“If you lose those, I will lose you.” Mandalow
All right so my coolness just moved right down the drain. I hate admitting when I am not perfect, but my honesty sometimes gets the best of me. I got into my first EVER fender bender. Ugh, so embarrassing, pinche South Africa. Luckily it was not bad at all, no damage to the other car and minimal scratches to our car, it was just a horrible feeling. In South Africa if you are making a right hand turn across traffic (other side of the road) there is not a lane, so essentially you just stop in the middle of the road (the fast lane) to wait to cross. I let my guard down for a half a second, looked away from the road at a sign and when I looked back I saw cars stopped so I slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately instead of stopping, the brakes locked and I skidded right into the back of this lady’s car. I wasn’t going any faster than 20 km/h and it was fine because of the lack of damage and injury, but I still felt awful. I had such a good record and now that I am totally out of my element driving over here (I have been doing pretty well) I messed it up. So me and the Tazz, not the best running relationship. Don’t they all say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Let’s hope it made both me and the Tazz just a little bit stronger.
On a random office update side note, we have a white board in the office and on that white board we have started a tree of the hierarchy in the office (Note: there are five of us.) We are trying to come up with special names too, but we only have Mandla and Thembi so far, we are still working on Albert and I and Thuso. For Mandla, we sometimes refer to him as Mandalow because on occasion that is how he answers the phone. Yesterday during our brief meeting he kept referring to himself as the “beloved site coordinator.” So if I reference Mandalow or the beloved site coordinator that is who I am referring to. Thembi is Masta Thembizi because she is the Master Coach for our site; in other words she is in charge of all of the coaches. Mandla also calls her “my vision, my future” sometimes so the board references that as well. From there we are at a loss of what to put for Thuso or us, but I am sure it will come to us; we do have a year. Also the quote above is a quote that Mandla said to me yesterday when we went to pick up the refrigerator for the office and he gave me the receipts. I am not sure why I thought it was so funny, but I just love his lines and the terms he uses sometimes, so you may periodically see random quotes or words he used. He is also nervous about how often Albert and I tell him that we are putting things about him on the blog. So if any of you ever get the chance to meet him, I will fully expect that you tell him how much you have heard about him. We also got a receipt from the taxi that brought the KIM coaches to the BLOEM VCT and they wrote it to a “Garage Hood Soccer” in place of “Grassroot Soccer.” Very similar.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
We Just Want to Work
The last two days of work we have been trying, fighting, driving, yelling, kicking, and screaming to work. We decided to run a SKILLZ Holiday this week to try to make up our numbers and just get something, anything going. I have spent the last two days out at a site called Soul City and Albert has been out at Platfontein. Platfontein managed to conseguir (get) 58 kids for their intervention on Monday and still had 35 show up today. Of course when I say show up, I really meant the coaches ran around the township and dragged kids over to the Isibindi Safe Park so they could teach them. At Soul City we maybe got 30 kids to come out yesterday and 4-5 show up today. So sad, the coaches were mad, Thuso was mad, I was frustrated, I am sure Mandla was frustrated because we are all just so tired of this strike and we want to get the programs back up and running. Right now I spend all of my time shuttling people around in cars and picking up last minute supplies that we forgot we were going to need for the intervention as well as trying to get my paperwork done and partake in the activities themselves.
Yesterday was special in that I got to actually be a part of the intervention. I got to see the coaches at work and I got to play during the activity. We played a game called Numbers, which for those of you that worked at camp, it is exactly the same numbers game we play there. First you are supposed to just run around in the circle and then the coach calls out a number and you have to get in a group equaling that number as quickly as you can. If you don’t get into a group or you are too slow, then you have to do squats (or in camp version, you are out). So I would run amongst the kids and when Coach K yelled out a number 15 kids would attack me and I would have to pick them off one-by-one to get us to the right number. It was really sweet and fun to actually be able to participate with them. Also yesterday when I was driving some people around Galeshewe (pronounced “Hal-i-she-way”), the township, we drove by this group of guys and most of the time I just assume we are attracting attention because of the strange white-black mix, but then all of a sudden we heard one of them call a “kilo!” It was AWESOME! It is so cool to be recognized by our yellow shirts for what we are doing. At least we are being remembered, which is a start. Ideally we hope they remember the key messages as well. Again today I heard someone when we drove by yell out SKILLZ! Oh, cool side note, I got a sick Nike jacket in black that says in big block letters “SKILLZ.” Love it!
Yesterday was special in that I got to actually be a part of the intervention. I got to see the coaches at work and I got to play during the activity. We played a game called Numbers, which for those of you that worked at camp, it is exactly the same numbers game we play there. First you are supposed to just run around in the circle and then the coach calls out a number and you have to get in a group equaling that number as quickly as you can. If you don’t get into a group or you are too slow, then you have to do squats (or in camp version, you are out). So I would run amongst the kids and when Coach K yelled out a number 15 kids would attack me and I would have to pick them off one-by-one to get us to the right number. It was really sweet and fun to actually be able to participate with them. Also yesterday when I was driving some people around Galeshewe (pronounced “Hal-i-she-way”), the township, we drove by this group of guys and most of the time I just assume we are attracting attention because of the strange white-black mix, but then all of a sudden we heard one of them call a “kilo!” It was AWESOME! It is so cool to be recognized by our yellow shirts for what we are doing. At least we are being remembered, which is a start. Ideally we hope they remember the key messages as well. Again today I heard someone when we drove by yell out SKILLZ! Oh, cool side note, I got a sick Nike jacket in black that says in big block letters “SKILLZ.” Love it!
Gotta Love the African Adventures
I know you all wish you were as cool as me. I just can’t help it. Signing up for these crazy excursions, it’s just my specialty. I saw a real giraffe. Actually two; a señorita and a señor. We think she was pregnant (or as they say here, she had a bun in the oven), but he was not the father. This weekend Albert and I went on an African adventure to the Mokala National Park, our very first game drive. It was an African adventure for sure, not because of the actual game drive or the animals, but because of the process of getting there and leaving. Side note: Mokala National Park is one of the easiest national parks to access. Based on our experience, I would say that I will not be attending any other parks unless I can get my small plane over here.
We bumped and hopped along 16 km of a questionable dirt road, just praying that our car wouldn’t fall apart around us. When we got all the way down the road we came to a sign that read Mokala National Park at Lilydale. We found out 6 km beyond that sign that Lilydale is more of the relaxing retreat for couples than the actual national park where you can see the animals. So we proceeded to drive another 16 km back down the road followed by 20 on the highway and 21 more on another horrible dirt road where we strategically dodged bumps and potholes at 30 km/h. We thought it was all well worth it when we were relaxing in the huge Land Rover on the game drive looking at awesome animals, but the return trip made us slightly unsure of it’s worth. Bronson, our lovely guide, told us that it would be better if we drove on the dirt roads at 60-80 km/h and we thought about it and decided we would give it a try, well-knowing it was probably not the best of our ideas. Halfway down the road, we were cruising and thinking that this was working out quite nicely when I felt like something was wrong, either we caught something and we were dragging it or the bottom of the car fell off. Luckily or unluckily, it was neither, we had a flat tire. Stupid rocks! With even more luck, we found a spare and a jack in our trunk and we were able to change it. No worries, I have pictures to document this process. This was my second flat tire ever and the first time that I had to deal with it myself instead of calling AAA or Braman Assistance. Oh, South Africa, oh, spoiled Kristin in the United States. From there on we resumed a 20 km/h speed and I kept an eye out for all the rocks in the road and instructed Albert in dodging them (Side note: the whole road was rocks).
On a positive note, the game drive was pretty spectacular. Unaware of the fact that we should have arrived their early in the morning, we were told we could go out, but our chances of seeing anything in the middle of the day were slim to none. However, as you should have gathered above, we got a chance to see some pretty cool animals. For the equivalent of $10, Albert and I had our own private game drive tour with our guide Bronson. First we saw a small Steenbok, which is the smallest of the antelope family and also interestingly a monogamist, which means (in case you were unaware) that it mates with one partner for its entire life! We saw some African buffalo and they were just old cranky men (that’s how Bronson described them). We also saw some wildebeest, which are apparently dumb and some warthogs. When we saw the warthogs, Bronson pointed and said, “Pumba!” and they really were the real live version of Pumba. We saw a ton of different antelope: the kudu (which I ate once in Cape Town), Impala, Mountain Reedbuck, Oryx, Springbok, and Red hartebeest. We also saw a zebra from super far away, so far I’m not sure we can count it and some white rhino poop. We never got to see the rhino, just big piles of poo. The highlight of the entire drive was when the Land Rover basically climbed right up the side of the mountain. We had no idea it was even part of the road and we just climbed right up it like it was nothing.
Albert and I would really like to add some color and excitement to our apartment, so we are hoping that you all would be so kind as to send us a postcard! I think we need about 40 to fill the tiles in the kitchen, so get on it!
