If You're Happy and You Know It

There’s nothing quite like a performance of 17 toddlers singing, dancing and clapping to put you in a good mood and bring you back to appreciate the simple joys in life. We returned to Kayamandi yesterday to purchase a fire extinguisher, first aid kit and mattress for Zukelwa’s crèche and received a warm greeting of “TEACHERS!” as we walked in the door. It wasn’t long before each member of our group was on the ground, surrounded by a swarm of kids who were fascinated with every piece of jewelry, strand of hair and facial body part (they were somehow convinced my nose is a detachable object and I couldn’t help feeling like a Mr. Potato Head doll).

Although the kids didn’t know any conversational English (Kayamandi is predominantly isiXhosa speaking), Zukelwa led them in a song and dance performance. There was something beautiful about watching the physical expression of joy through hand clapping, foot stomping and jumping around that gave me a new perspective of my community development work both in Kayamandi and Lynedoch. It’s important to remember –like our 8-hour car ride along the Garden Route –that the learning process is about the journey rather than the destination. It’s so easy to get caught up in lesson planning and documentation of our work that I forget our main goal is to interact and engage with the community members. I also realize how goal-oriented I am in my work ethic and although this is great for motivation, often times in community work, there isn’t always a clear and tangible end to aim for. With end goals of enabling empowerment and inspiring confidence in our students, it’s hard to measure our success and when we come up against obstacles like late trains, absent teachers, and limited funding and resources, it can become discouraging when challenges are apparent but the progress isn’t.

This week was my three-month mark of arriving in South Africa, which means there is just under a month of classes and community work left at Lynedoch. I’d like to say I’ve seen a change among our students with the work that we’ve put in –without a doubt, we’ve been able to develop relationships and get to know some of them personally. But it’s also been a challenge of how much we’re realistically able to accomplish. Three American university students with little or no education experience tackle a class of 40 Afrikaans-speaking seventh-graders? How do you measure success? While I don’t expect them to remember every lesson on Martin Luther King Jr. or how to write a haiku poem, I hope that simply our presence in the school has added something to their time at Lynedoch, just as working in their community has changed my own perceptions.

So with this in mind, I embark on the home-stretch portion of the semester. There will inevitably be more challenges and obstacles we face but also more singing and dancing to Justin Beiber, homemade birthday crowns, yogurt facials and green glitter moustaches. And I will remember to follow the advice: if you’re happy and you know it –show it!

Flexibility Isn't Just About Yoga

 For anyone who knows me, I’m not exactly the most flexible person. I never proudly boasted a winning score at the ‘sit and reach’ test in P.E. (in fact it was pretty fortunate I was able to pass at all!). But I like to think that in other ways, I’m pretty flexible and creative in working through various obstacles that come up. As a Public and Community Service major, I thought I’ve had my fair share of experiences dealing with community development projects and the inevitable challenges that arise in the process. That is, until I came to Africa. I’ve come to realize that I’ve had the good fortune of being under close guidance of many of the faculty of the PSP department when it comes to planning and implementing various projects and grants over the past few years. Without this administrative support, however, things can get a bit tricky.

Working in the communities around Stellenbosch, I’ve found that administration processes work a bit differently. It’s definitely been a challenge (and a valuable learning experience!) trying to navigate the right person to get in touch with. My small group working on our community HIV/AIDS prevention project has learned first-hand the need for flexibility and a back-up plan (and in some cases, plans C,D, and E!). Our multiple attempts at finding an individual in the community to invest a sustainable program in has fallen through on multiple occasions throughout the semester. Things were looking up, however, on Thursday when we met with Matthew, a current homeless patient, in the AIDS care clinic in the Kayamandi township. We discussed with him the opportunity to purchase materials to build a temporary shack in the township while he got himself back on his feet and left that day excited about making a direct impact on this man’s life. Over the weekend, however, we received disappointing news that Matthew had to be discharged from the center due to alcohol abuse and threatening staff and other patients. Upon arriving back on Tuesday to continue brainstorming, we found a very persistent Matthew waiting for us; he had set up camp outside the center’s gate, hoping to persuade us to give him a month’s rent. It was disheartening to have to refuse his requests again and again, especially being sensitive to his current situation, but with some counseling from the staff, it was agreed that we would find a more reliable community member to work with.

Within 10 minutes, I found myself sitting on a couch in a small two-room house down the road, surrounded by 15 bright-eyed kids, scrambling to climb into my lap, pull on my rings and try on my sunglasses. I eagerly listened to the homeowner –this woman was starting up a “crèche” or daycare center for families in the community and was in need of a fire extinguisher and first aid kit to become fully certified. She is unable to leave the house to seek employment because she is also responsible for taking care of her husband who has been in and out of surgery, and therefore started this childcare business to support the family. She says she still faces financial difficulty, though, since many of the parents of the children are unemployed and cannot pay for her services; some cannot find employment because they are currently receiving treatment at the clinic. We’ve arranged to return next week to purchase these things with her –things are finally looking up so keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned!

