My (Ooh!) Boy Lollipop

Every school in Mdantsane has a candy corner which is a by the learners much frequented place. This is our last post for the Inkwenkwezi High School in NU 6 (for now) and we want to express our gratitude to all the teachers and learners who have spend time with us and allowed us to show to our readers the inside of a South African High School in a township.

Oh boy, some hearts are gonna break!

There was no time to ask for her name, so we are only going to show her beautiful face. But some  hearts are gonna break very soon and they will continue breaking. over the next few years.

Candy For A Break

And there is more of it!

Enough for everyone

A Barbecue in Mdantsane Endaweni Style

The Mdantsanians like the good things in life. But they also like it simple and not complicated.

All Mdantsanians are first of all South Africans and there is nothing a South African likes as much as a good braai (barbecue, the Afrikaans word for grilling meat on a fire) in decent company with a couple of ice cold beers. 

If you give a South African the option to to choose between a braai and a gala evening at the Bolschoi theater or the Dresden Semper opera, he would choose his braai - not because he is not interested in culture and the arts but because a braai is the core essence of South African entertainment.  In simpler words : outdoors, fire, friends, drinks, music, meat!

With a fire going like this....

and an experienced grill master like him nothing can go wrong

Thandile was playing the braai master just for us on this day

Braaing at the Endaweni open air restaurant works like this. You got to the butchery right next door buy your meat and you prepare it yourself on one of the many fire places. Easy? Isn't it ?

The meat comes from the Mdantsane abattoir and the owners of Endaweni sell it at a very reasonable price.

"People are always surprised how cheap well sell the meat" says Thandile.

The meat was not only cheap but it had flavor.

The grilling process...

and even the tools are kept simple

which shows you that the good things in life do not necessarily need a lot of money but rather the right attitude.

And if you feel like having more meat you can just go back to the butchery!

There is more than one friendly lady willing to help you.

Somebody asked us the other day: How did this all start? How did you come to write about all the important small things in life?

The sum of all the small and so important things, and the way you do them make really up your life.

So it is important to discover how to enjoy life.

E N D A W E N I - Music Lounge And Butchery - The It Place In Mdantsane

The Endaweni Music Lounge and Butchery is a place that overlooks town.

It is the In-Place in Mdantsane at the moment. If you want to go out and have fun this is the place you should be heading for.

It is one of the few private double story buildings in Mdantsane

From the balcony on the upper level where you can have your drinks you can overlook the town and observe the street life below.

The two friends, African brothers and business partners Nceba and Thandile had a brilliant business idea approximately one and a half year ago. And their idea has paid out already!

Close Friends and Business Partners Thandile(left) and Nceba Kwakweni (right)

Nceba Kwakweni said to us that he is shy and that this is the first interview ever he is doing. But between you and me, I can tell you, that we could not find the shyness in him that he was talking about. In fact we had a lot of fun with him and his friend Thandile!

"Most of the people from the township drive to town if they want to be entertained and go out. There was no place here in Mdantsane, where people could meet, socialize and be entertained", says Nceba Kwakweni.

"So we decided let us build something here, so that the people stay in the township and find their entertainment here, instead of driving 25 minutes to town to go to a club".

Nceba Kwakweni Owner of Endaweni

As it was said so it was done. Endaweni is today an establishement that entertains people who come as far as from Jo'burg. The word has spread that Endaweni is a place where you can really chill out and have fun in township style.

Thandile

"We have become what you could call an International Lounge", says Nceba, laughing. 

Building a successful business together

The business has become so successful that the two are building now a VIP lounge in the back.

Inside The Lounge

"The lounge has style and a certain class but we have not forgotten that we are in a township" says Thandile," we have a dress code but we are flexible with it. We allow shorts if they are stylish but we do not allow cut-off jeans and we do not like caps too much".