We bumped and hopped along 16 km of a questionable dirt road, just praying that our car wouldn’t fall apart around us. When we got all the way down the road we came to a sign that read Mokala National Park at Lilydale. We found out 6 km beyond that sign that Lilydale is more of the relaxing retreat for couples than the actual national park where you can see the animals. So we proceeded to drive another 16 km back down the road followed by 20 on the highway and 21 more on another horrible dirt road where we strategically dodged bumps and potholes at 30 km/h. We thought it was all well worth it when we were relaxing in the huge Land Rover on the game drive looking at awesome animals, but the return trip made us slightly unsure of it’s worth. Bronson, our lovely guide, told us that it would be better if we drove on the dirt roads at 60-80 km/h and we thought about it and decided we would give it a try, well-knowing it was probably not the best of our ideas. Halfway down the road, we were cruising and thinking that this was working out quite nicely when I felt like something was wrong, either we caught something and we were dragging it or the bottom of the car fell off. Luckily or unluckily, it was neither, we had a flat tire. Stupid rocks! With even more luck, we found a spare and a jack in our trunk and we were able to change it. No worries, I have pictures to document this process. This was my second flat tire ever and the first time that I had to deal with it myself instead of calling AAA or Braman Assistance. Oh, South Africa, oh, spoiled Kristin in the United States. From there on we resumed a 20 km/h speed and I kept an eye out for all the rocks in the road and instructed Albert in dodging them (Side note: the whole road was rocks).
On a positive note, the game drive was pretty spectacular. Unaware of the fact that we should have arrived their early in the morning, we were told we could go out, but our chances of seeing anything in the middle of the day were slim to none. However, as you should have gathered above, we got a chance to see some pretty cool animals. For the equivalent of $10, Albert and I had our own private game drive tour with our guide Bronson. First we saw a small Steenbok, which is the smallest of the antelope family and also interestingly a monogamist, which means (in case you were unaware) that it mates with one partner for its entire life! We saw some African buffalo and they were just old cranky men (that’s how Bronson described them). We also saw some wildebeest, which are apparently dumb and some warthogs. When we saw the warthogs, Bronson pointed and said, “Pumba!” and they really were the real live version of Pumba. We saw a ton of different antelope: the kudu (which I ate once in Cape Town), Impala, Mountain Reedbuck, Oryx, Springbok, and Red hartebeest. We also saw a zebra from super far away, so far I’m not sure we can count it and some white rhino poop. We never got to see the rhino, just big piles of poo. The highlight of the entire drive was when the Land Rover basically climbed right up the side of the mountain. We had no idea it was even part of the road and we just climbed right up it like it was nothing.
Albert and I would really like to add some color and excitement to our apartment, so we are hoping that you all would be so kind as to send us a postcard! I think we need about 40 to fill the tiles in the kitchen, so get on it!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Just Another Day at the Office
Hmm, office life. I clean off our desks every day and somehow there are 15 more papers on the desk five minutes later. The culprit: Mandla or Thuso. They won’t admit it, but they come out into our area and leave their papers everywhere and then I have to return them to their desks. Mandla just made of point of grabbing my attention, crumpling up paper and throwing it into the trash. He missed the first time, second time success. I yell at him everyday for the papers after he yells are me for the desk being messy looking. It is the never-ending cycle. I am in charge of organization in the office, surprise surprise, especially of the equipment room, where we keep balls, nike gear, pennies, vuvuzelas, small South African flags, goals, and signage. Like the magically appearing papers, the Nike shoes magically disappear on occasion and I have to keep changing the inventory list I made. Then I have to call Mandla and scold him for taking the shoes without marking which ones. Thank goodness I set up Thuso’s office in the back yesterday while he was out because now his personal items don’t show up on our desks…unwanted. Haha, we shut him off in the back of the office by himself, I wonder if he gets lonely. Just kidding, he is all of 5 feet from Albert’s desk back by the kitchen, where you know I spend most of my time. I wish we could put Mandla back there because he is always walking around talking loudly on the phone. Yesterday he took a solicitation call and put it on speaker and actually talked to the guy. Who does that! These guys are crazy. Mandla also sings to Thuso all the time because Thuso’s surname (last name) is Jones, so when he wants Thuso he sings the Mr. Jones song, but replaces Mr. with Thuso.
Albert and I are experiencing a lot of free time (i.e. the blogs are being written) because of this strike and slow-moving additional initiatives. We will probably be bombarded tomorrow when they decide we are going to run a SKILLZ holiday next week. Awesome. That’s how it works; they give us as minimal amount of time to get a task done as possible. Gotta love it. So we are currently writing blogs, letters, and postcards, while trying to figure out how we are going to get to the music festivals in Cape Town and Malawi in October. Mandla just asked us what we are doing this weekend and tonight and we told him we are thinking of going to the Mokala National Park outside of Kim and we invited him again for “teambuilding,” but he declined even though he has never been there. Mandla thinks he is too important for us, we keep inviting him on our weekend excursions, but he seems to always be out of town. Questionable. Everything we do together I refer to as “teambuilding” and Mandla and Thuso just laugh at me when I am like we should all go to the gym together for teambuilding, we should all go to the “Big Hole” for teambuilding. I also think we should steal the unwanted office supplies from the DeBeer’s office and call it teambuilding. What, Albert and I really need a table for our house. Mandla is a little nervous about what the headline in the DFA (the local newspaper) would be. “Grassroot Soccer Interns Making Their Presence Known in Kim” or “American Interns Stealing Desks from the Diamond Company.” Alright, alright, I know those are so not creative headlines, that is why I do not work for a newspaper.
My favorite part of this office is that we all have rolly chairs, and so when I have to go from office to office, or to the equipment room, I don’t even have to stand up! I just rolled into Mandla’s office for a meeting then back out again. Then I did get up to go to kitchen. Lunchtime around here consists of Albert and I eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at our desks. Sometimes we walk down the street to The Sandwich Shop (creative name) when we are tired of the same old same old. We also have a drawer full of snack food right next to my desk for our constant snacking throughout the day. Good thing we go to the gym every afternoon. We could just go on Mandla’s diet; I don’t think I have ever seen him eat, he just works all the time. He is the definition workaholic. He is here at 8 a.m. everyday and stays until at least 7 p.m. sometimes later. Thuso is on the cigarette and coffee diet, but again I haven’t seen him eat anything of substance outside his bowl of cereal in the morning and sometimes a meat pie. Today Albert made cookies for the coaches’ meeting and when we got here we found out the meeting was moved to tomorrow. What to do with the cookies…they are already gone. Whoops. Good news, I just set up a teambuilding lunch at the bar-ba-que place tomorrow, so maybe I will actually see Mandla eat.
On a different note, I just created work for myself, so I should probably go work on that for a while. I decided it would be a good idea to create a timeline and task list for the upcoming HCT in Kim. It will either be on the 11 September 2010 (if we partner with the Department of Health) or 18 September 2010. Oh, and look out for my intern profile on the GRS website, I have submitted it to CT (Cape Town) so hopefully they will have those up soon.
Albert and I are experiencing a lot of free time (i.e. the blogs are being written) because of this strike and slow-moving additional initiatives. We will probably be bombarded tomorrow when they decide we are going to run a SKILLZ holiday next week. Awesome. That’s how it works; they give us as minimal amount of time to get a task done as possible. Gotta love it. So we are currently writing blogs, letters, and postcards, while trying to figure out how we are going to get to the music festivals in Cape Town and Malawi in October. Mandla just asked us what we are doing this weekend and tonight and we told him we are thinking of going to the Mokala National Park outside of Kim and we invited him again for “teambuilding,” but he declined even though he has never been there. Mandla thinks he is too important for us, we keep inviting him on our weekend excursions, but he seems to always be out of town. Questionable. Everything we do together I refer to as “teambuilding” and Mandla and Thuso just laugh at me when I am like we should all go to the gym together for teambuilding, we should all go to the “Big Hole” for teambuilding. I also think we should steal the unwanted office supplies from the DeBeer’s office and call it teambuilding. What, Albert and I really need a table for our house. Mandla is a little nervous about what the headline in the DFA (the local newspaper) would be. “Grassroot Soccer Interns Making Their Presence Known in Kim” or “American Interns Stealing Desks from the Diamond Company.” Alright, alright, I know those are so not creative headlines, that is why I do not work for a newspaper.
