This morning we me for our first class session in a conference room of the guest house. We articles form the book The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein. They focused on HIV rates in Africa and what’s propelling the epidemic to spread faster than other countries (the notion of concurrency is heavily discussed, many Africans have sex with more than one person during the same period of time). I would recommend reading her work, she’s a great writer and isn’t over technical.

We also began giving powerpoint presentations of South African history. This was a bit dull, but necessary in our understanding of the socio-political dynamics of the country.

After class we headed over to Zonke for our first day of the after school program. This was a bit unorganized since we weren’t sure what this was to entail. We weren’t sure how to tutor kids in the overcrowded loud center, so things were a little chaotic. We are going to start taking the older kids to the library to work on homework and tutor there. Hopefully, this will allow us to use our time more efficiently.

Since we were unable to really study we went to the grounds to play soccer. This was the first time in my life I was picked first on a team that involved physical activity! I’d just like to say that I hung in there, and even though they are some of the best soccer players EVER, I did okay, not first pick okay, but I was not the weakest link J

After school we strolled back to the center so the kids could eat dinner. Leaving Zonke tonight was interesting. It was quiet in the car with everyone on their ipods. I sat looking out the window with the sunset ahead over the settling smog atop the tattered township. I can’t stop thinking, if they only knew how much more they deserve…

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY DAD! Today was a day off to do laundry and recover from this last week. I got to call my dad, which was the first time I’ve called home, so that was refreshing to speak with him and my mom and sister on his big hump over the hill.

We can pay to get our laundry done here at the guest house but its’ a bit expensive so today I washed all my socks, bras, underwear, tank tops, and t-shirts. There’s not much more I can say besides it’s a humbling experience to wash your own underwear.

Last night was a great time. Numosa came too! We were told to be safe and careful at a township bar because some of the men can get outta hand. Our tour guides came with their friends and acted as our bodyguards. To be honest I didn’t find the guy any more inappropriate than another guy in an East Lansing bar. We met some fabulous women that taught us how to dance in the bathroom, and learned a few of the local popular songs. Hopefully I’ll get my hands on some before I come home. Of course we were the only white people there, and we’re American so we did get some celebrity treatment, which felt awkward, yet welcoming. The whole aspect of going to a bar settles a bit funny. Since alcohol is one of the driving factors keeping the townships down Jeanne and Rachel reminded us that drinking isn’t always recreational and many of these people come to the bar and spend their grant money, sometimes the child grant money on booze. …Just another issue of circumstance that will marinate in my thoughts…

Today was Gold Reef! We met the kids there because they all took taxi’s. It was pretty cold today so we took some extra time bundling. The weather didn’t deter the kids excitement, that’s for certain. They were screaming and jumping up and down when our vans rolled up. We split into groups. I got really lucky with my group. Sara and Nicole and I and their pen pals, my two and the other girl Nomalanga (who was mine in the MRULE program) all got to hang out for the day. It must have been refreshing to let loose and just be kids.

We started with the Anaconda, the largest roller coaster in the park. Big mistake! When we got off the girls all kissed the ground and asked us why we let them go on it, haha. All MSU students, being the roller coaster fanatics that we are, convinced them to go on a couple more, but after that we were told go ahead, and they would take our picture. Instead, we went on model t-cars, funny bicycles, ate more junk food than ever including a lunch stop at Wimpy burger, a sick fast food chain that the girls love and gobbled every last soggy fry, with their forks (we tried to tell them to use their hands and they looked at us as if we were crazy).

Overall, the whole day was just time to let loose and joke around and we accomplished it. I’m lucky that I’m getting to know who these kids are as people. Goodbye statistics, hello friendship.

Tonight we are going out in Soweto with our tour guides to a bar called “The Rock” to get to meet some locals and hang out with the interns. I’ll be sure to give details tomorrow.

Today was the last day of camp. I’m a little bit relieved; I don’t think I have the energy to keep up a whole lot longer. J There were a few highlights from today that I can share. One student on our trip is a dancing queen and led a class on salsa and meringue. Dancing is one commonality between all of the students at the center, and damn can they shake it.

