Trading Privilege for Privation, Family Hits a Nerve in South Africa

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/world/africa/trading-privilege-for-privation-family-hits-a-nerve-in-south-africa.html

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MAMELODI, South Africa — Regina Matshega was gossiping with a neighbor over a fence between their shacks in the Phomolong squatter camp last month when a very unexpected sight suddenly popped into view: two ruddy-cheeked white South Africans, a man and a woman, with two towheaded toddlers running at their heels.

</param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="seamlessTabbing" value="false"></param><param name="swliveconnect" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="quality" value="high"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param></object><h6 class="credit">By Lydia Polgreen</h6><p itemprop="articleBody" class="caption">Mr. Hewitt says goodbye to a neighbor in the settlement.

“There is a real sense of community, where people rely on each other and take care of each other,” Ms. Hewitt said. “That is something that we don’t have enough of back home.”

The couple said they planned to keep up with the new friends they made. On a recent evening, Mr. Hewitt made the six-mile drive from his hilltop house back to the squatter camp to go to a lively new church the family discovered while living there.