Pinetown

Monday 1/23/2012 – Wednesday 1/25/12

Today is the day Swazi, Reinhardt and I are going to Pinetown, Marianhill (about halfway between Pietermaritzburg and Durban) for a workshop regarding the development of the Youth Justice and Y-Zone programs!  We plan on leaving at 3 or 4.  We are all so excited to go on this adventure!

We planned to leave at 3, but some unexpected circumstances allowed us to leave around 1.  As of Monday morning, Fish no longer works/lives at the YMCA and I had to say my goodbyes as he is heading elsewhere.  Reinhardt had to stay behind to work security because of Fish’s last-minute departure so Swazi and I went. alone  We took three taxis in order to get to Pinetown, a small quiet town where we stayed in a hotel.  It was located on beautiful grounds and had an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by rolling hills thick with trees.  There are monkeys in the area and many people saw them and took pictures as they crawled on our hotel, but I never did see one of the playful creatures. 

View of the pool from the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel Monday at about 3:30pm.  I am not sure what time the meeting started, but it had obviously been going on for at least a couple of hours.  There were between 20-25 people in the room.  I found out that this event was a national meeting, the purpose being reporting on and developing the Y-Zone and Youth Justice programs.  Many of the members had flown in specifically for this meeting.  There were multiple people from the national office there that I got to meet as well which including Sipho, which was exciting.  I have been hearing about them/emailing/skyping for the past several months so it was great to finally meet some of those people!  A facilitator named Brenda was hired to lead the meetings.  Groups of two from each YMCA were busy working on how to present to the group how their particular Y-Zone and Youth Justice programs work.  The presentations started and when it came time for Pietermaritzburg to present, Swazi motioned for me to go up and present it.  So I went up and represented the Pietermaritzburg YMCA in explaining their programs to the national members.  At the end of the meeting we were told that instead of rooming with the people that we came with, they mixed it all up so that we would get to know people from other YMCAs.  I roomed with Mpume, Sipho’s niece.  She is 20 years old as well and she is working in the national office as a marketing intern.  We became good friends and I am going to stay with her on Tuesday night in Durban before my flight leaves for PE on Wednesday morning.

Sipho and I!

Taking a break from the meeting and walking through the jungle behind the hotel.

The meeting continues.

We were interupted by this huge snail that decided to move through our meeting at its own pace.

My roommate and Sipho's niece, Mpume.

Monday night after the meeting ended a group of people, myself included, piled into the back of a baki and headed to Durban for drinks.  We went to an open-mic restaurant on the beachfront because one of the members, Dina, is a fabulous singer/guitarist so she performed while we sat and enjoyed each other’s company.  We then drove a short distance to the beach front by all of the touristy hotels, took off our shoes, and ran to the Indian Ocean to jump through the waves and take pictures.  The glorious moment I have been waiting for!

Indian Ocean :)  (Thinking of you, Rits & Court!)

Swazi and I on the beachfront with Durban in the background.

Dina playing guitar and singing at the open-mic night. The lights in the background are from the harbor (Dad - you would have liked all of the boats there!)

There were also a few guys that had made some pretty cool sand sculptures:

Piling into the baki with the other youth workers.

Tuesday’s meeting started at 9 and it covered what is needed to run a successful Y-Zone and Youth Justice Program.  Swazi’s tooth ache caused her to not be able to attend most of the day so I took good notes.  We ended around 4 and I spent the next two hours in the pool.  All of our meals were served by the hotel.  Dinner was at 6 and Sipho informed us that the YMCA would pay for us to go out for drinks that night.  So at 8:00 we piled into a baki again and were on the road to Durban.  It was difficult sometimes because everyone else knew Zulu so they would sometimes speak only in Zulu or switch back and forth between English and Zulu so I often could not follow what was going on, but I still enjoyed it.  Even if I do not know what they are saying it is fun to listen to their language because it is so beautiful.  The ride to Durban was about one hour and I’d have to admit – one of my favorite things about traveling through South Africa is simply gazing at the landscape out the window.  Every time I do, I am deeply reminded of how lucky I am to be in Africa and how diverse and beautiful this planet and its people are.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

