Starting Conversations

Living Pura Vida

2012-09-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yours truly has dropped back into the world again (the cyber world that is), back from traveling in the world, but hopefully of course only for a short time. This time I am reflecting on almost four months in the Costa Rica. So many people asked me if I was going to blog, post pictures, or email while I was there and unfortunately I knew this time I wasn’t going to have the time or the resources to make any of that possible. So I’ve decided to give you the short of it now, solo un poquito. As many of you know, I took a position as a Summer Program Leader in Costa Rica with Rustic Pathways this summer. Basically I was a guide and a counselor for students coming down to Costa Rica to travel on the Rustic Pathways programs. After many Tuesday bungee jumps, nutty energizers, cloud forest hikes, and 3:30 wake up calls for students heading to the airport, I now have some time to reflect on the “pura vida” lifestyle.

I cannot tell you how many times this summer I had a Tico (Costa Rican, we are gringos, they are ticos) tell me to “tranquila.” Calm down, relax, don’t worry. I love the word now, but in those moments I just wanted to turn around and shout, “You tranquilize yourself!” So much for being “tranquila.” That is one of the many/possibly THE most beautiful part of Costa Rica (and CR is a beautiful place): the relaxed, easygoing energy and mentality of the Ticos. When I got home yesterday, I went to Whole Foods (my place of zen here) and everyone seemed so stressed out; it was stressing me out. I just wanted to shrink up and transport myself back to where I had just come from.

This is one of those things and one of those times in my life when I want to fight like hell to keep, grasp, hold on forever to the new mentality I have and to the things I learned in Costa Rica. I am not going to lie though, like every other time I come back, I find it so hard to incorporate things from other cultures because of the heaviness of our own. Because of Costa Rica, I am going to stand here (or sit) and try not to take life so seriously, to enjoy each and every moment, to truly live in the moment, appreciate the beautiful people, friends, family, and places. Pura Vida. Pure Life. I going to do my best to not sweat the small stuff, do my best all the time and when my best isn’t enough, I am going to try (key word try) to accept that and move on. Boy, I can think of so many clichés for all of these things. That’s the difference in the U.S. we have saying, quotes, etc. that can try to dictate our lives, but the Costa Ricans just live this way. How was lunch? Pura Vida! How is it going? Todo Bien, Pura Vida! So next time you ask, I am going to slap on that smile, feel blessed to have what I have and tell you “Pura Vida!”

Live Outside the Box

2012-03-06T19:16:00.001-08:00

When I was 16 I created my very first “30 before 30” list; essentially a list that was simply the top 30+ (I had a few more than 30) things I wanted to do or accomplish before I turned 30. Just a few days ago I was inspired to pull it up and take a look again. Looking through it, I realize that I am doing all right. I have completed quite a few such as skydiving, graduating from college, going to a professional basketball game, riding and elephant, and volunteering abroad for two weeks (I think I exceeded that by a few months). After looking at the list, I also realized that in 8 years I had changed a lot. A large number of the things on that list I was no longer interested in doing, for example I really do not want to throw a huge gala, how did I even come up with that? No thank you to seeing a fashion show in Paris; I am just not into it anymore. My value, passions, and interests have just simply changed. Who would have ever thought the “princess” would prefer backpacking and less material goods? I guess I am getting back to my roots as an explorer and adventurer. I am a little closer to that girl who would ride her bike right over a diamond-back rattlesnake and not think twice about it. Closer… So anyways as you might have guessed, I decided to make a new list. This time however, instead of being a list of just 30 things I would accomplish before I was 30 years old, it became more of a life list. One that currently exceeds 50 items and I don’t think I will ever be finished updating, adding, changing, and checking off items. For those who know me, of course, understand this and probably know that I also have a running list of countries and places I need to visit in my lifetime. (Just so you are all aware, if I never get to complete my list, I would hope it would be completed by a loved one who understands its importance to me, plus its sick!) It is important that I note that I also understand the importance of not just living my life within the guidelines of a piece of paper, but also to sometimes go with the flow and let life just happen. Some of the most fascinating things I have done, my most memorable experiences, are those I never could have ever possibly planned. I never would have thought “hmmm, I need to experience a European Gay Pride Parade”, but now I will never forget the energy, the sights, the sounds, etc. that came with catching it in Madrid by accident when I was merely looking for a nice cup of coffee. Think what you want to think, scoff and turn your nose up if you must, but I would certainly add it to your list right now. There is absolutely nothing like it. So I challenge you to create a list to drive you to do the things you will otherwise never get to, but also try to live outside the box (or the cubicle). Seek adventure; push yourself outside your comfort zone. Fail, pick yourself back up and soar to new heights. Some ideas from my list (I’m not giving them all away; you can come up with your own: • Complete the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain on foot • Learn how to fly an airplane • Take a cooking course • Buy and protect land in a beautiful place • Learn how to salsa • Take a train all the way across Russia to Mongolia • Study human ecology. I would love to hear your ideas, write me and let me know what is top on your bucket list!

The TOMS Follow Up

2011-12-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

The Habatat Art Gallery and Coffee Company...Thanks guys for hosting!

In an effort to invoke some sense of caring and compassion and connect with like-minded individuals, I hosted a TOMS Style Your Sole event. In a short three week time period, I found a venue, rallied up some artists and musicians and attempted to spread the word about my very interesting event. While I learn more about TOMS everyday I still didn’t realize how much they really have going on across the nation and around the world. It is inspiring to see a company that is able to bring together so many different people to support their cause.

My shoes! I am so excited!

Friday night, the day before the event, I came down with a cold and spent most of Saturday in bed so that I could attend the festivities that evening. Since I had left a few last minute errands until Saturday, I had to call in my troops, my brother, Pope, and my boyfriend, Jeremy. They stepped up and saved my event for me and for that I am eternally grateful.

Gabriella DiPace - Look out for her album...she's recording in January!

I believe due to the event we sold approximately 20-25 pairs of shoes, which for me was great. I really had no expectations, it was my first event, so I was happy to see anyone show up. I really thought it might just be the owners of the Habatat Coffee Company and me. I think the musicians, Haley Locke and Gabriella DiPace, brought in a good amount of people (everyone loves some good music) and our small article in the Notables section of the Palm Beach Post helped some too. Knowing what I know now, I am sure that having the owner of Primo Comfort Shoes (retailer of TOMS) present at the event would have helped us sell more shoes, but unfortunately we were stood up. He did however give us $15 off to anyone who stopped by his shop down the street that night. So in an effort to make the best out of a bad situation as we could, we made the announcement and my brother ran back and forth the three blocks purchasing shoes for attendees. Thanks Pope!

Eduardo Mendieta hard at work on some TOMS, check out the awesome green and orange ones!

The artists did an amazing job and I will share with you some pictures of the event and of their creations below. Eduardo Mendieta is a local artist who donated his time to work on the shoes, which was very much appreciated. He recommended that next time we collect donations for a cause at the same time; I haven’t figured out exactly how to make it work because TOMS is a cause, while also being a company and I don’t want to confuse two causes. Maybe having complimentary causes is the answer. Andrea, the other artist, responded to a post on Craigslist seeking artists and was an amazing help, even taking home shoes that were not completed at the event and getting them back to me at a later time. She has told me that she would love to be involved again if we do another event. For this I am so thankful I found her!

Andrea getting into her artwork!

All and all I connected with some interesting people, including a guy involved in his TOMS club up at FSU (which apparently was ranked one of the best TOMS clubs in the country) who saw the article in the paper, plus I got some great feedback. So thank you to all who came and supported us! Despite being sick I had a great night!

She's got her TOMS on, yes, they make them that small!

My soon-to-be stepsister, Isa's, TOMS, complements of Andrea!

Students Taking Action

2011-12-30T08:08:00.000-08:00

I don't know how I missed it. I guess it did come out during high school, which were my pre-saving the world days. Lately I have been reading books that lead to me to other books, which lead me to other more amazing books. This was no exception. Out of curiosity, I picked up the book "Twitter for Good" by Claire Diaz-Ortiz mainly because the subtitle read "Change the World One Tweet at a Time." Up until probably a month ago I disdained the idea of Twitter (really I just didn't understand all aspects of it); who really cares what some celebrity ate for breakfast? I certainly did not need up to the minute updates on what all my friends. Always one for being proven wrong (true half of the time, I can be pretty headstrong too), I read the book cover to cover, initiated my Twitter account, and attempted to find my voice. I'm still working on it; it is a challenge for me to Tweet every day or every other day, but I can try harder. Side note: how is anyone supposed to keep up with blog posting (especially when they are mini novels for each post), Tweeting, Facebooking, Linking In...the list continues and function in a real life.

So back to the point, my Twitter book kept referencing this non-proft called Room to Read that they did some work with and used to test their Promoted Tweets for Good program. Intrigued by a non-profit by that name I did some further research to find it was a pretty amazing organization and even better the Founder and CEO, John Wood, had written a book called "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World." Two minutes later I had the book on hold under my name at my local library to be picked up that afternoon.

Joining the line of 4 or 5 books I already had lined up to read (the library might take away my library card, thank goodness I just got a Kindle), I had sort of forgotten about it until a few days ago when it was finally its turn to be read. After just the first chapter I was hooked. Everything he was saying, I understood; he was speaking my language. When you are an alien like I am that can be a rarity. In fact, some of the same discussions I had just recently referenced in a blog showed up in the book. I especially understand all the stories of the people he has met traveling and the impact they have on him.

