You gotta love South Africa's Municipal Services- NOT!

This last week the municipal workers have been on strike to encourage a pay increase. The result of this has been that our trash service has not run for a week and trash sits all along our city streets. This can make for quite a mess as generally each trash day there are many of the impoverished going through the trash to find cans to sell, food to eat and anything that will get them through to the next day. The workers marched on downtown Durban in the area where the Bible Education Centre/ retail shop is where Cameron works. They were mostly going through the streets and spreading trash everywhere. The police did come through and advise the shop to close up as there would probably be looting, so most people skedaddled out of town to miss the excitement. Funny that the police were not really interested in preventing the looting, just warning those it was about to happen. In the end, the shop was safe, the workers received a 13% raise and trash service is now back to normal. Because unemployment is around 25% for the country, many jobs pay extremely low wages, so this was probably a very needed raise.

This same strike also affected the Johannesburg Zoo, where volunteeers had to step in to feed the animals. Also around that area, the striking turned more violent as the workers are lashing out at the foreigners that have come in from other war-torn African countries and taken "their" jobs. There is a Congolese lady in our church that works with Cameron who has been here around ten years. Just before we came, she had to take refuge in our church because of the violence in her neighborhood by South Africans who are angry for others taking their jobs.

On a more humorous note, we received notice from the municipality that they are going to be working on the watermain pipelines from now until November. The note read like this:

We will replace old watermain pipelines to reduce leaks in the system. The work entails excavating TRIAL holes (i.e. we have no stinking idea where any of our pipes are) to locate the existing pipes and other services. Thereafter, the old ASBESTOS cement water pipes will be replaced and properties connected to the new system. Water supply may be interrupted for a short period whilst we are working. However, you will be advised in advance of the date and time of the ANTICIPATED interruptions.

So basically, these people have no idea where the water pipes are and they are now randomly jackhammering holes until they find the pipes! I imagine it will be a long spring as we enjoy creative ways to store water!!