It’s been a month since I left home?!

I can't believe that I've been away from MN for over a month now! In some ways it seems like I have been here more quite some time, yet sometimes it seems like just a few days have passed since I left.
Anyways, now that I’m getting used to 3 hour long lectures (it helps that the professors are pretty good about giving us breaks and not lecturing the whole time- we watch some movies and have small group discussions. Snacks help too.), my classes are going fine. Since we hang out all the time with the people we’re in class with, it’s easy to deal with queries about assignments outside of class. I’m starting to get familiar with NMMU (or at least the bits where we have classes- it’s a very large university!). The plentiful diversity on campus (obviously the majority of students are black, but there’s also a sizable Muslim student population- the cafeterias have halaal food and I see a few women in full burqa) is a nice change from St. Ben’s, but it’s a bit disappointing we don’t really interact with most of the students (we don’t take classes with them or live on campus). I’m going to try and get involved with a society (a club on campus), but it’s hard with our schedules and to get back to campus at night.
In my bio class last Thursday we started talking about oceanography. A lot of the information is just building on the material I covered last semester in my Bio 222 class, but it’s cool that we’re actually near an ocean and it seems a little more real. In poli sci last week we looked at the political parties involved in transition in early 1990s from apartheid to democratic state. In music on Monday we moved on to the origins of township jazz. We examined the significant American influences on jazz over here and got to listen to many music samples, which is always fun. I don’t really know much about American jazz music, but I am familiar with some of the terms and the general sound of it, so it was cool to hear how the American influences on music played out in the South African jazz. I didn’t realize that American jazz in the first half of the 20th century had such an impact on the music of other countries around the world. In Senior Seminar we discussed the ANC (African National Congress)’s decision to create an armed wing, the MK, to help with their liberation movement in South Africa. We discussed their reasoning for doing so (non-violent struggle wasn’t getting any where, the masses were getting angry), what they hoped to accomplish (according to Mandela, this was to get the apartheid government to the negotiating table),what they actually did (started with acts of sabotage on the apartheid government and economic infrastructure, but they had a plan for guerrilla warfare if this didn’t have the results they wanted), and if it was successful (hard to tell exactly how much MK contributed to everything, but eventually the ANC & the National Party did negotiate in the 1990s, although that was well after the formation of the MK in 1961). Our class had quite a lively debate on if we would have supported the MK if we were present at the time of the decision.
Wednesday morning we had our community service class again. This week we did lots of small group discussion about the impacts of language on our volunteer work. At the AIDS Haven, where I volunteer this is less of an issue since all of the kids we work with there have only been taught English. Beyond a few issues with not understanding all of what my non-speaking 1 year old is trying to communicate, most of the time langauge isn’t a big deal for me. For the college students who are volunteering at Pendla, an elementary school in the a nearby township, language is a pretty big deal. In 2nd grade, the kids are only beginning to speak English, so my classmates are essentially teaching English. By 4th grade, however, the kids classes (history, math, etc.) are supposed to be taught in English. The English levels of the kids are extremely varied though, so this poses some problems. We brainstormed some ideas how to work with this. We also broke up into our groups (Pendla, Haven) and chatted about planning a few more structured activities for our kids, so as to better prepare them for school.
This past weekend I started on my scuba certification. I’ve been hearing about how great scuba diving is since high school when several of my swimming team mates went on a scuba diving trip through the school after taking a marine biology class and when I heard how cheap getting certified would be here (approx. $200 for the book, class, pool & open water sessions, & equipment for the sessions) I jumped at the opportunity. Another member of the group found a student at NMMU who runs his own scuba diving business. He did scuba in high school and got certified as a PADI instructor, then travelled around the world for a few years after high school teaching scuba classes and is now at NMMU finishing up his degree and working on the side. Thursday night we had a quick meeting for all of interested and we found out that the first group could get certified within the next week or so (that weekend if the weather cooperated!). I signed up for the first group and he told us to be ready to go Saturday morning to begin the “classroom” part of the process.
