Neighbourhoods

Every city has neighbourhoods that possess characteristics which end up defining the individuals that live there. Neighbourhoods essentially provide the environment, the perfect cocktail of nature and nurture in the nature v. nurture scenario, and the background to which any finished article is made. My neighbourhood made a distinct impression on me when I was younger – not only because of the people I got to interact and mingle with, but also because of the community I was surrounded by. The area I live in had nothing when we first came in, but grew out of nowhere to become what it is today: a beast that’s unidentifiable to individuals who visited in the past, with the unpredictability of not knowing what will become of it in the future. Looking at the neighbourhood on Google Earth or Google Maps perhaps best represents what the neighbourhood was 2 months prior to the date of the search, and I reckon that this is the way its always been.

As a result of where I’ve lived, there are some newer neighbourhoods I’ve never explored. This city is steeped in history, and as I moved away from the city, I became more aware of and closer to its past. What the city was, and how those parts grew, became essential to my understanding of the place – so much so that I failed to recognize or offer recognition to newer neighbourhoods that were under construction. Something I always felt was that the place I stayed was “young” and “new”.

My neighbourhood is old now. 15 years old and growing, if we count time from when the first actual community popped up in this area. That’s a long time.

Today I went and explored an area close to the airport. A new neighbourhood. An identity so distinct from the place I live that it is unrecognizable to me. For so many children though, this will be their home. They will not know traffic, or the horrid tales of getting to the old airport. Their deliveries for food are likely to come from eateries based at the airport itself. They will not wake up early for flights, nor leave in anticipation of missing flights. When helitaxis eventually arrive, they will not have to use one.

They will forge tales and identities of their own, and I’m curious to see how the neighbourhood and its residents evolve to keep cognizance of that growth.