Eye Screening

I saw a sign in the window of Specsavers, an eye glasses place in my shopping town.  It said "Free eye screening for all children 12 and under."  I went in to speak to them an we made arrangements for them to come to Aletuke and screen our kids and others in the village.  We ended up screening 87 children that day.  We will be taking 6 or 8 children to town for a full examination and if they need glasses they will be free too.  We caught a few eye problems that will need surgery at the hospital and many children with eye infections that will be treated at the clinic with drops.  It was a hugely successful day and another connection was made that will continue to help Aletuke provide better care for the children in the future.  Below are some pictures from that day and outside the children were playing on the playground while waiting to be tested.  I couldn't resist some of the cute faces.

These children are waiting in line to be screened.

Pauline is a volunteer at Aletuke that helped out with the eye screening.

Rose is another volunteer who helped out.

Who's the geek with the dorky glasses?

I love watching the kids be kids at Aletuke.

Simply precious...

This is Mma Mahowa with 5 or her 8 children.  These little ones all got screened on this day.  Mma Mahowa is becoming quite famous on my blog for she is the one holding  "slide condom off penis" in the condom demonstration and she was one of the recipients of the food parcels.  She is a dedicated volunteer who is at Aletuke every day.

  

Pancakes 101

I taught the ladies who work in the kitchen how to make pancakes and follow a recipe.  They had so much fun that morning.  Especially when they sat down with a stack of hot cakes to eat with their morning tea.  We discovered that they are cheaper to make than buying bread and yummier too.  Another score for Aletuke.

I went in to work this morning and they were busy flipping jacks for all the children today.  HOW COOL!

It was so cute to see them take turns pouring and flipping.

A spatula is not a common household utensil in this culture.  I brought mine to work this day.  I actually had to teach them how to use it to get under and flip without landing on the other pancakes.  They were fast learners.

I think the smile on her face says it all.

Another "proud mother" moment.  God, I love these women!

Next week we're learning how to make banana bread and brownies.  These ladies are so dedicated to the children and love to share their new cooking skills with them.   (from left to right) Mma Digashu, Mma Kekana and Mma Mabusela have certainly found their way into my heart.

Panty Party

A group of students from a near by high school did a food and clothing drive for Aletuke.  They delivered their donations and put on a wonderful event for us with readings, poetry, and my favorite, singing and dancing.

We then placed the clothes into outfits and distributed them to all the children.  It was so awesome to see the kids trying on all their "new clothes."

Thanks to the Somesville Union Meeting House Mom and Dad were able to hand-deliver a suitcase full of panties and socks for the children.  We also distributed them that day.  Oh happy day!!!

This little girl belongs in a pair of Cinderella panties.

There was lots of laughing, silliness and celebrating going on.

Socks, socks and more socks!

Me and Mary J (supervisor) joining in the fun.

Empty Bowls

On Tuesday, July 3oth Aletuke proudly distributed food parcels to 30 very needy families throughout my village of Moshate.  The staff of home-based care workers and the people targeting the “vulnerable” children in our community signed up families they felt were the most needy.  Thanks to the Empty Bowls project run by Kathleen Slack at Mount Desert Island High School we were able to put together parcels with a variety of staple foods and some soap for washing clothes and their bodies to encourage and maintain good hygiene.  The gift of money translated to R3000 (Rand).  We did an additional food drive for food items and money and raised another R700.  Two young women who have been volunteering at the center volunteered to take on this whole project.  They learned so much along the way and I was so proud of their efforts and dedication to the project.  The most beautiful part of the whole project was watching these two girls send families away with a bundle of food that they made happen.  When you live in an environment where food is often used as currency it was extremely humbling to talk to the different people who came to receive their parcel and find out what their story is at home.  Here are pictures of some of the people who benefitted from this project.  I would like to thank Kathleen Slack and the students of MDIHS who participated in this fundraiser and who chose my organization as the recipient of their hard work and this years Empty Bowls project.  Peace to you all.