My job today was co-instructing a math and English enrichment class for 14 years and up. I’m a little torn on the impact it had. Since the students are on break from school right now it’s difficult to assess where they are at in their curriculums, so we had to guess. Our co-instructor on the trip, Jamie is from Thailand, and she herself is not a native English speaker. I thought that by working with her she would be able to give them tricks to make things easier. This did not particularly ring true.

For our English lesson we began with a fairly simple exercise. When we ask most of the people in Zonke how they are, they most frequently respond with “fine.” I think this stems from a few reasons. South Africa has 11 official languages, and thus the people of Zonke do not all speak the same language. The most common language is Zulu, so most of our students can speak it, but there are also students at the center who speak Xhosa, Sesotho, and others. Most of these languages, although difficult for us to pronounce, are simplistic in their vocabulary. They do not have numerous ways to say the same concept as we do, nor do they have pronouns to differentiate he, she, me, they and the like. This may be part of the reason that the students seem to use the same descriptor. Anther reason is that they only learn fine in school, and since wearing our emotions on your sleeve is not very customary, they like Americans, keep you at a distance by responding short and sweet. Nevertheless, we decided it was important to expand their responses so if they chose, they explain their emotions if they couldn’t show them. We taught them words like excited, happy, sad, afraid, scared etc., amongst some conversational slang like “I’m chillin’” or “I’m sweet.” This exercise went well so Jamie shifted to a conversation of dating and relationships.

The center has begun a Friday HIV/AIDS peer education day so we took the opportunity to explain healthy relationships with and without sex involved. Jamie, bless her heart decided to introduce them to “sex machine.” It was hilarious, she made me act out a story with her where I was the boy who wanted sex, and she told me, “I will not be your sex machine.” Having the 14 and up teens repeat this was quite humorous. All joking aside, I think the laughing kept them interested and hopefully they heard some of what we were saying.

Since today was the last day of camp we hung around a little while (which actually happens very often, time is no object in South Africa) and I took note of how the students leave. It’s interesting to see them make sure each other gets home before dark, as no one is there to pick them up. Just another something that caught my attention…

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Gold Reef City, an amusement park. I’m pretty stoked because we get to spend time with our “special” friends and pair up with them. Goodnight for now!

Today I was a floater for camp again. The first class I observed was drum making.
Jeanne got some really neat kits that all seemed to enjoy. After decorating their individual drums they had little drum circles. (I have some cute pictures on photobucket of this).

I observed poetry for a while, which if I may say was really fascinating. Many of the children shy away from speaking English with us, presumably because they don’t want to make a mistake. When it comes to creative writing and expressing themselves a few of the children, especially the older girls really excel. After discussing this with Rachel, the head intern, she brought to my attention that in the culture here, when someone dies, as soon as they are buried it is no longer appropriate to openly grieve their death. Poetry may be a way for them to continue their grieving for the loss in their lives. I was asked by a friend if they understand their circumstance, and instead of responding I’ll allow their words to express their understanding. The following is a poem written by Fezile, a bright young girl from the center. She wrote this last year, and it has become the anthem of VVOCF.

Two Worlds

How is that you have and I don’t have?
That you can and I can’t?

How is that you will and won’t?
That you shall and I shall not?

How is that you have and I don’t have?
That you receive, and yet I don’t?

How is that you laugh and I cry?
That you eat and I starve?

How is that you are and I’m not?
That you live and yet I die?

How is that our worlds are so different,
and yet are so close?

Wednesday, I didn’t have a specific job for the camps, I was a “floater.” I just walked around snapping sweet pictures, made lunch, and filled in where necessary. This really helped me to learn more names and get to see the bigger picture, but really hindered developing strong bonds with any of the kids.

After camp, Nomusa and a few of the older children took us on a tour of Zonki. The township is split into six zones. Each of which has no clear beginning, nor end to an outsider. Within the township there are two primary schools, two secondary schools, two clinics (one verrry bad, one bad), one library, tons of little general store style stands or tuck shops, a few atms, a few hair salons, a taxi station, a community center, and a couple other stores here and there.

