Safe Arrival

As of 2:15pm last Thursday, I had safely arrived back in the comfort and security of my much missed Georgian suburban home. It was about 30 hours of travel time from the moment I left the hostel in Capetown to walking through the oh so memorable squeaking screen door in the garage. I'll do my best to be brief on reflections, but it is hard to condense such an experience in to so few words. To start, I'll say it that it goes without saying (so why say it?) that the trip was truly memorable, and I will continue to replay the summer's events in my head over and over as I progress through this year and the years to come. Even during my brief five day stay in Cape Town (which is just beautiful, see some pictures below), I felt a bit of a whole in my life. I had been working, living, and hanging out with the same group of people for eight weeks, and they'd had slowly been woven into the fabric of my existence. I would wake up to a red-eyed Tom and an unshowered Harry (hope he's not reading this...) and it honestly takes a good couple of weeks to get in a rhythm and departure sort of abruptly disrupts the whole flow. It was also an interesting transition because it took me about six weeks to find my place as far as the working environment goes. And so as I started to have more and more work, things came to a culmination in the last week of work in which we had the final preparations for Germany trip (Visas from the embassy) and the WhizzKids United World Cup (192 6th graders and eight hours of controlled chaos, see pictures and video below). My time in Cape Town was actually spent recovering. I've been sick for 12 days now. It didn't stop me from getting around in Cape Town to see the sights, but I definitely wasn't hitting up any night clubs or the party scene cause I was in bed by 8 or 9pm every night. Lame, i know. But Cape Town isn't going anywhere, and I'm sure I'll find a way to get back for the 2010 World Cup.

Being home has been nice. At times like these, one would sit and talk about the culture shock and how different things are here than over there. To be honest, things are different, but my lack of culture shock stems from the fact that I wasn't living in the same conditions of the people that I was working with. My residence had all the amenities of the Western world, and so the transition hasn't been as disconcerting. I've spent the last couple of days just hanging around the house and showing my parents the many pictures I took while I was there (close to 1000 I believe).

Ok, just some reflection on the experience. South Africa is very unique. As I've discussed before, the stark contrast between rich and poor is more than sobering. Unemployment, crime, etc. are all serious problems and there is something to be said about spending a lifetime combating these problems. Not only in S.A. but in every region of the world. I don't mean to appear pessimistic, but there is something to be said about how much of an influence a foreigner can really have in another person's community. Hmm, I'd better rephrase that. I'd rather say, that there is something to be said about how much more of an influence local community members can have within their own community. This is not to downplay the efforts of international activists, because I believe that an international awareness and experience are important, but rather to express my feelings towards community empowerment. People just naturally tend towards groupings. There is a unique identification that people find with people of their community/nationality/tribe/etc that allows for the formation of a special bridge between two persons. Working with Bonginkosi made me realize how much more sustainable and just plain effective community empowerment really is. Walking around by myself, I get a lot of blank stares being an "umlungu" (white person). However, with Bonkos by my side, every one in his community is eager to meet and greet and chat for a bit. Even as we drive through the township to pick up kids, he leans out the car to whistle at passing children or bestow the proper greeting (as proper as it can be while leaning out a card window) to older members of the community. Just watching him work within his element has really inspired me to add U.S. improvement to my priority list of places that need improvement. This is not to say that I've ever thought the U.S. was close to perfection. More that, I've always thought that my services were needed much much more elsewhere in the world and that I should be spending a good portion of my time and efforts in developing countries and not the U.S. However, while I still strongly believe I will do a lot of medical work in developing countries, I also want to spend a good amount of time in the U.S. working in (get ready Ti and Li) education! I already have an inside scoop on the U.S. education situation due to the chosen professions of my two talented sisters. And, again, just watching Bonkos really had a lasting impact on me. I'm excited about being Volunteer Director for a black science organization on campus next year. There is a lot I want to teach young and inspiring minds, but I know there is much more that I can learn from them.

All in all, the trip was magnificent (trying to put it into one word is difficult, so I arbitrarily choose magnificent). I am enjoying my few days at home before I return to school on Tue (the 26th). Now, the only task left related to South Africa is to condense this rant on my experience to a more concise and eloquent piece to present to my funders. Good thing they don't grade it :) Thanks for reading and please email if you'd like any additional pictures or have questions!

