I spent some more time at Etembheni Senior Service Centre up in the Joza area of the township this week. What an incredible place! The people continue to be warm and welcoming and also appreciate my less-than-proficient efforts at speaking Xhosa with them. I tried to hold down a conversation in Xhosa with a woman while sitting out front on a bench. Once we got past greetings and asking where we were from, she kept talking and I got totally lost. I think I’m making a little bit of progress, though. A very interesting man, Mr. Madolo, told me to bring a notebook next time so I could write down some words and phrases that he will teach me. He also told me that he would teach me some more of the language through song. Very often he will just spontaneously break out into song, sometimes in English, sometimes in Xhosa. I got a little better at the card games some of the men had taught me last week and am slowly becoming a little more comfortable hanging out with everybody. I’ll also be trying to call on my natural inheritance of gardening skills from my dad as I do some work on the small vegetable gardens out front of the place. It is such a blessing to be welcomed into that community. I’ll probably continue to rant about how cool the place is in future blogs.
Today Brittney, PJ, and I went to visit the Raphael Centre in town, which offers free HIV/AIDS testing, counseling, and educational services. We wanted to talk with some people there and see what, if any, role we could have in volunteering or helping out. We kind of just jumped in on a meeting between the Centre’s manager, a student representative from SHARC (Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign), and another woman. They were planning a march and celebration as part of the Human Rights day/week holiday. We got to listen in on the meeting and even participate a little bit in the discussion and planning. We have a little petition-making project for the march and celebration. Again, ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it. I don’t know exactly what the goal of the event is, but I suppose it’s an opportunity to demonstrate support for HIV/AIDS services in the community and create some awareness about issues regarding the epidemic. Also, we’ll be working with our friend Will on some appeals to organizations for funding for the centre. Will is the relative expert in that regard, but hopefully we can help out a little bit.
There are definitely some cool opportunities here, but I think the blog tends to leave out some more of the day-to-day things that take up most of my time. There are still classes, homework (though not much of it at all really, at least for me), logistical errands, hangouts on the front lawns of campus, meals in the dining hall, and solo down time where I tend to nap, miss people from home A LOT, write emails, and write these blogs.
Today Brittney, PJ, and I went to visit the Raphael Centre in town, which offers free HIV/AIDS testing, counseling, and educational services. We wanted to talk with some people there and see what, if any, role we could have in volunteering or helping out. We kind of just jumped in on a meeting between the Centre’s manager, a student representative from SHARC (Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign), and another woman. They were planning a march and celebration as part of the Human Rights day/week holiday. We got to listen in on the meeting and even participate a little bit in the discussion and planning. We have a little petition-making project for the march and celebration. Again, ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it. I don’t know exactly what the goal of the event is, but I suppose it’s an opportunity to demonstrate support for HIV/AIDS services in the community and create some awareness about issues regarding the epidemic. Also, we’ll be working with our friend Will on some appeals to organizations for funding for the centre. Will is the relative expert in that regard, but hopefully we can help out a little bit.
There are definitely some cool opportunities here, but I think the blog tends to leave out some more of the day-to-day things that take up most of my time. There are still classes, homework (though not much of it at all really, at least for me), logistical errands, hangouts on the front lawns of campus, meals in the dining hall, and solo down time where I tend to nap, miss people from home A LOT, write emails, and write these blogs.
