Some More Pics (post-Gugulethu)

Here are some pictures from our day of wine tasting and touring the Stellenbosche region. It was a very nice day. This first picture is a panorama of the valley containing many of the winery outside of Cape Town.


This is a picture of a monument dedicated to the Afrikaans language. It was cool. I felt like the view was better than the monument itself.
I love this picture! This is a picture outside of the first winery we visited. It was pretty much gorgeous and pristine.Here is a picture of everyone at the wine tasting itself. We were having a good time drinking wine. Our guide was named Victor, and he was awesome.
Here is a picture of Kate on the way home from our day. I just like the look on her face combined with the hilarious painting!
The day of wine tasting was a lot of fun. The only sad thing was that our instructor Aaron got motion sickness and could not really enjoy the wine. Otherwise, the weather was beautiful and the Stellenbosche region was really nice.

Last Day

It's the last day, and I am sad! Time goes so fast when you are doing fun things. Actually time seems to go fast any way you do it. The last couple days have been full of reflection and group work, and it has been fun to begin the long process of divining what this trip will mean to me. I think a lot of people are worried that they are going to get home and forget about all the personal growth that has been goin' on in the face of old friends and habits. I definitely share this fear, although I am going to try really hard to continue the work that has begun here.

I think our project to help Priscilla (who I mentioned in a previous blog) redo her house will be good to keep me reminded of the principles we have been working to establish in our lives; namely, a bolstered sense of needing to help people and a new emphasis on involvement in community and awareness of others. After seeing the state of Priscilla's home and the level of dedication she has to the children of her community, we decided to raise some money that we can donate to help improve her living conditions. She is a truly virtuous person, and she really needs the help taking care of some very basic needs. I am also getting really excited to begin volunteering at the Good Samaritan Specialty center and help out with their music therapy. I have been talking about doing this for the last seven months, and I think this summer will finally present me with the time to get involved for real.

The world is a big place, and it needs dedicated people willing to give their time to help others and raise awareness of social problems. I have never been one to get very involved in these kinds of project, and I think I am going to use this trip as motivation to finally get involved in a big way. My original logic for doing the leadership minor included this as a goal, and I am excited to finally realize my potential to be present in a public service setting.

Gugulethu Part 2

So it is probably time to do some further reflecting on our experience in Gugulethu. After getting back into the University of Cape Town area, I am just realizing how different the whole atmosphere is. You can just tell that the township is so much closer. In Mowbray (the suburb), I get the feeling that most people don't really know their neighbors, and there is so much security on all of the houses. It just feels very hostile in general. I also had an illuminating experience, in which I went out to a local club called Tiger Tiger with my friend Allan, who works at UCT. The crowd there was practically 100 percent white, which is something I haven't yet seen in Cape town. It was a fun night, but the whole place felt really nervous. The people weren't too friendly, and I didn't feel too much like I could just strike up a good conversation with any random person. People seemed very concerned with what they looked like all the time, and they also seemed very guarded. It was like a huge collection of cliques. Regardless, Allan is a lot of fun, and we certainly had a good time. It was just a striking contrast with the township, that I have come to characterize as a place of close bonds and an overwhelming sense of family.

At this point, I feel like it would be very difficult for me to discuss all of the events that occured in Gugulethu. We had many lecturers at JL Zwane with a number of great insights on contemporary South African issues. I felt very stimulated by the conversation we had each day, and I am thankful for the diverse range of perspectives presented to me. There are a few highlights that stand out to me, however.

The first day we were lectured to by the Reverends Xapile and Louw, who serve as both the spiritual and community leaders of their congregation. They talked to us a lot about leadership, with particular emphasis on personal leadership and its role in helping to build community. I was particularly struck by the observation that it is impossible to "help" everyone, regardless of the resources available to the community in question. As a leader, one must instead identify those with a desire to succeed, and give them your time and attention. Many people simply want a leader to hand things to them on a silver platter, demanding attention without actually putting in any of their own effort. I took from the lecture that these people will sap the energy of a leader if he or she doesn't help to raise them to a point where they are self motivated and can sustain their own effort. Another big point was that one can do anything if they truly decide to do it. JL Zwane began as shipping containers pushed together to form a makeshift center, and it has since grown into the magnificent building shown in the pictures of my previous posts. The leaders there used connections around the world to raise money, and over a long time and with great effort built a strong center for the community. They have since raised awareness of AIDS in the face of social stigma, and there congregation is an amazing collection of impassioned individuals.

