Goodbye Cape Town....it all started with David

I first met David one evening on the rocks in mid December. My dinner was in the process of cooking. I had noticed him earlier using a cut down version of a plastic Woolworths supermarket trolley as a luge down one of the nearby streets. Luckily the street was one-way. During our chat, he told me he had recently been caught "stealing" a train journey ie he had traveled without a ticket and had already been to court. He showed me a document that indicated he had been remanded to appear again early next year. At that stage, I didn't know he was illiterate. He was 20 years old and seemed to have been 'homeless" for some time. He told me he slept around the foreshore and eventually asked me for R5 so he could buy some bread. He was pleasant with a sense of humour and easy to speak to even though his first language is Afrikaans. He often spent time at the rocks to swim in the pool and to wash even though there were some fresh water beach showers nearby. He told me he occasionally got casual building work for a day at a time but was often ripped off by the employers. It appears as if they are promised R120-140 per day but sometimes paid less at the end. He and his fellow homeless mates were often hassled by the local police.
( 1$US = R7.3 )


Before going back to my apartment, I decided I would give him some of my now cooked meal so told him I would be back shortly ( or "just now" in the local vernacular ). I packed a bag with half my evening meal, bread and fruit and he happily went on his way back to his own "home".

I thought afterwards that probably the best I could have done for him was take him down to the railway station and buy him a ticket to get back to his real home, assuming this was far from Cape Town.

A week or so later, I met another couple of lads who we discovered in conversation were David's "house mates". They knew I was the one who gave him the food parcel which he shared with them. He also told them I was praying for him ( a lot of good that would do !! ). When I questioned them further on where they slept, they went to great pains to make sure I didn't think they slept in a cave but within a pile of large rocks..like a A frame structure. There must be some sort of social class structure within this community. There were lots of small loose stones near so they could hear if others, including the police, were approaching at night. One of these guys was David's cousin and he indicated that David's mother ( his father was dead ) had a problem with alcohol. She lived out on the Cape flats, not all that far away. David had been a serial offender on the trains and was just not smart enough to know where to jump off the train to avoid the transport police.

I met David again a few days later and decided to give him a treat...a day at home. Instead of bringing him some food, I arranged to collect him and bring him home next morning. I then cooked some food, let him have a shower, wash his cloths and watch television while his clothes dried. Before doing this, I went and bought him a T shirt and shorts to wear while his clothes were being washed. This turned out to be a big success. He was so happy and appreciative. He insisted on cleaning the house and when I said I had a maid, he still went ahead and cleaned the kitchen anyway. Asked what he wanted to watch, he said cartoons or anything with fighting. It turned out his favourite programme was Popeye cartoons. During our conversations, I learnt he was not only illiterate but had terrible problems with numbers as well. His schooling was not a pleasant experience and had been the butt of class jokes though he did talk fondly of one teacher. He had worked as a plasterer for a relative in the past and appeared quite knowledgeable about various plastering techniques as he pointed out the features in my apartment. I took some photos of him in his new clothes and he just fell in love with his own image when I printed out a few.

As it was getting close to Christmas, he did indicate he wanted to go home so at the end of the day, armed with a food parcel with jam specially for his mother, his new clothes, his clean old clothes, his images and some money, he said he would go home. I received a short phone call later in the day to say he had arrived home and I have not heard from him again. Nor have his mates on the beach. This I consider good as I did expect to see him on the beach again. I did think his best chance in life was to again to work in the building trade hopefully with a relative who would not rip him off.

Later I met others at the rocks who knew I was the man who helped David. One older guy, Lennox, said David had been homeless off and on for many years..up to 7. He himself was pleased for himself for, after several years of being homeless, had recently found a job and consequently could afford a small place to live.
 
At this stage, little did I know where this would lead.....