Jozi

Johannesburg, Joburg, Jobourg, Jozi, the city of gold. 

The skyline makes me think of Chicago: many skyscrapers, older and newer ones. 

Inside there are the very old buildings and neighbourhoods and the new ones, Wimpie bars included. 

The black population mainly in the centre and in the townships. The white people in burglarproof houses with swiming pool in a district like Melville, green and clean. 

Museums full of images and texts on this mythical person Nelson Mandela, museums full with this Apartheid story, having lasted for about 50 years. 

The Newton MuseumAfrica is without any doubt most worth while to visit. A lot of history, a lot about Apartheid and Mandela, presented in a modern way. I enjoyed the department of cartoons. There I found out that South Africans are capable to mock themselves. Isn't this the beginning of all wisdom? 

In the books it is said that black people have the political power and white people have the economic one. High time for the black people to discover and use their own power. 

Over and out. 

Part of the game

Young people, having parents with enough money, might think it normal to go into projects like American Field Service (AFS). You pay and then you can go wherever you want to participate and to learn. 

Older people having had a wonderful career, with a life behind them full of learning, working, helping other people, sometimes get in such a project too. You won’t find a lot of them. They think they will be needed somewhere, like in a school in South Africa, Hluhluwe.

They think people managing projects in foreign countries will have a clear insight in how things work in a country, what politics mean, how the economy flourishes or doesn’t, what social life means and how blacks and whites in this country behave, among each other, in group, at home and when they are somewhere else. As the work will be in education, they think that this staff will know a lot about the school, the primary school of Phumlani.

For these older people it may be weird and difficult to discover they have to find out themselves. It is incredible to believe that the project has no project.

But they get going. 

They find out that English is the first public language and that it may be important to do some language activities with the learners. They find out there are pretty many children who can't read of write, even at the age of 13 years old. So they start some remedial teaching. EMPOWERMENT is the motto.

They feel good when some materials and tools are available. And Live4Now has some.

They can’t believe that the school is being visited by a lot of white people, week after week, to be there to help. You can't deny medical help and information are indispensable. But giving presents to the school that will never be used, like some computers, sounds odd.

Why do white people choose schools like this? Do they think charity will empower the black people? Do they think presents will empower them?

Do they think when the children tell their misery in front of a European audience, and with cameras clicking and hands clapping, it’s the right thing to do?

Giving words to their sadness and misery, yes. Of course. When people can tell something about this, they are relieved. Clapping hands, and clicking cameras, no. ‘But it is part of the game,’ one of the teachers said. The game of begging and keeping people dependent.

As a conclusion we can say that the people themselves should use their power. In case some help is given, only structural help related to bigger organisations, preferably official and public, not private, seems to be the better choice. 

The Phumlani primary school and volunteering after 4 weeks

What has been reached after 4 weeks of volunteering?

Having arrived with an open mind and ready for surprises of any kind, and thinking the school needed an English teacher, it seemed that there was no real need for such a person in this primary school.

So I decided to observe some lessons before I knew what to do. I also took over some lessons of the teacher, in which I was not very good. There was no real co-operation, and I didn’t come to do someone else’s job. I should do something else.

Because it was the habit, I took up the after school activities with the support of the staff members of Live4Now, as well as for the lower as for the higher grades. As I chose for empowerment of the learners, all activities had some elements of language learning. I tried to put in elements of the four language skills, being listening,  speaking, reading, writing. It’s amazing how strong these children are in the auditive and imitation skills: they really can realize a perfect pronunciation and intonation of the sentence, even  without understanding it. But that is how we all learn a language: you imitate and by repetition of the actions and contexts, the meaning reveals itself by the time.

In one of the lessons I had given, I let the children read one by one, and so I discovered those who couldn’t read. So I proposed to do something for them. We have been doing some remedial teaching in two groups and I suppose there was an opening to continue this indispensible intervention.

I also did some lessons with the strongest learners, hoping that they could get something more. This formula didn’t last for a very long time. I don’t know if this was a success.

As I offered a lot of spoken language, especially by visual and auditive impulses, I may have contributed to the knowledge of English. We also did a lot of rhymes and nonsense limericks and ended up with fun in the seventh grade, in a loud voice and with a lot of funny gestures:

'What noise is this, on the roof?

It's an elephant, cycling around.

It's an elephant, chic and elegant, 

with a tail here and one behind.'

                                   'What do I see? At the tree.  

It's an giraffe, eating leaves.  

What do I see at the tree? 

It's a giraffe, an another giraffe, and another giraffe, 

with buckets of water. 

They carry them to the sea’.

In my heart I also hope that I encouraged the teachers in this school who do this work every day. 

What about the rainbow nation?

Bram Vermeulen, not the singer, but a South Africa commentator wrote a book in Dutch in 2009: Help, ik ben blank geworden.

Being published in 2009 the book gives recent information on the South African situation. Most of the information is embedded in personal experiences of the author. He says about himself that he ‘became one of the black people, studied a lot about the country, learnt the Zulu language’.

Most striking for me – I thought I had already noticed it here – is the clear separation between black and white. You can see it in the where, the how, the what. White people live and work in other places. White people have different functions. Most of the time white people are in dominant positions. White people drive a car, black people walk.

Twenty years after 1994, liberation of Mandela, that is what Vermeulen also writes, there is no much change. Too little change. Articles in the international press on the occasion of Mandela’s death  confirm this. At some universities a movement like September National Imbizo wants the blacks to learn how to empower themselves.