Cheers,
Sam

Last week of work

Stress.
I have delayed posting to the blog for quite some time. Last week was a frustrating and demoralizing week for the WKU team. After six weeks of training with the kids for the Germany trip, it appeared that the Germans were not going to let us even apply for visas. Basically, we only received the passports for most of the group's members last week, but not all of them have arrived. We're still waiting for passports for Bonginkosi's and the young girl, Nondomiso. All last week was spent in PMB, and by all last week, I mean we were up there every day for about 8-10 hours traveling around in a scramble to get all the required signatures, photos, and documentation that the Germans were requesting. The most frustrating part of the experience has been the fact that I phoned the Germany embassy the first week I was here to get specifics on what we did and did not need for the visa application. While they did provide me with the correct information, I didn't understand the complexity of system and its inflexibility when it comes to youth in the township. As it turns out, only one of our seven kids has both parents, so Germany was requesting that all single parents and guardians provide official government proof of their status. However, in many cases, the single parent did not marry the father and has no means of contacting him. In the case of our guardians, many are simply watching over their nephews, nieces, and other relatives and never were able to gain "official" permission to do so. Mon-Wed was spent getting signatures and pictures, as we waited for passports to arrive. Thurs we discovered that we needed official documentation so we spent all of Friday (myself + Clara) and Saturday (Tom + Harry) driving to the homes of all our kids to physically take the parents/guardians to the local police station to sign an affidavit. We weren't even sure if this was going/does work, but it was the only semi-formal documentation we could get on such short notice. The reason it took two days to complete this task is that Africa skipped a generation when it came to technology. There are no land line phones in homes b/c everybody has a cell phone, but we didn't have any of the parents' cell numbers on file. We just kept driving between all seven houses until the necessary persons were in the right place at the right time. The experience itself really makes one appreciate modern methods of communication.
I was back in Edendale yesterday for some training with the kids, and I have to admit I felt uncomfortable drilling the kids, both mentally and physically, while still not knowing whether or not they will go to Germany. We met up with our contact in the Premier's office, Nomusa, and handed all visa related material to her. She actually volunteered and flew to Pretoria, the capital, to deal with the German embassy in person. Her dedication to her job and to these kids continues to amaze me. Word as of now is that the Germans have accepted the visa applications, after a mad dash this morning to Home Affairs in Durban to fax another document that they told us about at 10am (the office closes at 10:30am).
We're still waiting to hear about Bonginkosi and Nondumiso's passports. I think Bonginkosi will be really devastated if he isn't able to go. So, as I was doing all last week, I continue to hope and pray. More details soon.

All I See is Dark Gray Clouds...

