Last Day of Work

Today was my last day at work. I got to work and Lucinda gathered all of the volunteers and gave a really kind speech about all the hard work I had done over the past two months. I looked around the room at the people – my coworkers, yes, but more importantly, my friends – and realized that there was so much that I had taken for granted every day here. All of the amazing wonderful kind souls that dedicated their lives to this organization, with hopes of truly changing the community – I have never in my life encountered hope of this kind. Just thinking about it now almost brings tears to my eyes.

Later on in the day, we got to interact with the after-school program for the children in the area. There was no IT today, but we sang songs, talked about what the kids did during the World Cup holiday, and said goodbyes.

Lastly, I got to give out the hats and gloves that we were able to buy for all of the children thanks to a generous donation from the Wayne United Methodist Children’s Ministry (Big shoutout to Aunt Betsy for getting all of this going! I’ll have lots of photos and details for you about how it went down when I get back.)! The kids were really thankful and all put the stuff on immediately so we could snap some photos.

Before I knew it, Desiree (the driver that has transported us to and from work every day for these entire two months) was there to pick me up. I scampered around saying goodbyes, hugging everyone I could find, and taking some last minute pictures. I had an emotional goodbye with Lucinda as well. As I left, I realized that I had forged bonds here that I couldn’t forget. This had been a summer that has changed me perhaps even more than I’ve changed the organization.

Saying goodbye to Desiree once she arrived at my house to drop me off was especially hard. I realized that riding in “the van” constituted probably 10% of my total stay here, and Desiree had been an integral part of it all. She was another person who really made my stay here amazing.

These last few days are going to be hectic, crazy, amazing, sad, joyful, and much more. I am frightened, excited, and anxious all at the same time.

Musical!

So these last few days have been relatively uneventful; I went to ProjectsAbroad yesterday to do some debriefing forms, and we ate at a fresh food market in Newlands. But yesterday night, we went to see District Six: The Musical!

We (me, Keely, Alex, and Jessica) taxied in to downtown Cape Town around 7:30 PM to get ready for the show. After getting our seats, I tried to find a Playbill, but to no avail; they ran out early on (TIA). The musical itself was.. well.. interesting. This is about as far from Broadway as you could get, frankly. The production seemed kind of sloppy, and there were a few small hiccups that were kind of funny - for example, one of the musical numbers involved everyone in the cast dancing with white umbrellas. Unfortunately, the umbrellas chosen for use in the show said "2009" in big, bold numbers - a bit of an anachronism since the show takes place in the 1960s. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the show was that it was about 70% in Afrikaans - none of us knew this before it started. So, we just tried to laugh at the appropriate times when jokes were being told, and so on. From work, I knew several Afrikaans phrases, so I was able to understand some of it; however, even with no knowledge of the language we were still able to figure out what was going on.

You can view a plot summary of the musical here .

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Wrapping It Up

Sorry I haven’t written a blog post in a while; these last few days have been
relatively uneventful, and I didn’t want to write a post unless there was actually
something interesting to talk about. With only 6 days left here, I’m really starting to
wind down in terms of job responsibility (I’m slowly but surely passing on my skills
to a new volunteer from France here), so this last week should be fairly chill.
The new volunteer’s name is Pierre-Alain (like Peter-Allen in English), and he’s very
good with graphic design. I’ve been learning a few tricks in Photoshop from him,
and he’s also managed to design some new t-shirts for Philisa Abafazi.
Speaking of clothing, our official Philisa Abafazi fleece jackets came in! We only had
to pay a small amount of money for them (the organization funded most of the
costs), and they’re very nice - but more importantly, warm!!

We’ve truly hit the middle of South African winter (just as everyone else back home
is hitting the dire straights of summer), and you can feel every bit of it. I close all of
the windows in the house, but with no indoor heating, it still stays hauntingly chilly
inside.