Saturday morning we started by learning about scuba diving & all the safety procedures we have to do for scuba. We watched a little video (our books hadn’t arrived yet since the PADI office in Joberg has no weekend deliveries) and filled out our worksheets and completed the first couple quizzes. As a part of the certification process we have to do some review worksheets as well as pass 4 quizzes & a final exam (75% or above) to show that we know the theory & safety stuff. In the afternoon we headed to an outdoor pool on another NMMU campus to learn our skills. First, though, we had to do a swimming test (200m- not as easy as you might think for a former member of a swim team since I was in a bikini and had no goggles . . . little did I know I would have a use for them in SA, so I didn’t bring a pair) and show we could float for 10 minutes. After that we got into wetsuits, which was actually quite a bit of work- they’re one piece of material and supposed to fit you tightly, and learned how to set up our equipment. We attached our air tanks to our BCDs (buoyancy control device- it fills with air so you can float on the surface & you deflate it to go down), and learned the proper way to turn on the air. Once we got in the pool we started with the basics- the signals used to communicate under water (it’s a little hard to talk when you have a regulator, the device that delivers your air to you from the air tank, in your mouth) and plenty of reminders to remember to breathe underwater (the most important rule for scuba diving is don’t hold your breath- the changing pressure when you dive can do bad things to you if you do so). Underwater we learned how to empty your goggles if they get filled with water (hold the top of the goggles to your forehead and push air out your nose- the air pushes the water out!), how to recover your regulator if it falls out of your mouth, and how to breathe from a buddy’s second air if your air runs out.
Eventually we got to move on to deep end. There we simulated actual diving-the process for going down with a buddy, practiced equilibrating (plugging your nose and blowing against it or swallowing to relieve the painful pressure on your ears caused by the differences of pressure- like when you go in an airplane), and practiced going back to the surface if you run out of air. The pool didn’t have any filtration system (and I’m not even sure if it is covered at night), so it had lots of sediments in it, especially in the deep end. The visibility in the deep end wasn’t great, so it was good practice for the ocean (but rather unexpected for a pool . . .). By the end of our session it was almost dark and most of us were quite tired, but all in all it was a good day.
On Sunday morning we were supposed to go on ocean dives (shore entry), but it had rained the night before so the water wasn’t good for diving. We waited around trying to be productive until our instructor showed up at our flats around 12:30 saying the water was good for diving and that we should get ready to go right away. We’d expected a phone call, so we were a little surprised when he just showed up, but we quickly gathered our stuff and hopped into his truck. We did the shore entry dives from a beach a short distance from our flats that is near an old dock. Since we couldn’t go in the morning, we had to postpone the boat entry dives (the last part of our certification process) originally scheduled for the afternoon until next weekend. The first challenge once we got to the beach was actually entering the water. There were quite a few waves and while we were just standing on the beach right where the waves first hit several of us fell over (the air tanks on our backs and fins on our feet make you rather unstable!). Once we got in a bit deeper we had to kick on our backs until we got out deep enough to dive. Even with our BCDs inflated and regulators in our mouths so that we could breathe when a wave hit us and we went under water, it was still hard to keep going. On our first actual open water dive we just practiced our skills on a sandbar (they were a little harder since there was a bit of a current/wave action). On the second dive we got look at some fish & coral around the old dock. Our instructor led us around and pointed out things like starfish and fish. At one point he cut off a piece of coral called red bait and several fish came really close to his hand. It was really cool to see everything so close up. I’m still getting the hang of adjusting my buoyancy under water so that I don’t shoot up to the surface of have to try really hard to not hit the ocean floor, but by the end I was getting decent at it.