My favorite part of this office is that we all have rolly chairs, and so when I have to go from office to office, or to the equipment room, I don’t even have to stand up! I just rolled into Mandla’s office for a meeting then back out again. Then I did get up to go to kitchen. Lunchtime around here consists of Albert and I eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at our desks. Sometimes we walk down the street to The Sandwich Shop (creative name) when we are tired of the same old same old. We also have a drawer full of snack food right next to my desk for our constant snacking throughout the day. Good thing we go to the gym every afternoon. We could just go on Mandla’s diet; I don’t think I have ever seen him eat, he just works all the time. He is the definition workaholic. He is here at 8 a.m. everyday and stays until at least 7 p.m. sometimes later. Thuso is on the cigarette and coffee diet, but again I haven’t seen him eat anything of substance outside his bowl of cereal in the morning and sometimes a meat pie. Today Albert made cookies for the coaches’ meeting and when we got here we found out the meeting was moved to tomorrow. What to do with the cookies…they are already gone. Whoops. Good news, I just set up a teambuilding lunch at the bar-ba-que place tomorrow, so maybe I will actually see Mandla eat.
On a different note, I just created work for myself, so I should probably go work on that for a while. I decided it would be a good idea to create a timeline and task list for the upcoming HCT in Kim. It will either be on the 11 September 2010 (if we partner with the Department of Health) or 18 September 2010. Oh, and look out for my intern profile on the GRS website, I have submitted it to CT (Cape Town) so hopefully they will have those up soon.
Adjustment Complete
Woohoo, I have finally adjusted to life over here. It is crazy how it just takes some time to let go of what I was doing and begin to settle into a much calmer lifestyle here in Kimberley. I have joined the gym, become a regular at the movie rental store, and gotten to know the city. Monday night is Movie Mania Monday and at one of the movie theaters in town you can go to any showing at any time for FREE! We are guessing that Monday is a slower day at the theater and they are still showing the movies, so they have a special promotion. I am going to be watching a lot of movies, hopefully reading a lot of books and maybe even writing some. Shoot, I still need to find an Internet café so we can upload pictures and download music and a place to do my laundry. Oh, the biggest news of the day is that I CAN DRIVE. I drove last night and this morning without stalling on my trips or without turning onto the wrong side of the road.
More fun from Kim. I was on the radio. Yep, the radio. Thuso set up an appointment for us to go meet this radio DJ named Malik. Crazy dude. We walked in and chatted for a while during a song, then next thing we knew we were being interviewed on AIR. He basically introduced us as this year’s GRS interns and asked us about 15 minutes of questions on air about how our time is going, what we are here to do, and some comparison questions about here and the U.S. After the show we spent about another hour and a half just getting to know him and forming our relationship with him. This way we can call him whenever we have an event coming up and be on the show to talk about it. We also might collaborate and just do AIDS informational session with kids and coaches. Malik spent about 5 years in New York studying some music and theater. He sleeps for about three hours a night because he has 3 jobs, one of which starts at 5:30 a.m. and the other that ends around 12 midnight and more energy than most people I have ever come across. He is super smart and has a bundle of random information tucked away in that brain; I cannot even explain to you the plethora of topics of conversation we hit in a couple of hours with him. He is super passionate about music, makes his own house mixes, and had an 650 gigabyte external hard drive that is full…just with music. I have never seen such a big music library in my life. Albert and I are hoping to get our hands on some of that music sometime soon. He is also very creative so we are really looking forward to working with him in the future. We will hopefully be able to help him on some of his ventures and maybe he will help us out with World AIDS Day coming up 1 December 2010! I’ve already got some ideas flowing for it, so we will see what Mandla and Thuso and the rest of GRS have got up their sleeves.
Something I realized today is that in South Africa people are all about the face-to-face contact and forming relationships, as opposed to the American way of just getting it done. For example meeting with Malik, after our meeting was over, we just hung out until we exhausted our conversational topics and it was time to move on. You just got to go with it. Today we went and met with Lucky, who works with Isibindi, which is an organization that provides a refuge for homeless people and abused people, especially children. I believe there are five sites around Kim and each one has a “safe park” which is a playground for children to go and hang out and seek the help that they need. Really a very cool idea. They are actually located in the townships too for easy access. So because of the strike we decided that we might try to put on a SKILLZ Holiday camp next week partnering with them, since kids are not in school or doing anything. We would run a two-hour program everyday and therefore would be able to complete an entire intervention is just a week. We really need this because our numbers are so low right now with the strike and FY 10 is approaching fast, 1 October 2010. So instead of calling them to set this up, we drove out to their headquarters for a 15 minute meeting to go over what we wanted to do, only for Lucky to tell us that he will have to talk to the head and see what she says. Though it ended positive in that they liked the idea, we are just trying to wait to see what’s going on with the strike. The whole meeting was just interesting because I know if we were in the States we would have just called, so I guess it makes working around here unique. It is actually sort of refreshing.
More fun from Kim. I was on the radio. Yep, the radio. Thuso set up an appointment for us to go meet this radio DJ named Malik. Crazy dude. We walked in and chatted for a while during a song, then next thing we knew we were being interviewed on AIR. He basically introduced us as this year’s GRS interns and asked us about 15 minutes of questions on air about how our time is going, what we are here to do, and some comparison questions about here and the U.S. After the show we spent about another hour and a half just getting to know him and forming our relationship with him. This way we can call him whenever we have an event coming up and be on the show to talk about it. We also might collaborate and just do AIDS informational session with kids and coaches. Malik spent about 5 years in New York studying some music and theater. He sleeps for about three hours a night because he has 3 jobs, one of which starts at 5:30 a.m. and the other that ends around 12 midnight and more energy than most people I have ever come across. He is super smart and has a bundle of random information tucked away in that brain; I cannot even explain to you the plethora of topics of conversation we hit in a couple of hours with him. He is super passionate about music, makes his own house mixes, and had an 650 gigabyte external hard drive that is full…just with music. I have never seen such a big music library in my life. Albert and I are hoping to get our hands on some of that music sometime soon. He is also very creative so we are really looking forward to working with him in the future. We will hopefully be able to help him on some of his ventures and maybe he will help us out with World AIDS Day coming up 1 December 2010! I’ve already got some ideas flowing for it, so we will see what Mandla and Thuso and the rest of GRS have got up their sleeves.
Something I realized today is that in South Africa people are all about the face-to-face contact and forming relationships, as opposed to the American way of just getting it done. For example meeting with Malik, after our meeting was over, we just hung out until we exhausted our conversational topics and it was time to move on. You just got to go with it. Today we went and met with Lucky, who works with Isibindi, which is an organization that provides a refuge for homeless people and abused people, especially children. I believe there are five sites around Kim and each one has a “safe park” which is a playground for children to go and hang out and seek the help that they need. Really a very cool idea. They are actually located in the townships too for easy access. So because of the strike we decided that we might try to put on a SKILLZ Holiday camp next week partnering with them, since kids are not in school or doing anything. We would run a two-hour program everyday and therefore would be able to complete an entire intervention is just a week. We really need this because our numbers are so low right now with the strike and FY 10 is approaching fast, 1 October 2010. So instead of calling them to set this up, we drove out to their headquarters for a 15 minute meeting to go over what we wanted to do, only for Lucky to tell us that he will have to talk to the head and see what she says. Though it ended positive in that they liked the idea, we are just trying to wait to see what’s going on with the strike. The whole meeting was just interesting because I know if we were in the States we would have just called, so I guess it makes working around here unique. It is actually sort of refreshing.
You Knew I Would
All right, now it is time for you to start getting jealous. This Sunday, wait for it…I played with lion and cheetah cubs! It was leGEn…wait for it…DaRY! Mom, I know you sent me an email saying that I couldn’t do it, so I made sure it was the first thing I did. At least I didn’t adopt any, or did I? Albert and I went to the Cheetah Experience in Bloemfontein to get up close and personal with some crazy wild cats. It is a non-profit organization primarily concerned with education. It was started by Riana, who bought her first cheetah in 2006 and lived with it in a townhouse for a few years before she started at the current site. She started the organization to ensure the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystem and it grew from there. We met Riana when we were in the cage with the white lion cub. Did you know that cheetahs are predicted to be extinct in the wild in the next 10 years? I didn’t realize it was so soon for such an interesting animal.
We had a private tour of the grounds with Adeline, a volunteer from Singapore that is moving to Providence, RI in two weeks. Small world and everyday getting smaller. First we looked at the bigger cats from a distance, i.e. in cages because they could probably kill us in one pounce. We saw some Bengal tiger cubs (3 months old) and while they were the same size as the lion cubs, they were already too strong for us to get in the cage and play with. The Bengal tigers will be 800 pounds when they are fully grown! CRAZY, but they were very interested in us and very cute…We also looked at some Jaguars, which are sooooooo cooooool. Super intense though, again I was all right just looking at them from outside the cage. I had really wanted to see one when I was backpacking Chiapas in Mexico, but after seeing these ones in the cage, I am sosososo glad I never came face-to-face with one in the wild. We also looked at some almost fully grown lions before moving over too see all the baby versions.
