Big, Bad Hillbrow Isn’t so Big and Bad

Like many large cities, several “neighbourhoods” dominate Joburg’s city centre.  One of these central neighbourhoods is Hillbrow.  This is where my work is located.  However, this area has a bad reputation for crime (mugging, murder, rape, car-jackings, etc.), poverty and all of the negative things for which Johannesburg is associated.  During the day it’s relatively safe to do brief walking (i.e. on occasion I cross the street to go to the other RHRU building or around the block to the BP petrol station to get airtime for my phone), but it’s basically a no-go zone at night.   Although I’ve passed through there a couple times during darkness, i.e. to go to the Ellis Park Stadium for the Spain v. Paraguay game, when it’s bathed in an eerie, dim, yellow-orange light from the street lights.  Anj, Aleefia and I are half joking when we tease about the rule that we’ve made for night driving: drive AWAY from the Telkom SA tower (the tower that dominates the Joburg city skyline and is at the heart of Hillbrow) even if we need to go in that general direction for any period of time.  However, as part of our orientation to the Research Unit, some of the staff arranged for a walking tour for first-thing Monday morning.  What a great way to begin the week.  [Insert here the expletive of your choice that expresses the feeling of impending doom] 

We nervously walked to the office of the woman who would be taking us around for the three hours.  Yep, three whole hours spent that would not be under the protection of the security guard-patrolled, double-gated, barbed wire and electric fenced RHRU facility.   However, we quickly discovered that we were in good hands.  Yael, the woman who would be conducting the tour, formerly was involved in urban planning for the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).  She began by telling us very interesting facts about the city, the largest in the world that is not located on any body of water.  For example:

• The city once used to be a magnet for peoples around the world—Europeans, Asians, etc.  During the 1960’s and 70’s, the city was rapidly developed; more skyscrapers were built here in that period of time than in places like New York to accommodate the influx of people and capitol.
• Under the apartheid regime, the city was systematically underdeveloped. Hillbrow had NO budget!  People simply abandoned their properties because the value of the buildings had crashed.  Once true democracy came to SA in 1994, street lights, sidewalks and other basic amenities that not only cleaned up the area to make it look nicer, but safer as well, were added.  
• The area is undergoing a change of “complexion”; now the area is commonly referred to as “the United States of Africa” because this is where all of the migrants from the rest of the continent come for economic opportunities.  Furthermore, Yael and I were the only “whities” and Aleefia and Anj were the only people of Indian descent walking around the area (pretty much everywhere else is a nice blend of all different races).

Surprisingly, many of the insecurities that Anj, Aleefia and I had melted away as we walked around Hillbrow and the area surrounding the RHRU.  Yael was completely at ease telling us how the city has invested in making people feel safe and secure by introducing regulations that forced building owners to take control of their buildings, allowing private companies to purchase buildings and provide services like security and install “green areas” within the city limits.  She continually said “hello” to the security guards that patrol the area and random individuals.  She explained to us which building owners that were following regulations and those that weren’t, pointed out the illegal shabeens(?)—informal bars/restaurants—and stalls that sold random goods along the sides of the street and took us to a park/soccer pitch that was located a couple blocks from the RHRU.

 Yael’s hands-on approach really dispelled the myths and misconceptions of Hillbrow for us.  It was easy to get caught up in the hype of Hillbrow/Joburg that simply seems to be, at times, scare mongering.  The masses of people who are continually walking around have stories, reasons for being just like you and I.  They are real people with real lives, hopes and dreams, insecurities, etc.  Each of us commented that this realisation helped us get over some of the feelings of nervousness and fear that has sometimes overwhelmingly loomed over us when in the area.

The Hillbrow tour ended with a quick walk round Constitution Hill (“Conhill”), where the South African Constitutional Court is now located.  The “hill” was built by the Boers of one of the Boer (Afrikaner) Republics  (I can’t remember which—First or Second) and housed the old, backward fort (the façade faced the inside!), prisons and other miscellaneous Afrikaner-run institutions (again, can’t remember…).  It has been transformed into a wonderful mix of museum, courthouse and art gallery.   We will have to go back over lunch one of these days to eat in the café and spend an hour or so in the different sections.

The rest of the week was spent, for the most part, sitting in my office trying to make contact and speak with the appropriate officials: university, health facility, governmental, etc.  I’m starting to think that research is all administration and little to no data collection (which still hasn’t happened yet despite my time here being half finished—three of six weeks remain!)!  It’s frustrating and making me become ever more glad that I’m going to medical school and not, as of now, pursuing a PhD and a career based solely on research.  Although I’ve had more internal meetings with my research team and other RHRU individuals that could assist me with or advise me on certain aspects of my study, I was able to “break out” of Hillbrow to make several more health facility visits to seek permission from clinic managers to include them in my study.  I also was able to make some progress, albeit very limited, on gaining ethical approval from Univ. of Wits Medical School (which is at the crux of my heartache).  I really would like to complete my study, but I’m realising more and more that I NEED a backup plan.  Does any one have an extra data set that they need analysing?  I haven’t started to panic yet, so at least that’s one of the good things that is happening! 

The Best Way to End a “Blah” Week: WORLD CUP MATCH!

Two weeks down, four to go.   Although my time in Joburg is one-third finished, this past week was a bit stressful.   The best way to explain it is that it was a “TIA” (“this is Africa”) week—nothing that needed to get finished was able to be finished and no one could have been bothered.  The relaxed, snail’s pace of the way that life and work events unfold have been testing my Western-moulded expectations and experiences of the way in which everything should be conducted in a structured, efficient and timely manner.  I keep reminding myself that I’ve functioned successfully on Africa time before, but it takes time to get reacquainted with the mentality and lifestyle.  However, I’ve never had a degree outcome that depends on what happens here, so it’s a bit hard to reassure oneself with that thought floating through one’s mind!

