Life

As of April 6, I am in my last 6 months of Peace Corps service. On the one hand, that is a good thought: less than six months until I finish up, leave my village, and head off into the Great Unknown. On the other hand, there is so much left to be done here before I leave that it gets stressful to think about sometimes.

How did this happen? The past six weeks, since I wrote “Time”, have gone by in a blur. Perhaps this is because so much has happened to keep me busy; I haven’t had time to really sit back and digest it all. Soon after I wrote that entry, I was mugged (it truly IS a South African rite of passage—in fact, soon afterwards, my host brother Tumisho was also mugged), I went to Erica’s site for a fantastic carnival (at which I was a ridiculous clown), and then the first school term was over.

The end of each school term means a school holiday, ranging anywhere from 1 week to over 5 weeks. This March/April holiday was 2 ½ weeks long, and so just as school ended, I was off.

First, I went to Pretoria. I spend the first week of my vacation relaxing there, reacquainting myself with civilization (easy internet access, cinemas, nightlife) and doing work at the Peace Corps office. (I also got bed bugs from the backpackers, but that’s another story.)

Since late 2005, I have always had my near future mapped out. I would take the Foreign Service Exam during my Peace Corps Service (and nail it!), return home, pass my oral interview with flying colors (obviously!), and soon head off for a rewarding career in the State Department. Imagine my surprise when, looking at the State Department website at the Peace Corps office, I discovered that the Foreign Service Exam isn’t even being offered internationally this year. (Gulp!)

All of a sudden, I panicked. What to do? I could wait until I return home before taking the exam, but the process from exam until employment could take two years or more. Spending the next two years of my life after returning home, sleeping on my mother’s futon, waiting for the exam and employment procedure, would not be the best thing for my career.

At this point, my options are open. I’ve signed up for the GRE in June, although I haven’t started studying and don’t have any of the study guides yet….but, hey, I’m not worried. That’s one option. Or I could get a job working for another international (N)GO. Or I could end up somewhere I haven’t even considered yet. As I said above, when I leave South Africa, I am heading off into the Great Unknown.

Anyway, after Pretoria, I traveled eastward to Sabie, where I spent a fun weekend with about 60 other PCVs (and some of their visitors from the USA, like Erica’s dad for example). I ran the Longtom Half Marathon on a brisk morning, finishing in my goal time of 1:50. That night, Erica and I held an event that we had planned for the rest of our fellow PCVs: the Longtom-off. This was an idea that had been brewing for quite some time.

What exactly IS a Longtom-off, you ask? Let me explain. There are two groups of PCVs in South Africa: SA 14 and SA 15 (the 14th and 15th groups of PCVs to arrive in South Africa). SA 14, of which I am a member, arrived in August 2005. SA 15 arrived in July 2006. Our groups tend to have a minor obsession with lankiness, and it turns out that Tom Brownlee, from SA 14, and Tom Kulkinski, from SA 15, both just happen to be very lanky (or LONG, if you will). In the spirit of inter-group competition, Erica (who is SA 15) and I (SA 14) organized the Long-Tom-Off, and the night after the race, we held the contest. There were five grueling events (including a “Peeping Tom contest” and “Tom trivia”) which culminated in a lank-off—basically a competition to see who could prove themselves as the lankiest. Our reigning champion had been Dan Ondrusek, but that night Tom Kulkinski won the lank-off and, thus, the Longtom-off. My hat is off to you, Tom Kulkinski.

After the success of the Longtom-off, I was off….Bree, Nicolette, and I went to Johannesburg, aka Jo’Burg, aka Jozi, aka Murder City. (The last one is not an official nickname, but it might as well be) In almost 20 months in South Africa, I had still not been to Jo’Burg. Since arriving in South Africa, we had always been told to beware the Big Bad City. We were told the true statistic that any PCV who takes a public taxi into the Jo’Burg taxi rank will be mugged within an average of 45 minutes (in fact, it is now forbidden for any PCV to be at the Jo’Burg taxi rank—possibly the only place in South Africa we are strictly forbidden from going at any time). We saw Tsotsi. Plus, when my host brother James was shot in the neck in Hillbrow (one of the worst parts of Jo’Burg), I knew to take the threat seriously.

Bree, Nicolette, and I did NOT take a taxi to the Jo’Burg taxi rank. Instead we took public taxis to the Jo’Burg airport (O.R. Tambo International) and got picked up by the backpackers we were going to stay at. That night we decided to go out to the Market Theater in Newtown, so we had a private taxi pick us up from the backpackers and drive us there. It turns out that the driver didn’t know exactly where he was going and got lost, driving us through the outskirts of HILLBROW! Yikes. I instinctively locked my door and slouched down in my seat as we drove through. He did finally end up getting us to our destination, though, safe and sound.

