Off to camp we go...

Greetings from South Africa,

I want to share a conversation with you that I had with a student the other day.

“Russell, my mom still doesn’t believe that we are going to camp! She couldn’t come to that parents meeting you had, are you sure we are going? And will we stay in tents or cabins?”

Three weeks ago we told the group of fifty Leadership Council students that we were going to spend a weekend at a camp at the beginning of June. The group got on their feet and screamed. They hugged each other and jumped up and down, unable to control their excitement. They didn’t believe us that they would have this kind of opportunity and at no cost to their families.

To provide some perspective for you, most of these kids have never had a weekend away. There is the odd school trip for a few hours but vigorous fundraising has to be done, putting pressure on the students and a financial burden on the families. But a weekend away with rope swings, a challenge course, a zip line, a river to swim in, and lots of friends to share it with is practically unheard of here. I am someone that believes in the power and magic of camp (are you surprised?), getting a group of likeminded people together in a wilderness setting to learn, experience, and share. I cannot wait to see our 50 hardworking leadership students arrive at Hella Hella Outdoor Centre where the cabins, field, river, and mountains are all theirs for an entire weekend!

I responded with, “Yes Bayanda, we are going to camp, we wouldn’t tease you with something like that. And we will be staying in cabins; there will be three groups of boys and three groups of girls.”

“So we will get our own cabins then?”

“Yes, they each have bunk beds.”

I didn’t receive a verbal response following my answer. The smile said it all as Bayanda’s eyes wandered to the other side of the room. I could see him imagining what this camp could possibly look like. He was happily daydreaming.

At the moment, the teachers are translating the registration, waiver, and medical form from English into isi-Zulu. We will spend the June 3-5 weekend at camp. The other day four of us went to see Hella Hella Outdoor Centre (Click here to visit Hella Hella's website). The setting is nothing short of spectacular with a river winding through a valley with Drakensburg-style mountains on every side of the camp. The kids won’t have seen anything like it before.

The weekend will consist of further teamwork and leadership training for the students. To our knowledge, all fifty students are able to make it and we will use a variety of facilitation techniques to engage the kids. Between the group of adults attending, we will draw on North American style summer camp ways, leadership techniques from my masters program, local Zulu traditions, and social work ideas from our intern who has a social work background. And of course, being in a camp setting, this learning will be surrounded by fun, laughter, and support.

“I can’t wait to tell my mom. I think she might believe me now. Are you sure we don’t have to pay? When do we get the forms? I can’t wait to go to camp!”

For me, this is what it’s all about. Bayanda is such a shy boy; I could barely get a peep out of him when I met him. Now he is excited about school; he is brave and asks questions in class. Recently, he came up with the most popular idea for our current drought awareness project. He achieved high marks on his midterm tests and most importantly he is confident in his ability to succeed. And he is excited every Thursday for our Leadership Council meetings. 

If you are interested in learning more about how you can send a kid to camp, please click on the link below. We have negotiated an incredible rate of $36 CAD per child for the weekend at Hella Hella. This includes transportation, accommodation, and food. If everyone receiving my blog email sent one child to camp, our fundraiser would be complete. Currently, we are half way to our $1800 goal to send our fifty leadership kids to camp. So we need your help to get the rest of the group there! Thanks so much and I look forward to updating you after our weekend in the woods!

Slangspruit Leadership Council goes to camp! Click here to learn more and donate now

Meet the kids below! 

Several of the leadership council students posing for a photo

 Some of the boys from the leadership council

 Voting for the order of the projects that the kids want to take on. 

The first project was a litter clean up and awareness project. The leadership council arranged a class vs class challenge to clean up the school. It was hugely successful! 

'A Land of Contrasts'

Greetings from South Africa!

Another month has passed and I am excited to update you on my time here at the tip of Africa (quite literally this time!). As you may have guessed, since my last update in the middle of March, a lot has happened here at work and outside of work.