That same day, we made our first trip to a woman named Priscilla's house. She lives alone in a four bedroom house, where she raises a number of young children that varies from 11 to 14 depending on the day. She was quite inspirational, and I will certainly discuss her at a later point. I actually need to get some sleep now, but I will continue this reflection in the morning. I think what is most present in my mind is the above discussion on leading individuals. It is so hard for me to consider social change from a global perspective. A problem like AIDS contains so many sub-issues, and it is wrapped in so many levels of complexity that it can seem impossible to untangle. However, boiling issues down into more manageable samples can help to make them reasonable. This can be accomplished by thinking in terms of individuals and using leadership skills to bring them together into a functioning group. I will continue to consider this in the next couple hours, and I will also probably be posting in the morning. Good night!

Further Info

I probably should have mentioned this awhile ago, but if you want some more perspectives you can access Aaron Asmundson's blog at www.aaroninsouthafrica.blogspot.com. He is our teacher and organized this whole trip. Admittedly, his blog is much more complete that mine. There are also links to the blogs of other students on this trip.

Here are some pictures from my stay in the Gugulethu township:

This one is of me and Reverend Edwin Louw, who was one of two reverends acting as community leaders at JL Zwane (the community center we were based out of). He was awesome.
This is a picture of the JL Zwane Community center, which began several years ago as a collection of converted cargo containers. It has grown into an amazing community center and church, which is very progressive and present in the community.
Below is a picture of the some of the more wealthy houses in the township. Some of the township contains very nice houses, while other areas consist of sprawling collections of shacks.
This is a picture of one of the classes with whom we tutored. The Rainbow After School program at JL Zwane helps supplement the education of children attending local schools. Some of the local schools are underfunded and have poor teachers, so the program picks up where public educations leaves off to keep local kids afloat in the educational system.
This is one of the areas we visited during a tour of Gugulethu. It was a particularly poor area, inhabited by many people living in poverty. You can see how many of the buildings are in disrepair, and garbage is strewn about. It was pretty stinky.This is one woman who was living in the buildings pictured above. She lived in one room with 5 children, which may or may not be hers. The living conditions were not so nice.
This is Priscilla, who is a wonderful woman helped out by JL Zwane. She cares for anywhere between 11 and 14 children depending on the day. The only relation is one granddaughter; the rest of the kids were abandoned by their parents. On Thursday, June 5 we helped her out by bringing toys for her kids and preparing a meal for them. She had a beautiful smile, but you can just tell that she is exhausted. Obviously, she left quite an impact on me. I think our group will be organizing some money to help renovate her house. She cares for all of the children in a very small 4-room house. It is pretty unbelievable, and her perseverance is incredible.
This is a picture of my host mother and her son Paul. They were very nice to us, and I can't express enough my appreciation for their hospitality. We had some really great conversations about township life. I felt very much at home with them after just 3 nights. They also had a very scary dog named Jackie.
This picture shows the kids at the Tembalethu School. It is a unique school that cares for kids with a variety of disabilities, and we spent an afternoon there doing activities with the kids and helping out with some of the upkeep. It was a lot of fun.
These pictures show just a few of the things we saw in Gugulethu. It's hard to give a really good picture of what was going on. On the one hand, there was a lot of poverty out in the open. As I said above, there were some massive, sprawling villages of shacks made out of scavenged metal and wood. The people living in these places often suffer from poverty, hunger, and sickness. It is a tough, culturally entangled situation that has proven difficult to remedy. On the other hand, there was a huge sense of community that I hadn't ever experienced. The people look out for each other, and they know their many of their neighbors intimately. It's a place of strange contradictions, and I am still working to wrap my head around my experience in Gugulethu.

Gugulethu Part 1

Sunday hinted at the transition to come in the focus of our program in South Africa, and Monday truly began our immersion into the lives of the majority of black South Africans. I don't want to necessarily describe this experience as a play by play of what we did, but at the same time it's important to know what we did to have an appreciation for the experience. Also, I think it is going to take a number of blog entries to fully document the last week. Every day was packed with activities, many of which I haven't even begun to digest, but I will do my best to translate what I have seen, felt, and experienced.