What a week. Yeah, it's Monday and things are already looking like they could take a turn for the worse. Today was a hellish day. It started out with two long meetings in the morning to cover all the details before Marcus leaves on Thursday for the UK and his sister's wedding. It ended in a long day in PMB. Clara (a German volunteer) and myself left for PMB around 12:30pm or so to make it there before two. As we got on the highway, Bonginkosi called to tell me that we shouldn't come today b/c the kids did not have school. The reason? Well, I just recently got caught up on South African politics, but Jacob Zuma, current president of the ANC and very strong candidate for South African presidency next year, started his trial hearing today IN Pietermaritzburg! Basically, he's just another crooked government official, but the people love him. Well, at least the Zulu people do. Cause the first two presidents (Mandela and now currently Mbeki) were both Xhosa, so he's the first strong Zulu candidate. The city itself was closed as were select schools (of which one of our three schools was). So there was no life skills session today, but I was determined to meet with the rest of our group. We arrived around 1:45pm and picked up Bonginkosi. They dropped me off at the stadium and went to pick up the kids from their respective houses and schools. Turns out not all the schools were out today and we had six of our seven. Everyone appeared to be taking the whole session lightly and constantly joking in Zulu. Due to the lack of seriousness and the fact that one of the kids (Sithole) who lives right next to the stadium and didn't have school decided to not show up, I was a bit peeved and decided we would do conditioning today. Wow, let's just say, I would hate to have myself as a coach. We just did pushups, balancing, and running for about an hour, with maybe two breaks of less than 5 minutes each. By the end of it, the kids realized that they are going to have to start taking the Germany trip seriously or they won't be going at all. So after conditioning ends, our would-be captain (Marcus had asked me to appoint him today) decides to show up an hour and thirty minutes late. Of course, I was given no choice but to scold him. It's just gotten to the point at which the kids won't listen unless you take away some privilege. I thought I could go eight weeks being Mr. Nice Sam the whole time and leave here without any complaints, but honestly, sometimes you've just got to put your foot down. We finished around 4 and Bonginkosi and Clara jumped in the car to take all the kids home (we put about 5 in the 3 back seats) and I waited at the stadium for their return. It usually takes about 45 min but today I waited about an hour and 45 min. They had to get parental signatures for the visa application and go to each individual's house and talk to their parents for some time. No worries though, I just started kicking the ball around with two of the local kids (Andile and Thobela) who spoke very little English and I understood even less. But we managed to get along using the universal media of soccer and gestures. Anywho, after dropping Bonginkosi off at his girlfriend's house (which is a good twenty minutes by car from his house), we made our way back home. After a brief discussion with Marcus, I retreated into my room for a quick nap before dinner. However, before I could fall asleep, Marcus called to confirm about getting the birth certificates to be copied again (this time for the visas). My stomach dropped. I had completely forgotten. Bonginkosi and Clara had just gone to every single house to get parental signatures and I had forgotten to mention that we needed their certificates again. In the U.S., it would be as simple as calling all of them tonight and making sure they bring it tomorrow. No land lines and most don't have cells. Here in Africa, the only solution is to go back to each individual house and physically take each individual certificate for duplication. Therein lies the task for tomorrow. And that's the easy part. Marcus spoke with the German consulate today and we need everything in by Wednesday, which means we need to get the passports from home affairs tomorrow. But, as it turns out, Zuma's trial will be quite an ongoing process and the whole city centre of PMB will be closed tomorrow so no chance at home affairs. Basically, it has come to the point where we are banking on the fact that the passports are processed by Wednesday morning and in PMB for pick up so we can grab those and the copies of the birth certificates (which I'll get tmr) and submit them by midday to the German consulate back here in Durban. And this all occurs during one of the biggest political trials of the year that is taking place in our city of interest! I commend those of you who have finished my pessimistic rant. I apologize for the long list of complaints, but it has just been a frustrating day and the future isn't looking too bright at the moment. More updates to come.

Engagement???

On Monday night, Marcus (my boss if you're just now tuning into the blog) just asked his girlfriend, Khona, to marry him and she said yes! I can assuredly say that everyone in the house is enjoying a very gleeful and relaxed Marcus. Now is the perfect time to ask him about taking a couple days off work next week...