Our projects at the school have taken off nicely. Leading up to Easter, the teachers were very busy marking exams and completing the first term report cards. I assisted with marking and lessons during the busy post-exam period. The week before Easter we led the school’s first ever day camps for any and all grade fours interested in having a little bit of fun over the Easter holiday. We had a solid turnout and we ran all sorts of games and activities including a treasure hunt, gagaball, rubber chicken baseball, reading books during down time, mask making, and ate some delicious food for breakfast and lunch together. On the final day, after all the grade fours had come through the camp, the newly formed Leadership Council took there turn at camp. We set up a huge game of survival with predators, prey, natural disasters, and humans with water guns! Following all the fun, the young leaders set about planning term two’s projects. Using a democratic system where the kids were able to cast their vote for the project they would like to see completed first, an anti-littering campaign was the winner and believe it or not, the weeklong operation is finishing up on Friday! We are very excited and proud of the kids for all their hard work so far! The school is clean, the kids are energized, the teachers are amazed, and the principal is excited!

We will be holding another week of day camps at the end of June when the winter holidays commence. This time round we will select two grades that will participate, as we will have the next round of interns here already so we can accomplish twice as much! We are also in the final planning stages of our weekend camp for the Leadership Council. We will be heading to an outdoor centre for two nights at the beginning of June… details to follow about the zip lining, canoeing, and other fun activities that we will be leading.

Before and after Easter I was able to get on a few weekend and extended trips to explore this beautiful country. The other day I uploaded my first batch of photos to Facebook and will include some on here as well. I did a long weekend in Pretoria and Johannesburg with Luyanda (my good friend and Zulu teacher). I hiked the Central Drakensberg Mountains for a day and a half with some fellow Vancouverites that are interning in Durban. I flew to Cape Town to experience one of the most incredible cities that I have ever been to and see the Garden Route (as well as a little safari in Addo Elephant National Park). And I went to the Northern section of the Drakensberg Mountains and a few national parks in the region. It has been an amazing month of adventures, traveling with old friends and new, seeing places that render a person speechless and experiencing all that South Africa has to offer. It was an absolute blast spending time with two friends, Alex and Emily from home, in Cape Town, on the Garden Route, and in the ‘burg. A great mid-trip battery recharge for me!

We are now back in the groove with term two underway at school and projects and ideas flowing nicely. I will finish this post with some food for thought; a brief global newsletter article that I wrote for Uvic. Have a look at some thoughts on travel and South Africa ‘The Land of Contrasts’.

Cheers from down here,

Russell

'The Land of Contrasts'

There is so much to learn from traveling to another country. There are the obvious areas where a traveler can invest their time to experience something new: trying a new dish at a restaurant, picking up phrases from the local language, or other cultural examples all enrich ones time in a foreign place. When I have traveled in the past, I found myself hyperaware to this learning, excited about being in a new place, and eager to sample the life of people that may live differently than me. And then there are the unexpected moments that I find teach you even more. For me, learning often comes in the form of the strangers that I come across and build rapport with briefly while I learn about their story; sometimes kids with their witty questions, playful disposition, and unfiltered presence; and other times woven throughout an international adventure with the friends that I’ve made, unique places that I’ve visited, and situations where I have been taken outside my comfort zone.

I love informal and experiential learning. There is no textbook that can teach us about a place and culture like traveling can. Travel writer Pico Iyer said, “We travel to open our hearts and eyes and to learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate”. Currently as I sit outside my cottage in the sweltering heat, exactly half way through my six-month internship in South Africa, I couldn’t agree more with Iyer. South Africa has a turbulent and unjust history, stunningly beautiful countryside and coast, and present challenges such as a corrupt President, increasing food prices, and a crippling drought. These challenges and contrasts flare up in conversation almost everyday. It is the contrasts present in South Africa that have caught my attention over and over again.

Since arriving in South Africa, several people have commented about South Africa being ‘a land of contrasts’. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word contrast as ‘to be different especially in a way that is very obvious’. Now that I have taken the time to stop and think about this, it is hard not to notice contrasts around every corner! South Africa has contrasts geographically, financially, in the food and the people, and they confront me everyday as I go about my life here. Geographically, this country is strikingly beautiful and the beauty comes from a wide variety of landscapes. Thousands of kilometers of coastline; endless mountain ranges, a well-established national park network, green rolling hills, attractive cities, and countless ways in which to discover all of these places makes for such a diverse country inviting you to explore it.

