Return to Waterloo

Greetings. Long time no see on this most Chaotic of Fronts.

It's been quite a tumultuous 2 years in the life of this Writer. Two novels completed, a third on the way. Moving house from the town of John Graham (now known as Makhanda) to the small close-knit community of the Midlands Meander was a traumatic and loaded chain of events. 

But lo! And furthermore behold! We are still alive. What motivated the moving finger to write this? Well, another tumultuous chain of events, of course.
After migrating from the EC to the not-so-tender arms of KZN, I reunited with some family in Waterloo, north of the Durban. This is a township, not abjectly poor but quite under-resourced and neglected. The people hustle and make do. The youth on the other hand, has to pay R20 (about $1, 50) to get to the CBD which is just way too much for a place with such high unemployment levels. I happened to teach my 25 year old nephew Magic, The Gathering and we decided to teach more of his friends. A sort of school developed whereby we taught anyone who wished to learn. There were the basic challenges. The game cards were in English and these ghetto youth were not used to reading aloud and quite consistently in English. The technicalities of the game were trying to teach to some who had trouble grappling terms like "scry," "renown" and "constellation." But their literacy grew, which was one of my major aims, besides giving them a pastime to engage themelves in over getting ridiculously stoned and passing out several times a day. And as thier literacy grew, so did their listening ability. There were many positive effects to the learning.

I donated about 80% of my own collection and, over time, motivated some friends and strangers to donate theirs, too. We got a few thousand cards together and divided them amongst the crew, which was 5 to 8 people at any given time. We played in a small shack that could not house us all comfortably.  It was a lot of work and an equal amount of fun to teach and play with them. The toughest thing was getting them to resolve abilities,  as that takes a combination of literacy, numeracy culminated and displayed by comprehension.  With this game, I stressed the importance of rights, numeracy and literacy. Rights is an interesting aspect of the game. One has a right to read an opponent's card, as the opponent does. One has the right to ask certain questions the opponent is obliged to answer, such as hand or library or graveyard size. One has the right to concede the game when the opportunity arises. It also teaches perceptiveness and attention to detail. Ifnone does not comprehend well, it shows and the game becomes less fun. Over time, those diligent and deliberate minds expanded. Watching the youth interact with each other through the game was just priceless. 

But let us not forget the matter or cost. Games such as this are not cheap or easy to acquire, especially in the townships of South Africa. MtG was a new thing to most of them, the nearest comparison available to a South African youth being Yu-Gi-Oh! the tv show. As we grew deeper into the game, frustration from learning gave way to satisfaction from knowledge gained. The games got better, of course, but also the numbers grew. Our attempts at getting  community space for the game were thwarted by lazy local ANC incumbents and an all but invisible Democratic Alliance municipality. After moving back to the Midlands, I collected more cards for them and we worked on meeting up again. A year went by. Upon my recent return, I happened upon the tragic news that my nephew's mother had burned most of their collection in an attempt to rid them of "demonic spirits." This harm to their hobby was visible the moment I walked in. They weren't jamming or engaging. They were passed out on their beds, listening to Trap and not practicing their English or numeracy. When I arrived with my new donations, the 2 players who were there were super excited, elated, even. Calls were made and Whatsapp messages were sent. "He brought us some fresh cards!" 


Whilst there I began building an artifact creatures deck but time was too short for a full brewing session. Halfway, we decided to play the decks I have been pre-constructing at home for the last year. I played Viashino Warriors mono red and Luyanda played Heroic mono black. I lost 2 - 1 but in my defense Viashinos suck compared to anything else mono red. There, I said it. 

There are many issues at play here. One is the issue of access for township children to alternative interventions and hobbies. Another is the economics of gaming. The exclusivity of games because of their prices. Another issue is the miseducation of our older generation, which sees anything alternative as harbouring an evil spirit there to taint the fragole souls and minds of our youth. Upon discovering that over ZAR5000 of my cards were thrown away by mynown mother a year past, (2 EDH decks and a mono white Prison deck including sideboards.) I had such a loss of temper that I had to leave home. And eventually seek therapy. Was it my fault that a "Christian" took it upon her self to try and "protect" me from apparent demonology? Was it my fault that I lost not only cash value, but a personal collection that I was emotionally invested in? The answer is obvious. It was I, though, who needed therapy and medication afterwards, not the self-righteous and self-appointed saviour of souls. But if this happened to me and to my nephew, it surely has happened to others. Gaming, in other families and in a greater scale, countries is largely supported. Children and young adults are given room to nurture their skills and thinking faculties. Would it be better if we just got stoned, drugged up and drinking in the corner of the street? Because our churches are not helping us intellectually expand, not in any township I have been to. Our community centers are secondary churches, too. The intellectual life of our youth can be creatively stimulated and if the small Waterloo Project showed such results, I wonder what a nationwide model would do. I've seen people improve their speech, reading and writing through my teaching. I have seen them make time for each other, grow in empathy and brotherhood. Oh yes, it was only males. If I get into the issue of women in Gaming, I won't stop writing. 

It is a lot to live with, social decay, neglect and poverty. It is even harder to deal with when the townships are so seperated from resources that it costs them more to survive than it does to slowly die. I went through much in the past 2 years, but giving away my own cards was the least I could do to really save a life. The Waterloo Project gave a few kids a chance to do something else. Recently we were talking about Gaming news instead of celebrities or music or who got shot. I learned things I hadn't discovered from people who wouldn't have taught me this a year ago. I know that another world is possible if we give of our selves. And this is but one tabletop trading card game. Imagine if I brought 5 computers and we played DOTA or LoL? Imagine if we started a DnD group on the side? But this is the township. And money talks louder when you have less of it. We will build. We will build. I promise you. We will build a better future. One card at a time.