Back to School, Back to School....

This morning I woke up and saw something that I hadn’t seen yet since I’ve been in South Africa- all the children of Cato Manor leaving their homes in their green school uniforms. As I have mentioned before, South Africa has been under national wage strikes the last 3 weeks and many hospitals and schools have been out of commission. One major consequence of the strike has been that HIV positive people have not had access to their Antiretrovirals for the last month, so it’s projected that with lower CD4 counts, their overall conditions will decline and more and more people will be dying of AIDS related illnesses in the next few weeks. But on the bright side, the strike has officially been suspended for the next 21 days while the government works out wage negotiations. So that means my sister Thah is back at work at the hospital, and that my brother Boy, along with all the other children in Cato are back to school (at least temporarily). Hopefully these negotiations work out.

This past weekend was really nice- SIT put us up in Durban for the weekend in flats right across from the ocean. We went to the beach, shopped at the local markets, and went to uShaka Marine World (a water park and aquarium combined.) It was a great weekend and everyone needed it. I got a very warm welcome when I returned to Cato yesterday though, and was greeted by a little boy who just came up and helped carry my duffel bag all the way home. My little sister also came running and screaming down the hill, and jumped into my arms. It was a nice weekend getaway, but I’m happy to be back “home.”

Funny side note: Last night some of my sister’s friends came over and one of them was literally named “my sister.” I found that really funny and thought I’d share. J

This weekend we will be going to a traditional Zulu Reed Dance. To my understanding, thousands of virgins will dance in front of the Zulu King and he then will pick a new wife (as a new addition to the ten others he has). It’s a very involved process and also includes “virginity testing.” I’ll leave it up to your imagination to figure out how that one works. Either way, I think it’ll be a really cool experience and we are all SO excited to go!

I also wanted to just give you all a brief history about Cato Manor, because I realize I haven’t really done that yet, and there is SO much history in the township. Basically, Cato Manor was an extensive acreage of land granted to George Christopher Cato, a British colonist here in 1865. Indian settlers were placed there to act as a buffer between the whites and blacks during Aparthied, and worked as indentured laborers or on sugar plantations. The Indians then leased plots of land to black Africans because the law prohibited them from buying their own land in the 1920s. A lot of tensions grew between the Indians and the Africans, and riots eventually grew into an anti-Indian war in which thousands of Indians were murdered. Today there are virtually no Indians in Cato Manor. By the mid 1950’s, many political figures involved in the ANC including current day president Zuma were associated with Cato Manor, and efforts were made by whites to remove everyone from the township and place them in racially based housing developments. In 1992, the Cato Manor Development Forum was created to redevelop the area and in 1995, it received R130 million in funding after Aparthied ended. Rebuilding Cato Manor was one of Mandela’s first 7 major goals upon becoming president. It was rebuilt and today is considered government housing, and you can tell because most of the houses are exactly the same dimensions and are painted one of three different colors- red, green or yellow.

Three more days of class, and then off to the Reed Dance this weekend!

A Week of Firsts

This past week was one of new experiences, to say the least. I’ve been living with the Mthembu family for over a week now, and the experiences and insights of the Zulu culture that I’ve seen in only one week have been amazing. Here are a few of my most memorable experiences in the past week:

1. A Zulu Memorial Service: When my sisters asked me if I wanted to go to the memorial service of one of their friends who was killed (he was 24 and apparently was deliberately run over by a car), I was psyched because I wanted to see how they differed from the ones I’m used to. Little did I know what I was in for. We walked down the streets of Cato Manor to the home of the boy who died. The family was conducting the service with members of their church and his friends huddled in the street looking down at the service, drinking and carrying on. It ended up being that hundreds of people were in the street and the entire service was like a big party. Everyone was singing and dancing and the entire night was a big celebration of his life- without any tears. In Zulu culture, the memorial service should reflect what the person would have wanted. So if the deceased was a big partier, all of his friends through a massive party in the middle of the street by his house. And if he was a gangster, people who have been partying and drinking the entire night start firing gunshots into the air. Well, turns out this kid was both a partier and a gangster. I left pretty quickly after I discovered the second part. The concept was really interesting though, and I’m glad I had that experience. I’d really like to see a Zulu wedding at some point while I’m here.

