for shack-dwellers in South Africa has been reached, and ,according to no less a source than Nelson Mandela himself, The Niall Mellon Township Initiative now builds more houses for the poor in South Africa than any other charity!
When our tears (but not our admiration) had dried up, we were given a comprehensive outline of “house-keeping” matters –health and safety, building practices, deadlines, emergencies, water intake, the extremely high incidence of HIV/AIDS., security, etc.(those who had flight luggage problems were attended to).
Nothing is left to chance in this organisation, and common sense prevails.
It became quickly apparent that the team of volunteers had become a bit like the cast of “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” on tour, because everyone had donned their appropriately coloured T-shirt. A quick look at the number of shoulder “pips” (a mini South African/Irish flag) disclosed the number of “blitzes” completed – a great idea, and a situation that was characterised, as I said earlier, not by superiority or smugness, but by quiet pride.
When you have fifteen construction teams (of about 70 volunteers to each team), you have to come up with fancy colours like “apple green”, “terracotta” and, oops!, “lilac”. We were just plain “yellow”, but then someone has to be just ordinary!
Each team had a foreman plus assistant, a medical nurse –dark blue with a red cross (the T-shirt, not the nurse) -18 nurses and 7 doctors in total on-site- a team leader plus assistant (drawn from Niall Mellon’s permanent staff), a health and safety co-ordinator, and a list of 15 houses to complete.
Four “trade” (painters, plumbers, electricians and gardeners –yes, gardeners!) teams “floated” between construction teams as required at any one time. The gardeners actually stayed on their own site –“The Garden of Hope” (more about that later).
The entire crew of teams was supervised by the “whites” (including our Dessie).
Following a final reminder to drink lots of bottled water (at least 3 litres a day), apply the Factor 40 and wear sunglasses and a hard hat- gloves optional but strongly recommended- we all left the arches for the 25 or so buses that were now surrounding us like covered wagons.
You won’t find too many golf courses or country clubs in Mitchells Plain.
You will find lots and lots of sand (dirty sand) and shacks, very limited and extremely basic infrastructure and a population of about mainly 50,000 Coloured (as distinct from Black – that’s a long story for another day) men, women and children.
The children with the jaundiced eyes and the constantly – running noses are the ones infected with Aids.
But they are all smiling. The most enduring impression of the inhabitants of shacks in the townships is their collective and individual dignity.
Our chosen site in Mitchells Plain (established during the Apartheid era) is Freedom Park – an area occupied by the local residents on Freedom Day (a public holiday) in 1998 –well into the post-apartheid era - out of frustration at the rate of housing progress and the subject of much township resistance against the authorities in order to gain ,at the least, basic sanitation (and it is basic). Niall Mellon has been working here for the past 18 months in preparation for this “blitz”.
Now is the hour!
As we disembark from the massed buses, we are regaled again by the tireless and wonderful bag-piper, accompanied this time by the smiling faces of the residents, intoning “Mornings” and “thank you” in resonance to the pipes. I’ll have to stop crying at this stage or I won’t get any houses built, that’s for sure!
We are accompanied all the way and all the time by armed police and baton-wielding security personnel with guard dogs in tow (this remains so for the entire week), and, as we pass the serried ranks of embarrassingly grateful residents (women and children mostly), it is quickly apparent that these people own very little but hope-most of them haven’t even got front teeth!.
The site is about as big as Stameen, and looks like any modern building site, with houses in various stages of construction and lots of teleporters and portaloos and baskets of concrete blocks, etc. It is entirely surrounded by a high wire-mesh fence, patrolled by our doggie friends at all times, and is entirely surrounded by shacks of every conceivable shape, size and description. The space for our building site has been created by the voluntary shifting of shacks closer to their neighbours and the terrain is entirely composed of sea-sand.
But it’s no Bettystown, and we need to get cracking and change the landscape.
The decisions regarding who or what families get shiny, new homes is a complex one and the process of choosing “beneficiaries”, as they are called, unravels a long time before the first foundation slab is laid in the dirty sand.
Extensive consultation takes place between the Mellon people and the local community leaders –remember that these communities have been here for generations, in some cases, and a strong community organisation has evolved. As Niall Mellon says “don’t equate poverty with ignorance” –these are intelligent communities, with great potential, despite all the afore-mentioned hazards.
There are a number of “mortgage”-type arrangements in place (both with Niall Mellon houses and state-sponsored houses) and a system called “sweat-equity” is provided as collateral for the purchase of the houses, which cannot be sold for at least 5 years. This system involves the use of direct labour instead of cash (a rare commodity here) on behalf of the recipients, or beneficiaries, over a designated period of time.
