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.

Yesterday, Drumming for Hope

Another busy weekend of various AYO-related outings.

Saturday - Potluck and Yesterday

Marilee (one of my Ingwavuma teammates) hosted a party Saturday night. It was partly to help her raise money for AYO; she had items for sale and some people donated money. The party was potluck, which works so well when you have that many adults--I am deficient in both ingredients, cookware, and knowledge to make real food for occasions like that.

We also watched a movie called Yesterday, which is about a woman (named Yesterday because her father thought that "things were always better yesterday") who finds out that she has HIV. She helps take care of her similarly sick husband (even though at first he doesn't believe her and even beats her for trying to warn him about the disease) and she also makes a goal not to die before her daughter attends her first day of school. It was an absolutely heartbreaking film and it was in Zulu (with English subtitles), which made it even more of a valuable learning experience. Unfortunately, but it kind of brought home how hard it will be to try to use the limited Zulu that I know.


Sunday - Drumming For Hope

AYO's fourth annual Drumming For Hope is also over. Marilee and I showed up at about 1:30 and stayed until nearly 8:30; from setting up to packing up. I also helped cover admission and later helped Marilee with selling craft items. We had the same items from Green Expo, along with some fantastic beaded jewelry and other things.

I also took a few minutes off from helping to participate in the drum circle, which was pretty neat. I don't have a terribly great sense of rhythm, but I tried to not seem too awkward. I also checked out the penguin we had visiting from Vilas Zoo, which is the closest I've ever come to a penguin. I bit on some of the silent auction items and got two gift certificates. After the drum circle there were some performances from different African drum and dance groups, which I caught some of and loved. All in all it was a pretty fun event and I had a great time helping out (even if I should've been doing homework)


Today - Even more Zulu!

Not much to say about my Zulu lesson today. We learned a few key phrases, such as please (either uxolo or ngicela) and spent a lot of time on trying to pin down proper phrasing. The use of plurals versus singular questions is confusing and I'd prefer not to offend anyone by using the wrong one. We also learned a lot of ways to refer to people. Boys under 7? Baba. Boys 7-15? Mfana. Boys over that age and I'll probably use Bhuti. Same with girls... Intombi and sisi. I also got a bit of practice in making some of the click consonants that they have, which they represent by x, q, or c. The x is a lateral click (using the side of your mouth), q is alveolar (like a clock ticking... tongue to the roof of your mouth, behind your teeth) and c is a dental click ("tsk-tsk", like when people disapprove of something). The clicks aren't terribly hard, but using them in the middle of a word takes some practice.

Green Expo and more Zulu lessons

Been a busy few days in AYO-land.

Green Expo

Saturday was the Isthmus's Green Expo, at which AYO had a booth. I helped out for the last half of the expo, having missed the beginning in favor of running Crazylegs (a local 5 mile run that starts at the state capitol and ends in Camp Randall stadium) because apparently I'm a masochist. Once I got there my job was basically just talking to anyone who visited us and explaining about the items we had for sale.

We get a lot of items from programs from all over Africa through programs like Global Mamas, which is a program that helps woman-owned businesses in Africa, thus negating some of the steep gender inequality they face. Many of our products came from Ghana and they were all pretty neat. Some of the bags and little coin purses were made out of recycled water bags (water there isn't bottled, it's bagged), and scraps from the clothing they made went into making pot holders and the like. There were also some adorable puppets and sweet recycled glass figurines. (All of which you can buy through AYO... contact them or me if you're interested!)

So in the end I hear AYO made some money off of the booth, all of which goes to buy things like supplies for our camp. All in all, definitely a good day.


Today -- flyers and Zulu

Annie (another volunteer, one traveling this summer to De Wildt) dropped off some flyers and the like for me this afternoon. After my classes I visited State Street to try and drum up (get it?) a bit of support for our next event, Drumming For Hope. I visited a whole bunch of shops on State and asked them if I could put the flyers up. Some said no, but a lot more than I expected said yes, mostly comprising of locally owned stores. Franchises (I'm looking at you, Chipotle!) turned me down for the most part. Either way, hopefully a few more people show up at what is promising to be a pretty interesting event.