Along our walk I buddied up with a 16 year old boy named Sifiso (although you wouldn’t know it, since most children here tend to be much smaller for their age, obviously due to circumstance). Sifiso took it upon himself to explain Zonki to me and was kind enough to answer all of my questions. We first discussed school; he is in his second year of the tenth grade. Unfortunately, education suffers in the townships, similar to that of inner cities. Sifiso explained that most classes are about 50 kids, with very few books to share. When I asked him if it was possible to study from a textbook at the library he explained the irony of the library…The library is supposed to stay open until 6 o’clock, but they usually close around 4:30 (since the people who run the library live outside of Zonki and don’t want to leave at dark) earlier if the power goes out. After school sports and activities sometimes go until 5, so the children have no time to go to the library and use the one textbook available. Another issue with their educational system is that all subjects are taught in English, which many of the kids struggle in. For most children of Zonki English is their third language, so it's understandable the English can be difficult to pick up in a biology or physics class.

Sifiso was really excited to show me the library anyway so I could see the type of work he was doing and let me tell you, it’s stuff any teenager would struggle with. The library does have a few computers and extra tables for studying, but yet again limits access. Not everyone in Zonki can go to the library. In order to study and check out books you must obtain a library card that you can only get by proving that you pay bills, which many children do not, so unless an adult is capable or cares enough to take the time to obtain a card our children our out of luck to use one of their few resources to achieve success in school.

Not far from the library is Sifiso’s home in which eight people live. His small house is actually one that the government helped to build. The government is making progress and has chosen families on an as needed basis to build over a million homes in South Africa, but the need is greater than the government can handle, and even with their assistance Sifiso’s family was larger than the home could accommodate.

Sifiso’s family is quite special to the center. VVOCF is only a year old and has more than doubled in the amount of children that they help provide for (with less staff…a story for a later time). Numosa has hand chosen families that are in the greatest need and Sifiso’s family is a top priority. Six members of his family are involved with the center.

Mfanakona is the youngest member of the family. He is 7 years old with the body of a 5 year old. Jeanne has taken a special liking to him, as he is a sweet kid with a beautiful smile. Mfanakona is also HIV positive. After numerous visits Jeanne was able to convince the family to let her get him tested, so if he was positive he could receive free treatment. As of Jeanne’s last trip here he was improving but he is now getting worse. Either he is not responding to treatments, or not being giving his medicine on a regular basis. Both are possible since one must get their drugs from the hospital, an expensive taxi ride away, once a month and treatment is “uneven” here so it is not know if he has ever been reevaluated. Jeanne is taking him to the doctor herself next Tuesday so I’ll be sure to update with his progress. He’s a tough little guy so we can only hope for the best.

Nomolanga is Mfanakona’s older sister who is 14. When VVOCF first began, they started the pen pal program with MRULE students from MSU (an organization I was apart of) and I was one of her pen pals. At the time I never imagined I would actually get to meet her. She seems like a typical teenager who loves the color pink and goofing around with her friends. Apparently she doesn’t come to the center very consistently anymore, but since we’ve been here her attendance has been pretty close to perfect.

The other two family members Nomphilo and Jabulile are aunts but are 15 and 21. I don’t know a whole lot about them yet, although Jabulile is supposedly the one responsible for giving Mfanakona his medicine, but she herself has issues of her own. She has one child who was taken away by the fathers’ mother, and seems to be pregnant again. I’ll share more info as I learn more.

Today was the first day of winter camps. As I mentioned before I had the youngest children with another girl from our trip named Olivia. We taught the kids duck, duck , goose (as we told them, cluck, cluck, chicken) and learned plenty of games from them. I won’t bore you with the adorable details of our craft time, but it was glorious J. We practiced colors and numbers and their thirst for learning and a chance to impress us with their English skills is hilarious.

With camp, the center provides breakfast as well as lunch for all the children, probably the only food they will eat that day. It takes us about a half hour and three people to prepare all their lunches. When it is lunchtime everyone lines up to grab their plate and they all say thank you with a giant smile.

There were a few logistical mishaps with camp, which of course is going to happen the first day, and when kids are involved, but overall the kids are benefiting.

