Crazy month!

So I am finally back to my village after 4 weeks of traveling South Africa! It was a fun month and nice to get to see some new parts of the country, but pretty exhausting and needless to say I was very ready to get back to my home and not live out of my backpack any longer! So here’s an update on all that went down:

LST


Life Skills Training was my first stop and help at the Sparkling Waters Hotel near Rustenburg – this in itself was awesome as we had incredible meals, nice rooms with awesome showers, two pools, and a SPA! The counterpart I brought was the administrative assistant at one of my primary schools who has been wanting to get involved in some sort of community project. The workshop was run by David Patient and Neil Or…. Two very interesting South Africans who own a company that gives workshops and trainings on healthy living and HIV/AIDS. In fact, David Patient is one of the longest surviving people with AIDS. We learned all sorts of things about the virus itself as well as how to live a healthy life and keep your cd4 count up once you are already infected. My big complaint was that it was mostly directed at the Americans and not so much the South African counterparts we all brought, so it will be interesting to see what they got out of it (hopefully some of it seeped in!). The last half of the training was on project design and management and grant writing, so maybe some sort of community project will be able to come out of this!
Me and my PC besties being awesome...


My counterpart (Lorato) and I


Longtom Marathon

From LST we piled in a coombie to take us to Sabie where we ran the half marathon! I ended up running most of it and finishing in about 2 hours 34 minutes. The marathon went from Sabie to Lydenburg down the windy and hilly Longtom Pass that provided us with spectacular views as we ran! The water stops were also awesome, where people would give us not only water and powerade but also coke, sweets, and at one point even mini potatoes!!!!! Haha… I haven’t done a marathon anywhere else but I have a feeling that was one of those “only in South Africa things”. Again, THANKS TO ALL WHO DONATED!!!!!!!! I ended up raising about $200... 100 more than required, and as a group we raised over $17,000!! That is about $1500 more than last year. So give yourselves a pat on the back for taking part in sending a disadvantaged learner to a prestigious high school on a 5-year scholarship! I look forward to doing this again next year, possibly even training for it and shooting for 2 hours.

Here is a link with some pictures from the race!


Kloofing and hiking

After the marathon (and a much needed rest day on our sore muscles) a group of us decided to go “kloofing” (canyoneering in US terms). This involved putting on a padded wetsuit, a helmet, tennis shoes, and a “rubber bum” (shorts with rubber on the butt), hiking down into a canyon and basically trekking down the river. It was pretty much like a bunch of sports combined – we hiked, did a few small cliff dives, swam under waterfalls, rock climbed, scrambled over boulders, went through a couple caves... at one point we even slid down trees like fireman poles!! IT WAS SO AWESOME! My new favorite sport for sure. The canyon we were in was extremely jungly and made me feel a little bit like Tarzan (in a silly looking suit), making it extra awesome.


Haha I love this picture, we look like little bobble heads!

Us in our awesome suits, complete with rubber bums..

After this we went on a 3-day backpacking trip on the Fanie Botha trail. The first day was pretty easy and we ended up at hut #1, right on the edge of a thick jungly forest. The best part was that there were a whole bunch of monkeys jumping through the trees that we got to listen to all afternoon while we relaxed and napped! Day 2 was much more difficult but incredibly gorgeous. We went through extremely dense forest and had to cross a whole bunch of creeks and stumbled upon many waterfalls and beautiful pools along the way. The uphills were pretty rough and were covered in extremely slippery rocks… it took us almost a kilometer an hour through the hard stuff! Once we climbed out of the forest we were pretty much on top of a plateau and walked through the clouds a few more kilometers to our next hut. We also saw some animals on the way – not sure if they were springbock or gemsbock but they were way cool! Day 3 was mostly downhill and looped back to where we started. Overall it was an awesome hiking trip and I was pretty much like a kid in a candy store being back in the mountains again!!
View from Hut #1
Crossin' a creek..
Bunch of awesomeness at the last hut