During the day, Jo’Burg is lively, crowded, and busy. But at night, the streets in the city center empty out and it becomes shady, and dangerous. Driving through that first night, we saw Jo’Burg at its shadiest. I asked myself, why did you come here?? But the next day, in the sunlight, things looked much better. Jo’Burg is actually a very lively city during the day, and downtown Jo’Burg is the only place in South Africa that reminds me of New York City. Jo’Burg itself is huge and sprawling; the downtown is only one small part of the city. On that day, the backpackers organized to take us to the Apartheid Museum and to Soweto.

The Apartheid Museum is an amazing place. It’s easy to forget about the past when walking around the fancy malls and quiet suburbs of South Africa, but the past is always there. The Apartheid Museum confronts you with South Africa’s history—all of that ugliness just stares you right in the face. I highly recommend it to anyone who ever visits this incredible country.

After leaving the museum, we continued on to Soweto. SOWETO….the SO-uth WE-st TO-wnships. The place is the beating heart of black life in South Africa. I’d imagined the place for such a long time, and going there was truly an experience. Driving through Diepkloof, where we entered the townships, I was surprised to see nice, big, brick-and-tile houses. These were the “suburbs” of Soweto, the nicer part where you move once you have some money and are out of poverty. But soon we were driving into the heart of the township. To be quite honest, Soweto looks similar to so many of the other townships I’ve seen in South Africa, but the scale of the place is huge….it just goes on forever.

We made some interesting stops along the way in Soweto, including the Hector Pieterson memorial and museum, Nelson Mandela’s old house, and the Regina Mundi Catholic Church, but for me the most memorable part of the entire place was going to an informal settlement. An informal settlement is just an area where extremely poor people, who cannot afford to live anywhere else, settle and build their shacks. The place we went, the Motsoaledi Informal Settlement, was just a series of tin shacks stretching far into the distance. The poor residents of the settlement sat around in chairs, or on the floor, or walked around the dirt and mud streets. The tin shacks stretched on into the distance. I’m sure that this was quite a sight for most tourists, but to me it just reminded me of a poorer version of my village.

Ordinarily I’m turned off by what you could call “human zoos”—places you visit where you can look at people who might seem strange, quaint, or barbaric to you, where you can take pictures of them. “Look at their primitive culture! Isn’t it just so odd?” That whole thing does not appeal to me at all. Thankfully, this was not like that. The residents of the Motsoaledi Informal Settlement came together and decided to find a way to bring some income into their community. So they started offering tours to anyone who wanted to visit…that was what we did. We were shown around the settlement by a man (I forget his name) who actually lives there. The whole thing is an income-generating project for them, and I really respect that.

Bree, Nicolette, and I were not alone…there were 5 other people from our backpackers who were also with us. We walked around the settlement, and the others did the usual tourist thing, looking around with awe, taking pictures. As for us, we spoke to the tour guide for a while, and then he discovered that we can speak South African languages. (Bree and I can speak Shangaan; Nicolette can speak isiNdebele) This really impressed him for some reason; I guess most people who take the tour don’t speak South African languages. Townships like Soweto are filled with people who might be from all parts of the country; they are melting-pots of languages where people have to communicate with one another. Many people in townships can probably speak quite a few South African languages. The tour guide was very impressed with my Shangaan, so every time he saw a Shangaan person, or someone who could speak Shangaan, he would call them over and tell them to talk to me. They would immediately become surprised that I could communicate with them. This guy speaks Shangaan? I could see the incredulity in their faces—but it was something I’m used to, because I get reactions like that all of the time.

So as we walked around the settlement, I was paraded out, introduced to lots of people. It was amusing to see how this affected everyone. Even the other backpackers with us were amused. I don’t even know that much Shangaan, but after living here for so long, I have been able to learn to speak Shangaan with a Shangaan accent, and I think that was the most surprising thing for people. By the way I speak, people seem to think that I know a lot more than I actually do. (If they speak to me for long enough, they soon discover how misleading my Shangaan accent really is, when I have to shrug my head and say “A ndzi twisisi”—I don’t understand.)

There were also lots of children in the settlement. Small kids, used to seeing lots of strange foreigners. The children in my village are very shy at first, especially the young ones. But these little kids, they just ran up to us, hugged our legs, reached up to hold our hands, walked with us. It surprised me. But, in retrospect, it shouldn’t be that surprising. These little kids have seen white people walking around their homes every day, they have gotten used to it, and they know that these strangers will play with them—they go looking for the attention, which is often lacking at home. Some of the older kids asked us for money, which is also not surprising. I refused to give them any money, which is ALSO not surprising.

