Red Tape, No Problem

Anyone who has ever had to build a building knows that the list of things you have to do that don't involve actually building is long and very frustrating. Blue prints, zoning boards, approval plans, contractor agreements, etc. And when the paperwork includes a government office or two, most projects don't get off the ground easily. But today, we had a rare experience with breezing through a bit of red tape.

We woke early and once again employed our guide Sanele, a great new friend to us, and headed down the road, the only paved road for an hour. We travelled 100 kilometers to the city of Mthatha (pronounced oom-tah-tah). The government office that houses the Department of Education was there and that was our destination. We needed to procure the blue prints for DOE approved school buildings that we wish to build in order to get an estimated cost for our project.

If we were in NYC showing up without an appointment, we would never get past the security desk (now imagine what would happen if two strangers from another country tried to get blueprints for a public building). But in the poorest region of South Africa, we walked in without an appointment, without ID and were speaking to the man in charge of school inspections for the entire Eastern Cape in a matter of minutes. He was very excited to talk with us. After a quick rundown of how we have spent our time in Coffee Bay, we shared with him the list of schools that we wished to help. We were happy to find that our choice was also at the top of his list of schools that need aid. Within 10 minutes, he brought us upstairs to his boss (again, no appointment or proof of who we were).

Now in a larger office and in front of more people, we made our case again and were promised the blueprints we needed. They didn't make plans to mail it to us, send it to us, or have it ready in a few weeks, but actually walked with us across the street to the Department of Public Works and waited while our copies were being made. We couldn't believe how kind everyone was to us.

After spending months going through unbelievable amounts of red-tape just to get our non-profit off the ground, it took us less that an hour to go through two separate Government buildings to get the plans. This is just one more in the long line of examples of how kind and welcoming people have been to us here. It has been a pleasure working with people of this community in creating a joint effort to help the region.