|
  |
|
|
Zita Park is a place of fun, sunshine, laughter and relaxation.
By Tony Mcgregor
From when my daughter, Caitlin, was 18 months old (she is now seven years old) we have been going almost every week end to a wonderful park in Pretoria, our home town in South Africa, called Zita Park. It is a place of fun, sunshine, laughter and relaxation. The park is also a wonderful symbol of the way South Africa could be – a place where people of many different backgrounds come together simply to be together and do their own things in peace and mutual acceptance. We have met people from Holland, Germany, the Seychelles, Japan, and, of course, all parts of South Africa, there, having fun and playing, relaxing and even making music.
The park is popular for birthday parties, for the typical South African activity of “braaing” as we call barbecues, and even, on a recent Saturday, for a formal dinner. This last was a surprise to us as we were met by a huge marquee set up in the park for the dinner, something we had not seen here before. Always a surprise at the park! Caitlin loves to swim there, to ride her bike, and to go on the many playground things like slides, merry-go-rounds and swings. As she does this she learns how to be with other children from different backgrounds. She has learnt to be accepting and independent. In all the years of going to the park we have enjoyed the peace of the place, the beauty of it. But, like so many things in life, there is also a sad, less peaceful story attached to it. The area where Zita Park is now was once, in the first half of the 20th Century, a place where Black people lived, and the place of the park itself was their community's cemetery. In the years of the madness known as apartheid the area was declared a “white area” and the black people living there forced to move to areas designated “black areas.” So they had to leave their homes and the remains of their loved ones who had been buried there and go to live elsewhere and white people came to live in the area. The cemetery was then transformed into the lovely park we know and enjoy now. At holiday times the park becomes crowded with people all doing their own things and having fun – a place bustling with activity and noise. In the midst of all the noise it is sometimes easy to forget the pain of the past, and maybe that's how it should be. We need to move on into a new era of acceptance and hope, a new era when race and class have less divisive power. And to me that is what Zita Park has come to symbolise – a place where we can build the relationships that are needed to overcome the pain of the past and create a new future. And we can do this while having fun together, just simply being ourselves. |
             
Caitlin climbing in Zita Park
Enjoying the "party hat" equipment
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "Zita Park is a place of fun, sunshine, laughter and relaxation." has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied and distributed (but not modified), as long as a) it's for non-commercial use and b) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://tonymac04.qondio.com/
|
 |
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