A community will have a minimum of about 200 families before they get involved with this remarkable self-help scheme.
Housing the two and a half million (and rising) shack-dwellers in South Africa is a political “hot potato” and the problem is raised on everyone’s –Black, Coloured, Indian and White) - lips. The general consensus is that progress on housing has been very slow since democracy began in 1994.Niall Mellon is certainly making a difference, albeit a small one, but it keeps the profile of township shacks high on the political agenda.
In order to give constructive work to everyone of the volunteers at once, the graded development of the new houses is vital. There is a permanent, local team working full-time on the project, so that all the foundations are already laid, all groundworks -sewerage, roadways, etc.- are in place, the 2-storey houses are ready to plaster and finish, and some of the bungalows are at wall-plate level(ready for a roof) – usually there were a combination of two 2-storey and thirteen bungalows to each team.
This means that blockies, carpenters, plumbers, painters, roofers, plasterers, electricians (80% of the volunteers are tradesmen, 20% willing labourers and “gofers”) can all start work at once.
However, it is very fair to say that nobody remains idle in Mellonland, because if a roofer is temporarily waiting for a wall to be finished, he just transforms himself into a blockie or a labourer for as long as it needs.This was the type of work ethic that pervaded the whole group throughout the week. There was a strong sense that we were privileged to be here and we were going to make the most of the donations generously handed over to us in trust .The only challenge that you had to encounter was your conscience. That keeps you going well beyond the comfort and pain barriers.Lunch was a swift experience and your tea did not get much chance to cool at the brief morning break. A clanging bang of a lump hammer on the side of the tools compound got all back to work for fear of a second thunder-strike.
Dessie went off with the big boys and Guy and I were told to make ourselves useful with the yellow gang. The core of this team was made up of a group of friends and brothers from County Down, with a few from Armagh, Tyrone, Antrim, Cavan and elsewhere.
As Royal County men, we had to show a firm resolve to immediately fit in with their belief that Rome was, indeed, built in one day and, if you had a week, then a few other cities could be quickly added on for good measure.
It is probably fair to say that an army of ants would feel inadequate in the company of these building machines, which included Raymond, a block-layer who defied the normal laws of physical endeavour, because he seemed to be in eternal motion without the normal needs of rest and food –he did quaff liberally from the water-bottle, as we all did.
Trusses were hoisted up on walls, as blockies finished gable-ends; lathes, battens, facia board, felt, tiles and red mortar all merged miraculously in what seemed like moments, as each day passed and every new roof made our initial barren landscape almost confusing to find each morning, so quickly did the houses rise.
If a house was not ready for a roof, roofers instantly changed into expert blockies as we made our own walls and gables to keep the momentum up. Materials were gobbled up and other teams had to keep a weather eye on their stock-piles to avoid the h
ungry yellow peril at their doorstep.
Anyone old enough to remember a treshing in a haggard in Ireland long ago will get some idea of this meitheal approach to collective work – it was fun and it got done. Rest could wait.
We left the site at about half past five in the evening to be shepherded (in the company of the ever- present army of security personnel and armed police) on to the awaiting fleet of buses through the cordon of smiling bands of residents, who lined up each evening and morning to demonstrate their excitement and gratitude at the transformation of an arid site of sea-sand into a community of new homes – this was constantly a very humbling experience!
When the siren blew each evening , there was a general reluctance to “down tools”, but the volunteers had to vacate the township in good time before dark for security reasons.
Sadly, this township, like others, with its high unemployment and extreme poverty, is riven with equally high levels of serious crime and violence on an everyday basis.
This daily fact of life, combined with the smiling faces and welcoming voices, is part of the complex tapestry of township existence, and was a sanguine thought for us all as we were ferried back to our first-world way of life in beautiful, downtown Capetown.
Most volunteers soon fell into a comfortable slumber as the coaches sped under the awesome shadow of the majestic Table Mountain, allowing for a “power nap” before being deposited at the impressive watering-hole, known as the “Arches”, where a small army of barmen awaited to satisfy a much larger army of parched throats. Draught and bottled beer was cheap and cheerful – 15 euros (150 rand) purchased 10 plastic tokens, which magically transformed themselves into 10 cool beers!
Various forms of entertainment – karaoke, a craft fair, bands, etc.,- livened up each night before a clean-up and a cheap taxi-ride ( no walking after dark!) down to the world-famous Waterfront area, just choc-a-bloc with top-class restaurants and bars, and smiling service. Every conceivable meat, fish, vegetable and dessert awaited us at (for Irish diners) extremely good value.
