So the past two days has been somewhat of a marathon of volunteering. I have to complete 60 hours for my political science class and i wasn't doing to well, until now. Yesterday it started by attending a political violence briefing Wait, i guess i should back up a little bit...
My class were recruited to be international election poll observers to ensure a free and peaceful election. I went to a training the other day (mostly in zulu) and from there they offered to brief us on the recent political violence and events with the other international observers from uganda, canada and zimbabwe. So, deciding i needed hours and it sounded semi interesting i went to this meeting, in the middle of no where. Only two other people came because of logistical issues and a couple of us from the university. It was really interesting and they talked about all of the different specific incidents of political violence in the area and why, also which areas were more expected to have issues on election day and why. I learned that this country is uber messed up politically since the majority of the population will only vote the ANC because that was the party that liberating them from the apartheid and there is a belief that any other party would force people back into apartheid. So overall, the party is very corrupt, it's leader (who is bound to win) only has graduated to grade 3 and has many charges against him, including rape. we will see how it goes. But anyway, i learned a lot about past violence. I am lucky to live in the United States.
So that was the first part of the election volunteering saga. Part two included waking up at 5 this morning to go downtown to be transferred to a township to oversee a polling station. It all sounds good and fun, but i was all by myself in this very very poor governmental housing township. I sat in the corner of the room alone and watched over 1000 people vote over 7 hours. When the lady came to bring me my (KFC) lunch i begged to leave and told her i didn't feel well. We weren't aloud to talk to anyone and just had to observe things, i counted everything in the room. Anywho, i realized that i would not be a good person to do a job that involved being alone.
Seeing the voting was actually kind of cool. the ballots were really really simple. Party name, their symbol, pictures of the person running and check box. And then they put it into this big box. A funny part about voting was before you voted they painted your thumb nail with paint so that you can't vote in more than one location. The people however in my location were very unfriendly and everyone was really tired and grumpy from standing in rediculously long lines and such. I normally really like helping out, but i didn't belong in the township, they were all giving me really weird looks, and i hadn't heard a word of english all day. It would have been ok if i wasn't completely alone, or alowed to talk. oh well, so is the nature of volunteering.
The other volunteering was a lot of fun. Last night there was a fundraiser for the Ubuntu Crisis center where we work with the kids at the orphanage. There wasn't as big of turn out as there should of been, but it was a cool dinner at city hall and all the girls came. There were speakers (mostly in zulu) and some singers, all very churchy. Even some dancing. The dinner was very south african, meaty, with a lot of potatoe salads and things like that. Actually, really good. The event started really late and lasted for a long time, one of the little girls, fell asleep on my lap at the table, but we had a good time making funny faces at each other when we were supposed to be quiet. I was the hit of the kids table for sure.
My class were recruited to be international election poll observers to ensure a free and peaceful election. I went to a training the other day (mostly in zulu) and from there they offered to brief us on the recent political violence and events with the other international observers from uganda, canada and zimbabwe. So, deciding i needed hours and it sounded semi interesting i went to this meeting, in the middle of no where. Only two other people came because of logistical issues and a couple of us from the university. It was really interesting and they talked about all of the different specific incidents of political violence in the area and why, also which areas were more expected to have issues on election day and why. I learned that this country is uber messed up politically since the majority of the population will only vote the ANC because that was the party that liberating them from the apartheid and there is a belief that any other party would force people back into apartheid. So overall, the party is very corrupt, it's leader (who is bound to win) only has graduated to grade 3 and has many charges against him, including rape. we will see how it goes. But anyway, i learned a lot about past violence. I am lucky to live in the United States.
So that was the first part of the election volunteering saga. Part two included waking up at 5 this morning to go downtown to be transferred to a township to oversee a polling station. It all sounds good and fun, but i was all by myself in this very very poor governmental housing township. I sat in the corner of the room alone and watched over 1000 people vote over 7 hours. When the lady came to bring me my (KFC) lunch i begged to leave and told her i didn't feel well. We weren't aloud to talk to anyone and just had to observe things, i counted everything in the room. Anywho, i realized that i would not be a good person to do a job that involved being alone.
Seeing the voting was actually kind of cool. the ballots were really really simple. Party name, their symbol, pictures of the person running and check box. And then they put it into this big box. A funny part about voting was before you voted they painted your thumb nail with paint so that you can't vote in more than one location. The people however in my location were very unfriendly and everyone was really tired and grumpy from standing in rediculously long lines and such. I normally really like helping out, but i didn't belong in the township, they were all giving me really weird looks, and i hadn't heard a word of english all day. It would have been ok if i wasn't completely alone, or alowed to talk. oh well, so is the nature of volunteering.
The other volunteering was a lot of fun. Last night there was a fundraiser for the Ubuntu Crisis center where we work with the kids at the orphanage. There wasn't as big of turn out as there should of been, but it was a cool dinner at city hall and all the girls came. There were speakers (mostly in zulu) and some singers, all very churchy. Even some dancing. The dinner was very south african, meaty, with a lot of potatoe salads and things like that. Actually, really good. The event started really late and lasted for a long time, one of the little girls, fell asleep on my lap at the table, but we had a good time making funny faces at each other when we were supposed to be quiet. I was the hit of the kids table for sure.
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