Sara, left, and Precious, right, are the two young women who took this project by the horns and turned it into a great success.  I had a lot of fun getting to know them too.

Sugar, anyone?

This is what each family received.  Our bigger families of 7 or more got additional items like an extra bottle of oil, more salt and tin fish.

David is my supervisor and Aletuke project manager.  He was so please with the success of the project and that more and more people got to see what Aletuke is doing our community.

Sara enjoyed packing up our first customers of the day.  We used the church next to our center as the pick-up point.

Precious kept track of all the families and had each family sign for their parcel.

Myday is one of our orphans at our center.  She lives with her older sister, three younger brothers and her sister's three children and no one in the house is working.

This woman was so thankful and appreciative for the food.  With most of her teeth gone she had to work not to smile for the picture because I was making her laugh.

These are two very typical "youth" in our community.  They are no longer in school, unemployed and the girl on the right is pregnant.  They are probably living with very large families too.

This is a child-headed household taking care of her younger brothers and sisters.

This woman lives with her husband and they make traditional beer at their home and sell it.  She said that they don't sell much because they don't have the loud music to play like the bottle stores do.  She was most excited about the soap because now she could wash her clothes like the people around her do.

This man didn't talk much but he said "danky" (thank you in Africaans) over and over and over.

This young girl took my heart that day.  She is 22 and lives completely alone.  Her brother and mother died last year and she doesn't know where her other brother is.  Her home is not secure putting her safety at risk.  She has no work so she has a "boy friend" who gives her money at times.  Her eyes opened big and wide when we gave her the food.  She couldn't believe it was all for her.  

These two women care for a household of grandchildren left behind by their children who have died (most likely of AIDS)  They almost fell to the ground when I started speaking to them in Sepedi and they laughed and laughed with me as I showed them the pictures I took of them.

I didn't talk to these two boys but they loved having their picture taken and thanked me for doing it.

This is Mma Mohowa.  She is one of the dedicated volunteers at my center.  She has eight children of her own and neither she or her husband are working.  It was nice to be able to help out one of our own at the center.

An update...

When Mom and Dad came in March I had been in a low place for a while, struggling with work and having no close friends.  After returning home from the airport to send them back to the states I had a rough couple of days getting back into the swing of the quiet and solitude of my life here.  The half-way point of my service came during their visit and landmarks like that always lend themselves to evaluation of the past, present and future.  What have I accomplished so far?  Am I happy with that?  What am I working on now?  Is there anything sustainable?  What do I want to do before I leave?  What kind of impact am I truly making here?  It took a few tears and a lot of serious self-reflection to realize that I needed to change my attitude and outlook on my work.  Better yet, I had to fully embrace the serenity prayer if I was going to survive another year here.  There are so many problems bigger than me but heartbreaking and frustrating none-the-less.  I wrote down some personal goals to focus on and went back to work with a fresh mind and that felt really good. 

In the past 6 weeks the workers of Aletuke have been making great strides in their organizational development and contribution to the community.  Most of my energy is in developing a solid management team that functions in a way that can support further programming.  They are learning how to use and maintain a calendar and schedule so they can get more done.  Priorities and time management are constantly addressed and roles and responsibilities are talked about and enforced everyday.  I’m teaching a weekly health lesson and facilitation workshop to all the carers/workers and that’s going really well.  I’m working with one of the supervisors to start a Youth Empowerment Program right now that I think is going to be a great success.  Youth, in South Africa, refers to people ages 19-34.  We are going to provide them with skills and information to make better choices for themselves.  It will be an opportunity once a week for them to gather, learn, have fun and socialize in a healthy environment. 

I’m teaching the carers/workers how to present health topics in a fun and interactive way so the children stay interested.  They are learning how to ask questions, check for understanding and maintain a positive learning environment, none of which are qualities present in village classrooms today.  The biggest reward is when they come back from a school visit with their eyes wide and a smile on their face all excited about how fun it was and involved the learners were in the lesson.  For me, I give them huge credit for their job well done and I go home at the end of the day feeling “mission accomplished.”  With my increased involvement with the workers I’m getting to know them better and receiving a little more social satisfaction at work which is helping to support me more emotionally.

