Day 7 - Tuesday, June 30th - Camp 1, Day 1

Wow.

Well, our first day is done, and that's an accomplishment in and of itself. It was an exercise in endurance and flexibility to rival any Olympic sport. Keep in mind, none of us have experience with teaching in any real capacity, and teaching in another language and in another culture is a huge obstacle.

Jessy and I (we're roomies for this part of the trip) woke up around 6:30 to the sound of honest-to-God roosters and children. Mostly children. I had underestimated the ability of children to be up at horribly early hours with enough energy to be laughing and running. I was similarly impressed by their commitment to playing... they were outside even though it's really freakin' cold in the morning.

So we physically got up around 7 and got ready to head out. Thembi, who was driving us, said that she'd be leaving around 8. To make a long story short, we left around 9... Africa time. Everything is plus or minus 45 minutes, and usually it's plus. So we arrived at the school at about 9:30 after stopping for loaves of bread (for breakfast for the kids). Considering our itinerary had said that breakfast would start the day at school at 8, we were somewhat behind schedule.

We'd anticipated having some time to warm up and get ready, but when we got there the kids were all there and ready to go, so we just jumped into the first activity. Basically we set up the camp, went over some goals, got some “community agreements” (listen when others talk, don't laugh, be respectful, etc), played a game to learn names and did a presurvey (of how much they think they know about the topics we'll be covering).

By the time we were done with ALL of that, only about... one hour had passed. Our thoughts upon realizing this: “Uh-oh”.

About here we decided to slow our pace a bit. Our next step was to do the first page in their “Hero Books”, but we quickly realized that due to some amazing oversight, we'd forgot all of the books that we'd spent an hour or more making the previous day. Oops! So we introduced the idea and had them all make covers for the books, and they'll get the books (with cover) tomorrow. Not a terrible setback.

After this we did another little game and then handed out journals. I suppose that I should mention how in love these kids are with their school supplies. I dunno if others agree with me, but I always loved school supply shopping. Every year I got new paper and pencils and markers and whatever else and no matter what it was, it was great. These kids clearly don't get that luxury, so when we handed out their little pencil cases and notebook for the journals... they were clearly really excited. The care they took in drawing and the joy they clearly got from using markers and colored pencils was so wonderful.

About this time (11 or 11:30) the breakfast sandwiches were done. Originally we'd been told not to start before breakfast was done, but since the day was mostly light-hearted activities we'd pressed on. We probably wouldn't do that another day because of the heavier material and because for some of these kids this might have been their first meal in a long time. Breakfast tomorrow might be their first meal since the lunch we provide the day before.

After the sandwiches were eaten it was nearing noon and we'd originally had lunch in this time slot. Ha. The women preparing the food started on lunch, which was going to take a good three hours. We're now thinking: “What are we going to do with this time?!”

So we moved to the trust hand activity. In that activity the students trace their hand and then write their name in the palm. The fingers they use to write names of people they trust. They also list their struggles and successes on the side. The exercise is supposed to help the kids visualize that they have people to turn to for help. It's a fun little activity and afterwards we put the hands up so kids could look around to see if other kids have similar problems (obviously, they often do). It worked pretty well, even if a few kids copied down the answers off our examples.

We did another journal question (What do you know about HIV/AIDS) and then had a discussion about that. The kids did seem to know quite a bit, especially that you should use gloves when handling blood, but I'm unsure of how well they understand WHY that is. I think a lot of the teaching here is done by a lot of copying down what is written and memorization. Hopefully I'll be able to better explain how HIV works to them. In any case, they didn't seem hesitant about participating here, although that may have been helped along by the stickers we gave them for doing so (they LOVED the stickers).

So then we did a little game about facts and myths about HIV, but it didn't get very far, so we abandoned it. Realizing that the kids were getting restless, the four of us were at the ends of our ropes, and that lunch would be happening pretty late, we dismissed the kids for games. We'd brought a soccer ball and frisbees and some clotheslines as jumpropes. I didn't really see the kids playing soccer (they seemed to be using it for basketball instead?) but I played frisbee with some kids the whole time. It was awesome because they had obviously never used a frisbee before, so they were even worse than me! I was looking like some pro. Unfortunately for me, the kids started getting the hang of it pretty quick, but I'm keeping up with them.

