Penguins, Afrikaglish, and an awesome internship!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve left an update here.  Headed into my third week, I’m starting to get into a routine.   We (the volunteers) all get up at 7 for breakfast then everyone else heads off to placement and I head into the house lounge to sit at a little white desk overlooking the backyard and start on my work for the day.  In the afternoons on the weekdays we have cultural and learning activities, which are always enjoyable.  On Fridays and weekends, we have to arrange our own fun and the other volunteers and I have seen some excellent tourist sites and entertained ourselves at home.

The internship:

The tasks that the CCS staff needs me to do are exactly in line with my interests and are great experience for me.  Over the next 12 weeks, I’m focusing on three main things: reviewing and strengthening the volunteer impact evaluation tools, helping develop volunteer development workshops, and helping to develop a partner program evaluation and development workshop.  So far, I’ve already: helped to develop, implement, and revise a volunteer placement workshop; laid out an evaluation plan and logic model to help organize the existing evaluation tools (like surveys, feedback meetings, etc); started inputting data from Volunteer Personal Growth reflection forms; and started to visit the partner programs where the current volunteers are working.  The two staff members I work with are amazing and share similar interests in volunteer impact.  Also, they are experienced and respected social workers, leading an excellent CCS site.  After the first couple weeks, I have the option to do extra hours in the afternoons with CCS or add on an extra placement site so I’m thinking about what I’d like to do.  There are a couple of placements that interest me…one is working with high school youth on a school environment improvement program that includes clean-ups, life skills, and other groups…the other is with a refugee resource center that offers a wide array of services for refugees (www.scalabrini.org.za).

Cultural & Learning Activities:

This week we visited Bo Kaap and the Slave Lodge.  Bo Kaap is the colorful area of town that was originally home to freed slaves.  Cape Town was part of the Indian Ocean slave trade so slaves here were largely from Madagascar, Malaysia, and other East African and Asian countries rather than West Africans taken in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade for the U.S.

We also had an African drumming session where we learned some rhythms on Djembe drums.

We’ve had a couple of presentations at home base, one about HIV/AIDS and another about refugees and diversity in South Africa.

AND! We had our first language lesson on Tuesday—I’m going to study Xhosa for the first 4 weeks.   While the words are hard to remember, they are easy to pronounce once you learn the simple rules of the language.  There are some subtle differences in sound between “t” and “th”, “b” and “bh”, etc.  We haven’t started to learn the clicks yet but that will be an exciting part of the language…taken from the Khoi San language, clicks are always the hardest part for non-natives to learn…even the word Xhosa is pronounced with a nice little click at the beginning…I still can’t do it.

Free time:

This week, the group and I explored Simon’s Town, the Waterfront, Camps Bay, Haut Bay, the Old Biscuit Mill, and a couple of the markets in the Cape Bowl District.  Lots of nice scenery around…some zebras and seals right here in town.  The trip to Simon’s Town was exciting because we got to see lots of wild penguins up close and personal.  Yesterday, we saw a soccer game in the World Cup Stadium!  It looked much bigger on TV but the vuvuzelas are much louder up close and personal.   I’ve also had a bit of time to run…there’s a nice park a few blocks away but I also look forward to exploring the University of Cape Town campus which is just across the railroad tracks from us.

Photos are heeeeeere! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101628305923693.3226108.2260930&type=3

Side notes:

Food is never as you’d expect here…we tried a nice Mexican restaurant in Haut Bay this week…my beans in my enchilada tasted like refried baked beans (they were sweet) and the other volunteers who ordered beef in their burritos or enchiladas literally got beef stew in a tortilla shell.  Tried to buy some tortilla chips at the store since I am starting to go through withdraw from my staple foods of beans and corn tortillas…they don't even sell them!  Luckily, we finally found some decent ranch dressing…it doesn't nearly stack up but it’s nice to have on the salads instead of the staple “sweet chili” sauce that pops up in every meal here.

Also starting to discover South African television…they have the equivalent of soap operas here that are pretty similar to telenovelas…the cool thing about them is that they’re in both Afrikaans and English…Afrikaglish?...so they keep you on your toes.

Still trying to find some good live music…no luck yet surprisingly.  Cape Town is known for its jazz and hip hop but I also want to see some other local types of music.

My favorite part of Cape Town so far is how diverse it is everywhere you go.  Inequalities are certainly present and obvious but, moreso than I’ve ever experienced in the U.S. or other countries, people are really integrated in all of the areas I’ve visited.  People interchangeably communicate in English and other languages like Xhosa or Afrikaans or any other language.  I’m starting to be able to point out the American girls but, other than that, it’s pretty challenging to know where people are from since there are so many tourists, expats, and refugees from all over Africa and the world.

P.S. Did you know that the U.S. is the only English-speaking country that says “z” the way we do (“zee”)…everyone else says it “zed.”  Learned that today!

Climbing Table Mountain for International Workers' Day

Yesterday we celebrated International Workers Day by climbing (literally) to the top of Table Mountain.  We met a guard at the entrance to the hiking trail who insisted that we purchase more water from him at a $3.50/L…turns out he was right.  The climb was easy for the first half hour…then just as we started to get tired…it became a cliff…literally stairs where I had to put my knee up to my chest and use my hands to climb.  It was a tough climb but well worth it, especially once we got to the top!  A view of all of Cape Town.  I would share some pictures but I pay per MB for the Internet here and anything but email is pretty costly.

Other things to note are my poor sense of direction here. I normally pride myself on being able to master a map in a couple of days and always know where I am…so far, I have a general sense but I probably couldn’t tell you which way is North unless the sun is out…especially when we go into the townships.