2. Having a 3-year old sister: She’s adorable. She loves me. She loves crayons. She loves shaking what her mama gave her. But getting any work done is actually impossible with her around. I have more crayon in my books than highlighter.

3. Driving in a Minibus: I’ll preface this one by saying that prior to coming to South Africa,I was told never to get in a minibus. But it’s literally my family’s sole source of transportation and when I travel anywhere with them, we all go via minibus. I go because I feel very safe with my mama around (I wouldn’t want to mess with her EVER) but let me just say, if you ever come to South Africa, don’t get in a minibus.

4. My first Church Service Ever: Yep, last Sunday was not only my first Zulu church service, but my first church service ever. It was really nice (other than the fact that it lasted about 4 and a half hours). The entire service was conducted in Zulu and I couldn’t understand a word. But it was nice. At the end I had to get up in front of everyone and introduce myself in Zulu and say where I’m from and what I’m doing here. Everyone was so nice and so interested in what we were doing living in Cato Manor and seemed very happy to have me.

5. Knowing that the person in front of me was HIV positive: It’s one thing when you assume “someone in this large crowd is probably HIV positive,” as I’ve been doing frequently when I’m in very crowded buses or streets here. 1 in 5 people in South Africa is HIV positive so you can assume that any relatively large group of people will have some HIV infected individuals. But it’s another thing to look a person in the eyes and know that they for a fact are HIV positive. It definitely takes you aback at first (and I don’t mean to stigmatize in any way). On Monday we went to the Cato Manor Clinic and toured the facilities. At the end we went around back to these trailers that they used as their HIV clinic for HIV testing and distribution of Antiretrovirals (ARV’s). As we walked past the people waiting on line for their medication, I was stunned at how healthy most of them looked. Most people think HIV is something that’s branded on someone’s forehead, (I’ll admit it, all this time I’ve been scouting out for people in random settings who I think might look HIV positive), when in reality if a person’s on the right treatment and has a high enough CD4 count, it’s virtually impossible to tell. It made me realize how very many people I’ve probably encountered and had conversations with since I’ve been here, who are HIV positive. It made me think of the little kids who attach themselves to us and follow us all around Cato Manor and how many of them could be HIV positive. Who knows, my own family members may even be HIV positive. I would never know. I saw a girl in the clinic who looked about my age (if not younger) and she had tears welling up in her eyes when we passed by. I think that’s when it hit me the hardest- at least until I saw how many little kids and babies were there.

I decided to focus my Independent Study Project that this whole program is geared toward on the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT). I couldn’t believe how many HIV positive children I saw who had been born infected because their mothers did not take the right preventative actions (or didn’t have the resources in which to do so). I’ve been doing some really interesting research on PMTCT and I’m really excited about my project. I’ll give you more details as they fall into place but I will most likely be volunteering in the maternity ward at a rural hospital in November to study PMTCT.

In other news, I cooked a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner for my entire family tonight and it went really well (I think). They said they liked it, but we all know what a renowned cook I am so who knows. It was nice to be able to contribute by buying dinner and cooking it for my family, who have been so generous this entire time. SIT is putting us all up in the city for the weekend and we’re all looking forward to it. I’ll update you all next week! Thanks for reading!

