Wie letzte Woche gibt’s auch diesmal wieder einen Bericht von Kathrin aus Südafrika; die Studenten sind inzwischen angekommen und starten durch – aber das könnt ihr ja gleich lesen. Falls ihr euch wundert ob’s irgendwas Berichtenswertes von mir gibt muss ich euch enttäuschen, außer Arbeit tut sich bei mir nicht viel. Tja, das Leben ohne Kathrin ist echt langweilig. Aber gut, sind ja nur noch 6 Wochen ;) .. 

Übrigens, weiter unten gibt’s einen Satz Fotos! Aber jetzt erst mal der Bericht:

By Monday we had secured homestays for all student and we were ready to pick up our groups in Nelspruit (a big city 2.5 hours from Clare). On the way we picked up a rental car for me so that we have a car for emergencies. Since Susannah is not used to driving stick shift I will be the only driver. I was a bit nervous driving in South Africa since they drive on the left side of the road! For the first few miles I followed our other driver and had time to get used to the ‘other’ side. Our group stayed one night in Nelspruit and we enjoyed having running water and a warm shower in the morning. The students had some time to do last minute shopping before we loaded a big truck the next morning with their stuff and started our tour back to the village. I had to drive the rental car and asked the driver to look out for my tiny blue car, since they gave me only some very rough directions. The entire way back I was not able to drink a sip of water since the driver was so fast. He didn’t stopp at signs or lights and overturned pretty much every car. I could barely keep up with him. When we arrived in Clare he greeted me with: ‘Not bad for a Yankee!’

Susannah and I were really excited to see how the students would react when they see the village and finally meet their homestay families! We dropped two students at each house and left them with food and water for about a week. Most of them were excited to have a family with children. Kids usually speak English and its easy to connect with them. The three guys in my team, Josh, Paku, and Ahsin are staying with a young men, Conrade, who usually lives alone. But for most houses it is not exactly clear who lives there and who doesn’t: friends and relatives are coming and going (and staying overnight). Fortunately the guys connected immediately with Conrade and he helped them to get settled.

Hannah and Camille, the two girls in my team, are staying with Jester and her kids. I have to say that I’m really impressed with those two girls, they don’t complain and adjust super quickly to the situation in the village. Later that afternoon we picked up our students and went on a first tour through the village. A great opportunity to show our Tsonga language skills. A typical greeting goes like this:

Avuxeni! (Guten Tag!)
Ahee! (Ebenso!)
Mi njani (Wie geht’s?)
Ndzi kona (I’m fine!)
Mi njani?
Ndzi pfukile!
Inkomo. Famba kahle! (Danke. Go well)
Inkomo. Sala kahle! (Danke. Stay well)

For the rest of the week students worked on the first phase of the program: immersion. The goal is to learn as much as possible about the community, their daily life, and their assets and skills. Our team usually meets in the morning and late afternoon to discuss the plan for the day or the results of their research. My role is to explain the curriculum and the exercises for each day, help them with challenges and lead reflection session. So far my team is doing great. They are very open and have no problem to approach people in the village (and be friendly and respectful). In the last three days they gathered already lots of information and are even more excited to work with the community and develop a social enterprise. I hope this excitement lasts for the next weeks and the students learn to deal with the very limited choices of food we are getting, washing their clothes, using the bucket bath, and being cold at night.

Today is Saturday and I finally managed to wash my clothes. This usually means you prepare two large buckets of water and put detergent or soap into one of them. You try to wash out stains and dirt and put the clothes in the next bucket which has only water to clean out the soap. I think I used to much of the detergent since my clothes feel a bit soapy… It’s super windy today so tried to attach it really tight to the line, but unfortunately my two towels fell into the dirt and I had to wash them again…

Weitere Fotos von allen Afrika-Teams gibt’s übrigens hier und den Blog von ThinkImpact hatte ich glaube ich schon letztes Mal verlinkt, oder?

Von uns gibt es leider nicht viel zu berichten. Ich kann es kaum abwarten bis das Semester endlich vorbei ist. Diesmal ist es wirklich anstrengend! Das einzig erwähnenswerte ist, dass ich mich um einen summer job beworben habe, und vor zwei Wochen alles eingetütet habe: Von Mitte Juni bis Mitte August werde ich für die Organisation ThinkImpact in Südafrika arbeiten!

ThinkImpact schickt jedes Jahr amerikanische Studenten nach Kenia oder Südafrika, um dort für zwei Monate an einer Idee für ein social enterprise zu arbeiten. (Ein social enterprise ist eine Organisation mit einer sozialen Mission, die allerdings nicht über Spenden finanziert wird. Stattdessen erwirtschaftet die Organisation, wie ein Unternehmen Profit, und erfüllt damit ihren einen sozialen Zweck.) ThinkImpact hat dieses Programm vor einigen Jahren ins Leben gerufen und schickt in diesem Jahr erstmals sogenannte Advisor mit – Leute, die bereits etwas Erfahrung haben und den Studenten helfen die Zeit in Afrika zu überstehen. Einer von diesen 12 Begleitern werde ich sein! Mein Team (6 Studenten zwischen 20 und 23 Jahren) wird in der Nähe des Kruger National Parks in Maneyleti arbeiten!

Es wird mir natürlich sehr schwer fallen Thomas hier “zurückzulassen”, zumal wir in Maneyleti wohl keine regelmässige Internetverbindung haben werden…. Dabei sah es zwischenzeitlich sogar so aus, als ob ich im Sommer täglich mit Thomas im Bus zu Apple fahren würde. Ich hab mich nämlich bei Apple für ein Praktikum im Corporate Social Responsibility Bereich beworben und hatte ein sehr nettes Interview. Am Ende haben sie sich leider für einen anderen Kandidaten entschieden.

Aber bevor ich an den Sommer denken kann, muss ich noch einige assignments für meine Uni erledigen…