The jumpropes probably would have been fun to play with, but I'm gonna need to study how they do it a little more first. They have this weird style where the two spinners go really fast and the person jumping jumps for a few spins, but then catches the rope on their legs and the whole thing pauses. It's a weird start and stop action that looks pretty cool, but I'm not about to try my hand at it.

So after this was food, which was pretty well received. Chicken and rice and I don't know what else. I didn't really have anything aside from an apple and some juice, both of which I realized after having started that they were probably bad ideas. Generally when travelling to foreign countries you try to avoid fruit without hard shells (like apples) and the local water (which they put powder in to make the juice). Oh, well, I guess we'll see if I keep over!

We ended the day with some singing and dancing, courtesy of one of our translators, Eugene. That was another huge obstacle we faced... we'd been operating under the assumption that we'd have 4 translators. The day dawned and we had 2: Eugene and Hlengiwe. Granted, those two did a fantastic job and are simply wonderful people and great helps to us... but it pretty much eliminates our ability to break into smaller groups. We'd planned to have 4 small groups of kids, which each AYO volunteer would lead, along with a translator... but that idea had to be tossed. In any case, Eugene knew most of the kids already from teaching them English or something, so he knew how to keep them energized and entertained.

Okay, well, it's 10:00 PM here and I'm crashing hard. The end of our day was far less amusing; we drove home to Eugene and Hlengiwe trying to out sing each other, drove to the store for some last minute food supplies, got our car exchanged (I'll try to get to that story tomorrow), ate a scrumptious dinner of tuna sandwiches, rice, and oranges, prepared a far more flexible lesson plan for tomorrow, and that brings me to here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get some sleep.

Day 6 - Monday, June 29th - Camp Prep.

Today was our first full day in Ingwavuma! Or, as it should probably be spelled, iNgwavuma. But I'm going to be a terrible American and spell it like it is on the signs.

We woke up early...ish: 7:30. Normally I'd say that 7:30 is very early for me, but since we probably went to bed around 7:00 last night, I suppose I got enough sleep.

Our first stop this morning was to meet with some of the people from Ingwavuma Orphan Care, where we're staying. We actually briefly met a whole lot of people, since it's a pretty busy place, but mostly we talked to Vee and Thembi. We learned a bit more about IOC, including that they employ about 104 people. This was pretty amazing, considering their “offices” were maybe half the size of my house all total. But then you think that they help about 1800 people in the area with chronic illnesses and another 3000 orphans and the 104 employees doesn't seem like nearly enough.

After that talk and being introduced to a parade of new faces we headed off towards the supermarket. Not wanting to risk our shiny new car on the hazardous dirt driveway of IOC, or the pothole infested roads, we decided to hoof it. The walk was probably about 2 kilometers, but they had hills to rival Madison's worst. We are up in the mountains, after all.

We did a bit of shopping, which was also pretty interesting. The market was well stocked, but most of the brands and items were unfamiliar. We got the basics—ramen, bread, peanut butter, etc. As we loaded our backpacks up we were kind of wishing for the car, but the walk back seemed much quicker. There was also some gorgeous scenery along the way and everyone we saw was very friendly. We tried out some of our limited Zulu and it seemed to please the locals, but about half of them seemed to know English and all of them laughed at was was probably a massacre of their language's pronunciation and grammar.

We got back and made some lunch (ramen with mixed vegetables added in for flavor—delicious after not having eaten a meal for nearly a day). We had another short talk with Thembi, but spent most of the afternoon trying to prepare for our first camp tomorrow. We hammered out a rough schedule and made some posters and name tags for the kids. That was one interesting fact: we'd come here under the impression that we'd have 30 kids for each camp, but there are now nearly 50 each week. While it's wonderful that we're reaching about 40 more kids, we've been trying to work out how to stretch our supplies to account for the increase. It'll be a challenge, but we're certainly getting used to dealing with challenges, and this is a pretty nice one overall.

