The Power of Experience

Last week was the final week of Cultural & Learning Activities with CCS and also the last week for one of our group members. 

We visited the District 6 Museum and got first hand accounts from our very own driver who was born and married there.  His schoolmate was a co-founder of the museum which had some very cool features including most of the original street signs from the area before it was demolished to become a “whites only” area and all of the black and coloured residents were forcibly moved to separate townships.  There is also a bench, marked “Europeans Only” that anyone can now occupy without issue. Both of the now 68-year-old schoolboys talked about how lively and accepting the area was when they were growing up until the forced removals began in the 1960s. 

We also went to a famous restaurant in Guguleto called Mzoli’s where all of the internationally renowned chefs visit when they come to Cape Town then to a community center to see local artists perform traditional African dances.  We also had a visitor to Home Base named Themba who told a musical story about the reconciliation process.  He explained the role of the Truth and Reconciliation committee in overcoming the hurt and anger leftover from the bitter Apartheid era and how his organization finds ways to bring music and art to the healing process.

Over the weekend, the other volunteers and I spent a day walking the boardwalk on the waterfront.  We thoroughly enjoyed the free “waterpark attractions” when the waves would crash against the break wall sending a downpour of water onto the sidewalk.  We also stopped at every playground and dog park along the way to play on the seesaws and pet other people’s dogs.

These past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about how amazing the power of experience can be.   Through the experiences and encounters I’ve already had here in South Africa, I have a newly piqued interest in:

·      The impact of short term volunteering on childhood development.  I’m concerned about/interested in the lasting results of volunteers forming relationships with children then disappearing over time.  The goal is to have steady care for the children and volunteers can provide that but, in many cases, they are different people every few weeks.

·      Having learned so much about the history already, I’m really interested in the reconciliation process and the power of forgiveness.  I should have already been interested in this since it’s so connected to what I already know about Guatemala but there’s much more out there to learn and I’m excited to get started!  I’m hoping to get into courses in the School of Public Policy about Reconciliation and Peace building for my last semester the fall! I should be well prepared!

·      Africa in general—honestly, before I came, I wasn’t very interested or willing to learn more about the continent, it’s geography, history, cultures, current political and social situations, etc.  I think I was overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information there is to know and learn.

·      I’ve always been interested in the role of religious institutions/missionaries in development and have a renewed interest after some discussions with the group.

·      I was interested in immigration but never really thought about refugees.  After our meeting with Scalabrini Refugee Centre, I realized the hardships that refugees face integrating into a new society after escaping serious hardships in their countries of origin.  Immigrants in general can be a link to learning about another culture and country.

·      I’m finally developing an interest in HIV/AIDS.  Despite learning about it and being presented with many opportunities to learn about and care about it, I just never really understood the significance of the virus and disease.  Being in the country with the highest infection rate, I realize how it can so seriously affect families and communities.  I hope to take advantage of a mini-course in the fall on this topic.

There are probably many more that I can’t think of now but I certainly look forward to exploring these topics more thoroughly.

First Day of Placement and more Orientation

Today was my first day of placement! I got to see where the other volunteers are working then sit in on a CCS office meeting.  Riding in the van with T (the placement coordinator), during the staff meeting, and in a one-on-one meeting with Luann (the director), I started to get an idea of what CCS South Africa already does and wants to do with regards to evaluation.

I continue to be inspired by CCS’s mission and vision.  It is empowering to listen to how they talk about their partnerships as true partnerships, how respect for the volunteer and the community are equivalent, and how they are continually evaluating themselves to ensure that they are working with and supporting sustainable organizations that already have projects.  My first task as an intern is to read about CCS, their own evaluation, and other evaluation about international volunteers

The staff recognizes that international volunteerism is under a critical eye here in South Africa at the moment as, after a history of colonial and paternalistic relationships with other countries, people wonder what the motivations of volunteers are and question the impact.  I will get to explore this a lot more this summer for my placement since CCS shares an interest in understanding where the organization falls in the spectrum of responsible and ethical volunteering.

My own goals for the summer include those of learning about existing international volunteer programs, building evaluation skills, interacting with other volunteers to see how their attitudes change through shorter versus longer term placements, and discovering how the staff at CCS view having a volunteer coming in.  Other things I’d like to do are to sit in on a social work or development class or two at the University of Cape Town, visit the Projects Abroad or other international volunteer agency offices, and attend a session of Parliament.

