I know what you’re going to ask.
I’ve been to South Africa twice now, so which trip was my favourite?
And that’s one question I just can’t answer. There is no way I can choose between both experiences because they were so different from each other.
The first time I travelled to Africa I was very much an idealist. Although I’d been told time and again that I was not going to change the world, I still believed that there was some way I could make a difference and I was shattered when I realized that I was just a blip on the radar, at best.
Now, I don’t believe I can change the world. But I do believe that no act of kindness (no matter how small) goes unnoticed. At least if I do something good for someone, they will pass it on or appreciate it. Like giving out school uniforms. Yes, one girl has one school uniform that might last her a few years. But it’s the fact that she now wears a new school uniform which will give her the confidence to raise her hand in class that is important.
Non-profit and nongovernmental organization work is about crunching numbers. It’s about getting the most bang for the buck you’ve been donated. Pinching pennies works wonders, especially in developing countries and although there are necessities that people need, some things are luxuries. I feel sad to admit that when you work with people who have nothing, they will ask for everything.
Wouldn’t you?
So organizations have to be thrifty with their compassion and with their money because there are other people with necessities – hundreds of thousands of people with necessities that must be met. Two school uniforms is a necessity, a paraffin lamp so your house doesn’t light on fire is a necessity.
Besides learning to differentiate between people’s wants and needs from a bare development perspective and becoming more of a realist, I found a large difference in my support back home.
There are some things I didn’t report on, or video. There are some things I photographed that I will not show you because I am afraid you would pity me for having seen what I have seen, and not grieve or find compassion for those I’ve helped. There is a difference between flaunting what I’ve seen that at the end of the day haunts me so that people will recognize what I’ve done, and giving people the information and the evidence of a world that needs their help.
Which leads me to another dilemma – how do we help?
NGOs are essentially useless – anyone who has taken a political science course has heard this before. Volunteer and relief organizations exist because governments have failed people. For this reason, I do not see any NGO as being anything but a relief organization (sustainability is just unattainable) that exists to take the place of governments that have failed their people.
And that’s what I’ve learned – or maybe I’ve just become more jaded.
I think it’s probably that I’ve just grown up. I believe that through knowledge and expertise I can change the world in a small way, not necessarily through actions. And that’s the biggest difference between my two experiences in Africa.
So none was better than the other; they were different.
I’m sure that’s the answer you expected.
-A
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Someone call the doctor
I do apologize for that video blog and promise you, at the request of my mom, that my next one be much more uplifting.
I’ve already admitted that last year I gained so much perspective from my trip that this time around I wanted to help you gain some perspective and get to know Africa on a different level apart from what you see on TV or in movies.
And I guess this is it.
Strokes are extremely common here, a result of endemic high blood pressures that are probably the result of a very unbalanced diet in the region.
I’ve noticed that although commercials on TV show you the suffering of children (probably because that pulls on your heartstrings the most and gets you to open your wallet wider) the elderly suffer in painful silence.
Last year, because I worked at the crèches, I saw more sick children and rarely saw adults. Now, on home-based care, I’ve really been shocked by the way the elderly suffer.
This is not to say that the old are always abandoned. There have been at least three instances while I’ve been here that I’ve seen children abandoned. It's just that society back in Canada so often caters to the aging baby boomer population that it is such a juxtaposition with this society that has no infrastructure for the elderly.
This day was tougher than others just because of a combination of many factors. Normally home based care has a very uplifting house visit that counteracts the emotions brought on by a heart wrenching one.
And of course, learning from Jenna has been a great experience. She just graduated and is now a doctor so she’s been teaching me so much about dressing wounds and diagnosing the symptoms we keep seeing over and over again, mostly TB.
Which brings me to the last girl in the video, suffering from TB. This is the fourth individual we’ve seen with active, contagious TB and they all generally look like she does.
It has been suggested that this region has the highest HIV and TB co-infection rate in the world and it’s obvious with every passing day that it’s a problem. Mostly because TB medication is a strict six month regimen and people are reluctant to stay on the meds that long, can’t get to the clinic to receive their full rounds, or the clinic runs out of medication to give them.
It’s frustrating to see the faltering healthcare system in the country. But there is a silver lining; the construction of the new clinic in Khula is supposed to be finished by the end of the year and hopefully African Impact can expand upon their medical project to involve volunteers working at the new state clinic. There is hope for the future!
