Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving back home and is enjoying the holiday season!

 

The days fly by in KZN.  Right now Mpilonhle is in the middle of 2 weeks worth of clinics with an organization called OneSight, which provides free eye examinations, glasses, and sunglasses to people in need all over the world.  For this particular set of clinics, Mpilonhle takes care of logistics at the rural sites and OneSight provides the equipment, expertise, and volunteers.  Almost all of the Mpilonhle team participates in these clinics, which make for long, hot, and ultimately rewarding days.  Last week we stayed at the Jozini Tiger Lodge, a comfortable spot with beautiful views of the Jozini River Dam.

Two girls after receiving new shades at OneSight.

View of Jozini Dam from Tiger Lodge

Nathi by the infinity pool at Tiger Lodge

TK's first time in a boat

Yours truly, armed and dangerous

People lined up for the OneSight clinic.

The previous week I spent a lot of hours writing my two first grant proposals, both for Mpilonhle.  One proposed adding an additional mobile computer lab to Mpilonhle’s existing mobile forces, so that the organization would be able to provide computer training to teachers specifically in addition to students.  With many teachers lacking basic computer skills, student computer literacy ends up suffering and existing technology goes underutilized.  

The other grant, which I would help implement, involves setting up demonstration vegetable gardens in our partner schools so that students and community members would be able to learn more effective methods for achieving food security and, thus, battling the malnutrition and hunger that are, aside from being major problems in and of themselves, closely linked with HIV/AIDS and poverty.  My model calls for accountable leadership, environmentally suitable and cost-effective methodology, and replicability.  In the past, similar gardening programs have been lead by volunteers from abroad, full-time staff taking gardening on as a side project, or unpaid interns, making sustainability very difficult.  By hiring a full-time, paid, and locally hired coordinator and appointing heads of each garden, people would take ownership and responsibility of the program.  These individuals would receive intensive training on bio-intensive permaculture designed specifically for dryland conditions where limited water supply is so often a deal breaker.  Unlike many existing community gardens with expensive tunnels or other design features, the demo gardens in the schools would be as simple and cheap as possible so that others would be able to learn how to establish very similar gardens in their homes in order to supplement their diets and or earn extra income.  A couple others and I recently prepared and planted a trial garden at the Mpilonhle office, so we’ll give some care, do some dances for Mother Earth, and hope for the best.

Mpilonhle, having not yet received subgrant money from GRS (which has not yet received grant money from US government), decided to hire some local Zulu mercenaries to kidnap their GRS intern.

Despite it being a crazy week, I had time to squeeze in a big Thanksgiving feast at Mike and Christine’s place with about 15 Americans, mostly Peace Corps volunteers, from all over Northern KZN.  I also got to visit Johannesburg (and fellow interns Clint, AJ, Tizzy, and Doug) in early November and Cape Town later on in the month, where I watched the US-South Africa friendly match and hung out with my old housemates.

Cheers!

Some wintry scenes from the yard at La Colline.

 

 

 

Own Those Minutes

"Own the minutes, baba," Thokozani always tells me.  "Own those minutes."  Translation: life is really short so get your carpe diem on.

Some recent minutes:

Gugu (Thokozani's wife) was Matron of Honor at this wedding we went to in Hlehlewe.

Getting ready to dance down the aisle...

Bride and groom looking particularly cheerful.

Jess with Round.  Yes, Round is his actual name.  Yes, Round is awesome.  Yes, Round likes whiskey.

No, the altar is not designed for a Lumbering Sasquatch.

TK's house, looking to expand.

The two little guys are TK's sons who he doesn't get to see much.  We visited them in one of the townships outside Richards Bay.

Road to one of our camps this week near Hlabisa.  Might not look very steep from here, but we didn't think the microbus was going to make it up this.

Group of kids doing one of the Skillz practices with the Mpilonhle mobile units adjacent.

"Tim, can you shoot us?"