I have faces burned into my brain from every country in the world of people that in some capacity have managed to affect my life. He talks about a boy named Vu he met in Vietnam and his tenacity, audacity, and any other word ending in -city about learning, education, responsibility for himself and his family that is just awe-inspiring. For me, Vu's face was replaced with the Nepali boy, Shiva, I met in India who worked at the hotel I was staying in. Every morning after we returned from hours of trainings, I would sit in the lobby with a coffee, some toast, fruit, and a banana milkshake (he had my breakfast order memorized), my journal and a book, while Shiva would tell me all about his journey to India from Nepal, his family that was still there and how he was working in India to send money back to them. He would give me travel advice for while I was in India and if I ever got the chance to go to Nepal (it is on my list). His eyes would just light up when I came in the room because he knew he got to practice his English (he already spoke his local Nepali language and Hindi) and share his stories about his homeland. One day when we were headed to the markets of Old Delhi, we asked Shiva to come along and act as our tour guide to which he agreed. He had worked all morning serving people in the hotel, came out to the markets as a tour guide with us during his afternoon off, and returned just in time to start work again. He was the nicest, sweetest, most appreciative person I have ever met. These are the reasons that we travel, it is so we may have these amazing interactions with fascinating people as we go. They really make you see the good in the world.

Anyways, so back to the book (I am getting off on a lot of random tangents this morning). I carry it everywhere in hopes someone will ask me about it, just like I wear one Nike Red lace and one regular lace because people will ask me why I have mismatched laces and I can tell them about the "Lace Up To Save Lives" program and product (RED). I am loving the story, the mix of business and entrepreneurship with international development, which is exactly what I am interested in. From what I have learned Room to Read's programs focus on girl's education, building schools and school libraries. They started out generating most of their capital from individual donors funding individual projects, which most impressive, supplementing with a few grants, the rare unrestricted sort, to cover the overhead costs. This was when they were working primarily in Nepal, Vietnam, and Cambodia; however, now they have a few more partners and are working in ten countries throughout Africa and Asia, including my beloved South Africa!

As you all know I could drone on and on, or you could, if your interested, check out the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and/or the organization's website Room to Read. I am primarily writing this as a call to arms. I saw this video below through Twitter and it asks each person to pass it on to five people, so I am passing it along to ten, my ten subscribers and maybe more who will randomly come across my page. Individually and together we can make a difference and we will change the world!

http://youtu.be/ZNnc61JDJmQ

Making a (Simple) Difference

2011-12-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Everyday I wake up with this incessant need to make a difference. What does that even mean? Whether I am aiming to change the world or to tie some little boy's shoe, I can make a difference today and everyday. Today I performed at RAK (Random Act of Kindness) for an elderly gentleman as I helped him pick up his dropped mail and retrieve his package from the holding box labeled "one" all the way at the bottom of the mailboxes. Knowing absolutely nothing about this man other than he is a few years my senior and finds it difficult to bend down and get back up with my speed and agility, all I can hope is that he passed it on. By that I mean I hope he RAKs someone else. Wouldn't it be ammmaaaazzzing if all we did each day was RAK each other? The world would certainly be a better place for it. Could it possibly be annoying, everyone always trying to help you do something, potentially causing counter productivity for some? So did I make a difference in his life, probably not, but maybe I made his day; at least one could hope.

The first time I came into contact with this idea of being RAKed or RAKing someone was on Semester at Sea. There were a few discussions about it that I had heard of here and there, but it wasn't until I was finally RAKed that I really understood what it was all about. I was having a stressful or difficult day (I know, hard to believe on a floating ship that travels around the world) and when I returned to my room I found an envelope tape to my door. Concerned and disconnected, I opened the envelope to find a tea bag and a note from my friend, Liz. The note said "Enjoy this tea and pass the RAK on!" I couldn't believe it, here I was wallowing in my own sadfest and someone remembered that I liked tea, that I had commented that I would love to try that kind of tea, and was thinking about me enough to drop some by and simply make my day. My whole attitude changed from that moment on. Simple, simple tea bag made my day. You know I returned the favor to Liz by sharing another interesting tea I had acquired on my travels and I also try to pass it on to others.

Sometimes it really is the simple things in life that make your day; someone opening a door for you when your arms are full, a sincere smile, or a note that says "hey, how's your day going?" My day yesterday was made when I got into a conversation with a chatty, little 4-year-old with a big personality about some Dorothy-inspired red glittery shoes. Most 4-year-olds are shy and they will barely leave their mother to come color with me in silence. Not this precious angel, she just chatted away about the shoes and her shoe size and I talked to her about her brother and her mother. Midway through our intense discussion, I was informed that this beautiful little girl speaks not one language, not two languages, but three. She was trilingual in English, Turkish, and French at the age of 4 and well aware of her abilities. Amazing. Talk about jealousy; what I would give to of grown up speaking multiple languages.

So maybe I wasn't RAKed by this little girl, but she did manage to make my day and make a simple difference in my attitude for the day. A simple little conversation about red glittery ballet flats and I was feeling good and somewhat inspired. Stupid, maybe, simple, absolutely, perfect, you know it!

Make it your goal today to RAK someone. Smile and tell someone you like their top, give some change to the person in front of you in line that cannot find it, buy someone a coffee, start a conversation about anything, help someone who is clearly struggling, and have absolutely no desire for them to return the favor; that's what it is all about. You really can change someone's minute, hour, day, month, life with a simple little unexpected gesture.

The Concept of Giving

2011-11-23T08:46:00.001-08:00

Heading into the holiday season (tomorrow being Thanksgiving) I have decided that I can do more to help others; we can all do more. As we gear up for Black Friday and start thinking about our Christmas/Hanukah wish lists, why not think about someone else, or how our gifts can help someone. Isn’t that the idea of the holidays; aren’t they supposed to be about GIVING?

This year give thanks for being as lucky as we all are to have grown up in beautiful homes with beautiful families around us, supporting our every move. Then think before you buy and figure out how you can give a gift that helps that child that wasn’t as lucky or blessed as we all got to be.

For a couple of days know I have known that I was going to write this blog, but just this morning I learned about a new organization doing what I attempt to do with my small following, but on a much larger scale. www.dtj.com or Discover the Journey attempts to educate people about real issues, real problems, and real situations that exist around the world; problems that need real solutions. I came across an initiative they are running called “i am child” (shared it on my new twitter account and on my facebook page), which lists 7 categories of children in the world and the situations that are their lives. It discusses the displaced children, the enslaved children, the orphaned children, the child soldiers, the girl children in the developing world, the street children, and the impoverished children.

See the video here. http://vimeo.com/7226498

There are so many great causes out there and sometimes when I am preoccupying myself with one (fistulas) I can forget about many more (I am only human). We need to forget the outta sight, outta mind idea and bring this to the forefront of our consciousness.

Yesterday I was teaching a class on entrepreneurship at a local middle school and we were working on an activity where the students were given a situation and they had try to come up with a “big idea” to deal with that issue, ranging from homelessness to the lack of access to food and resources. One of the girls, in all innocence and complete lack of knowledge, said to me, “well isn’t it their own fault for being too far away from cities and the resources they need?” To which I replied, “No, some people are simply born into a world that looks much different from the one we live in. Most of the time these people cannot fathom what a city looks like, what having water coming through a tap in their house would be like.”

Just because someone is born in Haiti, or Cambodia, or Senegal does not make him or her any less human; it does not make them any less a person than someone born into privilege in a developed country. I am not better than them because I was born into a comfortable house and family that was able to send me to good school and provide me with water, food, and clothing. These people are not uneducated because they choose to be, they never had access to school and books or were forbidden to learn, they are not living in squalor because they enjoy that type of lifestyle; they have no other choice. We need to remember this idea, each and everyday. What have I done that I get to deserve to live in comfortable house that I don’t even have to pay rent for because my mom is just that amazing. Nothing, I was born this way and it is my mission to help those that were not as lucky as I was.

As we move into the holiday season, keep that in mind. You can donate in someone’s name as a gift (Grassroot Soccer), you can purchase a gift that gives again (like TOMS, and FEED), you can help out a charity by buying a t-shirt or jewelry from them (i.e. Falling Whistles and charity:water), or you can volunteer your time at the homeless shelter, with Habitat for Humanity, or a food kitchen. Think outside the box this holiday season, literally, and give…

TOMS Style Your Sole Event

2011-11-16T09:17:00.001-08:00

Every time I log back into my blog, I can’t help but think that it has been way to long since I have written. Again.

Being in home, I have been trying to think outside the box to help people and get involved in things that are interesting to me. My most recent project has to do with TOMS, the shoe company (Shoes for Tomorrow, TOM is not a person!). The more research I do on them, the more interested I become in the work that they are doing. I mean what a simple idea, I sell a shoe, I give a shoe. If only more companies could pick up this philosophy.

Anyways, I have decided to host a TOMS Style Your Sole event, in hopes that we can sell a good amount of shoes and therefore give a lot of shoes. I have found some great partners in this initiative, the guys over at Habatat Art Gallery and Coffee Company (located at 539 Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, FL; corner of Rosemary and Clematis). I have met with them a few times and I could not be more impressed with their outlook and the work they are doing as well! Sean and Natalie own the Habatat Coffee Company and they are doing their best to teach people about the coffee industry, inform them on the issues and what companies like Starbucks are really doing, and persuading people to switch to fair trade coffee products. Fair trade is an organized social movement and a market based approach created to help producers of different products in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability.

I am so excited and thankful that they had agreed to host the event and I want help them out by spreading the word about them and their message. We are currently looking for some local artists who want to come out and customize the shoes, unfortunately I couldn’t pay them, but it would be great opportunity to expose their work as well. Of course I want this to be an event that helps as many people as possible while also spreading the word about what different people are doing locally, nationally, and internationally. Remember, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.” –Gandhi and I am most impressed with those people who are doing what they can to be that change!

I hope many people will come out for the event or at least go purchase a pair of TOMS shoes or stop by the coffee company and art gallery and check it out. The event will be taking place Saturday, December 17, 2011 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Come and go as you please…we will have live music, refreshments, and if we get any hits local artists to customize the shoes for those of us who aren’t so artsy. You can email me at kristinanthony@me.com or stop by the Habatat Art Gallery and Coffee Company to place your order and RSVP by 12/07/2011. Show your support for the Habatat Art Gallery by liking them on Facebook!

