The past couple
months since vacation have been such a whirlwind! I really don’t
know where the time has gone since I got back from vacation. It blows
my mind that its now December and my mom is about to arrive!
We traveled straight
from vacation back to Pretoria for Regional Training, a week long
in-service training for health volunteers and their South Africa
counterparts and supervisors. It was the first time I had been
reunited with my cohort since May, and it was really good to see
everyone! We all stayed in a hotel in Pretoria and MJ was my
roommate, so we spent a lot of our time just messing around in our
room, talking, watching movies, and hanging out with other
volunteers!
I can say I was
pleasantly surprised not only with how smoothly the training ran, but
also with how organized and inspiring the resource partners were who
presented to us. We got a lot of information on young men’s and
women’s empowerment programs which I look forward to taking back to
site and implementing, I cannot wait.
Aside from the
presentations, we worked out at the hotel gym, went swimming, and had
dance parties in our room. I loved being reunited with the other
Americans who I started this journey with, it was so nice!
As much as I enjoyed
vacation and training, I also really missed my host family! I was so
happy to come home and get huge hugs from all my host siblings and
unpack to spend some quality time with them! A month away from site
is a really long time.
Many of you ask how
my work is going, so I figured I would give you a picture of exactly
what I am working on over the course of the next 18 months. This
term, so Oct-Dec, I really had to hit the ground running. I am still
preparing all of my materials and supplies to start my girls
afterschool dance club this coming January. I had to finalize
applications, pass them out, and collect/evaluate them to choose
which learners I wanted to participate! Reading those applications
made me so happy and it was so refreshing to hear from young
motivated women who wanted to do something I was making possible for
them. Everything here takes a LOT of time. I have been talking about
this club since March and it will be starting 10 months later, crazy!
But I can only hope that all of my hard work will pay off!
Next term I will
continue to teach in local schools but will be attempting to teach
English rather than Life Skills. If it goes well, I will stick with
that. Teaching is a small part of my service in my community, but I
want to make sure that what I am teaching and how I teach is of the
most possible value to my learners.
I have also started
an after school homework help program at the local primary school,
where grade 5 and 6 learners come every Tuesday and Thursday and work
on homework or a specific task given to them by their teachers. It is
kind of a mix of math (yikes), social science, and English
assignments depending on what they are struggling with. I know it’s
a small chunk of time, but I am happy to stick around in the
afternoon if it means giving kids extra time to work on their
homework and perfect their skills.
Boiketlo, the
organization I am paired with, has a spare room that is being used to
storage now. With the help of a couple grants, I am in the process of
building a reading room and study lounge for local children. We are
redoing the roofing, installing shelving and tables/chairs, and it is
my hope that kids will come to study or read for fun from time to
time. Although the organization cannot feed local kids like it used
to, I want to bring Boiketlo back as a central institution in the
community where people can go for some sort of resource. Hopefully
this will be completed soon!
I also am in the
process of applying for grants for a couple sleepaway camps in the
near future. The first camp will be based on gender rights and unity
among young South African men and women. We will have about 50 young
boys and girls in grades 8 and 9 participate in individual workshops
during the mornings, and by afternoon we will do trust building
exercises all together. My hope is that this camp will happen around
late June or early July 2014. I absolutely cannot wait!
Near the end of my
service in September 2014, MJ and I plan to do a young women’s
wellness camp, a similar timeline and format to the one I just
explained except based on mental and physical health of young women.
We want to incorporate yoga and dance into women’s sexual and
reproductive health issues and gender rights here in South Africa.
The projects
mentioned above are my main goals, but I also plan to do a few side
projects over this course of time, so stay tuned! Its so difficult to
do everything you want to in such a finite amount of time.
Over the next couple
weeks I will just be prepping for my girls club and packing for when
my MOM visits!! She arrived December 16th and I could not
be more excited!
Anyway, I think that
is about all I have to report for now, but I hope you all enjoyed my
updates. I will attach some pictures of my host family, Halloween
celebrated with local PCVs, regional training, and my host sisters
kindergarten (or as they say here grade R) graduation. I miss you all
so much, and you’re all constantly in my thoughts! I hope everyone
had a truly wonderful thanksgiving.
All my love,
H