We Are the Small Axe

The van cruises over the green and brown hills of KwaZulu Natal as the thick, grey clouds begin to release their contents down onto the thirsty land.  I am driving Irvan, one of the Grassroot Soccer/Mpilonhle coaches, back to his home near Nomathiya, a rural secondary school about 40 km away from the center of Mtubatuba.  On normal school days, it’s 2 hour round trip walk to Nomathiya from his home.  With the summer heat pushing in, I wince at the thought.  But he assures me that he loves trip, especially since it fits in nicely to his martial arts training regimen.  Today Irvan just finished teaching the first practice of the GRS Skillz curriculum to the very first session of kids at the Mtuba Christian Academy, or MCA for short.  MCA stands apart from the other 12 schools we work with (one of which is Nomathiya) in that it has a wealthier student population and is, as you might’ve guessed, non-secular. 

Last week Thokozani, Khetiweh, and I approached MCA’s principal with hopes of running a pilot session before the long holiday break in December.  Following a successful meeting, we picked a couple of our existing coaches from other schools to start the program with roughly 40 12-15 year olds today.  Unlike our partner schools, where Zulu is the language of choice, the academy requires students to speak English in all of their classes.  We selected Irvan and another coach named Samukelisiwe, since they are two of our most fluent English speakers.  Both did well given the new environment, which included the pressure of having to speak their second language throughout and trying to engage a relatively reserved group of kids.

[Back to the future: the session after this ended up running a bit more smoothly.  However, we did have one 12 year-old ask:

-         Could we stop using that word?

-         What word?

-         Sex.  Lets use masturbation instead because in means the same thing.

Can’t make this stuff up.]

Irvan tells me he loves being a Grassroot Soccer coach not only because he gets to “heal” others but because it also helps him “heal” himself.  He knows his audience, but I can tell he’s sincere and ask him to elaborate.  He shares the same story with me that he usually shares with his students during one of the GRS practices in which coaches give an example of how they have been personally affected by AIDS. 

With a few months left in secondary school, things were looking up for Irvan.  He earned good grades and planned on apprenticing for his brother, who made good money as a plumber in Durban.  His brother had set aside some money that, coupled with Irvan’s future earnings from plumbing, could eventually help the 12th grader attend university, a rare opportunity for someone from his village.  But the brother started getting the flu [HIV/AIDS is not often referred to by name here; stigma remains a huge issue].  It turned out he was HIV positive and his immune system deteriorated quickly.  Right after Irvan graduated, his brother’s girlfriend from Durban called the family and asked them to visit the hospital.  Upon arrival, Irvan found his brother in a hospital bed barely able to communicate.  The next day he passed away. 

The family grieved the loss of the brother.  Unfortunately, he had been the major breadwinner, which put a tremendous strain on the family to find other sources of income.  When they went to the home affairs department to collect his savings, they found that he had a wife who they did not know about.  The wife took the money and ran, evading the family in the process.  Irvan saw his bright future quickly dim as his college funds were squandered.  He was left with few employment opportunities and an intense anger that he didn’t talk about with anyone.

Irvan joined Grassroot Soccer after being highlighted as a potential coach by his school, who saw his strong academics and status as a role model in his secondary school. GRS has proved a critical outlet in that it allows him to teach kids about the HIV/AIDS and heal through sharing his experiences.  Now he enjoys talking about what happened and his outlook is as upbeat as ever.

We finally arrive at the rondo where Irvan, his mom, and several other siblings and half-siblings live [family circles are rarely sharply delineated].  Its a small round structure painted bright green with a thatched roof.  He hoists the sack of maize meal that he picked up in town over his shoulder, gives a thumbs-up, and cracks that wide smile which is always so quick to appear.

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

So Nice You Have To Say It Twice

Monday, September 20, 2010

On Friday I finally arrived in Mtubatuba, part of the Umkhanyakude district in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa and a beautiful place that I am excited to call home for the next year.  Most of the municipality is rural, with dirt roads leading up to small, brightly colored circular or rectangular houses spread across dry, rolling hills outside a crowded town center (no, I am not spelling it centre just yet).  The vast majority of the people in the town and surrounding area are Zulu, South Africa’s largest ethnic group.  Mtubatuba is a half-hour drive from both St Lucia (part of the famous iSimongaliso Wetlands Park) on the coast to the East and the Umfolozi Game Reserve (Kruger’s smaller rival) to the West. 