Camp GLOW

After Sabie and a stop in Nelspruit along the way, a few of us went to help a PCV who was holding a girls’ leadership camp in Schomensdal (which is right near the border of Swaziland in Mpumalanga). We did sessions on journaling, goal setting, dealing with peer pressure, overcoming challenges, and some guest speakers came to talk about HIV/AIDS, child advocacy, and other issues. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot for the camp we will be holding in December! One of the best parts of this week was the place we stayed, which was a home for orphans that this Irish woman runs. The compound was amazing and there were about 15 orphans living there along with volunteers from all over the world (U.S., Zambia, Canada, and Germany to name a few) living there and volunteering in various places in the community. The kids all have amazing English and are tutored by the volunteers, and the household runs smoothly with everyone helping out with various activities. It was awesome to see and be a part of for a week (although I have to admit I had major site envy to know that a PCV has been living there for 2 years… what an awesome site to have!!!)
The whole group!
One of the facilitators running a session


Pretoria/ Global Camps Africa training

From camp glow we made our way back to Pretoria for a couple days before heading o yet another conference. We had a lot of fun staying at the backpackers, gorging ourselves with delicious food (we found an amazing Lebanese restaurant..), and seeing a couple movies. We then went to the camp training with about 8 PCVs and many other people from organizations all around the country. The days were packed (8am to 9pm everyday!!!) with info on how to run and manage youth camps. Some of it was very helpful – especially being able to network with other South African organizations – but much it was directed at American-style camps and didn’t really include the African perspective as much as it could have. While it didn’t really cater to the South African cultural context, everyone seemed to really enjoy it!

Back home!

Yesterday I FINALLY made it back to my village, after an exhausting ride into Kuruman on Sunday. I have never been more thankful to be back at my site and stationary again. I wasn’t even upset to find my new bug friends that have taken over my room in my absence! I was also THRILLED to find that the weather has actually become chilly!!! Everyone keeps saying the winter has come early…. Which is better news than I could have ever hoped to receive. Today I went to school in both a sweater and a scarf, and I am fully planning on taking out the extra blankets for my bed tonight! I have officially made it through my first summer in Africa.. only one more to go. I am feeling good about my work at school, as I also learned that one of the mothers in the community has volunteered to help with the creation of our school library!!! I could not be happier with this news, as I was really hesitant to begin a library project without having a community member on board to help. My principal kept telling me that no one in the community would want to volunteer their time… so this was a good lesson in persistence paying off! I am much more eager to take these projects head on with a little community support. Term 2 is pretty short since it’s ending early for the World Cup break and I have a lot of work to do for my classes, projects, and PC stuff… it’s going to be a busy couple months!

Random

I am currently killing some time at an internet cafe in town, thought I'd do a little blog post for ya! This morning I had to help my pricipal in town getting internet hooked up to her laptop... which we succesfully did but I'm still confused as to why she needs it. The Department of Ed. has been urging schools to get email, so instantly she just NEEDED an email address (though I doubt shell ever use it). So that was what this week was spent on... good times! School officialy has email. Anyways here's some random thoughts for the day...

Village motto?

So in South Africa, because there are 11 official languages, many people will communicate in their second language, which is most often English. Many people are really fluent in it, but because the education system pretty much sucks at teaching it the english used is often quite incorrect and misused... but it seems to work just fine here as the majority of people don't speak English as their first language. Well, I have gotten over this for the most part (even though simple mistakes like the misuse of he/she as well as horrible butcherings of common phrases still bother me), but there is still one thing that just makes me laugh everyday. Apparently we have a village "motto", posted on a huge billboard at the dirt road intersection to get to my village. It is as follows:

"Together we can forward ever, backward never."

This definitely threw me for a loop the firs time I saw it. I mean I see what they are saying, like always move forward and never backward but as you can see the English used is horribly incorrect. I mostly just laughed at this and never said anything because they always think I'm wrong and say "No this is just South African english". Haha. And anyways, the billboard recently blew down in a big storm. BUT now my school wants to paint an emblem and the motto on the big wall of our school. I just don't know if I can go without saying something..... at a school at least you want the language to be correct right?! But I'm sure they'll just argue with me and then ask me to create a new village motto, which I don't really think I'm in a place to do. Hmmmm do I let it slide? Thoughts?

