Cascoland Journal

Wednesday 8 February

In two days the Garbage Architects have changed the Mayenzeke compound into a more vibrant place with their car-tyre creations. They are our heroes for the moment. After school more children then before are hanging around and enjoying the rubber swings. Working in two teams the tyre men are busy making motorcycles. Shakes & Thulani, memberws of the local production team have now become upcoming garbage architects themselves. Shakes has already designed his own rubber couch. It looks awesome.

Fiona found a street where she can put up her project. The only problem is that it is quite far away from the Mayenzeke center. Maybe the road signs of Indre could help overcome that problem. Slowly the collective spirit of Cascoland seems to materialize. Indre’s idea could definitely be a solution for Fionaís problem. Slowly the cohesiveness of the whole concept seems to make sense to me. There are certainly links that can be made between the different artists.

In the afternoon the media team meet in the church at the Mayenzeke center. Content of the next edition of Vusanani are being discussed. Ruben is aiming high with his sixteen-page newsletter. Will that be possible? It all depends on deadlines being kept and people doing what they have promised. Besides that we want residents of New Crossroads to contribute. That will need, certainly at the beginning, some guidance. Which takes time. At least there are subjects we can cover. The opening ceremony is worth an article. We can already make an in depth article on the work of Jan and Denis who are most visibly making their objects. Josette will write an article on the history of New Crossroads and then specifically about the title deeds that people don’t have which gives them a very uncertain perspective of the future. Photo of the week, maybe even a pictorial page where the residents can recognize familiar faces or maybe even themselves could be a hit. A children’s corner, joke of the week, adverts for things we need. It will be done mostly in English but with every story we will give a brief explanation in Xhosa.

Coming Tuesday there will be a press meeting in Roger’s café. A larger press package will then be ready with pictures of the different projects, profiles of the different artists, links to websites, a map which indicates clearly where New Crossroads is, the three logos of Mandlovu, Public Eye and Cascoland.

In two days the Garbage Architects have changed the Mayenzeke compound into a more vibrant place