Diplomats

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thursday and Friday of last week were spent in Pretoria attending a grant signing ceremony hosted by the U.S. Embassy. I attended with Knowledge and Agnes from my organization, as well as a few fellow volunteers. The grant is called the "U.S. Embassy HIV/AIDS Community Grant," which supplies $10,000 in funding for the course of a year. My organization received the grant to help fund its five newest DICs (drop-in centers), where we provide food, education, shelter and psychosocial support to children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS.

Attending the grant signing ceremony was quite the experience. It was the first extended period of time I spent at the U.S. Embassy here in South Africa (the building itself is one of the biggest embassies and looks akin to a bunker). It was fascinating to speak with the employees of the embassy, who all had interesting jobs and a remarkably perceptive view of politics and relations in the Southern Africa area. In addition, it was revealing to see what a huge investment goes into foreign relations, political analysis, etc.

Just to highlight some of the experiences of the those two days - a time which is distinctly different from the average time spent in my village or around South Africa:

Timeliness. Although Knowledge and Agnes were an hour late in picking me up, we still made it to Pretoria and to the event with time to spare. Such timeliness is rare and so appreciated, on my part at least. So I decided to make Agnes and Knowledge tea. I even made Agnes some tea from Trader Joe's that happened to be a the U.S. Community Center. She was thrilled and called her granddaughter to announce, "I am in the United States now!"

Good food. Sue, Jo and Mokgedi, the embassy staff who organized the event, made sure to arrange for great food and refreshments. This included vegetable kebabs, chicken-tortilla wraps, delicious pastries, etc. So we ate often and well, which was a nice experience for Knowledge and Agnes, but I loved it too.

Jo's House. The grant recipients were all put up in a hotel, but us three Peace Corps volunteers were not in the budget, so there were no hotel rooms for us. Instead, we stayed at the home of Jo, one of the coordinators. Both she and her husband work for the U.S. government (in fact, her husband used to be a Peace Corps volunteer), and as a result, are provided a house in the nice Waterkloof neighborhood of Pretoria. Embassy provided houses are based on seniority and family size, and apparently Jo's husband has been with the department of agriculture for some time now (we did not actually get to meet him, sadly), as they had a stunning house. Having come here from several posts in Asia, there is remarkable Asian art throughout the house. All in all, it was one of the fanciest homes I have stayed in, and my description won't do it justice, so I took a few photos with my cellphone while there.

And Jo was a fantastic host, she spoiled us Peace Corps volunteers. We ate well, sat around in her living room talking and watching TV, and awoke to an amazing breakfast that was cooked just for us (she let us sleep in, telling us that the morning session wasn't critical for us). So we ate fresh omelets, cereal, juice, real coffee. Mmm!

Meeting embassy workers. For the second day, we spent time inside hanging out inside the embassy, learning about the reporting procedures and financial record keeping. But over the course of the day, I had a chance to talk to many people who work at the U.S. embassy, both from South Africa and from the U.S. They were such interesting people to talk with and meet, and provided a lot of very perceptive information on this country and its future. Of course, it was appropriate that I was with such people when it was announced that the corruption charges against (most likely future president) Jacob Zuma will be dropped on account of an outdated legal practice.

Life Update

Regretting my poor blogging skills as of late, I have decided to just post a nice list of things going on in my life these days. And also, I would like to say that there are a few blog posts in the works, which I will hopefully follow through with and post soon.

• Hot - This is a one word update regarding the weather. It is the beginning of September, which one would expect to be somewhat spring-like. Yet it is quite hot these days, with heat-spells across the country that could reach 40 degrees Celsius (or 104 degrees Fahrenheit). My follow up: "I don't approve." I am hoping that this summer will have lots of rain and amazing lightning storms to match last summer, which provided some relief and cool weather in the evenings.
   