Down to the Wire

As I enter my sixth week, I realize that time is passing quite quickly. Three weeks from tomorrow, my kids leave to go to Germany, which means, that I leave two weeks from this coming Friday and I have until then to get all the required travel documents in order for these kids. Last week was hell as far as the passport office was concerned. I called every single day, sometimes twice a day, in an effort to get through to someone and move this process along. At the present, they said they have received them and are in the process, but can't make any promises. Now, I've talked to Marcus, and we've got a friend in the Premier's office who should be able to pull some strings and get us through the process quickly. Let's hope that this all works out b/c the once-in-a-lifetime international experience for seven kids and their community leader rests in my hands, and I don't want to let them down.
In other news, life is quite relaxed. Another volunteer, Clara, arrived last Monday. She is also from Germany (as is Harry), and actually worked for WhizzKids last summer, so she knows the ropes of the organization and has adjusted quite quickly. The long week of work also included a couple of trips to Pietermaritzburg. We went Mon and Wed to do some training session with the kids, and my colleagues now refer to me as Drill Sergent Sam. I have to admit I made a girl, Nonkululeko, cry, but WAIT before you call me out on being too harsh, she was only crying b/c she wanted to stop training and as soon as I dismissed her to get water, she was happy again. She's the smartest of the group by far and maintains almost perfect English, so I'm determined to develop her hidden soccer potential! We also had to go up on Friday because we decided that we're going to hold our WhizzKids World Cup Tournament (happens once every 8 or 9 weeks) on Aug 14th, and we had to okay this with one of the principals. She proved to be quite peaceful and didn't object to much. She only added in typical African fashion (and I hate to say "in typical African fashion" b/c I'm only speaking from my experience here and in Nigeria) that we start considering sending some of their teachers abroad for international experience. In response, I did a big Sam smile and reassured her warmly with my lovely Southern charm that I'll talk to Marcus about the proposition. What I didn't mention to her was that before we would even consider sending any of the teachers (who aren't at all involved in the program), we would send all roughly 2500 WhizzKids who've completed the course and all our community leaders. So yeah, we're "considering" her proposition...
This weekend proved to be quite chill. Everyone just stayed in Friday night and went to bed early. Tom and I were up the latest (1:30am) and we were just watching The Good Shepherd on TV. Saturday afternoon, I went to the beach with Harry, Tom, and Brad (one of Harry's freestyle frisbee friends, if you don't know what freestyle frisbee is, feel free to youtube). It was quite a nice day but we didn't get out there till 2pm and the sun starts setting around 4 or 5ish. Saturday night was spent at the local pool bar, Villin's. Now, I will do my best to explain in words the experience of Villin's, but one really has to witness it for him/herself. Basically, think 8 used and quite worn pool tables, large amounts of very cheap and poor quality beer, excessively loud late 90s music with a synthesized techno beat added to the mix, and a host of sketchy oddly tatooed persons of all ethnicities (Indian, native African, Africaneer, European) who range from 16 to 60 years of age. Oh, and every single person, minus myself and Tom, smokes about a pack at the minimum in any short duration of time that he/she spends at the bar. Honestly, it is quite an experience. I won't say bad but far from good. Good news is that I'm improving my pool game. Marcus and Khona (his girlfriend) are quite badass and offer a lot of tips. Bad news, I probably lose at least a year off my life every time I enter due to second hand smoke.
As I look to next week, it should be quite hectic, as we are trying to get everything done this week because Marcus will be leaving the following week for a trip to England to attend his sister's wedding and a couple of organizational meetings. But, T-I-A. This Is Africa. It'll get done, it's just a matter of when...

Midterm Review

It appears that I am slowly nearing the halfway point of my journey in South Africa. I am four weeks into my trip and I 0nly have a little over four more weeks till I return to the U.S. The experience has been unique indeed. The flexibility of my job has been really nice. I have had a lot of time to reflect, and I've spent a good number of hours thinking about plans for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and five or ten years from now. Much of my free time is also spent just thinking about this experience itself. Being here doesn't "feel" as different as one would expect, given that I'm thousand of miles away from home. But a trip into the nearest township or really just down the highway reminds you that you're in a country with serious social and economic problems. There are few countries in the world where you'll see a line of BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis sitting at the traffic light with a black child at the window of each vehicle. About 99% of the time, the driver and passengers won't so much as acknowledge the child's existence. We often pass judgment on those who resort to begging as a means of existence. It's as if they have failed in some way to obtain a proper job or education and do not have the energy or wherewithal to change their situation. But what if begging was all you knew? Like honestly, some of these kids cannot be more than 6 or 7 years of age. They have no house. They wake up every morning not sure of when they'll receive their next meal. The thought of school is out of the question b/c one must establish a flow of basic necessities before one can venture to the "luxury" of primary education. They have no role models. In many cases, their parents are standing beside them, working a different job for little to no pay, or passed away years ago. According to the system, these people don't exist. They have no homes, no money, no education, no health care, no birth certificate, no ID booklet. They have no names or faces. We look and process the gravity of their situation, and we say "What a shame." And we drive on towards our destination. Whether it be to work Pietermaritzburg, back to our home, or back on the path for individual success, we forget about them. It's "too hard" to keep the thought of these people, these human beings, in the back of our minds. I have to admit I'm terribly guilty of all that I gripe of here and now. In four weeks time, I'll be thousands of miles away. Back in the comfort and luxury of my suburban home in Columbus, Georgia. I'll convince myself that I've returned to prepare for my future, and that this is the right course of action because I have all these plans of "helping people." But these people will go on living in squalor and dying with little dignity. For the observer, seeing the severity of the poverty gap in South Africa first hand is a "life-changing experience." For many South Africans, it's just life.

Uh Oh...

