Isikhati Yami eVVOCF, eMsanzi Afrika

The following entry is my first ever piece written in Zulu!! This is the first of what I hope will be many more to come during the time I work and live in South Africa. It's about my time spent as an intern at the Vumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children's Future orphan care center in Zonkizizwe, South Africa last summer. I realize that not many people are actually going to be able to read what it says-- so if you REALLY want to know, e-mail me at iaquint2@msu.edu for a translated edition. Expression comes in many forms, and what you're about to read is from the heart!
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Isikhati Yami eVVOCF, eMsanzi Afrika

Sawubona, igama lami ngi ngu Nicole “Mbali” Iaquinto. Ngineminyaka amashumi amabili nanye. Ngihlala eEast Lansing, kodwa umndeni wami nomama, ubaba, nosisi wami bahlala eFlint, Michigan. Ngithanda ukufunda isiZulu, ukuhleka, ukulalela umculo, nokukuphuza itiye iRooi. Futhi ngithanda izingane nemfundo.

Ngingumfundi eJames Madison College eMichigan State University. Ngifunda i-Social Relations and Policy neAfrican American and African Studies. E-James Madison College ngifanele ukuqedela i-internship. Ngiqede mina eZonkizizwe, uMzansi Afrika ngehlobo 2008. Beku yisikhathi sokuqala sami eMzansi Afrika. Ngi hlale lapho e-ilokishi iziyanga ezintathu.

Ngisebenze eVumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children’s Future (VVOCF) phakathi nendawo yabantwana neHIV/AIDS. Umholi eVVOCF nguNomusa Buthelezi nabanye abambalwa abayizisebenzi, nofundela ubudokotela eisbhedlela. Othisha basiza ogogo ukukupheka uphutu, isobho, nenyama yakhona.

Abantwana phakhati e VVOCF nendawo baneminyaka enga – amashumi amabili nanye nabahamba esikoleni eZonkizizwe, eKatlehong, naseGermiston. Emuva ibanga, abantwana bafike eVVOCF. Siya sidlale ibhola, sifunde isiNgisi, nescience nobuciko. Ngesinye isikhathi siye sivakashela eGold Reef City eGoli. Futhi, sidla ukudla okumnandi futhi sabe izingubo, sabele abantwana nemindeni yabo.

Ngesinye isikhathi ngifundisa ubuciko nangesinye isikhati ngifundisa ukudlala ibhola, isience, indlu kaTokoloshe, amabhange, imidwebo, nemigexo. Abantwana bathanda ubuciko kuhulu. Bathanda ukubhala izincwadi babhalele izingane eMelika. Ekuqaleni abafana babengafuni ukuvumela amatombazana ukuba adlale ibhola. Ngabeluleka ukuthi sifanele sidlale sonke.

E-VVOCF Ngiphathe izingane nomsebenzi wasekhaya elabhulali ntambama. Izingane zomgwamanda futhi zifike. Sisebenze izibalo, ubuciko, umlando, umbhalo, isiZulu, isiNgisi, nokunye. Sisebenzizse amakhompuyutha nezincwadi ukuqeda. Izingane azivunyelwe ukuthola usizo uphandle isikole.

Ngesonto kune ngisebenze ezikoleni e-umgwamanda. Ngisebenze eZonkizizwe Primary, Umtholo Primary, Zonkizizwe Secondary, neWinile Secondary. Ngisize othisha ngo-buciko namasiko. Futhi, ngisebenze isifundo nga “hip hop eMelika.” Kwaku jabulisa kahulu! Sifunde izindaba na siphendula imibuzo. Ngiakhe ubungane nothisha ezikoleni.

Futhi ngisize ukuhlela “Usuku Lwesempilo.” Sithathe izingane sazisa esikoleni nasekliniki. Sihlola izingane ngenxa yeHIV/AIDS. Sahlola izingane ezingamashumi asisishiyagalobili! Izingane ezine zigamele. Sajabula ukukwazi, manje sesiyakwazi ukubasiza.