Tortillas

That's right... this week I successfully made a batch of flour tortillas... and they are delicious!!! I've had one everyday since, usually with eggs and veggies since I don't really have many fixings for mexican food. They have made me so so happy though.... my quest for more mexican meals is on!!

Plans

This last week has been a scramble to get things finished up for the end of the term because I am leaving on Monday and may be gone for close to a month!! I have been in full test-giving and final-grading mode. Next week is Life Skills Training (LST), an HIV/AIDS training that is funded by PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief).. which means we get to bring a community counterpart and spend 5 days at a fancy hotel getting an awesome training. I'm really exciting, and so is my counterpart which is awesome. We're thinking of doing some sort of big community testing drive event, which has never happened in our village so it should be exciting.

After LST we go on to the Longtom Marathon!!!!! Thanks so much to all who have donated... and for those of you who haven't there's still time!

Here's how to donate again:

Method 1: Online (preferred)
Go to the KLM Foundation website.
Click on the Donate photo in the upper left corner.
This opens up a secure https connection for people to donate.
Make sure you put 'Kristin Mayer' in the Longtom Marathon field so they know the donation was made in my name.

Method 2: Check
Make out a check to: Kgwale Le Mollo (US)
Put a post-it note saying the donation is in my name with the check.
Mail it to:
KLM Foundation (US)c/o Bowen Hsu461 So. Bonita AvenuePasadena, CA 91107

After the marathon we're taking advantage of the location and hiking for a few days on the Fanie botha trail, which I've heard is pretty awesome. There are also activities like cliff diving and kloofing... can't wait! Then after this me and a few other girls will be helping facilitate a Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) that is being held by another PCV in Mpumalanga. It'll be an awesome opportunity to get ideas for the same camp well be hosting in December! After this I will either head back to the village or attend another HIV/AIDS training hosted by USAID... this is still up in the air though! In that case I wouldnt be back until well into mid-April... crazy stuff!

So those are my exciting adventures for the upcoming weeks. It's nice to keep so busy, plus it will be great to get to see a bit more of the country!

Development?

Here is a really interesting article I just read in the NYTimes on an apparently successful development project in Sauri, Kenya. Pretty awesome and inspiring!

My time here has given me a chance to really see and get involved in “development” in the field, and frankly I have yet to develop any solid opinions on the matter. First of all I haven’t seen very much yet, and my knowledge is very limited to South Africa. The project discussed in this article is really interesting though!

I don’t know too much about this “Millennium Villages” project, but based on the example of the work done in Sauri, it really seems to have been quite successful in implementing its goals. I like the idea of taking these 80 villages around Africa and using them as a sort of experiment in development to see what is really possible. And as this is part of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), obviously funding isn’t a problem.

But of course the question is is this really a realistic and sustainable project? I do like the idea that each village that is successful in these practices is used as an example to surrounding villages, but with all of the funding being used in each of the villages, it seems unlikely that other communities would just be able to “pick up” these great practices. I guess I just have a problem with the international aid community being so focused on highly-funded projects. Even in the Peace Corps, I have read statistics that there is no correlation between the amount of money put into a project and how sustainable or successful it turns out to be. In fact I have heard (though I’m not sure where so don’t quote me on this) that often the more money put into a project the less sustainable it turns out to be, as the funding will likely completely cease once the PCV is gone. Many PCV’s believe their work in the Peace Corps is much more about relationship-building than it is about actual development. Which in a sense is really true, because really I am only one person, and a foreign person coming from a very different culture… how is it that we are really supposed to “develop” our communities?

