Das Spannendste aus meiner letzten Woche war übrigens eine schmerzerfüllte Mittwoch-Nacht mit darauf folgender spontaner Wurzelkanal-Behandlung. Es tut sich also nicht wirklich viel hier ;) .. Daher geht’s direkt zu Kathrin’s Bericht:

After our trip to Moholoholo, the students continued to work on their business ideas and tried to find community partners. One team was interested in improving nutrition: the less wealthy people, especially, in Clare struggle to find (and pay for) fresh vegetables, eggs and meat. Most people here eat pap. It looks like mashed potato and is made from maize mielie and cooked with only water. Most people eat large portions of it for lunch and dinner. The students had the idea to improve nutrition by adding a variety of milk products to the diet of the people in Clare. They looked into making cheese, which turns out to be relatively easy. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find enough milk cows and people who were interested in starting a cheese business.

The other half of my group focused on existing small, women-owned businesses. During the immersion phase we got to know many small business owners. Since most of them produce their goods only for neighbors or friends, other people in the village don’t even know about their businesses. Many of them also travel to other villages to sell their goods. In that case they have to pay the taxi fare, and if they don’t sell enough they lose money. Finding ways to help these women and improve their businesses became the focus of this student group. Together with these women they developed the idea of a shop in Clare where the women could sell their items. And instead of traveling to other villages and paying taxi fares, our shop would attract customers from outside areas.

Since we couldn’t find supporters for the cheese idea the whole group decided to continue to work with small businesses. We invited the small business owners to an initial meeting to discuss ideas with them. Our team was very excited by the huge turn out: 19 women followed our invitation. Since then, we have had several meetings with the women and found out that all of them think that they need to sell outside the village since most people in Clare have either not enough money to buy their products or don’t need to buy them as often (e.g. straw mats). We also conducted market research to find out what people in Clare buy regularly.

Next we want to find out the outside demand for the products the women are producing, connect them with resorts (which usually sell locally produced goods to tourists) and set up a management system with the women to successfully run the business.

Most of the women are older and did not have the opportunity to go to school. This makes it not only hard for us to communicate with them (our Xitsonga didn’t develop much further), but we also struggle to find the right balance between empowering and overwhelming them. Thankfully, some great people in Claire have helped us by translating at our meetings and understanding how the women think and work!

Last weekend we went on our second excursion – a safari! Our group stayed at Thornybush Lodge, and we were almost overwhelmed by the comfort and luxury. The lodge is in the middle of the game reserve, and the houses where we stayed faced a waterhole so that we could watch animals while hanging out on the balcony. But the best thing was the outdoor shower: getting clean and seeing giraffes and buffalos at the same time! During our stay we had two game drives and saw almost all the big animals. The afternoon/evening drive ended with drinks and snacks under a sky blanketed with beautiful stars.

We have only a little bit less than three weeks left in Clare. We are all getting a bit nervous when we think about all the work we want to do before we leave.

Und, wie jede Woche, hier ein paar neue Bilder:

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?

Aber erstmal gibt’s ein Bildchen…

So, jetzt aber Kathrin’s Bericht:

What a journey! After one week of traveling we finally arrived in Johannesburg and the next day in Clare, the village where we will spend the next two months.

Last Friday (June 17th) I had to say goodbye to San Francisco and Thomas and started my summer internship as an advisor for ThinkImpact’s South Africa program. On Friday I landed in Washington D.C. where ThinkImpact has its headquarter. I met ThinkImpact staff and Susannah the other South Africa adviser. Luckily, Susannah is super nice and we get along very well, which helps a lot when you are responsible for a bunch of college students in rural Africa.

On Friday evening and Saturday Susannah and I met with Saul (ThinkImpact’s founder and CEO) to discuss our role and the curriculum the organization has developed. The students will go through roughly four phases during their time in South Africa to develop ideas for social enterprises (businesses that not only create economic value but also social and/or environmental). The four phases of the program are: immersion, identity, inspiration and innovation. You will hear more about that later.

Later on Saturday the scholars for the Kenya program (ThinkImpact’s other site in Africa) arrived and we had a chance to get to know them. We attended their training on Sunday and led some discussion rounds in the afternoon. We also got a first sense for the students: young, very enthusiastic college students who want to learn about global development and social enterprises in Africa. Some of the students are leaving the US for the first time in their life!

Susannah, Saul and I took then a 6am flight on Monday morning to Chicago. This year ThinkImpact partners with the Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI) at Northwestern University in Chicago. Every year the institute sends college students to places around the world to learn about global development. At the institute we met our student teams for the first time. My team has five pretty smart people: Hannah, Josh, Paku, Ahzin, and Camille.

The students in the GESI program had a week long of presentations, talks, and language lessons. We attended parts of their program and also tried to squeeze in a bit of the ThinkImpact’s curriculum. On Wednesday morning Susannah and I left Chicago and started our 25 hours travel to Johannesburg. The advisor are supposed to be in the village a couple of days before the students to prepare their homestays etc.

Late on Thursday evening we arrived in Johannesburg, only a few hours until we got picked up at 5:30 am on Friday to get transferred to Clare. The 5 hours drive to the village was a great way to see South Africa and its beauty. We even saw some monkeys, zebras and giraffes on our way!

We also met more ThinkImpact staff: Kate is in the area to help us to find homestays and get settled in. Right after we arrived in Clare we met Oubrey, who lives in Clare and whose father is the Enduna (chief of the village). He showed us around and introduced us to more people in the village. And we met our guest families. I was really lucky, since my family is not only super nice but has also a very comfortable house, including an inside toilet (jackpot!!). Most houses have electricity but nobody has running water so we carry in water from an outside tab for cooking, flushing the toilet and bathing. Bathing takes some time in the morning since you have to fetch water and heat it in a kettle. Once you have some warm water you pour small amounts of it on your head and body. The whole process takes a while and it can get pretty cold since its winter in South Africa.

We spent the whole Saturday waiting for people and showing us houses where our students can stay. The minimum requirements are: fridge, stove, own room with bed, and a latrine close to the house. By the end of the day we found two places for my group (one house for three boys and one house for 2 girls). We also found a place for 2 boys from Susannah’s group but still need two more places.

Today is Sunday and we are all getting ready for church (my guest father is a priest). Hopefully we’ll find more places to stay in the afternoon since we meet our students on Monday in Nelspruit (about two hours from Clare). They had a few days in Johannesburg to relax and shop before they get to the village and experience rural South Africa!

Und wer noch etwas mehr erfahren will, kann sich ruhig mal auf dem ThinkImpact Blog umschauen, da berichtet unter anderem Kathrin’s Kollegin Susannah (oben auf dem Bild in der Mitte) über ihre ersten Tage in Clare.