Lounging At Endaweni

 

"From eight to ten we are a lounge, from ten to twelve we have become a club and the rest of the night we are really a club", explains Nceba Kwakweni

DJ'ing equipment

We make music here, we get DJ's in to entertain our guests and this is a very great attraction" Thandile adds to the conversation, we get DJ's from Mdantsane. There is a lot of talent here"

We are getting the feeling. Endaweni is a place where you can chill out in a very friendly and warm atmosphere, watch people from the balcony without been watched.....

The street below is busy at all times

Well, sometimes not been seen does not work......

It a place with a great future and enormous potential. Thandile and Nceba have created an African success story, a Mdantsane success story!  

Check in on The Mdantsane Way tomorrow when Nceba Kwakweni shares with us his personal view on doing business,building a VIP lounge and having success in Mdantsane.

You should not miss a close up on his open air restaurant in the back!

Bhele's Little Angels in Mdantsane

The Mdantsane Way Online Magazine can also be seen as a small scale development project with a very personal touch. One of our objectives is to introduce our readers to the life and environment of this large township, that is not covered by main stream media. 

Many of the people who contribute voluntarily to the magazine have been involved in some sort of humanitarian work before in their life. And some of us have come to the conclusion, that large development organization and bilateral collaborations between countries and continents are not the best instrument to drive development on the grass root level.

In Mdantsane live thousands and thousands of little angels. Children who will have it harder in life to advance, simply because of the fact that they have been born into living conditions much less favorable than those of other children in more a developed and affluent environment.

This fact makes parents even work harder to earn money to send their kids into a school or give them the necessary pre-school education. Most South Africans experience what we call the battle for education. In fact most Africans all over the continent experience this.

Bhele's Little Angels is a creche and kindergarten situated in an informal settlement of Mdantsane offering educare, and after-school care in a Christian environment. Pre-school education is so important because the child's mind is trained and formed at a very early age, preparing him for school and making it easier for the child to learn. The entire socialisation process of a child depends on what type information he or she had been exposed to in his first five years.

We are publishing detailed stories about projects and institutions on this site, not only to allow for a personal view on a reality, that is for many people strange and unknown, but also to introduce people to personal development opportunities as well. 

Our message is if you want to help, or let us rather say get involved, there will be a way. Everybody who wants to help can help. There are so many ways to get involved.

This is a message to our readers that if you see a project you want to get involved with, we can facilitate the contact, but we will not get involved as a development agent.  It is up to you to develop a personal realtionship with the organization or the person.

If you want to sponsor books, money, toys - you can. If you want to help develop the career of a future musician, artist or poet you can.  It does not matter if you are in the Philippines, in Russia or in Brazil.

If you do have an idea let us know!

The New Generation- Scenes From The Film Set

Velile Of Imonti Tours With The Kids

The generation that fought for the freedom of South Africa did not really get a lot of benefits from it. They knew they finally had achieved something incredible. The foundation for social justice for everyone and democracy had been laid. But they could not really feel it because the process of transformation would still take more than decades.

The generation that came after the ones who fought for freedom has still a heavy load to carry. The weight of Apartheid has placed a psychological burden on the children of the ones who fought for a free society. The aftermath of Apartheid has created emotional boundaries and suspicion amongst people of different color.

Velile Having Fun

But the ones whose lives have started a couple of years ago will be the free ones. They will not dwell on the past so much anymore. They will not think about color so much anymore. They will just live their lives!

They will not hesitate to reach out to whomever they want to reach out, no matter the color or language.

Lord Ax Hooper Connecting With the Kids

With these children the power of education has finally kicked in.

Each and every one of these kids could speak to us in perfect English.

You can feel the freedom rooted inside. You can see it in their eyes. You can see the fear that has walked South Africa's streets so long is gone.

There is a lot to talk and to learn from each other

It does obviously take three generations. 

But South Africa's future and hope is now walking the streets with confidence! 

We have to more stories of the Inkwenkwezi High School in preparation but we wanted to share these images with you.