We were going to go to a fancy club, but many of us were not dressed for the occasion and thought we would be turned away so we went to the casino.  We ordered some drinks and ended up staying until 11 or 12 before heading back to Pinetown.  Mpume and I took a stroll on the sidewalk down by the beach before hopping into her truck and going back.  We got slightly lost on the way back, which is completely normal going from Durban to Pinetown, especially at night. Since people always get lost on this route, it is often blamed on a ghost.  I do not know the whole story, but a good ghost story has everyone on the edge of their seats!  Despite our detour, we beat the baki full of the rest of the group back to the hotel.  We chatted with Ann, the old lady security guard at the hotel, for ten minutes before the baki arrived.

The outside of the casino - what they called a "mini Vegas." haha

Palm trees inside :)

Wednesday morning Brenda was not there, so Sipho wrapped all that we had covered up in the last couple of days.  At 11am Swazi and I took four taxis back to Pietermaritzburg.  Some of our connecting stops were in townships, where I was again stared at.  Swazi leaned over with a slight smile and said, “You see how they are looking at you… you are the first white person some of them have ever seen.”  Our last connection was in downtown Pietermaritzburg, where the sidewalks are full of people and small stands where you can buy pretty much anything from underwear and socks to cell phones.  I bought my first “mealie,” which is plain corn on the cob either boiled or braaied.  I got mine braaied while Swazi got a boiled one.  We scrambled into another taxi with our bags in our laps and waited for it to be completely full of people.  The last person crawled into the taxi and plopped right next to me.  He was a small boy probably about six years old dressed in a school uniform.  I found it odd that he was alone, but I think that is somewhat normal here.  In each taxi, money is passed from person to person until it reaches the driver, who skillfully counts and gets change for everyone while he is driving.  The change is then passed back and distributed among everyone in the taxi. 

My first mealie!

When we finally reached Pietermaritzburg a good two and a half hours later, I asked Swazi why no white people take the taxis.  She said that they do not feel safe because everyone assumes that they have a lot of money.  She reminded me that I should never take one alone.  I thanked her for keeping me safe and being my Zulu mom especially in times like these!  We are both so glad that we got to have a change in our normal schedules and participate in this meeting.  It was good to get out and see more of South Africa!

Swazi, my Zulu mom! She thanks you, Mom, for sharing me.

May I please have s'more?

16-22 January

As I am getting more comfortable and getting used to things here, it was a less hectic week.  I printed some pictures of my visit to Cinderella on Monday for Mbali to take back to the township kids.  The next day she brought back a hand-written letter from some of the kids:

To: Shanna

We greet you in the wonderful name of our lord & savior Jesus Christ, hoping that you are fine.  Thank you very much for the photos you sent to us.  We received them.  We wish we could meet again.  It was really good spending time with you.  We wish you a good journey hoping that you will enjoy it.  Good luck with everything you are wishing for this year.  We can’t wait to see you again.  Please take care of yourself.  We will miss you very very much.  THANK YOU. 

From: Zimkhitha, Alithamsaqa, Abongile and Nolubabalo.

Swazi said we may be able to take an afternoon off and go visit Cinderella once more before my departure for Port Elizabeth so hopefully I’ll get to surprise them.

During the past week I have cooked multiple meals in the YMCA kitchen with Swazi, Lindie, Reinhardt, and Fish.  Last Sunday I tried “pap” for the first time with some beef stew.  Pap is corn that is mashed/ground up in grain-like pieces and it looks and tastes similar to mashed potatoes.  As Swazi showed me, the Zulu way to eat it is without cutlery so we ate with our hands.  We also played a little soccer with the street kids and ate some meals prepared by Rrrrrita (her name is pronounced with a strong roll of the R).

