No lady GaGa
Sander Timmermans is a third year student Cultural and Social Education. During his work placement, he works with young delinquents in a prison in Cape Town (South-Africa). The news reports of this country have been mainly about the World Cup the last months, and the next future months’ reports will be nothing different. The World Cup is held in the months of June and July this year, but that’s not the only thing happening. Until the start of the World Cup, Sander will give his personal view on the biggest sport event in the world, and what the consequences are for the local population and surroundings.
'Lively and more happy than ever'
Right below me live a man and his little son. Aged thirty and eight. The man is an ex-junk and converted his life when his son was born. They always come home in the evening, when it is dinner time for the Dutch. The boy usually plays with a ball against the wall of their hermetically closed garden of concrete. He rarely has friends about the house and he cannot play on the street; I don’t have to explain why. These are the suburbs of Cape Town. Nevertheless, the two seem very lively and more happy than ever. The following I realized for the first time, after seven months in this country.
A gentle saxophone's solo
After a long working day I spent part of the evening in the garden. The darkness cooled down the hot day. The downstairs neighbours arrived, a few minutes later followed by a relaxing jazz sound which made me think of French summer nights’ atmospheres. Happy moments. The little boy giggled and amused himself while dad was preparing dinner. This all caused a conclusion to occur my mind: these kinds of atmospheres aren’t European but universal. The subtlety within evenings, the atmosphere floating outside the house, by which everybody within a certain zone gets captured. A soft saxophone’s sound at nightfall at the foot of the mountain, hidden between old slaves’ houses and the snapping laundry behind barbed wire and barred doors. The feeling of subtlety within a cruel reality. And the World Cup’s prospects, which the whole country is waiting for.
Surrounded by good music
Behind many doors a good home shelters, which shuts out the arrogance from the streets. Sometimes, the Cape-people must be reminded of that. To purify the eyes, the heads and the eardrums from the shrill city. And how incredibly well it is for this little boy to grow up with good music. I hear him humming saxophone’s solos instead of Lady Gaga. My heart has grown for Cape Town.
