Today, Matt and I were invited to a "party" at the Rainbow Centre. Itemba, the teacher-branch of Ikamva Labantu, has meetings at the Rainbow Centre every month, to discuss new agendas such as training and other aspects that are pertinent to their roles as teachers in the creches. It was also fun getting to see many of the principals and teachers that Matt and I have been working with the past few weeks. We got quite a few hugs from them, haha.
Today's meeting was special, however, as today there was a "party" for Helen. Helen went to the States back in May to receive an honor from some group, and they gave her some money ($100,000 Rand or about $12,500 U.S.). She brought this money back to the Ikamva and is using it to throw "parties" for all of the branches of Ikamva. Today's branch was Itemba.
At the party, the members had their normal meeting, and then it was followed by Helen giving a speech explaining where she had been, why she had the money, and why she was throwing the party. After she was done, Matt and I proceeded to hand out a crapload of Kentucky (KFC) meals to all of the members of Itemba. I'm not really sure if this makes any sense, but doing this like this is why I'm enjoying my time here so much.
After the meeting, Matt and I hung back for a bit and spoke with Martha, Notemba, and Xoliswa to speak about our schedule for the following two and a half weeks that we will continue going out into the field. Now that we are squared away again, hopefully we won't have any wasted days going forward and we can continue the great work we've done thus far.
I'm also excited because next Friday, July 17th, the foot soldiers are taking us to Mzole's Place, a braii in Guguletu. We drive by Mzoli's place quite a bit and it looks like an amazing experience. Well, that's it for tonight, I think. Totsien, my friends!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
NObama?
I forgot to mention this in yesterday's update, but while Matt and I were in the townships yesterday, we were visiting a creche and ran into a pair of Arizona State students who are here volunteering in the townships as well. When we found out that they go to ASU, we mentioned that we were linked through Obama and they sort of just mumbled something, haha. Gotta love keep things civil between institutions of higher learning... if you can even call ASU that, ;-).
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Another day, another milestone...
Today, Matt and I felt some repurcussions from the July 3rd protests. We were unable to document the crèches in Khayelitsha Site B, as there was too much debris still in the roads. Instead, Xoliswa took us to Makhaza and Mandela Park to document their crèches. In all, Matt and I documented 19 sites today, bringing our overall total to 120 sites visited. We are balling.
So, today wrapped up our time with Xoliswa, and tomorrow we were supposed to start working with Jabu, but he is sick. As such, we will instead be working with Meisie, another mother. Matt and I are excited to work with Jabu soon, however, as he is the only male in this group of foot soldiers, and we are interested in learning his story. Seeing a male involved with the crèches here is quite rare, and we are intrigued to hear why he got involved.
Tonight, we are going out to dinner with some of the Master’s of International Peace Studies, from the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame. They have a six month internship/study abroad segment, and this group will be based here in Cape Town. It will be interesting to meet them, as the majority of them (most likely all of the ones here) are international students. I know one of us, Luke (who is from England), is excited to have the MIPS students here, as it gives him a break from us “Amerikaaners”, haha. Well, that’s it for today. I may update again later if tonight’s dinner provides any interesting stories. Bye for now, my friends!!!
So, today wrapped up our time with Xoliswa, and tomorrow we were supposed to start working with Jabu, but he is sick. As such, we will instead be working with Meisie, another mother. Matt and I are excited to work with Jabu soon, however, as he is the only male in this group of foot soldiers, and we are interested in learning his story. Seeing a male involved with the crèches here is quite rare, and we are intrigued to hear why he got involved.
Tonight, we are going out to dinner with some of the Master’s of International Peace Studies, from the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame. They have a six month internship/study abroad segment, and this group will be based here in Cape Town. It will be interesting to meet them, as the majority of them (most likely all of the ones here) are international students. I know one of us, Luke (who is from England), is excited to have the MIPS students here, as it gives him a break from us “Amerikaaners”, haha. Well, that’s it for today. I may update again later if tonight’s dinner provides any interesting stories. Bye for now, my friends!!!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Closing thoughts...
Today, Matt and I were in the office and had a pretty productive day. Over the past few weeks, we have been finding GPS coordinates for each of the sites we’ve visited, and today we started to locate the sites using Google Maps. By using the GPS coordinates, we can locate the sites really easily.
Once we located all 102 sites that we visited, we started comparing the Google Maps data with the plot maps that Sipho got for us, and began to find some of the sites’ ERF numbers. After some trial and error, we started to become pretty good at finding the sites and their ERF numbers without much trouble. We did notice, however, that we don’t have all of the plot maps that we need, so we’ll need to figure out which ones we’re missing quickly so that Sipho can get them for us.