In between doing this I had to run up to Van Hise for a Zulu lesson, though thankfully not literally, as Francis' office is on the fourteenth floor. I soaked up a bit more of the native language, including some grammar, which I think is fascinating. After my lifetime of English and five years of Spanish, to learn a language that has such a radically different grammar is really interesting. I've been looking it up online, too. Hopefully in the next few weeks before we leave I'll get a bit of a handle on the basics. I learned how to say that I'm going to Africa in June: Ngiya eMzantsi ngoJune. And that I'll be returning in July: Ngibuya eMerika ngoJuly. By the way, I think the fact that they spell it "Merika" is pretty awesome. Looks way sweeter.

Hamba kahle! (Go well!)

Vaccinations!

I almost forgot to tell everyone about my fun trip to the travel doctor!

Since I'm a student at the UW, I can get vaccinations at University Health Services. The only good thing about all of the construction on campus is the shiny new buildings that I get to use, one of which houses UHS now.

I made the appointment a few weeks ago and spent the intervening time trying to track down my vaccination records. I have the doctor's information from my more recent shots (for college and middle school), but they didn't have anything about my baby shots! Luckily my mom kept track of all of my vaccinations (what a good parent), so I was able to answer all of the questions with reasonable certainty.

I met with the travel doctor on April 3rd. I think the UW does a good job in that you have to meet with someone and discuss you trip a bit before they recommend vaccinations. AYO suggests getting up to date on Hepatitis A and B and Typhoid Fever. I was good on Hep. B, and their information turned out to be correct, but it's good to speak with a doctor about this. She also was able to give me perscriptions for two drugs to take with me and recommendations on what activities/things to avoid.

Now, I'm a huge nerd about medicine, so I hope you'll indulge me a bit while I elaborate. My first perscription is for Ciprofloxacin, which treats traveler's diarrhea. This isn't a specific disease, but more a condition caused by travelling to an area you're not used to. Basically, everybody has certain bacteria and organisms living in their body based on where they live and who they come in contact with. These organisms are not harmful, and very often are helpful. When you travel to a very different area such as South Africa, though, you are exposed to different types of nonpathogenic (not-disease-causing) bacteria. They don't hurt you, but your body sometimes takes a bit to adjust to this new "gut flora" (gut organisms), which can cause diarrhea. It probably sounds gross to most people, but it's really interesting to me!

I also got a perscription for Malarone, which is an anti-malarial. A lot of people have the mistaken assumption that there is a vaccine for malaria, which is not the case. Malaria is caused by a parasite, and because parasites are so much more complex than viruses or bacteria, they are much harder to make vaccines for. At this time I don't think there are any vaccines for parasitic diseases (though I could be wrong!). I'm taking a parasitology class this semester, so I've been learning all about this.

Lastly, the doctor explained some activties to avoid, such as petting any animals (like dogs), for fear of rabies. Also, she warned me against going into any freshwater lakes or rivers (even just wading). This last bit was because of Schistosomiasis, another disease caused by a parasite that can penetrate your intact skin and give you some pretty bad rashes (or worse). Another parasite from my class!

After this discussion the travel doctor sent me over to get my actual vaccines: Hep. A, Typhoid Fever, and polio. This last one was because I was due for a booster shot, not because of any inherent risk of polio in South Africa. I got two in my left arm and one in the right, and the one that hurt the most was the polio, which was subcutaneous. This means that instead of injecting it into muscle, they pull a flap of skin away from your arm and inject it there. Ouch! I have a brand new respect for people who deal with diabetes.

Anyway, I'm sure many of you reading this found this entry to be gross/boring, but let me just say that as a Medical Microbiology and Immunology major, and even though I don't like shots, this was one of the most exciting and interesting parts of the trip yet!