Going back to the past few days…

Monday was a township tour where I started to learn about what Cape Town is like for a majority of the local population.  The townships are areas outside of the city with anything from humble houses to makeshift shacks where most of the coloured and black populations were forced to live during Apartheid and still live today. The tour started with a PowerPoint lecture by Mama Ivy, a Xhosa (pronounced with a click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4RdHNJIh9s) woman who grew up in the Cape Town townships and was here to share her culture and traditions.  She explained how people go to traditional healers and doctors and still perform rituals, despite having also picked up Christianity. 

When we started to drive around through the townships, I felt uncomfortable being in a group of tourists going to gawk at people and the way they live.  For some reason, though, I found myself wanting to take pictures to share with people I know so they, too, can get an idea of just how some people live.  Speaking of the way they live, though, I was actually not surprised by the “shanties.”  If anything, I was surprised by the quality of the outside appearance—many having glass windows and being made of cement with nice looking roofs and murals.  It was interesting how the buildings, nicer houses, and shacks were intermixed.  Apparently, the nicer homes are government provided housing where they cleared the shacks and replaced them with small, standard, cement buildings that they sell to the residents over the course of several years.  The residents then make additions and make the homes their own.  It’s amazing what a little jumpstart can do to someone’s housing situation.  During the tour, we also learned a lot about the history of the hostels made for migrant workers and how they’ve since been converted into single family rooms.  Coca-Cola and other companies still have hostels in the townships for their workers and families to live in.

During the tour, we visited a college that had a large display detailing the history of apartheid and what has happened since.  We saw the sites of a couple of iconic murders including those of the Gugulethu Seven (http://www.capetown.dj/Regions/CapeFlats/Gugulethu/GugulethuSeven.html) and three boys killed in Athleton in the “Trojan Horse” massacre (http://www.hrmc.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=30).  After the Gugulethu Seven were shot, gangs feared white people and a Fulbright Scholar and political activist, Amy Beihl, was killed when accompanying some friends home to the townships. (http://www.amybiehl.co.za/?page_id=6)

Despite having access to people who have experienced Apartheid first hand and their stated willingness to share details about the history of their country with us, when I asked questions about South Africa’s involvement in WWII and about the government structure during Apartheid, I was met with resistance or silence.  Fortunately, I have 12 weeks to piece together a long, detailed history.   I will use the many books lying around Home Base, discussions with staff and other volunteers, and we’ve already started devouring the CCS DVD collection.  I look forward to drawing comparisons to what I already know about Guatemala’s similarly rocky history and continued peace-building process. (Check these out: http://www.skinthemovie.net/site/ should have read this before I left but nothing will quite pique interest in history like seeing the outcomes of it first hand...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa).

The past few days, I’ve been wondering to what extent Apartheid is really over and, coincidentally, that’s a hot topic currently in South Africa since Friday was Freedom Day (commemorating the day in 1993 that ALL people in South Africa were allowed to vote in the first truly democratic election and Nelson Mandela was elected as leader of a new, FREE South Africa).  In Monday’s newspaper, there were two relevant articles.  One by Desmond Tutu that reflected on the past 18 years (http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/04/29/each-one-of-us-must-help-the-miracle-happen) and another by Jeremy Cronin, a leader in the Communist Party and member of Parliament, that discussed how maybe the end of Apartheid meant the end of racial inequality but it was quickly replaced by an increasingly capitalistic system that led to severe economic inequality (http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/04/29/how-history-haunts-us).  We learned today that South Africa was rated last year with the highest Gini coefficient, which represents the wealth disparities between the richest and poorest in the country, beating out Brazil. (http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2012/01/23/thousands-of-tax-cheats-in-sars-sights) Because of the significant wealth disparities, blacks largely remain in the townships and fear white people because they are so unfamiliar.  One thing that I appreciate CCS is how they help to break down racial fear by sending volunteers into the townships where many children would otherwise be fearful of touching a white person.

That was a lot of detail so I’m just going to end this post with a quote from the article by Desmond Tutu and create another post to talk about how the group and I spent May Day (International Workers Day).

“It starts within us, with the recognition that we don not live in a vacuum.  Each one of us is a constituent part of a greater organism; our community, our country, our continent, our world. […] If we are to improve our performance, we must improve our teamwork, which begins with our own understanding that we are members of one team.  Our hopes and aspirations are tied up not just in ourselves and our own material wellbeing, but also in each other.  For the organism to prosper requires healthy cells.” Desmond Tutu