So...it turns out that the internet system in most every part of Africa, if not every part, is a wee bit different from what we have in the U.S. Generally, you pay a flat fee and you are free to download, upload, and browse basically anything on the internet. In Africa, (and what my house mates failed to tell me) is that you pay a flat fee and then you are charged for every website that you visit. Essentially, you buy something like 1 GB of data, which is enough to check your email, the news, and visit a few sites over the course of a month. However, large file downloads or even visits to YouTube count as part of that 1GB. As any adept computer person of our generation would know, a single YouTube file can be from 10s to 100s of MB. Now, that 1GB is used by 5 people in this house, so if each of us watches 1-5 youtube videos, checks email, facebook, and goes to ANY site that has high-resolution images, we use that amount up in about a day or two. So I've been watching a good 1-2 hours of streaming TV in my free time, THINKING that i was saving money by not downloading, but as it turns out, this in fact takes away from our base credit. One of the reasons why you won't see any images in this post or many of the future ones (at least until I get back to the U.S.) is that basically anything I do with the exception of text eats away our very limited data supply. And this isn't just our provider, this is the norm for all of South Africa. Terrible, but quite profitable for those running the companies. Anyways, sorry for the rant, but it has been frustrating because now I've been FORCED to read books!!! (what a terrible thing i know...)

This past week was another good one. Another trip to Pietermaritzburg to attempt a few more passports. As it stands, 9 of our 10 kids were able to get their documentation through. We spent more than 4 hours last Tuesday walking from gov. building to gov. building in an attempt to get this kid through but there was too much red tape and now it wouldn't be possible to get his passport in time for the tournament. It is tragic to think that this was his one chance to get out and see the world and a bunch of ridiculously stupid complex government proceedings prevent him from escaping, if only for a few days, the vicious cycle of poverty that encompasses all aspects of his life. The end of the week was spent at the U-15 One Cup of Nations soccer tournament. Our team just had an exhibition match against each other while the world's best 15 year olds, representing a number of nations (including a team from New Orleans) played each other for the title. Some of these kids were like 6' 4'' and definitely looked much older than 15 years, but the tournament directors let them play so they must have gone through some sort of screening. I learned that there are soccer schools in China where the kids play soccer every morning and study in the afternoon, either 6 or 7 days a week. Intense, but if you truly love the game, then an absolutely fantastic time.

I traveled this weekend back to Pietermaritzburg (PMB), but this time it was for recreation. I met a nice, young newly married couple two weeks ago and they invited me to PMB for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. It was spectacular. 100R (about $13-14) for lunch sat, cookout sat night, and lunch on sunday. Not to mention 5 games of ultimate frisbee (each about an hour long). We played 4 intense games on saturday, starting around 10:30 am and ending around 6pm with breaks for food and stretching and resting. Bianca, Kevin, I am proud to say that I truly enjoyed my first Ultimate Frisbee tournament. However, these kids are nowhere near Quazar or RedLine, but Ultimate is fairly new to South Africa, so give 'em a few years.
Marcus is gone again this week, but this time off on work for Africaid. He is running a training session for new trainers to help spread the program throughout the KwaZulu Natal province. Should be a light week. Just a trip or two to PMB and a few trips to Lamontville. Maybe I'll have some time to hit up the beach. I've only seen it from as we drive along the beach road but it'll be nice to take a break from work and maybe try some surfing :)
More after internet prices drop to something reasonable...

D Mountains!

Wow, what a weekend. I just got back from the Drakensburg Mountains about an hour ago, and it was one incredible journey. Myself and Victoria (my housemate who is from the UK that works on HIV research) jumped in the car around 7am Saturday morning with three people who work with Victoria and happen to be home grown Americans! (Victoria and Rachel on the left, Ettan in the middle, and Emily, a Georgian, on the right)


Emily was our driver for the 2 and 1/2 hour trip up to our hostel, which ended up being this nice cozy get away with dorm style rooming but good home cooked food and a bar, hot tub, sauna, and pool (too cold to swim). We arrived around midday and unpacked our things and met up with two other new friends, Bryan and Christina, a married couple that live in Pietermaritzburg. Then, we jumped back in the car for a quick 20 minute drive to the closest trail. We managed a good 2-2 and 1/2 hour hike up the mountain to "The Gorge" (see pictures below), which was absolutely fascinating, and it was quite a perfect day as far as weather is concerned considering that it is winter here, which means temperatures are around 50-60
degreesFarenheit! At around 3 or so we headed down the mountain, and we made a much quicker return seeing as it was starting to get cold. On the way down, we ran into wild baboons just sitting on the trail! Absolutely shocking to see up close but wonderfully fascinating. This one baboon just climbed into the tree above us and sat there for a good 10 minutes while we took pictures. It was almost as if he was posing for his own personal photo shoot.

