Gates, Walls, and Electric Fences

All these cities were fenced with high walls , gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many

Deuteronomy 3:5

Each morning as I walk the streets of Johannesburg I think about the high walls and gates that surround the beautiful homes.

A few times I have stopped to peer through the gates.....

 Hoping to catch a glimpse or reflection of life behind the walls

In the 13 months we have lived here I have never seen any indication of who lives behind these walls..

Nobody out watering the lawn
Nobody sitting on the front porch
Nobody walking their dog
Nobody washing their car
Nobody playing in the yard

 

 

 

 

 

Every home along the 3 mile walk we take each morning is surrounded by a wall with either spikes on the top, electric wire, or barbed wire.

Every 100 yards or so there is a guard shack 

 

 

Each morning we greet the guards as we pass
We greet the black women wearing maid uniforms who wait patiently by the gate for someone to let them enter
We greet young black men with the traditional raggedy blue uniform of  laborers
We greet an occasional black man or woman walking a dog

We have been told that the walls didn't always surround these houses. There was a day when the walls, electric fences, and iron gates didn't exist.

No doubt the walls were erected to protect the occupants of the big houses, but I wonder what price they have paid to feel safe?

I grew up in a neighborhood where we went outside to play and didn't come home until we were hungry. We walked to school with a group of neighborhood children. We walked to the neighborhood ball field.  On those rare occasions that we did go inside, you could always tell where we were because our dog, Bridgette would be laying in the  front yard of the house we were in.  We never locked our front doors. We knew the names of every family on our block. We had block parties to celebrate holidays and we had sleepovers in our neighbors backyards. If our neighbors were gone we took in their mail, or watered their lawns.

As I walk past these beautiful homes each morning I wonder what life is like living behind the wall. What price have they paid to feel safe.