Monday night I had a different sort of experience.  I was hanging out with Fish, who was the on-duty security guard, when Shannon came by not looking so good.  Shannon is a 50-year-old Indian man.  He is the nicest man, but he is extremely frail due to alcoholism.  He was looking quite sick as he was just coming off of a bad streak of drinking so Fish and I helped him to his room where we were joined by one of Shannon’s ex-drug-dealing friends.  Fish ended up calling for an ambulance.  Emergency response is a bit different here.  It took about 45 minutes for the ambulance to get to the YMCA.  When it arrived, a few paramedics strolled into the room at their own pace and asked what was wrong with Shannon.  We asked if they were busy tonight and they said yes, but they acted as if they had all the time in the world.  They took his blood pressure, poked his finger, and asked if he wanted to go to the hospital.  He said no but after about 15 minutes, Fish and I finally convinced him to go.  When Shannon arrived back at the YMCA the next day he explained his awful hospital experience.  He hardly slept at all –they didn’t have enough beds for everyone so there were many people sleeping on the floor.  They put him on a drip and stuck him in a wheelchair for the night.  At one point he fell out of the wheelchair onto the floor and could not get up himself.  No doctor or nurse helped him up – another patient who was on the ground ended up helping him back into the wheelchair.  After hearing this, I am going to try to stay EXTRA healthy!

The two Shannons enjoying an afternoon at the YMCA.

On a lighter note, I got to brainstorm camp games and activities on Tuesday which brought me back to du Nord!  Even though I will not be here to help run the camps, it was so fun being able to bring my du Nord experiences to Pietermaritzburg and imagining the kids enjoying new activities.  I typed up a detailed sheet of all of the name games and other activities that I could think of as well as a schedule and theme for each session, so hopefully those things will be implemented in the upcoming camps.  I also secured a R500 donation for paint from a local hardware store this week so that we can give the main Y-Zone building (the after-school program for teenagers) a makeover.  I am hoping to have this mostly done by the time I leave so I am spending much of my Saturday cleaning out the building getting it ready to paint.  Since I have been here, no Y-Zone kids have shown up yet.  I thought this was unfortunate so I made some posters both for a “Y-Zone Open Day Event,” which is free for everyone and also for the general Y-Zone program.  With the help of the two interns here, we distributed them around some malls in Pietermaritzburg.  I am hoping that some crumpers will show on Friday so that I can meet them and see them perform.  I also made advertisements for renting out the chapel and the sports center because they are great affordable spaces for events but few people know about them.  Reinhardt, Swazi, and I are going to an evaluation training session at Marienhill Monday through Wednesday so we will be staying in a hotel for a few days.  Because of this, I really don’t have much more time here at the Pietermaritzburg YMCA – I can’t believe how fast the time has gone!  I miss the US YMCA family so much and trust that everything is going well.  I’d like to give a HUGE thank you to Skip, Peter, Lisa, Ben, Niki, my parents, and everyone else who has helped to make this whole opportunity possible for me. 

I bought a cheap cell phone this week.  Here, one must buy “airtime” separately, which allows you to call and text message so I loaded it up with R12.  Also Reinhardt and I went to Checkers to pick up a cake, candles, coke, and cream soda and we had an office party for Thys, the CEO because it is his birthday on Saturday.  On our way to the grocery store, we had to slam the breaks for a chicken darting across the road in front of us so we yelled out the window, “Why are you crossing the road?!”  While we were in the office, Swazi showed me pictures of a previous intern eating chicken heads and chicken feet – yep… that’s right.  It is one of Swazi’s favorite dishes and she vowed to cook it for me before I leave.  Looking horrified, I told her I don’t know if I will be able to stomach something like that, but she insisted that I try it. 

After work one day I went out and set up the volleyball net!  It looks great – the grass is freshly cut, there are beautiful mountains and trees in the background, but there is one problem: there are no Blazers here to play with!  In fact, I haven’t been successful in finding anyone to play yet but I told the street kids that I want to teach them volleyball before I leave so we are substituting volleyball for their usual soccer game next week.

When we were setting up the volleyball net, I noticed a ring of rocks with a ton of weeds growing in it.  Those weeds couldn’t hide it – they couldn’t hide from me the fact that it was a fire pit!  Obviously it had not been used in years so the following night I gathered all of the workers who live on site and we had a “marshmallow braai.”  As I mentioned earlier, braai is basically the South African word for barbeque – it means to cook over an open fire.  No one was familiar with the concept of s’mores, so I bought some Marie biscuits (like graham crackers), chocolate, and marshmallows.  Since the fire pit is such a wonderful and open space, I suggested to Swazi that they have a bonfire or marshmallow braai for the teens in the Y-Zone program but she immediately explained that it would not work due to safety constraints.  Since this YMCA includes accommodation, they are not allowed to let people into the YMCA grounds after a certain hour.  It reminded me that there are many limitations that make it particularly difficult to run a YMCA especially here in South Africa. 