We also got to meet some of the orphans who are staying here. I don't know exactly why they're here now other than they've been doing some kind of work in a nearby building. I am fairly sure that IOC doesn't actually house any orphans full-time; most orphans in the area live in foster care. For whatever reason, we have fourteen or fifteen young kids (6 to 8 years old?) staying in the rooms next to us. They must have had some free time around 2:00 today when we were talking through our schedule and we got some looks from them. Jessy brought out her camera to take a picture of them (they're adorable!) and it was over after that. They were all so excited to see the camera and the pictures of themselves. A few of them were quite the little flirts, striking poses and stuff for us.

As cute as the kids were, I expect that staying in rooms next to a dozen 8 year olds is going to be an experience.

As it got dark we ate some dinner, which consisted of a slightly more healthy tuna sandwich, orange, and some minestrone soup that wasn't a very good mix or something. By the time we were done eating it was dark enough that we needed flashlights to walk the hundred feet from the kitchen to our rooms. I'm excited to look at the stars one of these nights... I expect they'll be amazing.

That was pretty much our whole day. Hopefully tomorrow's entry will be slightly more exciting. Tomorrow: Camp 1, Day 1!

Day 5 - June 28th - Drive to Ingwavuma

From here on out the posts will be slightly behind the actual days they occured on. I'll try to keep up the one post-one day standard, but I'm pretty busy. Hopefully the quality of the blog doesn't suffer for it!

Sunday, June 28^th:

Today was the Drive to Ingwavuma. Yes, that definitely deserves the capital letters.

For those who are not aware, South Africa is quite a large country. I'll look up the exact statistics when I have time, but take my word for this: South Africa is huge. We started out from Johannesburg at 8 in the morning and with only one brief stop barely made it into Ingwavuma by 5. Nine hours is a long drive.

So we got up early and left a little bit later than expected, but it was worth the wait for the breakfast our “host family” packed for us. The couple that owned the guest house we stayed in was probably one of the highlights of this trip. From breakfast to giving us advice to negotiating at the car rental place to providing some much needed Jerepigo after the flat tire, they certainly went above and beyond their call of duty.

So as I mentioned, we started off at 8 and managed to navigate our way out of Johannesburg with no trouble at all, which is not an easy feat between all the robots (stoplights), crazy drivers, and narrow streets. The initial drive was just long stretches of beautiful scenery broken up about once an hour with towns. I jotted down some quick thoughts in my notebook as we passed through them:

Leandra: pretty big shanty town coming in to it, pretty sketchy overall. Confusing turns with little signage. Boo, Leandra.

Secunda: didn't even notice that we'd passed it, which is good because it means N17 (the highway) didn't have to wind through it.

Bethal: Confusing, pretty sketchy, ended up in the hospital parking lot after a wrong turn, but had a pretty nice church. KFC count: 1

Ermelo: pretty nice, good roads, could have used a few less turns to find our new highway (N2). Turning while driving on the left side is extra confusing! KFC count: 2.

Piet Retief: Nice town! Stopped for gas and food, was able to find the tiniest can of Mountain Dew ever, which was glorious. The car parked next to us had a whole bunch of raw meat in the back. Was smiled at a lot as they pumped our gas. If you want a plastic bag for the items you buy in the gas station it was an extra R0.70. KFC count: 2.

Pongola: had a market called the JUNK market, which, as Marilee said, is truth in advertising if we've ever seen it. Roads became FAR better after here.

Jozini: Speed bump! And another speed bump! Garbage in the streets, but KFC count: 1.

You may have noticed the “KFC Counts”? That's because KFC here is like McDonald's or Walgreens back home—they're everywhere! Even in these little towns that barely have anything else, there's a KFC. Insane.

After Jozini was the real tricky part of the drive. We'd had construction and crazy drivers and narrow roads, but past Jozini (and especially past Bhambanana) there were POTHOLES. Yeah, if the Drive to Ingwavuma deserved those capital letters, than POTHOLES certainly deserve the full caps. These things could eat your car, and tried to eat ours a few times I'm pretty sure. There were times when we had to move into the other side of the road, times that we had to slow to a near crawl, and times when I was pretty sure there was no way through. Our contact at Ingwavuma Orphan Care, Nathi (pronounced Nah-tee), asked us before we came up, “You know what potholes are?” And of course we did... except we really didn't until that last 22 kilometers. Now, we definitely know what potholes are.

