What to
mention, what to discuss, what names to drop, what themes to elaborate,
etc. These are my questions writing this
blog post while in the back of a car driving from Durban to Johannesburg. I've
finally dedicated some time (yes this six hour car ride) to completing the
daunting task of updating my blog after two months of inactivity. It's not that
I don't enjoy writing, or explaining my life on the internet machine, but
rather that I'm a hell of a procrastinator.
That being said, I've always enjoyed the argument "well, my best
work comes from being under pressure". Ha.
But I
digress (isn't that a fun way to sound witty?). The last two months have been
full of work, travel, orphans, and cats.
So in order to sufficiently explain what has happened I figure I should
touch base on each of these.
Work
has been up and down. As I've mentioned before I've been tasked with running
the ReCYCLE program at Kick4Life and much of the month of November was down.
Early in the month we discovered a bit of a cash flow issue, which in the world
of non-profit work is a complete bitch.
Most often there IS money available; however, since it is money in the
form of grants from a donor it is very restricted to specific, targeted aspects
of the non-profit work (i.e. when a donor gives money to us, we rarely have
free-reign to spend as we wish). Of
course any donation, designated or not, is highly appreciated, but, at the same
time, it does limit the abilities of what it can be used for. In a way, in
short, without exposing too many sensitive details, this is what happened in my
program. Because of this, the month of November was a grind. Our participants
were, understandably, frustrated, and even question Kick4Life's ethics. It
sucked. But, as my grandfather always said "I don't have problems, only
opportunities." And surely enough an opportunity presented itself.
One
Thursday night, while playing poker with some fellow ex-pats, one of my
friends, who works for the US Embassy in Maseru and is in charge of grants
(name-dropping, told you I'd do it) mentioned a grant that is available through
PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Some--brief--background
info.: PEPFAR was actually established by president George W. Bush and is
certainly, in numerous opinions, his greatest success. It's an extraordinary
grant program, which you, the tax-payers, support. Any who, this grant is
available to programs that either A) provide HIV/AIDS medical support to the
community, or B) supports OVCs in the form of small business start-ups. BOOM.
The ReCYCLE program is exactly option B. This grant was tailored for us. Didn't I mention something in a post before
about not believing in coincidences? So
we applied for it.
The
application process was strenuous, but the reward would be well worth it--the
grant would be worth anywhere from R5000 to R50000 ($500-$5000), depending on
what your program required. The next day
my friend sent me the application, which was due on November 14th. That day was
November 9th. In order to complete the application we would have to get two to
three quotations from vendors for each and every expense we planned to incur
with the grant, and submit them with the application. Therefore Monday and
Tuesday we spent running around Maseru looking for quotations for equipment,
advertising, parts, etc; anything we could use for the program. And when we
couldn't find them in Maseru we made the trek across the border and into
Bloemfontein, SA, which is the closest South African city, about 1.5 hours
away. One of my favorite quotations we collected was for a washing machine. Finally
by the 13th we had the application completed, and all that was left was to
print out all of the documents and bring them to the embassy on the 14th. Of
course the printer crapped the bed on the 14th. Luckily my friend said that we
could scan and e-mail all of the documents to him in a soft copy. So finally,
by 8 PM on the 14th, the application was submitted.
The days
and weeks of November came and went, and slowly but surely the headache of the cash
flow problem dissipated. Time works wonders. Finally in December I received an
e-mail from my friend, congratulating us on being accepted and approved to
receive the PEPFAR grant, approximately R45000 in total! I wanted to shout,
dance, and kiss every co-worker in the room, but I quickly realized that this
was only one step. As I mentioned before, donors are very specific and
results-driven. Over the next year I will have to monitor, record, document,
and evaluate every purchase that we make and the results we achieve with the
money. But, for now, we have a huge source of money we can rely on, and breathe
a little easier...
Since
my last post I have traveled to Cape Town (twice), Kimberley, Semonkong (twice),
and Marakabei. My first trip to Cape Town was for a music festival called
Rocking the Daisies. Eight of us rented a mini bus and road tripped the entire twelve
hours there and back. I'd love to go into details about the road trip, and the
festival itself, but those are probably better reserved for a different
audience... For Halloween my roommate and I met up with fellow GRS interns in
Kimberley, which is about 3 hours away from us. Good times, good people, good
atmosphere, but again I won't go into all of the--mildly--inappropriate details...
Semonkong is a tiny village high in the Maluti mountains of Lesotho and is far
and away my favorite place I've had the privilege of venturing to since
arriving in Africa. But I'll talk about this in more detail in the next
paragraph... Marakabei is a village, also in the Maluti Mountains, situated
between the Mohale and Katse dams. Sorry to disappoint, again, but I'll talk
about this in my next blog post because technically it is part of my holiday
travel, which I'm currently engaged in.
So what
is left to talk about? Ahh yes, the second road trip to Cape Town over Thanksgiving.