• US Embassy: Community HIV/AIDS Grant - My organization has been awarded a Community HIV/AIDS grant, which will provide close to $10,000 towards the drop-in centers (DIC) where children affected or infected by HIV/AIDS can receive food, support and care within the community. The money will go towards a handful of new DICs, which are just getting going, and need assistance to buy cooking equipment (stoves, pots, pans), pay stipends for the coordinators and assist with transport costs. We learned of this grant several months ago through a referral by another Peace Corps volunteer in the area. It is exciting to see my organization benefiting from the grant program, and I will attend the awarding ceremony with Knowledge and Agnes later this week in Pretoria. During the ceremony, they will learn about the grant administration (reporting and tracking information), meet other people benefiting from the grant (which will hopefully lead to ideas being shared amongst organizations), and have a chance to meet the US Ambassador. I am excited to attend the event, and think that my organization is quite excited about the new funding that I was able to assist with in a small way.
   
• Language Committee - I am now involved in the Peace Corps language committee, which is a group of volunteers seeking to improve and refine the language teaching strategies, so that future groups of volunteers will have better resources and will be able to make the most out of their language learning experience. Part of my involvement in the committee led me to visit the training for a new group of volunteers who will be starting service this week. Being there during there training offered me a fun opportunity to answer questions and share stories, as well as see what an exceptional job the new language trainers are doing. Over the next few months, I will be helping develop new lesson plans, which will hopefully facilitate the teaching of Sepedi for future volunteer groups, by providing greater structure to the language curriculum.
   
• Training - Peace Corps has been scheduling a lot of training these days. Just completed a week of Life Skills Training, which is related to HIV/AIDS and how to educate people at your site about the disease. This includes behavior change education, rather than simply telling people the facts (that is, how do you actually convince people to start acting differently, which relates back to something I discussed before). Coming up in a few weeks, we will be meeting up together as a group again for the Mid Service Training, which will offer us a chance to come together, share stories and discuss what we hope to achieve with the next year of our service.
   
• Graduate School - On that note, in some ways, Peace Corps is already starting to wrap up. Having been in South Africa for well over 14 months and having been an official volunteer for over a year, it means we are now counting down in some ways. With that, I am starting to do extensive research into graduate schools and graduate programs so that I can begin the application process in the coming months. The goal is that I will be accepted into a program starting in August or September of next year, and will head home in July or August (a two or three month early completion of service), so that I can prepare for graduate school. In many ways, that does not seem that far off (especially considering how many volunteers tell me that the second year goes far faster than the first, which is hard to imagine). Once I start applying to specific programs, I will post more details here.
   
• Vacation - Inspired by the fun of spending last Christmas on the beach, several of my fellow volunteers and I are looking to do the same thing again this Christmas. Instead of just going to Durban this year, we are hoping to go into Mozambique and spend a little over a week relaxing on the beach, heading out to some spectacular islands, and other such fun. I can't wait!
   

That hopefully summarizes a lot of the big points going on right now. And soon I will have some more in-depth blog posts, looking at Peace Corps as a program, and discussing the important urban/rural dichotomy that exists within South Africa.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Essay

I was recently asked to adapt some of my blog posts into an essay that discusses the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa, as well as some of my experiences here. The essay is primarily based off an earlier post, where I discuss the disconnect between understanding and action with regards to the continuing HIV pandemic. In that post, I promised a follow up where I would discuss the causes for this disconnect, but never made that addition to my blog. So in the essay is also the long-ago promised investigation into the causes of the disconnect between thought and behavior here.

Please feel free to read or download the essay by clicking the link below:

essay.pdf (PDF document)

Lots More Photos

It's long overdue, but I have finally posted lots more photos. The dearth of photos has been due to two things. One, forgetting my camera in Durban over Christmas vacation. And two, the slow upload speed over the cellphone connection. But both problems have been remedied at this point. Amazingly, I managed to recover my camera four months after I left it in a backpackers in Durban. As for the internet speed, I believe the local cellphone tower was upgraded, because now I get a 3G connection (which is amazing for a rural village anywhere in the world, much less Africa).