I suppose I’m a bit jaded on this matter because of my experience here. Everyone in my villages are soooo focused on just getting money and material items, which is really frustrating for me as someone who has devoted to years to solely HELPING and teaching them… something much more valuable than money or things in my opinion. Even just the other day there were some British missionaries in the Kuruman area, and my school was just about to freak out trying to get them to come here and “help” us. I kept asking them exactly what they did or gave and they just said “they give money to villages to develop them”. It was like nails down a chalkboard for me, as I am here giving MYSELF to them for 2 years but all they can think about is getting money - money does not equal development! It’s all about the immediate satisfaction, not the long-term process.

Of course you hear amazing success stories, maybe not quite to the extent of what happened in Kenya but there is still so much possible in what we are doing as PCVs. But then there is the corruption, which happens everyday here. I’m not sure if it’s quite as bad in S.A. as it seems to be in Kenya, but I know it goes on at both the large scale (government officials taking large sums of money for themselves) as well as the much smaller scale (NGO workers “skimming” money that should be going to AIDS orphans). You hear about it all the time. For example, South Africa spends more per capita on education than almost any country in the world, but where is the money going?! Obviously not to the schools (or at least not to rural, predominately black schools). This seems to be especially bad in this province, the Northern Cape, as the provincial department of education is quite bankrupt and oftentimes schools aren’t even receiving books they need for the curriculum. Much of this is due to corruption (as well as the astronomical salaries for the under-qualified teachers).

One thing that has really rang true with me here is that change on a large-scale has to come from the inside, from the people who are themselves affected. If the communities don’t have the drive to change, then it won’t happen... no matter how much money is put into it. Anyways, this was sort of a rambly post but I thought this little development experiment was really cool... you guys should go read it!

On life becoming normal....

Well I wish there was a bunch of stuff to update on but apparently once you hit a certain point in your Peace Corps service life begins to become a little bit less of an exciting adventure and more of a routine and well, more of an actual day-to-day normal life! This has actually been a pretty great transition for me. Although the language is still a very difficult hurdle to overcome, the culture is much less exhausting to me than it once was, and integration into my community seems to happen more and more everyday with much less effort. Most of all, life here in the village has become very comfortable… really that’s all that I could have asked for!

One big change I’ve noticed in myself is my capability of dealing with free time. During training and for the first few months at site, I had no idea what to do with my copious amounts of free time. I would read, pace around, journal, and pretty much just count down hours until it was time to do something (prepare a meal, go to bed, fetch water, etc.). Not that I didn’t enjoy it, because it’s definitely not a rough lifestyle. It just took some adjustments. Especially coming from the insanely busy year I had before the Peace Corps with two packed semesters to graduate, a thesis to write, work, applying to the PC, along with the normal jam-packed social life of a soon-to-be college grad.

Now I find myself basking in my free time, and most of the time just loving it. I can now spend an entire weekend in my village without going to town and carelessly find ways to fill my time. Even weekends where I don’t have to wash my clothes (which is normally occupies half of my Sundays). It’s great, and though I am normally one to find joy in a busy life, I recommend everyone adopt a little more careless free time into their lives. I spend my days reading, cleaning, journaling, coloring and playing with the kids, lesson and project planning, jogging every now and then, and just sitting around with my family. It’s awesome!

The only downside to this new feeling of normalcy is work actually feeling like work. Who knew Peace Corps was actually a job? It is definitely more fulfilling than most jobs, and small successes feel better than I could have ever imagined (even if it really is as small as one of my students remembering a vocabulary word). The only real issue is that I feel like I am constantly in a struggle with my educators. One day it will be about how I am not a secretary and shouldn’t be called every other second to type something. I’ve been remedying this lately by flat out saying “no, but let me sit down with you while you type it” and show them how to use things like excel and word. The next day it will be either them pulling me out of the classes I am teaching for some pointless “meeting” (I am not even going to get started on how much South Africans love their useless gatherings), or pulling my students out of my class for some menial task (like running to the shop to buy them soda…. and no that is not a joke). Really frustrating. Most of the time I’ll just walk to the meeting, ask what it’s about and if they really need me, and walk straight back to the class. Maybe… just MAYBE they’ll begin to see the importance of a teacher actually…. gasp…. TEACHING. I know, quite the concept!