Leo was leaving on Saturday morning, so we all decided to go out Friday night for
“one last night” in Cape Town. We went out to a seafood/sushi restaurant called
Live Bait where I ordered a sushi platter (which made me sorely miss the sushi back
at Duke! It was wayyyy better.). Leo generously bought everyone’s meal (everyone
includes Philly, Derek, Tammy, Sebastian, his girlfriend, me, Keely, Rachel, Ryan, and
himself. WOW.), so it was free! After that, we headed off to Claremont (near
Newlands, which is where the ProjectsAbroad office is) for dancing and socializing.
We stayed out so late that I’m pretty sure I exhausted every dance move in existence
and created about 500 more – it was a really great, really fun night filled with lots of
laughs and good company.

And of course, yesterday was the World Cup final match between Spain and the
Netherlands. I think most of you will agree with me that it was extremely boring for
90% of the match, until we got an excellent goal by Spain which clinched the
championship for them. We didn’t go anywhere special to watch the game; most of
my volunteer friends were sick or tired and watched it at home, so I did the same.
Sebastian has moved out since his girlfriend and family are here for a week, so I
have the house to myself. Leo left on Saturday, and Ryan is on a safari for an entire
week til Sunday (he’ll see me right before I leave that night).. so I really am “all by
myself” (a certain Celine Dion song of the same name comes to mind).

How have I spent that time? Playing Mario, learning differential equations, messing
around in photoshop, and perfecting my schedule for the fall. And let’s not forget
the South African soap operas – these are super important, and my favorite (“League
of Glory”) is close to a finale I think. I also have been watching Survivor (which I
haven’t seen for probably 6 seasons or so) and realize that nothing about the show
has changed at all, other than that they are WAY too nice to the players now – the
rewards they compete for each week are things like fire kits, shelters, and blankets!
What happened to the “roughin’ it” Survivor that made each team compete for the
prize of a single doughnut (OK, maybe this actually never happened.. but you get my
point)? Let’s let the players starve a bit more.

Sorry for the digression, but I felt like it had to be said. Now that the World Cup is
over, it’s probably appropriate to reflect upon the effects it has had on this country
(and maybe others as well). There are of course the obvious effects like unity and
national pride. This has been something truly amazing to experience; I’m not South
African, but being here at this exciting time has made me feel like one of the locals,
cheering on the team until the very last second when Bafana Bafana got eliminated.
As cheesy as it might sound, the fans aren’t just cheering for a soccer team; they’re
expressing the desire to show the world that South Africa is worth something. This
ties directly back to the previously observed themes of self-sufficiency and
independence.

At the same time, the question of whether South Africa should have hosted the
World Cup has still been raised. Undoubtedly, the country has done an excellent job
of hosting the event with few significant security problems; no one can say that
Africa has failed at hosting the world’s largest sporting event. But what of the
economic effects of the Cup? In the four years leading up to the Cup, countless jobs
have been created as the country’s people constructed massive stadiums, tightened
security on the public transportation, and prepared for the arrival of individuals
from all over the world. It is probably safe to say that some (if not most) of these
jobs will be gone once the hype from the Cup dies down. This will make South
Africa’s unemployment problem even worse. And what are they going to do with
these world-class stadiums now? Host some soccer matches hopefully, but will they
really be used to their full potential?

Then again, these questions are probably raised after ANY country hosts the Cup,
not just South Africa. My personal opinion is that the country did an excellent job –
and they made Africa proud. The World Cup has given South Africa the chance to
improve its image all over the world, hopefully attracting investors and workers for
the future. It has brought countless volunteers to the area (tons of the
ProjectsAbroad volunteers are here largely because the Cup was being hosted this
summer) that may come back and help local communities again. Finally, the Cup
has allowed its viewers, attendees and affiliates to participate in a sort of cultural
exchange by meeting and interacting with people of other nationalities. I know I’ve
been part of this by having conversations, arguments, and laughs with volunteers
from around the globe.

Then again, maybe that’s just what travel is all about: going to a different country
gives us the chance to challenge, confirm, or revise our world views by putting
ourselves in new, exciting situations.