Tuesday night the group had our first bonding time. We sat around the guest houses with a few cocktails and covered pretty much any controversial topic I could think of. We are all fairly different, but our group dynamic thus far is unreal. Everyone gets along so well, it’s like we were friends before we even got here. I suppose it hasn’t even been a week yet, but thus far no complaints. While relaxing we met two businessmen from Capetown here on business. They asked a couple of us to play pool and they began to ask us what we were here for. As I began to explain, the conversation got rather heated. I was really proud of myself for remaining P.C. In a nutshell, the man said that black Africans are where they are because they are slow in the head. He was yet another privileged white man that has never even driven passed the townships. I suppose I brought it home when I dumbed it down to the basic rights of human beings, children, education and the like. I found common ground when I inquired about his two children, and actually made him tear up. My goal wasn’t to change him, but hopefully I planted a seed.

Hello All!

I'm so sorry that I was unable to keep up with the blog. I will be posting by the end of next week the entirety of my trip. For now if you would like to view pictures you can access them via web.

www.photobucket.com

user name: building08
password: FEEDBABE01 (This is case sensitive)

The website is not very user friendly but in the upper right hand corner you may view the pictures in the form of a slideshow. On the left hand side is a list of names...these are other people from my trip that have also uploaded pictures. To be honest, most of theirs are much better than mine.

Love you all and thank you for your patience.

Randi

DAY 1:

After 27 hours or so of traveling we finally made it to Johannesburg. The 15 people on the study abroad were split on two flights and oddly enough we came into town at the same time. We met up with our driver who will be traveling with us most of the trip. His name is JoJo and he’s oober sarcastic so of course I have already taken a liking to him. Sinse there is so many of us we are traveling in two vans. The other driver is our one and only Jeanne Gazel. Reluctantly, I have been traveling in her van since few have seemed ready to brave her stop and go driving skills. Tomorrow I’ve decided I will be riding with JoJo if that tell you anything.

We arrived at our home for the next two weeks and I was frankly in awe. (Pictures will be posted as soon as I can get a decent bandwith….this may mean I will have to wait until home.) We are staying in extremely quiet guest houses. These houses are in a very nice area of Johannesburg, in a gated community. They were originally built for the massive mansions of the wealthy white South Africans, presumably for the help to stay in. I didn’t fully understand this concept until we arrived and I began to see the dynamic within our accommodations themselves. The guest houses are owned by the white and the “help” are black Africans. Tonight we met the woman that owns them and she began to ask us questions of our work. I was shocked that she said she didn’t know where Zonkizizwe was and that she was surprised we were going to help in the townships. She said that she doesn’t know much about the problems “over there,” because she doesn’t go there. As tactful as I could be I chimed in, “you know, I wonder if other South Africans really knew more about ‘their’ problems, would ‘their’ problems persist the way they do.” The racism is very evident and I’m sure that the notion, “Why don’t all South Africans care about one another as countrymen?” will ring in my mind daily. I have been very uncomfortable with the situation, however, it was also pointed out to me that work is difficult to come by as well and thankfully the men and women working here are employed and seem to be living peacefully among their employers I’m sure I will be writing more about this as I have been attempting to learn more from who we call “Big Mama Lucy,” who insists on taking care of all of our needs.

Anywho…we were allotted a bit of downtime this morning to attempt to catch up on our jet lag, and after a wonderful breakfast made by “Big Mama Lucy,” and headed to Zonkizizwe, which is about a 20 minute drive from here. The countryside began beautiful with rolling hills and plenty of greenery. As we began to drive further to the outskirts of town we passed the old gold mines that are no longer in use, as they are dug so deep that they have begun to collapse on themselves. This has put many of the poor out of work and unemployment is astronomically high within the townships. Passed the mines are fields of dirt between miles of mangled metal and tin homes, not much unlike those that one would see on a Christian Children’s Fund commercial. These homes make up the townships that Zonki in.

While driving through Zonki there are many street peddlers and people along the street. As we looked to our left Jeanne pointed out what she dubbed as Zonki’s latest “development.” Within the last five years a couple miles of land has been cleared and stands as one of the largest cemeteries I have seen to date.

