It sits beside the tin-roofed metal framework of what the church hopes will be a new facility. The rusting frame has been in place for three and a half years. A businessman donated 2,000 cinder blocks, which are stacked on the dirt floor. Another 3,000 blocks are needed, Bathwell says. In America, such slow progress would be discouraging, but in South Africa, it is typical.
Church members take pride in the progress they have made.
The Zolani community includes houses that range from small to tiny. Some are nothing more than shacks of wood and metal. Here 65 percent of the people have no work, Bathwell says, and most of the available jobs are for just six months per year, when the fruit canneries in nearby Ashton are running. Unemployment is even worse in Khayalitsha, he says, and there are more who live in shanties, and there are many children who sleep without bread. They told me not long ago that they wanted to cut down on 'wastage,' and would not give it to me any more.