Inspiration

Thursday, July 8th

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Today, I took a day off from work to go meet up with Talia again (Yay, BN awesomeness!) to go to Khayelitsha (the largest informal settlement in South Africa, whose name is Xhosa for "New Home"). Talia discovered this amazing organization that has an extremely environmentally friendly guest house in the heart of the settlement. She thought I'd be interested in helping out with their website; indeed, I am.

The place is called Makazi's Guest House, and it's basically the most awesome thing I've encountered in a long while. Everything is environmentally friendly: it uses solar power (they're adding a wind generator soon), minimal running water, it composts all human waste, and it's entirely made of sand bags. However, from the looks on the inside, you would think you were staying at a first-rate hotel. The pictures I've uploaded really don't do it justice, but I hope you get the idea:

Sooo cool.

Inside Story: Sandbags. Roughly 1% of the carbon expenditure of a standard brick house.

Me at the creche!

The engineer in me just couldn't stop getting excited every time I saw another lamp that had been re-made into something else, or an old cabinet made from a locker, etc. We met Di, who was the leader of the initiative, giving us a preview of what was to come. Apparently, the guest house is part of a larger coalition called the Indlovu (means Strength in Xhosa) Project - read more about it in this article here - which runs a soup kitchen, free health clinic, creche for local children, and much, much more. They are constructing more space next to the Guest House to make room for conference rooms, computer training area, and skills development rooms (ranging from hospitality industry work to sustainable gardening to modern cooking!). Di said that the idea is that the people who partake of these services are able to begin to make a living for themselves and get out of the informal settlements. However, she stresses that the ultimate goal of the project is not pure charity (while of course remembering that sick and elderly people often can't provide for themselves) : "I believe that everyone has to work for something if they want to get something; so we recognize that for real results, people are going to have to put these skills we teach to use."

Di's vision was some of the most inspiring work I had heard about in a long while. Best of all.. I really think it's going to happen. Apparently, she's starting to get some media exposure (Sir Ian Mckellen donated a large sum to them!), and with a newfound media team (with me onboard!) working on the website and social media in our spare time, she'll be well on her way to getting the resources she needs. The main thing she said she needs is more volunteers staying there and working there. She currently had only one staying in the guest house and volunteering for two months (he was from Canada).

Anyway, after we left, I just couldn't get over how amazed I was by the whole ordeal. The hope within this community is inspiring - you can't leave this place and not want to just go out and CHANGE THE WORLD, after you see how hard everyone else is working to do it. I keep seeing more and more that the people in poverty here don't simply want charity - they want to show the world that they are ready to be self-sufficient. With more people like Di, these dreams can become a reality.

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There's only 9 days left in my stay in Cape Town. Has it been a long time? Yes. Am I thankful for the experiences? More than you could ever imagine. I've started to realize that there is so much of the world still left to see; so much to experience, to encounter. I'm realizing that the essential goodness of the human nature is a powerful force, something more powerful than government or crime or anything else. But more than anything, I am thankful to God for the opportunity that I've been given to give back to the community here, and have the community give back to me. If there's one thing I've learned from the BN Summers of Service, it's that service is NOT a one-way street; it's an experience that changes both parties involved in often unspeakable ways.

Waka Waka!

Saturday, July 3rd 2010

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[Author note: I have a fixed laptop charger now thanks to an electrical engineer who is a friend of my host family’s! Amazing, and saved me from buying a really overpriced Apple charger here; apparently, all Apple products in South Africa are double the price of their counterparts back in the States. TIA.]

Today, I attended my first ever World Cup match – for that matter, it was probably the first soccer game I ever paid for to watch! The story behind it all is quite amazing.

It all started off with having to pick up the tickets in the morning. Leo knew a guy who may or may not have had access to some questionably legal tickets. We may or may not have driven to a café in Camp’s Bay to pick them up from some Argentinean Mafioso-type characters. I may or may not have sipped a cappuccino calmly while fretting about all of the jail time I was going to do.

