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.