As we left the settlement, the tour guide told us how much he enjoyed having us on his tour. He said it was the best tour he’d done so far this year, because it was the first time that he had people that could, and were willing to, speak to the locals. Usually tourists will come in, take pictures, and leave. We actually spoke to the locals, greeted them, didn’t treat them like animals in a zoo…and it had an effect. It made our tour guide’s day, and it brought big smiles to everyone we spoke to. We only spent 20 minutes in the settlement, but that is the biggest thing I will remember about my visit to Soweto.

We spent another day in Jo’Burg, but nothing else was as noteworthy as the visit to Soweto. We went out that night to the very young, trendy Melville area. The next morning we got a rental car and drove to Sandton, which is an upper-class, “fancier” part of Jo’Burg. Then we drove into the city center and walked around Newtown. We also had a very shady drive through sketchy parts of downtown Jo’Burg on our way from Newtown to the airport. (I was going to get off at the airport; Bree and Nicolette would continue on to Pretoria) I’m not scared of Jo’Burg the way I was before, and I am happy that I had the chance to go and see the place for itself. I’m looking forward to going back sometime—taking all precautions, of course.

From Jo’Burg, I flew to Cape Town. The flight itself is about 2 hours long; it cost me 1000 Rand round-trip ($140 USD)…not bad.

Cape Town was beautiful, as always. This was my third trip to the “Mother City” in less than a year. I was there for five days, during which time I ran another half-marathon, the Two Oceans Half Marathon. The Two Oceans is an amazing, beautiful, and very well-run race. The day after the race, I climbed Table Mountain again….but doing the climb after running two half-marathons (and only one day after finishing one) might not have been the best idea. My legs were sore!

In Cape Town I did the “tourist” thing—in addition to Table Mountain, I went to Cape Point and to Stellenbosch, saw the breathtaking views along Chapman’s Peak Drive, hung out at the Waterfront and ate at fancy restaurants. I saw the movie “300.” Cait, Meagan, and Jillian found a hole-in-the-wall Mexican Restaurant (possibly the only one in the entire country of South Africa) where we all ate Mexican food that reminded us of home. Jenny, Erica, and I went to the Buena Vista Social Café. I went with Erica and her dad to The Africa Café. We drank Dr. Peppers and Cherry Cokes at the only place any of us had ever found them in South Africa.

It was a nice trip, a break from life in South Africa. But soon it was over, and I flew back to Jo’Burg. From the airport, I found a way to get to the backpackers in Pretoria for only 23 Rand ($3.20 USD) using public taxis—otherwise I would have had to pay 250 Rand for a private taxi. I felt very good about my ingenuity, although it was actually my friend Eric who had found the public taxi route to the airport. The next day I returned home to my village, and back into my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

During the past 2 ½ weeks back at site, I haven’t gotten too much done at school. But then again, as I mentioned in “Time”, my previous entry, I wasn’t expecting to. I’ve only given one workshop so far; I’ve also observed some classes and I did two demonstration lessons. At school, that’s about it. At Makgubuketja Primary School, where the teachers don’t like me, I have given the principal an ultimatum: sometime during the next week or so she is going to call a staff meeting and ask the educators if they want me to come into their classes and help them, or not. (So far, the influence of bad teachers has really gotten in my way) Either they’re going to start cooperating with me more, or I’m not going to go there anymore except to give workshops occasionally. We’ll see what happens.

Things have been going better with VAST-related issues, however. After having to make some last-minute changes to my proposal, I re-submitted it and got approval!!! All I had to do was sign some consent forms and get a member of my committee to sign an acknowledgement form. I did this last week, and so all of my VAST work, in regards to the proposal, is done! Now that I’m approved, all I have to do is wait until the $5,000 USD (35,800 Rand) is deposited into my account. Then the real work begins. (I’ve posted some excerpts from my VAST proposal on the blog, below)

Erica and I have also had some very productive meetings since returning from Cape Town. We went to the Coca Cola headquarters in Polokwane, met with the manager of Special Events, and got his agreement to attend our events with a Coca Cola truck, stage, and free Coca Cola for our guests. Then, we met a woman named Rachel Sethosa, who runs an HIV/AIDS NGO in Polokwane. She is an amazing woman…dedicated, hard-working and HIV-positive since 1989. Let me repeat that….this woman has been HIV POSITIVE for EIGHTEEN YEARS. In a country like South Africa, that’s almost unheard of. It’s amazing, and she has agreed to come to our VAST events and speak. I am so excited for people in my village to hear that HIV does not equal misery and death.

Our recent meeting with the Red Cross was just as productive. Not only will they be at our events, but they will be bringing HIV Ambassadors (HIV-positive speakers), and they will also be bringing HIV counselors to assist the one HIV counselor who works at the local clinic in my village. This is going to be VERY helpful, since one person alone would not be able to administer over 600 HIV tests in one month, especially on busy days where there might be a rush or a long line of people to test.

