X. I Couldn't Be Happier: Kayamandi is following me

So last Friday, when I decided to do a blog, it was because of all the emotions and thoughts I was experiencing right after my tour of Stellenbosch and it's surrounding areas, townships, settlements and communities. Kayamandi was the one that stuck out the most to me. And I loved the fact that its name literally means pleasant home. And I was beyond impressed by the community spirit I observed while visiting there. I was so touched by this experience that I decided to name my blog after it. And I have thought about it extensively in the past few days.

Well today, again Kayamnandi made my day. And I'm excited, proud, and happy to report that it is going to be my home, my pleasant home, one day a week for the next eleven weeks! The fourth and last course of my program is Community Development. It is a service learning course, through which we read theory about development in the 21st century and have occasional lectures about development in South Africa, but for which we also spend one full day every week at a service site working with an NGO, writing weekly reflection journals on our experiences, and putting together a giant research project about our service learning site. We were each assigned to a site in or around Stellenbosch that Jacob (pronounced with a "ya" at the beginning not a "j") decided we were best suited to. He looked at each our our resumes and then interrogated us about things he thought were relevant. Of course, he asked me a lot of questions about Nicaragua and my experiences there, and I don't exactly remember - this was a long time ago - but apparently I must have blabbed about the kids. Because 1) I love them more than I can ever express and love to talk about them with any willing listener; and 2) I was assigned to an NGO in Kayamandi that works with little kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, it is worthy of all those exclamation points and many more.) When I found that out, it literally made my day. I can hardly wait to begin!

Today, after our Development lecture very early this morning, we drove around in vans visiting all of the service sites so that when we discuss them in class with each other, we will have an understanding and be able to contextualize each other's sites. At first I was dreading the long weary day with a busy schedule, but once we got started, I was really glad we had the opportunity to do so. Not only would I have been very confused by some of the sites, but it was also really great to see lots of NGOs and the different approaches they are taking to combat various issues in and around Stellenbosch.

A few of them stood out, including one that provides services to HIV positive clients. The director of the program told us that a typical - not uncommon or 'difficult' - patient profile is a 22 year old HIV+ pregnant female with a small child, an abusive partner, a substance abuse problem, unemployed, and with no higher than Grade 9 education. Oooooof. I wouldn't even know where to begin. But this organization provides lots of services, such as counseling and testing, adherence counseling, support groups, and coordination with health services, social services and occupational services in the area. It is just mind blowing that people here manage to carry on despite such horrific circumstances.

Another NGO was an organization that works with kids of all ages, but especially teenagers in a township. Run through a local church, they provide character building programs, sports programs, occupational therapy, after school clubs, and sports to try to keep the young kids away from abusive situations, premature sexual relationships, alcohol, and drugs.

Yet another interesting one is called Pebbles Project and it operates on wine farms around Stellenbosch. Hundreds of people live on each wine farm. And for decades, these farm workers worked under inhumane conditions, and were paid by the farm owners in barrels of rotten wine. Although this is illegal in post-apartheid South Africa, it is still a problem. And as a result of the ridiculously low wages, difficult conditions, and this alcohol as payment situation, the Western Cape has the world's highest rate of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Pebbles Project helps parents, families, and kids overcome and recover from alcohol abuse. I didn't realize how serious a problem FAS and alcoholism were around here. It's such a tragedy. While shocking and horrifying, however, it was good to learn about it in the context of an NGO that is currently combatting the negative effects of alcohol abuse on Western Cape wine farms.

The organization for which I'm going to work for is called Prochorus (click here if you're interested). When we met with the director this afternoon, we asked her what prochorus meant. And she told us. It's named for the biblical Prochorus, a man who was deaconized by the Apostles because they realized that 12 was not enough to minister to all of God's children and needed extra hands to help out. This small NGO of only 8 staff members runs several projects in Kayamandi as well as a few other communities in the area. Their main program is the Early Child Development program. Kayamandi parents must leave their children during the day to go search for work, or sometimes they just leave them. And so the kids are brought to these creches, kind of like nurseries or day cares or preschools. Except that in Kayamandi, many of these creches are simply dark shacks where the kids just sit in the dark and do nothing. They are not fed, they are not washed, there are no bathroom facilities, they are not taught. Many of the kids arrive in school at age 7 in need of occupational therapy because they have never encountered a pen or pencil and so have not developed any fine motor skills during their critical period.
So Prochorus trains people to work with the kids in the creches as well as refurbishes them. They also have playgroups for kids to be socialized and receive nutrition and other necessary tools to get a successful start on life. They have several other services, but the other one I will be working with besides the creches and the playgroups is the computer literacy training program.  So I'll be working with primary through high school aged kids in an after school program teaching them computer literacy so that they will be able to have improved employment opportunities. Basically, I'm looking forward to it so much! It'll give me a chance to be a human doing, not just a human being one day a week. Not to mention, playing with kids and being constantly reminded that there is way more to life/happiness than money and material wealth.


Also, just wanna say thank you to any of you who have borne with me thus far on my journey/experiences. I know I'm not a writer and I'm not clever/humorous when it comes to these things. And I know some of my posts in particular have been heavy. But I have to write these things down to help me process them. And I want to share them with you if you want to listen (read). But also, please remember that I want to hear from you, about your lives, about what's going on back in the States. Today I had to use Google Maps, and that was the first time I had used it since leaving home I guess because it was zoomed in on Kansas when I went to the page.  And I had another 'I'm really far away from home' moment when it zoomed out to the map of the world and put a little balloon marker on South Africa for my location. Also, if you have thoughts, impressions, advice, or reactions, send them to me too!