The worst of it all is the corporal punishment that I’ve been witnessing. You know what? I hate the term corporal punishment…. this is flat out child abuse and I think the phrase just covers that up. It seems to only be getting worse with my educators becoming more relaxed around me, although they know my firm stance against this. The worst part about this is that although they know how I feel, they think its funny how sensitive I am. For instance, one morning when I was on a computer working on something while the morning assembly was going on, I looked out the window only to see my principal going down a line of students smacking each of them over the head with a meter stick for being late. One of the teachers walked in and laughed at the horrified look on her face, saying how funny she thought it was that I get so upset. I was nearly in tears... really really funny I know. The worst is that the kids are huge tattle-tales. The second one learner does something wrong someone else runs and tells on him, only resulting in the smacking of all those involved. You’d think they would learn that telling on people is a lose-lose! I lost even more hope the other day when the ONE teacher that I was almost positive did not hit her kids ran at a group of kids with a whip (yeah, the kind used for donkeys) for fighting. She also is a firm believer that the reason Matric (the test for seniors to graduate high school) rates are so low is because S.A. has made corporal punishment illegal. I’m not even going to start on how illogical that is.

I’ve been trying my best with them, I just know that it’s going to take a while for them to see where I’m coming from. These things are all they’ve ever known, and then one day it just became illegal. I want to show them why the government decided to take that step, and that hitting kids really doesn’t make them learn better. This may be one of those uphill battles, but I am going to keep trying!

Anyways, this post wasn’t really meant to rant about things bringing me down, because all in all life is good. The great part about being in this phase of my service is that I am very invested in my community and my mind is overflowing with wonderful ideas for projects, and I’ve had an awesome time collaborating with a couple of other volunteers on them! It’s hard because I don’t want to become too invested in any one idea, I really want to follow up with the ones my community wants and sees the need for. I am trying to maintain my realism in all of this – I know that the actual lasting impact I have on my schools may be very small (as almost any previous volunteer will tell you), so I’m just holding onto each small success with all I have and going with it.

I turned 23 last week! Yay for me! It was a very relaxing birthday, and a pretty normal day in the village, which is a pretty good reflection on what this next year has in store for me. I did receive a plant from my school for my room and the kids sang to me in English and Setswana.

This turned out much longer than I expected… my goal was to start writing shorter posts on more specific topics instead of the all-too-general update on life in S.A. thing. Oh well, maybe next time! Oh also, I’ve made a little resolution to get more pics up on here, so start expecting that at least! One thing about life becoming so normal here is that I feel much less inclined to take pictures of things, especially in the village. I’ll work on that for the sake of my fellow readers. Tomorrow I am headed to a workshop on creating libraries in a neighboring village and then to a pasta dinner and sleepover with some volunteers! Should be fun!!

Loss

One of the hardest things about being gone for so long is what happens at home without you there. I was very saddened upon hearing about the death of my Grandpa John, which happened last Tuesday morning. Apparently he had been going downhill for a few weeks before that, and suffering from dementia more and more in the last months. Unfortunately this followed my other Grandpa’s (Bill) death by only a few months. I am aware that I am at that age where people typically start losing their grandparents and that it was definitely both of their times to go, but loss is never an easy thing to deal with. I have to say that being away from home and my family during this time is very difficult, and I find myself constantly thinking about everyone, and wishing I could be with the family during this time.

One thing that’s for sure is that it really was his time. I wasn’t around for the worst of his mental state but from what I’ve heard it didn’t seem like his quality of life was very good. I am thankful that my last memories of him are very positive and that he still knew who I was. Hopefully he’s in a better place now and we can all be assured that he isn’t suffering anymore!

This post is just to let the Mayer family know that I’m thinking of you guys all the time and really wish I could be there for his funeral tomorrow! I hope that I am still there in spirit. R.I.P. Grandpa John!