Looking forward to hearing from you all and seeing you at the event!

The Visit of a Lifetime

2011-06-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

Writing this almost brings tears to my eyes…First Lady Michelle Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, read that again please, spent the day with Grassroot Soccer Cape Town this past week. I MISSED DESMOND TUTU AGAIN! Am I cursed? Yes, probably. I will meet him; I have to. All right enough about me, in any way shape or form, it was amazing press for GRS and the fight again HIV/AIDS and I send out a big kilo across the ocean. Additionally I applaud Michelle Obama for the work and awareness she is creating on this Young Africa campaign trip. While they were visiting GRS, Desmond Tutu and Michelle Obama had a unique opportunity to connect with the youth that Grassroot Soccer works with and also participate in some of the practices including Risk Field, a personal favorite. I believe they also visited our South African partner organization, Love Life.

I know for a lot of people, they look at this initiative and wonder what exactly it has to do with fixing the existing problems our country is facing, but I believe if you think about the impact she is making by empowering the women and youth in other nations, that it will come back five-fold if we can manage to find the patience. Education and empowerment are the keys in helping our country and the world move forward. The Black Eyed Peas said it well, “One tribe, one time, one people, one race. It’s all one blood, don’t care about your face. The color of your eye or the tone of your skin. Don’t care where you are, don’t care where you been. There’s one tribe y’all, we are one people.” Shakira echoed it nicely when she said “This time for Africa.”

www.grassrootsoccer.org/2011/06/24/first-lady-michelle-obama-and-archbishop-desmond-tutu-meet-with-grassroot-soccer/

Where in the world is Kristin update:

I am currently back in the United States again and I am on the job hunt this time. I am looking for something interesting that will tie back into all of the work I have put in over the last five years, help me put some roots down, but allow me to educate, spread my knowledge, and help my community.

In May I was on an impromptu trip to India (you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get a visa to India in two weeks) with my soccer trainer Paul Gibbons, Coerver Coaching, and West Ham United’s International Academy for a couple of weeks to scout talent that could be brought back to West Ham and trained. While we met incredible people and kids, we did not find any one that met the standards we were looking for. We did, however, share our skills and knowledge in hopes that upon return we will find the first big Indian football star. Also, most importantly I rode an elephant on the highway in Delhi and went to the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal. More Indian-related blogs to come.

I was then invited on a trip to Botswana to work with Gibbo again on a soccer/environmental protection initiative, unfortunately we lacked the funding to get me over there, so that will be put on hold for me for the time being. I look forward to finding more out about it and the potential to get involved. Gibbo is also working on a project in Durban, South Africa (he’s got quite a bit going on around the world) that I would love to get involved with as well. We will just have to wait and see on funds and where I can really fit in to help out.

We Are All Affected

2011-03-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

Because of my work with Grassroot Soccer, HIV/AIDS has moved to the forefront of my attention and I honestly believe it might be following me around (in a different sense than you might be thinking). The other day I randomly received an email from my mother asking me if I wanted to go to an event where UNAIDS experts would be speaking in Riviera Beach. I just got home from South Africa where I was working for an international non-profit in the AIDS field! What are the chances that I come home and there is an intimate discussion with UNAIDS (United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS) experts right in my very own backyard?

So who was the mystery UNAIDS expert? It was none other than Dr. Djibril Diallo the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Maybe no one really cares except for me, at least it seemed that way considering maybe 25 people showed up, but it was an incredible opportunity to meet and listen to someone speak who is working to mobilize support for the UNAIDS initiative of prevention, treatment, care, and support. I still cannot believe so few people were in attendance; I mean he flew down to tiny, little Riviera Beach, Florida to speak to us personally! Oh well, I am not going to complain too much because it did provide with the opportunity to speak with him one on one and introduce myself. Dr. Diallo also served as the Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace so he had heard of and worked with Grassroot Soccer in the past. Grassroot Soccer has partnerships with a few different United Nations entities including UNHCR, UNDP, and UNAIDS.

So why Riviera Beach? This is the part that confused me too. Well, believe it or not, according to the CDC more than 4,000 HIV/AIDS cases are diagnosed in Florida alone every year, which gives Florida the 3^rd highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the U.S. after New York and California. What surprised me even more was when I learned that the metropolitan areas from West Palm Beach to Boca Raton raked FIFTH in the nation. I am not making any of this up; it comes straight from Florida Department of Health. Does any of this surprise you? It certainly surprises me. I traveled halfway around the world to help and educate people about HIV/AIDS only to return and find out that I live in an area that needs a pretty good amount of help and education itself.

The World Factbook on the CIA’s website is by far one of my favorite tools for getting information about all different countries in the world. So according to the statistics found on the World Facebook, the U.S. is ranked 64^th for HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (I may have already given this information in a previous blog, but I find it to enhance this discussion as well) and South Africa is number 4. So it was probably a good thing that I was helping over there, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t consider AIDS a huge problem here. It is all how you look at the information. Yes, our prevalence rate is low. This can mostly be attributed to a much larger population than say Swaziland, the country currently carrying the largest prevalence rate. However, when we examine the number of people currently living with HIV/AIDS we hop, skip, and jump right on up to number 9 and that would most likely be due to our availability and ease of access to ARVs. I would also again take into account that we have a much larger population than many of the other countries listed around us. I must quickly mention though that South Africa holds strong at number 1 in this category and that probably not because of availability of drugs; it just happens to be extremely overtaken by the spread of this disease. Finally just to throw it in there, the United States hangs around number 18^th in the world for number of deaths to HIV/AIDS and it has a little something to do with that big population syndrome we have once again.

So there is the quick comparison to help you understand where this disease is lurking and also to prove that it is right here in our own neighborhoods, not just in some far away land we know little to nothing about. I urge you to take action; it doesn’t have to involve getting a bus and converting it into a testing center, it can be as simple as putting on that red ribbon and educating someone about the dangers and the existence of this disease or even donating a few dollars to a local charity or HIV/AIDS organization. While we think that maybe it doesn’t affect us because we are not gay or a minority, it affects all of us. As long as AIDS is being passed along and killing people, we are paying for it. If you have no compassion and cannot feel for those who are infected and directly affected by this pandemic, at least consider this side: the lifetime cost of living with HIV/AIDS is $618, 900. This means that if we do not do anything to fight this disease, funding from HIV/AIDS in the future will be $12.1 billion a year and that is $12.1 billion that could remain in tax payers hands or could be allocated to our education system or whatever else may interest you. So in some way or another, we are all affected.

For HIV/AIDS testing in the Palm Beaches:

· Compass, Inc.

· Comprehensive AIDS Program

· Glades Health Initiative

· Drug Abuse Foundation

· PBC Health Department

· Families First Palm Beach County

· United Deliverance Resource Center

For HIV/AIDS care resources in the Palm Beaches:

· Compass, Inc.

· Youth Line

· Children’s Place at Home Safe, Inc.

· HIV Pastoral Care

· Hospice of Palm Beach

· Integrated Healthcare Systems

· Minority Development and Empowerment

· Planned Parenthood

· Latin American Immigrants & Refugee Org

· Palm Beach County HIV CARE Council

Keep On Reading

2011-02-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

While I am back in the United States, I know, booorrrring, I have not stopped learning and reading about Africa and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. So for the time being I am using the Google Nuggets to keep up with what is going on currently surrounding HIV/AIDS (which I will use to keep you all updated) and I am reading a book called There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene, which discusses Ethiopia and how Ethiopia has been affected by this disease. So far I have found that it gives some very good in depth information surrounding the subject as well as ties it nicely into a story that keeps your attention. I highly recommend it and if anyone in my area is reading it at the same time I would be happy to set up a small book club. Below I have provided a link to that book as well as a few other books I have found rather informative. Happy Reading!

Put Some Shoes On

2011-01-07T10:50:00.001-08:00

Can some one please explain to me why it is that Afrikaners small and large do not wear shoes in public places? In the mall, in the parking lot, in the grocery store. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just didn’t wear shoes to work. Could you imagine a guy in a suit waltzing into work without any shoes to complete the ensemble? In my mind shoes have become a very necessary part to completing any fashionable look (and unfashionable looks). I mean people have entire closets dedicated to shoes. Maybe we need to lend some to these South Africans.

Maybe it is a cultural piece I am missing? It can’t be because they can’t afford shoes, because I regularly see people get out of very expensive cars sans shoes, or could it be that now they can’t afford shoes because they spent all their money on that car? Trade down, my friends, trade down. In order potentially come to terms with this very strange phenomenon, I have decided to look into the historical and current trends of shoe wearing, mixed in with a little germ action.

So we all know that the primary purpose of shoes is to protect your feet, though some may argue that stilettos do little if anything to protect your feet. For me they mostly destroy my feet, which is why you will rarely see me wear them. Anyways back on topic, did you know that the earliest evidence of protective covering for the human foot date because almost 40,000 years? Wow, that was a long time ago, so why haven’t South Africans picked up on their use yet?

Okay I am no scientist and I have not done any experiments or studies around this, but I am quite aware that most floors, parking lots, etc. are pretty dirty and quite germ infested. Hmmm, apparently there was some study done that recently identified a myriad of dangerous and health-threatening germs carried unknowingly on your shoe. So here is my conclusion, again you don’t have to agree with it because I am not an expert…but, if there are dangerous and health-threatening germs on your shoes, which you are trekking into your house, then I would guess that if you are walking around barefoot, there is a pretty good chance you are just sucking those germs up right then and there, no need for transference into your house. Oh, so maybe the South Africans are protecting to floors of their homes, or maybe they are still transferring them just without shoes.