In big cities there is a lot of rage, fear and hate. Twenty years after 1994 Vermeulen writes about rage. Rage of the blacks because the Dutch invaded their country in the 17th century, rage of the Dutch and the blacks because the English invaded their country in the 19th century, rage of the poor against the rich.

Fear goes together with rage and hate and violence and crime. Violence and crime in all social groups. The higher the social group, the worse the crime is. The more precious things are, the harder the fights are. There is gold and platina. Money, gold, women, everything you can have a trade in and people can be killed for. It happens throughout the world and in some towns more than in other ones.

I could summarize and say that it could be a matter of haves and have nots. I have the impression that have often equals white, and have not often equals black.

In this surrounding I already see publicity for the coming elections. Among pictures of male candidates I also saw one woman. I have the impression that African women can be strong and clever enough to be a member of the government, even to become a president. 

Food in South Africa, Kwazulu-Natal, Hluhluwe

Lovelier fruit than in South Africa doesn’t exist. Here you can eat the nicest, juiciest and sweetest pineapples, mangoes, apples, grapes, papayas and plums.

As there is a lot of sun and as long as the climate changes enough rain, everything can grow without much effort. Also trees and flowers are there. And a multitude of butterflies in yellow, red, black, white, purple, blue, orange, green. It makes you think of the rainbow. In this rainbow nation.

The rosé wine with picturesque names like Cape Good Hope, the red and white wine, grown in the country are excellent. When it goes together with food like meat on the braai, you are lucky. 

When they do the braai, pap is an aside. It looks like mashed potatoes, but is actually maizena and water. The mixture becomes rather solid and is eaten with a spicy sauce on it. Some people wait until it’s cold and stiff and they eat it later on, in cubes rolled in sugar.

I didn’t taste the biltong - dried meat being a delicacy.

When living with white people in a lodge, the food is very British indeed. Cereals, milk, toast and jam. Hot food varies but with a strong European accent. 

Beauties of South Africa

In South Africa I like the Zulu people.

These people are tough. They often have to cope with difficulties and they succeed in it. They know when things will be difficult or heavy, but they do it.

Most African people are eternal optimists. And so are they. Optimistic about the day of tomorrow.

I like the children in the Phumlani school, I like the teachers there, I like the personnel at the Wildebees ecolodge. In a way they are more sensible than the white people I’ve met. White people – included myself – have that varnish of politeness, sometimes even inhibition. They haven’t. It’s nice when there is a little fly on my nose and a kid takes it off. It’s nice when they help me to put everything ready for the lesson and clear things up afterwards. It’s nice when I give a compliment to the most difficult teacher who gives me a little bracelet the day after. I hope all this doesn’t happen because I am a white foreigner.

Do I like nature? Yes, I do. I like the nyala and the impala. Also monkeys. But I prefer being on a distance from snakes, crocodiles, rhino’s, giraffes, hippos, leopards and buffaloes. I am not keen on gekkos or lizards in my room. Neither spiders. Nor big beetles. But there I would like a frog that after being kissed changes into the most handsome and clever man in the world. It happens once in a hundred year.

I am fond of the silence, in the morning, in the evening, at night and even sometimes during the day. I am terribly fond of the sounds of the birds and other animals awakening at dawn. It starts with one sound of one animal and by the time it grows till you can hear a real concert.

I like the clear sky at night, with a sharp moon and the multitude of stars on a dark background.

I like the heat and the sweat, especially when there is a good swim or shower afterwards.

Next stops will be the Cape province or Congo.  

Be wise: condomise

Dear reader, 

Impressed by what I heard about the children in Phumlani primary school - a lot of classes are full of orphans, as their parents died of aids. You can read some data underneath.  
After this report, I wil concentrate on more pleasant aspects of my stay in Hluhluwe. 
Yours affectionately.

HIV/AIDS in South Africa is a prominent health concern; South Africa is believed to have more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country in the world.

Although new infections among mature age groups in South Africa remain high, new infections among teenagers seem to be on the decline. HIV/AIDS prevalence figures in the 15–19 year age group for 2005, 2006 and 2007 were 16%, 14% and 13% respectively.

The Human Sciences Research Council, a South African institution, estimates 10.9% of all South Africans have HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 310,000 individuals died in South Africa from HIV/AIDS in the year 2009.

More than 30% of young adults and more than 80% of older adults know the truth about HIV/AIDS.

In 2008, more than half (55%) of all South Africans infected with HIV reside in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.

The four main HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in South Africa are Khomanani (funded by the government), LoveLife (primarily privately funded), Soul City (a television drama for adults) and Soul Buddyz (a television series for teenagers). 

There are several challenges in educating today’s youth in South Africa. The drop-out rate is exceptionally high, particularly for girls who are forced to care for parents with AIDS and manage the household.  How a child performs in school can be an indicator of their overall well-being and children not enrolled in school are more vulnerable to neglect and abuse.  Senior schools charge fees and all schools require uniforms, which orphans cannot afford.

ASAP (African Solutions to African Problems) provides access to pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education in order to yield healthy, self-reliant young adults who contribute back to the community.  Our trained child care workers monitor the children’s attendance and progress and advocate for child rights in school, conducting strategic planning meetings with the Department of Education.

An encouraging finding is that more South Africans are aware of their HIV status. This is largely due to the success of the National HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign.  Females are substantially more aware of their HIV status than males due to the additional effect of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme.

 Some people believe the country is on the right track with regard to the provision of ARV treatment resulting in a substantial increase in survival among people living with HIV. The successful national HIV counselling and testing (HCT) campaign and also increased coverage of PMTCT programmes among women should be sustained.