So now we're settled in our rooms (more on them later) and even though it's only 6:30, I think we're all about ready for bed.

Day 4 - June 27th

Another busy day in Johannesburg!

We started out pretty early with yet another wonderful breakfast at 8. That felt pretty good after last night's shenanigans. More pancakes and fruit and scrambled eggs and sausages and so much more that I can't name it all.

The morning after that actually started out pretty slow, as we tried to figure out what we were doing. After the previous night we were pretty apprehensive about our upcoming 8-hour drive out to rural South Africa with just the four of us (me, Marilee, Jessy, and Machiko). We had to discuss possible options, such as hiring a driver. Eventually, we just bullied Budget Rental into allowing Jessy to drive the car for just R300 (300 rand) extra. That's like, $40 or so. Yay! So we should be set on that front.

This sounds like it was a quick fix, but it was really an all-day ordeal, which eventually meant that Rebecca stayed behind to play phone tag. In the end it all worked out.

Meanwhile, we went out to the South African Lion Park where, for R100 (less than $20) we got to drive through a big reserve type thing where we saw zebras and springbok and other animals. We also saw cheetahs and hyenas behind some fences. The real treat, though, was when we entered the lion park. There were four enclosures, with four different prides. The only thing separating us from them was the car, and even though it was against the rules... we totally rolled the windows down. We were literally feet from these lions. I'll upload pictures after I'm back—they're fantastic.

After the driving part we entered the lion cub area where we saw a giraffe and ostrich pretty up-close, but then also went into a little enclosure where I got to PET a lion cub. I mean, that was awesome. Again, I have some simply amazing pictures.

After this we stopped by the inn before a few of us headed to the mall to get some last minute supplies—blankets, pens, candles, etc. The Ingwavuma team leaves early tomorrow, so we had to get some of that shopping in. Since the group was me, Jessy, and Machiko (Alex went to get some supplies), we couldn't resist the call of getting some clothes for dirt-cheap prices. So I got some jeans and two shirts for under $30. Rock on.

Now we're back to the inn for the night. We went over the driving directions for tomorrow and some information for the camps and now the seafood that people ordered.

So now I have to get going and try to prepare for the longest car ride of my life (not actually the longest, just made longer by South African roads being terrible, I'm sure) and also prepare to leave the best place I've ever stayed.

Since we're going out to middle-of-nowhere Ingwavuma tomorrow, I probably won't have internet for one or two more weeks, so there won't be any updates for a bit. I hope you keep checking back, though, because when I do have updates they are sure to be pretty fantastic!

Day 3 - Friday, June 26th

Well, today was certainly an adventure. We're back at the inn, all safe and sound, so no worries on that front

Because we got to the inn and to bed so late yesterday, we had a bit of a late start today. We ate breakfast around 9, quickly nicknaming it “the breakfast that never ends”. At first there was yogurt and and granola bread and jam and papaya juice and coffee. That really would've been enough for us, but then they set out some sausages and bacon and mushrooms, which made us pretty ecstatic. But THEN they set out the little pancakes and we were in heaven. After that, they served scrambled eggs. Amazing.

Alex and Rebecca showed up towards the end of breakfast with Liam, who was in good spirits even if they weren't. Apparently his nap in the car last night meant that he was up all night. The rest of us, on the other hand, slept like babies. The home we're staying in doesn't have any real heating system, but there were electric blankets and warm comforters, so I was set.

After breakfast we divided up the donations into two, for the two teams (DeWilt and Ingwavuma) and then drove out to DeWilt. We got a fantastic quote from Alex before we left as he was trying to explain our route: “So, we'll take a couple of lefts and a few rights and then take M5 out of town!” Thanks, Alex, very descriptive. We got another great quote off of a bumper sticker on the drive out: “Fat people are harder to kidnap.” Dunno what that was about, but I'll take their word for it.

When we got there the other team was able to check out the house they were going to stay in and then we got a guided tour around the park to see the animals. Animals we saw: cheetahs, African wild dogs, impalas, monkeys, a nyala (which is like a large goat-ish thing with horns), a meerkat, two honey badgers (one of which was an albino), numerous guinea pigs, and Egyptian vultures.

