AfriROCK!

Coolest rock ever (had to superimpose the stencil on top).
Currently sitting in our garden in De Doorns.
If I weren't so heavy I'd definitely try to bring it home with me. :]

Week 4: Smells Like Burning

Wow! I've already been here for a month! (and only 30 days until Dan visits!! :) )

The new thing I noticed on this visit was the very strong smell of burning in the morning. Mixed with the dust and dirt, it smelled a bit of Camp Shelly/Lake Tahoe back home, but that smell quickly passed, as the true smell emerged. It was burning trash/rubbish.
The Hex Valley (in which De Doorns is located) is such a gorgeous area, in a nice crevasse between two mountains, surrounded by grapes and vineyards; picturesque in many ways.
Unfortunately, there is a terrible problem with garbage here. There is not any sort of infrastructure that helps get rid of the trash, and so it accumulates all around the once gorgeous land. The common solution seems to be burning piles of trash when it gets to be too much. Not only does that sound like a dangerous idea, as it is so dry here, but also terrible for the environment, and lungs of those nearby. Yet, as there is no other solution here, it seems to be the only way they can at least attempt to control the amount of rubbish accumulated here.  With the garden project we see a lot of this garbage fly into our yard, and we spend each morning clearing our the new trash that's accumulated. Luckily for us, we can drive it out of town, back to Cape Town, if needed, and dispose of it in a much more safe way. Yet the people in town have to wake up to the smell of burning, on a daily basis. Somehow I hope to help tackle this problem, although it seems like a huge task. Perhaps we can organize some community clean up days with our community task team, or the high schoolers. Either way, its a very sad sight to see, in such a beautiful community. Its humbling to realize that so many people live without the infrastructure that we've grown up with, and find trash all over the streets a normality. Here I'm thinking that its such a bad thing to litter, and I want to protect the environment as best I can, but this is all that this community is used to, and seems that there are so many issues to try and tackle here, that the environment, sadly enough, may be low on the list. But alas, I still have hope that we can make a difference here! :)

This weekend was quite eventful!!! We showed up in the early afternoon, and before our weekly meeting, worked a bit in the garden. We had brought a secret fertilizer recipe (pee from the compost worms + water) to sprinkle on top of the plants, to help them grow mighty and strong! The plants themselves were already doing quite well for themselves! Especially the radish! It just loves the sun! The corn/maize had gotten quite big itself!

Crazy bug we found whilst gardening.
Doesn't it look like the grub that
Simon & Pumba eat in the Lion King? :)

Amazing soil, where our compost pile used to be.
Soon to be a spinach patch!

Each week its so exciting to see the progress--almost as if its sprouting instantly! Although the community members are definitely taking care of the plants while we're gone during the week, it does feel like a quick process!

Aside from the amazing garden progress, our weekly meeting was very productive as well! Friday night, after a good 2.5 hour discussion, our group agreed upon and passed the Constitution! Their CBO now has a founding document, and guidelines for how their community involvement will help to make a difference to those around them. They've decided on their mission and vision & objectives, and I couldn't agree more:
Vision:Thol’ulwazi Developmental Group  (TDG) works to provide information that can bring positive change within the community

Mission: Thol’ulwazi Developmental Group intends to assist De Doorns community members in general with access to information by running programmes voluntarily
Objectives: 
The Thol’ulwazi Developmental Group is a public and open organization, non-politicised, non-religious, multicultural, all-inclusive established to achieve the following objectives:
a.    To educate and inform the community about social issues.
b.    To change people’s attitudes
c.    To share skills with the community members
d.    To offer direct support to the community (currently with the garden project)

Signing the Constitution!!

And with that, and organization was born! The Thol'ulwazi Developmental Group, then voted on officers, and now has their own structure, Constitution, and foundation for a group that can empower themselves, and make a difference in their community!
Our project will still be to help facilitate the community involvement, but now this organization can also act independently, and apply for their own funding, and most importantly, exist on their own, and not have to rely on outside organizations in the future!


So that was a great accomplishment this weekend! Now TDG just needs to open a bank account and then they can receive the grant money that's been waiting for them! Its been very exciting to be a part of the progress as it unfolds!


Lots of love, 


Laura

A

Week 3: A Sheep-ish day

So this weekend in De Doorns was a bit eventful. I never thought I'd be able to say I rode in a car with a sheep! But thats exactly what happened!
We were on our way out to the township, and one of our Task Team (community member of De Doorns) called to ask if we could pick him up. And oh yeah, he had a sheep with him!