The problem is approval from relevant bodies, specifically from the Wits Medical School’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).  I’ve gotten conditional approval, but I haven’t been able to get hold of the minutes of the meeting in which my project protocol was reviewed.  I need the minutes so I can address the specific comments of one of my reviewers for full approval!  The woman responsible for that has taken an entire week to transcribe them!  Without full approval, I can’t schedule interviews to get my data.  So it’s been two whole weeks and I have nothing.  This week doesn’t look promising for data collection, either (apparently it takes about a week for the turnaround).  I also need provincial and city approval for which the applications have not yet been submitted because I don’t have proper permission from the university.  AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!  Hopefully I’ll look back on all of this and realise that it wasn’t at all bad as it sometimes feels.

Apparently I shouldn’t be worried, though.  My supervisor, who is now in Canada for a conference and will be there until Friday evening (!MORE STRESS!), doesn’t seem to be concerned.  She’s said that I’ve got plenty of time to get my data, but probably at the expense of my final week here that should be spent working on the write-up (including the critical step of interpreting my findings).  She’s also given me comfort in the fact that she has been advising me to focus on actually writing my thesis, or at least outlining it and thinking about its contents, as well as other logistical things that are, according to her, usually forgotten.  She is an alumnus of LSHTM (that’s how I got into contact with her), so I’ll be sure to keep in mind her experience from going through the process for herself!  

Some good things have come out of the week, which was not a waste.  I have at least had time to select the majority of my study participants and am in the process of contacting/lining-up my final interviews.  I’ve also been able to finalise my questionnaires and get better acquainted with my research team and co-workers at the RHRU.  I’ll just have to push back the interviews/data collection to the next and following weeks instead of this and next week!

Another great thing about the week was the arrival of the other LSHTM students who are conducting their summer projects in Joburg.  Out of the six of us, half (including myself) work at the RHRU!  The best part is that my two “co-workers” live about 5-10min drive away from me.  We’ve hired a car, so I can actually do things with friends in the evenings and on weekends!!!!!! I’m no longer confined to work and my one-room cottage!  FREEDOM!  I no longer feel like a lone prisoner who is behind locked bars, electric fences and barbed wire.  Another nice thing is that four of us are on my course—Control of Infectious Diseases—so I actually am friends with these people, too!  The other two are really nice as well, so we should all get along.

The six of us have already done several things together: a night out for dinner in Melville (the young, college student-filled suburb that is next to Emmarentia, where I’m staying), an evening at a park to watch the Ghana v. Uruguay match at a FIFA Fan Fest (one of the many parks that has a big screen for watching selected World Cup matches, along with food stands and a stage for a live band) and an ACTUAL, LIVE WORLD CUP MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!

After thinking and assuming that I wouldn’t be able to go to one of the FIFA World Cup matches, I DID!  We’ve been trying for the past several days to get tickets to one of the matches in Joburg from the website, but the connection kept timing out so we weren’t able to secure the tickets.  I was so disappointed that we couldn’t see the Ghana v. Uruguay game at Soccer City (it may have worked out for the best because I was hoping, like nearly everyone else, Ghana would win and go on to grab the title for Africa, but they didn’t!!!).   However, once Aleefia, Anj and I finished watching the Germany v. Argentina game (JA, GERMANY!!!!! FANTASTISCH!  SUPER! GET THE 4^th STAR!!!!!) at one of the malls in the area, we went back to their house to hang out.  Earlier in the day Anj nearly got tickets for the Spain v. Paraguay match (another timed-out connection!), but she still kept thinking about it and checked when we arrived.  Tickets were still available, so she tried to get them in one last effort.  SUCCESS!!!!  ¡ESPAÑA v. PARAGUAY!

We rushed out of the house with one and a half hour until the match started.  Anj and Aleefia are living with a Wits professor, so we were able to park EXTREMELY close to the Park-and-Ride busses that shuttle people from where they park to the stadium.  Luckily the match was at Ellis Park Stadium, the closest of the two Joburg venues.  We hopped onto the bus to the stadium, where we had to run round (well, Aleefia and Anj did most of the running) to get the tickets and verify them.  We missed the start of the match by about 10 minutes, but it was exciting nonetheless.

The night air was cool and crisp, and the constant buzz of the vuvuzelas in the glowing white light-bathed stadium was intoxicating.  With the exception of the random, nearby blast of the brightly-coloured and -decorated plastic horns that seemingly blew off your ear, the vuvuzelas actually became background noise that, surprisingly, added to the high-energy atmosphere.  It was apparent that almost everyone was cheering for Spain given all of the Spanish flags, scarves, wigs, hats, etc. of all shapes and sizes that adorned every visible part of many people.  Everything was red and yellow.  Although we lacked the apparel, each of us was cheering for Spain.  Furthermore, our seats were excellent. They were on the corner of the stadium overlooking one of the goals.  It was easy to see and was the perfect position to see the only goal of the game, which belonged to Spain.  WOW!  The night was the best one so far during the time in SA!   To witness firsthand Africa’s [first] World Cup was truly a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

 Before finishing, I’d like to wish all of my fellow Americans, friends and family alike, a safe and a “Happy 4^th of July”!  Please enjoy yourselves for my overseas American friends and I who are missing the festivities at home!  No worries because the World Cup will be my treat for the holiday, although the fireworks and good company that goes along with Independence Day were surely missed!