We spent sometime out in the field with cheetahs and while we could go up to the cheetahs, we also had to keep an eye out to make sure none of them snuck up us when we weren’t paying attention. The two younger cheetahs just really liked to play and they would do like Lenny or other house cats and grab on to your ankle and start trying to bite your feet. While they definitely got me around the ankles, I made it out unscathed. Not exactly the same experience as when Lenny bites me. The older ones were like older cats in that they just sleep all the time and do not want to be bothered. Also while we were there we played with 2 brown lion cubs that were only 2 months old and adorable. See my Facebook profile picture. It was strange because when they are babies they don’t growl, they make weird alien calls; it is the weirdest sound when you expect them to make these deep scary growl noises. Additionally we met and played with some caracals or big house cats with grande ears.
After our first African adventure in the wild, we embarked on African adventure numero dos: Urban style. You wouldn’t believe what a project it has been to try to get our Internet up and running. Good news, its up and running on Albert’s computer at this point, which is enough to keep us somewhat connected. We learned this Sunday that everything, I mean everything closes at 2 p.m. Why so early? I have yet to find out, why would you be closed when people are free to run errands and have time away from work? I guess it is family time or something, who knows! So we ran around Bloem from internet place to Vodacom place, from mall to mall trying to find someone to help us set our internet up and after 3 hours of running around and bothering a man in a Vodacom store that was closed, we left Bloem with a phone number. So not a complete failure because we came away with someone’s names and number, but a failure in that we still didn’t have Internet. Oh gotta love Africa. Mark, our own personal IT technician, has now become our best friend here in Kim because we see him everyday as he troubleshoots his way through this Internet situation. Mine is still yet to be set up, iBurst and iMacs are not becoming friends. Long application process maybe. Hopefully soon.
We had a private tour of the grounds with Adeline, a volunteer from Singapore that is moving to Providence, RI in two weeks. Small world and everyday getting smaller. First we looked at the bigger cats from a distance, i.e. in cages because they could probably kill us in one pounce. We saw some Bengal tiger cubs (3 months old) and while they were the same size as the lion cubs, they were already too strong for us to get in the cage and play with. The Bengal tigers will be 800 pounds when they are fully grown! CRAZY, but they were very interested in us and very cute…We also looked at some Jaguars, which are sooooooo cooooool. Super intense though, again I was all right just looking at them from outside the cage. I had really wanted to see one when I was backpacking Chiapas in Mexico, but after seeing these ones in the cage, I am sosososo glad I never came face-to-face with one in the wild. We also looked at some almost fully grown lions before moving over too see all the baby versions.
We spent sometime out in the field with cheetahs and while we could go up to the cheetahs, we also had to keep an eye out to make sure none of them snuck up us when we weren’t paying attention. The two younger cheetahs just really liked to play and they would do like Lenny or other house cats and grab on to your ankle and start trying to bite your feet. While they definitely got me around the ankles, I made it out unscathed. Not exactly the same experience as when Lenny bites me. The older ones were like older cats in that they just sleep all the time and do not want to be bothered. Also while we were there we played with 2 brown lion cubs that were only 2 months old and adorable. See my Facebook profile picture. It was strange because when they are babies they don’t growl, they make weird alien calls; it is the weirdest sound when you expect them to make these deep scary growl noises. Additionally we met and played with some caracals or big house cats with grande ears.
After our first African adventure in the wild, we embarked on African adventure numero dos: Urban style. You wouldn’t believe what a project it has been to try to get our Internet up and running. Good news, its up and running on Albert’s computer at this point, which is enough to keep us somewhat connected. We learned this Sunday that everything, I mean everything closes at 2 p.m. Why so early? I have yet to find out, why would you be closed when people are free to run errands and have time away from work? I guess it is family time or something, who knows! So we ran around Bloem from internet place to Vodacom place, from mall to mall trying to find someone to help us set our internet up and after 3 hours of running around and bothering a man in a Vodacom store that was closed, we left Bloem with a phone number. So not a complete failure because we came away with someone’s names and number, but a failure in that we still didn’t have Internet. Oh gotta love Africa. Mark, our own personal IT technician, has now become our best friend here in Kim because we see him everyday as he troubleshoots his way through this Internet situation. Mine is still yet to be set up, iBurst and iMacs are not becoming friends. Long application process maybe. Hopefully soon.
I Wish I Could Dance
I wish I could dance like all these crazy people over here. I am so super jealous of the African’s natural ability to just move. Any movement can become a dance to any song, beat, or even conversation. Dance is more of a way of life here. People sing and dance for every occasion: to exclaim joy, to deal with pain and sorrow, and just get through everyday chores. It seems like such a healthy way to live life; I have read before that dancing is one of those things that can add years on to your life and I also know that I am happiest when I am dancing. So, I would suggest putting on those dancing shoes and getting a move on.
At the HCT we had a sound system and Glad was working as the DJ for the day, so there was just constant music, which means constant dancing. Even the 2-3 year olds has some seriously sick moves of which I found myself extremely jealous. I guess kids are born and breed to be amazing dancers in this country. I would love to see So You Think You Can Dance South Africa; now that would be a crazy competition. Azania, Thembi, and Jippli (Kim coach) spent a lot of the day teaching us some dancing moves and then laughing at us. We have to just go with it and deal with them making fun of us if we are going to learn anything and become better dancers. We definitely got some great dance circles going that we ended up having to stop because it was taking the attention away from the soccer. Overall I have a lot to learn on the African dancing front. Ah, so much to do, so much to learn, and so little time.
At the HCT we had a sound system and Glad was working as the DJ for the day, so there was just constant music, which means constant dancing. Even the 2-3 year olds has some seriously sick moves of which I found myself extremely jealous. I guess kids are born and breed to be amazing dancers in this country. I would love to see So You Think You Can Dance South Africa; now that would be a crazy competition. Azania, Thembi, and Jippli (Kim coach) spent a lot of the day teaching us some dancing moves and then laughing at us. We have to just go with it and deal with them making fun of us if we are going to learn anything and become better dancers. We definitely got some great dance circles going that we ended up having to stop because it was taking the attention away from the soccer. Overall I have a lot to learn on the African dancing front. Ah, so much to do, so much to learn, and so little time.
May the Conversations Continue
Saturday was our very first VCT or HCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing or HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing) tournaments. It was an awesome opportunity for me to get to know some of the Bloem coaches that I will be working with over the year. Getting an understanding of their names and remembering names with faces will definitely present its own challenge. Out of 12 coaches I think I know T-bo, Sam, Azania, Glad (awesome name, I think they create names for us to be able to remember them), Chief, and Playa. Halfway there, I guess that is better than I thought.
Now back to the HCT. The tournament itself went really well; however, we faced our first failure because the testing partner never showed up. It was really great for the kids to have an opportunity to get out and play, but the purpose of the HCT for us is to get people tested. Going out there we had a goal of 300 people and due to the lack of a tester, no one was tested. Mandla was pissed. I guess the Bloem team is awesome at putting together activities and organizing the soccer and curriculum type things as well as awesome at delivery because of their energy and enthusiasm, but they are no so good at following up with testing partners. This is one of the places I am going to have to step in from here on out. Our testing partner is New Start and they also said they were double booked and picked the other event, so I am not sure we can blame it entirely on planning malfunction; it sounds to me just like our first encounter with how things work here in Africa. It’s all right now because we are having them go over to one of the universities in Bloem and do some counseling and testing.
On a positive note, we did get the opportunity to deliver the curriculum and run some SKILLZ activities during the tournament. Throughout the day the coaches would pull the teams that were in between games and take them through Risk Field and My Supporters. The key messages for Risk Field are “Getting HIV can have serious consequences for ourselves, our families and friends, and our whole community” and “You can Build Your Team and use your communication and decision making skills to help you abstain from sex or to practice safe sexual behaviors.” The key messages associated with My Supporters are “in life, everyone needs supporters,” “stigma and discrimination cause people living with HIV to feel alone and helpless,” and “support people living with HIV and teach others to do the same.” So at least the conversations continue, which is a big part of what we are all about. Also in my mind the tournament provided a healthy safe outlet for the kids and a place where they can have fun, without getting caught up by negative influences that exist everywhere but especially in townships. So I think overall it was a success on a few levels and now we know there are some things we have to make sure we get done for future HCTs. Next up HCT Kim.
Now back to the HCT. The tournament itself went really well; however, we faced our first failure because the testing partner never showed up. It was really great for the kids to have an opportunity to get out and play, but the purpose of the HCT for us is to get people tested. Going out there we had a goal of 300 people and due to the lack of a tester, no one was tested. Mandla was pissed. I guess the Bloem team is awesome at putting together activities and organizing the soccer and curriculum type things as well as awesome at delivery because of their energy and enthusiasm, but they are no so good at following up with testing partners. This is one of the places I am going to have to step in from here on out. Our testing partner is New Start and they also said they were double booked and picked the other event, so I am not sure we can blame it entirely on planning malfunction; it sounds to me just like our first encounter with how things work here in Africa. It’s all right now because we are having them go over to one of the universities in Bloem and do some counseling and testing.