Ekupheleni kohambo lwami, ngahlaba ikhefu. Emva kwalokho ngaya eLesotho; eMalealea Lodge. Ngalala endlini ezintabeni. Ekuseni ngahamba ngehhashi ukubona Botsekoua Falls. Futhi ngabona isangoma. Isangoma sakhuluma sathi ngifanele ukuphonsa iphathi ngedlozi lami. Ngahlala eLesotho imihla imibili, futhi ngahamba ngaya ekhaya ngetekisi.

Ngahamba ngaya ekhaya eMelika u-Agasti. Ngadanile ubusuku uMsanzi Afrika nezingane eVVOCF. Ngathembisa ukubuya masinyane. Isikhathi yami eVVOCF Kwaku jabulisa nadanisa nobabili. I-internship yami ingisiza ukuenyula isikhathi esizayo umsebenzi wami. Manje, ngifuna ukusebenza ngezingane yeHIV/AIDS noma imfundo i-elementary noma i-secondary.

Ngikhumbula izingane yami kahulu, noNomusa, noZonkezizwe. Ngizobuya eZonkizizwe intwasahlobo 2010. Ngizogumfundi eUniversity of KwaZulu Natal. Ngifunda umlando ngoMzansi Afrika nesiZulu. Ngizovakasha Zonkizizwe ezimpela sonto namaholide.

Recollections of late June

Here is a quick update about what’s going on with me during the last weeks of June…

On Saturday we will be meeting with some people about possibly getting some land to plant a garden across from the Zonkizizwe Library. It's a pretty big plot of land, and it would allow all 100+ kids and their families involved with VVOCF (the organization I'm interning for) to get involved with the garden! It would be so wonderful to give the kids and their families something constructive to work on, like a garden. Older family members and older youth at the center could help the children learn how to make things grow, and teach them how to take care of something. I would imagine that such a garden would give the kids, and the community something to be proud of. We just have to make sure that all the legal stuff is taken care of so that nobody can take the land from us after we've cleared it an cultivated it.

Another project I'm working on is composing an oral history of Zonkizizwe. I have a high definition video camera here with me, and it is my goal to interview members of the community, staff at VVOCF, and even some of the children to get a sense of what the history of this township is like. There is no written or oral history of Zonkizizwe anywhere! I know that it started out as a squatter camp shortly after apartheid ended, and that it's about 20 years old. It was created as a place of sanctuary for all the ethnic groups in South Africa that were feuding such as the Xhosas, Zulus, Sesothos, etc, and Zonkizizwe literally means "all nations welcome." Still, I know the place has a rich history, and I would like to help uncover it. I am hoping to write down what I find as well and perhaps give a few copies to the local police station and the library so that they might build off of it and share it with the members of the community. I think it's a sad thing indeed when people don't know their history...if they don't know where they came from, how do you expect them to care about where they are going? There is much mental suffering in Zonkizizwe because people have been denied equal access to the basic necessities of life (mainly jobs, which provides a basis for well being) for so long.

Lastly, one of the other project I'm working on consists of organizing the small library inside of the VVOCF center. It's not a bad library, but it's not the best either. I'm trying to figure out a way to get more books here... and good books. The Detroit Kiwanis club sent a lot of books for the kids, but the library still needs more. It's a shame that the library contains a book about the history of Germany but not one about South Africa. Getting books here is extremely difficult, however. There are no bookstores around like Borders or Barnes and Noble that people can just go to and buy books from. I find the lack of access to reading material frustrating sometimes. There are libraries in almost all the townships and municipalities as well, but they do not always have the most updated books or most advanced filing systems, and books get misplaced easily.

On a lighter note, next week Alex and I are going to visit Lesotho. It should be fun. I’m not sure how we’re getting there yet, or where we will stay when we get there, but I guess that will be part of the adventure.

Sunday May 11, 2008 and recollections of the month of May

After tearful goodbyes with mom and dad and a 20 our plane ride, I find myself here in Johannesburg, South Africa. I am here for the next three months with two other MSU students, Rachel Frank and Alex Hill. We will be interning at Vumundzuku Bya-Vana Our Children’s Future (VVOCF), working with children and youth made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. I really have no idea what to expect, but I’m excited to get started!

