Advertisement
Delheim Wine Farm
The After-School Club where I've been working. Hi everyone!
April was by far the most challenging month for me - academically, emotionally, spiritually . . . At the end of the month though, I can say that it was a time of enormous growth.
Yay, this month I have successfully implemented my service project, Body Mapping, at my site on Delheim Wine Farm with the kids in the after-school club. On Wednesday, April 16th I carried out a trust-building activity called "relationship pie" that gave the children an opportunity to think critically about their relationships. I feel that it went very smoothly, however I found it difficult to get the teacher, Geraldeen, involved. The next week we started the Body Mapping. My goal was to finish the body maps that day, however, things did not go according to plan which I was not prepared for. To be honest, this entire semester I have listened to my community development professors talk and talk about the importance of accepting uncertainty as a fact, and that one must have Plan A-Z ready....but I never REALLY listened. I always thought, my project is going to be different - there's nothing that should go wrong...it's just art! Hmmm... as I wrote
Relationship Pie
some of their drawings in my reflective journal for that week, I received a slap in the face from Community Development and learned my lesson! :P Basically what happened was that when I arrived many of the teens were sent home by Geraldeen to do their homework. It has been a growing issue at the after-school clubs that the kids are not bringing their homework or simply telling us that they don't have any to do. My frustration was that in the past 3 months that I have been working there, they have never been sent home - why of all days did it have to be when I was doing my service project that I have been preparing for the last couple months?! Anyway, I was able to do the mapping with 12 children-ages from 6-15. After almost 2 hours we managed to outline everyone's bodies and do hand and foot prints. This took WAY longer than I had anticipated and reflecting back, I realized the importance in setting a time limit-next time I would make it clear that they have 20 minutes to outline and paint. The other frustrating thing was that even after talking and clarifying with Geraldeen about her roles
Body Mapping
the first day - outlining the bodies! as site supervisor and translator, when I began doing the body mapping, she was no where to be found! I ended up having a good talk with Marileze, the project manager for Pebbles, and she strongly suggested that before I continue with my project I should talk with Gerladeen. Yikes I really didn't feel comfortable confronting Geraldeen - she is intimidating and...well, I can't exactly describe her. So before I headed to Delheim yesterday I wrote out what my goals were for the day, and planned to talk with Geraldeen and go over our expectations for the day. And, it went great!! I've been in more than a few situations lately where good communication made such a fantastic difference. Geraldeen was open to everything I said, and when I told her that I was dissappointed that she hadn't been more involved in my project she told me that if I want something from her, I need only to ask her and she will do it. I felt a little confused - I had written out in great detail what I expected from her in my proposal which she has a copy of and signed - but I realized that there
Paint time
Claudia making her hand prints was no point in dwelling in last week's events and instead focus on that day's goal: finish body maps and have teachers and participants fill out assessments. All the children were able to finish their body maps, and the teens who missed the previous week were able to catch up with the help of Geraldeen who took them in a separate area outside and basically led the actvity herself! Wow...it was great! The assessments were completed (all in Afrikaans...still figuring out how I'm going to translate them...) and there was even enough time for a few kids to share their body maps with everyone. yay! what a relief it was to finish my service project! By far the best part was what a positive response I received from the children - they had a lot of fun and many voiced this to me saying how "lekker" it was! (Lekker=cool/awesome)
During April 10-11 my Service Learning Community Development (SLCD) professors, Jacob and Antionette, took my group on an overnight field trip to Saldanha, a small town two hours north along the coast. It was....both really fun and incredibly frustrating. I will try and make it short - basically, my group
more body mapping
the second day....finishing up the maps really bonded over the struggle for sleeping arrangments. We arrived at a local military base where there were two huge tents for us to sleep in -well, most of us crammed into one of them, and we were all cozy-even Jacob joined us. (I don't think I've mentioned Jacob and Antionette....Jacob is awesome, relaxed, easy to talk to....Antionette is very likely bi-polar, scary, intimidating, and scary.) As we heard Antionette walking towards the tent, I heard Jacob mutter "uh oh"... Antionette quickly disapproved of the sleeping arrangements and demanded that the boys and girls be separated. Well, it was a group consensus that we were not going to budge and that there was no good reason why the 4 guys in the group should freeze in a huge tent alone when they could be much warmer staying with the other 20 of us. Anyway, Antionette finally gave in. Haha...i must admit that as I write this story, I can't help but feel that it's pretty silly looking back, but I remember feeling like we had just won a battle. That evening Jacob made a braai and cooked some amazing lamb. yum. The next day we were split in half -
Geraldeen
Geraldeen leading the older girls in the body mapping some students went to a school where they helped prepare a garden, and I was with the group who went to the local township. The purpose was to spend time with children who are infected with HIV. 60% of the township is currently infected and five girls including myself volunteered to follow Patricia, a community development worker, as she went door to door raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. With no introduction she paired us up, gave us sheets of paper that the people were supposed to sign if they appeared to understand what HIV/AIDS, and sent us off into the township for 2 hours. Yikes. With no formal training on HIV/AIDS I did not feel confident, on top of the fact that I felt right from the beginning, who am I to come into this township, as a white middleclass american, and be asked to question these people, "do you know what HIV/AIDS is?" I even asked Patricia what the community programme was planning to do with these signatures and she couldn't or wouldn't answer me. We were given no information. Also, no one spoke english. Everyone spoke Afrikaans or Xxosa. When my partner and I were trying to talk with
an elderly man Patricia came over, asked him, "do you understand what they are saying? Do you know what HIV/AIDS is?" the man grunted that he did, and Patricia turned to us, "well, give him the paper! let him signs, he knows!" man, I was so frustrated and angry I can't even tell you. Luckily I was able to talk with friends and the next week I was able to have an opportunity to reflect the expereince academically through the reflective journal, and discussing it in class.