On a positive note, we did get the opportunity to deliver the curriculum and run some SKILLZ activities during the tournament. Throughout the day the coaches would pull the teams that were in between games and take them through Risk Field and My Supporters. The key messages for Risk Field are “Getting HIV can have serious consequences for ourselves, our families and friends, and our whole community” and “You can Build Your Team and use your communication and decision making skills to help you abstain from sex or to practice safe sexual behaviors.” The key messages associated with My Supporters are “in life, everyone needs supporters,” “stigma and discrimination cause people living with HIV to feel alone and helpless,” and “support people living with HIV and teach others to do the same.” So at least the conversations continue, which is a big part of what we are all about. Also in my mind the tournament provided a healthy safe outlet for the kids and a place where they can have fun, without getting caught up by negative influences that exist everywhere but especially in townships. So I think overall it was a success on a few levels and now we know there are some things we have to make sure we get done for future HCTs. Next up HCT Kim.
Meet SKILLZ
I’m going to take this opportunity to introduce you to the SKILLZ curriculum. We also call the curriculum the SKILLZ core, which is different from SKILLZ Holiday or SKILLZ Street, but both of those are based off of the core. So everyone: this is SKILLZ. It is a culture, mindset, and toolkit for coaches and other educators to use when teaching young people about HIV/AIDS. We use soccer as the tool to facilitate necessary discussions about life, learn to be resilient and bounce back when faced with challenges, and most importantly protect people from HIV and AIDS. The coaches’ job sort of reminds me of when I was a peer counselor in high school if that helps you understand their position. In the first SKILLZ session the kids will sign the SKILLZ contract, which is an agreement the kids make to be respectful, to take part in the activities while having fun, and to then become a role model of healthy choices and behaviors. Furthermore, the SKILLZ core is built around the 3 SKILLZ to win and those are to “Know the Game,” “Build your Team,” and “Make your Move” so on occasion you will hear me reference these 3 ideas when I am explaining parts of the curriculum or passing on key messages.
Knowing the game refers to first of all knowing yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, goals for the future, etc. For all of us who recently graduated or are getting ready for interviews should know exactly what I am referring too. It also means that everyone should know their own rights and responsibilities and what puts their lives in danger and on top of that how to avoid risk. Building your team refers to the types of people you surround yourself with, the importance of building healthy strong relationships with people you can count on, and finding people who can help you bounce back when you are faced with different challenges. Making your move is exactly what it sounds like; it is getting up off your couch and doing something. It refers to seeking out opportunity, dealing with challenges, reaching for your goals, and then giving back to your community and teaching others what you have learned. In this situation it specifically refers to protecting yourself from HIV and AIDS and teaching others in the community about HIV/AIDS, sort that passing on knowledge idea. Overall they are kind of cool messages and things that whether or not you are dealing with HIV and AIDS in your community you can relate to and they are definitely skillz to live by.
There are a few more things aside from the games and discussion that are special to the SKILLZ core. Around the second or third practice the coaches get an opportunity to share their story. All of the coaches have some sort of personal story or reason they got involved in the program and so it makes the participants more comfortable when they hear that the coaches real experiences with it and it creates a safe place for the kids to go to talk about a difficult issue. I am hoping some of the coaches will be willing to share their stories on video for me, so I can put together a short movie for all of you peeps at home. It will definitely help you be able to relate to what is going on over here. Some of these stories are so extremely powerful. Also we use something called a “kilo” to praise people and sometimes just to celebrate. For the basic kilo someone will yell out kiiii-looo in a deep voice (tone is necessary) and everyone in unison will clap three times, pause, clap three more times, then shout “whooooh” while pointing at the person being praised. The celebratory kilo will normally look a little different and have a specific name, like for example the Coco-Cola kilo, which is 3 claps, pause, 3 claps, and then a “whooooo” with a shimmy. We came up with the Evolution of the Butterfly kilo and the Bambucha kilo at orientation and those will have to be performed on video sometime for you too see. They are too crazy to explain. I will put together a kilo learning video as well. The last thing that we use in the curriculum that is a little different is the term “yebo” in place of “yes.” Pronounced “yea-bo,” this is the response when people are asked are you with me, do you want to do this, etc.
I think for the most part this should be a good introduction to the curriculum and will hopefully help you better understand some of the things I may refer to later. Sorry if this was another boring blog. Just trying to catch you all up to speed on terms and vocab so we can all be on the same page.
Knowing the game refers to first of all knowing yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, goals for the future, etc. For all of us who recently graduated or are getting ready for interviews should know exactly what I am referring too. It also means that everyone should know their own rights and responsibilities and what puts their lives in danger and on top of that how to avoid risk. Building your team refers to the types of people you surround yourself with, the importance of building healthy strong relationships with people you can count on, and finding people who can help you bounce back when you are faced with different challenges. Making your move is exactly what it sounds like; it is getting up off your couch and doing something. It refers to seeking out opportunity, dealing with challenges, reaching for your goals, and then giving back to your community and teaching others what you have learned. In this situation it specifically refers to protecting yourself from HIV and AIDS and teaching others in the community about HIV/AIDS, sort that passing on knowledge idea. Overall they are kind of cool messages and things that whether or not you are dealing with HIV and AIDS in your community you can relate to and they are definitely skillz to live by.
There are a few more things aside from the games and discussion that are special to the SKILLZ core. Around the second or third practice the coaches get an opportunity to share their story. All of the coaches have some sort of personal story or reason they got involved in the program and so it makes the participants more comfortable when they hear that the coaches real experiences with it and it creates a safe place for the kids to go to talk about a difficult issue. I am hoping some of the coaches will be willing to share their stories on video for me, so I can put together a short movie for all of you peeps at home. It will definitely help you be able to relate to what is going on over here. Some of these stories are so extremely powerful. Also we use something called a “kilo” to praise people and sometimes just to celebrate. For the basic kilo someone will yell out kiiii-looo in a deep voice (tone is necessary) and everyone in unison will clap three times, pause, clap three more times, then shout “whooooh” while pointing at the person being praised. The celebratory kilo will normally look a little different and have a specific name, like for example the Coco-Cola kilo, which is 3 claps, pause, 3 claps, and then a “whooooo” with a shimmy. We came up with the Evolution of the Butterfly kilo and the Bambucha kilo at orientation and those will have to be performed on video sometime for you too see. They are too crazy to explain. I will put together a kilo learning video as well. The last thing that we use in the curriculum that is a little different is the term “yebo” in place of “yes.” Pronounced “yea-bo,” this is the response when people are asked are you with me, do you want to do this, etc.
I think for the most part this should be a good introduction to the curriculum and will hopefully help you better understand some of the things I may refer to later. Sorry if this was another boring blog. Just trying to catch you all up to speed on terms and vocab so we can all be on the same page.
Monday, August 23, 2010
It Still Exists
For those of you who are very close to me and I have talked to in the past 24 hours, you may already know this and for those who have followed me on my journey in Mexico know that the beginning for me is always a struggle. A new place, a new way of life, disconnectedness, bouts of loneliness; its all there and it has come back to visit. On and off this week I have had my moments where I am not sure I am going to make it. Part of me is ashamed that I feel this way; the other part knows that it is just me. In addition to my new situation I have had to say goodbye to a lot in a very short amount of time. For all those who I spent my summer with at camp, I am pretty sure most of you are to blame for my current uneasiness and loneliness. Basically I am saying that I had a great summer with all of you and it has been impossible to get out of my head making this transition just that much more difficult. Summer was awesome and now I am experiencing winter. It was also a special treat to have some of my best friends from school come up and visit me on the Cape and I really and truly enjoyed spending time with you all and will miss you immensely. I also had to say hello and goodbye to my wonderful family in less than 24 hours. You all were so super helpful when it came to preparing for this long journey and for that I am eternally grateful. In June I had to say goodbye to my parents and my brother and some of the people in this world that I am closest too and while it was two months prior to my departure, it certainly did not make leaving any easier. I don’t know if this will help any of you or if I am writing it because it may help me, but when I leave the very last thing I want is to lose touch with any of you. That includes the people I didn’t get a chance to see before I left. The hardest part of this process is feeling disconnected. I mean we are a very connected generation; I don’t know what we would do without the Internet. So as much as I understand that life will continue over there in States without me and as much as I don’t like that, I hope that you will please keep in touch with me while I am in this foreign land. Also, STOP thinking that I am running away, I am just working over here and if the same opportunity (exact same) existed at home I would be there.
