On the fourth of July I was back in the states in the same place I had been a year before I began my adventure to South Africa, but I have come a long way since then. It was easy to step back into my old shoes, but once again it was an adjustment upon returning to the village. However, this time when I got off the plane Peace Corps wasn’t waiting with their white taxis to take me where I needed to go, I felt comfortable greeting someone in whatever language, I had rand in my pocket, a family to return to and projects that I seemed to have neglected over the three weeks of summer I had left winter for and I had forgotten how cold it was when there’s no heat or warm shower. I stepped back into Shangaan culture, and returned to school the next day.
I would like to make this blog as little about me as possible and about someone in particular, but after the interrogation of questions about what I am doing, I stumbled over “how do I explain this,” in my mind. So what do I do, or what have I done? My typical week is divided between two primary schools, where I work alongside teachers teaching mostly Grade 6 and 7 Natural Science, and English. We have little resources, our average class size is about 60 more or less, and I come upon challenges every day in the realm of corruption, classroom management, poverty, or health that I wish I could fix, but most importantly I’ve learned to take small steps and build relationships. After school depending on the day I go to my community library I am fortunate enough to have, which began under the initiative of the last volunteer, and help tutor. Twice a week from the library I teach an adult math class called Abets. I am trying to build up gardening at my schools and the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children), by teaching the students how to make compost and garden using perma gardening techniques in consideration of the environment and the scarcity of water. To do that I am also working on a water project because my school often runs out of water even for the students to drink during the day. I work with a program called SOUNS, where I am teaching literacy to children in Grade R and 1 in their home language when I am not teaching. On Fridays, after school gets out, I have begun holding Scout meetings in desperation to get Scouts up, moving and sustainable. I have about 30 kids who show up, both boys and girls and I am trying to get parental support for the program. It is similar to Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but there is no division between the two in South Africa which I embrace since there is so much gender inequality here to begin with. I am however planning on taking 15 girls from my village in August for a Scout Camp promoting health and women empowerment which I filed for a grant for over a long weekend with another volunteer, I had the girls write essays to apply. At a later date I would like to hold a second camp for the boys and girls.
Finally one of the biggest things I do is serve on the board of my village’s Sports Development Committee. Along with my counterpart and the winnings from my Long Tom race I used the funds to buy soccer balls and certificates for an event I helped plan for Youth Day. We spent long nights and days planning an event for Sept 26th. We set up a women’s soccer league consisting of four teams through the community, and for the first time many of them were kicking around a ball. We set up a tournament that ended on Youth Day in celebration with the community. Teams traveled in from nearby to play our village men’s, boy’s and women’s teams. To kick off the day in the morning I ran a 4 kilometer race for those not competing in soccer. Prior to the day’s events as the women’s league built up, I began a Grassroot soccer program with them, where I took each team aside to talk about HIV/AIDS through the interactive learning program, far different than classroom instruction. The Sports Development Committee also had LoveLife come to the schools during the prior months to talk about HIV/AIDS to all the students. The development of sports seems to be building in my village, though we have little funds if any. My housefather has started boxing and we are hoping to continue to keep the youth moving, learning, and motivated so that we may develop the leaders of tomorrow. Our next event is Heritage Day scheduled for September 24th, 2012 and I would like to make it even more of a success. I guess I will never stop running around, but what I really wanted to talk about was Nyiko and how I began working with her, I suppose it will have to wait until I write again.