We soon arrived at the townships community center and we greeted with open arms by both staff (consisting of 3 interns from MSU, all of which I knew prior, and local staff). The children prepared a few songs and dances with heart wrenching poetry. We then had a bit a of free for all where the kids came over and introduced themselves. I was surprised by how warm and inviting they were. Each was more fascinated than the next by our cameras and sunglasses, and I have quite a few expert pictures taken by them J. I may be sore tomorrow from all the lifting and spinning…Africans LOVE “uppy.” We finally got our new energetic friends to calm down enough to make nametags and each MSU student was introduced to the children that would be our “special” friends for our stay where we will be able to cultivate more genuine friendships. I have two young girls Zanele (15) and Mbali (14). Hopefully by the end of my trip my Zulu (the language spoke in Zonki) will not be so horrific and I’ll attempt to teach you all how to pronounce some things. Mbali seemed a bit more intrigued by the whole process, and Zanele reserved and quiet. We stayed at the community center for a couple hours getting to know one another (more than just our “special” friends because there are more children than us), and then some of the children led us to the care center itself, while the others went home for the day.

At the center we unloaded all of our supplies that we brought and received a tour of the facility. That in itself is an interesting story that I will leave for the next post. My jetlag is really setting in and tomorrow is our first day of the winter camps that we will be helping to run. My job tomorrow is with those 7 years and under in what they call the Creshe (Nursery), so I’ll need all the energy I can get. My apologies that this is so long winded, it is acting as my journal as well.

Love you oodles,

Randi

Well I suppose I should begin with wishes of a happy 4th of July. This year's holiday has been rather mellow. I have just been running around doing last minute packing for my trip of a lifetime. Tomorrow at 7pm I begin my travels with Study Abroad to South Africa for the next four weeks. For those that are unfamiliar with my trip, I'l give you a brief background and overview.

As most of you know, I have been heavily interested in the HIV/AIDS pandemic for some time now and I have been working with a core group of passionate students at MSU to build our own organization to help the cause. Our group, Family of Strength Organization (www.msu.edu~foso), partnered with a non-profit in Kenya called the Kenyan Orphans Rural Development Programme (www.kordp.org). We have been raising money for them for almost three years in hopes to deliver it personally on a Study Abroad. With recent political unrest, our efforts have been shortcoming. We will still deliver the money to KORDP, however our goals to build upon on relationship with a personal visit will have to wait.

As disappointing as the Kenyan trip cancellation was, my advisor Jeanne Gazel, has helped us continue similar work by relocating our trip to South Africa. The trip, "Building Partnerships for Children and Youth Made Vulnerable by HIV-AIDS," will be mostly a field study with side trips to visit noteworthy places of the country. For the majority of the trip we will be staying in Johannesburg and commuting to the outer township of Zonkizizwe. In Zonki we will be working with a baby organization that was co-founded with MSU last year called Vumundzuku-bya-Vana (VVOCF), translated to English as Our Children's Future. VVOCF is a center that is struggling to provide programming, food, counseling, and the like for children and teenagers affect by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

Upon our arrival we will jump right into business and help run a winter camp (as it is winter there, 50's and 60's average). The winter camp will consist of educational activities as well as arts and crafts and plan old kid fun. This will be for five jam-packed days...details soon. Our itinerary revolves around the center but is filled with breaks of tourism in between. On the 12th of July we are to visit Gold Reef City, however I am not sure what that will entail or where we will be staying. As soon as I can I will post pictures and update of course as time allows. After Gold Reef we will visit Soweto and delve into the history of South African townships and the Apartheid. Much of the rest of our time will be spent partaking in VVOCF's after school programs with side visits to children homes, Durban (on the coast of the Indian Ocean), and Cape Town (on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean) for wine tours, mountain climbing and Cape Point.

Time and internet capabilities permitting I will blog as often as possible. I encourage your comments, feedback, and questions. It will be comforting to have friends and family from home partaking in my journey. I love you, I'll miss you, and I promise to travel safe with the most humble intentions.

~Randi

P.S. The link below shows a video made by the last group of students that went to Zonki and shows a bit more about what the center is all about. The wordpress site is easily navigated and has alternative links with photos and more information about VVOCF.

http://vvocf.wordpress.com/media-and-videos/