Quickly I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to the staff that I work with. First of all there is one other intern out here with me and as I have said before his name is Albert. He is from Chicago and graduated ’09 and worked for a year before deciding that this is actually what he would rather be doing. Mandla is the head honcho of the Kimberley office and all of the surrounding sites; he is what we call the site coordinator. He is super cool, super organized, very smart, and loves to sing and dance. Most times when you are walking with him he is singing or dancing, he always has music playing in the office, and he has a very relaxed attitude, but will also has a way about him, a firmness, that if he asks you to do something, you will definitely get it done and do your best. Luckily there really are not “deadlines,” but you know you need to get the job done and he trusts that you will; good news in two days, we haven’t had any problems. Next in line we have Thuso (pronounced two-so) and he is the assistant site coordinator for Kimberley and LA/DK. He has a very even keel personality, loves to listen to “Ridin’ Solo,” and a few other songs of a similar nature. I haven’t caught him dancing yet, but I know he’s got it in him. He used to be a miner and grew up in DK and that is why he is mainly in charge up in those sites. Next we have Thembi (pronounced Tem-bee). She is the master coach for the Kimberley sites and the surrounding area. She is a crazy girl. She always called me “girlfriend” and its cute. She is 27 and 5-months pregnant. She is hoping for a boy, since she already has a daughter. She has told me a little about her story and it is a fascinating one and one that I will eventually share with you, but I want to get the rest of it first. She has a big crush on Edward from Twilight and Flo Rida and she loves the movies, so we have big plans to hit up the movies from time to time. She naturally chooses to speak in Afrikaans and she speaks soooooooo fast, it just sounds like one long sound. Sometimes she will say something then look at me like she is waiting for an answer and when I give her my “I don’t understand you blank stare” she will revert back to English. That pretty much sums up the people who I work with in the Kimberley office. Then today I met Busi, who is the assistant site coordinator for Bloem; she is mainly in charge, but reports to Mandla. She is sweet; she has a 2-year daughter and lives with her mom, her brother, and her sister. I haven’t had that much time to gather too much info, but I know working with her will be fun. I also met a ton of the coaches for the Bloem site today and they are awesome, Rasta dudes and dudettes. They are almost all in their 20s or close to 20 and they are just fun people. They always have music playing and are dancing. They speak a lot in Afrikaans to each other, but will try to speak in English and include me here and there. I ran errands to get ready for the HCT with Sam and T-Bo today and they are so fun. They all just have great personalities; so outgoing.
Thus far work has been pretty fun; it’s a pretty creative process and a cool way to see what life is like over here. I have the unique opportunity to work in townships and spend most of my time with people who have grown up and lived their entire lives in the townships. While it may seem like a weird concept, you can’t just walk into a township as a tourist. When I first went to Cape Town I sort of thought that sounded like a weird little precautionary Semester at Sea thing, but until today I didn’t really realize to what extent the segregation of the blacks and whites still exists. Before I got here I was warned that people here refer to everyone as black, white, or colored (a mix) and it is not considered racism or inappropriate, it is just how it is. Also, just to fill you in Albert (the other intern) and I are the only white people we work with; there are no more whites on the staff and all of the coaches are black as well, and there just really are not many white people in the townships. So for the last couple of days I have noticed a few stares here and there, but after living in Mexico and the other traveling I have done, it is not something I pay attention to because I am pretty used to looking like a foreigner. But here…I don’t; I don’t look like a foreigner. I very easily could be a white South African and no one would know until I opened my mouth, because I have a foreign English accent (most people speak with a British/Australian accent) and I don’t speak Afrikaans. So finally today it clicked; the stares I get come from the fact that I am a young white girl walking around with all blacks. I don’t just get stares or questions from whites; I get them from everyone. Today I was coming back from lunch today with Mandla, Thembi, and Busi and I was sitting in the front of the car with Mandla and people in the cars next to us were looking, talking, pointing, then others would turn and look, but at that point in the day I didn’t think much of it. Later in the day Thembi and I were in a shop picking up some things for the HCT tomorrow and it all started to make sense. She was having a conversation in Afrikaans with the checkout clerk to which I was oblivious to being that I had zero idea what the conversation was about. I think I heard “GRS” and otherwise it was all lost to me. After we walked out Thembi told me that the clerk was asking her what the supplies were for and Thembi told her a HCT for GRS in the township (I am not sure what the name of it is) and the clerk looked at me and looked back at her and said “and that girl, she is going to be there too?” almost in a state of shock and Thembi was like “yea duh, of course.” But as soon as Thembi told me that story it all sort of became clear to me, why everyone had been staring when we were in the townships, why people stared at me in the malls and grocery stores, when people stared at me when I am walking down the street or in a car. Due to my heighten awareness of the situation, this evening was even more interesting when I ran to the grocery story with Mandla to pick up something for dinner. First of all I was the only white person in the entire store, and secondly, every single person seemed to notice that we were in the store together. Most people were very clearly commenting on it as well. I am sure now that Mandla is used to this considering I am probably not the first intern girl he has taken out in public, but still it can be a very uncomfortable situation. It is obvious to me now that while apartheid may be over, you can definitely notice and feel the clear segregation between the blacks and the whites.
Quickly I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to the staff that I work with. First of all there is one other intern out here with me and as I have said before his name is Albert. He is from Chicago and graduated ’09 and worked for a year before deciding that this is actually what he would rather be doing. Mandla is the head honcho of the Kimberley office and all of the surrounding sites; he is what we call the site coordinator. He is super cool, super organized, very smart, and loves to sing and dance. Most times when you are walking with him he is singing or dancing, he always has music playing in the office, and he has a very relaxed attitude, but will also has a way about him, a firmness, that if he asks you to do something, you will definitely get it done and do your best. Luckily there really are not “deadlines,” but you know you need to get the job done and he trusts that you will; good news in two days, we haven’t had any problems. Next in line we have Thuso (pronounced two-so) and he is the assistant site coordinator for Kimberley and LA/DK. He has a very even keel personality, loves to listen to “Ridin’ Solo,” and a few other songs of a similar nature. I haven’t caught him dancing yet, but I know he’s got it in him. He used to be a miner and grew up in DK and that is why he is mainly in charge up in those sites. Next we have Thembi (pronounced Tem-bee). She is the master coach for the Kimberley sites and the surrounding area. She is a crazy girl. She always called me “girlfriend” and its cute. She is 27 and 5-months pregnant. She is hoping for a boy, since she already has a daughter. She has told me a little about her story and it is a fascinating one and one that I will eventually share with you, but I want to get the rest of it first. She has a big crush on Edward from Twilight and Flo Rida and she loves the movies, so we have big plans to hit up the movies from time to time. She naturally chooses to speak in Afrikaans and she speaks soooooooo fast, it just sounds like one long sound. Sometimes she will say something then look at me like she is waiting for an answer and when I give her my “I don’t understand you blank stare” she will revert back to English. That pretty much sums up the people who I work with in the Kimberley office. Then today I met Busi, who is the assistant site coordinator for Bloem; she is mainly in charge, but reports to Mandla. She is sweet; she has a 2-year daughter and lives with her mom, her brother, and her sister. I haven’t had that much time to gather too much info, but I know working with her will be fun. I also met a ton of the coaches for the Bloem site today and they are awesome, Rasta dudes and dudettes. They are almost all in their 20s or close to 20 and they are just fun people. They always have music playing and are dancing. They speak a lot in Afrikaans to each other, but will try to speak in English and include me here and there. I ran errands to get ready for the HCT with Sam and T-Bo today and they are so fun. They all just have great personalities; so outgoing.
Thus far work has been pretty fun; it’s a pretty creative process and a cool way to see what life is like over here. I have the unique opportunity to work in townships and spend most of my time with people who have grown up and lived their entire lives in the townships. While it may seem like a weird concept, you can’t just walk into a township as a tourist. When I first went to Cape Town I sort of thought that sounded like a weird little precautionary Semester at Sea thing, but until today I didn’t really realize to what extent the segregation of the blacks and whites still exists. Before I got here I was warned that people here refer to everyone as black, white, or colored (a mix) and it is not considered racism or inappropriate, it is just how it is. Also, just to fill you in Albert (the other intern) and I are the only white people we work with; there are no more whites on the staff and all of the coaches are black as well, and there just really are not many white people in the townships. So for the last couple of days I have noticed a few stares here and there, but after living in Mexico and the other traveling I have done, it is not something I pay attention to because I am pretty used to looking like a foreigner. But here…I don’t; I don’t look like a foreigner. I very easily could be a white South African and no one would know until I opened my mouth, because I have a foreign English accent (most people speak with a British/Australian accent) and I don’t speak Afrikaans. So finally today it clicked; the stares I get come from the fact that I am a young white girl walking around with all blacks. I don’t just get stares or questions from whites; I get them from everyone. Today I was coming back from lunch today with Mandla, Thembi, and Busi and I was sitting in the front of the car with Mandla and people in the cars next to us were looking, talking, pointing, then others would turn and look, but at that point in the day I didn’t think much of it. Later in the day Thembi and I were in a shop picking up some things for the HCT tomorrow and it all started to make sense. She was having a conversation in Afrikaans with the checkout clerk to which I was oblivious to being that I had zero idea what the conversation was about. I think I heard “GRS” and otherwise it was all lost to me. After we walked out Thembi told me that the clerk was asking her what the supplies were for and Thembi told her a HCT for GRS in the township (I am not sure what the name of it is) and the clerk looked at me and looked back at her and said “and that girl, she is going to be there too?” almost in a state of shock and Thembi was like “yea duh, of course.” But as soon as Thembi told me that story it all sort of became clear to me, why everyone had been staring when we were in the townships, why people stared at me in the malls and grocery stores, when people stared at me when I am walking down the street or in a car. Due to my heighten awareness of the situation, this evening was even more interesting when I ran to the grocery story with Mandla to pick up something for dinner. First of all I was the only white person in the entire store, and secondly, every single person seemed to notice that we were in the store together. Most people were very clearly commenting on it as well. I am sure now that Mandla is used to this considering I am probably not the first intern girl he has taken out in public, but still it can be a very uncomfortable situation. It is obvious to me now that while apartheid may be over, you can definitely notice and feel the clear segregation between the blacks and the whites.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
THIS Really Is Africa
Goodness it is glorious here during the day, but man it chills down at night; I am talking almost a 30-degree difference. I have spent the last two days trying to adjust to this ungodly time difference and I am definitely not there yet. I had to take some Nyquil last night to make myself go to sleep and now I am sitting in the office wishing that I was in bed. This morning I had to be up at 6:30 a.m. for my first intervention.
