So, Honey (my aunt) arrives tonight and we leave for Kruger
just a few short hours later! Just
realizing that it’s been about a month since my last update! The middle 4 weeks of the CCS program has
just flown by and I anticipate the remaining 4 weeks to do the same.
At the end of last week, I met with my supervisor to review
my accomplishments so far this summer and lay out my plans for the remaining
weeks. Highlights include: assessing,
revising, and piloting a survey that Cross Cultural Solutions administers to
all volunteers to assess the impact of the experience on the volunteer's
personal growth and development; designing, piloting, and revising two
volunteer reflection meetings including an "effective volunteer" and
"identity" workshop; helping to design and facilitate a meeting with
all of Cross Cultural Solution's partner CBOs about strengthening the
partnership; getting to know 3 (soon to be 4) different groups of volunteers;
facilitating a support at a nearby high school; visiting interesting museums
like the District 6 Museum and the Slave Lodge; attending several informative
documentaries in the South African Documentary Film Festival; hiking Table
Mountain and Lion's Head (3 times); and, of course, visiting the penguin
colony!
My role as a CCS volunteer intern continues to bring new
surprises as I’m faced with additional tasks that build on my skills as a
social work student. I’ve written more
reports this summer than I have ever done before—documenting everything I do so
that anyone would be able to repeat the things I’ve done or pick up where I
left off. I’ve also developed and
implemented interactive programs for volunteers, partner organizations, and
teens at a local high school—the process of documenting why I choose each
activity or discussion topic then reflecting on how each activity goes and
making recommendations for the future has really helped me understand the
concept of best-practices and is certainly giving me much needed experience for
my future. I was even asked to create
community profiles for each of the areas where we work!
Other things that have happened since the last update
include the Partner Program Workshop, 3 sessions of the teen program at Oval
North, my first and second visits to Mama Africa, the entirety of Encounters:
South African Documentary Film Festival, a job interview and denial, a workshop
on identity, Youth Day, a new group arrived, World Refugee Day, World Music
Day, my first rugby match, a trip to Stellenbosch, a third attempt to visit
Robben Island, and two Center for Conflict Resolution book releases/lectures.
Let’s break that down a little…
Partner Program
Workshop: This was one of the
central aspects of my volunteer experience.
With CCS Staff, I helped to develop the agenda to make the workshop with
CCS partner organizations (where they send volunteers) interactive and
effective. We used the symbol of a tree
throughout the day to represent the foundation of the CCS/Partner relationship
(the roots), actions and characteristics that maintain a strong partnership
(the trunk), and the reach of the impact (the branches representing the reach
and the fruit representing the impact).
It was exciting for me because I got the opportunity to meet leaders
from 10+ organizations around Cape Town and hear their perspectives on working
with international volunteers.
3 sessions of the
teen program at Oval North: As a typical social work experience, nothing
went as planned. I developed lesson
plans that I hoped would get the group comfortable and chatting then ready to
take action. It was good to be prepared
and the three sessions we did have went really well but different people
attended the sessions so there was little room for continuity and the
attendance dwindled off as holiday break began (it’s mid-winter holiday until
July 16th). Either way, it
was great practice for me to develop and attempt to implement a group
plan. It was also valuable for me to
meet learners from Mitchell’s Plain and learn about their experiences growing
up and plans for the future. I plan to
pick up where we left off during the first week of school and attempt to create
a transition plan so that this group may continue in the future, if desired.
My first and second
visits to Mama Africa: I honestly wasn’t planning to visit Mama Africa while
I was here in Cape Town. http://www.mamaafricarestaurant.co.za/en/
It’s one of the obvious stops for
tourists on Long Street where you can indulge in a platter of kudu, springbok,
crocodile, and ostrich with a side of warthog if you so wish. Clearly meant to “look like Africa,” the
place does serve some authentic vegetarian dishes as well. The experience turned out to be fun and the
staff are refreshingly incredible at making you feel comfortable and cared for
throughout the entire dining experience.
The entirety of
Encounters: South African Documentary Film Festival: This was a surprising
highlight to my time in South Africa. As
a fan of documentaries, when I heard about this, I headed right to the movie
theatre to get a frequent movie-goers card because I knew I’d want to attend
many of the screenings. In the end, I
attended 5 film screenings (of 100+ screenings of 30+ films) and enjoyed each
of them.
iThemba was an Al Jazeera film about
a group of youth who talked about their experiences living with disabilities in
Zimbabwe then had the opportunity to travel as a band to perform around the
United States. It had some interesting
political commentary about the economic situation in Zimbabwe of which I had no
idea…here’s the conversion (it’s okay, you can laugh…then go read about it!): 1.00
USD = 92,233,720,368,547,760.00 ZWD; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe;
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576314953091790360.html
Libya-Through the
Fire was an Al Jazeera documentary about a man at the center of social
networking throughout the Libyan revolution.
It provided a focused, on the ground view of the revolution and
demonstrated the energy that went into making the news known to the world.
The Sunny Side of Sex
followed a Dutch woman to Uganda to talk with frank African women about
sex. It’s quite socially acceptable to
discuss the process and anatomy and to practice with aunties (paternal aunt).
In fact, there are even commercial aunties for hire if you don’t have your
own. Men can have their own lessons,
too!
The Cut was about
female circumcision. Painful to watch,
it was actually difficult to follow but the point was clear—FGM is painful,
many girls don’t want to do it, it’s performed at a very young age, and it’s
very ritualistic. It showed a packed
safe house where girls can run away to leading up to the date of the
ritual…unfortunately, they still have to go home afterward and face their
families and the social pressure.