However when you leave the national parks and tourist lodges for the townships and slums of the cities, it is no longer the mountains and the beaches that consume your thoughts but the litter, shanty houses, and impoverished lives of millions in this country. Driving through the townships can be overwhelming, with the slalom skills of a skier needed to maneuver by the farm animals and potholes. The lack of sanitation facilities leaves people to sort out their own ways of dealing with their waste and high levels of unemployment handcuff thousands of people to find work in any way that they can, often selling sweets or fruit at a stall in town or in an informal shop. But of course look beyond the surface and there is an incredible beauty in the townships, with each house being built uniquely out of mud, scraps of metal, and other makeshift material. And as the green hills of the Pietermaritzburg townships roll for as far as the eye can see, the fluffy clouds and bright blue sky make for a perfect backdrop. There is simplicity and beauty among the township hills. Beyond the homes, people go about their lives but stop to wave a friendly hello. Kids play in the sprinkler with their neighbours and friends. The contrasts are everywhere as we leave the gated suburbs and arrive in the sprawling townships.

Wealth inequality in South Africa is evident everywhere you go as luxury vehicles wiz by children begging for money or food. But when you stop to think about this long enough you come to realize that you see this at home and most societies around the world. Here in South Africa, access to resources – such as computers, quality health care, or a decent education – and opportunities – such as traveling, field trips at school, or eating healthy food daily – are only for those who can afford them. And unfortunately those who can afford these things are a minority in this land of contrasts.

Contrasts surround so many aspects of life here in South Africa. And there are also contrasts in my daily life such as extremely busy days at work in the township compared with quiet suburban evenings inside our gated complex where all were hear are cars zooming by outside and dogs barking. Frequently, I catch myself wondering about the contrasts present in this incredible country. Some are so petty such as how I spend my evenings, some are so beautiful such as the elephants lumbering by the tiny meerkats in a national park, and some are so daunting such as the income disparity between the rich and poor. Regardless of whether the contrasts are macro or micro, it is important to acknowledge and learn about them, witness and experience them, and if appropriate and when the timing is right, question them. 

A classroom full of eager kindergarteners!

The road into Giants Castle, Ukhahlamba Drakensburg National Park

Mask making at camp

The Leadership Council taking a photo break

Vancouverites hanging out at the Cape of Good Hope

It's important to remember that humans do not rule the jungle!

The Ampitheatre in Royal Natal National Park

Kids, kombis, and kindness in KwaZulu-Natal

Greetings once again from South Africa,

It has been quite some time since I previously posted and a lot has happened in the last month, so fasten your seat belts because here comes living in South Africa 2.0! We are well established in the community, have taken some great weekend trips, and have found our way through this new, albeit temporary life in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN, the province that we are in). At this point, six and a half weeks into our time in South Africa, I know my way around town, I can say some of the kids’ names without triggering fits of laughter (but you can imagine that I still struggle with names such as Snenhlanhla and Mpumelelo….), I no longer have to start in Canadian dollars and convert to Rand when seeing how much something costs, and I even get in the correct side of the car if I am sitting in the front seat. All these little wins add up to a successful beginning to life at the bottom tip of the African continent.

Our time working at the school and in the Slangspruit township is truly incredible. The kids have embraced our presence and look forward to our cab bumping down the dusty road each morning at 7:20am. And of course we love seeing their smiling faces as we get off the main road and into their community. Other than the teachers, we are one of only a few cars that arrive at the school each morning. Of the 1040 students, the majority of them walk to school. Thus they don’t have traffic cops, speed zones, walk to school campaigns, crossing guards and other initiatives that the suburban schools and schools in Canada often have!

Lunch comes early at Slangspruit Public Primary School, as this is likely the first, and sometimes only meal of the day for the students. At 10:00am the bell rings and the bucket of food arrives to each classroom. As one teacher pointed out, students that cannot afford to bring their lunch are eagerly getting into line, where students that may have a lunch (perhaps a simple sandwich and some sugary snack) peruse by to see what is on offer that day. If it is something of interest, they will most definitely join the line up to fill up for the rest of the day.

Hunger is a serious issue at the school. And so is access to water when the tap is switched off unannounced. These resilient kids face unimaginable challenges such as these and others – kidnappings, crime, HIV, parentless households – every single day. But they are so eager to learn and embrace their education and extra-curricular programs such as computer classes, homework club, and a brand new school leadership council.

