Refilwe ‘09

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:30:02 -0800

I have decided to do a weekly blog, as the internet has not been reliable. I will have to put up video on Facebook after I return to the States.

We had our first day off on Saturday. We decided we needed to get in some water, and get some sun! (Yes, I know, it has been about 80-90 degrees here most days, but since we are working, we haven’t had much time outdoors!) so, we looked up places to go, and found a “fake beach” to go to. We found out the day of, that it was actually a waterpark called Wild Waters. So, we embarked on our first group outing.

We got sooooo lost. Several times! There was no lack of entertainment along the way. We passed several “Mexican” restaraunts, one in particular was called Mochacho’s, (we are used to mUchacho’s here in the states), which sold authentic mexican dishes such as, fried chicken on rice, chicken sandwiches, and all other things you can think to do with chicken!

All the way to the water park, Will kept calling it “Water World.” We kept reminding him that wasn’t the name of the park, but it was the name of possibly the worst movie ever made, starring Kevin Kostner.

After about an hour and a half of being utterly lost, we finally found it! We went in to park the car, and there was an attendant to help us. He asked us, “Are you going to Wild Waters, or Naked Beach?” Wha?!!! Some of us were excited about the prospect of a naked beach, I think me in particular, but most of the group answered “Wild Waters”. Once we parked however, some of us convinced the group to at least check it out. When we got up to the entrance, the sign read “Nicci Beach”. My heart sank, there was no “Naked Beach”, just a parking attendant with a really difficult accent!

We ate lunch at “Nicci Beach, which ended up being a club/restaraunt, and then went into the water park. Unfortunately by this time however, it was around 4pm, so we didn’t get a whole lot of sun.

Sunday, we had planning and laundry to do. Boy, was this a feat. There is a laundry facility, but it is very run down. It took my clothes an hour and a half to wash, and after 2 hours in the dryer, my clothes were still sopping. So we used some string and hung things outside overnight, praying it wouldn’t storm like it had been every night since we got here. The storms here are fantastic, and like clockwork. As soon as the sun is setting, the storm clouds start moving in.

Monday was the official first day of Leadership Camp. The theme of the day was “Just say Yes!” meaning to always have courage to try. It was great, we had about 20 young people ranging in age from about 15-24. The oldest, Lucky Boy or Dede (his nicknames), being there because of being behind in education, but really having the drive to be a positive leader. He lives up to his aspirations, and says “Yes!” louder than anyone.

Tuesday the theme was “Trust”. We played a lot of trust games, and at the end of the day did a trust fall off of the stage. It was wonderful. We had a couple of girls too afraid to do it, and finally we were able to talk the youngest, Tumi into doing a modified version of it. She was clearly very afraid, and was upset that she couldn’t do it, crying and shaking the whole time. When we got her to the stage and asked “Tum! Do you trust us?!” She yelled “No!” and wouldn’t fall. We asked again, and again she said no, and tried to leave the stage. We tried one more time, and she finally did it! We all hug and congatulated her, and I held her as she wept. The only leader who didn’t ever try was a girl named Norah, but we hope to do it again and see if she comes around.

Wednesday was “You Got Served!” We wanted to have the kids give back to their community. So we set up a scavenger hunt in which they had to complete several service tasks in 5 minutes a station. We wrote lymrics as clues to each activity, there was packing wood, cleaning soccer gear, (called kits), helping one of the mothers in the community with whatever she needed, and weeding. Here is a sample of one of the lymrics:

Go to where you’ll find the Rocket
It’s small enough to fill your pocket
Find it’s killer in the ground
Then you will be homeword bound

Rocket is a spicy herb that they grow in the organic garden here. We had a lot of fun, and the kids were extremely enthusiastic about the challenge. At the end of each task they would say “You got served!” and rush off to the next one. We later recapped the day, and sang a chant by Isaac, “It’s a service, service, service, it’s a service!”

We ended the day with a game called Bippity Bippity Bop. One of the rules is you have to make a toaster with bread in it by having two people frame the middle person and the middle person jumps up and down and says “I’m ready for butter!” before the person in the middle of the group says “toaster 123!” It’s very fun. There is also one where you have to form a chicken with the middle person being the beak, and the outside people making the wings. One leader, Siyanda, in his haste, when the person in the middle said “toaster 123!”, he said, “I’m ready for chicken!” We’ve been laughing about it ever since!

Thursday’s Theme was patience and flexibility. We decided to try to teach them how to be patient with their flexibility by having a stretching boot camp. Oh the moans and groans! Then, we had a communication workshop where we made everyone yell, “I deserve to be heard!” and stare into each other’s eyes for 5 minutes. Most Black Africans in South Africa have an extremely difficult time not looking down, and looking people in the eyes due to apartheid.

Friday’s theme was Inspire, Influence, and Believe! We played a game called Log and Alligator in which all of our students had to get on log at once, one at a time, without falling off. then, they also had to leave one at a time, again, without falling off. Boy did they struggle! One leader, Abby(pronounced Ebby) was the first on the log, but because people kept falling off, became frustrated, but we kept saying, “Inspire, influence, believe, inspire!” and finally he was able to lead everyone onto the log! Unfortunately, they did not all get off without falling before we had to move on to the next activity. We will try again on Monday though!

Getting to know the Young Leaders Group

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Today was a very active day. We had our first Aerobics class for the parents at 6:30am. We did some ab work and Yoga, and went backt to the house to discuss the events of the day. Then, Isaac held a mock class for us. He taught us a great song based in Congalese and Nigerian roots. We then all talked about what it means to be a leader. We came up with a mission statement: We (ASTEP) are here to provide support and artistic tools through fun and creative methods, to instill ownership in themselves, their families, and communites, and empower them to be effective leaders.