But it’s not all cake and ice cream (which I would give my right arm for right now).  I’ve been struggling with the tribal authority to get a building site for my project.  I got fed up with the corruption and lies and went to see the mayor of my municipality.  By the end of our meeting he said that he wanted to be a part of my project and help make it happen with me.  Next week he will be coming to visit my center and we’ll have another meeting to talk about what’s next.  I continue to battle the language barrier that often leaves me “alone” even when in a group of people.  So to be proactive I often choose to leave groups and gatherings before I get frustrated and sad.  Yesterday on my way to the taxi rank in my village to go to town there was a dog lying on the side of the road out in front of it’s home (I assume).  I thought it was dead until I got close.  It was emaciated and when it looked up at me it had tons of thick green snot stuff coming from it’s nose and eyes.  I had to fight the tears.  It’s stuff like that that pushes my emotional capacity all the time.  Another day it could be watching an old Gogo (granny) washing laundry by hand with a little one tied to her back.  I just want to go over and help her.   Women work so hard here.  I see women mistreated all the time and young girls being pursued by boys who don’t back off when the girl clearly isn’t interested.  I love being here but my heart takes a beating everyday with the things I see that feel so wrong and I feel so helpless to.  So I have to celebrate my small successes everyday and give the little kids who pass by my house a bit of my time to greet me and give me hugs.  They are so cute and their future is so grim and they don’t even know it yet.  What does one do with that?  So, again, I just ask for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

In May we had a conference in Pretoria.  Those are the times we refuel and spend time with our friends.

This is my good friend, Jesse.  He lives 6 hours away so we only get to see each other at Peace Corps events.  Unfortunately this is our last conference until our close of service conference.

Therese is another friend I've made.  She taught me a lot about writing letters to get funds for my organization.

This is most of my Peace Corps group.  We are SA17, the 17th group of PCVs to be in South Africa.  This was taken at our last training in May.

While in Pretoria I went to my first Rugby game.  I spent most of the game not knowing what was going on but there was a beautiful sunset on the opposite side of the stadium and the chips (french fries) were pretty good too.

A group of us went out dancing.  What a fun time.  I sure do miss the no-smoking-in-public places law.  

Practice Makes Perfect

I facilitated a lesson on condom use and how to do demonstrations.  The workers had a fun time learning and gained a lot from the lesson and activity.  They were full of great questions which tells me what the people out in the community are in need of knowing.  These young men and women are so dedicated to their work and have an insatiable appetite for good information.  We started off with a Q and A activity covering condom facts and breaking myths (which there are many) then moved on to the steps of putting on a condom.  When you only have one wooden model penis, all your bananas are over-ripe and you only have half a cucumber in the fridge one must rely on free resources.  They all got a kick out of this one. 

The workers each had a step in the process of appropriate condom use.  They had to put themselves in the correct order.

Then we posted them  on the wall and put them into action.

Do you know the steps of appropriate condom use?  Let us teach you...

Step 1.  Talk about condom use with your partner.  

Step 2.  Check the expiration date and make sure the package is not damaged.

Step 3.  Carefully open the wrapper.  Don't use scissors or your teeth.

Step 4.  Set the rolled condom on the head of the penis.  Make sure the tip of the condom is facing up.

Step 5.  Leave a half-inch space at the tip of the condom for semen collection.

Step 6.  Pinch the air out of the condom's tip with one hand.  With the other hand roll the condom all the way down the shaft of the penis.

Step 7.  Have protected intercourse. 

Step 8.  After ejaculation pull out before the penis gets soft.  Hold on to the base of the condom so it doesn't slip off when pulling out.

Step 9.  Slide the condom off the penis.  (Not only does this photo say it all, but it's my favorite picture of the day.)

Step 10.  Appropriately dispose of condom. (This was taken at a community clean-up campaign I was a part of.)