Each Monday to Wednesday we offer homework club where the kids can bring their homework after school to get help finishing it. I lead the grade four classes and absolutely love working with these kids. They are in their first year of English instruction at school so language/understanding is a constant battle. But somehow we manage with some kids translating and others coming up to me to whisper what it is that they want to tell me, “Sir, today I have maths homework and no English”. At the end of homework club, every learner receives an apple. This may be the only piece of fruit the kids eat that day and it often inspires them to come to learn after school. Plus they never know when it could be a special snack day where cheese and crackers are served! It is truly a win-win situation to attend homework club.

Computer classes are an absolute riot! The kids run to the computer room with elbows high (similar to how a couple of my family members play hockey!!) and feet moving quickly to assert their place in line for a computer. Again, I thoroughly enjoy teaching the grade fours as I don’t believe that any of them have ever used a computer before. On the first few days I couldn’t say things like ‘click the start button’ as that didn’t make sense to them. We began practicing using the mouse as a means of instructing the computer to do what we want it to. It was a very eye-opening experience for me on the first few days! My absolute favourite part of each computer class now is when I give an instruction such as ‘double click the heart picture game on the screen’ and one by one each of the kids quietly and excitedly proclaim success by whispering ‘YES!’ under their breath for mastering the instruction. It is the most beautiful sign of confidence and excitement displayed by the kids.

On Monday we began a new chapter at the school with the first ever student council being unveiled. The leaders for each class proudly arrived on time to our first day of training and engaged in brainstorming, job description creation, and teambuilding for three further days this past week. For more on this, ‘like’ Ukulapha Community Outreach Project on Facebook to receive more frequent updates about what the kids are up to and to see photos of our time in Slangspruit (https://www.facebook.com/Ukulapha/). We are dreaming big this year and hoping to take the kids on an overnight to a camp in town, field trips, and other new and educational opportunities. Stay tuned, as you could be part of helping us do this in the weeks and months ahead!

Beyond the school, life here is such an adventure. We wear many hats including urban explorer, local transportation rookie, tacky tourist (sadly we cannot get away from this with our accents, water bottles, and sunscreen), and more! I have been fortunate to make it to Durban a few times now, checking out the big city with its stunning beaches, questionable Indian food joints, endless African markets, and cosmopolitan feel. We take the local minibuses (kombis) down to Durban for a quarter of the price of the Greyhound. This money saving method also includes friendly locals, often happy to chat about politics, why we are in South Africa, or any other matters of the day. Kombis also come equipped with hair razing moments of passing people on the shoulder of the highway in a traffic jam, reversing down the wrong lane of traffic to pick up another fare, and endless ‘hooting’ (honking) to let folks know that there’s a seat inside the kombi with their name on it!

Another previous adventure that we’ve had is a visit to a township dog-training program where local kids bring their dogs to be checked out by veterinarians and trained with dog handlers. Google ‘Funda Nenja’ to learn more as this life-changing program is one of a kind in the area! I also went hiking in Hilton a few weekends ago with a great group of hikers that I will join again in the coming weeks. They all had fantastic advice as to where we should explore in the coming days and weeks ahead!

Next week my Zulu lessons will continue with my awesome friend and Zulu teacher Luyanda. I have acquired all sorts of helpful one-liners to surprise the kids with from Luyanda and he has kindly shown me the city from a local’s perspective as well. I will also be scoping out a tennis group on Tuesdays to try and join the weekly ladder that a small group of guys have going at a local club. We have a few weekend trips coming up soon as well. Currently we are in what I would call the Waikiki (with way fewer crowds) of South Africa hanging out at the most beautiful Airbnb spot right on the beach! Google Umhlanga Rocks and after seeing pictures you may be inclined to send me a rude text as I can see that it is 8 degrees and raining at home (sorry!). We are heading to a rugby match tonight, my first one ever, as our generous hosts have season tickets. Papa, I will be thinking of you as I take in my first rugger game.

I appreciate all of your comments and notes about my stories here and I look forward to sharing with you again in a few weeks. It is truly a privilege to be here and work with such a kind and welcoming community of people. Wishing you all the best until my next post.