The cheetahs were amazing, of course, but I was surprised with how much I loved the African wild dogs. They are smart pack hunters, and so as we were driving through they were chasing our truck. They had members of the pack circling around the truck in what was clearly an organized fashion, all while yelping. They don't so much bark as squeak, and it sounds kind of like a tape rewinding. Strange.

The cheetahs were fantastic and we got pretty close to them, even if we didn't really stop in their enclosure because we had Liam in the car and apparently they thought he looked nice and bite-sized. We respectfully disagreed and kept driving.

The real trick was the drive back. Since it's winter here it gets dark just after 5, which is about when we started out. The roads up were terrifying on the way up, but that was nothing compared to them in the dark. On top of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road and on the other side of the car, the roads were extremely narrow and had pretty much no shoulder. On top of that, the sides of the road were often kind of steep and full of pot holes. Not to mention that people here drive more aggressively than anyone from Illinois, heh.

To make a somewhat long story shorter, my car blew a tire. If having a flat tire is nerve-wracking in America, it's ten times so on a dark road just outside Johannesburg. We'd been told by the rental company that they'd come fix any flats we got, but when we called them they definitely did not want to help. On top of all this, our car did not seem to have a jack in it.

So we had three cars in the dirt off the road and about 6 people aiding in changing the tire/holding flashlights. It was DARK. Luckily Alex's car had a jack in it. He and Jessy really rocked at changing out that tire; I was quite impressed. It was cold and dark and felt like it took forever, but we did it.

So now that we've made it home we are kicking back, ordering some chicken, drinking sherry and tea, and having a generally wonderful and calming time.

Day 1 and 2 - June 24th and 25th

Surprisingly, the fourteen-hour plane ride was not as bad as we had all expected. Really, tooling around the airports was more annoying for me. My day started out early, getting up and making sure everything was packed. We drove me down to O'Hare and I got there around eleven or so. Getting my ticket and through security was surprisingly quick, so I had plenty of time to sit around the airport before my 1:05 flight. That flight was nice and short and I slept through most of it.

The Atlanta airport was not as confusing as my mother had made it out to be. I found my next terminal pretty quick, meaning I had about four hours to kill before my 8:05 flight out. I spent some time on the free wireless and eating, but the real entertainment was trying to get some of my money changed into rand (South African currency). I tried the exchange counter nearest my terminal and after a half an hour wait was told “oh, no, the OTHER counter does rand”. So I walked across the terminal and waited another half an hour only to be told “no, the other person here does rand, and he's out to dinner.”

So at this point I got some food and sat around before returning an hour later and making my way through the line a third time, only to be told, “no, we sold out of rand”. Ugh.

After finally meeting up with everyone else in the terminal and getting my passport check and rescuing a little girl who got her knee stuck climbing between the seats (ever get your head stuck in a stair railing? It was kind of like that), we were finally ready to board the flight.

I just gotta say, I love big planes. Not only to they just feel roomier, but they tend to have nicer amenities. We didn't get sweet little beds like first class, but we all had individual TVs set into the seat in front of us, on which we could pick and watch anything that we wanted. I got in some How I Met Your Mother and a bit of Supernatural before they rebooted the system and I lost my audio. I used all my available IT skills to try and fix it (including going into some of the games, which froze the system and made it reboot), but nothing worked. Finally, I just went to sleep. I can't tell you how long I slept because I don't look at clocks while on planes (it helps with jet lag), but after a long and uncomfortable rest I tried my TV again and it worked! So I got to watch some Chuck, which is a pretty sweet show I've decided.

So finally, nearly fifteen hours after take off, we arrived in Johannesburg. The airport was somewhat of a let down, being that it was pretty similar to American airports and near everything was in English. We made our way through customs, got our luggage (everything accounted for!), changed our money at a better rate than they had in America (take THAT, Atlanta), and prepared to rent some cars.

Well, three hours and one stolen cell phone later, we were ready to leave the airport and finally be on our way to the inn. Luckily that was just a cheap cell phone we'd picked up for use in South Africa, and not one of our personal phones. Driving was definitely an adventure, but luckily it was late enough that there was very little traffic. I got to use my awesome navigating skills and my new map.