At Home with the Mthembu Family

So its been a few days since my last post, and a whole lot has happened in those few days. To start, I moved in with my homestay family. Their names are the mthembus and they're an amazing family. My mama, named Nokuthula, is a big zulu woman who doesn't speak a ton of english but has a big heart and is teaching me a lot despite our language barrier. She's a pretty strict mama compared to some of the others and doesn't let her daughters (including me) go out at night or have boyfriends (oops). Haha. Her oldest son is a cop in joburg and doesn't live with us. Then there's the oldest sister- Thah. She works at the hospital and is curretnly active in some of the big strikes that have been going on in South Africa (basically hospitals, schools and some police are striking about wages and president Zuma is in Asia instead of dealing with the problems here. You can check it out in the NY Times.) People are protesting like crazy though. Thah is also the best cook I have ever met in my life. In Zulu culture its the oldest daughters responsibility to cook most meals (thank God I'm not the oldest!) And Thah makes amazing dishes. Zulu food is mainly chicken, beef, rice, squash, cabbage, steamed bread and phutu which is kind of like cous-cous. Basically a lot of carbs and they get very offended if you don't help yourself to seconds and thirds. Let's just say my running workouts will start tomorrow! My next sister, Nelo, is 19 and I'm definitely the closest with her. She's absolutely gorgeous and all the guys in Cato Manor want to marry her. Next is my brother, named boy, who's 16. He's been basically bumming around for the last 2 weeks because his school is on strike as well and who knows when it will resume. The very first morning I was here I woke up to boy blasting 50 cent (an old school rapper for all you old farts) throughout the house. I actually just woke up and he's blasting club music as I'm writing this haha. He's cute though and is the little man of the house even though he's only 16. Their father passed away a few years ago (I'm not sure how) so now boy has to take on his responsibilities. He waits up for everyone to be home at night before he locks up the house. All the kids speak english because that's the only language they speak in school- which to me is a load of crap. It creates a system where children who grow up in the rural areas who are never exposed to english are stuck in those areas and have no way to elevate themselves through higher education. But that's just me. My youngest sister is Khansyiele and she's 3 (she's my mamas granddaughter). Her parents are both cops in joburg and didn't think it'd be safe to raise a daughter there so she lives with us. She's managed to attach herself to my hip. Even though she doesn't speak a word of english, I feel like I can understand her as well as anyone in the family. The 2 of us will just look at eachother and start hysterically laughing.

The house is really much nicer than I expected- its one of the only homes with a gated barbed wired fence surrounding it and there are more locks on the doors than I've ever seen. So I feel very safe at home. I have my own room and everyone else shares 2 bedrooms, which I feel really bad about but it's my program's rule. We have electricity, and a tv and let me tell you, South Africans LOVE their tv. Every night when I get home from school the whole family gathers around the tv and watches soap operas for hours. They have one big hit called Generations that everyone loves. Its a mix between zulu and english but there are subtitles so I can follow along too. We don't have hot water so everything must be boiled first. We also don't have a shower so I have to do that over at school. There are a TON of kids on my street and they just want to come and hang out and play with us "molungus." I'm sure you can figure out what that word means pretty easily haha. We stick out pretty bad here.

My zulu is getting a little better- I've mastered the basic introductory conversations and were moving pretty quickly through it in class. I'm learning a lot from my 3 year old sister because she points to things in her coloring books and makes me repeat. There are 3 basic clicks in zulu (x, q, and c) and my name actually also has a click. Its Ale-(click like you're riding a horse)-a. Pretty sweet! Zulu is pretty difficult though just because its so much different than anything I've ever heard. For instance- "ngiyajaboulaukukwazi" means "I'm happy to meet you." And that's an easy one because it doesn't even have any clicks!

Anyway I've got lots more to tell you about but ill save that for later in the week- I don't want to put any of you to sleep. I'm having a great time, and I'm excited that our classes officially start this week!

Sala kahle, (Good Bye)

Alexa

Sawubona Durban!

I’m finally here in Durban, where I’ll be spending the majority of my time here in SA. It was a 6-hour drive from Joburg to Durban, and we got here on Sunday afternoon. There wasn’t much along the side of the road except for savannah plains and a bunch of ostriches. We’ve been staying at the Happy Hippo hostel since we’ve been here which is an international backpackers hostel right across from the beach and next to Ushaka Marine World, which is apparently the 5^th best marine park in the world. The beach is beautiful.