It’s the Journey –Not the Destination

After a week’s vacation, a (very) detailed account of the absolutely gorgeous Garden Route can be found below for your reading pleasure. Or you can skim and ogle at the photos. They’re pretty cool too…

A 5:00 A.M. alarm marked the start of Garden Route! Coffee- and sleep-deprived AIFS-ers made our way to the big white vans and loaded duffle bags into the trunks before jumping in to claim a window seat. I had been told that here in Africa, it’s more about the journey than the destination and half the fun is in watching the beautiful scenery along the drive. It was incredible to see the number of scenes passing by my window…mountainous crags, seaside cliffs, blue ocean waters, flat savannas, speeding white vans driven by crazy drivers blasting techno at 7am (wish I was kidding about the last one…)

Our first rest stop was “Ronnie’s Sex Shop.” And yes, there is a bit of history behind the name. The owner of this establishment (called Ronnie, it would seem) painted the name of his new rustic roadside farm stall "Ronnie's Shop" on the side of the building in red. When he wasn't looking, his sneaky friends grabbed a paintbrush and added the word 'sex' to the sign – creating a well-known landmark. Ronnie, clever chap that he is, decided to keep the new name and instead of running yet another one of the many roadside farm stalls, he turned his business into a pub and restaurant and today it is one of the best-known destination pubs in South Africa.

We journeyed on to the Cango Caves where I felt like I had stepped into “The Goonies” movie set as we crawled, squirmed and shimmied our way through dark tunnels and into underground caverns.  Surrounded by rock formations millions of years old, you couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if they started falling from the ceiling…

But no rest for the weary spelunkers –it was on to Oudshorn Ostrich Farm!







I’ve come to the conclusion that these birds are just plain weird –their ankles are located where you think their knees should be, they only have 3 toes instead of 4 like most birds, and their eye is bigger than their brain. They do give excellent hugs though:

 

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Fun Fact: 1 ostrich egg = 12 chicken eggs.
Talk about a supersized omelet!

Sunday’s adventure was kloofing –white water tubing (minus the tube!) meets cliff jumping. Yep, pretty awesome! We hiked, sweating in our full-body wetsuits to the start of the river, which was colored brown because of the tannins and looked suspiciously like tea water. Iced tea, to be exact –the water was FREEZING and I had a pair of lovely purple lips by the end of the afternoon.

Taking advantage of the beautiful mountains around the backpackers hostel, a few of us went out for a longer hike to find the infamous waterfalls we had heard about –and we were not disappointed! I’ll pretend for a minute that we did not lost the trail and had to forge our own way across the river; we eventually ended up at the most beautiful falls and dove in for a swim J

In addition to our slight direction disability, it seems like we also lack time-keeping skills and it was soon much later than we anticipated. Yes, folks, the mountain woods in Africa get very dark. Very fast. We were soon using the glowing screen of a cell phone to light our path back to camp and we emerged from the trail to be greeted by a very concerned Mama H (who was just about to call our parents to break the news that we had gotten lost in the African jungle. I don’t think that would have gone over very well…)

And what’s an African adventure without some African animals? Monday we visited an elephant sanctuary and it’s official: elephants are by far the coolest animals I’ve seen here!

Turns out the bucket of fruit is comparable to eating a handful of M&Ms!

Tuesday morning. The big day. This was the day I was going to jump. The highest bungy jump in the world. This is why I came to Africa. Ok, so not completely the truth, but I had been looking forward to this for months. Waking to the sun streaming in the window, it seemed like a perfectly good day to jump off a perfectly good bridge.

However, walking across that bridge an hour later, I began to have second thoughts. Who in their right mind decided to make this a recreational sport, anyway?? 

The blasting music gave me an excuse to dance around with my nervous energy as I waited impatiently for them to call “Number 12!” I sat, voluntarily getting my feet tied together and strained to listen to my guide’s instructions over the loud dance beats (I only managed to catch the words “safety” and “strap,” to which I responded with a smile and nod, hoping that this “safety strap” was securely attached to my ankles…)

Before I knew it, it was “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGY!” and against all better judgment, my feet left the safe, concrete platform and I was rushing headfirst on a 650 foot drop. The feeling was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced –the 5 second free-fall seemed to drag on forever before the cord caught and I flew upwards again to experience the second highest jump in the world on the recoil! As the cord stabilized and I bounced up and down, I could only hear complete silence and I stared down at a beautiful river canyon full of trees with tops sprouting up at me. Incredible.

Look Ma! No Hands!

We spent our final day of the Garden Route visiting more wildlife –cheetahs, jaguars, servals, wildcats, caracals, meerkats, and…monkeys!

Well hey there Timon!

Found a few movie stars from Pirates of the Caribbean
and the Hangover 2 here in Monkeyland!

The longest suspension bridge in the southern hemisphere!
(No jumping off this one!)

The past few days back in Stellenbosch have been a tad soggy; however, we’ve tried to combat the rain and explore Cape Town with our last few days off. Saturday we shopped around the Old Biscuit Mill and sampled the delicious homemade and local foods (can you say homemade peanut butter ice cream?!).

And finally, hoppy Easter! While it was a bit disappointing not to be home with family to celebrate the holiday (Eliza, don’t think you automatically win the egg hunt just because Bobby and I aren’t there to take you on!), I had a very entertaining African Easter. A group of us, dressed in our Easter best, walked to church yesterday morning –only to find the mass times had changed. Across the street, however, another local Afrikaans service was just starting and we were warmly welcomed inside to get out of the rain. Although we understood only about 20% of what was going on (I managed to make out that the first 10 minutes were spent congratulating “Auntie Anne” on turning 90 years old. You go girl!), it was still awesome to feel the energy coming from the band and gospel choir dressed in full robes. (Hallie commented after “well that was the first Easter service I’ve been to with a drum set on the alter!”) While it was very different from the traditional Easter masses we celebrate at home, it didn’t matter to the other parishioners that we didn’t speak their language; they welcomed us anyway–to the extent that the man standing next to us offered Corie his Afrikaans hymnal! It was this simple one-hour service that reminded me the simplicity, yet the importance, of offering a friendly smile or that welcoming gesture to a stranger… and what better time to show it than on Easter!