All of the essential s'mores ingredients.

Swazi's first s'more!

We got off at 1pm again since it was a Friday.  It was sunny and hot so I spent the afternoon at the pool across the street with Fish.  Though it is still a little weird, I’m getting used to being stared at.   Last night Fish and I were playing cards outside and all of the sudden we heard tires screeching against the pavement.  Fish started laughing as we walked over to the front gate to see what was going on.  He said, "All right just watch - when the light turns green those two two trucks will spin around and drag race."  Sure enough.  Ten seconds later the light turned green and two tow trucks did a U-turn and sped away as fast as they could.  They both had just heard on the radio of an accident in town and whoever got to the scene first would get the business.  On Friday evening, Reinhardt and I went to see the casino and a few other places around town.   Other than that, I have been going to the gym most evenings and reading lots.  Oh! I finally took the braids out too!

Cinderella

1/14/2012

Today I was going to go to the beach in Durban all day, but ended up going to visit Swazi’s friend in a township called Cinderella with Swazi and Lindi (Thys’s sister) instead.  Around noon, we ran across the street to catch a taxi on its way to the inner-city.  The taxis here are not like the ones in the U.S.  Here, taxis are their main mode of public transportation.  They consist of a large van with about five or six rows of seats and they pile as many people as they possibly can into each one.  Seatbelts are not worn and children pile onto the laps of their parents.  Swazi hailed a cab and we squished in to a crowded van with three empty seats.   It was about a five or ten minute ride until we reached our destination of the inner-city, where we proceeded to buy coke and wine to bring to the township.  People here drink coke ALL the time – it is incredibly popular, so we proceeded to buy four liters which the four of us finished by about 6pm.  Next we went to a huge taxi station where we jumped in another taxi and waited for it to be completely full.  I was squeezed into the back corner, my right arm/shoulder sticking out the window because we were so packed in.  We rode another ten minutes or so to the township of Cinderella.  There are lots of townships, each of which has its own name.  Swazi pointed out some rough-looking shacks along the way as well as some nice-looking homes.  She said the nice homes were the Indians’ homes.  Living conditions are still extremely segregated – the biggest populations are townships which consist of blacks and coloreds only, and nice Indian communities. 

Me, Swazi, and Lindi in the back of a taxi.

The huge taxi station - we caught one of these to the township.

Cinderella is located on a mountain and is surrounded by other mountains full of shacks and houses.  One of the first things I noticed when we arrived was the beautiful view - I’m amazed by how far you can see into the distance.  The taxi wouldn’t take us to the particular address we were looking for, so we got out and walked on the gravel road through the town.  Two men drove past us in a car, stopped, and reversed it.  They wanted to meet us, but they were obviously drunk as the driver had a bottle of vodka in his lap so we kept walking.  Children were gasping, pointing, smiling, and waving as we walked and Swazi explained that Lindi and I were, for some of the kids, the first white people they had ever seen because they rarely leave their township, if ever.  The way they are raised in the townships is that whites are superior to blacks and a white person is seen as good luck.  This would explain the staring, curiosity, and amazement in their faces when they laid eyes on us. 

Mbali's house.

We came to a small cement-brick house about the size of a trailer home in the township where we met Swazi’s friend, Mbali, who hosted us for a late lunch.  The house consisted of two small rooms – a kitchen and a bedroom.  We moved the chairs into the bedroom so that she could have some room to cook while we ate some appetizers of samosas, spring rolls, meatballs, and fruit.  Her two-year-old son was taking a nap on the bed so we spoke softly.  After the appetizers, I went outside for a view of the dumping site for all of the nearby townships, which was situated right up against one of the townships.  Mbali explained that people there were sick for many reasons, one being that adults would sift through the garbage and sell expired food items to children in order to make some money.