Poor baby

Apparently he was given/got the sheep for a wedding present, but the guy who was supposed to deliver it was inebriated at the time, so luckily we were there to help. At first I was excited to sit in the car with the sheep! How cool! But then as I saw the poor baby tied up by her legs, I started thinking that maybe she wasn't just going to be a new pet for the happy couple.
Well you probably guessed it. She was to be a sacrifice in their wedding celebration (a bit of a sad story for a vegetarian!)
So we put her in the trunk and drove her into town. Luckily I got to pet her for a while to calm her down, but my heart was a bit sad that day.
I'm sure it is a great blessing for them, and an important part of their cultural ceremony.

After we delivered the sheep (rest in peace), we headed to the church to prepare for the weekly meeting. This evening we were discussing constitution building for a non-profit, Community Based Organization/Voluntary Association. I am now well versed in this topic, if anyone ever has questions about writing constitutions for these groups! The guidelines & necessary aspects, I've got drilled into my brain now!
I had to make a powerpoint presentation about the reasons why our organization needs a constitution, and how it helps, and all that jazz. So we presented that Friday evening, and continued our discussion on the parts of the constitution that we still needed to finalize.  It was a pretty interesting discussion, but we'll have to finish it up next week, when they plan to sign the constitution and vote on who will be the office bearers of the group.

Radish!

Saturday morning we woke up early to work in the garden some more! Our little seeds that we planted last week are starting to sprout & show!!
So exciting! However, because its so hot (100*F/ 38* C) we had to add a bit of shade to the plants, to make sure they don't get scorched before they can even grow up!

My fence building skills.

I also helped fix/make the barbed-wire fence, because some sneaky goats managed to get in last week, and they definitely would destroy our garden if they had the chance!



So it was a lovely weekend. A bit of shovelling the compost, and bending the barbed wire makes a nice well rounded work out for the day! :)

Next weekend we'll work on signing the constitution and bringing their CBO to life!
Never a dull moment!

All the best,

Laura

Week 2: Blood, Sweat, and close to Tears (happy tears that is!)

Wow! What an amazing weekend!
These past few days in De Doorns have been so incredible and fulfilling!

This week we had a lot planned, so we headed out on Thursday to De Doorns (don't think I've mentioned it yet, but its pronounced: Dee Dour-ennes, if that explanation works).
Thursday evening we met with our team leaders, where we showed the short films we brought, to decide which ones we would screen the following night in the community. The films were in Sotho language, which is the language spoken in the section of the township where we were going to show the films.

Friday we had to run quite a few errands, but we mainly worked on fixing the fence where the rain/floods had damaged it. In doing so we found a snake! Not too big, but quite pretty :)
The work went well, and we were soon able to focus on preparing other aspects for the screening later that night.

Blood: a bit shed whilst gardening/fixing the broken-down fence, but it was all worth it in the end! We managed to spend over 5hours fixing up the garden (in 38degreeC/100degree F weather!), and we now have a mended fence, a functioning gate, turned all of the soil and have loads of little seeds planted! We planted, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radish, tomatoes, maize, and perhaps watermelon (as we added the seeds from our mid-afternoon snack).

Watering the plants seemed to take hours. As soon as we finished one section, the last section had dried up already! So hopefully our team can keep up the watering whilst we're back in Cape Town this week.
Rumor is that the seeds should start showing some progress in 7-10days! Can't wait to see our little babies grow!

Sweat: Well didn't I mention the crazy hot weather? :) Lots of hard manual labour this weekend, but it was definitely worth it. On Friday we mended the area of the fence that had been knocked down by the floods last week. We started at 10am when it was already in the 90s F/mid 30s C. First we had to shovel out 2ft of mud/rocks/dirt that were weighing the fence down. Then we could reinforce the fence posts with cement. Saturday we focussed on the planting and preparing the soil, which is quite sweaty business when there's only a few people working on a large plot of land. But we did it!

Close to Tears: The screening was the most amazing feeling, that I'm having trouble to explain. It was so rewarding, and made me so happy I could almost tear up. Showing a film to a community without electricity, in their original language, and hearing them laugh and thoroughly enjoy themselves was such an incredible feeling. However it did not go off with out a hitch. Haha actually, the whole night was full of glitches, but it came together nonetheless.
What impressed me the most was the fact that this screening would not have been possible without the assistance of every single person that helped plan it (the Scalabrini members as well as the township's task team members). And I'm being very literal.

Stabilizing the Screen

At first the screen was too unstable against the wind, so we had to put up a stronger screen, that took a lot of work to put together, a lot of strength & people. Then it kept falling over, so we parked the van that the film-makers had brought, behind the screen .The screening would have failed without this.

Then the generator that we were borrowing broke. So the Project manager (Sergio) and 1 member of the task team left to go find another one. The screening would have failed without them.
2 other members of the task team realized that the only petrol we had, had been emptied into the broken generator, so they attempted to empty the petrol back into our canister (not an easy task). The screening would have failed without this.