Until next time
-A
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Worms – Some food for thought?
I used to make my neighbour at my cottage put the worms on the hooks when we went fishing because I couldn’t stand the thought of piercing them with the fishing rod’s hook. The older boy did take some sort of sick pleasure in cutting the worms up, which I found revolting.
And now, who’d have thought, I’m getting a sick pleasure in worms here at the crèche. Sorry for the video, it can be a little much for those with a weak stomach.
When the girls couldn’t figure out what was wrong with a little boy’s foot at Ndabenhle crèche last week I knew immediately what it was from my visit here last year.
Worms. Children all over Africa get them apparently. In Kenya they call them “jiggers”, here it’s “sandworm.”
In reality, the worms come from a fly which lands on the children and lays its eggs underneath their skin. I’m told the lack of hygiene is the main cause of the fly laying its eggs (I researched, since a volunteer got them last year and obviously I’m constantly barefoot so I was slightly worried). So to anyone that is concerned, I do wash my feet at least twice a day here.
When the eggs hatch, the worms are what are seen underneath the skin of the children. This little boy had a long, curling worm right at the bottom of his foot, and a few on his toes.
So three of us went to work on him in the Combi backseat, laying the seats out like our own private examination table. While Katie pricked the worm to let all the juices flow out of his foot,
Christine and I soaked bandages in a special solution that will dissolve the worm.
Distracting him with some toys, the little boy didn’t even cry! He was so brave and everyone was so proud of him.
Despite some episodes of worms like this one, the kids here are very much the same as any kid back home.
I wanted to show everyone how Africa is not like they see on TV, or even in the classroom. The continent (surprise, it’s NOT a country), is so diverse and the people are so intriguing. I never feel uncomfortable or in danger and I am constantly surrounded by beautiful landscape with an intriguing history.
People are always more than happy to answer my million and one questions that I have for them and for the most part they are in a constant state of pleasure, which they can derive from the smallest things, like a new pair of shoes or a lolly pop.
The children don’t have swollen bellies here, nor do they always have flies attacking their faces. They play and learn and laugh like you and I did when we were kids.
That’s the wonderful thing about children – they don’t know the HIV prevalence rate of their country or their village. They don’t know their life expectancy or their increased chance of getting raped or murdered because of where they were born. They don’t even cry when you’re poking them with a needle.
They just live each day happily, with a smile on their faces. And they dance whenever music is played.
Don’t you think we can learn a thing or two from them?
Peace,
A
And now, who’d have thought, I’m getting a sick pleasure in worms here at the crèche. Sorry for the video, it can be a little much for those with a weak stomach.
When the girls couldn’t figure out what was wrong with a little boy’s foot at Ndabenhle crèche last week I knew immediately what it was from my visit here last year.
Worms. Children all over Africa get them apparently. In Kenya they call them “jiggers”, here it’s “sandworm.”
In reality, the worms come from a fly which lands on the children and lays its eggs underneath their skin. I’m told the lack of hygiene is the main cause of the fly laying its eggs (I researched, since a volunteer got them last year and obviously I’m constantly barefoot so I was slightly worried). So to anyone that is concerned, I do wash my feet at least twice a day here.
When the eggs hatch, the worms are what are seen underneath the skin of the children. This little boy had a long, curling worm right at the bottom of his foot, and a few on his toes.
So three of us went to work on him in the Combi backseat, laying the seats out like our own private examination table. While Katie pricked the worm to let all the juices flow out of his foot,
Christine and I soaked bandages in a special solution that will dissolve the worm.
Distracting him with some toys, the little boy didn’t even cry! He was so brave and everyone was so proud of him.
Despite some episodes of worms like this one, the kids here are very much the same as any kid back home.
I wanted to show everyone how Africa is not like they see on TV, or even in the classroom. The continent (surprise, it’s NOT a country), is so diverse and the people are so intriguing. I never feel uncomfortable or in danger and I am constantly surrounded by beautiful landscape with an intriguing history.
People are always more than happy to answer my million and one questions that I have for them and for the most part they are in a constant state of pleasure, which they can derive from the smallest things, like a new pair of shoes or a lolly pop.
The children don’t have swollen bellies here, nor do they always have flies attacking their faces. They play and learn and laugh like you and I did when we were kids.
That’s the wonderful thing about children – they don’t know the HIV prevalence rate of their country or their village. They don’t know their life expectancy or their increased chance of getting raped or murdered because of where they were born. They don’t even cry when you’re poking them with a needle.