The final film was A
Common Purpose about the Upington 25, a group of black men who were
collectively charged in 1985 with murdering a black police officer. They were charged together because of the
“Common Purpose Law” which allowed large groups to be charged with the same
crime because they were all there for the same intent, regardless of who made
the assault or the death blow. The film
follows the lawyer who was on their case and jumps back and forth between
actual footage and photos from 1985 to interview updates with the accused. The interesting thing about this one was the
Q & A to follow with the film’s producer and the lawyer in the film.
A job interview and
denial: The position I’m studying social work for at the Ginsberg Center
for Service-Learning opened up this spring and I applied as soon as I found
out. The position was for Coordinator of
Co-Curricular Service Learning—in short—working with student groups to make the
most of a service learning experience and contributing to the overall progress
of the Ginsberg Center. It was a
long-shot to apply, however because I don’t graduate until December and they would
certainly need someone to start ASAP to be fully functional throughout the
school year. Unfortunately, it’s not
quite my time yet to become a Ginsberg staff member but I’ll keep trying and
stay involved in the meantime as I have been for several years! I’m also looking forward to filling up my
schedule with interesting classes for my final semester then spending some time
in Guatemala volunteering with CasaSito again and (“hopefully”) beginning some
research on the best-practices and impact of student groups serving with
Guatemalan NGOs and communities.
A workshop on
identity: Just as it sounds. I integrated identity reflection activities
into an “Imbizo” (gathering) where volunteers and staff spoke about their
experiences with their identities and interactions with others. This related to how international volunteers
enter and experience African culture, how staff receive and interact with
volunteers, how South Africans overcome engrained prejudices leftover from the
Apartheid era, and how volunteers relate their experience entering a new
culture and interacting with new identities to their own countries and home
communities.
Youth Day: South
African celebrates Youth Day to commemorate the 1976 youth uprisings when youth
in cities and townships throughout South Africa spoke out against forced
Afrikaans language in schools and many were shot, abused, or tortured in jail
for their views. To celebrate, I
attended a panel discussion on the role of white youth in the struggle. It was an interesting and inspiring
conversation to witness and empowering to see a church-full of youth gathered
together to ask, “what now”?
A new group arrived:
I have really been enjoying this new group though their first two weeks have
gone by so fast! Most of them seem
thrilled to be here, learning about South Africa and helping at their
placements. Not looking forward to their
departure.
World Refugee Day:
Another day to recognize suffering, World Refugee Day was celebrated with a big
event at Scalabrini Centre with music, movies, art, and a “Peace Tree.” The event was organized by Scalabrini
volunteers and well-attended by the public.
After the event, we stumbled upon a bookshop around the corner that was
hosting a book release about refugee women and their stories. That was a lucky find…the presentation was
interesting and the discussion afterward was even more enlightening. We spoke with a girl from Burundi who is
looking forward to studying social work but cannot get scholarships to study
because she is not a South African citizen and the current situation for
refugees is one of transition and uncertainty.
World Music Day: This
was bound to be a cool day—apparently on this day every year, venues around the
world put on La Fete de La Musique, providing free music performances in
obscure locations throughout the day.
Excited to visit a music venue on Long Street that I had yet to visit,
we planned to go there after Mama Africa. Upon arrival, the staff had no clue
what I was talking about when I said we were there for World Music Day
celebrations. Apparently, the Cape Town
event organizers cancelled the morning of and had never actually informed the
venues that they’d planned to host bands there…
My first rugby match:
And Baby Boks won!!! Just our luck, we
bought tickets (for $3) for the championship game! Not only did I learn rugby,
I got to experience a full stadium and see South Africa win against the favored
“All Blacks” (New Zealand). This was the
under 20 league but it was still well attended and they were supported just as
if they were the adult team!
A trip to
Stellenbosch: Was less incredible than anticipated. We visited a touristy wine estate—though I
didn’t care about the wine, I was excited to learn about the history of the
estate and I didn’t really get a lot of that.
Instead I walked around with headphones on listening to a fictional
story about a slave woman who was about to be freed—we learned at the end of
the walk (not even from the recording) that she drown in the river two years
before freedom…hmm. Anyway, the estate
is also known for it’s sustainability initiatives so it was a good surprise to
see some signs about that. The city of
Stellenbosch was like a ghost town the day we went because, built around
Stellenbosch University, it was the start of winter holiday and all of the
students were away. It was nice to walk
around and look at the old buildings, though…and to get out of Cape Town for
the first time since I arrived!
A third attempt to
visit Robben Island: While waiting in line to board the ferry, our group
was approached by an American woman who explained that she and her husband
brought her father and stepmother to South Africa for her dad’s 70th
birthday but she wasn’t able to get Robben Island tickets (her bad travel agent
told her she didn’t need to book in advance…fired). Four of us happily sold her our tickets and went
right up to the ticket counter to buy four more for two weeks later. We’ll try again next week!
Two Center for
Conflict Resolution book releases/lectures: The Center for Conflict
Resolution is a very left-thinking South African think tank that hosts
lectures, book releases, and other events.
I was lucky enough to have two happen in one week—the first about white
exiles organizing in London and being central to the Apartheid struggle and the
second about a comparison of Mandela and Mbeki who were both post-Apartheid
presidents but viewed by society in very different lights. The first lecture, a panel, was much more
interesting and engaging than the second but both had some feisty Q & As
that helped me think a little deeper and question global affairs.
Anyway, I realized today that, the way the CCS program
works, my final meeting is THIS THURSDAY because I will already be gone when
the next group has their final week!
It’s time to start reflecting on what this experience has meant and
wrapping things up—good thing I started doing that here!
Off to Kruger National Park for a 4-day safari adventure!