Ethembeni Senior Service Centre
Joza, Grahamstown, South Africa
The Physical Environment
Ethembeni Senior Service Centre is located in the Joza area of the township around Grahamstown, South Africa. I hop off the mini-bus right next to the Joza Petrol Station and look across the street to Ethembeni, my home for two days a week. A six-foot high concrete wall, painted an almost orange beige color, encloses a small open area. The wall does provide a certain amount of security and privacy, but its bright color and lack of razor sharp edges along the top make it less intimidating. A gap in the wall is filled with a white painted metal gate. While the centre is open the gate remains unlocked. I step through the gate and see the small open space enclosed by the exterior wall. There is a brick patio that includes two wood benches placed against the inside of the exterior walls. The bricks are a variety of bright shades of red, orange, yellow, and everything in between. Next to the brick patio is a patch of green grass with two sapling trees beginning to grow in the middle. At the far end of the patch of grass are a few sections of dirt designated for gardening. There are carrots, tomatoes, heads of lettuce, and onions in their early stages of growth coming out of the dirt. The garden is not very tidy, as dirt spills over the edges and weeds litter the garden patches.
The main building itself is a small one-level square-shaped concrete building painted the same color as the exterior wall. Right beneath the peak edge of the triangular roof is a brown sign with white lettering announcing to visitors that they are about to enter “Ethembeni Service Centre.” The two large rectangular windows on the front side of the building by the entrance are covered on the outside but a white metal gate so as to prevent unwanted intruders from breaking the windows. The white, orange, and brown pattern curtains just inside the windows are closed. The white gate on the exterior of the main entrance door to the building is held wide open by a rock. The door itself is brown wood with a silver-colored metal handle. The wooden is also held open on the interior of the building by a rock.
The interior of the building is divided into four sections with most of the area being taken up by the main social area. In the back of the building there is a narrow kitchen and a bathroom. In the front left of the building, immediately to my left as I walk in, is a small office for Grace Ngcete, the woman who runs the Centre. The main social area has grey tiled vinyl flooring with five rectangular folding tables with white table covers and black plastic chairs arranged around them. On the walls there are windows running along each side of the building, several collections of pictures from past landmark events at the centre, and two cork bulletin boards with news articles, information on medical care and tuberculosis, and calendars. Just based on the physical environment the Centre is very clearly a simple and small place. Though the pictures on the walls do speak to some of the character of the Centre, the physical environment in no way tells the story of the interactions, relationships, and lives of its members.
The Place and the People
Ethembeni Senior Service Centre is a day centre for elderly township Grahamstonians. The people pay 15 rand per month for membership at the centre. The practical services offered by the Centre include two meals a day—breakfast and lunch—for Monday through Friday during the week, transportation to and from the Centre for those who need it, and in certain cases extra help organizing medications and pills. The more spiritual services include community, friendship, interaction with other elderly people, and a welcoming and relaxing place to stay during the day. The Centre is run by Grace Ngcete, a 65 year-old lifetime Grahamstonian, who is compassionate, engaging, and loving in all that she does at the Centre. She does not have 35 “members” at the centre, but rather, she has 35 friends there. Also, Connie, a boisterous woman with a big laugh, runs the kitchen with a little bit of help from a few local older women. About 2/3 of the regular members of the Centre are women. And then there is me. A 20-year old white male from the United States who spends Mondays and Fridays at the Centre as a guest and friend.
Though each day is different in small ways I will attempt to capture the atmosphere of the Centre through a description of everything going on at one moment. At the table furthest to the left, seven people are gathered around a table playing cards. People are chatting and laughing as they play. At two separate tables right of center in the main social area, several women work on knitting and beadwork mostly in silence. Two women are laying down along built in bench style seating against the right wall. Four women, including Connie, stand in the kitchen cooking, washing, dishes, and talking with much enthusiasm. Grace is at another table left of center, clipping an older man’s fingernails and carrying on three conversations at once with various people at the Centre. Mr. Madolo, an 82 year-old regular at the Centre is standing in the doorway singing and improvising songs, half in Xhosa, half in English. Several women sit quietly outside on the benches on the brick patio in the shade. Several men and women are sitting in plastic chairs outside at the right edge of the building at the end of the vegetable garden smoking cigarettes and chatting. Most of the men are dressed in slacks, some shabby, some newer looking, and a button-down shirt. Most of the women are wearing full covering dresses and sweater blouses and hats with a variety of colors and patterns. There is a reasonably consistent level of noise and chatter with the occasional interjection of a boisterous laugh from the kitchen or the card table, or a bellow from the full voice of Mr. Madolo.
Conclusion
Generally during our daily interactions and activities we do not have a heightened sense of awareness in regards to specific details about anything from the sounds of birds to the color of someone’s clothing. In order to truly appreciate and articulate the dynamic atmosphere of an environment, we must heighten our awareness to very specific details about the people we see, the colors of buildings and structures, the collection of sounds we hear, and the ways in which people interact with one another. These observations are valuable not only for trying to describe a certain environment or group of people, but also to understand better issues of socioeconomic status, race, class, gender, language, religion, and other social structures affecting society. This exercise in field work is a reminder that an explicit state of awareness is necessary to make the best attempt at describing a particular environment. It is also a reminder that being specifically observant in the course of our daily actions, whether in field work or not, is a valuable practice to understanding our community and identity.
