Adventure in Africa: Part II

I was fortunate to see many sides of South Africa during my short visit there – rural villages, big cities, towns, beautiful beaches, and an amazing wildlife conservation park. But for now I will focus on my time working with and visiting the Thanda After-School project. This project, mostly funded with sales from Thanda Zulu jewelry, provides necessary resources, skills, and activities to help empower children and individuals in rural Umtwalume, Kwa Zulu-Natal where 1 in 3 adults have HIV/AIDS and a third of the population is unemployed.

Riding in the small, white Toyota pickup truck on my first day out to the village I had my face pressed so hard against the glass, as if by doing this I could permanently imprint everything I was seeing into my brain – rolling, green hills, purple blooming Jacaranda trees, dust, vervet monkeys, men in the sugar cane fields with their machetes, tuberculosis clinics – good and bad I wanted to take it all in.

But seeing is just the beginning; for me Africa was a feast for the senses. Besides what I saw, I tasted, smelled, heard, and touched. I tasted sweet tropical fruits, Rooibos Tea – a favorite at home, and pap – not at all unlike polenta, and my very favorite, Rusks. I smelled beautiful flowers and the sugar cane being burned at night is a smell I will never forget. I heard monkeys screeching, women speaking their native tongue of Zulu, where clicking sounds are interspersed with words, and I will never forget the sound of the children laughing and singing. I dipped my feet into the Indian Ocean and shook hands with the men and women that I met in the village.

On my first day, I was able to spend time at the new sewing income generation project and although the women were a little shy and nervous at first to have a visitor, they warmed up quickly and in spite of many of them not speaking English and myself not speaking Zulu, we got on quite well - they even gave me a sewing lesson! This new project gives skills and training to previously unemployed individuals so that they can sew products which can then be sold to support themselves. Later that day I got to sit in on an art class, one of many after-school programs Thanda offers to its more than 300 and growing students in its program. Valuable skills such as being able to think creatively, offer constructive criticism to their classmates, and receive constructive criticism about their work were being learned. With a full, first day behind me I fell asleep early that night, but I did so with many thoughts going through my mind as I tried, in vain, to make sense of everything I had seen and experienced.

To be continued...