Die Dritte Woche

Eine neue Woche mit neuen Fotos und einem neuen Bericht von Kathrin! Diese Woche geht’s um Unterschiede zwischen den Kulturen, die TV-Show “Generations”, und einen Ausflug mit dem Team. Übrigens ist Kathrin inzwischen “über den Berg”, sie hat die Hälfte ihres Internships hinter sich gebracht und in weniger als vier Wochen ist sie ‘schon’ wieder daheim! Und drei Tage später fängt die Uni an :/ .. 

Erst fleissig lesen, dann unten die Bilder geniessen ;) ..

The third week in Clare is marked by the beginning of the third phase of our curriculum. After getting to know the village and its people (immersion) and learning about ourselves and our strengths and assets (identity), we started developing ideas for social businesses (ideation). For this phase we use IDEO’s human-centered design-thinking.

Since we don’t have any data available and can’t do research on the internet, the people in Clare are our main source of information. Over the last few weeks we asked them many questions, and I’m sure some people are a bit tired of us asking all these questions. Many people here are, especially in the beginning, introverted and almost shy. They would never come up to us and ask us the same questions we asked them. Such as: Where did you go to school? How many children do you have? Do you have any business experience? – But they sit down with us and patiently answer all of our questions.

Only very few people ask questions in return. My guest father, Ezikiel, for example, sits down with me after dinner and wants to interview me. Fair enough! We had already some interesting discussions about religion, unemployment, renting/buying a house – in South Africa, the US, or Germany – dogs, the police, marriage and having children. It’s hard for him to understand why I’m married but don’t have any children yet. “Isn’t that the reason to get married?” he asked me?

Actually the question is not that unfamiliar – Thomas and I heard it pretty often during our last trip to Germany. Ezikiel told me that people in South Africa are having children when they are young (I didn’t mention how old I am…) and then continue with their education or career while family members take care of the children. He and his wife are both still earning degrees and building their careers. Their adorable children (Akani, Mitchell, and Saint) are 12 and 9 years old and the youngest one is only 3 months old.

Ezikiel is also planning on sitting down with my students to ask them questions. He is very interested and likes to learn about our lives and our culture. He traveled a few times to the US (for church meetings), and he is aware that many issues are handled differently in the US or Germany. Whenever we hit a point in our discussion where we have to admit that our cultures are just different, he says, “Is it? Yeah, that is how you do it…”

But we also find similarities between our cultures: He told me that no one in South Africa puts peanut butter on bread! I told him that this is also not very popular in Germany, but Americans love their PB&J (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – our daily lunch). He gave me some of their (homemade) peanut butter, which is actually to hard to spread on bread but tastes great with tea!

In the evening the family usually watches TV (another similarity to families in the US/Germany). The most popular show in South Africa is ‘Generations’, a soap opera that runs since 1994. Every night at 8pm most South Africans turn on the TV, or, if they don’t have a TV, they go over to their neighbors to watch drama, scandals and conspiracies.

Back to my team; After three weeks in the village we decided that it would be nice to take a little break and see more of the area. We spent Thursday and Friday in Moholoholo near the Drakensberg. On Thursday afternoon we visited an animal rehabilitation center. During the introduction at the center we learned that, thanks to us (human beings), the ecological balance is destroyed and that even projects like the Kruger National Park cannot fix the problems we created.

Most of the land in South Africa today is used as farmland or for residential areas. Animals have simply no space and are forced to hunt on farms or in villages. Farmers and residents set up traps to protect their chickens and cattle. If people from the animal center find hyenas or cheetahs trapped and oftentimes horribly injured, they rescue them and take care of them until they can be released into the wild again. Unfortunately, many animals end up again in traps or another animal takes over their hunting area.

After our visit we went back to Ya Mati, a beautiful place between the mountains with several lodges, and we all enjoyed the running water and a warm shower.

Tags: Ezikiel, Generations, Kruger National Park, Moholoholo, Ya Mati