My parents came to visit in April, and we spent a little over two weeks traveling around the eastern part of South Africa. Just a brief overview of our trips:

• One night in my village, ga-Mathabatha, staying with Agnes (the head of my organization)
• Over to Graskop and Sabie
• A four night backpacking trip from Sabie over to Graskop (not really backpacking, as we got to stay in outstanding little huts along the way)
• Into Kruger, the amazing game park here
• South, around Swaziland (staying at a guesthouse on a pig farm along the way)
• Two nights in St. Lucia, an estuary game park along the coast
• One night in Durban, with a breathtaking view of the Indian Ocean from our room
• Up to the Drakensberg mountain range, where we stayed in the Royal Natal park
• And finally, returning to Pretoria before my parents headed off

My parents brought many books and other niceties for me to enjoy, but one of the best was my nicer camera, which I had originally decided to leave at home. So along the way, I was able to make up for the lack of photos and captured some of the beautiful places and things we saw. And I have selected a few the highlight places along our journey, and have posted 27 new photos! You can see them by going to:

Album: Traveling South Africa with my parents
http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanntg/TravelingSouthAfricaWithMyParents

A Moment in Africa

South Africa hardly resembles the traditional images that come to mind when you think of Africa… the rolling savannahs and desserts, the tropical rain forest areas. In fact, the majority of the places I have visited thus far remind me more of home then of what I would envision when thinking of Africa. My site is nestled up against a mountain, which looks very much like New Mexico. Many of the open areas resemble the deserts of California. And as you climb into the mountains, such as the Drakensberg Range, you see rock formations that resemble Arizona and mountain lakes that bring back memories of Colorado.
Yet, every once and a while, there will be a view or a moment that resembles some traditional notion of what we expected South Africa to be like. Whether it is a stunning sunrise or the breathtaking moment when a herd of elephants crosses the road on all sides of our car. And when with other volunteers, we will pull out our cameras and comment that it truly looks like Africa. So I wanted to share one of those moments, when it was unequivocally a moment in Africa.

Three close friends and I were visiting Kruger National Park. Just to give a little background, Kruger is one of the largest game reserves in the world. It is about the size of Wales (and is now growing as fences between it and neighboring private reserves and other international reserves are being torn down). It is home to a vast variety of animal and plant life, scattered through out three major eco-zones and many sub eco-zones. Spending a day driving around Kruger, one will often pass from zone to zone and suddenly see a very different environment outside the window. Most of our time is spent driving around, looking for animals. But there are also well maintained rest camps, where you can stop for food or to stay the night.

So upon spotting a turn off for a baobab tree, we decided to go off and explore. The trees are stunning in size, and in formation, with extremely thick trunks (usually about 23ft wide). The trunks are used to store water (up to 32,000 gallons), allowing it to survive through the periods of intense drought. The one in Kruger did not appear to be in the greatest health, but gathering at the base, we were able to appreciate the magnificent size and stature of the tree.

We continued on the curvy dirt road, hoping to make our way back to the main paved road. Coming around a corner, we saw a feline approaching us. And three cars in the opposite direction crowding in to try and get a view of the animal who was walking straight towards our car. We had the good fortune to be the only car coming from our direction, so we had a stunning view. It was a mother leopard, and shortly after, we saw her little cub following behind in a shy manner. Although she seemed quite unfazed by the gathering cars, the cub would run off into the tall grass on the side of the road to hide every so often. The mother would stop and look back impatiently, waiting as the cub got its courage together to walk a little further along the road. You could even here it cry out – little meows emanating from the deep grass, where it hid. The pair walked right by our car, reaching distance from the window and continued on down the road. Simply said, we were awe struck. It had a beautiful body, dotted by rosettes of black spots on a whitish golden background. Its movements were quiet and full of grace. And interestingly, since then, I have learned that it is second most effective predator in Kruger (only outdone by the African Hunting Dog).

