Saturday, June 27, 2009

Did we say it gets cold here?

There is ice in our bird bath! Where am I? The whole lack of insulation or central heating is making things a little tricky. At night we just sit around wrapped up in blankets, it gets hard to read because your hands get cold holding the book. But the sun is always our salvation, the African sun is so hot even in winter. This shouldn't last very long, maybe one month, but I can't wait for summer.

So, we've officially tried S. African Biltong. Glenn prefers the type that tastes more like "jerky" as the original Biltong tastes more like raw meat. I like the fatty stuff. It's meat hung to dry w/ spices and it's craved here with beer while watching rugby.

I saw this man riding his old bike, he was old too, he had an African Grey Parrot on his shoulder while he road down the busy street.

We're plugging away at our work. I've been extra busy giving out blankets, warm clothes, and food parcels. I'm learning about the issue of trafficking in child prostitutes for the World Cup. The Dept. of Education has decided to have a school holiday while the Cup is going on--three weeks! News is already coming out of foreign children being found within S.A. who were trafficked in for the purposes of prostitution. The organization I work with, Childline, is very involved in raising awareness and preventing all kinds of child abuse throughout South Africa; it'll be interesting to see if any major awareness campaign will be able to catch on. The Cup is still 11 months away...
Amy

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Time flies when you're busy

It's hard to believe that June is almost half over. The first three months we were here time crawled like a sloth, but these last two months are flying by and I've got more to do than I've got time...

It was a tough day yesterday, I was out in Ext. 11 doing follow-ups on cases. At one house, the child we've been working with had passed away two weeks ago, he was only 7. His death certificate said he died of TB, which too often also means the child was HIV+. Then at the next house we visited, we're doing the assessment for foster care placement of an HIV+ baby and we're talking about the need for the foster mother to look after the health needs of the child; when the 14 year old niece in the room broke down crying--she had been raped on her way home from school a year ago, she had found out recently she was now positive. In this place, the pain is overwhelming at times. It was a nice sunny day, warm after a cold spell. The kids were all walking home from school with big smiles on their faces, no hint of sadness. My heart was so heavy. You can't help but speak continual prayers for healing of hearts and bodies.

On a lighter note, Glenn has started to read fiction. He read the book 'Q&A' (basis for the movie Slumdog Millionaire) and he liked it. This is a big deal, he's been a devoted non-fiction reader for way too long.

Right now we're getting some much needed R&R at a coffee shop, looking out on a cricket field, the sun is shining.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Life in SA

I was able to spend a week in Setlagole. A large village (12,000 +, 90% unemployment) not far from the Botswana border where Childline put on a training to train lay counselors to assist with social work related activities in the community. The presenter and I were able to stay at a Game Lodge about 40 minutes away. The best part being that there were baby lions there and yes! I got to play with them. This particular game lodge allows mostly foreigners to come in and hunt the lions. According to those running the show, most of these people come from Dallas, Texas or Spain or Germany. They get to decide which of the lions they want to hunt ahead of time; then 90-some hours before the hunt, the lion is ‘darted’ and taken to the hunting area where it can roam around until the hunters find it and shoot it—but the guy only gets one shot, when he misses the professional hunter steps in and does the job before the lion gets them. Then the lion gets taxidermied and sent to Dallas, Texas. It costs a lot of money to do this, more than $30,000 to hunt a good sized male—this is more than I made in a year in the states, all for one shot at a lion. People are really weird. (Amy)

Life in relationship to volunteering has been slow lately. The organization I volunteer with is having some quirks they are working out in regards to their financial status – this puts a damper on me traveling to the outlying areas where all the NGO’s are. I’d like to visit with more of them to gain a better perspective of their strengths and capabilities. Thus far, I have met all of them except two. To make up time I’ve been reading and thinking of ways I can assist the NGO’s under the care of the LAC. In the meantime I’ve also been attending some meetings that have put me in contact with community members that are dedicated to assisting the NGO’s in this area to become sustainable, governed well, and financially accountable. Sometimes, to pass time, I dream of where I want to travel to in SA. I’ve come up with one itinerary thus far. Here’s a common question people often ask here, “How do you find South Africa?” And then they usually wish us well for the remainder of our time here. After four months in SA, I suppose my internal answer to how I find SA is: there’s poverty, injustice, misconceptions of human kind based on the color of skin or ethnicity, and greed everywhere in the world. Then, there’s kindness of strangers that don’t presume you as a stranger, ubuntu, diversity of languages and cultures, and simply being able to say right now, “I’m in SA.” (Glenn)