We went from Detroit Metro to Amsterdam, then to O.R. Tambo. We arrived late last night, so we had to rent a car and stay in a hotel for a night. We packed 6 huge suitcases and the three of us into a small Ford focus, which I thought was quite impressive. Rachel drove the car from the airport to the hotel. I’m really glad she did because I wouldn’t know what to do with the car—in South Africa the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car, and you drive on the left. She did really well, except for the part where we drove almost a mile down the road with our parking break on… but anyways! We checked into our hotel and passed out, or at least I did after having pretty much zero sleep on the airplane.

We woke up early the next morning, and made our way to Zonke! The directions we had pretty much took us right there, but we got a little lost once we got into the Township. When we got there we met Gogo, which means grandmother, Phindile, the neighbor who works with the pre-school aged kids at the center, and two little ones, Thandeka and Nkosana. Nomusa (who’s real name is actually Celumusa, but we Americans are hopeless and pronouncing it correctly), the director of the center, hadn’t expected us so early, so she was down the street getting her hair done. We moved our things into our new home, which was one room with a few tables, a fridge and a futon. Rachel and I would be sleeping in this room, and Alex would be sleeping in the office. Even still, it was a nice sized room to use for a common room. While we waited for Nomusa, we played with the curious kids, having our first taste of trying to communicate with young children speaking Zulu. Soon Nomusa came to greet us, and we all got acquainted. The children would be coming home from school soon, and I couldn’t wait to finally meet them.

Around 1:30pm children started to trickle onto the property. As I was helping Nomusa and Phindile make sandwiches for our lunch, several of the children came to our room and introduced themselves. I was trying my best to remember their names, but it wasn’t easy. My ears had never heard names like Nkosikhnoa, Sphe, Zinhle, Sandile, Thabang, or Samu before (it took me almost a month to learn all the names of the 50+ children we worked with three times a week). When the majority of children arrived, we went into the center for the welcoming ceremony. We introduced ourselves with Nomusa translating for the younger ones, and then the children greeted us individually. All around the room were signs of welcome; the children had spent quite a long time making banners, window curtains, and chalkboard drawings welcoming us by name. As everyone was yelling and running around we handed out VVOCF T-shirts and tried to meet the many demands of “Shoot me, shoot me!” from the children, who are fascinated by digital cameras. The rest of the day was spent trying to talk with the children over the noise and being human jungle gyms for the smaller ones. It was no wonder that one of the first words in Zulu I learned was the word for “spin me!”

During the rest of the month we got acquainted with Zonke, the system of the center, and tried to get to know the kids. Bongani, Nomusa’s brother, took us on a few tours of Zonke with the car, and soon we were venturing out by ourselves. We tried some of the local food such as fat cakes, chicken dust, and my all time favorite, Kota. Kota is a sandwich on thick, soft bread with fries, cheese, several kinds of unidentifiable meat, and sometimes eggs and a spicy carrot sauce called chakalaka on it. We had it at least one a week after that, and became regulars at a Kota place down the street. We made our faces known at the library about once a week to use the sometimes-working internet. We also made trips to Germiston and Natal-Spruite, two cities close to Zonke, and learned how to use the taxis. People in the family we are staying with an many of the kids are teaching us Zulu. I think I’m doing pretty well with basic greetings, but I really need to work on my clicks. Out of all of us, Alex is the only one who can do it right, but Rachel and I are trying. We developed activities for the kids to do on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays along the lines of art, sport, and English instruction. I started off working with the pre-school aged kids with Phindile, and eventually moved to the middle aged kids we deemed “the middles,” who range from ages 8 - 13. I did a lot of arts and crafts with the kids using recycled materials the interns collected. In Zonke there is a big problem with people just throwing their trash on the ground because there aren’t any public trashcans. When the garbage gets to be too much, people just burn it. Because of that, I really tried to think of things to do with as many recycled materials as possible to teach the kids to reuse when practical.

There are several things people do in South Africa that are already extremely practical. They used prepaid cell phones for the most part, paying only for what they use. When they go to the grocery stores they also use these big, strong plastic bags, that they bring with them instead of using the disposable plastic bags. If you use the bags at the store, they actually charge you for them. Townships, where most of the poorest South Africans live, have small stores called Tuck Shops or Spazas within walking distance where people can get most of their basic food needs. People will also sell baked goods and other foodstuffs, so there is no reason to have to pay to travel outside to get groceries. Also, many people in South Africa exclusively use taxis to get around instead of everyone owning their own cars. Though the taxis can sometimes be dangerous, for the most part they take you where you want to go for a reasonable price. It’s amazing to me to see how some people adapt when they don’t have access to many resources.

Zonke is definitely one of those communities with an extreme lack of resources. The unemployment rate here is something around 80%, and most people are surviving off of government grants. The schools and clinics have very basic set ups and little funding. Many people are living in tin shacks, built extremely close together. Some of the lucky ones live RDP homes with bricks provided by the government’s Reconstruction Development Program. The bricks are free, but the process to get them is long and arduous. In order to get the bricks, one must go to the library and apply for them, wait several months for their delivery, then wait almost a year before someone will come out and actually build the house. Despite the hardships in Zonke, however, the spirit of resilience is alive and kicking. VVOCF is proof of that!

Back in the US!

Dear Reader,

I am back in the United States from my three month internship in Zonkizizwe, South Africa, but I cannot say I fully feel like I am home. I left a big piece of my heart at Vumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children's Future (VVOCF), and with the children and youth that the center serves. In the last three months I have been through the some of the hardest, but most rewarding experiences of my life. I have been working with children and youth made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, helping a grassroots community NGO grow and develop in the face of overwhelming odds-- poverty, unemployment, lack of access to basic health care, poor public educations systems, and lack of adequate housing, to name a few.

During this time I have been living and working with the people in community, learning as much as I could about their language, their culture, and their way of life. During this time, these people became my extended family. I fell in love with South Africa and the spirit of humanity and resilience I found there. I learned a great deal about myself on this trip and about the fascinating history of the country’s highly segregated past. In this journal I have tried to include some of the highlights of my stay in South Africa, but I do not believe any amount of words could do it justice.

What I have learned to appreciate above all; however, is the power of the human spirit. Individuals working together to create change can be a powerful force. It builds community ties, a feeling of family, and a sense a pride and ownership in one’s community. I have seen downtrodden people become empowered, and their transformation is contagious. I cannot help but think to myself, what kind of world would it be if everyone could see what I have seen?

Keep checking for updates. The entries are backdated, so pay attention to the title of the post to see actual dates of events.

Also, if you want to check out some pictures from my trip, go here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/quinneycole/Zonkizizwe/.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me any time.

Sincerely,

Nicole

Putting a human face on AIDS statistics in Africa

It is easy to take the statistics, even one of an epidemic,
and never fully understand them as anything else other than numbers. No emotion
goes into reading numbers, no humanity is necessary to analyze graphs, charts,
or percentages. But there is some emotional baggage that comes with hearing the
stories of those individual people who are affected by something like HIV AIDS.
There is something deafening, something biting, something ultimately
frustrating and scary that comes with choosing to take a walk on the human side
of a figure like: "Some 15 million children under age 18 have lost one or
both parents to AIDS," or "...new projections that expanded access to
prevention could avert approximately 30 million of the 60 million HIV
infections expected to occur by 2015" (statistics can be found at
UNAIDS.org). What does 15, or even 30 million people look like? How many tears
shed, how many hearts breaking, how many homes lost, how many and lives
destroyed does that amount to? How do you measure the social stigma-the
loneliness, feelings of despair and helplessness-or the excruciating pain that
comes with those vast numbers of people affected by the HIV AIDS virus?

These were things I tried desperately to grapple with as I
began to study the history and current consequences of AIDS. What I found is
that the issue is much greater than I had ever thought. AIDS is not just a
disease that coincidentally happens to affect mainly poor, southern Africans,
the majority of which are women and children. There are real systematic,
institutional, social, and economic factors that add up to the highest rates of
HIV AIDS infection rates being concentrated among poor, southern Africans.
These factors together are what Dr. Paul Farmer has termed "structural
violence." Structural violence is "historically given" and often
"economically driven" factors that conspire through "routine,
ritual...[and] the hard surfaces" to constrain the lives, well being, and
mobility of people. Examples can include but are not limited to racism, sexism,
political violence, and poverty (Patholgies of Power, Farmer, 2005). The
majority of structural violence is aimed toward the poorer peoples of their
earth, as they are easy to exploit due to their lack of socio-economic voice. I
plan on posting more with specific examples of these structural problems in a
few days, as I am researching this further for a paper, so don't kill me for
leaving off here for now!

Now that I better understand what's going on...what do I
plan to do about it? The last thing I want to do is sit around and do nothing,
theorize and criticize the situation without getting my hands dirty and trying
to fix it. So this summer, I'm forsaking the beach, the movies, the vacations,
TV, internet, shopping, and whatever else people do for fun in the summer to
have what I'm sure will be the experience of a lifetime. I'm going to Africa.

During the upcoming summer, it is my intention to take my
newfound AIDS prevention knowledge and put it into practice. I will complete an
internship at the VumundzukuBya-Vana Youth
Center in Zonkizizwe, South Africa.
Zonki, as they call it, is an extremely isolated village south of Johannesburg. I'll be
there anywhere between 10-14 weeks, depending on the cost of travel and
obligations back in the States. This youth center's purpose is to provide
physical, emotional, and social support for children and youth made susceptible
by HIV AIDS. Many of the children living in the area have lost a family member
or friend to the virus, and some may be infected themselves. Some of the
children live in youth headed households, or are being raised by someone other
than their natural parents. As an intern at the Youth Center,
I would be responsible for planning after school activities for the children
living in Zonkizizwe. These activities include providing health and nutritional
education, promoting academic progress, self expression, social responsibility,
and communication as well as problem solving skills. Educational programming
would specifically focus on addressing high risk behaviors in the environment
that many children in South
Africa experience daily: teen pregnancy,
unprotected sex, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, illiteracy, and poverty. I
would not be leading these activities by myself, however, as I would have the
pleasure of working with and helping the existing native staff at the facility
to undertake these responsibilities.

Getting to know the staff and experiencing life in
Zonkizizwe like they do is one of the things I am most looking forward to. I
also absolutely cannot wait to interact with the children! I realize that many
of them are not proficient in English, but that's OK. I know about two words of
Zulu, the language primarily spoken in the area, so we'll be even. Finding ways
of communicating with each other should be very interesting, and I'm up for the
challenge. Plus, the older kids will be able help me out. My primary reason for
this trip has always been then children...they are the ones that suffer the
most with no voice.

I have chosen this internship because as a Social Relations
and Policy student with a Black American and Diasporic Studies (BADS)
specialization at Michigan
State University,
I am interested in how policies affect the social development of people. I am
especially interested in learning about educational policies and how they
affect the physical, emotional, and social development of Black children across
the globe. I have participated in a mentoring program called My Brother's
Keeper (a program through Malcolm X Academy in Detroit) to understand how post-
Brown v. Board of Education educational policies have affected children of
color in the United States, and now I wish to experience these affects in the
greater African Diaspora. I would like experience first hand how post-Apartheid
educational policies are affecting black children in South Africa. It is my wish to
compare and contrast the experiences of Black children in the educational
system across the Diaspora, and potentially expand my study into a dissertation
topic on my road to earning a PhD in African American and African Studies. If I
don't decide to go into academia, and go in the direction my heart truly lies--
non-profit work-then I'll have some great experiences under my belt to get me
ready for the rest of my life. I know that if I truly wanted, I could do both.
There is nothing stopping me other than financial burden, but even then I know
that where the will's strong enough to do something, there will be ways to make
it happen. I have that will, that drive, and that passion to help others. I
recognize as an outsider my role is not to come in and play the savior to any
group of people, but to listen to their concerns, needs, and cares. From there
I will work with them, to meet the needs in the best way possible, for that is
all I can really do as a human being. I will fill in the blanks and teach
others what I know for the sake of progress, but otherwise I am happy to be a
servant.

I know throughout the course of the summer, my heart will
break and the tears will flow, but I will move on. We cannot stop and grieve
for the sorry state of the poor in this world. There is a time for sadness, frustration,
and anger, but it must lead us to action rather than to apathy. If you have
time to be angry about something, if you have time to cry, then you have time
to love and time to labor toward bettering it. This is what I plan to do for
the rest of my life, no matter how much it hurts.