Getting these erf numbers is what is at the heart of our project. With the erf numbers, Ikamva and Greg (or a local lawyer) can go about protecting the citizens who are currently using the sites for their crèches and orphanages. By having the erf number, a lawyer can track down the chain of title deed and, if the current tenant doesn’t actually own, can go about procuring the title deed for them. Our work here, once completed, will help ensure that none of these mamas are removed from their homes and that their hard work will be able to continue. It’s a really humbling, yet fulfilling job.
I’d also like to take this time to mention something I saw in the township of Khayelitsha on Friday, July 3rd. As Matt and I were driving through Khayelitsha with Xoliswa, we noticed that there was a large amount of garbage on the road. Xoliswa told us that there had been a riot the night before. Some of the township residents haven’t had electricity, despite being promised it over 15 years ago. Many of them have taken to stealing electricity from their neighbors. Obviously, the neighbors don’t appreciate this, and reported it to the police. The police told them to stop stealing. The citizens became upset about this, and began to riot.
I’ll post the pictures soon, so that you can all see what the riot looked like. There had to have been a great number of rioters, as some of the acts they did required a large number of people. Large boulders and containers were drug out into the road. These containers, like the containers you see on ships and trains, are massive and heavy, so you would need quite a few men to move them, especially the distance that they were able to move them. One container was even set on fire. All down the road, for probably 10 or so kilometers, there was trash and debris everywhere.
Seeing the aftermath of this riot, especially on the eve of July 4th, really sends home how lucky we are to be Americans, how lucky we are that we don’t have to riot like this to obtain something as “common place” as electricity. It really makes you question how we live and what is really important in life. Well, that’s all for my thoughts, hopefully this will raise some questions for everyone else who reads it. Good night, my friends.
Once we located all 102 sites that we visited, we started comparing the Google Maps data with the plot maps that Sipho got for us, and began to find some of the sites’ ERF numbers. After some trial and error, we started to become pretty good at finding the sites and their ERF numbers without much trouble. We did notice, however, that we don’t have all of the plot maps that we need, so we’ll need to figure out which ones we’re missing quickly so that Sipho can get them for us.
Getting these erf numbers is what is at the heart of our project. With the erf numbers, Ikamva and Greg (or a local lawyer) can go about protecting the citizens who are currently using the sites for their crèches and orphanages. By having the erf number, a lawyer can track down the chain of title deed and, if the current tenant doesn’t actually own, can go about procuring the title deed for them. Our work here, once completed, will help ensure that none of these mamas are removed from their homes and that their hard work will be able to continue. It’s a really humbling, yet fulfilling job.
I’d also like to take this time to mention something I saw in the township of Khayelitsha on Friday, July 3rd. As Matt and I were driving through Khayelitsha with Xoliswa, we noticed that there was a large amount of garbage on the road. Xoliswa told us that there had been a riot the night before. Some of the township residents haven’t had electricity, despite being promised it over 15 years ago. Many of them have taken to stealing electricity from their neighbors. Obviously, the neighbors don’t appreciate this, and reported it to the police. The police told them to stop stealing. The citizens became upset about this, and began to riot.
I’ll post the pictures soon, so that you can all see what the riot looked like. There had to have been a great number of rioters, as some of the acts they did required a large number of people. Large boulders and containers were drug out into the road. These containers, like the containers you see on ships and trains, are massive and heavy, so you would need quite a few men to move them, especially the distance that they were able to move them. One container was even set on fire. All down the road, for probably 10 or so kilometers, there was trash and debris everywhere.
Seeing the aftermath of this riot, especially on the eve of July 4th, really sends home how lucky we are to be Americans, how lucky we are that we don’t have to riot like this to obtain something as “common place” as electricity. It really makes you question how we live and what is really important in life. Well, that’s all for my thoughts, hopefully this will raise some questions for everyone else who reads it. Good night, my friends.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sunday Recap...
Today was a pretty low-key day. I finally got to sleep in past 9:30 (until 11am today, woohoo!!!). We were originally going to go to the Cape of Good Hope, but we were all still feeling a little tired from the past few weeks and decided to try for Cape of Good Hope next weekend.
To make up for a missed day, Michael and I met Dag, Suvrat and Luke at the V&A Waterfront. After some coffee, Dag, Michael, and I went to the Two Oceans Aquarium, which is conveniently located at at the Waterfront.
The Aquarium was really nice. It wasn’t as large as other aquariums I’ve been to, but it was still a good time. I love aquariums, so pretty much any aquarium is going to get good marks in my book. We got to see the sharks (ragged-tooth sharks) get fed, as well as the sea turtles and rays. Seeing this was pretty exciting and worth the price of admission.
