Welcome, SA23!

Today marks the arrival of a fresh new group of Peace Corps Trainees in South Africa, the third to come since our group (SA20) arrived in July 09. They will be scattered in various provinces throughout the country doing HIV/AIDS Outreachwork with local NGOs until 2013.

I am always amazed at the different lives people walk away from to join Peace Corps. Groups range from single, recent graduates, married couples of all ages, people in the middle of their career or in the process of changing their career, to retired people in their 70s looking for something meaningful to do. Pretty cool to see people from all walks of life come together while being thrown into this new, crazy environment!

Apparently SA23 has a couple of interesting members too! Sean Smith, the former LA bureau chief of Entertainment Weekly, just wrote an article about leaving his job mid-career to join the Peace Corps and come to SA. Not all of us can say our inspiration to join Peace Corps came from some wise words from Angelina Jolie herself....

Anyways you all should read the article! Gives some nice insight into the process (for some) of leaving their jobs for Peace Corps service...

Camp GLOW - Girls Leading Our World

After many months of planning, applying for grants, choosing "campers", and preparing, Camp GLOW finally took place December 11 - 16. In attendance were 41 girls , all aged 12 - 15 years old, 5 camp counselors who were 17-21, 5 Setswana-speaking facilitators, 4 cooks, and 4 PCVs from the Kuruman area. We each selected counterparts to work with us, girls to attend the camp, and helped design the curriculum and map out the schedule for the camp to come together. It was quite the process seeing this project out from start to finish, but well worth it and was by far the most fun and successful project I've done here in SA!

Girls of this age are faced with a number of challenges in rural South African society. Women are especially vulnerable to becoming infected with HIV. While some of the risk factors for women are biological, there are many cultural factors at hand that can explain why women typically have a higher risk of becoming infected, including cultural taboos regarding sex, gender roles that prevent women from being assertive to men, and the lack of female-controlled prevention methods. Extreme poverty is also a huge factor, as it encourages the exchange of sex for money, food, and sometimes even shelter. I think all of us were shocked at how prevalent having a "sugar daddy" is here in order to find financial support.

This being the focus of the camp, we put together a life-skills curriculum aimed at teenage girls coming of age in rural South African society. We discussed issues such as gender roles in the village setting, how to overcome challenges as a young female, different methods in practicing assertiveness, goal-setting and planning for your future, myths and facts about HIV/AIDS in South Africa (re: having sex with a virgin does NOT cure you of AIDS), the basics of HIV transmission, and methods of prevention. The counselors and counterparts were a huge help in these sessions to break down a lot fo the discussion in Setswana. I was very proud seeing my fellow educators get so into this, as it is really something that is not talked about in the villages!

While this was the bulk of the activities we did, we also had a lot of fun! We did three arts and crafts activities (friendship bracelets, t-shirts, and making banners), played games outside, had the girls do skits, as well as a final talent show on the last night, followed by the loudest and longest singing & dancing session that I've ever seen! I was lucky enough to meet the owners of a farm in the area (Middelpos Guest Farm), which was the PERFECT place for a camp like this, During the free time blocks that we made room for, the girls got to go swimming in one of their 3 pools, jump on trampolines, play soccer on the sports field, and just relax in the entertainment room. One of the greatest parts about the camp was watching the girls go from not knowing anyone to making fast friends with the group!

Here are some pictures from the week:












Session on gender roles















Talking about decision making













Canoeing










Dance party










Bracelet making











Icebreaker games










Me and my girls :)










Skits!













Cafeteria










Whole group pic on the last day










Talent show










Time for soccer..










Showing off the shirts...










Trampolines!


A fun time indeed! My counterpart (who is the health and social studies teacher at my school) particularly enjoyed interacting with the kids in this environment, and is eager to plan another camp with me for our June break. Planning the second time around should go MUCH more smoothly than the first...

Peace Corps on TV

In the last day I have uncovered 3 different instances of Peace Corps issues being aired on TV. Unfortunately I can't watch them, but you guys should check them out.

The first two are ABC 20/20 investigations into two different peace corps issues.