The leopard spotting completed the Big Five for us (well, three of us). We’d already seen lions, elephants, African Buffalo and a few rhinoceroses. And of course, we’d also seen giraffes, hippos, baboons, zebras, all sorts of gazelles and amazing birds of all varieties. While wandering the roads of Kruger, the amazing sights and beautiful landscape offer a strong reminder of the fact that we are living in Africa – in some ways, it is not so foreign feeling as we often think, but at the same time, there are some special, beautiful moments that are unique to Africa.

Photos (taken by my friends Abby and Megan)

See More Photos

Xenophobic Attacks

I have not updated my blog in sometime, and in light of the recent news coverage concerning South Africa, I thought it might be appropriate to make a short post updating people on the situation here. And I promise a longer, more personal post in the coming few days.

South Africa has been prominent in the world news over the last few weeks. And, as is often the case when an African country gets global media attention, it is the result of violence and unrest. There has been an ongoing set of attacks being carried out against African foreigners living in South Africa. The attacks are taking place in some of the worst-off Townships, where people are deprived of wealth, employment and opportunity. Motivated by a sense of jealousy and a strong feeling of xenophobic, the South Africans living in the areas have raided and chased off foreigners from other African countries, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, etc. The perpetrators claim that these foreigners are stealing housing, economic support and jobs that should instead go to South African locals.

The attacks have primarily be concentrated around Johannesburg and the rest of the Gauteng province, but in the last week, they have begun to spread to other poor townships in the North West province, the KwaZulu-Natal province and the Mpumalanga province.

The media here (and, to some extend, abroad) have been filled with graphic images and disturbing accounts of the extreme violence, including machete attacks and ‘necklacing’ (putting someone inside a tire, pouring gas on them and then igniting them). It is remarkably discouraging to hear these stories and see the awful violence that is surging, which has many parallels with the rebellious violence that existed during the end of the Apartheid era. Overall, over 42 people have been killed and at least twenty thousand people have been displaced. Huge refugee camps have been setup at police stations in Johannesburg and daily buses carry thousands of people returning to their home country, with the few things they can salvage from their home before being chased away.

The police have been attempting to control the situation, arresting over 400 people. Last night, in an attempt to bring around an end to the violence, president Mbeki authorized the army to assist the police in quelling the aggression and violence. They are expected to be deployed to the troubled areas today. Ideally, there presence might help bring about an end to the violence and scare people back into a peaceful state. But I fear the situation could just as easily escalate. The deployment of the army can result in increased unease and increased tension, as happened when the Apartheid government start placing larger forces in Townships.

I think that so much of this situation reflects peoples disappointment or sense of betrayal by the ANC government (African National Congress, which took over when Apartheid fell). The ANC made large promises about how South Africa would improve in terms of infrastructure, education and opportunity. And in many ways, the country has come a great distance – good water is available to more people, almost everyone has electricity and the economy has grown greatly. But in the excitement of a Black-led South Africa, the ANC promised more then it was possible to deliver. Combine that with an economic downturn, increased inflation, power outages and a huge influx of immigrants from Zimbabwe (fleeing Robert Mugabe) and from Mozambique, it is easy to see how tension has been continually increasing. The people most affected by these things turn to violence as a way to seek resolution, as that was what people were taught during the Apartheid era. Violence helped end that situation, so people have turned to it again, hoping that it will fix the current situation.

Of course, instead of helping, it is furthering the economic crisis here, driving down the South African Rand, discouraging incoming tourists and jeopardizing the 2010 World Cup (the first to ever be held in Sub-Saharan Africa) – all that, on top of the fact that tens of thousands of people are being displaced, hundreds are being injured and several more killed, where there possessions and shops are being looted. It is a remarkably grim and depressing situation, for a country that has so far achieved reasonable stability and good growth, following such a dark history and colonization.