Durban is kind of a mix between South Beach Miami, and Newark NJ- if you can visualize that at all. The closer to the beach you are the nicer and safer the area is, but as soon as you go further into the city the streets get worse and worse it seems. Yesterday we had a mission to take the public buses into the city and go to some various locations in pairs so that we could get a good feel for the city. The goal was to talk to as many people on the buses as possible and we found that they were all actually really friendly once we told them what we were doing and why we were here. We weren’t allowed to bring any bags- only the money in our pockets. My partner and I went to the Victoria Market, which was pretty far in there and not in the best neighborhood. After talking to a woman on the bus and telling her where we were going, she insisted on getting off the bus with us and leading us right to the market and dropping us off there even though that’s not where her intended stop was. It’s definitely the women who are looking out for us and I feel comfortable going up to most women on the streets to ask them for any help or directions. I’m gaining a new knowledge of street smarts here, and yesterday made me feel much better about going into the city and not making myself a target.

Today we went to our school building for the first time, which is in a residential neighborhood and is actually a house. We had our first real Zulu class and I learned that my name actually has a click in it! It’s pronounced Al-e-(click)-a. The click is the same sound as if you were riding a horse and wanting it to go faster (kind of like with the side of your mouth). It was a great discovery. My Zulu tutor’s name is Mne and he’s a student at the local college. It’s pretty hard, I’m not going to lie, but I’m strangely good at it compared to the rest of my class for some reason. I have my clicks down. At one point during class I looked out and saw a bunch of monkeys casually walking by right outside. That’s one of those things that made me really realize that I’m in Africa.

Tomorrow we move in with our home-stay families in Cato Manor, a township just outside of the city. We’re all a little nervous just because our Zulu’s not very good, but this is honestly the best way to learn the language and really immerse ourselves in the culture. I’m going over some key phrases right now that will be essential to know tomorrow including “can you please repeat” and “I’m just learning Zulu.” I’m so excited to meet my family though and I’ll fill you all in about it the next time I have Internet access.

Sala kathe! (that means good-bye but don’t even try to pronounce it- it looks wayyyy simpler on paper!)

Sawubona Durban!

I’m finally here in Durban, where I’ll be spending the majority of my time here in SA. It was a 6-hour drive from Joburg to Durban, and we got here on Sunday afternoon. There wasn’t much along the side of the road except for savannah plains and a bunch of ostriches. We’ve been staying at the Happy Hippo hostel since we’ve been here which is an international backpackers hostel right across from the beach and next to Ushaka Marine World, which is apparently the 5^th best marine park in the world. The beach is beautiful.

Durban is kind of a mix between South Beach Miami, and Newark NJ- if you can visualize that at all. The closer to the beach you are the nicer and safer the area is, but as soon as you go further into the city the streets get worse and worse it seems. Yesterday we had a mission to take the public buses into the city and go to some various locations in pairs so that we could get a good feel for the city. The goal was to talk to as many people on the buses as possible and we found that they were all actually really friendly once we told them what we were doing and why we were here. We weren’t allowed to bring any bags- only the money in our pockets. My partner and I went to the Victoria Market, which was pretty far in there and not in the best neighborhood. After talking to a woman on the bus and telling her where we were going, she insisted on getting off the bus with us and leading us right to the market and dropping us off there even though that’s not where her intended stop was. It’s definitely the women who are looking out for us and I feel comfortable going up to most women on the streets to ask them for any help or directions. I’m gaining a new knowledge of street smarts here, and yesterday made me feel much better about going into the city and not making myself a target.