We went to a school and watched the coaches take the kids through an activity in the curriculum called “HIV Transmission Tree.” During this activity, the coaches set up different areas, each named after stadiums in the world and then the kids go from stadium to stadium and meet different people. At the end they come back together and they pick three kids to stand-alone and represent people who are HIV positive. From there they request that if you met one of the kids standing alone in one of the stadiums, that you go put your hand on their shoulder. They continue this until all but two students are left. This explains the key message that HIV spreads quickly when people have unprotected sex with multiple partners. Those two students were told before the game to only talk to each other at each stadium, to demonstrate the key message that you can avoid HIV by having one mutually faithful, uninfected sexual partner. During orientation in Hanover, we did this activity so we would have a clear understanding of what the curriculum would look like, especially since each practice is in a language other than English. Anyways it was super cool to see the program in action and meet some of the Kimberley coaches.
I worked my first 11-hour day yesterday (day with the intervention, I am writing over a few days). It will also be my first weekend here and I will be working my first Saturday on the job. Too bad I am not getting paid, because I would be making some serious overtime. I am getting the impression that is going to be how life is; I think we just work a lot, which is fine because aside from that I just plan on hanging out in the awesome gym we have. I joined yesterday and made friends with Ralph, one of the guys working in the gym. I think he might be slightly scared of me because I kept asking him about social get-togethers, how I should meet people in Kim, where we should go, but it just seems like the gym is going to be the place to hangout. Plus it has Internet, quite a hot commodity in Kim. I think Albert and I might look into upgrading our Internet to unlimited, depending on how much more it would be a month, just so we can do what we want on the computers.
Yesterday when we got back from the intervention, I spent some time with Mandla going over the set up of our site and the expectations they have for Albert and I. We have four sites (Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Lime Acres, Danielskuil). The largest is actually Bloem, then Kim, and then Lime and DK, which we pretty much consider one for the time being. We are heading out to LA and DK later today, so I will be able to report back on those then and then we are headed to Bloem (sounds like “bloom”) tomorrow for a two-day HCT tournament. An HCT is a an HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing tournament, so what happens is we put on a soccer tournament, where people can come out and get tested while either playing or watching some soccer. I found out yesterday that I will be spending one week out of every month in Bloem and that I will be the intern in charge of that site. They have their own office, staff, and coaches, and I will be a little extra support for them. I will also be their voice being that they report to Mandla. I am also in charge of a program called Skillz Street, which is a street soccer program for women, and I am doing all of the write-ups (thank you notes, letters, anything that needs to be written obviously). Skillz is the name of the curriculum we run, so we have the Skillz Core (basic curriculum), Skillz Holiday (curriculum delivered in one week as opposed to 8 weeks), and the Skillz Street. Also they always use “z” in place of “s” at the end of words. All the rest of the stuff Albert and I will work about evenly on.
Yesterday I had my first driving lesson and I did well until I went from one road to another and turned into oncoming traffic. Albert starting screaming, “car! Car!, wrong side of the road!” and it didn’t even register because I jus felt like I was on the right side of the road. No worries, I can apparently sort of drive stick, I just cannot remember what side of the road to drive on. I also like to veer to the left because it feels weird driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car. Oh well, more practice might be needed before I start driving myself to Bloem, which is about 75 miles from Kim.
I will try to put some pictures up eventually, but like I said before the Internet can be a little questionable, so I will do my best. Actually I probably have to take some pictures before I can put them up. I’ll try to get on that. I really want to take pictures and video of the kids doing the activities, but I don’t think we are supposed to. Maybe I’ll be able to after we have been here for a while. When I was flying into Kimberley, I was so confused because all you could see was desert-like land for miles in every direction; there didn’t appear to be a city of any sort, never mind one the size of Kim (apparently Bloem is even bigger). I really think that flying into Kim is what it would feel like to land on Mars. It was just reds, browns, and tans, with some small shrubs sporadically thrown out there. The shrubs, though a hunter green color in real life, just looked like moon rocks from the plane. All I could think is that this definitely is Africa. Cape Town, not so much, flying into Kim, fo sho. I think once you get beyond the city of Kim and its townships there is nothing aside from trees, dirt, dirt roads, and more dirt.
Oh, above I forgot to mention that there is a nationwide teacher’s strike going on right now, which makes it very difficult to do anything since we work in schools. So right now we don’t have many interventions, but we have other little projects. We have an “Ingakara” competition going on right now. Ingakara means “leader or big-dog” in Africaans. Yesterday we spent the day creating an application that the girls will have to complete in order to enter. We are trying to find 8th grade girls who are doing something in the fight again HIV/AIDS. This project is in conjunction with Nike’s (RED) campaign and the first place girl will get a new Dell laptop, second place will get R500 worth of Nike gear, and third place will take home R400 work of Nike gear. So that is pretty cool!
Sorry if this was a slightly boring blog, just trying to relay some information for the time being, hopefully it will get more exciting. Mandla just got back to the office and we need to head to LA/DK. Actually he is just dancing right now though to some I-YAZ.
We went to a school and watched the coaches take the kids through an activity in the curriculum called “HIV Transmission Tree.” During this activity, the coaches set up different areas, each named after stadiums in the world and then the kids go from stadium to stadium and meet different people. At the end they come back together and they pick three kids to stand-alone and represent people who are HIV positive. From there they request that if you met one of the kids standing alone in one of the stadiums, that you go put your hand on their shoulder. They continue this until all but two students are left. This explains the key message that HIV spreads quickly when people have unprotected sex with multiple partners. Those two students were told before the game to only talk to each other at each stadium, to demonstrate the key message that you can avoid HIV by having one mutually faithful, uninfected sexual partner. During orientation in Hanover, we did this activity so we would have a clear understanding of what the curriculum would look like, especially since each practice is in a language other than English. Anyways it was super cool to see the program in action and meet some of the Kimberley coaches.
I worked my first 11-hour day yesterday (day with the intervention, I am writing over a few days). It will also be my first weekend here and I will be working my first Saturday on the job. Too bad I am not getting paid, because I would be making some serious overtime. I am getting the impression that is going to be how life is; I think we just work a lot, which is fine because aside from that I just plan on hanging out in the awesome gym we have. I joined yesterday and made friends with Ralph, one of the guys working in the gym. I think he might be slightly scared of me because I kept asking him about social get-togethers, how I should meet people in Kim, where we should go, but it just seems like the gym is going to be the place to hangout. Plus it has Internet, quite a hot commodity in Kim. I think Albert and I might look into upgrading our Internet to unlimited, depending on how much more it would be a month, just so we can do what we want on the computers.
Yesterday when we got back from the intervention, I spent some time with Mandla going over the set up of our site and the expectations they have for Albert and I. We have four sites (Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Lime Acres, Danielskuil). The largest is actually Bloem, then Kim, and then Lime and DK, which we pretty much consider one for the time being. We are heading out to LA and DK later today, so I will be able to report back on those then and then we are headed to Bloem (sounds like “bloom”) tomorrow for a two-day HCT tournament. An HCT is a an HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing tournament, so what happens is we put on a soccer tournament, where people can come out and get tested while either playing or watching some soccer. I found out yesterday that I will be spending one week out of every month in Bloem and that I will be the intern in charge of that site. They have their own office, staff, and coaches, and I will be a little extra support for them. I will also be their voice being that they report to Mandla. I am also in charge of a program called Skillz Street, which is a street soccer program for women, and I am doing all of the write-ups (thank you notes, letters, anything that needs to be written obviously). Skillz is the name of the curriculum we run, so we have the Skillz Core (basic curriculum), Skillz Holiday (curriculum delivered in one week as opposed to 8 weeks), and the Skillz Street. Also they always use “z” in place of “s” at the end of words. All the rest of the stuff Albert and I will work about evenly on.