How does this situation affect me? Beyond what I read in the news, there is little affect. And, to the best of my knowledge, this is true for all the Peace Corps volunteers. Volunteers are not placed in the townships surrounding Johannesburg, because of their already violent nature. Most rural communities do not even have a large foreign population. And on top of that, Americans do not really fall into the same competitive category in which other Africans are viewed. So, as it stands, the situation remains relatively safe for us volunteers. Peace Corps is monitoring the situation, informing us of new developments and, if needed, they will take appropriate steps to help ensure our safety.

For those interested in reading more about the situation, I would suggest:

• Mbeki gives nod to army from the Mail & Guardian online – A recent news article from one of the best papers here, describing the current situation and the recent approval of army action.
• Blog post by Abby – A fellow volunteers post describing the situation and echoing some of my sentiments about how disheartening the situation is.

Sore Legs

Yesterday, after leaving at seven in the morning, I returned home at five in the afternoon (it was a long day of travel, one of those potential risks of deciding to commute long distances on a Sunday). I spent the weekend in the mountain town of Sabie in the Mpumalanga province, where the Longtom Ultra Marathon was held. I made a post about the event earlier, which briefly described the event.

Just to recap a little of the history: a few Peace Corps volunteers started the KLM foundation about five years ago. The foundation selects bright children from rural villages and then helps fund their education at one of the top private secondary schools in the area (for more details, I encourage you to view their website). The program partners with the Longtom Ultra Marathon, and gives current volunteers an opportunity to do fundraising and then to come participate in the race and spend time with fellow volunteers. Although the original founders have returned home, the KLM foundation continues to exist and new volunteers have taken on the task of organizing the race weekend.

First off, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who contributed on my behalf. I was surprised by (and am very appreciative of) how much people managed to give; it far exceeded what I was expecting from a little blog post. Letters and little gifts will be in the mail soon… Second, I was very impressed by the larger participation of our group. Over seventy volunteers came to Longtom and as a whole, we raised over $20,000, which is the best year yet.

For the weekend, all seventy of us stayed at the Sabie Backpackers, so there was lots of socializing and catching up with people who I haven’t seen since training ended back in September. Saturday morning, we got transport to the race start points. Two people in our group were actually running the Ultra Marathon (56km or 34.7 miles), while the rest of us were either walking or running the half marathon (the usual 21.1km or 13 miles). Of course, the mileage isn’t really sufficient to give an accurate picture of how challenging the ultra marathon is. It is important to remember that the Longtom run takes place on a mountain. So the first 21 miles are running up the mountain pass, climbing from 3,280 feet in Sabie to the top of the pass which is 7,053 feet above sea level. The lucky half-marathon people got to start at the top of the pass and just do the downhill section into Lydenburg (elevation 4,527 feet).

Having not trained (or really done anything physical for the last three months), I intended to walk and take in the stunning view. So sporting my hiking boots and cargo shorts, I started out at a slow pace in the back of the group, chatting with some fellow volunteers. But then I realized I should try to push myself a little, so I slowly picked up the pace and began walking faster. And that started getting endorphins flowing, which are bad news… Around 14km to go, I suddenly found myself jogging (not a good thing to do in hiking boots). And jogged for what amounted to a little more then half the race, even doing most of the long uphill section. I managed to finish in 2 hours 35 minutes, which I was pleased with. But best of all, I just felt so good for the rest of the day. My body clearly needed the exercise and to be pushed. I was tired, but just felt really positive and very alive. Hopefully that feeling will be enough to motivate me to train and run the whole half-marathon next year.

Of course, waking up yesterday and trying to move wasn’t as positive an experience. My calves burned and still today I feel quite sore. But the good feeling remains.

Thanks again to all those who donated to the KLM foundation! I think it is an outstanding program and a great way to create change by encouraging education and creating opportunities for children.