ISP

First of all, the living conditions on the Durban coast are still very sweet. I wake up around 5:30, when the sun is still down and eat my breakfast as the sun comes up. Waking up that early might be normal for my brother Daniel, but challenging coming from a “lazyass,” which is the word that my mother uses to describe me when I won’t get my “lazyass” off the coach. When I get back from my independent work, I run along the beach. The beach might be the only place in SA where you see all the different racial groups in one location. After my runs, I attempt to cook, which actually has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I am in week two of my independent study project. It’s been interesting and challenging so far but I am having a great experience and getting some good information. In the morning I hop on a taxi, which are minibuses filled with people with one man driving while another hangs out the window yelling and holding up one finger which means “to town.” My first day, I did have a little run in with some “tsotsis,” (gangsters) in town, but don’t worry mother, it was ok and I am fine. I didn’t know where I was going then, but I now know to take one taxi to a taxi rank and then hop on another to Wiggins. I definitely get some looks for generally being the only white person, and because I am getting on a taxi at 6 AM to Wiggins which is also highly unusual. I tell the driver to drop me off at the “eskoleni” (school), and help the guys and girls make breakfast for young primary students who are orphans. It’s a pretty nice way to spend your morning.
After one morning last week, I sat in on a meeting with about 3 different NGOs and the local municipality. They were meeting about the “Health and Wellness Campaign” which was in the Wiggins sports fields last Saturday. It was interesting seeing the meeting, and then watching how the event unfolded. While it drew a good amount of people, most were very old, and it lacked young people. After observing how my organization can attract kids, I thought that the municipality should have listened to kids more about what will attract other kids. It was still a good experience seeing all the people getting tested for HIV/AIDS and spending some more time with the guys. It also happened to be my birthday, so I left early to get ready for a good night. I spent the night with my buddies from SIT and my Indian home stay brother and sister. We eat a delicious Italian meal by candlelight because of load shedding. If you don’t know, South Africa is in a serious power crisis.
This week has been pretty eventful as well. The leader of the organization had to leave for a week right when the organization was going to start going into schools and teaching “life skills.” I thought it would be a bad thing, but it has been nice and informative to see the guys/girls work without him around. We have gone into schools everyday, and I have been very impressed how they can control and excite a class. They ask the teacher not to be in the class so the kids feel more open to talk about things like puberty and sex education. I just observe, and get up sometimes to answer questions about America. I get asked a range of questions from “why do people wear baggy clothing?” to “Are there shacks in America?”
On Tuesday, I didn’t go into the classes and instead went with a member of the organization to Westville Prison. We met two other guys from another organization, and headed off for a meeting with the principle at the school and six social workers. I was told walking in that it was the largest prison in the southern hemisphere. The entire meeting, there were sounds of the prisoners banging and singing. The meeting was to plan an event for Youth Day with the juvenile prisoners. The three men I was with were very impressive and all previously been in Westville as inmates. We went over ways in which the organizations could provide entertainment and information to the kids. We briefly talked afterwards about how the meeting went and headed back after a long day.
I am falling asleep around 8 or 9 every night, but soon I will have to concentrate on writing the paper. I also extended my ticket so I can travel for 6 days in Mozambique after the program ends. Looks like I will be leaving on the 21st and arriving in NYC on the 22nd. Thanks for all your birthday wishes, and happy Passover.
Sala Kahle (Stay well)

Research Project.

After some revision, my independent study project has been approved. I am examining the leadership of a local youth organization, completely run by kids, in the shack communities of Cato Manor. I will also be reading about youth resistance during apartheid and interviewing youth leaders in Durban to find similarities and differences.

During the 1980s, the slogan for youth organization was, "Liberation first, education later." It seems that the "later" part of that slogan is now. Public education is in pretty terrible conditions. School fees(public school costs money), lack of school lunch, unqualified teachers, and barriers to higher learning, to say just a few problems, are standing in the way for many students.

I will be observing their breakfast feeding program, home visits to community members with HIV/AIDS, "Life Skill" mentoring program in high schools, sports activities and more. Last month, i went to a dance competition where they filled an entire hall with kids, and raised a large amount of money.
I am very excited to start research, but more importantly, to start spending some time with these kids. I start tomorrow at 6:30, helping them feed local school children. I also think i will be teaching basketball. I'll keep you posted.

The Flat.

Check this place out. Pretty terrible i know.

Final Homstay, final class, and moving on our own.

I have recently returned from my last homestay in Newlands East with a coloured family. The father, Jack, worked as a mechanic at GM in the early 1960s and loved to talk politics with us. He told us that all men are still boys and showed us his collection of American classic car models He is still looking for his favorite: the 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk. The mom, Dolly, cooked us great food and their two kids were very nice. I didn't spend as much time with them as i would like of because i came down with a nasty stomach virus.