Today we went to our school building for the first time, which is in a residential neighborhood and is actually a house. We had our first real Zulu class and I learned that my name actually has a click in it! It’s pronounced Al-e-(click)-a. The click is the same sound as if you were riding a horse and wanting it to go faster (kind of like with the side of your mouth). It was a great discovery. My Zulu tutor’s name is Mne and he’s a student at the local college. It’s pretty hard, I’m not going to lie, but I’m strangely good at it compared to the rest of my class for some reason. I have my clicks down. At one point during class I looked out and saw a bunch of monkeys casually walking by right outside. That’s one of those things that made me really realize that I’m in Africa.

Tomorrow we move in with our home-stay families in Cato Manor, a township just outside of the city. We’re all a little nervous just because our Zulu’s not very good, but this is honestly the best way to learn the language and really immerse ourselves in the culture. I’m going over some key phrases right now that will be essential to know tomorrow including “can you please repeat” and “I’m just learning Zulu.” I’m so excited to meet my family though and I’ll fill you all in about it the next time I have Internet access.

Sala kathe! (that means good-bye but don’t even try to pronounce it- it looks wayyyy simpler on paper!)

Johannesburg

I’m finally in Johannesburg! The 15-hour flight was really long, but kind of awesome too. We each had our own TV and got a really wide selection of whatever movies, TV shows, and music we wanted and it made the time go by a lot faster. Once we landed, we exchanged some Dollars to Rands, (the exchange rate is roughly 8:1.) We bought a calling card and called for a ride to our first hostel. There were about 5 of us who got there first and we were able to bond for about 7 hours before the rest of the group showed up. We had dinner at the hostel and all crashed early because of the jetlag.

This morning we woke up and went to Soweto. Soweto is an abbreviation for “South Western Township,” and was originally established as a black township under the apartheid government to assure that they remained as laborers. Most of the major apartheid riots took place in Soweto. We went to the Nelson Mandela house, where he and his family lived before he was arrested, and then afterwards went to the Hector Pieterson Apartheid Memorial. Hector Pieterson was a 13-year old boy who was killed by white apartheid police in the June 16^th, 1976 Student Uprisings. A picture of his body being carried away by a fellow student became an iconic image of the uprisings and apartheid, and captured the corruption of the government. Today, June 16^th is National Youth Day in South Africa and serves as a symbol of youth resistance to the apartheid government. It was great to go into Soweto because it really painted a great picture about South African politics, which will be helpful to me in applying it to health and health policy.

After we left, we passed by Soccer City, where a HUGE rugby game is taking place tonight with the Springboks vs. New Zealand. We tried to get tickets but it’s been sold out for months apparently. We’re watching the game on TV now though. We also went to a mall to pick up some last minute items that we forgot, and I invested in a fleece coat because it’s COLD HERE! Apparently Durban is much warmer than Joburg, but the nights and early mornings here have been cold because it’s winter here. I’ve been making an effort to talk to as many South Africans as possible, and everyone has been so happy and friendly so far. I’m catching up on some of the South African lingo already. My favorite so far is when they think something is cool they say “hundred percent.” South African music is really awesome too and I’ve been exchanging music with our drivers Thula (pronounced Tula) and S’du (pronounced Stu).

I found out some information about my homestay family too. Apparently most of the home-stay family dynamics are a single mother living with her children because father figures are not as much a presence in most households. My home-stay mother is named Nokuthula Mthembu, and lives with her 21 yr old daughter Thah, 18 yr old daughter Neliswa, and 14-year old son Mqapheli. They speak Zulu, (which by the way DOES have clicking consonants!) and I’ll be meeting them next week. Tomorrow we drive 6 hours to Durban and will be staying in another hostel for the next few nights. I’ll write back whenever I get a chance. Hundred Percent!