The dumping site - it looks like a thin stretch in the middle of the photo right up against the township.

A few minutes later, a young boy probably about six years old appeared behind Mbali’s house.  He smiled and waved, took a good look at me, and hopped on over to ask me some questions.  Within a few minutes, more children started coming out of their houses and finding their way over to me.  At first, many of them were obviously curious but didn’t know whether they should come closer or stay back and observe.  However, once they touched my skin they couldn’t stop.  It was not long before I was bombarded with excited children climbing all over me, which is how I spent most of the afternoon.  The types of questions they asked me were: “Do you have a dad? A mom? You have both?! Are you married? Do you have kids? I want to come to America!”  I taught them some games we play at du Nord including elbow tag and Little Sally Walker.  One of the older girls (about fourteen) would translate the rules to Xhosa as I explained them so that the younger kids would understand how to play.  They taught me some phrases in Xhosa as well as some African games.  They loved my hair and were very interested in my eyes and eyebrows.  They also loved taking pictures with my camera and ended up taking a little over 200 photos by the time I unwrapped their little fingers from it.  They would take a picture of me with them and then run and show it to their parents.  They would then run to me and tell me that their parents wanted to meet me so I would go to their house and there would be adults sitting around inside a dark room.  They didn’t know whether to come out and greet me or not – most just smiled and stared as I played with their children.  One man ventured out and gave me the Zulu handshake.

Mid-afternoon I went into Mbali’s house for the meal she had been cooking for the previous few hours.  She LOVES to cook, so everything was homemade.  We had some chicken and cooked vegetables, rice with gravy, and spinach dip.  For dessert we had mauva pudding with custard.  It was so very tasty!  Mbali said that she doesn’t get visitors often because you need to be extremely careful about who you let into your home.  She explained that once you let someone into your home, they know what you have and that can be very dangerous.

Mbali cooking away!

During the time that I was playing with the kids, there were men walking or driving up and down the road selling food items such as corn and fruit.  I asked to take a picture with the corn sellers and they said OK so I went and stood next to one of them for a few seconds while a young one took our picture.  Suddenly the corn selling man who was maybe about 30 years old turned toward my face and started smelling me and grunting – it caught me by surprise so I jumped away… it made for a slightly uncomfortable moment.

To see an American was so exciting for everyone.  People would stare out windows and walk from around the corners and down the street just to get a look at the white visitor.  I felt like a celebrity!  In the townships, they are raised to see whites as superior to themselves and white skin is a sign of good luck.  It got busier in the evening as more people came home from work.  The streets were full of children running around and people socializing – there seemed to be a real sense of community.

In the evening, I peeled the kids off of me and went in Mbali’s house to sip wine with Lindi, Swazi, and Mbali until Mbali’s hairdresser came.  Mbali asked her hairdresser, Khathiwe, to come a little early so that she could see if it was possible to braid my hair the Zulu way.  She came around 19:30 and it was a success!  After a few practice rounds with my “fluffy” hair, she got it down and finished braiding my entire head within a little over an hour. 

During this time, Khathiwe, Mbali, and Swazi spoke of how lucky I am to have hair like I do and all of the work that they need to do in order to get hair like mine.  Mbali said that even though it is expensive, no matter how much money one has, an African woman always needs to have her hair and nails done.  We laughed and they explained that to get a weave sometimes takes up to two 9-hour days of sitting in a salon chair.  We also discussed the weird beliefs that some people have in South Africa.  There have been cases where people have paid 25,000 rand for a rat that they think will go out and retrieve money for them.  When it doesn’t come back, they are flat broke. 

At the end of the night (around 21:00), we called a taxi because public transport stopped at 19:00.  We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the YMCA.