The KZN province has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the entire world.  Roughly half of 20-25 year old females test HIV positive here, and almost as many 25-30 year old males are positive as well.  Umkhanyakude is considered one of the most deprived districts in South Africa.  There’s plenty of work to do.  To make matters worse, Mtubatuba currently suffers from a drought, and public water supply was cut off several times over the past week, hitting the local sugar cane mill and other agricultural enterprises hard.

As I mentioned before, I’m teaming up with the local health and education organization Mpilonhle, which implements the Grassroot Soccer curriculum in the region.  I’m living at the Mpilonhle guest house on a macadamia nut farm with Mpilonhle’s American intern, Jessica, who recently finished her third year of med school.  Michael and Christine, who founded the organization, live at the main house next door.  Today we picked up a new addition, a small Zulu puppy named Nduku, who will join our other 3 dogs, Mutombo, Iche, and Shrek, in keeping us company and watching over the farm.

I’ve enjoyed meeting the Mpilonhle staff over the last couple of days and got to hang out with many of the GRS coaches at a camp at one of the schools on Saturday.  The camp consisted of groups of students rotating between the GRS prevention curriculum, Mpilonhle health classes, counseling, and testing, and pick-up soccer.  These camps are crucial now, since the government labor strike in South Africa, which includes many teachers, has made it difficult to reach kids and carry out the curriculum during normal school hours.

On The Road

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I found my new favorite stretch of road.  For about 130 km, the R61 snakes across the mountainous terrain of the Wild Coast on its way to the beach village of Port St. Johns from Nelson Mandela’s hometown of Mthatha.  While rain was the biggest challenge for me and the maroon VW microbus on the first leg from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth yesterday, today I fought the wind and avoided scores of cattle, sheep, and uniformed schoolchildren, most of whom paid little attention to passing traffic.

Tonight I’m staying at a backpackers’ called Jungle Monkey, which also serves as a watering hole for an interesting local crowd.  I met one of the owners, Papa G, who told me about the shark problem in Port St. Johns.  Apparently, 3 people have been killed and many more injured by sharks over the past year in the small town.  Potential explanations range from sharks mistaking surfers for seals to swimmers failing to heed extensive but undetected warnings from the great whites to bloody animal sacrifices on the beach.  Serious Jaws 5 potential.

On Wednesday night I was lucky enough to enjoy a home cooked meal and spend time with the Port Elizabeth interns.  We shared stories of our experiences working for GRS thus far in South Africa; many of ours were similar, but some were unique.  The PE site, like Cape Town, was hurt by the government workers strike, but a new challenge emerged when many of the students at one school staged an aggressive protest in response to having to take final exams despite having been teacherless for the preceding few weeks.

Last week, I got to be part of a fascinating, eye-opening experience: the very first coaches training for GRS’ brand new curriculum, Generation Skillz, which caters towards 15-18 year olds and is designed to get kids to discuss and contemplate pertinent gender issues such as domestic violence and rape.  One out of every four South African men admit to having raped at least once.  These issues are very present here, including among the coaches who were participating in the training.  Alarmingly, some of the male coaches were not at all on the same page in terms of gender violence, and some of the female coaches were reluctant, perhaps too intimidated, to be heard.  In listening to the coaches, I began to understand the culture of violence, with Xhosa men making large bridewealth payments to their brides’ families and thus often viewing their wives as possessions or with children growing up seeing their fathers abuse their mothers without resistance and concluding that such behavior was acceptable.

Despite it being a training of coaches, we got to see the GRS teaching philosophy applied firsthand; behavior change results from intense, interactive discussion, rather than simply importing ideas through lecture, and children take after their role models.  While there is still a long, long way to go, including for many of the coaches themselves, I believe that they will be able to positively influence their students and generate very necessary conversation.  I think all of the staff and intern participants felt very good to be part of GRS this week and the broader fight for gender equality and respect.

On a lighter note, we’ve continued to take full advantage of our weekends, from camping at an outdoor electronic music festival to relaxing and surfing at Cape Town’s pristine beaches.

Last but not least, a big thanks to all of the Cape Town interns for putting up with me over the past month.