Around mid-April I finally got to visit Robben Island!! The boat ride was great - saw so many seals! It was a beautiful day with no clouds in the sky. From the island it is a beautiful view of Cape Town with Table Top Mountain in the distance. It was so interesting - Our tour guide was a former prisoner and had some interesting stories. We were taken through the maximum security prison where political prisoners were kept based on the belief during the apartheid that political prisoners were more dangerous that the rapists and murderers. I am finally in the part of Nelson Mandela's autiobiography where he writes about his
Colleen
Colleen, one of the teachers, and her son Zhaun-Lee years on Robben Island and wow. It's a huge book (over 700 pages) but has been so rewarding - if anyone has time, please please read this book. During the tour I also got to see Mandela's cell where he lived for 18 of his 28 years on the island. I'm going to include a lengthy quote from Mandela's book that he wrote about his experience going to Robben Island after being sentenced in the Riviona Trial with life imprisonment:
"I was now on the sidelines, but I also knew that I would not give up the fight...We would fight inside as we had fought outside. The racism and repression were the same...Prison and the authorities conspire to rob each man of his dignity. In and of itself, that assured that I would survive, for any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose because I will nevere part with it at any price or under any pressure. I nevere serioulsy considered the possibility that I would not emerge from prison one day. I never thought that a life sentence truly meant life and that I would die behind bars. Perhaps I was denying
The group
Most of the kids at the After-School Club this prospect because it was too unpleasant to contemplate. But I always knew that someday I would once again feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine as a free man. I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nuture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed towards the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lay defeat and death."
Last Sunday I went with my AIFS group to the South Africa Cheese and Wine festival! It was amazing. Our tickets were already purchased and when we arrived we were given a wine glass which I used for all my tastings. yummm I had some of the best wines...I really enjoyed port a lot. There was also some delicious sparkling wine, and I purhased some lovely rose wine. Oh, and the CHEESE! Kellie, I was thinking of you the whole time....you would have been in heaven. We were there from 10am till 3pm and by the end I was full of
free cheese and wine. yum yum yum.
My last little story is last night I went to the "dutch house" where my friend Pia, the lone German, lives. Her flatmates were hosting a huge party in celebration of the Dutch Queen's birthday. Wow - it was literally a mass of orange when I arrived. I learned later that the queen's favorite color is orange. :D It was so much fun - especially to spend time with my closest friends. I ended up going into town to go dancing with Eben and Irina, and Stefanie and Grant, as the 5th wheel! woohoo! Actually, it wasn't awkward at all, and we all had a great time - got home around 4am and have enjoyed a lazy thursday. Classes today and tomorrow have been cancelled because of public holidays. I'm hoping to use this weekend to get started writing my 20 page paper that is due for SLCD on May 16th.
Alright, that's all I've got for now. Off to enjoy some pizza and watch the french film "Amelie" with Irina and Julia. Peace out!!
Haha....oh yah, how could I forget...next Saturday, I am going Shark Cage Diving!!!!! ahhhhh
so excited!!! Going with Irina and some kids from my Afrikaans class.
Peace & Love,
Ashley
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.047s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ned Opdyke
non-member comment
my favorite entry to date
Hello my precious daughter. Your blog entry was so lekker!! You are sounding more mature and wise, as your entries go by. My little girl... growing up, into a fine young lady. You make me the proudest father in the world, thank you sweetheart. I'm gonna take a guess on what 'braai' is. Is it soup? Is your favorite color orange (too)? It has always been mine. A friend of mine, who had taken some 'color analysis' type classes, told me several years ago, that if your favorite color is orange, it means your emotional development stopped around the age of 5. It seemed to make sense to me, I've always know I was child-like =). I'm looking forward to hearing about your time in the shark cage. WOW. I hope you will be able to take a camera down there with you. Have someone try to get a picture of the expression on your face if you can! In closing, I have a comment as a respectful man, please don't think of me as a dirty old pervert... Tell Stephanie I said she was beautiful. I love you sweetheart, you are MORE beautiful. Every time I read one of your entries, I become more and more impressed with you, and the kind of person you're turning into. About 2 more months left in your adventure, right? That means AT LEAST two more entries, right? Bye for now. Dad