Alright in the study discussed above these are the germs regularly found on shoes according to Suite 101: “Escherichia coli (E. Coli) - causing symptoms ranging from severe stomach pain accompanied by diarrhea to kidney failure and potential death in 1 out of 50 victims. Klebsiella pneumonia – a gram-negative bacteria that can rapidly destroy lung tissue and in 25 to 50% of patients will cause death. Serratia ficaria – causing gallbladder empyemas and sepsis as well as biliary infections. The study also found that the transfer rate of bacteria from the shoes to uncontaminated tiles ranged from 90% to 99%. Given that most home flooring includes porous wood, throw rugs and carpet; direct transmission is virtually certain.” I’ll stop there with all of this disturbing information, but do note that there is more. Okay so while this started out a way of understanding the lack of shoe wearing I see here, I may have uncovered that even us people who wear shoes may want to consider taking them off upon entrance to our homes. Sorry.

Now, moving along to current trends of shoes, the most recent is the concept of barefoot running. Apparent benefits are that of better balance, posture, less joint stress, and more muscle tone. Barefoot running can be exactly as it sounds, running without shoes, or it can be running with a new type of foot covering with “barefoot technology” that matches your foots natural arch and contours without adding any additional support or cushioning. I’m not exactly sure I would enjoy running without my Asics, but I guess I can’t knock it until I try it. Almost coming full circle, from barefoot to shoes to barefoot, but I don’t think that the barefoot running idea will force people to ditch their other shoes, so that really leaves us still in the shoe category.

While mostly out of my research I have decided that shoes should be disinfected and removed upon entering a house (the Japanese have always had it figured out), I still believe that all South Africans need to start wearing shoes and putting them on their children. Just doing what I can to try to save some shoeless Afrikaner at a time.

The Results Are In

2011-01-07T06:51:00.001-08:00

Ok, now I need you to think hard…back to the time around the strikes when I talked about the concern for the matrics of the current seniors. For those of you who tried to think and still couldn’t remember the matric is more or less the Senior Exit Exam, similar in concept to the S.A.T., except it makes or breaks your chance of passing your final year of high school. If you don’t pass you have to endure more schooling in order to get the equivalent of a high school diploma. Anyways there was a lot of concern around the teacher’s strike because we were getting close to testing time for the seniors and no one was in school, plus the kids had extra time off this year for the World Cup; not a good combination for a winning matric record.

Well since I know you have been waiting in anticipation, matric exams results are out! And guess what? Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced triumphantly on Thursday morning that “it’s a whopping in increase in the matric pass rate.” Hmmm, so much concern and then an increase in the pass rate. Fishy if you ask me. Then again, no one is asking me, so it is necessary to say that it is also being questioned by education specialists. This year they experienced a 67.8% pass rate, beating the 2009 rate by 7.2% with increases in all 9 provinces. This is only the 3^rd time that there has been this large of a pass rate since 1994. Apparently this significant of an increase can be attributed to the efforts the government has put into improving the education in South Africa. Just throwing it out there, but it couldn’t possibly be that we are trying to make a case for S.A. to keep stepping up on that international platform, especially will so many eyes still looking here following the World Cup.

According to an article published on Friday by the Sowetan, the real pass rate is 57 percent, as opposed to the 67.8 percent announced on Thursday by the department. Oh, but don’t worry, there is a rebuttal. “During a live interview on Radio 702, Chief Director of National Exams, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, maintained that the 2010 matric pass rate is 67.8 percent. ‘537 543 candidates wrote, 364 513 passed. If you divide those two numbers, you will get the same figure of 67.8 percent,’ Dr Sishi said.” Apparently the newspaper had used the number of students enrolled in place of the number of students who wrote exams. I’m still not to sure about all this. It seems to me that something needs to put in place so that you cannot accidentally calculate a much higher percentage or much lower percentage. Also it is sad that so many students did not write exams. Shouldn’t that number tell us something?

Okay, okay, here are some additional reasons why there is difficult making sense of all of this. In Umalusi’s (quality assurance body) standardization process, raw marks are altered, however, the public and higher education admissions officers are not told of the magnitude of adjustments to original marks. Also Umalusi said that several subjects, those key for further schooling (math, science, etc.), are operating on a reduced curriculum (whatever that means, but it doesn’t sound good) and that reduction is not clear. Additional the so-called “site-based assessments (marks awarded by the schools themselves) tend to inflate the results and finally the L.O. course (life orientation) has serious problem with marks that came out too high making it a difficult to attempt to standardize the marks. I really wish I understood this whole matric thing just a little better so I’d understand the arguments.

Here is the clincher and the part that gets me. While these results show an overall increase, the statistics have zero indication about what is happening in the townships and rural schools. These being the schools that we at GRS work at. Doron Isaacs, coordinator of Equal Education, a Cape Town-based NGO stated “The real inequality in our education system, which is so stark, is not being put before the public.”

If any country in Africa has a chance of bettering their educational standards, it is South Africa. But the important part is to make sure that they don’t just up the standards for those already receiving quality education, which would just continue to increase the gap between the rich and the poor in this country. Sometimes the severe differences between the urban areas and the townships here blow my mind. It is similar to going from a developed Western country to some of the lesser-developing countries, or even a failed state in less than 1 km.

Anyways I don’t write this because I have all the answers. I just write so you can think about it. We shall await the technical report, which will apparently really clarify all this. We shall see. But now a word from Jacob Zuma. "To those matriculants who did not make it, we urge you not to give up. This doesn't mean the end of the world. Many people have been in a similar situation that you are in today, and they emerged successful after another attempt. We want to celebrate with you soon when you have emerged victorious after this setback, we are fully behind you all the way," said the President. For any of you who have seen the comedic works of Trevor Nolan, I hope you will find this comment slightly amusing.

BRICs or BRICS

2011-01-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

I love the inquiry made by CNN on whether or not South Africa should be considered an emerging economy on par with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Should BRICs become BRICS? If you think I rewrote the same thing again, recheck capitalizations. Even more than I love reading CNN point of view, it brings me even greater joy to read the general public’s discussion on this subject.

The BRICs are the current markets that contribute to a third of the world’s GDP growth and more than a third of the world’s population. With China and India’s 2 billion + people and their growing middle classes, they are becoming the drivers of global consumption and proving to be the places to be or consider to be if you are in the business of selling anything. These countries led the global recovery following the economic fallout and then even better, at least from my athletic point of view, two of these countries secured positions as hosts to upcoming World Cups and Olympic games.

Maybe I only find any of this interesting to me because I am currently living in South Africa, but still it is definitely a point to ponder. Over my four years of college I had regularly seen the BRICs with the capital “S,” with a double “I,” or a capital “M” at the end. This signifying that South Africa, Indonesia, and Mexico, sat right on the edge of joining these other four emerging markets, all of which have good arguments. Did you know that Indonesia is one of the 4 largest countries by area? Oh, and so is Denmark. Think Greenland. So South Africa…the hosts of the 2010 World Cup and apartheid. Very interesting mix. Though to be fair, from living here, I am not sure it is okay to still completely hold the apartheid thing over their heads. While discrimination and racism still exists here, they are a far cry from 1994.

So Senor Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa has been invited to the next BRIC summit in Beijing the April. While many are in favor of South Africa’s rise on the world stage, some question it’s small fraction in population compared to other BRIC nations and the fact that it’s economy remains approximately ¼ of that of Russia. South Africa: -2. On the other side of things, South Africa does have a comparable equity market to that of Russia around $718 billion. Okay South Africa: -1. But, back to the other side, Russia is the only major energy exporter of the BRIC nations and unfortunately that does not help South Africa. Now, South Africa: -2 again. Okay, but South Africa sits in a position of serious importance on the continent of Africa, with 25% of all of Africa’s GDP. S.A. is also a top producer in the world for commodities like gold, copper, and platinum (every girl’s dream) and a producer of oil from coal and natural gas (that sounds like energy exports to me). Whoo into the positives, I’m giving South Africa: 2. That energy discussion has me slightly confused.

Okay enough of the economic talk, lets discuss how South Africa is not only a powerhouse in Africa, it also works to combine the current divide between east and west. It is a liberal, democratic country, with a strong sense of history and culture (which I think could be slowly disappearing with its westernization), and from the World Cup a pretty strong infrastructural system in place. I mean I don’t count all those dirt, bumpy roads you have to take to get to their national parks and reserves; just the forty billion different highways running in circles around Johannesburg.

Okay time for the world’s commentary. One person says, “the answer is no, Africa is just a doomed continent.” Very eloquently said and obviously a well researched position. Another, “but yes, we still all ride giraffes to work and walk around with nothing but underwear made from reeds.” While this may be true for him, I currently ride an elephant most days, though when I am late I grab my cheetah. Instead of underwear made of reeds, I prefer butt-flaps made of animal hide and a coconut bra. Proud Africa responds, “YES!!!!!!!! SOUTH AFRICA DESERVES TO JOIN BRIC! SO IT SHOULD BE CHANGED TO BRICS! SOUTH AFRICA HAS DONE A FINE JOB WITH WHAT IT HAS…CONGRATULATIONS TO SOUTH AFRICA.” Wow, here we have some serious excitement. Okay and finally my favorite. “This is a joke, right? (S.A. being added to the BRIC economies) The Africans are still living in Jurassic Park. They have no abilities in all the crucial areas to be an economic powerhouse: No technology. No mass skilled labour. No financial (spelled wrong in her response) and marketing prowess. No nothing, except a lot of brawns to win Olympic medals in the events where brute force is the name of the game.” Oh, sweet sweet Sharon, you are so right, which is why I am sitting in Africa reading CNN.com and posting my blogs, checking my Facebook, uploading all of my work to Google Docs, and updating the office calendar in Google Calendar. They also have no financial prowess, okay, so that would explain why I see the big four accounting firms everywhere I go and all the major financial firms. If I were you I would look out for those brawns because they most likely can out run you and beat you down with their pinky fingers.

Come on people, get it together. Maybe in addition to getting education for all, we need to consider re-educating some of the Western populations. Or, better idea, let's take some of the Western education and give it to those who cannot currently get an education. It might go farther.