Regardless of what may or may not have happened, we walked out of the café with five tickets to the Germany-Argentina game that afternoon. Even better, we were promised Level 2 seats (the stadium has three tiers of seating; the higher the seat, the lower the price, and vice versa), but thanks to Leo’s smooth talking, we got Level 1 seats (the best seats in the house!!!). So, I was pumped. Leo, Sebastian, Shelley, a mutual friend named Luisa, and myself all were about to experience something truly awesome.

We left for the stadium around 1:30 PM. We took a train into town and then began the massive and infamous “Fan Walk,” which is about 2 miles of national pride, stadium food, and excited crowds. It was completely full of people, and we zigzagged through the masses of people in an attempt to get to the stadium as early as possible.

We got there about 30 minutes before the game was supposed to start and were greeted by a very impressive security team supervising the entrance to the stadium. Each fan was thoroughly checked and inspected for any illegal materials, which slowed up the entrance a good bit. However, they were relatively efficient and we were soon in!! We found our seats – 18 rows back from being practically on the ground – and were pumped; the view was outstanding, with the weather equally as good as our enthusiasm.

The game itself was just as exciting as you might imagine; it was even better since Germany slaughtered Argentina 4-0. I was supporting Germany by default since I had a very menacing German roommate who I intended on keeping happy. But my heritage is German (or at least my last name!), so I was OK with it. I even got my face painted!

However, I have to say this – I was ever so slightly disappointed by the fans at the park. Coming from Duke Basketball country, I thought there would be constant cheering, jeering, and songs going on during the entire 90 minutes of the game. Instead, the crowds would quietly watch the game (the vuvuzelas are not nearly as bad at the stadium than on TV; they really should just filter it out for broadcasts) and then cheer at key moments for their respective teams. What happened to the attitude of the ‘sixth player’ that the Cameron Crazies had? People actually sat down for most of the game!

Don’t get me wrong; the crowds can really get going when they want to (and they did!!). And I am really really happy that I went; I had an amazing time. But I think that the fans at this stadium could have taken a lesson or two from Duke.

I told Ryan about how I was shocked at how quiet the game was at times. He said, “Well, the fans can’t just cheer and shout for the entire game!” Clearly, this man has never truly encountered Duke basketball.

Anywho, fandom aside, we left the game ecstatic about Germany’s win and headed to the Waterfront for something to eat. We couldn’t get in to Paulaner (the German restaurant and pub at the Waterfront) because it was too full (unsurprisingly), so we settled on “Docks,” a restaurant we had eaten at a few times. We sat down and ordered drinks and food, but about 15 minutes later, the waitress said the kitchen was out of chicken (TIA, man.) so some of us had to change our orders. Once we re-ordered, she came back about 10 minutes later and replied that the kitchen had run out of food ( I swear this is exactly what she said). The restaurant on a Saturday night had run out of food. Only in Africa.

So we tried another crowded outside dining area called Emily’s. We succeeded at getting a table there and ordering (however, they were out of almost all of their food as well; their menu was limited to very simple sandwich platters – again, TIA.) just in time to watch Spain beat Paraguay. Watching it on TV quickly bored me, though; it was nothing like actually being at the stadium.

Next, we headed to Charlie’s (the Dutch sports bar we visit a lot) to celebrate with socializing and a LOT of dancing. And I mean, a LOT of dancing. We heard the World Cup Anthems ‘Waka Waka’ and “Waving Flag” at least 5 times each, and there was so much Gaga coming out of the speakers at the bar that even I was getting a little tired of my favorite, “Telephone.” It was a night to remember for sure, though, complete with some great company (we met up with Keely and some of our other friends!)

We got back at 4:30 AM – slightly (read: VERY) later than I intended on being back – but I was happy that we had a once-in-a-lifetime day.

And today is July 4th; This is the first time that I’m celebrating the holiday by myself, which is admittedly a little weird. I think I’m going to have lazy day watching 24 to celebrate. Nothing better than watching Jack Bauer take down terrorists to celebrate America, right?