I do have to say, while we may have had headaches from the airport and car rental place, they were fixed by our lodging. We're staying in a sort of bed and breakfast (technically a “guest house”) with amazing rooms and a wonderful host couple, David and Gladys, and four adorable dachshunds. Really, this is one of the nicest places I've ever stayed in, and it was a welcome sight.

Thus ends our first six hours in South Africa... if they are any indication, we are in for an interesting trip!

We made it!

For all who are curious, we made it to South Africa. The flight was certainly long, but made easier by individual little TVs set into the seat in front of you. Those things are wonderful--you can watch whatever you want!

I slept for most of my flight. It was fitful and my neck hurts, but I'll live.

It's 6:30 here and we're just resting in the Johannesburg airport... everyone is safe and pretty happy (even Liam) and all of our luggage is accounted for! This is pretty much best-case scenario stuff right here. I'd love to blog more, but we're going to have to start moving soon.

An update -- at last!

Sorry about the delay in my posting; the closer the trip gets, the more busy I seem to become. A myriad of not-Africa-related things like three jobs, a mouse chewing through my moped's fuel line (thanks Dad for taking care of that fiasco!) and my laptop giving up the ghost meant that updating this had to take a temporary back seat.

It is now less than 10 days before we travel to Africa. We've had quite a few meetings since then, most notably learning about South African history and a few more activities for the kids.

I wanted to write this post mostly about our meeting yesterday, which consisted of a self-defence lesson through IMPACT Chicago, which I have decided is a simply awesome group. (Check out the video on their front page... we didn't learn all those moves, but the palmheel-to-the-face, knees-to-the-groin and head, and kicking from a prone position were all covered)

We started at 11. Our trainers were Naomi and Mark. Naomi was a very sweet woman who was also a social worker. Mark was this huge bouncer-type guy with a shaved head and goatee-beard thing going on. Both of them were exceedingly nice and fun and caring. Even though we learned a lot of "moves", we also spent a lot of time talking about what we were doing. Normally I'm not a huge fan of talking-about-feelings type activities, but it was definitely important here, and I appreciated it.

I was surprised at how emotional I did feel about the whole thing. As a girl, especially one as short as me, I get kind of talked down to about my physical strength all the time. Guys love pulling that "try to punch me in the arm as hard as you can" thing and if I do it I'm invariably told "haha, that didn't hurt at all!" So, while I never discounted myself as a fighter if I were to ever be attacked in any way (as I like to say, "I'm small, but I'm scrappy"), but I did seriously doubt my ability to defend myself effectively. I think subconsciously I figured that I'd fight, but that it probably wouldn't work.

Not so at all (as this course taught me). Just by giving us a few tools, a few pointers, I feel capable of defending myself now. If push comes to shove, I can hit hard enough to knock someone down, and hard enough again to knock someone out. I can use what strengths I do have to my advantage. Am I ever going to be able to take a guy on in a fistfight? Probably not. But I'm not looking for a fight; I just want to protect myself, and that I can do pretty confidently.

This epiphany came pretty early in the class after we realized that the knees-to-the-groin that we were delivering were literally knocking Mark (6-foot-something and 200+ pounds of muscle) off his feet. He didn't fall down after them, but that's only because of the extensive, specialized padded suit he wore. I think we'd all assume that his being lifted off his feet by our strikes was an act by him, but it wasn't. That realization, that I am able to do something like that, was suprisingly emotional. After a lifetime of being subtlely told that I couldn't take a guy in a fight, the truth hit like a freight train.

I will say this; if I ever have a daughter she will take one of IMPACT's core classes before going to college. I know that Marsha (DeWilt team) told me afterwards how relieved it made her to see her daughter, Jessy (who is going with me to Ingwavuma) be able to easily defend herself; I think my mom and dad would've been similiarly relieved if they could've seen me.

Another wonderful thing about this training was how much I think we as a team bonded over it. There's just something about cheering each other on and being cheered on in turn in such a charged, adrenaline-fueled atmosphere that brought us so much closer. I just can't express enough how amazing this class was. I hope that someday I have the opportunity to take one of their full, core classes, which takes a few weekends and over a full day of classtime. Unfortunately, but they're in Chicago and kind of expensive.