Education for All

2011-01-06T07:08:00.000-08:00

Over the past 3 weeks I had an opportunity to travel through 3 different African countries and have 3 totally different experiences. While those experiences will be documented in my travel blog (because I was traveling), I wanted to take an opportunity to discuss some of the very interesting African people I met along the way. I bring this up because almost every person that I got into conversation with that was African in decent, fascinating, smart, and really sort of blew me out of the water.

My first day in Tanzania, amid the heat, the stress, and the craziness, I sought solace in an internet café where I met a 22-year-old Rwandan girl, whose family moved to Tanzania about 6 years earlier. For those of you who may have spent your life living in a hole, it is important to know and understand that Rwanda is a small East African country that was plagued by genocide ending in 1994, which at the very least claimed the lives of 800,000 people or as much as 20% of their population. It is a nation that for many years was classified as a lost cause, but in recent years has tried jump up on the world stage, finding some semblance of stability. Through a quick blossom of friendship, I learned that this girl was heading for a job interview in Dar el Salaam with one of the major banks there. After talking I learned that she was just looking for a job at the time, but really wanted to eventually move into the non-profit sector and do something a little more meaningful. She really wants to give back to her fellow Africans and to the communities that need it the most. Learning this piece of information even threw me off a little because of all of the stereotypes that exist about Africans.

On Zanzibar Island, off the coast of Tanzania, floating in the crystal clear waters of Ningwe, I met a man from Tanzania, who works as a non-profit lawyer in Dar Es Salaam and got his Master’s from a university in Johannesburg. We enjoyed a long conversation discussing the differences among African nations and people. We then met his friend, also Tanzanian, also working in law around the cause of HIV/AIDS, another friend from Botswana, and a third friend from South Africa working and living in British Columbia, Canada. In Swaziland, while reading a poem carved into a stone column explaining that while we all may look different on the exterior, deep down we all share the common bond of being human, I met a man from Zimbabwe. He was working for a John Hopkins medical hospital/project in Swazi. He did his medical internship in Texas and got his medical degree from a school in South Africa. Again we had a nice discussion about a bunch of different African nations and the people (a common theme). Finally in Clarens in the Free State of South Africa, I met a group from Joburg and together we enjoyed champagne and rang in 2011. This group included two sisters who grew up between Lesotho and Botswana, completed undergraduate degrees from universities in the Northeast of the United States and now lived in Joburg. One of the sisters, with a background in Chemistry, was working on starting up her cosmetic company (she explained that she was having fun, but was slow to start making money), while the other one got her Doctoral degree from a school in London in Economics and was working at a university in Joburg teaching economics. Her husband grew up in South Africa and studied at Dartmouth and began working with Morgan Stanley upon graduation and still works with them today. Quite an interesting, intelligent, and diverse group of people if I may say so myself.

There are so many people who believe that Africa is a lost cause and it is because of the people. Yes, I have actually seen that comment on different news articles I have browsed. Luckily, I have had been blessed enough to meet and see for myself that if Africans have the means and the opportunities that they are just as capable as anyone from a Western country. I am not going to lie, for me it is really intimidating to meet a well-educated black person. The first time this really happened for me was when I met the inter-port student from Ghana on Semester at Sea. He was one of the most well educated and articulate 20-year-olds I had ever met. Something that fascinated me was that you could throw any question you had about his country and its history, etc. and he knew the answer. I am pretty sure if you ask me or most other Americans questions (I know this is true for me because it happens all the time) that we will not know the answer.

The Ghanaian boy, Rwandan girl, Tanzanian man, Zimbabwean man, the Sesotho (of Lesotho) sisters, and the South African man come from a families that were financially stable and economically able to send them to good schools throughout their lives and provide them with educational opportunities that will propel them ahead in life. Sometimes I believe that is what is really comes down to. Education. This is something that Nicholas Kristof, columnist and blogger for the New York Times constantly touches on, a deep set belief of Greg Mortenson who is working to educate those in remote villages of Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to foster peace and a cause that Queen Rania of Jordan works to promote. If you haven’t heard of Nicholas Kristof, I highly suggest you google him and read some of his columns, if you haven’t heard of Greg Mortenson then again I highly suggest you pick up his books: Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools. While you are educating yourself of the education of the world, it would also be a great idea to sign Queen Rania of Jordan’s One Goal Petition that was started and rolled out during the 2010 World Cup in order to fight for education for all. Currently “There are 69 million children out of school across the world. That's more than all the children that are primary school across Europe, USA, Canada, Australia combined. The world has the opportunity to ensure that every child has an education, and the chance to beat poverty.” Anyways as Nike says “Just do it.” It will take 2 minutes of your time.

So the question still remains: Can Africa move forward? While my interesting friend from Stone Town in Zanzibar has his doubts, I think that he along with all of the other Africans I met along the way prove that with the right opportunities, healthy family lives, dreams and strong educational background, that Africans do have the means to head right into the 21^st century.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

2010-12-12T09:29:00.001-08:00

I hope at this point thanks to my recent uploads, I will be leaving Kimberley for 3 weeks, with you all in possession of finally some reading material. Sometimes it just takes that spark, or me forcing myself to sit down and write something.

I leave on Tuesday night for Tanzania. I will be flying into Dar Es Salaam, spending some much needed time resting and relaxing on Zanzibar island and then seeing where else the wind blows me. I will probably be checking email every once in a while during my time away, but I cannot making any promises. I will be back in Kimberley for work on the 3 January 2011. I cannot believe 2011 has arrived. The year that when my brother was entering pre-school was given to his graduating class and we all laughed at the thought that 2011 would ever arrive. So I guess I will be seeing all of you around the corner of yet another year in my life. Scary and I am only 22.

I wish you all a very wonderful and safe holiday break. I am sad that I will be missing Christmas with the family for the first time, but there will be many more to come. Love you all and to all a good night!

Also knowing my history with writing sometimes, especially long breaks away from the computer, I make no promises to write every detail about my trip upon my return. PEACE...

Take a Stand

2010-12-12T09:28:00.001-08:00

In the Grassroot Soccer Skillz curriculum, at the beginning of every practice we ask the kids to take a stand. We say a statement and ask the kids to either agree or disagree with that statement and then explain their position on the issue. An example of a statement would be “In my culture it I okay for boys to have more and one girlfriend as long as they use a condom.” Eight years ago I took my very own stand of a slightly different nature. A stand against alcohol and drugs through a pact I made with my best friend at the time saying that we would never drink or do drugs. At some point we both fell off that bandwagon, hers was a far deeper fall than mine which lasted about 2 months in total, but I renewed that pledge and retook my stand the day before my sweet sixteen birthday party 6, almost 7 years ago now. For some reason, all that information got through to me and I realized that my health and my passion for a sport (that I know no longer play, but still uphold to utmost respect for) far outweighed what alcohol and drugs were ever going to give me.

Today, as I was completing the blog in which I explained how I question the work that I am doing and the program that we are using, I got some truly tragic news. 2-time winner of ESPN’s Academic All-American and a personal friend of mine passed away yesterday. Kyle Conrad, a 21-year old business and sports management student, and I haven’t had all that much interaction since we both moved on from our TCU travel soccer days, but that doesn’t mean that it was not entirely crushing to hear this news. Though he was a year or two younger than me, I spent a lot of time with him and his teammates because I practiced with them on the nights that I was not practicing with the girls, I traveled to London with him and all of our fellow teammates when I was 15, and I cheered on his high school soccer team as they crushed my own boys high school team. He, along with Edvin, a mutual friend and teammate, were nearly unstoppable together, and two of the best soccer players the state of Florida has seen.

What was even more distressing for me, aside from the fact that I am currently in Africa unable to attend the funeral, is the way that he died. According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, he fell off a bridge in Fort Lauderdale around 2:30 in the morning. While no cause of death has been stated, one can make a fair share of assumptions that may be true or not true as to what he was doing crossing a railroad bridge at 2:30 a.m. While I pass no judgments and truly mourn the world’s loss of yet another incredible young man, I urge you to look back a blog or two at the statistics about Substance Abuse and review my personal interaction with drugs and alcohol at the collegiate level. I believe that in our youth, we really do believe that we are invincible, that nothing will happen to us, but it can, it does, and it will. Sometimes we really need to wake up and smell the coffee; we need to face that fact that there are consequences for our actions.

While some of what I am saying might sound heartless or soulless in this moment, I cried for the first time today in what seems like forever. The role that substance abuse a played in my life and the people that it has hurt is huge. So I am using right now the only possible place I have to voice my opinion and try to evoke a conversation, to get someone to seriously consider the other side of what seems like harmless fun in the moment. Again I have no idea, if alcohol or drugs were involved in this situation, but either way I am finally stating to the world how I feel.

If the world is going to take someone like Kyle Conrad from us, we are going to learn something from it and his death will not just be a loss, but a light. I am begging and pleading that next time you head out on the town, you take just a moment and think about your goals, your dreams, all of the things that you are capable of in this world, and take a stand for Kyle’s life and so many others who have lost lives because of alcohol and drug abuse. Whether you are taking a stand not to drink and drive, not to drink in excess, or not to drink at all is up to you, but it is time that we all try to take action.

Questioning the Glorified Aid, Part Two

2010-12-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

So I question a practice and then I question the whole curriculum, and then I become utterly frustrated with Headquarters and our USAID grant. For me, and I’m pretty sure for our CEO and visionary of GRS, Tommy Clark, this is about the children that we work with and protecting them from this destructive disease also known as AIDS. So why is it that I feel like decisions are motivated by money and by numbers?

