Vanderkloof Dam- Rowing Sprints

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Support Group Volunteering...

So besides the Ubuntu Crisis Center, (where i just spent my Saturday) we are supposed be volunteering through this place called The Kwa-Zulu Natal Christian Council. We were assigned people to shadow called patient advocates, but i have called my assigned patient advocate many times with any luck in setting up a time to meet as well as every other person in my class we have all come up dead ended, except for my friend Michelle.

Michelle has had great success and goes with her Patient Advocate once a week to a township called Buffer and some neighboring areas to visit AIDS patients. I had really wanted to see what it was like so i tagged along. We took two different kombi/taxis to the township and then got a dropped off at corner where we were supposed to meet Sandile (the patient advocate). I had absolutely no idea what to expect. This was the most impoverished area i had been to since i been here and we were just standing there with no where to go. Then we see her walking down the street.

I found out Sandile is a "community worker" barely employed by the government, and i think and HIV or AIDS patient herself. She spends her days walking around the township checking in on people on her list and talking to them, making sure they are ok, taking their medicine and asking them how they are feeling.

So the three of us start off up this big hill through the townships knocking on what seems to us to be random people's doors, we go inside, sit down and just show them that someone cares that they are ok. We ask them how are they feeling (a lot of this is down in Zulu by Sandile) and ask them if they are taking their medicine, and make sure they take it at the same time every day. We ask them if they have a "treatment buddy" or someone they can talk to about what they are going through with, and if they have TB (which many of them do) and if they are on medication for that. Also, making sure they know when their next doctor's appointment is.

We went into about ten houses, asking these same types of questions. Many of the houses were governmental housing, brick squares filled with beds. It was hard to tell how many people lived in each because we went during the day, when most people were not home. Some houses had chickens and mice inside. All over the streets were goats, chickens, cows, and dogs. It was quite the experience. There were no street names and a lot of the addresses were written down on her sheet like "third from red brick" or "2 up from stream". This was definitely a different kind of place. Some houses had absolutely no food in them, others people were eating and there were many children.

It was quite the experience and when we got back into the taxi to go home i felt almost surreal. it was weird because i felt awful for them and really sad about what i had just seen, but realized that this is just a life of people i have never seen before and that although it is nice to visit them i can't solve all of their problems. I guess all we can do is let them know that we will come back and check in on them again, and although it really does seem like i did nothing, it is all i can do.

First Rowing Regatta...

Don't you like the sexy spandex? I did... kind of reminds me of the triathlon team, but way more chill. Well anyway, yesterday was our first rowing race, which they call a regatta... Natal Champs.

Of course, all rowing events begin at the butt crack of dawn, practice at 5am, and meeting at 6.30am on a SATURDAY to go to the race. It was only about a half hour away in an area called Albert Falls, beautiful. Well we got there, set up the boats and then all of sudden we were off on our first race. The races were fun, quick, only 1000m and exciting. The cox yells and lot and you have to concentrate hard, no zoning out. And then all of the sudden you are sweaty and it is over. I have been rowing at the last seat in the boat, which is the first seat facing backwards. I raced twice in a boat of 4 and once in a boat of 8 and got 2 medals! The competition wasn't very high, but there was a school there for the blind, which i found really cool that it is a sport that everyone can do. awesome experience.

The day was really relaxed. We lay out in the grass and watched the other races and then went back to the boat house to have a Braii (BBQ), i ate some buns. yum. We all dressed up in these green jump suits (some sort of tradition) sang weird songs and drank South African drinks. After we all went to a club and danced. I met tons of new really cool people and really enjoyed every minute of it. next regatta: 2 weeks.

another day at the Ubuntu Crisis Center...

So yesterday was a grat day because i got to go back and volunteer. what was even better was that all the kids that i played with before remembered me and they are so friggen adorable. This time when we went we brought some toys: hula hoops, sidewalk chalk and soccer balls.

Hula Hoops were awesome because some of those girls can keep it going for a really long time, i just can't swivel my hips like that, maybe i am getting old.

Sidewalk chalk was a huge hit and as we played i even got them to help me study for my Zulu test i have tomorrow by drawing the body and labeling it. i know, multitasking to the extreme.

The soccer balls were really fun because we had a huge game that got pretty intense. Of course, my team won, with absolutely no help from me, but it was really fun and some of those kids are awesome. I just kept wondering how they played barefoot on the rocks, because when i took off my shoes it hurt so bad.

After a while of playing we walked through the township to go visit an Ugogo (grandmother), who was born in 1915, who lived in poverty with a boy in a wheelchair in a mud hut that was falling down on her. They brought us there to show us and help make a plan for a day when we are going to come back and do some sort of habitat for humanity type work. The crazy part is that it is actually just made of mud and some stick frame and she says she is afriad to go in it at night because it might fall down so she sits on the porch.

We went with the older girls from the orphanage and while we were there they did some type of prayer/song service for the grandmother that i have never seen before. It involved singing songs and then personal prayer but everyone speaks out loud at the same time. It was actually very very cool to see and be a part of. Also cultural difference that is very apparant every where you go is the utmost level of respect that kids have for their elders. They speak and act very different around the elderly and even their parents, or people of their parents age.