Yesterday I had my first driving lesson and I did well until I went from one road to another and turned into oncoming traffic. Albert starting screaming, “car! Car!, wrong side of the road!” and it didn’t even register because I jus felt like I was on the right side of the road. No worries, I can apparently sort of drive stick, I just cannot remember what side of the road to drive on. I also like to veer to the left because it feels weird driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car. Oh well, more practice might be needed before I start driving myself to Bloem, which is about 75 miles from Kim.
I will try to put some pictures up eventually, but like I said before the Internet can be a little questionable, so I will do my best. Actually I probably have to take some pictures before I can put them up. I’ll try to get on that. I really want to take pictures and video of the kids doing the activities, but I don’t think we are supposed to. Maybe I’ll be able to after we have been here for a while. When I was flying into Kimberley, I was so confused because all you could see was desert-like land for miles in every direction; there didn’t appear to be a city of any sort, never mind one the size of Kim (apparently Bloem is even bigger). I really think that flying into Kim is what it would feel like to land on Mars. It was just reds, browns, and tans, with some small shrubs sporadically thrown out there. The shrubs, though a hunter green color in real life, just looked like moon rocks from the plane. All I could think is that this definitely is Africa. Cape Town, not so much, flying into Kim, fo sho. I think once you get beyond the city of Kim and its townships there is nothing aside from trees, dirt, dirt roads, and more dirt.
Oh, above I forgot to mention that there is a nationwide teacher’s strike going on right now, which makes it very difficult to do anything since we work in schools. So right now we don’t have many interventions, but we have other little projects. We have an “Ingakara” competition going on right now. Ingakara means “leader or big-dog” in Africaans. Yesterday we spent the day creating an application that the girls will have to complete in order to enter. We are trying to find 8th grade girls who are doing something in the fight again HIV/AIDS. This project is in conjunction with Nike’s (RED) campaign and the first place girl will get a new Dell laptop, second place will get R500 worth of Nike gear, and third place will take home R400 work of Nike gear. So that is pretty cool!
Sorry if this was a slightly boring blog, just trying to relay some information for the time being, hopefully it will get more exciting. Mandla just got back to the office and we need to head to LA/DK. Actually he is just dancing right now though to some I-YAZ.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My Contact Info
Hey guys, for all of you following this and wondering how to get in contact with me, I now have a few ways. First I have my mailing address:
Grassroot Soccer
Attn: Kristin Anthony
P.O. Box 3281
Kimberley, South Africa
8301
Please, please, please send me postcards of your hometowns or pretty scenery because I need to decorate my walls. Any sorts of pictures would be awesome too.
Secondly, I will have a computer that works one of these days. As soon as I landed in Kim my computer charger decided to stop working, so for the next two weeks or so until I get a new charger, I won't be online as much as I was hoping. I will be on skype usually towards the end of the day after work anytime between 5-8 p.m. my time, which is 6 hours ahead of EST. My skype name is kanthony12. I'm gonna try to go to an internet cafe this afternoon sometime so try to get on if you see this. You can always email me at kristinanthony@me.com.
Thirdly, I have a South African cell phone and number now, so you can reach me that way too. The best option is to get a skype account and buy $10 or so of skype minutes and that will last you forever I promise. I have had mine for over a year and I spoke to my mom this morning and it used up around 2 cents for a good 5-10 minute conversation. From skype you will be able to call my cell number, which is dialed on your end as 0027-82-354-0053.Unfortunately unless I am using skype I cannot call out from that cell phone, so please feel free to call me whenever. The best times to reach me are generally after work anytime from 5-10 p.m. my time.
Hope that helps with getting in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from everyone. Miss you all. Oh, and subscribe to this blog, because I will be updating it the most often. I have another in the works, I just need to finish it.
Grassroot Soccer
Attn: Kristin Anthony
P.O. Box 3281
Kimberley, South Africa
8301
Please, please, please send me postcards of your hometowns or pretty scenery because I need to decorate my walls. Any sorts of pictures would be awesome too.
Secondly, I will have a computer that works one of these days. As soon as I landed in Kim my computer charger decided to stop working, so for the next two weeks or so until I get a new charger, I won't be online as much as I was hoping. I will be on skype usually towards the end of the day after work anytime between 5-8 p.m. my time, which is 6 hours ahead of EST. My skype name is kanthony12. I'm gonna try to go to an internet cafe this afternoon sometime so try to get on if you see this. You can always email me at kristinanthony@me.com.
Thirdly, I have a South African cell phone and number now, so you can reach me that way too. The best option is to get a skype account and buy $10 or so of skype minutes and that will last you forever I promise. I have had mine for over a year and I spoke to my mom this morning and it used up around 2 cents for a good 5-10 minute conversation. From skype you will be able to call my cell number, which is dialed on your end as 0027-82-354-0053.Unfortunately unless I am using skype I cannot call out from that cell phone, so please feel free to call me whenever. The best times to reach me are generally after work anytime from 5-10 p.m. my time.
Hope that helps with getting in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from everyone. Miss you all. Oh, and subscribe to this blog, because I will be updating it the most often. I have another in the works, I just need to finish it.
Monday, August 16, 2010
I Made It!
First I have to say that I lucked out and got an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me for my 17 and1/2 hour plane ride from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg (Joburg)! What are the chances? Yesssss I got the empty seat, which is currently housing a pile of books, magazines, and extra pillows. Oh, and I just learned that I am stopping over in Senegal. Cool, it would be even cooler if I could actually be in Senegal and not just in the Dakar airport. I have been blessed by a nasally snore from the woman two seats to my right, a group of American tourists ready for their safari in Kruger National Park to my left, and a tv stocked with plenty of movies I have never seen. I have the goal of watching at least four; 1 down, 3 to go. Guess what? That will only take up 8 hours of my time, leaving me with 9 hours for this and sleeping. Peeerrrrfect.
As I sit here wrapped in two blankets, wearing two pairs of socks, and sipping my after dinner tea, I wonder exactly how I got to this moment in my life. How did I find this opportunity and how did I get myself on this plane headed to other side of the pond? For so long this has just been something I just talked about and it sounded cool, who knew it would actually happen! I am not going to lie; today has been quite an interesting rollercoaster. I woke up with the far-to-familiar anxiety attack that only disappeared after I began my journey to the Boston airport, revisited me in the Washington-Dulles airport, and disappeared soon after I boarded plane numero dos. I have also been enjoying a nice cocktail of sadness, excitement, nervousness, fear, happiness, disbelief, belief, concern, moments of no emotion, and a single TEAR. It happened. And people think I am an emotionless, soulless person. Maybe I just have too many emotions to show them on my exterior self.
I know you all like to hear about how packing and fighting with my mom went, but I don’t have much to tell you. I did it myself this time! Crazy, maybe I really am growing up. It was definitely a process, but it always is and I always get it all done. How? This is something I will never understand. Camp ended on a positive note, It was a little crazy at the end saying goodbye to all my campers, packing for a year, and then saying goodbye to all of my awesome friends all in less than 24 hours. But, per usual I am on to the next thing. Now as I listen to my iPod I think of all the awesome memories that correspond with these songs. I spent another summer running around playing all day with some pretty cool people and I got paid for it; no complaints here.
If you has asked me 10 years ago what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said architect without a second thought. 6 years ago? Interior designer. 4 years ago? Feisty corporate ladder climber. 2 years ago? Professional traveler, also known as Samantha Brown. Getting closer…and last semester? I decided I was moving to South Africa for a year to do HIV/AIDS prevention work with an organization called Grassroot Soccer (GRS). Where did this come from? Several hours of research on the computer. I had zero idea I wanted something like this until it popped up on my screen. So lets go with it.
This needs to be clarified: I AM NOT A SOCCER COACH and I will not be a soccer coach. At orientation in Hanover, NH last weekend we decided to write out a sentence that gave the idea of what we were going to do because so many people are so confused by the idea. I will quote this, but I did write it. “GRS is an organization that uses a participatory curriculum coached by community role models to educate youth on HIV/AIDS.” Believe it or not, there is actually not a lot of soccer involved. The curriculum involves a lot of dancing, a lot of energizers, stories, discussion, and games that sometimes involve tennis balls, frisbees, and on occasion a soccer ball. In all of this craziness, I am the person that makes sure that this all happens, by filling out paperwork, monitoring sites, keeping an eye on our program budgets, etc. Oh yea and driving stick on the other side of the road. No big. There are programs in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia. There are 4 interns in Lusaka, Zambia, 4 in Port Elizabeth, S.A., 2 in Lesotho, 7 in Cape Town, S.A., 2 in Kimberley (me!), 3 in Soweto, Joburg, 1 in Malawi, and 1 more in Eastern South Africa.
So for all of those who asked me where I live…now I live in Kimberley, South Africa. More to come after I charge the computer. Stupid Apple batteries.
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