They just live each day happily, with a smile on their faces. And they dance whenever music is played.
Don’t you think we can learn a thing or two from them?
Peace,
A
Monday, May 25, 2009
Some sustainability
This past week I got to participate for the most part in two of the activities on the project that I think are the most sustainable, have the most impact and I excel the most at.
First was farming. The project has many plots at locations like the AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) clinic, where Mama Florenz gives counselling and testing for villagers. We have made a garden for her so that she can share the vegetables we cultivate with people who come to see her.
Other farming projects include subsistence farming plots that we have created for families we visit on other projects like for Home Based Care. The Ezwenelisha Clinic also benefits from a farming plot we’ve made.
The most important component of the farming projects is the fencing, which we provide and install. Without fencing, most gardens that could be used to feed entire families are destroyed by wandering chickens or cows.
We do also provide seeds and fertilizer in the form of chicken poop. Last week I got to go to the chicken farm where we lugged huge bags of chicken poop (bought for R6, less than $1). Except when we got there the lady thought we wanted chickens, so she opened up a chicken coup with plenty of live, white chickens and one very dead chicken and asked us to pay R35 before we called a translator to request the fertilizer and a wheelbarrow to transport it down to the road to our farming plot.
An afternoon of farming holds plenty of surprises like this, many weird animals, lots of red ants, sunburns and blisters. But at the end of the day, I’ve seen how cultivating even a small plot here can provide a resource that many people struggle to acquire even on a daily basis.
Second is HIV Education at Ubuhlebemvelo Primary School. Although the adult education classes are no less important, I find that HIV education is much more positively received by groups of 13 and 14 year olds. Their questions, although sometimes shocking, provide a stepping stone for discussion and also offer reinforcement for how important the course is for younger South Africans.
In our ‘Secret Questions’ box last week were questions about rape, pregnancy and discrimination, among other things. Sometimes it’s hard to stand and preach abstinence, condom usage, and attempt to instil anti-discrimination in the students. Their blank stares often scare me into believing they don’t understand or take us seriously. But when the majority of the students pass the test at the end of the week, it does give me a sense of hope. At the end of the day it’s that feeling that even if I ensured that one student out of the twenty participants chooses to wear a condom next time he or she has sex, than I have achieved something that wouldn’t have been attained otherwise.
So there you have it. Those are two ways that I am feeling like I am really making a difference this time around. Maybe it’s small and some people might find it quite insignificant, but you wouldn’t if you saw the faces of babies with HIV, or those in the classroom at Ubuhlebemvelo.
I tell myself every little bit counts.
Until next time
-A
Sometimes I wonder; Will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other? Then I look around and I realize – God left this place a long time ago. –Danny Archer, Blood Diamond
First was farming. The project has many plots at locations like the AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) clinic, where Mama Florenz gives counselling and testing for villagers. We have made a garden for her so that she can share the vegetables we cultivate with people who come to see her.
Other farming projects include subsistence farming plots that we have created for families we visit on other projects like for Home Based Care. The Ezwenelisha Clinic also benefits from a farming plot we’ve made.
The most important component of the farming projects is the fencing, which we provide and install. Without fencing, most gardens that could be used to feed entire families are destroyed by wandering chickens or cows.
We do also provide seeds and fertilizer in the form of chicken poop. Last week I got to go to the chicken farm where we lugged huge bags of chicken poop (bought for R6, less than $1). Except when we got there the lady thought we wanted chickens, so she opened up a chicken coup with plenty of live, white chickens and one very dead chicken and asked us to pay R35 before we called a translator to request the fertilizer and a wheelbarrow to transport it down to the road to our farming plot.
An afternoon of farming holds plenty of surprises like this, many weird animals, lots of red ants, sunburns and blisters. But at the end of the day, I’ve seen how cultivating even a small plot here can provide a resource that many people struggle to acquire even on a daily basis.
Second is HIV Education at Ubuhlebemvelo Primary School. Although the adult education classes are no less important, I find that HIV education is much more positively received by groups of 13 and 14 year olds. Their questions, although sometimes shocking, provide a stepping stone for discussion and also offer reinforcement for how important the course is for younger South Africans.