Originally our group of interns decided that we would meet in Port Elizabeth to
celebrate the greatest holiday EVER, which isn't up for debate, but soon we
were told we couldn't do this. Now that may sound like a disappointment, but it
wasn't. GRS told us that we would have
to go to Cape Town, where global headquarters is, for an intern reunion/seminar
over Thanksgiving. Ha, we HAVE to go to the best city in SA over Turkey break,
paid for by GRS. Easy to say that no one (except for the P.E. interns) objected
to this. If it's free, it's for me.
So
again my roommate and I met up with our fellow interns in Kimberley (Kimterns)
and made the 12 hour trip to Cape Town. In a Toyota Corolla. For a second time
we got very close: physically, emotionally, and I would even say spiritually.
There's only so much you can do in a twelve hour car ride with five people in
close quarters...
Eventually
we arrived in CT. The week was full of different events, some work-related,
some not-so work-related. Thursday and Friday were work-related, and extremely
rewarding. We spent Thursday in our
different intern groups (Monitoring and Evaluation, Finance, Curriculum,
Programs) discussing our experiences thus far, frustrations, successes, and
practices we felt worked best. It was fantastic to hear that other interns were
in the same boat that I was with frustrations, and to also hear how they dealt
with them. To say this session was highly rewarding was an understatement.
Unfortunately we only had two hours dedicated to these group discussions. We
could have filled an entire work day.
For me,
however, the most rewarding part of the seminar was to hear from our intern
coordinator extraordinaire, David Harrison, and former interns who are now a
part of the GRS staff, fully employed. David gave a simple but effective speech
on the emotions and experiences of an intern in their first three months of
living in Africa. First is the honeymoon stage where everything is new and
exciting and nothing can go wrong. Check. Then comes the lull where you get stuck in a day-to-day
routine, frustrations are more apparent, and motivation hits a low. Check. For
me, this was the entire month of November. I had 100% hit a lull and wasn't as
happy, for reasons mentioned before, but also because I felt secluded from the
rest of the GRS interns, since I was now effectively a K4L intern. In many ways the GRS orientation I had in
August, although incredible, was useless. I wasn't doing the same things as the
other interns, and wasn't experiencing the GRS culture that I had come to love.
Hearing David explain that this is normal was comforting. But what was really
comforting was hearing former interns tell their stories, including their low points, why they were
frustrated, and what they did to turn things around. From this discussion I
felt a moving energy, and was re-motivated to improve my life at Kick4Life.
Don't misunderstand me, I LOVE working with the orphans and that was a
wonderful surprise I never thought I would get to do. From running the ReCYCLE
program I've been able to develop some very personal relationships with a
handful of the participants and OVCs, something I know my fellow interns have
not been able to do. Furthermore, I've
come to learn that I love working with kids; they are simply the most worthwhile
part of my job thus far. After the seminar I realized that in actuality I want to work
with the HIV curriculum. So from one set of problems and frustrations came
another opportunity: fortunately, we are
developing and piloting a new curriculum at K4L in 2013. Sign me up.
Other
than informational and work-related meetings, we were allowed ample free-time
in Cape Town to do what we wanted. For me this included playing some football
at the Khayelitsha FFH centre, going to an Ajax Cape Town VS Chippas United
football match, eating copious amounts of food I can't get in Lesotho (never
trust seafood in a landlocked country), enjoying breakfast with fellow interns
at the COO's home (so far we've had meals with the CEO's family and now the
COO's family), riding around the city on the back of a scooter (with my arms
wrapped around my man-friend, Chris Barba), going to the beach, hiking Lion's
Head, and enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with GRS staff. (Side note, we didn't have Turkey on Thanksgiving,
to my outrage. But it was made up for because we ate "Smiley", which
is sheep's head. First and last time I will ever have sheep's head, but hey,
TIA)... After Thanksgiving dinner a group of us decided to drive to Lion's
Head, one of three mountain tops overlooking CT, and make the climb to the top...
at midnight. It wasn't a highly challenging hike, nor was it easy. There are
numerous parts where you have to climb ladders or scale (minor) walls to reach
the top, and a headlamp is necessary. But once we made it to the top it was surreal.
On one side of the peak you can see the ocean, and the moon shining over it. To
the other side is the city lit up like the eyes of Allah (thank you Team
America: World Police). We were all quite giddy when we reached the top:
secluded, tired, full of Smiley, and only slightly inebriated. But in an
instant it went from constant chatter to dead silence. It seemed everyone had
found their place to sit and lose themselves in their thoughts. It's amazing
how quiet it was. No wind (CT has hurricane winds 24/7), no annoying travelers,
no chaos of the city. Just moonlight, city light, and a handful of Americans
lost in their own heads. For me it was
the best hike I've ever been on, but that will surely be outdone by Mt. Kilimanjaro in about a
week's time...