Cheers from down here,

Russell

Info about the photos:
1. This is our cottage in Pietermaritzburg
2. This is the group of us visiting the Funda Nenja dog program (from left: Bryan - Canadian intern with me, Angie - Canadian visitor from Duncan, BC and organic farmer teaching and setting up a vegetable garden at Slangspruit School, Brynn - Canadian intern with me, Carolyn - the founder of Ukulapha and our supervisor while here, a Funda Nenja volunteer, me with my sweet new bucket hat, another Funda Nenja volunteer, and finally the founder of Funda Nenja
3. This is one of the classrooms at Slangspruit School. We are in the middle of homework club and the kids are working diligently :)
4. The view from the backyard in Umhlanga

Our work, home, and life in Pietermaritzburg

Greetings from South Africa!

Two weeks in to my stay in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (just outside of Durban) I have finally got my first blog post sorted out. My three co-interns – Emanuela, Brynn, Bryan – and I are well on our way to crossing the road without nearly getting hit, accepting that wearing long pants in 34 degrees to work is the norm, and that life in South Africa has many similarities to home and remarkable differences.

We are working with a non-profit from Victoria - VIDEA (click here for a link), Victoria International Development Education Association. VIDEA facilitates powerful development work in the areas of gender equality, human rights, and social justice. Our South African counterpart is Ukulapha (isi-Zulu for ‘healing’) Community Outreach Project. Ukulapha is a grassroots organization doing necessary work in a community that has grown stronger from its presence. Click here to check out Ukulapha's website. The four of us are working with a school, in the classrooms assisting the teachers and brainstorming projects to implement at the school and within the community. Those of you that know me well may have a guess at my energy and excitement for work like this… This is my jam! The kids are enthusiastic and hilarious – they love asking me to pronounce difficult isi-Zulu words; isi-Zulu is a clicking language, click (pun intended) here to check out a video demonstrating Xhosa, another clicking language in South Africa  – and the teachers have helped us acclimatize nicely.

I work in a grade seven math classroom each morning and grade seven EMS (Economics and Management Systems) classroom each afternoon. This week the homework club started up after school and we – the school, Ukulapha, and the four Canadian interns – have several other projects beginning soon. Stay tuned for student council, Easter day camps, field trips, computer classes, and teacher & parent workshop updates soon!

South Africa is a fascinating country with contrasts everywhere. Pietermaritzburg expands like the Target store logo with the bulls-eye being downtown and growing outwards from there. The British colonial architecture dominates the central business district. The suburbs are lined with beautiful (albeit gated, alarmed, sometimes guarded, and fenced) homes. There are no shortages of Audis and BMWs either. Finally as you leave the city and suburbs, you’ll find the endless sprawl of townships. Townships in South Africa grew during apartheid when non-whites were excluded from white neighbourhoods. The green hills of Pietermaritzburg roll from one township to the next. It is just a few minutes drive from one part of town to the next.

We have a great spot in the suburbs, close to two malls and five grocery stores! The prevalence of grocery stores here is important, as food is so cheap! South Africa has delicious produce (a little cheaper than home), huge yogurt tubs (so cheap – less than $2 for a kg – and tasty, my favourite being the passion fruit flavour!), and bread that is 65 Canadian cents for a Cobs-style loaf!!! We rent one of four cottages from our fantastic landlords who also live on site. We have an electronic gate to enter the property and lots of room for skipping, push-ups, and exercise outside our front door. Our cottage is a great size and very much our home.

Pietermaritzburg is a friendly and appealing medium sized city. A South African friend that now lives in Canada described it as the Kelowna of South Africa; this is the perfect description, just add a whole lot more greenery! Last weekend we discovered, not to our surprise, that the surrounding area is also stunning. We visited the spot where Nelson Mandela was captured in 1962 by the apartheid government. We ate lunch at a touristy little spot that reminded me of Coombs Market sans goats. And we hiked through a nature reserve amongst giraffes, zebras, and wildebeests. Yup, I sure am back on my favourite continent!

I look forward to updating you on our work, learning, and adventures in South Africa. Earlier today, I returned home from a sweaty walk to my first isi-Zulu lesson. Tomorrow tennis and the KwaZulu-Natal Botanical Gardens are potentially on the menu. 

Cheers from down here,

Russell