Monday was spent with We Help Our Children and we sat in on one of their seminars. I took the opportunity to whip out a pen and paper and start research for my ISP topic on youth organizations. One thing I noticed was that while KZN YEP was a youth organization, this was more an organization for youth. But, I realize that KZN YEP had empowerment classes and maybe WHOC is the first step to creating a larger movement by creating youth leaders. I felt the seminar was a very up-down style of teaching and the kids weren’t involved enough. In the end, they became more involved, but I wondered as I walked outside and saw kids standing on the corner, How do you reach them?

I took the opportunity afterwards to talk with the head of the organization, Karl. He told me he didn’t think the problems lied within communities but failure from the government. He stated that there was a lack of necessary systems set up in school to give kids a holistic education-ie diversity, life skill training, and sports. He also mentioned the problem of teachers being confused about the material required by the government which added to a poor learning environment. He also went over their techniques to dealing with different ages which they called different stages which needed different techniques of counseling and mentoring.

The second part of the day started out well as we headed for a toxic tour of Wentworth. Wentworth is a coloured area which was located directly next to many toxic plants. The area has a high rate of asthma and cancer among other problems in what the Village Voice called “environmental racism” in 2001. I enjoyed the tour but felt a virus coming on, which hit me hard on the car ride back. Tuesday was our final day and spent at a Mosque and Hindu Temple. Interesting going from a place where they worship 1 God and forbid images to a temple where there are many gods with their statues throughout.

Wednesday, we (4 fine gentlemen) moved into our new "flat" and its quite nice. Its on the 11th floor and has a balcony with a "lekka" view of the beach. Pictures to come. I am done with classes, but start my Independent Study Project on Monday with the KwaZulu Natal Youth Empowerment Project. Because classes are over, and I wont have as much internet access, I will most likely post less than I have been.

CAPE TOWN.

We headed to Cape Town on Saturday morning. After we got settled, we headed off for lunch and then Robben Island. Robben Island is off the coast of Cape Town and was first used by the British for people with leprosy. During apartheid, the island become the home to Robben Island Prison which held many political prisoners. Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 26 years in jail on the island, and we got to see the cell where he spent all those years. Our tour guide, who spent many years in the prison as a political prisoner, showed us a cell and talked about the conditions of the prison. One thing he mentioned was how apartheid even stretched into the prison with coloreds and Indians receiving better food, like bread, than the African prisoners. After seeing the prison, we took a tour of the island. We saw the quarry where the prisoners were put to work and the cave where they ate lunch. The cave is of importance because it was a place of polical discussions and became known as the University of Robben Island.

Sunday, we had our only day off in Cape Town and we made the best of it. We got dropped off by a taxi at the botanical gardens in the early morning on our way to climb Table Mountain. We briefly walked through the garden, which I think my parents would appreciate more than me, and headed for the mountain. It was a fun and hard hike which you had to use ladders at certain points. When we were at the top a helicopter came really close to us and then headed off. We saw rescuers belaying down with a stretcher. Hopefully it was just an exercise. The view at the top of the mountain was amazing, and of course, pictures can’t do it justice. But here are some anyways:

Monday morning, we headed to the University of Cape Town area for class. Our first lecturer worked for an NGO and goes on the television and radio a lot to discuss politics. She was extremely articulate and explained the current political situation which I already knew a lot about. Recently at the ANC conference in Polokwane, Thabo Mbeki was defeated. While he can only serve 2 terms as president, he tried to keep power by becoming the president of the ANC for the third time. The man who beat him was Jacob Zuma who is being touted as an anti Mbeki liberal. While he does have support from the powerful union and ANC partner COSATO, he is far from a progressive. He was acquitted from rape charges not long ago after he had sex with an HIV positive AIDS activist. He said that he had the right to have sex with her because she turned him on and when asked if he used protection, he stated “I took a shower.” Now, he is about to go to court for corruption charges. Anyways, he was an Mbekite for a long time and I don’t see his values far from just wanting to be president. It very possible that he wont be president because of the current charges, and the unknown but most likely progressive, Kgalema Motlanthe, will become the next president.

After she spoke, I and a few friends toured the campus. The campus is amazing and right next to Table Mountain. We headed back and heard a lecture from Neville Alexander. Google him if you like, but anytime a person starts a lecture by telling you he spent 10 years in Robben Island with Mandela, you listen. And, what he had to talk about was slightly controversial. He stated that apartheid was affirmative action for whites, and the new affirmative action was unnecessary, and using a foreign system. He stated that there could be other methods that could be used to get better results like looking at wealth and requiring certain African languages for jobs.

Tuesday was a very powerful day spent in the shack communities surrounding Cape Town. We were with the organizer of the Anti Eviction Campaign who had no teeth due to a cop’s foot. We started at the Delft settlement which is located on a sidewalk next to newly built government housing. The settlement was sad, but unlike Kennedy road, showed great political maneuvering by the organization. They were tired of not receiving houses from the government and said that the houses being built were given to people through bribes. So, they illegally occupied new houses. They lived in houses for two months before the government came and forcefully removed them. The whole thing was caught on camera and the scenes of riot police, which showed all over the country, were reminiscent of apartheid.

