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.