April training

Yesterday we had another meeting for our trip, though it was thankfully shorter because it was on a weekday. We all met around 6 and started out by doing an activity outside, while we still had light and a beautiful spring day to work with. While in Africa we'll teach a lesson on drugs and alcohol and one of our activities features some pretty powerful beer-goggles. They look like huge safety goggles and people wearing them look hilarious because their eyes seem huge and distorted. We each took turns putting them on and being spun around a few times, and then tried to slalom between colored dots on the ground. It was remarkably hard to do! I'm sure we all looked pretty ridiculous, stumbling around. Thankfully Ytevia took off her awesome high heels and wore Rebecca's slippers, otherwise we may have had to end the meeting there with a trip to the hospital.

We also demonstrated another little activity that compares reaction time while "sober" by catching a pen or marker that someone drops into your hand versus "under the influence", by sticking your hand in a bowl of freezing ice water. I was the brave volunteer for this, although I think a lifetime of living in Wisconsin has trained me better than most at functioning with frozen and numb hands.

Our second activity of the night was making "power dolls", which was also a lot of fun. Basically, you write a message to yourself down on a half-sheet of paper (a goal, a reminder of something you've overcome) and then you crumple that paper up into a ball. This is the doll's head. Using some fabric and yarn, you make the body around that. I can see why the kids will enjoy it.

In case you're wondering why a group of grown women were stumbling around with beer goggles and sitting around making dolls, I should mention that all of the activities we'll be doing with the kids at the actual camps we do here and now in Wisconsin. It's a good experience because it's easier to teach and lead an activity when you've done it yourself. Some of it is a bit silly, like making these dolls, but meanwhile we were discussing why we did this and how we were going to present it to kids there. It certainly makes me more comfortable with the prospect of leading these camps.

After that we moved on to some more discussion. We went over some information we'd been given on alcohol and drugs in South Africa. It's interesting to think about because the environment is so different there. Even in Madison walking home while drunk can be dangerous, but in South Africa walking home while inebriated along a dark, narrow road can be much worse. The beer goggle activity may sound silly, but we're hoping it shows these kids how hard it is to walk when you're not fully in control, because they'll be traversing roads where even a little stumble could put you right in the path of a vehicle.

After this was some review on HIV (and I love this topic so much that I'm sure I ended up being very annoying. I kept wanting to answer all of the questions I knew about!) and a discussion on safe sex and healthy relationships. The discussion kind of put us in the roles of the kids we'll be teaching later, in that Rebecca was asking us a lot of questions about what we think healthy relationships are and what to say to someone who is pressuring you into sex or unsafe sex. It's one of those topics that I'm sure we all know pretty well, but it takes some getting used to talking about it. It was a good learning experience because watching Rebecca try to draw more information out of us showed how we can do it for these kids.


I'd just like to mention here that I'm trying to raise money right now for AYO. I've set a rather lofty goal of $1000.00, but I really think that I can reach it. I mean, if I can get 50 people to donate $20 each, I'll get there with no problem... and I know I have at least fifty friends! Even $5 is an awesome step towards reaching my goal. All donations are tax-deductible. This is a new experience for me, because I've always had a problem "selling" things, even when it was for things people loved like Girl Scout Cookies. This is even harder because there's no tangible good, but the cause is so much more important to me that I just have to try.

If you're at all interested in donating any amount of money, you can do so online through my FirstGiving page here. If you don't like donating over the internet you can make a check out to African Youth Outreach and either mail it to me (e-mail me at mariley2@wisc.edu for my address, I don't feel right putting it on the internet!) or you can mail it directly to AYO at

African Youth Outreach
C/O Alexander Kendziorski
406 Sethne Court
Monona, WI 53716
USA

Just mention in the memo line that it's for Megan Riley. Thank you all so much for all of your help, and I hope you keep reading my blog!