In our ‘Secret Questions’ box last week were questions about rape, pregnancy and discrimination, among other things. Sometimes it’s hard to stand and preach abstinence, condom usage, and attempt to instil anti-discrimination in the students. Their blank stares often scare me into believing they don’t understand or take us seriously. But when the majority of the students pass the test at the end of the week, it does give me a sense of hope. At the end of the day it’s that feeling that even if I ensured that one student out of the twenty participants chooses to wear a condom next time he or she has sex, than I have achieved something that wouldn’t have been attained otherwise.
So there you have it. Those are two ways that I am feeling like I am really making a difference this time around. Maybe it’s small and some people might find it quite insignificant, but you wouldn’t if you saw the faces of babies with HIV, or those in the classroom at Ubuhlebemvelo.
I tell myself every little bit counts.
Until next time
-A
Sometimes I wonder; Will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other? Then I look around and I realize – God left this place a long time ago. –Danny Archer, Blood Diamond
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Mozambique adventures
So last weekend a bunch of volunteers and I travelled up to Mozambique to swim with dolphins at a project that will soon become a volunteer project, like ours, for dolphin and marine conservation along the coast.
The trip up there was eventful. Mozambique has suffered civil war and poverty which has left the country relatively destitute the further away from the capital one travels. As a result, once you hit the coastal border of South Africa and Mozambique in Kosi Bay, all roads leading North are sand. You can see in the video how difficult it is to drive on them, so trucks let out their tires to make the trip over the dunes.
Swimming with the dolphins was an amazing experience. Sorry I don’t have any video of it, but everything in the raft we were in got soaked so I didn’t want to wreck my camera.
People say dolphin’s echolocation gives you a euphoria and in the three times I’ve swam with dolphins I’d say it’s true. This time was different as the dolphins were wild and we had to find them with the boat, and we were free to swim with them as long as they felt like hanging around with us.
The dolphins were so close that we could have reached out and touched them. Sometimes they would dive down to the bottom of the ocean and come up with shells in their mouths. They would circle around us, playing and looking at us right in the eye. We swam without lifejackets so we could really dive with them and flippers to help us keep up with their speed in the water.
We stayed on reed huts in the beach in a town called Ponta d’Ouro, a small community about half an hour from the border. It was a cool experience to sleep under a bug net and hear the ocean as we fell asleep at night.
The food was pretty good, and we were all surprised to realize you could drink at any time of day, anywhere you wanted. Everything was really cheap and the beach was gorgeous.
We spent only one night away, but sometimes it’s great to get away from the project house, as tensions can rise when we have so many volunteers in such a small space over a weekend. It also acted as a bonding experience for many of us who didn’t know each other that well. It was great to mingle with some of the community project volunteers, being on the medical project myself.
Until next time,
-A
Traveling is not just seeing the new: it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors: also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes – Jan Myrdal
The trip up there was eventful. Mozambique has suffered civil war and poverty which has left the country relatively destitute the further away from the capital one travels. As a result, once you hit the coastal border of South Africa and Mozambique in Kosi Bay, all roads leading North are sand. You can see in the video how difficult it is to drive on them, so trucks let out their tires to make the trip over the dunes.
Swimming with the dolphins was an amazing experience. Sorry I don’t have any video of it, but everything in the raft we were in got soaked so I didn’t want to wreck my camera.
People say dolphin’s echolocation gives you a euphoria and in the three times I’ve swam with dolphins I’d say it’s true. This time was different as the dolphins were wild and we had to find them with the boat, and we were free to swim with them as long as they felt like hanging around with us.
The dolphins were so close that we could have reached out and touched them. Sometimes they would dive down to the bottom of the ocean and come up with shells in their mouths. They would circle around us, playing and looking at us right in the eye. We swam without lifejackets so we could really dive with them and flippers to help us keep up with their speed in the water.
We stayed on reed huts in the beach in a town called Ponta d’Ouro, a small community about half an hour from the border. It was a cool experience to sleep under a bug net and hear the ocean as we fell asleep at night.
The food was pretty good, and we were all surprised to realize you could drink at any time of day, anywhere you wanted. Everything was really cheap and the beach was gorgeous.
We spent only one night away, but sometimes it’s great to get away from the project house, as tensions can rise when we have so many volunteers in such a small space over a weekend. It also acted as a bonding experience for many of us who didn’t know each other that well. It was great to mingle with some of the community project volunteers, being on the medical project myself.
Until next time,
-A
Traveling is not just seeing the new: it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors: also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes – Jan Myrdal
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