Just a Box of Rain

It’s been a busy few weeks in Mtubatuba.  This past week we enjoyed a visit from the great Mzukisi “Tony” Gubesa, a Master Coach based out of Cape Town who is responsible for overseeing all of the Grassroot Soccer lessons carried out in KwaZulu Natal.  Thokozani (TK for short), the site coordinator who I work for at Mpilonhle, reports directly to Tony regarding GRS.  Khetiwe, Mpume, and Nathi each oversee coaches in 4 different schools (total of 51 coaches and 12 schools) and report to TK. 

Some of the Mpilonhle gents on Heritage Day.  Most of the guys didn't have traditional outfits so we wore Mike's (the head of Mpilonhle) old garb from his time in Bangladesh.  Thokozani is right of me.

The ladies did a better job of rocking traditional South African clothing.  I don't know what that white guy in the cowboy hat is doing there.  Khetiwe and Mpume are right of me.

 The 6 of us worked on strengthening the program in Mtubatuba, a site which has graduated the second largest number of GRS students in South Africa over the past year, particularly impressive given its rural setting and the relatively new relationship between Mpilonhle and GRS.

We spent part of the time focusing on Coach Support Visits (CSVs) where Khetiwe, Mpume, or Nathi would observe a GRS lesson or practice and then give feedback to the coach on content delivery and group facilitation.  Afterwards, Tony would give feedback to whichever counselor did the CSV.  I jumped in and gave input to both the coaches being evaluated and, subsequently, the counselors who did the evaluating.  These CSVs are really useful for ensuring quality of lessons delivered and keeping the counselors in close, interactive relationships with their respective coaches and schools.

We also had a meeting for all of the coaches at the local church, where we discussed the curriculum and logistics, passed out gear to the coaches, and, finally, played a soccer game as part of the day of teambuilding.

Holiday camps

The previous week we hosted 2 holiday camps during school break.  Roughly 75-200 (depending on the day) high school students, who live near the host schools, participate in the GRS curriculum and Mpilonhle health education classes and counseling, play soccer, and are provided with breakfast and lunch.  TK was responsible for overseeing one of the camps, and I got to take charge of the other.  Given my limited knowledge of the Zulu language and relative inexperience, I was lucky to have plenty of help from the counselors.  I enjoyed getting to know the coaches and seeing the style of the delivery here as well as the challenge of keeping that many people on a tight schedule as pleasantly as possible in a place where tight schedules are very rare.  All in all, despite plenty of logistical obstacles, the week was a success; the kids had fun and took part in lots of vital conversations.

Here is a small scattering of my ‘You Know You’re In South Africa When…’ episodes:

-         We had a meeting with a local principal about organizing a soccer tournament at his school that was interrupted when a stray goat walked into the classroom.

-         During my run last Sunday I came within 20 yards of a group of about 10 zebras and spotted several impala as well.

-         On my drive to one of the schools a couple weeks ago, we passed a mother and baby rhino right next to the road and saw buffalo and zebras as well.

-         On that same drive, Mpume pointed to a set of villages on the hills near the road and casually mentioned that they were at war with each other.

-         We went on a hippo and croc spotting tour in a boat in the St Lucia estuary, where we watched dozens of hippos huddled together in the water.

-         I tried cow stomach for lunch on Wednesday.  Lets just say the first bite was fine but it went downhill pretty quickly.

Hipps at St. Lucia

 

Braai for Tony's last night

  

Andile, Tony, Jess

  
During camps last week I spent a lot of time with Khetiwe, who speaks very good English and offered a lot of insights into Zulu culture and life in and around KwaZulu Natal.  Khetiwe described the vicious cycle that so often plagues South Africa. 

A woman with few economic resources has six or seven kids.  The father moves to Johannesburg or another big city to find work with decent wages.  If he is able to find a job he stays in the city, sending little, if any, money back to the family.  If the father actually returns, he expects sex from the mother.  People view men as having the right to impose sex on women rather than women having a choice in the matter, so the expectation is realized.  The man, who has likely slept with different partners who could be HIV positive, often insists on not using protection.  The woman does not stand up for herself because she believes this is her only way to put food on the table.  Meanwhile, the daughters start trying to meet older men (who are also more likely to be HIV positive) at age 17 in order to support the family.  Some even attempt to have kids in order to get cash from child support grants despite this actually putting them at a financial disadvantage, since the expenses of having a child outweigh the income from the grants.  And the cycle continues.

Education sits on the back burner as families struggle to find short-term ways to put food on the table.  However, solid education can help break the cycle by empowering women to make their own choices and increasing their opportunities for employment. 

AIDS compounds the process, crippling families physically, emotionally, and economically.  Unfortunately, many people here continue to stigmatize HIV/AIDS, and the fight against the disease proves very difficult when people do not even talk about the virus.  In my conversations in KZN, I hear a lot about people getting sick or attending funerals but I rarely hear HIV mentioned directly.  As Jess and I have discussed, part of why HIV is so challenging to fight is that the virus itself does not cause pain or kill people.  Rather, it breaks down the body’s immune system, rendering the host extremely vulnerable to tuberculosis, the flu, and other diseases.  In many AIDS cases, people cite a disease such as tuberculosis as the cause of deterioration and death without revealing that victims were HIV positive beforehand.  Furthermore, families tend to keep health-related issues private and consider probing questions about them rude.  But, at the end of the day, silence can prove deadly.

Zululand’s focus on the present pervades.  Many live day to day or month to month and, perhaps consequently, make an effort to squeeze every drop of life out of each day (by no means an original observation on my part).  Groups both small and large gather to sing, dance, clap, and play.  Families wait at public faucet for the small window of time that water is available.  People prioritize spending time with each other rather than alone, making sure to greet and interact with whomever they encounter.  Mothers line up at the grocery store where they can collect child support grants directly in coupon form and then purchase food, eliminating the need to stop at the bank, a distrusted place that deals in borrowing and lending cash, a resource less tangible than food itself.  Hope and playfulness abound.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities