Reflections of Zonke in August

As I lazily gaze out the window at my backyard, watching the wind blow through the leaves of the trees, it suddenly hits me--it doesn’t seem real that almost three weeks ago I was still working as an intern for VVOCF in South Africa. The last three months were completely real, but sometimes I feel like it was all a dream. Since I have returned to the US, I have woken up a few times in the middle of the night, disturbed by a dog’s bark, and I’ll think I’m in my bed back at my home in Zonke. I’ll hear a child laugh or scream, and I’ll think it’s one of the kids. I’ve even almost yelled at my young nephews in Zulu, almost telling them to “Hambani!”(“Get out!”) of my room when they were annoying me. It’s only been a few weeks, but I miss my family on the other side of the world.

I know that even though I’m not there, life goes on in Zonkizizwe. For some, that means so does the struggle to survive, to bring money into the home, put food on the table, all while trying to keep the family together. For Nomusa Buthelezi it means getting up every day at 7am to help seven children (her nieces, nephews, and her own children) get ready for school, clean the home, do the laundry, and get ready to run her NPO Vumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children’s Future, of which she is the founder and director. Sometime during all that, she must also find the time to take care of her special needs; Nomusa is HIV+. Nomusa’s life has been closely affected by the ills of apartheid. She had to leave school at Grade 6 to take care of her younger sisters and brothers when her family went into hiding because of increasing violence in the townships. She has lived in Zonkizizwe her entire life, living through hardships and terrifying times that most could never imagine having to go through. She is a woman of endless energy and great determination, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for her. She taught me what it means to truly be dedicated to something. Her calling was to help the poor and vulnerable children in her township by starting her own non-profit that would cater to their basic needs of having food to eat, clothes to wear, people to call family, and a place have fun at and call home.

During the time I was working in South Africa, I learned a great amount about what it takes to run a non-profit organization. It seems like we were always filling out some form or correcting some mistake after paperwork was submitted, attending some meeting, or running off to Pretoria or Johannesburg to deal with various government departments. VVOCF is still a very new NPO, so our work included a lot of developmental things as well, such as organizing the office, learning how to use certain computer programs, or learning how to properly keep financial books. In addition to the office work there was creating educational and entertaining programming for the kids who came to the center. We also had to make sure we had enough food to keep the kids fed for an entire month at a time. Things were made more difficult by the fact that we didn’t always have a car to run and do these things. That meant that many a day was spent (and much time wasted) taking taxi from place to place. Often times we didn’t find what we were looking for, municipal workers were striking, or people didn’t show up to meet when they had promised. Despite the hardships, we kept chugging along. No matter what, the needs of the children and youth always came first—Nomusa always saw to that.

In addition to learning about what it takes to run an NPO in a developing country, I also learned a lot about myself during this internship. I learned where my passion lies—working in education, whether it be teaching or more administrative. I also learned the valuable virtue of patience. I tried to come to South Africa with an open mind, one that would be willing to learn about and embrace different people, different languages, and different cultures. Because of that, I think I was much more able to just roll with the punches. Things did not always go as planned, and though that would have bothered me before, I find it not to be such a big deal now. I learned to be flexible, that sometimes it’s necessary to stop and re-evaluate or alter the plan, and it reduced a lot of stress in my life. I also learned that sometimes you have to do things the hard way, because it’s the only way. There’s no reason to complain about it because it doesn’t help anyone and it just makes the work more stressful. This internship provided me with experience to learn a great many things, and I truly believe I grew from it.

So yes, life goes on in Zonkizizwe. I wish I could be there to help the children succeed, and to help Nomusa achieve her dream of eradicating the suffering of children in Zonkizizwe (and maybe someday, the rest of the world), but it’s not yet my time. I must finish my undergraduate education, among other things. I made positive contributions to the development of the center while I was there, and now I trust Nomusa and the rest of the staff to continue the work we were doing. Even though I cannot go back for as long as I’d like to now, I will still be closely connected by other means. I am helping campaign to raise money for our education fund, and possibly working alongside another student organization to raise funds for general programs at the center. Who knows, maybe someday I will be able to go back and work for a long period of time; it really depends on the state of the NPO. In the meantime, I will do what I can for the center with what I have, and I know it will be good enough. Life goes on all across the world-- and we all do what we can.