Lobola craziness

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the lobola ceremony for my host “sister”, Mpho (I use quotations because she doesn’t live here and is actually one of the many grandchildren of mma and pa mokhukhedi), and it really turned out to be quite the ceremony!!!! The lobola, or the bride price the husband has to pay to the bride’s family to get married, is one tradition very much still followed here in South Africa. Traditionally this is paid to the family in the form of cattle, and the wife’s family would decide on a lobola price during negotiations that occur right before the wedding. Nowadays it seems that this is mostly paid in rand, although there are still people who follow the traditional practice and pay in the form of livestock.

Commonly the lobola isn’t paid for a while after the actual wedding, giving the husband time to accrue the funds. This was the case with Mpho and Dick, as they were married about a year ago. So the actual ceremony where this is paid is quite the event, and lasted for well over 24 hours! It all started last Friday afternoon, when Mpho shows up and mentions this will be taking place that night. In my experience with other South African ceremonies, I was expecting a long and involved meal, probably including both families and members of the community. What I didn’t anticipate was this meal occurring at 5am, following a giant all-night party!

The party was at my host family’s house, so I was pretty much there for the whole thing. At about 10pm people started showing up, and the women got to the kitchen to prepare for meal #1, which was pap and mince meat. The women were all pretty excited that I stayed with them and cooked, and this was definitely a much better option than hanging out with the men who were getting drunker by the second! After this meal people just kind of hung out, danced, pretty normal party stuff. I began helping Mpho with the big meal that was to occur in the morning, and the preparation for this meal was pretty big! We cooked pap and rice over the fire in extremely large cauldrons in the old mud/thatched roof house. This was fun but after a while I just about died of coughing from inhaling smoke (little ventilation) and had a giant bloody cut on my foot from trying to break up wood with my feet in the dark (not smart).

At about 1am I had to retire to my bed for a nap. I was so, so, so exhausted. Not only was it just way past my bedtime, but dealing with drunk men and trying to understand Setswana in the wee hours of the morning is not an easy feat! After an hour or so of napping I re-entered the party and continued to help prepare for the meal, this time cutting up more squash than I could fathom in my tired state. So up until now the party has been strictly with the wife and her family… in fact the husband doesn’t attend this ceremony at all. At about 4 the husband’s family starts arriving (from a neighboring village), and welcomed by our party with singing, dancing and cheering. Mpho was pretty stressed at this point because the meal was not yet finished. So the women and I all gathered in the kitchen and tried to get everything finished! Meanwhile the husband’s family gathered in the living room and were presented with drinks of all sorts, including the traditional bottle of brandy that just sits in the middle of the table all night as an offering from the bride’s family. During this time there were also many speeches, prayers, songs, etc. Finally around 5am we brought the meal out, which included the meat (a sheep slaughtered that day in our backyard!), squash, rice, pap, tomato/onion gravy, green beans, and a mayonnaisey carrot salad.

It was really quite the night! I noted many interesting cultural tidbits throughout the night (I was a question-asking machine… I found it all very fascinating), like how Mpho and her daughter Nolly had to wear part of the sheep’s intestines as necklaces for the night and the next day! Not sure where this practice comes from or what it signifies, they just told me it was “tradition”. Also tradition was that Mpho and Nolly weren’t allowed to partake in the big meal prepared, and instead had to eat all the random sheep parts that were cooked together and served with rice! Mpho said it was pretty disgusting, but again just another tradition! Oddly enough I never even saw when the actual lobola was paid to the Mokhukhedi family… at some point I do believe they were presented with R8,000 (about $1500). I went to bed around 6 when the husband’s family left, because frankly I could barely stand at that point. I expected others would start going home and do the same… but alas I was wrong again. I woke up and bathed around 9 and everyone was still at the party and never slept! And they stayed til like 4pm on Saturday! This is including my 80 year old gogo, who was drinking beer and dancing well into the afternoon. Yup, I was outpartied by my 80 year old African granny.

