Only In Africa #1

So I do a lot of work in what would probably be know in the rest of the world as slums but here we call them informal settle settlements.

Basically what they are are towns "established" by people who either cant or don't want to pay rent or buy a piece of land. They then build a small shack on government or private land with out any permission from any. They use what ever is available to build the shack, be it bought, stolen or scavenged. Once one of these settlement get established the government can't do much about it and neither can the owner of the land if its private land. Some times someone even starts selling plots of land on land they don't own. After a while when the town starts attracting more attention People start build proper houses, some of which can eve be considered to be mansions.

I have seen multi storied houses with expensive looking fixtures and large yards. But they almost never have gardens or even lawns. eventually the government will install street lights and government buildings such as clinics and police stations. The street lights however are not like what you would see in "normal" towns, they are more like the lights you would see at a sports stadium. They are tall and have large flood lights that go all the way around (it must suck to live right underneath one). This is because there is no real organisation when it comes to streets. I once drove trough several peoples yards without realising but the road I was on just sort of stopped.

Anyway what I was trying to say was I think Africa is Probably the only place int the world where you would see a mansion in a slum next to a shack.