I’m pretty sure because that is just how it works. Money makes the world go around and in the non-profit world, grants and funding are the only way we can make it. Now in order for us to have and keep and potentially get more money from USAID, we have to reach certain targets of learners graduated from our programs and people in our communities tested. While it is slightly infuriating because it leads even the most compassionate people to make decisions based around only graduates, I understand that sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

It wasn’t too long ago that I told you the story about Practice 6 and our problems with the school Greenpoint. There were so many problems in fact that we were just going to work through two more practices to get to Practice 6 and be done. This is the perfect example of a time where we were motivated and influenced solely by the fact that we needed numbers. All of a sudden these kids with faces and names and horribly distressing home life situations, are typed into a computer and become nothing more than a number and a statistic to be submitted to USAID. Here we are on the ground, working with these kids for 9 days of their lives, teaching them about a very difficult disease and in the end they become nothing more than a number.

Luckily after a little fight, we did end of getting to work with the kids for 3 more practice, complete the curriculum, and have a graduation for them, but I am pretty sure that is where it ended. Stories of girls being raped, children being left alone at 12 to take care of younger sibling when their parents died, and we didn’t even have a system or path in place to lead these kids to the help they very severely need.

Phew, I think we are all in desperate need to vacation right now to recharge, refuel, and renew. I realize that many of these blogs, thought I would like to be slightly quirky and goofy with them, have been more on the serious side of things. But I feel like it is important that I share as I learn and explain some of the questions that pop up as I move along. I am sharing more my thought processes around issues as opposed to my day-to-day happening because a lot of my days are very similar. Sometimes we get busier and other days I have plenty of time to chill out, but either way I seriously doubt me telling you about all the receipts I reconciled or the number of shirts in our inventory I counted would be of any more interest than what I am discussing now.

Questioning the Glorified Aid

2010-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

Starting out, this yearlong internship was merely my best option after graduating college. The job market isn’t so hot right now for the recently graduated, but let’s also be honest and just admit that knowing how this opportunity lined up with my resume thus far, I knew it was my easiest option. Easiest, in the sense that I had a pretty good chance of getting the post, not easiest in it’s requirements for application. Essays cover letters, references, and resume. But that wasn’t necessarily the only lure of working for a non-profit. I personally glorify non-profit organizations and aid agencies. As you all may recall from my first post, in my first year of college, I saw myself as a high power corporate player or lawyer, then a couple years into college, I dreamt of making it into the United Nations. I have absolutely no idea how you get there or what exactly it as an entity does, but I wanted to be there and I wanted to be on top.

I have heard, read books and articles, and discussed the negativity around the idea of AID (not AIDS, AID, you know grants, money, help). I am no saint, and I have always had my doubts about certain things, but never when it came to this concept. Aid has always been a way to help, a form of relief and how could that ever have any negativity attached to it. Hmmm, maybe this process it not only leaving me confused about my life, but also creating the cynic within me. But, I have some bad news. Over the past few weeks, not only have we dealt with World War III in the office (there was a lot of arguing among everyone for a while there), but we have all come to an equal frustration towards grants and the headquarters of the organization we are working with.

For me it started with my doubt for practice 6, which I have discussed earlier, then it moved to a little doubt about the program itself. If anyone recalls their 6th grade days of D.A.R.E. you may understand where I am coming from. First, I must say this is weird for me because I am the 1 in 100 that actually took something from the D.A.R.E. and similar alcohol/drug related programs and assemblies and to this day I remain alcohol and drug free. The part that that must be noted is the 1 in 100. Another part worth noting is that I don’t believe that the reason I stand as the 1 in 100 has all that much to do with any of those seminars, programs, and lectures we had throughout school, but rather it has a lot more to do with a stern discussion my soccer team had with one of the best coaches and mentors I have ever had in my life.

According to research by Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base that “almost half of Americans aged 12 and older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2000 survey (46.6 percent). This translates to an estimated 104 million people. Both the rate of alcohol use and number of drinkers were nearly the same in 2000 as in 1999 (46.4 percent and 103 million). It also shows that young adults aged 18 to 22 enrolled full-time in college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full-time to report any use, binge use, or heavy use of alcohol in 2000. Past month alcohol use was reported by 62.0 percent of full-time college students compared to 50.8 percent of their counterparts who were not currently enrolled full-time. Binge and heavy use rates for college students were 41.4 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively, compared with 35.9 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively, for other persons aged 18 to 22.” Additionally I found that 10% of Americans age 12 and older in 2000 had driven under the influence of alcohol at least once in the 12 month prior to the interview and of the youth aged 18-25, 19.9 percent has driven under the influence of alcohol in 2000.

First of all, I have to say, what 12 year olds are driving and driving under the influence no less? Now here is the rest of my discussion on this topic, the point I am trying to make and how this relates to GRS will follow shortly. I was a college student from the year 2006-2010, which in this modern day and age pretty much makes this research obsolete and while my shortage of access to the internet prevents further research, I will give you my personal interaction with alcohol in the last 8 years of my life. Out of all of the traveling I have done, all of the people I have met, I actually know 4 people who do not drink or do drugs at all, 4 out of about 500+ people that I know (I am talking about 500 people within the range of 16-30). That is .008% and that percent includes my brother, who like the other 3 people I believe is telling me the truth when he says they don’t drink of do drugs. Of the 99.992% of people in my life who do drink, I can say that a good amount of them are safe and socially responsibly drinkers, maybe to put a figure on it, 20-30%. So while statistics say one thing about alcohol and drug consumption my personal interaction with it paints a totally different picture. I cannot count the number of times I have been pressure to all different extents to drink, congratulated on my strength and decision for not drinking (though they could never do it is usually how that sentence ends), and was told that I am 1 of maybe 3 people maximum that they know that chooses not to drink or potentially, as has happened, the only one. Keep in mind that most Americans have gone through the D.A.R.E. program in their middle school years or a similar program and these are still the statistics.

Now maybe my own research is slightly skewed, as is all research, because while I choose not to drink or do drugs, I still enjoy going out to parties, bars, and clubs on occasion with friends. It definitely makes me the odd man out, but I like to show people that you can go out, be silly, dance, and have a good time, and still be able to drive yourself home sober when it is all over. So it is possible that 35% of college kids do not drink, but I would then have to guess that those students found each other and have decided to hide themselves from any college kids I’ve ever come into contact with.

Ok so now back to D.A.R.E and the point I was trying to make. In my mind, I have made a connection between the D.A.R.E. that a majority of middle school American students endure and the Grassroot Soccer Skillz Curriculum. While one drills safe social drinking and abstinence from drugs the other teaches safe sexual activity and just plain abstinence to stop the spread of a deadly disease (p.s. Alcoholism is a fatal disease and like AIDS you have to live with it for the rest of your life). Let’s see if you have started making any connections of your own. I am 1 in 100 from my school’s D.A.R.E. program (if that), so how can I not wonder how many children we are getting through to with our Skillz program. How much of difference are we really making in the HIV/AIDS game?

Right now I wish I had the anonymous quiz we gave to our newly hired coaches about their personal sexual behavior. I will try to get a hold of it, if it can be released. But, I say this because these are people who are teaching this curriculum, they are the voices of Skillz and they, like so many people, also engage in risky sexual behavior. Luckily/hopefully they keep this away from the kids they are teaching.

But still it makes me wonder, if oodles of information about HIV/AIDS and the position of role model in this fight cannot deter someone, then what will? I cannot help but look at this Skillz curriculum and think of its ineffectiveness due to the fact that I see so many underlying causes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, which we barely even touch on in the Skillz curriculum. Cultural norms (can’t touch them too much), age old alcohol abuse, lack of education, lack of foreseeable opportunities, a lack of a healthy social environments, not to mention a strange mix and split of first and third world, community and country leaders that do not practice what needs to be preached, and most importantly the slow disappearance of an entire generation that should be the parents and guardians of the current youth or the future.

Sometimes I see myself just getting more and more cynical and skeptical of the world around me as a learn more, but then I have to go back to that 1, that 1 in 100. Let me share with you a story that has touch me a few times over the past few years, some of you may have heard before: the Starfish Story.

“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

So, this is what I have to keep telling myself, that if I came out the 1 in 100, that someone else will probably emerge in the same position. And so, the fight continues, as slow and grueling as it can be and the fact that everyday, we never really get to see if the cause we are volunteering ourselves to is really having an impact.

A Brief Glimpse of Myself

2010-12-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

Cape Town for me was a little less of a touristy vacation (been there, done that) and more of a chance to get back to myself. As someone who spends most of her time engaged in some form of exercise and eats blueberries everyday, Cape Town gave me an opportunity to get back out there and start taking care of myself again…at least for 5 days. I hadn’t even seen a blueberry since I got here almost 4 months ago, but they had them in Cape Town. Oh, and tofu, raspberries, and hummus, and a number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants. Yoga studios, food markets, beautiful hikes, and of course, the beach. Just looking at those words makes me feel better. I think these are the things that define me. I am learning how to live comfortably without the latest in fashion and uncomfortably without a well-decorated home space, but living without all things that make me healthy proves to be a challenge everyday. I live in the red meat capital of the world, most people wouldn’t eat a vegetable to save their lives (it would save their lives), and most have never even heard of celery.

I went down to Cape Town for Thanksgiving and to have a little break from the dry desert that is Kimberley. As soon as I arrived I felt a little more like myself again. The first day we went to a middle eastern/Asian bazaar for lunch (hello hummus and tahini) followed by a lovely hike to the top of Lion’s Head, ocean views from every side. On Thanksgiving I went for a wonderful run and then we hit up Camps Bay beach (could have been Southern California, Miami, or Hawaii) and as cold as the water was I wanted to stay in it forever…I can’t believe how much I miss and love the salty ocean water. Friday, Lizzy (Port Elizabeth intern) and I did a lot of exploratory walking around Cape Town’s city center and the V & A waterfront and then spent the afternoon relaxing on a quieter beach with Emma and Jeremy (Maseru, Lesotho interns). Saturday was the last string for Emma and I; it was at the Old Biscuit Mill food market that we decided that we would not be returning to our sites (unfortunately as I am writing this, I have to admit that I am back safely in Kimberley). We finished off my last day in Cape Town with a picnic on the beach.