Here is a clip of an investigation into the murder of PCV Kate Puzey, which happened in Benin a few years ago. Apparently part of the investigation is into the Peace Corps itself, where apparently the agency did not take enough preemptive measures in dealing with Kate's situation.

Here is another investigation into the mishandlings of Peace Corps when dealing with issues of rape and sexual assault. This has been a hot spot issue in Peace Corps South Africa due to a number of incidents in recent years. I have heard first hand from volunteers in this position of how bad Peace Corps handles issues of rape and assault, and the "blaming the victim" stance is usually taken. Even during our 2 months of training, when the question of rape would be brought up, often the only respone from Peace Corps staff was preaching about what we should and should not do in order to keep ourselves out of situation where this could happen. While this is to a certain extent true, of course there are many situations where this occurs and it was entirely out of the hands of the PCV. Just an unfortunate case of wrong time/wrong place. What anger me is that we were not given any sort of self-defence class (it's against some policy), which I think could be one of the most helpful things Peace Corps could equip us with to be able to get out of these situations. I think there absolutely needs to be a change in policy regarding how staff deal with these issues, especially in a country where the extraordinarily high rape statistics can not be ignored....

Lastly, Peace Corps now has a commercial! This was the only one I was able to watch. I think it's kinda cute, and really who DOESN'T like recieving a public thank-you from Susan Sarandon. This guy does seem like a typical narcissistic PCV who really really wants to tell everyone who will listen about all of the amazing things he did in Africa. A cute (if not cheesy?) commercial though. Woohoo Peace Corps... happy 50th!

Compliments!

This is the term that often accompanies "Happy New Year" greetings in South Africa. Not too sure why this is, but the confusing usage of English phrases in this country is not exactly uncommon. So, compliments to all! I hope 2011 brings everyone lots of goodness.

I recently returned from an awesome Christmas vacation, and I again find myself faced with the post-vacation blues that comes with the transition back into village life after a break. Thankfully this time it seems to be going better than the last. This is probably due to the fact that I have a solid week before school starts for the year, giving me some time to get back into the swing of my slower-paced home here. So far my time has been filled with cleaning out my room because of the piles of dust and dead bugs that have taken over in my absence, washing all my clothes, towels, and sheets, reading my many newly acquired books, getting back into a running schedule, and jump-roping with the kids. Rough life here in Africa, I know!

This year's holiday season was spent on the beach, and needless to say, it was amazing. I was in Cintsa for Christmas week, which is the southernmost village of the Wild Coast, near East London. A group of friends and I camped at Buccaneers Backpackers for the week, a hostel which I highly recommend to anybody going to the area! We spent Christmas drinking cold beer, lying on the beach, and playing volleyball in the sand almost every night. Didn't feel mumch like Christmas normally does, but was nonetheless a glorious time. I then rang in the New Year in Durban, which I wasn't looking forward to as much as other places in SA but was a pleasantly surprising part of the trip. We spent a few days there swimming in the warm, warm waves, going to UShaka Marine World (which is half aquarium, half water park!), eating delicious Indian food, and dancing all night long with more Peace Corps Volunteers than I could count. Speaking of the food, bunny chow is the delicacy of Durban and a really tasty meal. It consists of half a loaf of bread with the inside scooped out and some form of curry in its place. Mmmmm it is so so delicious! Plus you are supposed to eat it without utensils, which makes for a fun, messy culinary experience.

Another highlight of this break was getting to see my friend Dana and her boyfriend Steve, who have just embarked on a trip around the world for the next 10 months! Check out their blog to find out about all the great places they go. It was awesome to get to see someone from home and catch up on missed experiences from the last year and a half. We are both so clearly in these new places in our post-college lives, but it was refreshing to see how easily good friendships fall back into place as if nothing ever changed!

Now it's time to get back into the swing of school. I'm not entirely sure how these next two terms will pan out at school, since as usual we have yet to create any sort of schedule and set plan. No big deal though, nothing I haven't dealt with at the last minute before! Missing you all and hope you are enjoying the snow for me. Crazy to think this time next year I will be back in Colorado reuniting with the wonderful cold weather....