Friday the 13th

1/13/2012

Happy Friday the 13^th!  Everyone was worried about bad luck coming our way, but I explained that every Friday the 13th I think of my grandparents, who met on Friday the 13th and are still together today!  And it proved to be a lucky day indeed.  We got out of work at 1:00 simply because it is Friday.  Every Friday people get off work at 1:00 so that they can go and enjoy their weekend.  Right at 1:00, Reinhardt and I booked it out of the office and drove to his and Thys’s house (about 10 minutes away) for a swim.  Their house is located on a hilltop and is surrounded by gorgeous views of trees, mountains, and flowers.  They have a small pool and bar and his aunt, uncle, and younger cousin Gabby were visiting for a braai.  When we arrived we jumped in the pool with Reinhardt’s younger sister, Kayla.  We spent the afternoon swimming, relaxing, and socializing.  Thys explained that the braai we were having was Americanized – he bought a gas grill after going to America because it is so much more convenient than an open fire, but at a real braai the meat would be cooked over an open flame.  I helped peel some potatoes for a potato-bake made by Thys’s wife, which was delicious!  Some of the best potatoes I have ever had.  We also had corn, steak, and wine which were all very good as well.  Their whole family is incredibly kind and welcoming and it was a lovely Friday afternoon/evening despite the fact that it was Friday the 13th.

Sweat

1/12/2012

Today I played soccer with the street kids and the interns from Pietermaritzburg down at the sports center.   A former YMCA worker now-turned event planner stopped by and we had a meeting with Swazi and Reinhardt about the possibility of throwing a Valentine’s Day Ball here at the YMCA sports center.  We then brought the kids a Rita-prepared lunch that she cooks them every Tuesday and Thursday consisting of bread and stew.  I dished it up for the street kids and then for myself.  As we sat and ate, we talked of our favorite dishes and I told them I would prepare them an American meal one of these days which they were excited about.

Being as it was 107 degrees, we ended up getting off of work early because it was so hot.  I took a trip next door to the gym, talked with some gas station workers and cleared up their stereotypes of America, sat with Mr. Frank for a while, and went to bed.

Bunny Chow

I went to work today, but I got a nice break in the morning.  Thys took me for a little drive through Pietermaritzburg so that I could see more of the city.  We drove through the street markets, through the inner-city area, and by his residency.  On the way back we stopped to pick up “bunny chows,” which are an Indian delicacy.  It is a quarter of a loaf of bread, carved out with some beef, chicken, lamb, or bean stew type stuff in the middle.  I would compare it to a bread bowl.  It was spicy and quite delicious!  When we were nearly finished, Swazi piled all the plates in front of me so that it looked like I just ate about 5 bunny chows and Rein took a picture.

When I got off of work I got to Skype some people from home.  It was the first time I’ve gotten to talk to my friends and family since I’ve been here so that was exciting.  I went to the gym in the evening, chatted with Mr. Frank and Fish, and headed to bed.

TV of the Kitchen

1/10/2012

The Youth Justice program started up again today.  It is every Tuesday and Thursday from 10-12 where we meet street kids down outside of the sports center, bring them food, and play soccer with them.  Not enough people showed up to play today, but Rein and I brought them food and sat with them in the shack for a couple hours.  The street kids range from ages 18-25, which surprised me – I thought they would be younger.  They were enthralled at the fact that they were sitting with “a person of Obama.”  They dream about going overseas and they described what they thought America was like: there are no problems, there is no dirt like here in Africa – it is all made of nice paved roads, people are happy, and there are shelves in the schools that you can put your stuff on and people won’t steal it.  After it was established that I was not married, they all agreed that Rein should not let ANYONE touch me.  One of the kids was asking about the type of food we would bring them and he started describing a machine.  He called it, “the T.V. of the kitchen,” – he was referring to the microwave.  We all got a good laugh out of that.

In the early afternoon Rein and I went for a drive through the inner city because we needed to pick a stamp up for the office.  It was dirty, crowded, and so eye-opening.  The streets were filled with people – the majority just sitting on the sidewalk hanging out. 

In the evening I went to the gym for a couple hours and when I came back it was dark.  I had a nice long chat with Mr. Frank who was working security while I attempted to cool off before showering.  He is worried about money and he was calling various people to see if they could lend him some.  He would like to buy a computer so that he can get a better job and possibly move overseas.  He does not drink or smoke and goes to church often. 

I opened my room up to not one, but two geckos crawling around my walls.  I’ve named them Jim and Connie because they’re always watching over me, just as my study abroad directors Jim and Connie will be doing in about 21 days (not that I’m counting).