Getting to know people

The effort of kick starting a PPEN Book club in East London in the community of Nompumelelo, Beacon Bay, has been a journey that has had many detours, pit stops, toll roads, road works constructions, pot holes and road blocks. All of those though are just part and parcel of the realities of the road towards getting books into communities where social development around education and human settlement is not as up-to-standard as it should be. This has meant that the road is trickier than just mere bends and curves, because there are social issues that are at play and need to be dealt with in a profound manner. One of those ways is getting to know the people who reside there, the issues and realities. Do not get me wrong, these are not for us to try and remedy, but just to be aware of as we embark on a mission to flood the “shanty” with literature and a spirit of reading with kids and being read to by kids. In this way, we get to know the people, and they get to know us and the issue of inculcating a reading culture in developmentally disadvantage areas of human settlement is not detached from the everyday lives of people.