Its 9 August, Women’s Day – and in South Africa, a public holiday. So here I sit outside on a glorious sunny winter’s day chilled by a gentle breeze coming off the distant snow-capped mountains. Against the orchestra of birds in the background, building continues behind me as builders who speak many languages do their jobs methodologically, piece-by-piece, as the new homes emerge like sculptures from the raw materials that get trucked every day onto the sites.
As I sit and read the assignments by my students on their visions for building sustainable cities, I am awed by all that surrounds me. The ancient mountains that have seen it all, the birds that have returned as the gardens have grown over the years, and the new lives being created within out village as they fix in clay, wood, steel and sandbags the coordinates of their future lives. And its what happens in-between as the community and gardens grow that holds it all together. What a living prayer it is to be part of all lthis.