Afterwards, we just walked around the aquarium and saw all of the other exhibits. We saw a bunch of different types of penguins, jellyfish, and a variety of other fish. I think my favorite exhibit was the moray eel exhibit. There tank was this cylinder shaped tank with two moray eels inside it. They were massive.
The other fun part of the aquarium was their clownfish tank. Inside the cylinder tank there was a small alcove that you could climb in and be surrounded by the clownfish. Dag, Michael, and I had a mini-photoshoot at this point (check out the album for examples).
After we left the aquarium, we walked through a craft warehouse located at the Waterfront. In this warehouse, people are able to set up booths and showcase their wares. I plan on spending some time there in the coming weeks as I start doing my souvenir shopping. We’ve all decided that this is the best place to shop because we are actually buying the goods from the people who made them; this makes the goods not only cheaper, but also means that we know the money we pay is going to them.
Well, that pretty much wraps up today. I’m officially here for only four more weeks. We’re all going to watch The Constant Gardener now, which I have never seen. Totsien, my friends!!!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Oh say can you see...
Happy 4th of July everyone!!! I’m happy to report that everyone survived our party, but will go ahead and make the claim that it was the most epic party in the history of South Africa (at least the most epic 4th of July party). I think I will take this time to describe our party in chronological order.
6:45pm: We got the KFC and pizza. What kind of party celebrating America’s independence can you have without greasy KFC? The answer is, a really crappy one. We, on the other hand, did not have a crappy party, but an effing epic one. It should be noted that, even though Michael ordered three buckets on Thursday night, our order was not ready when we got to the KFC. Luckily for us, but no so much for the customers behind us, KFC had exactly 63 pieces of chicken made up (that’s 21 pieces per bucket, in case you were wondering the significance of the 63). After we cleaned out KFC for the second time since we’ve been there (that’s another story for another time), we went back and the party began in full.
I think people started showing up around 7pm or so, and around 7:30pm the rooms were packed. We had a wide assortment of party guests: Notre Dame abroad students, Univ. of Florida law students, townies, and even a few coworkers. All in all, we had enough people to get through two kegs and all the food.
The party went on from around 7pm until midnight, at which point many of us made our way down to the roof (down to the roof? Yes, down to the roof.) to shoot off fireworks. After about twenty minutes, we heard sirens. Despite the fact that we live in a large city with a lot of crime, we just knew the cops were coming after us, so we booked it back inside and back up to our floor.
This is when things fell apart. One of the other denizens of the apartments (an 8th floor resident who was quite drunk himself) was on our floor yelling and calling the cops. At this point, the party ended and everyone went home with no real fuss.
This morning, we all woke up and, not feeling as liberated as our ancestors must have on the 4th of July, we pulled ourselves together and made our way to the beach at Camp’s Bay. After lying out and getting some sun, we all returned back to the hotel for a relaxing night in. As today is July 4th, we are watching Independence Day. Enjoy the fireworks my friends!!!
Friday, July 3, 2009
I'm alive....
Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates the past few days. Due to some personal issues, I haven’t really felt like blogging. But, I think I’m ready now to put myself back out there for all of you to critique my summer work experience. So, in the words of Hoard Dean, BYYYYAAAHHHH!!!
Today, Matt and I eclipsed a milestone in our work. We saw property #100 (we actually got to #102) today. To think that after only seven or so days in the field, we have gotten over 100 sites visited is really powerful. We were able to finish out all 17 of the senior centers yesterday, and therefore will be working exclusively with crèches from here on out.
I took some really awesome pictures today; there are a lot of cute kids in them. I’ll try and post them tomorrow maybe, or on Sunday at the latest. Today was also great from a work-related viewpoint; Matt was able to use the GPS coordinates in Google Maps to find over 50 of the 102 properties we’ve looked at. By using Google Maps, we believe we can speed up our pursuit of finding the Erf numbers for each site on the plot maps. All in all, Matt and I are really confident in our project, and believe that we will be able to leave Ikamva Labantu with something special that they can use going forward.
Also, tonight is our 4th of July party. Our Notre Dame friends who are studying abroad at the University of Cape Town are leaving tomorrow for a trip to Durban, so we decided to have a celebration tonight, with some small fireworks going off at midnight. In good ol’ fashioned American tradition, we will be having pizza and KFC for dinner.
I hope everyone has a safe 4th of July, and please email me stories if you have any. I really enjoy hearing from you guys as well, haha. Bye for now, my friends!!
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