In a class I have been taking called Body Mind Centering, we have discussed the difference between two types of learning: that which is in the mind and that which comes of true experiential knowing, the latter being significantly deeper in impact and clarity. I think this week began a process, which is surely not complete, in which I am starting to truly know the meaning of adversity and the role of leaders in overcoming it. It sounds cheesy and overstated, but I really feel that my earlier opinions on such topics as race, poverty, socioeconomic disparity, and chronic disease were infused with pervasive naivety and self-serving bias. I often told myself that poverty is simply something that has and will always plague humanity; there will always be the haves and the have-nots, and they will always exist in equilibrium to some extent. I thought that the shifting of this balance was an unnecessary pursuit, as very little impact could probably be made on social systems that lay outside the vision of any individual at any time. While I won't say I was entirely wrong (I still think poverty is inescapable), I now fully believe that it is critically important to work to minimize the actual impact on individuals. It is hard for me to nail down exactly why this is so right now. Maybe it is simply because doing such a thing is just plain right. Maybe I'll rationalize this point of view eventually, who knows? I can't say just yet, but the reality of the work being done by the community leaders of the JL Zwane Center is indescribably warm and filled with the power of constructive righteousness.

Reverends Edwin Edwin Louo (I might have botched that spelling) and Spiwo Xapile were magnificent both as instructors and facilitators of our township experience. I can't begin to express how indebted I feel to them for opening my eyes to at least a partial understanding of AIDS in the South African community. They allowed us to enter into their community, ask questions, and witness the lives of many members of their congregations and community. I also feel similarly indebted to Aaron, who planned this trip and worked tirelessly to make sure our experience here was awesome. I feel like I got to experience a wide range of lecturers and saw some very intense and intimate places in Gugulethu. I feel that I am on the road to the experiential knowing of leadership in the struggle against HIV/AIDS, and it is exciting to come face to face with the real challenges that face a wide range of leaders and individuals working to positively change the experiences of those living with AIDS. It is clear to me now that the world needs many more people to contribute to this struggle, and I hope to do my part in the future as best I can.

Beyond HIV/AIDS, the journey to Gugulethu was a striking comment on the prevalence of poverty. I feel that my earlier perspective on this issue did not take into account the reality of those who are faced every day with the possibility that they may not find food not only for themselves but also for their children. I was able to maintain my composure and ambivalence for the first couple home visits, where we saw many people living in close quarters in filthy conditions with barely a roof over there head and typically no running water. As we saw more and more of this situation, however, I began to feel terribly sad for these people, which I also know isn't fair. They must live their lives as I must also, and it isn't my place to judge their conditions. I think my feeling on the issue is one of support. These individuals lack opportunities (jobs, government programs, community assistance, etc.) to raise themselves from a state of poverty should they desire as such. For now, I think it is my place, as someone born to greater means, to work to provide the opportunity for those who suffer to be included into society, have their dignity protected, and be provided with certain services should they desire them (ie: healthcare and education). This is a hard task, and no individual will ever conquer this. Additionally, it requires the cooperation and hard work of those who face the adverse conditions themselves in order to succeed.

Seeing the leaders at JL Zwane speak about their work and observing their efforts in action was an incredible experience. Working hand in hand with their community, the people of JL Zwane tirelessly seek to promote a sense of justice and raise their community from poverty to a community that encourages human dignity and self-respect. This is really all I can handle right now, as my computer is about to die and I need much more time to continue to process this experience over the next couple days. I will certainly be writing more on this in the near future as well as describing in more depth and chronological order the events of the last few days. So there is more to come soon! Additionally, I think I will post pictures relating to blogs after the text posts, as this system is much more time efficient. So stay posted for some new pics in the very near future.

Pictures as Promised

This post is an addition to the previous post I made several days ago. I hope these pictures add some extra detail to the activities I was describing:

I am beginning out of chronological order, with some of the animals we saw on the safari. Enjoy!






The view from one of the places we stopped on the bus tour:

We got soaked on a boat ride to see some seals:
Penguins!Standing on the cape of good hope. The beach down below was indescribably gorgeous.

I forget to mention that we took a trip to Robben Island prison, where Nelson Mandela was jailed for something like 17 years. This is the sign that was out front:The view of Cape Town from Robben Island (it was pretty stunning):