A Little Late

2010-11-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

So at this point I am posting a blog that was written about 3 weeks to a month ago. I am sorry for the delay. I see that I haven't posted one blog since October, which is bad and I need to get back to writing again.

Many days, when I need a break from the office and a quiet, cute place to work, I venture down the street to Wilhelmina’s to enjoy a pot of tea, a cup of coffee, and some insanely delicious little treat. Everyday my piece of cake, cupcake, brownie, or pie comes out decorated in some meticulously creative way. There is always some fruit sliced and arranged on the side, with some flower (today we have a pansy) and some sauce. Today my brownie comes complete with a coffeecake crumble on top then some sauce and ice cream, of course plus the slices of apples and oranges and my sweet pansy. As I enjoy my chamomile tea from some delicate china, I wonder why I never have a camera with me when I am here. I will have to start bringing one. (I should be honest and say that probably will not happen). Sorry, break for a bite. The report: the brownie is warm and gooey, which is complemented by the crunch of the crumble and walnuts and the cold, vanilla ice cream. Forget the Big Hole if you are coming to Kimberley and just come to this quaint little café to enjoy whatever sweets they are offering that day. I have yet to have something that I didn’t like here, though I tried the strawberry cheesecake and I didn’t like it, too cheesy, but that is how all of the cheesecakes are here.

I guess this short blurb about my hideout makes it seem like we don’t do much work here, but oh contraire, my friends. I worked my first ever 60-hour-week last week; too bad for cost share I can only claim 40 hours. Maybe I am in the makings of a workaholic, hmmm. It would be a bad thing if I hated my job (like an old roommate I had) and worked these hours, but luckily there is not too much to hate about my job, aside from my colleague Thuso Jones, of course. (Thuso if you ever read this, I think only you will understand). Thuso and I have a nice love-hate relationship; okay I’m beginning to think I have that relationship with most people. Maybe it is me. It’s cool though because it brings a little comedy into the office. For the most part I think we all have a nice rapport in the GRS Kim office. Some days there are misunderstanding, miscommunications, and frustrations, but at the end of the day we usually manage to laugh about something.

This week we have a few visitors in the office; one from Cape Town and one from Port Elizabeth. We have Matt Streng here from CT and he is the Director of Programs. Then we have Mpumi here from Port Elizabeth; he used to be the site coordinator there, but was recently promoted to something else, but I have no idea what. He does something with systems; he keeps telling me that he is going to analyze our systems, whatever that means. Maybe I will learn tomorrow at our 3-5 hour meeting. Hope it is not boring.

Today I played the role of assistant coach at an intervention. Unfortunately, it was at a school where the kids spoke very little English and mostly Afrikaans, so communication was limited, but it was still solid. I think mostly the kids just liked having a different face, especially a white one from America. I am finding that when you really get involved with the kids and enjoy yourself with the program, it makes the kids want to interact and behave, while also having some fun. I think kids respond to assertiveness with a little humor. Once you allow yourself to become angry or frustrated with the kids, they are given all control of the situation. Our coaches need to be careful with that; some of them have a short temper, which can pass the control of the class right over to the kids very quickly. Some of our coaches are really good with the kids and they always seem to get the results that we all work to achieve. I feel like it is always the same coaches that come out of practice 6 and get the kids to open up and it is always the same coaches who come out and say that their kids don’t want the intervention to end or for the coaches to leave.

Now it sounds like all work and no play, but not to worry I do get some playtime. About a month ago I was in Bloemfontein for the Macufe Festival. It was a weeklong festival featuring different music styles, different arts and crafts, different cultural events, and all culminated in the Macufe Cup (S.A. premiership game) on Sunday. We caught the Jazz night and the Macufe Cup game. Both were pretty spectacular. I think a lot that comes from good company (i.e. some of the Maseru crew, crazy local South Africans). I then headed up to Maseru for the Maseru Charity concert a few weekends ago to see Freshlyground play (think Waka Waka with Shakira). It is always just nice to get out of Kim for a while.

Similar Story in Malawi

2010-10-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

Please read the blog two before this one first called "What I Have Been Waiting For." I was browsing the GRS website when I came across this story and it reiterated the power of story and the pain and suffering these people deal with on a daily basis. It relates to that same practice 6 that I haven't been able to understand up until these last few days. This is a story that was told by a young boy named Tsalani and his GRS Malawi Coach Felix and was written by GRS Intern Eren Munir.

"In 2008, Grassroot Soccer began a partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine’s Children’s Foundation and the Abbott Fund in Lilongwe, Malawi. This innovative program goes beyond delivering the GRS HIV prevention curriculum with youth, providing integrated HIV testing to all participants and their families. The program has expanded rapidly since 2008, graduating over 1,500 children and testing over 2000 youth and community members through home-based testing and record-breaking community testing tournaments.

Tsalani’s story, below, provides a window into the pain and loss that HIV has inflicted on the life of a young boy in Malawi. GRS has played a major role in helping him to find his voice and share what he has learned with others. 'Every time I share my story, I may be saving someone’s life,' Tsalani states with confidence.

Walking to school in his usual manner, Tsalani looked down at the road in silence, holding a distant gaze. At only 12 years old, he didn’t know how to confront his feelings after the death of his brother. He felt guilty for not doing more to help and angry that his community failed to lend any support when they needed it most. On that day, Tsalani recalls, 'I felt completely alone.' His brother had been his parent, caretaker, and best friend.

Living by themselves, the two brothers had been forced to take on adult responsibilities early in life. Tsalani’s 18-year-old brother did everything he could to provide for himself and his brother, but the pressure was overwhelming, and soon his late nights working to raise funds for Tsalani’s school fees became filled with drugs, alcohol and women.

Tsalani did everything he could to stop his brother’s new behavior but he couldn’t reach him. Desperate, he turned to his brother’s two best friends for help and vividly remembers their answer; 'Tsalani, we gave up on helping your brother a long time ago. In this community, you cannot do what he has been doing and get away with it. All we have left to do is pray for him.' He sought help from other community members but the answer was the same. Soon, Tsalani’s brother became sick, and the entire community seemed to think he was already gone.

As his brother became sicker, Tsalani spent some of the hardest days of his life watching after his brother. He rarely attended school and sat alongside his brother almost every night as his health declined. He tried to get his brother to go to a hospital, but he refused. The shame was too great. After six months, his brother died.

The months following his brother’s death were full of heartache and worry. As Tsalani explains, 'I had to start thinking about my future because I had no one to look after me'. When Tsalani visited the village to shop for food, he heard whispers of 'HIV/AIDS' from community members. Tsalani knew of the virus but didn’t realize for many months that it had been his brother’s killer.

Eventually, Tsalani found relatives to live with and returned to school, but the pain remained until he met Felix Kayira. Felix was part of an HIV and AIDS education program with an organization called Grassroot Soccer. With the memory of his brother ingrained in his mind, Tsalani had not forgotten about the dangers of HIV and AIDS, and he joined GRS. Felix remembers those early days with a smile, remarking that, “Tsalani became a man on a mission. The more information I gave him about HIV/AIDS, the more he wanted to know”.

During a practice called 'My Coach’s Story,' Tsalani rose to share his personal experience with HIV, and nobody could have imagined the impact his words would have. As he spoke, every emotion imaginable seemed to emanate from his body, describing the death of his brother. After he finished his story he exhaled, and as the air left his lungs, a new, determined young man emerged.

Tsalani found inspiration in that moment to continue to tell his story and has shared it openly with friends, community members and other GRS participants. It’s impossible to know how many lives he has changed, but he is humble and wishes not to be thanked for his openness. All he wants is to keep sharing, because, for Tsalani, 'every time I share my story, I may be saving someone’s life.'"

Let There Be Light

2010-10-20T01:56:00.000-07:00

I thought I had put my small portable heater away for good last week. It was so warm; I was really wondering how it could possibly get any hotter come summer. There were a few nights where I had to sleep with my large fan on and I think I still woke up periodically sweating throughout the night. Surprise, surprise, I pulled the heater back out today after waking up freezing this morning. It is sort of like being in Delaware where you have no idea what the weather will be the next day or in the middle of the day. At least in Florida you always know; in the summer it will rain mid-afternoon for about and hour or so, so get your outdoor activities out of the way in the morning and in the winter it will be freezing in the morning and late at night, but you can assume that it will be warm enough for just a long sleeve shirt or less during the day.

I’ll have you know that I just sat in the dark for 15 minutes with my headlamp reading because we thought our electricity was out (i.e. Albert said it was out and I didn’t question because they light switches didn’t work). It “went out” around 6 p.m. when I was working on the computer after work, but it wasn’t yet dark enough to be a problem or notice that we seemed to be the only ones without electricity. I think we also accepted it because earlier this week the water was cut off across Kimberley until the next morning and another day we all lost electricity. The water goes out all the time because there are major pipes that burst and spew water everywhere. In the area that the pipe is it could look like a flood, even though it never ever rains here. After reading for a bit, I stood up to look out the window, turned off my headlamp and just wondered for a second how long it would be out this time. At that moment I noticed that the lights in the neighboring house were on and that the outdoor lights in our complex were on. I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to go to our landlord’s house to ask him if he knew was what wrong with just our small building. Unfortunately, though their lights were on, there was no answer. Defeated, I returned to my small apartment/house surrendering to the idea that I would spend my evening in darkness. I was looking at the electricity reader (we have to prepay for electricity here), which read full considering I bought new electricity yesterday and I noticed the switchboard for the electricity in the house. I then noticed that the main switch was stuck halfway between green and red so I switched it to green. Nothing, still no lights, no refrigerator white noise. So I switched off the smaller switches and then back on again in an effort to reset them. Still nothing. I then switched the main switch to red, because really what other option did I have and poof, magic, we now have our electricity working again. It is very much a necessity because now I can turn my heater on, go take a hot shower, and snuggle in my warm bed and watch a movie.