It was a great way to end the first day. We jumped in the car and went back to the hostel for a nice hot mealand some sleep. We were all to tired to stay up and hang out at the bar/hot tub/ sauna so we just went straight to bed. We woke up early the next morning and grabbed breakfast. We were on the road by 8am, but this time we were lucky enough to have Sim, a local Zulu who works at the hostel, as our driver and guide for the day. We essentially drove around the entire mountain to get to the backside, which is home to a number of trails to get up the top of the mountain. At the base of the mountain is an exceptionally large township (Sim mentioned the name but it was difficult to make out the proper spelling, but I did catch that more than a million people live in this township, which is beyond comprehension when you look at the quality of these houses. We made our way up about 2000m above sea level by car and then jumped out to hike the rest. It was quite a cardiovascular test. The preliminary climb was pretty mild. It appeared to be some good quality hiking on the side of a mountain with a great view of the valley below. Fear of falling came and went, but it was nothing out of control. Even the mountain climber with us said that he still gets a rush at these heights and takes precaution. We took a few breaks for pictures and to hydrate, but Sim wanted to make good time so we kept onwards. After an hour or more, we encountered what I'll refer to as "The Scramble" (picture below). Basically, Sim told us to be careful and that he'd pull up the rear. The rest was us. We'd been walking all day and here were faced with about a 250m climb up the side of a mountain at about a 60 degree angle with pockets of snow and loose rock. However, we all made it to the top and reveled in a sense of accomplishment. The view was absolutely spectacular and I'll have to add more photos as I have time to upload them. It is absolutely stunning to arrive 10,000 ft above sea level to find FLAT plains and even a small river the flows off a cliff to form the world's second highest free standing waterfall. We walked around for quite a bit and then decided to come down, but this time, we'd be going down the "ladders." Basically, the ladders were made of solid rusted chains and iron that had been bolted to the side of the mountain. Sturdy, but nevertheless, quite a rush.

Everyone made it in good time and we hiked back to our car and got in for the return journey. Although we were late getting back (we arrived around 6pm instead of the expected 5pm), we grabbed our stuff, said our goodbyes, and hopped in our car to travel back to Durban. It took us a little more than 3 and 1/2 hours (we stopped to get fast food AND snacks for the car), it was a great time and really fun to bond with newly made friends. Victoria and I plan to return to the Drakensburg sometime in the next two weeks to travel to Lesotho, the landlocked nation-state inside of South Africa that is only accessible by way of mountain. Should be another grand adventure!