At 4pm, we met the Leadership group. They range in age from 13-24. This is because there is varying education levels, as some kids have had to stop going to school to support their families. We played a couple of games and then learned a dance mixing South African House with American House, led by Cindy. It was so much fun!

Then to just relax for the evening, we watched Strar Trek, and then crashed!

Helping out in the Community

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Today I woke up and did some Yoga, then Cindy taught her mock class which was a dance class. Then, Mauricio, Will and I went to the organic garden to help with the weeding. There were weeds everywhere! My hands were black with dirt. I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t want to get the camera dirty! I met 4 girls there, Dominique, Shannon, Carly, and oh my, I can’t remember the fourth’s name, but I will find it out later!

The other team went into the informal settlements. These are the communities that are still extremely impoverished. Refilwe’s first site was based there, and because of the success of their program, was able to move to a bigger site. I will be going into those settlements sometime next week.

We spent most of the day planning for the Parents classes we decided to give, as well as what activities we wanted to do with the Youth Leadership group. Then, we went out to the soccer field to meet some of the kids on the soccer team, who would also be in the group. Damian (or D-Moe) and I stayed behind to play, or at least attempt to play. I made 7 goals!

The younger students who will be in the younger camp the last two weeks of December, put on a talent show. After last years ASTEP program, the kids have done several self-produced perfomances throughout the year. We were so impressed by how well put together they were! I have a couple of videos from the night. You can’t see their faces very well because they have no professional lighting.

There is a girl named Sipati, who is high school aged, but just learning to read English. This was her first time reading the first book she has ever gotten through. The kids were extremely support of her. It was a sight to see! Also, there is a boy named Khumotso, who was playing bass guitar last year, and discovered a love for dance in last year’s camp. He also moved onto drums. He formed a dance troupe called Atomic Flames, and started choreographing with his friend Josh. The kids were so supportive of each other. It was beautiful!

Colin Randy and Dabora

World Aids Day

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 05:06:57 -0800

Today I was able to sleep until 6:30! I feel like I am finally getting over my jet lag. We got up and rehearsed our performance piece one last time before heading over to the hall for the event. I passed several people from the community, “Dumela!” or hello, ringing out from all around me. We arrived at the space, and were greeted by Refilwe staff members, who were passing out candles and literature. There were dramas put on, as well as song, dance, and motivational speakers. One woman speaker in particular, Mama Annatjie (pronounced Aniki) spoke about living with HIV. She was so full of fire! She has been spreading Aids awareness throughout the communities through dramatizations with a troupe she put together of kids in the surrounding neighborhoods. The homebase care workers go out into the homes in the surrounding communities and give patient care. At 1pm, we lit candles and had a moment of silence for those who have died from complications with Aids. We then put the candles out with our thumb and forefinger, as this is a sign of respect to the ancestors.

Meeting members of the community Damian

Later, we held our mock classes for each other, as this is a training week to see what we want to teach the kids. We ended our day with dinner at the Refilwe office, meeting the foster parents of the children. We rounded off the night with a reflection of the days events, and we all agreed that it feels like we’ve been here for 6 months, not only 3 days!

My First Days in South Africa

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:40:45 -0800

I actually arrived in South Africa on Saturday, November 28th, which, to my internal clock was still Friday, November 27th. I flew across the Atlantic 22.5 hours. I slept like a cat. I arrived at Johannesburg airport around 5pm. It was a beautiful airport. Much like the airports at home, there were restaraunts, bars, and shopping. It was more diverse however, if not mostly africans.

I arrived at my hotel around 6:30pm, and totally crashed. I woke up around midnight, which was 2pm Seattle time, and was wide awake, so I turned on the television and started to watch SABC, which is the only news channel in South Africa. It was amazing. Their “Entertainment shows were not at all about celebrities, and gossip, but about real issues. I was watching a show called Youth Expressions, and the main topic was the question does the media reflect our society, or does our society reflect the media. They also talked about the good programs and entertainment that was going on in the community. Also, the commercials were very diverse. Every commercial had black and whites, as well as some East Indians. It was the same with their soap operas (yes, I watched one, I was curious!), which also had many different languages represented. I finally fell asleep again, but woke up again at 5:30am, fully awake. It was rough transition!

Finally, my team members, Will, Mauricio (or Rici), his wife Cindy, Kathryn, Damian and I arrived at the Refilwe Community Project Site. It is located about an hour north of Johannesburg, in Lanseria. We were greeted with a wonderful performance by the kids! They were so excited, and a little aprehensive, but curious.

Next, we had a wonderful lunch with the Refiwe staff, and got situated in our new home. We met our main representatives, Isaac and Piet, who are the two gentlemen responsible for continuing the work with ASTEP. We were asked to put on a performance for their World Aids Day Event the next day, so we had to go home to put it together. Also, through the hard work of Isaac and Piet, some of the kids in the community as well as the surrounding communities had a soccer game that same evening hosted by Phillips. They were playing against the Dutch Legends, a professional soccer team, so after our rehearsal, we went to spectate. These kids had never played soccer at night before, and many didn’t even own soccer shoes, and Phillips had donated full soccer uniforms and kits, plus three brand new state of the art lighting posts to the community. Unfortunately, the Dutch Legends had to live up to their name and won. Here are some pics of the event. Whew!!! What a first day!!!

Piet and Maria

Angelina and me

African Sky

Randy, Elisa, Tumi, Zandile, and me

Zulu Drummers