Also new photos in the General photos section, Rotary photos, and Mozambique photos (mine, Raoni's, and Gugu's)
So, for this Day in the Life I decided to take a different approach. If you have been with the past Days in the Life then you will know that I have been taking pictures on the 15th of every month to document my days here in South Africa (and encouraging others to do the same of their daily lives in whatever part of the world they inhabit). I ripped off the idea from National Geographic’s Day in the Life series. I take photos at the top of the hour every hour of the day to give you an idea of what I do on an average day here in Pretoria. I labor under the impression that many people think it’s all glitz and glamour living in a different country, but I still have to study, do my laundry, and brush my teeth. If you’ve checked out my past photos you will know that days can be very routine…even when you live in a home away from home.
For this Day in the Life I decided to take photos of something else. I was getting bored with taking photos of me studying and taking naps and I figured maybe you were also getting tired of looking at photos of this. A few days ago I took a photo of one of my favorite security guards, Samuel (photo to left), and I thought that maybe it would be good to take photos of all the security guards I encounter in one day. I was curious as to how many security guards I pass in one day and how often I pass them. This is South Africa, folks. Security is a major concern in these parts. Not national security…which seems to be all the rage in the USA. Personal security is a very big concern in South Africa. People have security systems (sometimes with laser beams and James Bond stuff) in their houses, special locks in their cars that make it impossible to drive without unlocking one’s gear box (stick shift thingee), big fences, big dogs, security card entry to a lot of places (like my dormitory or my university), shoot…I even lock my closet every day I leave my dorm room. Seriously…I usually have to do a double take when I leave my room thinking “did I remember to lock my closet??” Clara…your OCD-ometer would be going crazy in this country. Although I think people in SA get a little crazy on the security tip it really is no joke that some dude will knife you on the street for R20 (US$2.85) and your cell phone. There is a major crime problem in this country. The causes/effects can be the debate and topic of many an essay and TV talk show…it’s a conversation that is too multi-faceted to be dealt with right here, right now on this blog post. And besides that, I’m still thinking and formulating my opinions on the subject.
To this end, there are security guards all over the place. At banks, at the mall, wandering my campus, even on the streets. Attempting to make South African landscape more secure…or at least to have an extra pair of eyes watching the situation. Having security guards is also another way to “create jobs”…a phrase that is heavily used in a place where many people are unemployed. Heck, I even see people sweeping the streets here with brooms just so that they are doing some sort of job they can be paid for. A newer thing here is for people to stand at traffic lights and take people’s trash from their cars for some small change. “Job creation” is a very real buzz word round here.
So who are these people? These security guards. The truth is that I don’t know. I realized when I formulated this security guard photo scheme that I am really fascinated by the security guards here, but don’t actually know that much about them. Who they are, where they come from, why they are security guards. It’s just a hard topic of conversation. I mean, how do you go up to a guy you see every day and try to tease out his life story in one conversation? It’s a process…just like learning about any person. It doesn’t happen overnight. There are quite a few security guards that I talk to on a regular basis (like Samuel). Security guards are all over. And, personally, I just feel like it’s a good policy to be on a first name basis with these guys. I sometimes come home very late at night (or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it) and so I think it’s important to be an individual to these guys. I feel like maybe they will look out a bit more for me if I am “Lynsee” to them and not just another girl walking (okay, riding my bike) down the street. I’m already sort of an individual because I’m usually alone. Riding my bike alone, walking alone (which is pretty strange here for a white girl…so I think). Also white girls just don’t ride bikes here. I would say that maybe like 5% (or much less) of the people on bikes here are girls. I saw my first black girl on a bike a few days ago and she wasn’t riding anywhere. I saw her in my dormitory complex, probably just taking a spin on someone else’s bike. Most are guys, specifically black guys, but white guys that live in the male dormitories here also ride bikes (cos it’s sort of far away from campus).