On Sunday night a few of decided to try out the student mass @ NMMU. We arrived a little early and ran into a group of students with a nun leading them practicing the songs for the mass. We sat down and some of the students were really welcoming and got us song books so we could follow along. It was really helpful for us to hear the songs and see the words since most of them were unfamiliar to us (some were in Xhosa, and even many of the English ones were new to us). The priest was from Nigeria and the congregation was mostly black students, which were definite changes from the church near our flats. The singing was gorgeous (another nice change and definite plus!) and I could even pick out some of the elements of traditional Xhosa music which I’d been learning about in my music class (lots of call& response, many parts going on at once, the emphasis on rhythm). Everyone was really friendly & welcoming (they even asked Melissa to read the 2nd reading) and they helped us figure out what was going on if we looked really clueless. At the end of the mass they asked all the new people (us & a new others) to stand up and they formally welcomed us. Overall the experience was really enjoyable and I’d like to go back.
After mass Laura and I went over to a health care debate between representatives of four of the major political parties in the upcoming election. The debate was broadcast live on one of South Africa’s major TV networks. We were going to meet up with a group of CSB/SJU students and our director, Gary Prevost, at the debate. When we first arrived (a couple NMMU students we met at mass brought us to the location of the debate) the auditorium was packed with supporters of each of the parties. All the groups were cheering and holding up signs for their party’s candidates. The two students we were with explained a little about what was going on. While we were hovering near the back of the auditorium, one of the groups processed out into the area in front of the auditorium and started marching and chanting. It was rather intimidating! At the beginning of the debate (once all of us had crammed in to the auditorium) a group of people from the audience supporting the AZAPO party (a left-leaning, Africa for Africans break-off of the ANC- they started in the 1970sbut don’t have much support today) stormed the stage. For about fifteen minutes the police tried to get them off the stage. Several of the protesters had signs stating their frustration with being left out of the debate (we couldn’t figure out the exact reason for their exclusion, but it was something to do with the fact that they don’t have enough support/ chance of getting a significant portion of the votes in the upcoming election). At first the moderator of the debate tried to get them to exit quietly so that the debate could continue, but they kept resisting and the police eventually had to use pepper spray. Most of the crowd was really annoyed with the protestors and they were saying it was a disgrace to South Africa that this was happening.
Once the debate finally got started (it took another 5 minutes or so after the protestors got off stage because the moderator had gotten a bit of the pepper spray and had to be cleaned up), it was interesting to hear what the various parties had to say about fixing South Africa’s health care system. The four parties represented were the ANC (African National Congress- Nelson Mandela’s party that has been in power since the first free, open elections took place in 1994), COPE (Congress of the People- the recent breakaway party from the ANC that is generating lots of hype here and might actually challenge the ANC in the upcoming election), UDF (United Democratic Front- an earlier splinter group off the ANC), and the DA (Democratic Alliance- the party with views roughly similar to America’s Republican party that white South Africans usually vote for. Ironically enough, their symbol looks very similar to Obama’s . . .). There were a couple health care experts (one was a professor from NMMU) who explained what they thought some of the major issues of the South African health care system were. I thought America’s problems with health care were a reasonably big deal, but compared to South Africa’s (HIV/AIDS epidemic, access to clinics, conditions of hospitals, and extreme waiting times for prescriptions to get filled, tuberculosis, among others) they seem minimal. Each party then got to talk about their plans for making progress (the ANC guy talked a lot about what the ANC had done as well). The DA guy was definintely a politician- (he actually looked like Pawlenty . . .) he was a smooth talker and very easy to follow, but when I paid attention he was talking lots about privatization, which I don’t really know how that would work in South Africa (the large majority of the population here could not afford it). The ANC guy was a doctor and the ANC’s person in charge of health care for the area. He made some points about how the ANC could continue to improve, but most of talking was listing off what the ANC has already done. The COPE woman was also a doctor, but she was a little hard to understand, but seemed to be making some good points. The UDF woman (another doctor) made a good point about how the country needs to fix sanitation issues in the townships and work on other prevention issues before the health care system can really be high quality. After their mini speeches (2 minutes each), one person in the crowd from each party got to ask a question (it was usually addressed to their party’s representative and allowed the person to talk more about some aspect of their plan). Our group chatted a bit with some of the NMMU students standing around us and asked them questions about what they thought about everything. On the car ride back the group of students in my taxi chatted with our taxi driver about what state she thinks health care is in South Africa and how she thinks the elections will turn. She mentioned several of the big health care problems that had been brought up in the debate already and said while she believed COPE was going to be big in a couple years, they probably won’t win this election. The worst that will happen to the ANC is that they will have to go into coalition with another party to get the percent they need to win. Overall the experience was very enlightening and it was cool to see some politics in action in another country.