Joza, Grahamstown, South Africa
The Physical Environment
Ethembeni Senior Service Centre is located in the Joza area of the township around Grahamstown, South Africa. I hop off the mini-bus right next to the Joza Petrol Station and look across the street to Ethembeni, my home for two days a week. A six-foot high concrete wall, painted an almost orange beige color, encloses a small open area. The wall does provide a certain amount of security and privacy, but its bright color and lack of razor sharp edges along the top make it less intimidating. A gap in the wall is filled with a white painted metal gate. While the centre is open the gate remains unlocked. I step through the gate and see the small open space enclosed by the exterior wall. There is a brick patio that includes two wood benches placed against the inside of the exterior walls. The bricks are a variety of bright shades of red, orange, yellow, and everything in between. Next to the brick patio is a patch of green grass with two sapling trees beginning to grow in the middle. At the far end of the patch of grass are a few sections of dirt designated for gardening. There are carrots, tomatoes, heads of lettuce, and onions in their early stages of growth coming out of the dirt. The garden is not very tidy, as dirt spills over the edges and weeds litter the garden patches.
The main building itself is a small one-level square-shaped concrete building painted the same color as the exterior wall. Right beneath the peak edge of the triangular roof is a brown sign with white lettering announcing to visitors that they are about to enter “Ethembeni Service Centre.” The two large rectangular windows on the front side of the building by the entrance are covered on the outside but a white metal gate so as to prevent unwanted intruders from breaking the windows. The white, orange, and brown pattern curtains just inside the windows are closed. The white gate on the exterior of the main entrance door to the building is held wide open by a rock. The door itself is brown wood with a silver-colored metal handle. The wooden is also held open on the interior of the building by a rock.
The interior of the building is divided into four sections with most of the area being taken up by the main social area. In the back of the building there is a narrow kitchen and a bathroom. In the front left of the building, immediately to my left as I walk in, is a small office for Grace Ngcete, the woman who runs the Centre. The main social area has grey tiled vinyl flooring with five rectangular folding tables with white table covers and black plastic chairs arranged around them. On the walls there are windows running along each side of the building, several collections of pictures from past landmark events at the centre, and two cork bulletin boards with news articles, information on medical care and tuberculosis, and calendars. Just based on the physical environment the Centre is very clearly a simple and small place. Though the pictures on the walls do speak to some of the character of the Centre, the physical environment in no way tells the story of the interactions, relationships, and lives of its members.
The Place and the People
Ethembeni Senior Service Centre is a day centre for elderly township Grahamstonians. The people pay 15 rand per month for membership at the centre. The practical services offered by the Centre include two meals a day—breakfast and lunch—for Monday through Friday during the week, transportation to and from the Centre for those who need it, and in certain cases extra help organizing medications and pills. The more spiritual services include community, friendship, interaction with other elderly people, and a welcoming and relaxing place to stay during the day. The Centre is run by Grace Ngcete, a 65 year-old lifetime Grahamstonian, who is compassionate, engaging, and loving in all that she does at the Centre. She does not have 35 “members” at the centre, but rather, she has 35 friends there. Also, Connie, a boisterous woman with a big laugh, runs the kitchen with a little bit of help from a few local older women. About 2/3 of the regular members of the Centre are women. And then there is me. A 20-year old white male from the United States who spends Mondays and Fridays at the Centre as a guest and friend.
Though each day is different in small ways I will attempt to capture the atmosphere of the Centre through a description of everything going on at one moment. At the table furthest to the left, seven people are gathered around a table playing cards. People are chatting and laughing as they play. At two separate tables right of center in the main social area, several women work on knitting and beadwork mostly in silence. Two women are laying down along built in bench style seating against the right wall. Four women, including Connie, stand in the kitchen cooking, washing, dishes, and talking with much enthusiasm. Grace is at another table left of center, clipping an older man’s fingernails and carrying on three conversations at once with various people at the Centre. Mr. Madolo, an 82 year-old regular at the Centre is standing in the doorway singing and improvising songs, half in Xhosa, half in English. Several women sit quietly outside on the benches on the brick patio in the shade. Several men and women are sitting in plastic chairs outside at the right edge of the building at the end of the vegetable garden smoking cigarettes and chatting. Most of the men are dressed in slacks, some shabby, some newer looking, and a button-down shirt. Most of the women are wearing full covering dresses and sweater blouses and hats with a variety of colors and patterns. There is a reasonably consistent level of noise and chatter with the occasional interjection of a boisterous laugh from the kitchen or the card table, or a bellow from the full voice of Mr. Madolo.
Conclusion
Generally during our daily interactions and activities we do not have a heightened sense of awareness in regards to specific details about anything from the sounds of birds to the color of someone’s clothing. In order to truly appreciate and articulate the dynamic atmosphere of an environment, we must heighten our awareness to very specific details about the people we see, the colors of buildings and structures, the collection of sounds we hear, and the ways in which people interact with one another. These observations are valuable not only for trying to describe a certain environment or group of people, but also to understand better issues of socioeconomic status, race, class, gender, language, religion, and other social structures affecting society. This exercise in field work is a reminder that an explicit state of awareness is necessary to make the best attempt at describing a particular environment. It is also a reminder that being specifically observant in the course of our daily actions, whether in field work or not, is a valuable practice to understanding our community and identity.