The hardest part about going there is leaving. It is absolutely awful. The time goes by so fast and when we got in the van to go back to the university yesterday this is how enthusiastic they are about us coming back--> It is just so nice to know that your time and your efforts are appreciated and that even though sometimes it is just playing hopscotch, people really need your individual attention. Every time we leave the last thing we say is when can we come back.

dad really wanted me to take a picture of my room...

ok so for some reason my dad thought it was really important that i take a picture of my room and post it on here. it is nice... a desk and a sink... so here are the pictures. One day soon i might even take some pictures around campus, it is a lot more like michigan state than i thought. Oh and i did have to clean it up a bit before i took these pictures. I am at the end of the hall right next to the kitchen and the bathroom. yay! anyway... it is nice. so now you all know where i sleep.

weekend in durban and other happenings...

So.... this weekend was an adventure to say the least. I was invited by some girls from my dorm to go with them on their usual weekend to Durban. Durban is the big city in the province that i am in, and it is next the beach. If it makes sense, i live in a city the equivalent of Lansing and Durban is the equivalent of Detroit... but way nicer and with the Indian Ocean.

It was a really cool weekend because for the first time since i have been here i didn't feel like a tourist but i did stuff that normal kids would do here on a regular weekend. We went to go visit some of their friends at the other campus of my university. It was a much different campus, much hillier and they had monkeys like squirrels there. under cars, behind bushes, in all the trees, i laughed so hard.

We walked around the campus and surrounding areas, drank wine and went to this really awesome club called Paris. There we saw the two most popular DJs in South Africa. DJ Tira and DJ Chynaman. They were saweeet and i was surprised because i knew most of the songs. We danced all night and i am getting pretty good but i can't keep up with some of these girls, they are amazing. Sunday we did what all college students do on sundays. sit around their dorm room and eat scrambled eggs, it reminded me of freshman year back home. i guess it doesn't matter where in the world you are sundays are for relaxing.

in other news today we had a rowing time trial at the gym down the road on the rowing machines. a lot harder than a thought. We have a race this weekend that i am pretty excited for/nervous. something new every day is my goal. hey and if any of you have any ideas of fun games to play with little kids that don't involve a lot of speaking let me know and if you have anything exciting to tell me in general let me know to. i am loving the emails.

actually beginning to make a difference...

Today was great. Finally for my community service class i actually got to do something and it was awesome. We were approached by this organization called the Ubantu Crisis Center located in a township nearby called Edendale who heard we had a large group of volunteers. The crisis center is an orphanage mostly for girls ages 5-17 and 3 boys whom have had traumatic experiences in their life leaving them without a home.

Right when we got there we were greeted by hugs, and everyone introduced themselves. It was hard to understand every body's name but i am getting better. After we had a tour and were broken into small groups of about 7 or 8 girls and 3ish college students. We played some games and i really racked my knowledge for old camp games you can play without a lot of words. Duck Duck Goose was a hit and then it turned into a dance party.

After we took a walk about 2 miles to the top of a big hill in the township where you can see everything from. I had a permanent 6 year old girl on my back who was the cutest thing in the world, Lunga, who ended up falling asleep on the way home. We walked in small groups (my group played a lot of follow the leader) and then some of the girls who spoke English explained to me where their church and school was from on top of the mountain. It was very cool. For the first time my Zulu class came in handy and i realized i know more than i think i do. i was able to have basic conversations about how hot and sweaty i was, how many brothers and sisters i have, along with what kind of food i like to eat. i know, impressive.

After we walked back to the center and played some silly games and i learned a few silly Zulu songs one included a line the equivilent to "stick your butt out" but it was a lot of fun. When we got back onto the bus to leave, my new friend Lunga decided to break down in tears and throw a fit, i don't think she understood that i was coming back. The whole way back all of the other kids from my class made fun of me for making a little girl cry, but i swear, it wasn't my fault. I can't wait to go back.

skydiving!

to tell you the truth about a month ago i thought jumping out of the plane sounded cool and all, but i probably would never do it. I mean don't you think it is kind of stupid to jump out a plane about 2 miles up in the sky and just fall for 30 seconds hoping that when you want it to your parachute will come out? well it kind of is. (oh and from the picture you can tell as much talk as i am... i was afraid)

too bad this what i did yesterday and once i jumped out i wasn't scared at all about a parachute but just enjoyed the ride.

from the beginning... six of us got picked up from campus and driven to the airport by a guy recommended to us by someone we met at a backpackers a couple weeks ago. From there we went to the Pietermaritzburg airport, had basically no introductions and signed our lives away. (no one has died from this company in 18 years, and the person tied to my back had done over 3,500 jumps in the past 7 years). We went in groups of two up in the small plane with no door and flew around pietermaritzburg mountains for about 15 minutes before he informed it was time to swing my legs out the door.

I didn't even have time to really think before i realized we were falling through the sky. I laughed pretty much the whole time thinking how ridiculously awesome the whole thing was and how we were just falling. All of a sudden the parachute came out and the ride became peaceful, quiet and mellow. You could see everything which was awesome and i kind of felt like i was flying, you know when you jump off the swings, but slower. We did some twists and spirals in the air before landing sitting on our buts in the grassy area by where the airplanes land.

And it was over, almost as fast as it had all begun. My legs felt like jello when i stood up and i immediately wanted to do it again. Too bad it is kind of an expensive hobby, i guess i will just have to watch the dvd over and over to relive it.