Also, I’d like to note how remarkably few stray dogs I’ve seen.  Though unneutered, many are kept in fenced in yards and are not roaming the street…I wonder if that makes the difference from the hoards of stray dogs I’ve noted in Latin American countries.  Mama Ivy, our tour guide, said that many people keep dogs as pets.  I’ve also heard rumors that they might need to eat dogs and cats but that’s yet unconfirmed.  Among other things, they keep in their yards—cows, goats, and sheep. 

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

Orientation and Cape Town City Tour

Today was the first day of CCS orientation!  So far there are 6 of us in the incoming group because one new member got caught up at the airport and won’t be in until later tonight.  There are three volunteers who have been here for different lengths of time and who will be staying for another few weeks.

We started orientation with a group meeting with new volunteers this morning.  We got to meet Luann, the CCS South Africa Director, who I will be working with for the next 12 weeks.  I was happy to hear how she spoke of program evaluation and how serious CCS South Africa takes the impact of their volunteers.  After talking to several volunteers yesterday who seem to spend a lot of time going out at night and complaining about CCS policies, it was refreshing to hear about the professional side of the program.

We also set expectations and goals for our placements, what “homebase” (the volunteer house) might be like, what we hope to do in the city, and what we can do to make the most of our experience.  I like this exercise and have used in with Sa Nima before…I was kind of surprised yesterday when I heard the previous volunteers complaining about it since I think it’s really important to have goals at first that you can reflect on and revise later in the program. 

After having a “braai” (barbeque) for lunch, we headed out on a City Tour of Cape Town with James, the CCS Driver and excellent Tour Guide.  We got to see District 6, which was an area that was bulldozed during apartheid, forcing many people out of the city (more to come on that after we visit the District 6 museum).  We also saw the downtown area and the places to hang out and shop for souvenirs.  Will have to go back and check that out in free time later. I really need an African purse or two and my teeth are chattering in anticipation of being able to pick out some cool black and white dangly earrings (turns out they're "recycled" cow bone)!

James drove us to the top of Signal Hill, which is where they would fire cannons when a ship was in distress and now, they fire every day at noon.  We saw some guinea fowl up there, which I thought were female peacocks at first.   

Coming down the mountain, we got to walk on the beach in a town that looked like Laguna Beach with some major fancy hotels and resorts then headed toward the mall.  This was the biggest mall I’ve ever been in with all of the fancy stores you’d see in a big city.  We found a nice amphitheathre outside with a flamethrower and a band getting ready to play then headed over to Nobel Square (a tribute to the 4 Nobel Laureates from South Africa) and a giant statue made of recycled Coca-Cola crates.

After a long day of touring we had a good dinner at home base and started chattering about what to do in our short times here!  Ideas floating around are the Cape to Addo tour where you can pick and choose your adventures on a 3 day tour, a Cape Point tour that stops off in Simon’s Town to see the penguins (did you know that the Cape of Good Hope is NOT the Southernmost point in Africa?), a hike up Table Mountain if it’s nice on Tuesday, or just checking out the local music scene on Long Street.

20 hour plane ride later

After a whirlwind last week in the U.S., I got on a plane headed for Amsterdam last night and arrived in Cape Town about 20 hours later.  

Expecting a long, boring plane ride where I’d be charged for everything I did, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movies in the back of the seat in front of me were all free and they even passed out free headsets.  However, trying to be nice on the second flight, I traded seats with a husband so he could sit next to his wife…turns out the TV screens in the row I traded into weren’t working for the whole flight.  I ended up sleeping most of the way anyway and was able to get a little bit of pre-internship reading and writing done.  

Also prepared to avoid the $8 plane food, my mom packed me about 10 pounds of food and it turns out, every time I woke up from a nap, they were handing me more free food (on the second flight, we even got ice cream!).  Just when I thought I’d have an opportunity to squeeze in a snack from my own bag, they’d show up with another meal!

For some reason I expected people to be speaking English in their conversations here but people only speak English when they’re talking to me…which makes me feel bad since I’m used to traveling to countries where I can communicate in the local language.  I thought it would be easy coming here since I have no anxiety going to Guatemala anymore.  It’s quite a bit different than I expected though I’ve only seen it in the dark so far. 

Staying at the Green Elephant Backpackers tonight.  The staff are friendly and they use grey water from the washer to power two of the toilets so I like that already.

http://www.capestay.co.za/greenelephant

Headed off to Cross Cultural Solutions in the morning where I can settle in for the next 12 weeks.

Will post more once I know more!

I'm off again!

I'm headed off on another summer adventure! This time, to two destinations including a new continent for me--Africa!

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I will spend the first 12 weeks this summer as an intern with Cross Cultural Solutions in Cape Town, South Africa. This is my second field placement for my Master's program. I will help with their program evaluations and other work that needs to be done in the CCS office. I'm looking forward to this experience because I am particularly interested in the impact that international service has on volunteers and hosting communities. 

 

Outside of my internship, I look forward to waddling with penguins, swimming with sharks, and going on a safari!

My mailing address in Cape Town will be: South Africa Mailing Address: Cross-Cultural Solutions-Post-net Suite #3 Private Bag XII Mowbray, 7705, CT, South Africa 

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Then, at the end of July, I fly directly to Guatemala to study Q'eqchi' in Coban for 6 weeks, supported by the U.S. Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. This new language will allow me to better communicate with Sa Nima's community partners and will help me as I prepare a Fulbright Fellowship application to evaluate volunteer impact in Guatemala next year.

 

I'll be studying at Muqb'ilb'e School (http://www.spanishschoolscoban.com/) during the week and visiting Samox on the weekends.  I also hope to start to meet some potential NGO partners for my Fulbright research next year and maybe sit in on some social work classes at Universidad Rafael Landivar.

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Post a comment with your address and I'll send a postcard your way!