Full Swing

housemates because the home/office basically puts us in close contact throughout most of our waking hours. However, it is really great to know that we have an American (myself), As I come to the end of my second week here, I am starting to feel quite at home. I have begun to form strong friendships with all of mya German (Harry), a Canadian (Tom), and a Brit (Victoria) all under one roof. Work this week was quite event filled. Tom and I made a second trip to Pietermaritzburg to take the other five kids to Home Affairs for the passports. This time, we were quite successful and got 4 of our 5 children through the process (only lost one because she dropped her original birth certificate somewhere on the ground between the car and Home Affairs). However, Harry and I traveled to Lamontville, a more urban township located here in Durban, about 15 minutes from my house, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting the opportunity to play soccer yesterday and today (Thursday). Next week is the "One Cup of Nations" tournament for under 15 year olds. While we are participating in this event, our kids just simply aren't good enough to compete in the actual tournament and, instead, are playing an exhibition game with another local school. While the kids in Lamontville aren't exceptionally talented (the few who are don't happen to be part of our program, but they still play with us during the day), it is still great to just watch kids have fun. A bit of nostalgia hits me as I look on these young adolescents kicking, laughing, and screaming as they run around the field. One might say they are truly enjoying this beautiful game on a level that doesn't require any serious scrutiny over a single mistake. I mean, no worries, I still love competition and can't wait to play Club again this fall, but there is something to be said about getting the opportunity to give these kids some refuge from below standard living conditions, an underfunded school system, and crime-ridden area. We all can just play for the sake of playing. Not worrying about what's for dinner, when school will start again (they are on winter holiday for another week), what we're doing this weekend, how to pay the bills, or what reaction mechanisms are used to convert carboxylic acids to ketones...You can just play. Off to field (we play in the mornings and late afternoon), Harry and I were working with the two community leaders (Sma and Blessing) on new Creative Writing and Fine Arts sections for the after school program. The program was essentially designed for young native English speakers, so my main task was simplifying complicated poetical (is that a word?) terms and posing as potential students to help them practice delivery. Tomorrow is Friday and we had planned on going back to Lamontville, but as it turns out, we have a bunch of paperwork to get done in the office. I'm also in the schedule to learn how to drive manual, so cross your fingers and let's hope I don't break the car. Oh, and I've added a few photos. These are of the townships and houses. Others are of my house from the inside and out (taken from my porch). And I plan to travel to the Drakensburg mountains this weekend for a hike to what is supposed to be the most beautiful scenery in KwaZulu Natal. Pictures to come for sure.

Wow. One hell of a day.
I just got back from Pietermaritzburg, a city about an hour away, after a long day of work. We (myself and Tom) left the house this morning with a few set goals but we had much more in store for us. Our task: Visit 10 houses and get parental signatures that are necessary for filing passports for minors (those under 16 years of age) and then take these papers, along with the kids, to Home Affairs, where we can actual file for the passports.
After 20-25 minutes down the road, I realized that the printer had printed 10 copies of only 3 of the required 4 pages, so we quickly turned around and went back to the home/office to print some more for the trip. We drove into Edendale, a township located outside Pietermaritzburg, around 10am or maybe a bit after with no idea of where we were meeting our correspondent, Bonginkosi, a community member in charge of the program in all these townships. Our director was preparing to leave for holiday so it was just myself and Tom, another member who arrived here only a week before me! Nevertheless, we called Bonginkosi and had him meet us at the hospital (we had no idea where this was and simply drove towards the largest structure in town). Luckily, our intuitions proved useful. We met up and started our sojourn throughout the townships. A brief background to update you. Pietermartizburg is a central city and is surrounded by townships. The townships (Ashdown, Edendale, to name a few) are generally where poor black persons live in very small shacks or two room homes (there are a few well painted and well kept structures and I hope to have pictures in the near future). I do not feel that the word dilapidated could even accurately describe these homes. The UN's standard of adequate housing is barely even visible in many parts of these communities. And it is a very strange setting because these townships, in particular, have been built on hillsides with many roads that do not intersect. One must often drive to the bottom the of the hill or back to the top to get to an adjacent street. Often one does not find a street but rather a gravel or dirt road worn and littered with holes after years of use. However, after a couple of hours, we managed to round up three children and their documents and headed into town to see what we could accomplish at Home Affairs. We arrived around 12:30pm and it turns out that two more kids had been waiting there to meet us since 7:30am. After a scramble to get passport photos and waiting in line for about 45 minutes, we finally reached the desk. The attendant was quick to tell us that the identification numbers of the parents/guardians (in many cases, the child's father was either in jail or dead and/or the mom was dead or at work) did not match the children. These children were without "legal" guardians and therefore we could go no further. So of our 5 children, we managed to get one application through. After a late lunch (KFC!! it is a huge chain in South Africa), we headed back to the townships to drop the kids off and discuss the situation with their respective guardians. We hope these guardians can gain legal custody in the coming days so we can file these passports and make sure we get them processed in time for the trip to Germany in August. Realistically, it is not something that I'm sure will work, but we can only hope. We went to visit a few more families of prospective players to get signatures and it looks like tomorrow should be much smoother. One girl had been waiting in her home since 8am and we didnt get to her house till around 5:30 or 6pm to let her know that we're going tomorrow. Communication is difficult. A language barrier is hard enough, but we have to deal with technological ones as well.
I have to admit the system is quite frustrating. I believe this is the first time that I've witnessed, first hand, a system that simply overlooks an entire demographic of persons. There are a countless number of children in these townships whose parents are never home/don't care/are deceased/are separated that are living with other family members or just other members of the community without any legal documentation (where and when are they going to get it? It took us almost 30 minutes by car and many do not own cars nor do they have enough for public transportation). The system just works against these people and makes it hell for anyone not of direct kin to help the child through the process.
While we have found frustration throughout the day, we haven't lost hope. Tomorrow is another adventure, and this time we have a good idea of how to play the game. However, this time we'll be fitting a good 8 people in a small 5 person buggy. Should be one hell of a time :)
Oh, and I spent most of the day throwing short Zulu phrases out. Some of the families responded in Zulu, to which I responded with inquisitive looks and then probed Bonginkosi for a translation. Others just laughed at my pronunciation, but it's still fun to try.
More pictures and reflections on the way.

