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!)