I am incredibly frustrated with myself for not updating this
blog sooner. So much has happened since I last wrote. We are now in Durban and
I am in my homestay in Cato Manor with my host Mama, brother Aslam (20) and
sister Silingle (9). The other brother, Nino, doesn’t live here anymore but he
came by the other night to say hi. I have my own roomy bedroom with a full size
bed, closet and chair! The house itself is much nicer than I expected; we even
have a shower! There is no hot water, but the shower is there if I chose that
over a warm sponge bath. My Mama is a good cook and is very kind. She clearly
loves her kids very much and goes out of her way to help them. I had bought
Silingle a Hello Kitty coloring book and crayons and we have been busy
coloring; she is very sweet and kind and she wants to be a nurse when she grows
up. Aslam just graduated from high school and is in the midst of applying to
priest school- I’m not sure what or where that is… But interesting! The family
is very, very religious, which I’m sure is the norm, but it’s different for me.
One of the first questions they asked me was whether I am religious and after I
told them that I am more-or-less “nothing”, they are convinced I will find
Jesus during my time here. Yikes. Everything is relatively comfortable; the
main discomfort I have is that the ceiling/rafters are open and you can hear
EVERYTHING in the house. It’s pretty hard to sleep and hard for me to relax. I
hope that I begin feeling more comfortable there, but then again I am the ninth
American they have housed, and this is very much “business as usual” for them,
which makes the transition easier for me.
Before we moved into our homestay we had several days of
orientation and classes. The most exciting day for me was the Durban “drop
off”, which was more like a scavenger hunt. In pairs, we were dropped off
around the city and were given tasks to take some form of public transportation
(not metered taxis) to a specified location and then get back to the office by
lunchtime. The public transportation is CHAOTIC to say the least and this was a
daunting task. But it was without a doubt the best way to learn. SIT wanted us
to learn to trust South Africans, which we had to in order to get home. There
are no signs, timetables or anything here for the public transportation. It was
a really fun experience and we met several people who went out of their way,
even changing their schedule to help us find our location. For those of you
worrying about safety- Thula, one of our assistants was on stand-by with the
bus and we were dropped off during rush hour, when the most people were out and
the safest time.
After drop off, the next exciting activity we did was
attending the Reed Ceremony. This was a fascinating ceremony of Zulu maidens,
celebrating their virginity and dancing in front of the Zulu king with their
clans in their traditional outfits. Traditionally, the king would choose a wife
from the maidens, however he has not done this in about 10 years. The women
were all bare-breasted and were incredibly happy to participate in this
ceremony. In total, over 20,000 Zulu women participated! After the women danced
by the king, they danced out to this big field and many of them would just run
up and hug us. They spoke great English and asked us to take pictures of them
and with them. It was very fun and incredibly interesting. I have emailed
several of you a picture of this since it might not be appropriate to put
online. If anyone else wants the picture please send me a message! At first, I
was worried that this would be a tourist trap ceremony, but it really wasn’t!
We received “VIP” passes and were able to go stand near the King. There were
very few outsiders allowed in to the ceremony, as the Zulus are very protective
of their heritage. We are having several classes on virginity testing, which my
Mama said is still very common in normal society and not just for traditional
ceremonies. It’s an interesting conundrum because virginity testing is not
physically harmful, but it promotes abstinence-only practices, without any
other sex-ed and is considered unfair and degrading by many liberals and
feminists. When the maidens sign this ‘abstinence form’ they are congratulated
for avoiding HIV transmission, child abandonment and several other things that
are absolutely not synonymous with abstinence. We are having a guest lecturer
come in tomorrow to further discuss this, but I already see myself having some
problems with imposing restrictions on cultural practices that don’t cause
physical harm. Even with female circumcision, which has incredibly high
infection rates, it is not appropriate to tell another culture what to do. Even
though I believe it is wrong, the change must come from within the culture to
be effective and sustainable.
These next five weeks are going to be intense, academically
and socially. I am definitely going to have to adapt to these new situations
and new living arrangements. I am currently pretty sick; not sure whether it’s
from the homestay cooking or something else, but being sick in a house without
rafters/real walls is NOT fun and makes me hope this month goes by relatively
quickly. I’m excited to feel better so I can go play soccer and run around with
all the kids. Also, the shower situation is going to take some adjustment. We
fill up a bin with hot water from a hot water heater (for tea) and mix it with
a bit of cold water before doing a sponge bath and a very difficult hair wash.
I have not mastered this technique yet, but we’ll see.
I met up with my aunt Jenny’s contact for lunch yesterday.
He is a very nice guy and knew one of my professors (my professor told me that
he is “smart as a button” and I’m on the right track if I’m talking to him)-
yay! He gave me some great ideas for my independent study project:
·
Idea I: NGO Behaviour in the Context of Changing
Funding Landscapes
o NGO
behavious has changed substantially in the past few years due to donor pressure
or the lack-there-of. For instance, funding for HIV/AIDS programs has
drastically decreased and some NGOs have died while others have changed their
focus while still labeling themselves as an HIV organization. With this
question, I would ask the NGO what were they doing, what are they doing and WHY
(funding pressure, etc), and what they think they should be doing. I could also
attempt to get an input from funders.
§
This is very interesting because a private
organization, their goal is to survive and respond to changing market dynamics.
He compared this to fugi-film, which changed from a film-based company to a
camera manufacturer. This was solely due to market demands but they kept the
name “fugi film”. Interesting!
o Idea
II: Policy v. Implementation. South Africa spends an exorbitant amount of money
on its health systems, particularly its HIV programs, maternal mortality health
programs and so on, but the initiatives have been largely unsuccessful. Chris
is going to look into programs that he colleagues are working on and is going
to get back to me. The problem with me participating would mostly be ethical,
so he needs to get clearance from the board here in Durban and at the FXB
center at Harvard, from where the program is based.
o Idea
III: Contact the AIDS Foundation in Durban and ask them about potential topics
and implementation issues. I could ask them about doing the first question or
ask them for suggestions on pressing issues that need attention.
He said that is smart to address changing funding landscapes
or policy/implementation issues because they are pressing, current and need
people to research the issues. He said that either of those would be good fields
to go into for grad school or a career path.
On Saturday we are going to a soccer game at the huge world
cup stadium! Apparently it’s a pretty big game and will be fun. On Sunday I’m
going to church with my host family, which will be an experience for sure. Then
we are going to meet host-Grandma. Lets hope that my tummy is in good shape!
Ciao. Xo.
The view from the Windemere Apartments! I'll take it. The Indian Ocean is so warm and beautiful, but the currents are strong!
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