Monday morning was volunteering at the AIDS Haven. The kids were really excited to see us again. I picked Siya up from the nursery and I’m pretty sure he remembered who I was. We played around in the nursery a bit before he got changed and then we headed down to the play school with everyone else. We stuck around the older kids more today than last week and it was really cute to see them interacting with Siya. Sometimes they wouldn’t be nice to him, but most of the time they were really good about sharing and giving him his space. Vilma, our program’s co-director, came along with us today and took lots of pictures of all the volunteers with our children. We also had a meeting with a staff member, Sandra, who had just got back from vacation. She explained a few safety procedures that I was already familiar with (basically if there’s any blood or a kid needs a diaper changed, get one of the caregivers) and also urged us to switch up the kids we work with every day so that the kids don’t become too attached to us (which could cause problems when we leave in May), which is the opposite of what Matron Aggie told us to do last week. I think it might be fun to get to know some of the other kids too, but it’s hard for us to leave the kid we’ve been getting attached to. Sandra also asked if any of us would be interested in working with the adults at all. I expressed interest in doing so and she said that the small group of us who wanted to do so could on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning when I arrived, Sandra took Nick and I in to meet Sister Ivy, the woman in charge of the adult area. We also got introduced to Mildred, one of the head workers of the adult area. Sandra explained to S. Ivy and Mildred that we wanted to learn about all of the Haven and that we were to shadow the workers today and see what goes on with the adults. Once Sandra left, Mildred told us that there wasn’t really anything we could do in with the adults at the moment and that we should go back to the kid’s area and play with the kids. We wandered down there for a bit then came back up to the office and Mildred told us off for going down to the children’s wing if we really wanted to work with the adults (I think Sandra told her off for not giving us something to do and she was taking it out on us). Mildred also told us to not go tell Sandra that she wasn’t giving us tasks since we were wandering off to the kid’s wing. There’s obviously some sort of power struggle/issues between Mildred and Sandra and I just ended up being a bit confused about the whole thing by the end of it. Eventually Nick and I got told that we could sit and talk with one of the adults. We chatted to her about her life (mostly when she was younger) and her family. I wanted to know more about her experiences with AIDS and the healthcare system in South Africa, but I wasn't sure if it would be rude to do so since we had only just met. I think I would be more comfortable asking these types of questions once I get to know an adult better. When one of the workers came in to clean the floor we left the room since we didn’t want to be in the way. Nick and I couldn’t find any other adults that looked like they might want visitors and when we asked S. Ivy what else we could do she couldn’t think of anything, so we just ended up going down to the play school. I tried playing one-on-one with a couple kids that usually are with a different student in an attempt to mix things up, but it was hard since I had less knowledge of what they like doing and what they need to work on. It’s amazing how attached some of the kids have gotten to their usual student after only 3 visits. I would like to spend some more time working with the adults, but I would like to feel less of a hassle to the staff and more useful. I would like to learn a few concrete things that I can do when working with the adults that I could do by myself after learning from a staff member. I think I could do this by asking S. Ivy and some of the friendlier staff members questions. I know from past volunteer/internship experiences that persistence on my part is key to creating a role for myself in an organization, but it is still tough, especially when I don’t know what’s going on sometimes with the staff since they speak Xhosa to each other.

Bye for now!