It’s times like these where I realize how truly exhausting it can be to attempt immersion into another culture. The whole night I felt like I didn’t know what was going on, what was being said, not knowing what people were yelling about (and they yell A LOT), constantly being approached by strangers wanting to know me (and me having absolutely no idea who most people were), etc. Of course this is what I wanted in this whole experience… to learn about a new culture and be pushed out of my comfort zone and past what I thought were my limits. But truthfully the actual process can be one of the most draining things ever!!! It really is a constant learning experience though, and at least now I’ll be able to get through weddings and funerals just fine because in comparison to the lobola those are nothing!

This leads me to think about what it would be like to have a price negotiated by my father in order for someone to marry me.. doesn’t seem like an idea I’d like to entertain. What I wonder is how weird this must be for the girl… is it like they are determining the worth of the girl or is it just decided based on the wealth of the family? Perhaps after two years I will know the answers to such questions. I will say that it seems to be less about the actual money that’s paid and more of a process of uniting the two families. Either way it was all very interesting for this western girl!!!


P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures... in an unfortunate series of events my camera battery died and the adapter i need for the charger was broken. One day I'll have pics for you guys!

Running for a cause!

Hi everyone!!!

So as some of you know, I have decided to participate in my first half-marathon, one that is convienently also a pretty awesome Peace Corps fundraiser! The Longtom Marathon is in a small town called Sabie in the Drakensburg Mountains (Mpumalanga Province) and is March 27th!

The marathon is used as one of the main fundraisers for the Kgwale Le Mollo Foundation, which was created by two South Africa PCV's in the SA11 group. The KLM Foundation sponsers disadvantaged youth from rural areas to attend Uplands College, a private secondary school and a leading institution in South Africa. KLM sponsors the selected stundents to attend the school from 8th grade and on, providing a 5-year bursary covering tuition, housing, and academic support. The students are chosen based on leadership potential, academic success, as well as a commitment to social responsibility.

Here are some websites with further info:
Longtom Marathon site
KLM Foundation site

As participants running on behalf of the KLM Foundation, we are each required to fundraise a minimum of $100. Spread out, this could be reached (and passed) very easily! In fact, over 60 volunteers participated in 2009 and raised $15,000 - pretty impressive!

In my opinion this is one of the most sustainable things I have seen from Peace Corps Volunteers in South Africa. Not only is the foundation an amazing way to change the lives of youth that would never have access to such an opportunity, it utilizes a fun event that a very good number of PCVs attend every year to raise money. This is a great chance for PCVs from different groups in South Africa to meet eachother, run a marathon, and help a GREAT cause!!!

Don't you love when it gets to the asking for money part??? Really $100 could be reached very easily so the littlest bit definitely counts. Here are the two ways to donate on behalf of yours truly:

Method 1: Online (preferred)

1. Go to the KLM Foundation website.
2. Click on the Donate photo in the upper left corner.
3. This opens up a secure https connection for people to donate.
4. Make sure you put 'Kristin Mayer' in the Longtom Marathon field so they know the donation was made in my name.

Method 2: Check

1. Make out a check to: Kgwale Le Mollo (US)
2. Put a post-it note saying the donation is in my name with the check.
3. Mail it to:

   KLM Foundation (US)
   c/o Bowen Hsu
   461 So. Bonita Avenue
   Pasadena, CA 91107

It will be interesting to see how the running part of it all goes! From October-December I was doing really well running 4-5 times a week, which is very unusual for me as I have never really been a runner. But Dec/Jan it has been a struggle to keep going with vacation, training, and the insane HEAT. The only slightly cool time is around 5am! So I'll definitely have to kick it in gear for the next 8 weeks or so! There are plenty of people walking it, so really I'm OK with doing maybe a run/walk, which will also give me a chance to take some pics of the spectacular scenery!

Like I said, any little bit counts, its tax-deductable, and for a truly worthy cause. That's what I call a win-win-win!