Many of the volunteers (especially the “yellow” men from the County Down and surrounds) seemed to defy normal levels of fatigue and endurance by “burning the candle at both ends”, but this zest for life only seemed to spur them on to super-human levels of productivity on the building site during the week – they said that they could catch up with their sleep come Christmas!
As each day unfolded, the site became utterly transformed from a series of foundations to rows of well-constructed, brightly coloured, finished ,homes emerging like terra –cotta mushrooms from the white sands of a site previously occupied by wooden and tin shacks – it was bit like “fast-forwarding” a video of a few months’ construction work into a week of intense, but organised, completion.
The weather was warm and dry mostly (those that forgot to apply the Factor 40 remembered fairly quickly on the next day!), with a constant, sand-filled wind blowing most of the time. Our flashy glasses did the trick and made everyone look seriously cool all the time! For those of us, who spent most of our time on the roof, the wind was especially strong, and, on the Wednesday, was accompanied by a biting, harshly-cold rain, which would do justice to a late February afternoon in Collon!
The work went on, unimpeded, though, regardless of the weather, and the only break from the constant pace was when each volunteer was encouraged to take an hour off during the week to visit the homes of the shack-dwellers (or a local school) and to experience their situation, even for a few minutes. The striking aspect of these visits was the immense pride that each resident took from keeping their shack as homely as possible, under the extreme circumstances in which they found themselves – again, this was a very moving and humbling experience for the volunteers, who might as well have come from a different planet!
By Thursday afternoon, our team had completed our quota of homes, so we just moved on to a different site and helped out another team (we took down their county flag -I won’t say which one!- first, and hoisted the Black and Red banner of our adopted Down gang). As noon struck on the Friday, we were proudly putting the finishing touches to our “extra” home. Many of the volunteers had come in early on the Friday morning to finish their allotted homes – during the week, there was also an early bus for those willing to go “the extra mile”.
All the volunteers then gathered at the newly-built community centre, surrounded by the Diairmaid Gavin –assisted “Garden of Hope”, a simple, horticultural oasis, where there was a ceremonial handing-over of one house to a beaming beneficiary family.
More tears.
When Niall Mellon had asked the family when they were ready to move into their new home, they replied “ the moment that you move out”.
This area had been a centre of media interest during the week, with constant TV, radio and print activity during the week – we had been aware of helicopters with mounted cameras like gunships, hovering over us all week, but we had just kept the head down and kept hammering the roof nails!
The media coverage, though, is extremely important to keep the good work in the public eye with a view to fund-raising and volunteer recruitment. Niall and his team do not miss a trick when it comes to benevolent exposure.
Many of us were asked, on our arrival home, did we get the “bug” (there was a story about some of the volunteers getting “funny tummies”).
Well, we sure did – the “bug” to go out and raise more funds to continue the good work in 2008!
After the ceremonies, the volunteers, en masse, divested themselves of clothes, toys, personal tools and equipment, boots, Niall Mellon T-shirts and, of course, the ubiquitous GAA, rugby and soccer football jerseys (no Ban here!) –all the hand luggage on the way out! My Louth next-door neighbours in Stameen opined that, had Setanta beamed this year’s Cork-Meath match in Croke Park into the townships, the children may not have worn the Royal colours with such pride, but we got away with it!
We moved towards the buses for the last time, in various states of undress, reluctantly and sadly, as we passed the serried ranks of our new friends, as always, smiling and waving.
We left behind the visible results of our enjoyable toil – 203 completed,new homes - and an invisible, individual, store of very special memories, and a fervent desire to return in greater numbers to continue the good work.
We had only time to “clean up” and change in the late afternoon, before we were bussed to a farewell dinner, compliments of Niall Mellon himself, where Ms.Leah Tutu, wife of the world famous former Archbishop of Capetown, thanked us for our support and example to others as to what can be achieved with a little bit of vision, and trust in mankind, and invited us back next year to keep up the good work.
Sleep was forsaken by Niall’s “army of ants” during the night as the dawn beckoned the fleet of large planes to carry us, tired, happy and, mostly intoxicated, back to our comfortable lives in another world. A personal letter from Nelson Mandela himself to Niall Mellon , on behalf of the volunteers, awaited each and every volunteer on their return to their rooms, acknowledging the contribution to his people by our people.
Like Irish politics through the centuries, the situation in South Africa is very complex, and needs a lot of understanding.
The townships are a product of a previous system, but, ironically, under universal franchise, the township population is increasing annually for a number of reasons.
In Niall Mellon’s own words, his volunteers’ contribution is a mere “drop in the ocean” to the 2.4 million township dwellers, but to the 203 families of Freedom Park in 2007, it is paradise.
It’s funny the way Niall Mellon and Nelson Mandela share the same initials, isn’t it?
COBL –Dec 07