So, getting to know security guards is secretly (or maybe not so secretly) a selfish routine on my part. At my dormitory I have been known to bring food to the guards on duty. I might run errands down to the shop for them if they ask me or if I’m sorta tight with them and headed in that direction. I just feel like it’s a good policy to be on their good side. And besides these pretty selfish motivations, well, it’s just a good thing to be nice to security guards. The COIN security guards employed by the university work from 6am-6pm or 6pm-6am. That’s a long shift and a lot of times they are just standing in one spot keeping an eye on things. How boring is that? And how can you walk or ride by someone every day without saying hello? That is a big no-no here in Southern Africa…especially with black people. Not “greeting” is a big deal. It’s just rude. Recently I was in a grocery store and needed to find the laundry detergent. I went up to a guy working at the store and said “Hi, can you tell me where the washing powder is.” He very sarcastically said to me “Hello…how are you….” I was thoroughly embarrassed and realized how rude I was. Greeting is just what you do. You greet people. You say “Hello. How are you? I’m fine, thank you. And you?” I also flash a big smile, which is a great way of warming people up. Greeting can be very empty sometimes, but it’s the way of things here. You greet or you are rude. I’m a foreigner here so I can sometimes get away without greeting, but I know what the right way of things is here…so it’s not all that forgivable. Foreign immunity…sometimes a beautiful defense.
But I digress…who are these guys? From what I can piece together from people that are not security guards is that people who are security guards are generally folks that come from poorer areas of the country. I have gotten this impression from talking to the guys I meet, although it hasn’t been explicitly stated. A lot of them talk about home like it’s some place that is far away. Like maybe they only work in this area, but have families and kids in some other part of the country. Because of the apartheid system I have a feeling that this situation isn’t that uncommon…even today, some years after apartheid. Black people were relegated to crappy parts of the country that were far from city centers and, therefore, far away from jobs. Or black people were relegated to the outskirts of the city such that they provided a work force but didn’t invade on the daily routines of white people living in more populated areas. Please correct me if I’m wrong…it’s just what I’ve pieced together from reading and thinking about things on the ground today.
Supposedly, security guards usually don’t have matric diplomas (the equivalent of high school diploma/GED). I also get this impression from talking to security guards. They speak English, but usually it’s not that easy to have in depth conversations with most of the ones I’ve encountered. Man, trying to explain to the guys I met yesterday that I was taking photos of security guards for a photo project was an absolute mission. They just didn’t get it. Although I will say that I’ve had some pretty cool talks with security guards about evolution, outer space, and other more ethereal topics. They may have tried out to be police officers, but didn’t make the cut. They are mostly men. Mostly black men and usually pretty young guys, but that isn’t always the case. I’ve seen some women security guards but only on campus and only at the women’s dormitories. My guess is that these folks are the product of the most recent group of people that came up in apartheid or at the tail end of apartheid…such that they haven’t had some of the benefits that are supposedly available to “all” under the new South Africa. But also I will say that there are still many people that are not benefiting from the “advantages of democracy.” This is also too intense a topic to tackle right now. I’ve seen some security guards that are white people, but only security guards at special events. Like if the university hires out another security company for some big event. Usually the white people look like they might be in the same boat as their black security counterparts…maybe high school educated, but probably couldn’t really get a job doing much else. The security guards for this one company the university uses are really really dumb, in my experience. Like can’t think outside of anything their boss briefed them on. It can be frustrating. I think that maybe a lot of the guys I encounter every day are also like this, but I’m just not able to pick it up as good. I did get that impression from taking (or trying to take) photos of them yesterday. Have you ever dealt with someone at their job and you can just see that they can’t think independently of what their boss told them the rules are??? Bureacratic government people (like at the DMV) are perfect examples of this. That is what it was like to ask these guys if I could take their photo. Some of them were like “it’s okay, just do it quickly before my boss sees or just don’t make a scene.” Like I said, these guys just didn’t grasp why some person was walking around taking photos of security guards for no apparent reason other than interest.
So what was it like to take photos of security guards? It was really fun for the most part. First, explaining my project to them. Also being super polite and joking around to make them more comfortable. Like I said earlier, a lot of them didn’t understand what the heck I was doing. They were confused and I think just let me take their photo so I would leave them alone or so they didn’t have to deal with the situation. I enjoyed the confusion. It was kind of amusing and also added to the joy of succeeding in taking their photo. One thing I didn't like about taking these guys photos is that they usually stopped doing their natural pose (usually leaning up against something) before I took a photo...so these are really posed photos. But, maybe it's something I'll need to work on for next time. A few of the guys asked me if I would pay them to take their photo. I gave people my business card with my website on it if they wanted to see the photos. I also thought it would increase my credibility.
So, these are my photos of the day. Hope you like them. I will write more about going to Mozambique and what’s happening now very very soon.
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