What I Have Been Waiting For

2010-10-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

You know it’s one thing to hear a child’s tragic story from a distance, but it’s another entirely when you get to have a connection to that child. When you can put a face to a story and hug that child. That’s what it is really about. It’s that’s connection that makes all of this worthwhile. Everyday that we go to an intervention and I join a class, I get to become a part of it. I get one step closer to the direct contact with the kids; I get to pray that if they understand English that my words sink somewhere into their brains, that just my presence can have some effect on them.

These are sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that are just like any other sixth, seventh, and eighth grades across that globe. They may live under different circumstances, they may adhere to different cultural behaviors, but in the end just are just kids. Kids that because of their living circumstance may never have a chance to change their situation, to get out of their communities and see the world and learn about it, in fact they may never even be able to fathom the opportunities other children have. Opportunities most of us take for granted.

Today we did practice 6 from the curriculum at our intervention at Greenpoint (one of the township communities), forever my least favorite practice. Practice 6 is called “Our Stories” and the whole idea of the practice is to try to get the kids to open up and start talking about HIV/AIDS and their personal stories relating to resilience. Great idea in principal, but difficult to execute. The problem is that we work with 12-14 year olds and the last thing they want to do is take anything seriously. Most of my interaction with this practice has led me to lose faith in this practice and sometimes question the whole curriculum. It makes me crazy. The kids make up stories, most of which do not even make sense, they laugh at classmates, even when the classmate breaks down from a real, serious, and difficult story. I never see practice 6 have the effect it should have. However, every time we have done practice 6, all of the other coaches from the classes that of course I was not a part of tell these amazing stories about the kids opening up and sharing truly powerful stories. To me, most days, it is a waste of our time and the “American people’s money” as Mandla would say. (Side note: USAID is our largest funder. Other side note: On the USAID’s symbol, below USAID it reads “From the American People,” trust me another discussion for another time). Anyways…when I found out today that we would be doing practice 6 at a school where the kids mainly speak Afrikaans, I grabbed my book and had every intention of spending the afternoon reading about Zimbabwe in the car. Clifford, one of the coaches, had a better idea. I would join his class (he promised to translate and I couldn’t exactly voice that I hated practice 6). Some days I feel like I am a distraction to the classes when I am around, but I guess that is not always true because otherwise the coaches wouldn’t insist for me to be there. So I agreed/was pulled into the classroom.

I am not sure if I explained this previously, but for the kids to graduate the program they must attend 6 out of the 9 practices. Greenpoint has been proving to be a very difficult school to work with because the kids are out of control, they are not interested, and the administrators do not want to give us a lot of time because of the strike recovery plan. Yea, remember that one; it seems like forever ago now. Anyways as an office we decided that we are low on numbers this quarter and that we would just go to Greenpoint through practice 6. We would just graduate whatever kids showed up to all six so we could just get our numbers and be done with it. So today we had planned to do practice 6, type those names into the computer and send them over to Cape Town. Then there was a slight turn of events.

As always with practice 6, most of the kids in the class did not want to take it seriously, no one wanted to share, and those kids who had stories to tell they were too embarrassed or nervous to tell their stories in front of the whole class. So I just sat there for 25 minutes while the coaches explained the importance of sharing their stories, threatened to take away their certificates, and anything else they could do to make the kids participate, thinking about how much I still hated practice 6 and about how I really should talk to those curriculum and training people about this nonsense. After pleading with the kids, we decided that we would just let the kids go and if there was anyone who wanted to share their stories or talk to us privately that they could stay after to do so. 12 kids stayed after. I only spoke directly with two girls, but I heard about some of the other stories and they ranged from beatings, to rape to deaths of family members. One story was about a group of kids who had been followed by a black car. Sensing danger all of the boys ran away leaving a young girl in the dust. She was captured, raped, and died the next day in the hospital. One of the stories I heard was about a girl’s aunt who was HIV positive and pregnant. In 2007 the aunt died and left the baby (and everyone unsure of whether or not the baby was positive) and the rest of that story got lost in translation. The other 12-year-old girl shared a story about her mother who had TB. She told us that her mother drank a lot and didn’t take care of her and her sister and that her stepfather also drank a lot and would beat the mother and the girls. This 12- year-old girl had to assume the role of caretaker at a very young age. An age where she should be worried about playing with friends, not what to feed her sister. The girls have since moved out and live with their cousins and the mother passed away in August.

I was talking to my dad about it earlier and he was like “man, this is some real depressing stuff.” (I probably shouldn’t quote because I know those were not the exact words, but something along those lines). And that’s the truth, it is horrifyingly depressing, but here’s the thing, these are real people, just people exactly like you and me. And this is their real world. This is the reason that I am here. To you it may just be another story on a piece of paper or a computer screen, but for me, for the first time, it is a real story belonging to a girl, with a face and a name. Someone that I listened to, that I looked in the eyes and told that she was brave for telling her story, that I comforted, someone that I got to share a special connection with.

We Shall Meet

2010-10-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

“I think people are beginning to realize that you can’t have pockets of prosperity in one part of the word and huge deserts of poverty and deprivation and thing that you can have a stable and secure world.”

---Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Well said, Tutu, well said. You know just a little food for thought. I decided next on the top of my list (that’s my life list of course) is to meet Desmond Tutu. Do I think it is possible? Maybe, maybe not. But I do feel as though I have a much greater shot at it while I am living in South Africa than when I move back to the States. He just seems like a pretty cool dude. Maybe that is not something you say about an archbishop, but if I were him (which I am not), I would take it as a compliment. I am basing this concept of him on a 3-page article/interview I read in the S.A. publication “Soul.” Now that is some serious stuff. I know, I know, it is not the most credited or educational source, but it definitely did spark my interest to want to know more. Part of that more would be meeting the man.

I have to say when I became public knowledge that Desmond Tutu, who as long been a big supporter of Semester at Sea, would be joining the Fall 2010 voyage, I wanted to scream. I found myself experiencing mixed emotions of jealousy and rage. We were the 100th voyage and we got nothing except for the glory of being able to say that we traveled on the 100th voyage of Semester at Sea. It may also be the experience that will get me into the Circumnavigator’s Club, yea that’s right, but that’s not the point. I know it shouldn’t be about getting things (most of the time? Sometimes?), but to have the opportunity to sit down at dinner or play games in the piano bar with someone as influential and famous on the world stage would be epic. Imagine being able to say that you lived on the same ship as Archbishop Desmond Tutu for 4 months. Now do you get it?

While I am making it a mission to meet the man this year (I can extend the time limit if this poses a problem), I will unfortunately have to wait another 3 months until December when his little traveling around the world stint is over. Oh, wait he is also joining the enrichment voyage so probably not until after January. Lucky. I missed him twice. Good thing is this give me some time to really learn some more about him.

It's the Simple Things

2010-10-03T13:51:00.001-07:00

So here I am spending a year in the world. Actually I think really I spend every year somewhere in the world. That would make sense. I am spending a year out in the foreign world, exploring, learning, and working (to some extent). My year in the world involves me spending a lot more time in one specific location than I am used to, one that will allow for a ton of writing, reading, and some self-reflection. I am learning quickly that I pretty much need to be by an ocean; I am becoming rather tired of the dry cough attacks that keep me from my much-needed sleep. I am also learning through my process of writing that sometimes I am afraid to really “take a stand.” I am afraid to say what I really want to say about different issues and problems because I fear everyone’s responses. Well not everyone’s, just those who disagree with my perspective and what I have to say. I guess that comes with the territory of writing your thoughts and posting them on the web for all to see. Luckily for me, most people don’t comment or have much to say at all to my perspective on the world. I don’t know yet if that is a good thing or a bad thing; we will just have to see.

Thanks Mom for all the informative articles about the continent I am living on so that I may continue to educate those following me this year. For those who don’t know and I would assume that is most people reading this, everyday my mom sends me 3-5 sometimes more emails from her new favorite news source allafrica.com. The funny part is that I send her 3-5 sometimes more emails regarding news articles from the nytimes.com or cnn.com. The other cool thing is that she is sort of my personal research assistant. If I make a comment on something that I plan to discuss further at a later point, I can pretty much expect an email the following day with all of the news articles and information one could need to make their point, if you catch my drift.

One follow-up that I decided to discuss further relates to the number of funeral service businesses that we see around us at all times and sure enough I have a great article that informed me more on the situation. I made a comment earlier about the life expectancy and the prevalence of AIDS in Lesotho, but I never really went into a whole lot of detail about South Africa. I shared a personal story in a way, but then I received an email from my allafrica.com specialist discussing the mortality of children in South Africa and I have to say it is pretty distressing. So here’s the deal: about 75,000 children under the age of five die in S.A. every year; this means that nearly 200 children die everyday. It is interesting to find out that HIV accounts for a lot of these deaths because these are children born with the disease from HIV-positive women. Out of the 1 million babies born per year in S.A., almost 300,000 are born to HIV-positive mothers. Something else I learned, this comes from a local source, Thembi, to be exact, is that women cannot “have their tube’s tied” until they have had at least 4 children, 3 children if they are HIV positive or had C-sections. Now sometimes I think that unless there is something that can stop women from passing on HIV through childbirth, wouldn’t it make sense not to allow these women to have children. I mean reading that back, I know it sounds horrible, but there has got to be some way to stop passing on this disease and this could be a start. Actually, that just sound ludicrous because I have no idea how you could control that. I know there are things out there and in the works that are trying to prevent the mother-child transmission, but still…at least if the mother cannot afford proper medication for herself and the child. In the article the statement has been made that HIV was severely ignored for too long which allowed it to reach the levels that it has reached today and that there has been a delay in the strategies created to prevent the mother-to-child transmission. Hmmm, interesting.

So of the children that die every day and every year, 57% die from HIV. 100 of these children are dying from HIV and the other 100 are dying from completely treatable and preventative illness like diarrhea and pneumonia. These are things that could be prevented with proper housing, water, and sanitation. Simple basic human needs.