Soccer, Surfing and Sharks

What do these 3 things have in common? They’re just about the only things that have been publicized about South Africa this past summer through news and media coverage... I’ve been watching very closely. For those of you who haven’t been tuning in, The FIFA World Cup took place in South Africa earlier this summer and brought a lot of commerce to the country (especially to the creators of the infamous Vuvuzela.) My favorite week of TV, “Shark Week” on Discovery, taped most of their footage in the coastal waters off South Africa, where some of the largest and most aerodynamic great white sharks in the world are found. It also happens to be that Durban, the city I’ll be living in, is one of the world’s hottest surfing cities, and is very close to where the “perfect wave” from the 1960’s surfing documentary “The Endless Summer” was finally found.

But when you strip away these three media attractions, you’ll find some of the things they don’t advertise to you on TV. South Africa is home to more HIV-positive individuals than any other country in the world, and it alone, as a single country, accounts for 30% of the GLOBAL burden of HIV and AIDS. Currently, 17.6% of the population is infected with HIV, which is roughly 1 in every 5 adults. The average life expectancy is only 47 years. It’s estimated that there are between 1.5 and 3 million AIDS orphans living in South Africa today as well. Up until 2003, South Africans with HIV who used the public health system had no means of getting antiretroviral treatment (ART) after the government deemed public distribution “not cost effective.” Finally in 2003 the government approved HAART, a program that would ensure free, universal access to antiretroviral treatment through the public sector. Interventions and rollout methods have been limited since then and many of those who desperately need ART still don’t have access to it.

For those of you who don't know what I'm actually doing in SA, I'll give you a “brief” overview: I’ll be living in Durban, a large city on the east coast of the country. It’s located within the province of KwaZulu Natal, which has the highest AIDS rates in the country. So essentially, I will be going to the most heavily burdened part of the most heavily burdened country in the world. Have I freaked you out yet?

My program is an alternative study abroad experience. I will not be attending a typical university. Instead, professors, healthcare providers, politicians, and non-profit organizations will lecture directly to my class. I’ll be learning Zulu, (not the be confused with Xhosa, the clicking language which is also prevalent there). To hear what Zulu sounds like, check out this site (and wait until you get to the color blue!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb3g2Htya0k

I will be living with Zulu-speaking families in the suburbs of Durban, and in rural and tribal villages. The last month of the program I will have the freedom to study any aspect of the healthcare system or social policy in South Africa in an independent study, where I can volunteer/intern with an organization or conduct my own research.

I will not be taking any science classes. This was actually the scariest part of the trip for me to grasp- that I, a pre-dental student, will take a whole semester without a single science course. What the heck am I thinking?! It was a bold decision, and trust me it wasn’t an easy one, but at this point in my life, I need to take a step back and go do something totally off the beaten path. I’m ready to open my eyes to some of the bigger things out there in the world, gain a whole new perspective, and hopefully make a difference along the way.

I know some of you out there are worried about me living in a country with such high crime rates and so many public health issues, but here's what I have to say to everyone- A few weeks ago, two girls from my school were killed in a terrible car accident, simply on their way to work in the morning. No matter how far around the world you may go, things happen every single day right outside your door. You can’t pass up on opportunities in life just because you’re afraid, or because you’re unsure of where they might take you. This is my life, and I’ll never have an opportunity like this again.

I will leave you with this quote from Andrew Holter, a former student at U of R who ironically never made it back from his semester abroad in Europe (which is considered a “safer alternative to study abroad,” or so I’m told). I need to credit Jess Murphy, (who was a personal friend of Andrew’s at Richmond) for passing this quote along to me when I was first contemplating even going abroad. It reads,

"In life, the gains come on slowly, and the losses happen in an instant. Life is tragic. If you're reading this, it means you're alive. Do something with it. You don't want to die without any scars, do you?”

I'm about to head out on the adventure of my life. I’m going to be completely removed from my comfort zone, family, friends, and everything else I know, and be totally immersed in another culture and a new perspective. I'm going in part to learn more about global health, something I've become passionate about over the past couple years, and in part to learn a little about myself too.

But first I should probably finish packing.

Off to Jo'burg in the morning!

Alexa

“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

- Chris McCandless