December
1st is known as World AIDS day, to celebrate how far we've come in the fight
against HIV/AIDS, but to also recognize and acknowledge how very far we still
have to go. For many NGO's in the public health sector, it's a day to hold
events and raise further awareness. GRS had many HCT's (HIV counseling and
testing tournaments) across their sites in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
Kick4Life, however, did something slightly different...
Semonkong,
as I mentioned before, is a small village situated in the Maluti Mountains,
with one road in and one road out. The road is made of dirt, rocks, and crushed
dreams. To get to Semonkong from Maseru is straight forward (hence the whole
one road thing) and is only about 160 kilometers, which should take about an
hour and a half on a normal road. But cause it is such a steep climb on such
terrible terrain, it takes 3+ hours. So for World AIDS day Kick4Life decided to
have a team-building weekend in Semonkong at the Semonkong Children's Centre,
an orphanage dedicated to serving HIV positive and HIV afflicted children. We
planned to leave after work on Friday at 2:00 PM, but since it's Africa we
didn't leave until 4:30 PM. I was tasked with driving our mini-van, packed full
of staff, to the orphanage. Oh and did I mention it had been raining all day?
Awesome.
It was
smooth sailing until about an hour into the trip, when we met the diabolical,
demonic, dirt road (I had to fit some alliteration in somewhere in this post).
But thankfully one of our staff members in
my car was very familiar with the road, and coached me on how to drive it. And by coach I mean he told me to stay in
first gear the entire way, follow the path of previous cars, stay away from the
edges (no guard-rails), and to "give the car some lovin'". Well I
hate the mini-van, so the thought of giving it any sort of lovin' didn't sit
well with me. So I swallowed my pride and purred with the engine as we crawled
up the mountain tops. Once we made the first climb, the mountain pass opens up
and you are surrounded by green mountain tops that you would NEVER guess
existed in Africa. Words cannot describe its majesty; breathtaking is
underwhelming; stunning is too generic; jaw-dropping sounds weird. I guess you
could describe it as "Scotland in Africa" (shout out to Hubby). This was our setting for the next two hours,
and I took turns between watching the road and staring at my surroundings.
Well, more of the latter, actually. Oops. When in Rome? Does that work here?
Eventually
by nightfall we made it to the Children's Centre, where we would be sleeping in
an abandoned hospital. This was abandoned in nearly every sense of the word (it
still had running electricity, and the management of the orphanage still used
it for accommodation for team-building events such as ours). There were holes
in the ceiling, insulation falling through, gurneys still in patient rooms,
wheelchairs in corridors, prayers and biblical passages etched on the walls,
and bathrooms that say "DO NOT USE". I was pumped; others not so
much.
To ease
the tension some of our staff started playing music through our speaker system
(I swear to god we bring that thing anywhere Kick4Life goes) and dancing. Again, dancing with Africans is addicting.
They are far more accomplished and adept, but that doesn't matter. What does
matter is energy, and as long as you have some no one cares how uncoordinated
or stupid you look. Eventually the dance party turned into what I like to call
the "Kick4Life Christmas Party". It was our own version of your
typical office Christmas party, filled with the same awkwardness, discomfort,
angst, and hilarity. Eventually we made our way to our beds: forgotten
mattresses on rickety gurneys.
Our
team woke up early to get to work on the orphanage. We were split into teams
and our tasks were either painting the boys' dormitories, moving furniture, or
cleaning buildings. Unfortunately we didn't have much interaction with the
orphans, but that didn't stifle their curiosity. Often times I would look
behind me to find a group of toddlers peeking around a corner to stare at this
mysteriously tall white guy, only for them to vanish when I caught their gaze.
Gotta love kids. Once our work was finished it was time to head back to
Maseru. A storm was coming in the
afternoon and many of us were worried
that some cars would get stuck in the mud. Prior to leaving we drove another 15
minutes down the road to Maletsunyane Falls, which is the Guinness World Record
holder for highest commercial abseil (204 meters). The name Semonkong literally
means "place of smoke" and it gets its name from the mist generated
at the bottom of these falls. Rad.
For me
Semoknong is the most remote place I've ever ventured, and the most
interesting. In summer the morning air is always chilled from the previous
day's storms, mist covers the valley, and clouds cover the mountain tops. The
afternoons heat up and sun shines throughout the valleys and peaks. It is
silent and still minus the sound of cowbells from grazing livestock and herd
boys singing what I can only imagine is Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". Herd
boys are 21st century cowboys. They wear wool blankets, large rubber boots,
knit caps that cover their face (picture IRA soldiers), ride horses, carry a wooden staff and whip to keep their
animals in line, drink "Jawala", a local beer brewed from sugar,
water, and yeast, and they're always smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. These guys
add to the realness of the experience. Semonkong is, as my friend The Chef put
it, "National Geographic caliber, lost in the mountains." I was captivated by its' uniqueness and
simplicity; getting lost in a place like this someday would be a gift...
Oh and
my roommate and I adopted a cat from an ex-pat couple who is leaving Lesotho.
His name is Bandit. Meow.