Keeping the kids back

Trying to get the projector to sit straight (Task Team, Sergio & me)

One task team member helped keep the small children away from all of our chords & equipment, which was very vital. And while we were waiting other members of the task team held on to parts of the equipment, making sure the wind wouldn't blow them away.
When they returned with the new generator the speakers wouldn't work, until we figured out there was too much plugged in, & then sorted that out.
Then once the films finally started playing, we had a bit of  a break, where we could all appreciate the hard work
Until the speakers decided to go into "safe mode" and shut off due to lack of sufficient power. So I sat next to the sound-system for the rest of the films, and each time the power disengaged, I was there to restart it and turn it back on with out much delay. This definitely helped the screening run smoothly .

After the film one of our Task Team members freestyled/rapped for the group & the kids got really involved! singing along, clapping, keeping a beat, and some even joined in freestyling! It was so neat to see all the kids so excited about it :) A great effort by all :)

Kids gathering around for the freestyle-sesh 

Bongani's freestyle

It was an incredible group effort, and I was utterly amazed. I feel like I've known these people for ages! We seemed to work so well together and each took the initiative to solve what needed to be solved. Its such a motivating feeling to be working with people who are so committed & dedicated to this work.

It was such an exciting weekend! And I got to stay with a local family this time. Its hard to believe that this was my first weekend with them, as I already feel a part of the family. They like to stay up late, so we got to chat each night after work, and before bed. I've learned a lot about the community (lack of youth programs/playgrounds/any activity for kids), history of the area, and even a bit of language!
Afrikaans: good morning- môre!  
I learned 1 or 2 words in Xhosa, [in-khoos (no idea on the spelling)= thank you] but I'm still working on the pronunciation, the different clicks are quite hard to get right! 

I feel so lucky to be a guest in their house and I cant wait to see what I learn in the weekends to come!




De Doorns is such a beautiful place, and a people who... who really are dedicated to change.
It is quite inspiring!

first weekend in De Doorns

I'm exactly where I should be, and doing what I should be doing. 


Surprisingly its also exactly where I want to be, and what I want to be doing. Fantastic. :)


Friday was my first day in De Doorns, and I'm so excited to report that its exactly what I thought it would be. Its in a gorgeous valley, surrounded by vineyards and mountains, and I think, full of potential/hope. 

De Doorns. View from the Catholic Church (where we operate from).

We met with our De Doorns team Friday night to work on the progress in the community. This week at work I studied how to build a constitution in a non-profit organization. Friday I got to watch that process come to life. It's so much more exciting to watch the process of discussion, debate, and decision arise from the plain, somewhat dry, outline I had read a few days before. I got to watch/be a part of development in a rural community, and it was definitely inspiring. 


Next week we will be screening a documentary in one of the township communities and some of the members of our committee scoped out a spot to show it. 

This picture is just across the path we drove on. Hope we get a lot of community involvement next week!

Here's our Garden Project. We intended to plant seeds this weekend, but the untimely flash floods created a river in our planting bed. So, hopefully next weekend we can plant, fix the fence that was knocked down by the water, and proceed with our committee's mission to provide fresh vegetables to the community. 

I'll be in De Doorns next Thursday-Saturday, so I'll update everyone on how the screening goes too! Hopefully there won't be anymore flash floods, so we might be able to plant our community vegetable garden next week too! 


Lots of love,


Laura

First week on the job

So my first week at Scalabrini Center was a nice way to ease me into the projects I will be helping with. As the core of my work will be on cite in De Doorns, I spent my first week reading background information on the history of the conflict in De Doorns. I learned so much about the immigration patterns of immigrants to the area and the social and political conflicts surrounding the community issues. With a solid understanding of what violence occurred, and how the Zimbabweans were held at a "safe" Camp, for almost 1 year, it sounds like in the end, the re-integration project was supported by at least some of the community. Those affected were given a financial token to apologize for the terrible crimes, thus publicly acknowledging these offenses.

Yesterday I learned that February 2009, 7 Zimbabweans were burnt to death in
their shacks in De Doorns (the township I will be working in). This
coupled with my awareness of the 2500+ Zimbabweans forced out of their homes
(shacks) onto a sports field after being threatened with their lives,
really puts things into perspective. Hard to believe that in the 21st
century crimes so heinous are still frequently occuring. 
Hope I can help. 

We head out to De Doorns for my first time this Friday afternoon. I'll have much more to report after that!

-Laura 

Some pretty amazing people to look up to

 Inspiring words & a beautiful view of Table Mountain from the Waterfront

 16,690km from SF & only 613 from the South Pole, but its hotter than you'd even believe!

 Gorgeous beach at Hout Bay, behind Cape Town City Bowl

 Not too cold, but Still Atlantic Ocean.

 Hout Bay

The Company's Garden, Cape Town City Center 

The Company's Garden, Cape Town City Center. Beautiful Rainbow!