Here is how it showed on national news:

After being removed, the people set up a community on the sidewalk outside. Everyone in the community is well spoken and on point with the message that they will not leave until they all have houses. They keep track of who comes in and out, and regulate who can live in the area to keep the original community in tact. As I walked up the street, a boy came up to me and showed me a rubber bullet from the eviction. It was awesome to see poor people taking action. After Delft, we headed to Joe Slovo settlement which is huge shack community. There we talked with some residents who also were demanding houses from the government. In all, it was a great day seeing political action at work, and I wondered what Kennedy Road could do to attract as much media attention as these communities have.

Wednesday was spent at the District 6 museum which was a diverse neighborhood destroyed under the Group Areas Act of the 1950s much the same way Cato Manor was where SIT is located. I was pretty tired, but a mural on the wall caught my eye. It was a wet fresco which is like a cave painting and water makes the colors become more prominent.

After I got back, three of us went on an amazing run up Lions head (the pointy mountain in the third picture of Table Mountain). As we looked at the ocean below us, we realized we were looking at the bottom of the world. We stayed up too late Wednesday night (Long street in Cape Town reminded us of Bourbon Street in New Orleans) and hopped on a plane at 6 with no sleep but a great week behind us.

One thing standing in our way was the Independent Study Project proposal which was due Friday. The proposals go in front of a board of academics who either give a grade, usually around a C, or reject the proposal.

Bye bye Bob?

Hearing mixed stories here about the Zim election. Mugabe's party has lost the majority in Parliament but it is still uncertain whether he will stay as the leader. Right now it looks like there is going to be a run off between him and Morgan Tsvangirai. I heard that Mugabe was going to decline running in the runoff to avoid embarrassment but who knows. There is also concern over the military and who their allegiance is to(the third candidate Simba Makoni has some support in the military.) Hopefully, Mugabe will step down and a peaceful transition can occur.

Spashy, Homestay, and Stellenbosh.

Wow,

it’s been a while. I don't really know where to start. I am currently in Cape Town but i have to catch you up with what I have been doing before I arrived.

After i left the homestay family, we headed off for Spashy Fen. We arrived just before the sun went down and started to make our way down to the festival. We were walking down the mud path and a nice couple threw a us on the bed of their truck which was a common way to get around at the festival. What we quickly learned was that we needed gum boots because some areas were inches deep in mud. The mud aside, the concert was in the beautiful Southern Drakensburg, and we had 6 hour shifts collecting money for tickets( the reason why we were there for free). Nights were spent listening to South African rock music and the days were spent swimming or hiking. We went on an amazing hike. At the top I met a guy who knew running, and my group was astonished as we talked about the greats like Salazar and Shorter and great runs around Durban.

Here are some picks of the concert and hike.

The rest of the weekend was great and tiring with a lack of sleep. On Monday morning, we headed back to Durban muddy and tired. We went back to SIT for only a short time before we headed out to Newlands for our Indian homestay.

Me and my friend Etan arrived at the homestay in Newlands and were greeted by our homestay sister Trish and her granny. They had a very nice house and we were given amazing food the whole time. One morning granny woke up and fed us pancakes. It was a great three days spent with Trish, her brother Bradley, and their two loving parents. Our final day we went out to an Italian restaurant, headed to the mom’s food shop on the beach, and then went off to a club where we danced until 3 in the morning with our homestay brother and sister.

We then headed for Stellenbosh. It is a wine drinking town which has alot of money and beautiful architecture. You get a very odd feeling walking around in this city which is astonishingly beautiful when shacks were on the side of the road the entire ride up. It is also home to the University of Stellenboch which was home to a couple great runs of mine. We heard a very good art history lecturer talk about how images created an Afrikaner racist identity. I noticed some of their architecture resembled Mussolini’s static fascist architecture.

Later, we went to a farm involved in land reform after '94. They talked about how much trouble they were having in keeping up their farm. They were growing organic food and sending it overseas. Competing with the subsidized American and European markets was driving their prices down to a level where profit was minimal. They also were not receiving help from neighboring white farmers who wanted them to fail. A couple things connect this to the US: Neighboring farmers can really help each other and give one another advice which I learned touring Illinois farms. Sadly, racism is standing in the way in Stellenbosh. The other connection i saw was the movie about a Beloit grad, "the real dirt on farmer john." The documentary depicts a farmer who almost loses his farm before he recovers using community farming and is helped by the rising demand of local organic produce. I wondered if organic farming could become popular in the Stellenbosh area and if the farm could someday provide organic local food to the numerous restaurants in Stellenbosh and Cape Town.

After the farm, headed off for some true "experiential learning" which consisted on going wine tasting. I would say it was great wine if I knew anything about wine. Went to the bar afterwards and grabbed a beer. For dinner, we went to a Cuban restaurant that denied my request to play Latin music instead of techno. Stayed out too late and woke up early for a run and Cape Town.

I am having a great time being in this amazing city and our directors are providing great classes. I will write in more detail later.