"First" Day on the Job

Well, I write first in quotations because my tasks have sort of had a bit of ambiguity over the first three days, and I wouldn't have called what I did on Monday a real day of work. Nevertheless, work is great. We currently work out of the home of my boss, Marcus, and it is also where I will be living throughout the summer. I guess you could call it sort of a home/office. And, of course, there are always pros and cons. Pros - you work when you want to, you stop working when you don't feel like working anymore. That part is wicked sweet (for instance, it is now around 1:40 or so and I just felt like taking a break, in addition to my one hour lunch break!). The only real cons are that I was not able to get out of the house really for the first couple of days (minus quick trips to the supermarket). However, yesterday (Wednesday) we traveled to Edendale (a township about 60-70 km away), and actually got to hang out and do a bit of coaching/playing/relaxing with the local kids. My boss, Marcus, was asked to bring a team of seven kids to Germany for some international underage Streetfootball tournament in August, and so we had a sort of pseudo tryout session to pick the seven players. These kids have amazing touch and ball skill for their age. It is always great fun to watch. However, talk of regional undernourishment is far from a myth. The oldest child (who will be 16 in December) does not look more than 10 or 11 years in age. They are indeed much smaller than your average American at that age. Now, the task is develop that sense of teamwork and establish good ball movement and positions and less individual effort. As it turns out, Marcus is putting myself and a semi-pro (Paul) in charge of this whole venture. Paul, of course, will handle most of the soccer training skills, and I am in charge of pretty much everything else :) Passports, parental and school permissions, sponsors, jerseys, and most importantly, educational tutoring. I have to tell you that it was disheartening to hear that all the kids thought England was in Germany and know very little about anything geographically outside Durban, let alone South Africa. From what I've gathered, the educational system here is very different, and you have to work to not make any assumptions on basic training because in many instances, they haven't received the proper instruction. I am excited to have a whole host of things put before me and to have the ability to create my own time line for completing all of these tasks. Oh, and I tried my Zulu while I was out on the soccer pitch with the kids and wow it was just hilarious. They all just kept laughing at my attempts, but I am determined to keep at it!

Arrival and Adjusting

Well, it is a little after 7pm here on a mildly cold night in Durban. I just woke up from a nice two-hour nap and decided it was high time I start this blog to record my travels while in South Africa.
I'll give a brief background. After a small mishap at the airport, I arrived here in Durban just two nights ago (Sunday) instead of Saturday. Delta was delayed so I missed my connection from Capetown to Durban, but fortunately, Delta made nice accommodations in Capetown, and I was able to see a good bit of the city. I'm very excited to go back at the end of my internship and spend a few more days there. Think tall majestic mountain surrounded by beautiful Dutch style homes next to an oceanfront with a beautiful commercially developed waterside. It was a cloudy day during my lay over so the I was not able to ride to the top of the mountain and take panoramic snapshots, but it really is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
On a different note, Durban is much more Westernized that I had originally anticipated. There are lots of Mercedes, BMWs, and Audis, not to mention supermarkets with most of the name brand foods I buy at home. I'm still waiting to get out and see more of the community and rural areas. I took a nice walk around town today because you cannot really go out at night (really any time past 5 pm...) even in most good neighborhoods.
More on my actual job is to come, that is, when I figure out exactly what it is I'll be doing here...