All of these meetings have been very beneficial, but they have meant time away from my schools, since meetings are usually on school days. But I’m not complaining…I’m getting more done at these meetings than I would at the schools, anyway.

Obviously, scheduling issues often cause things to be slow at school and tend to get in the way of me getting a lot of work done. But, recently, there is also something else: death. When a teacher dies, usually all of the teachers from the Circuit go to the memorial service. Twice now, in two weeks, teachers have left school early to go to the memorial service of a fellow teacher. These teachers who have been passing away aren’t teachers at my school or in my village, but two deaths in two weeks are a lot: death seems to be in the air.

And it isn’t just that. Two weeks ago I found out that Marcus, my host father from Moletji, my training village where I lived from August – October 2005, passed away. He was 59 years old. So, last weekend, I went (and Erica went with me) back to Moletji for the first time since I was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on October 13, 2005. It was a surreal experience. The house where I had lived was full of people, and there were many more sitting in a tent outside. I was not able to attend the funeral (it started at 7am and I wouldn’t have been able to get there so early in the morning) but I am happy that I was able to go back and visit the family. I expressed my condolences to my Moletji host mother, saw a lot of family and family friends from the village whom I had not seen in 1 ½ years. And then I left again.

That same week, I found out that my grand-uncle (my “Chotai Dada”) had passed away in Toronto. While it wasn’t surprising to me, since he was over 90 years old, it was deeply saddening. And then only a few days ago I heard that one of my sister’s good friends (a great kid, whom I had also known for many years) was killed in a motorcycle accident near his home. It seems as if death is everywhere, and even my life at home cannot escape it. Now my Aunt (my beloved “Phuppoojaan”) in Toronto is very sick as well, and I am praying that she gets better soon. There’s been too much death recently.

And that’s the way it goes….life goes on, for most of us. For me, life will continue as it has. We’ll see if things get busier at my schools. I know for a fact that things will get busier as I get deeper and deeper into the planning of my VAST event. These next few months are critical for the success of the event. I’ll be busy studying for the GREs, trying to work at school, and running around to all sorts of meetings for VAST.

I’m reminded of a quote I read in a recent issue of The Economist. In an article about Russian fatalism, an interviewed Russian said something to the extent of, “Life is dangerous. Nobody has ever survived it.”

As I’ve said before, a Peace Corps Volunteer’s work is never done.

My VAST Proposal

Below are excerpts from my (recently successful!!!) VAST proposal. They will hopefully give you an idea of what the situation in my village is like and what we have planned to address it.

“TITHEMBHENI TSHAMAHANSI” HIV TESTING DRIVE PROJECT

Summary

Members of the “Tithembheni Tshamahansi” (“Trust yourself Tshamahansi”) HIV Testing Drive Project (TTTDP) have seen the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi Village and the surrounding area. We recognize that people in the village are unwilling to acknowledge the presence of HIV/AIDS in the community and in their own lives, and therefore do not go to the local clinic to receive the free HIV/AIDS test. We feel that it is vitally important for people to acknowledge that the disease does affect them personally, and to begin talking about HIV/AIDS in the community. We feel that it is important for community members to know their status and become proactive about their own health.

This project aims to address both of these concerns. Throughout a series of events in Tshamahansi Village, TTTDP hopes to educate over 1,000 members of the community and encourage open dialogue about HIV/AIDS, leading up to a month-long HIV-testing drive at the Tshamahansi Clinic.

We intend on pursuing four separate activities to help stimulate dialogue about HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi Village and motivate people to receive the HIV/AIDS test. These activities are as follows:

Women’s Beading Group:

A women’s beading group will create beaded HIV/AIDS pins which will be given to the local clinic and passed out free to anyone who receives the HIV/AIDS test at the Tshamahansi Clinic during the “month-of-testing” drive.

Parade / Kick-Off Event:

On the Saturday before the “month-of-testing” drive, we will have a parade in Tshamahansi Village and a kick-off event to spark interest in the community, provide information about HIV/AIDS and healthy living, and explain the testing drive to the community. This event will also serve as a motivation to the community to receive the free HIV/AIDS test.

“Month-Of-Testing” Drive:

For four (4) weeks, community members will be encouraged to receive the free HIV/AIDS test at the Tshamahansi Clinic. Once they receive their results, they will receive a prize bag that will include a number of gifts, including the beaded pin made by the women’s beading group.

Final Celebration Function:

At the completion of the “month-of-testing” drive, we will hold a large celebration for everyone who received the free test at the clinic during the month. Admission will be reserved to those wearing their beaded pin. This celebration will celebrate their great achievement and bravery, and will include a free meal, games and activities with small prizes, and a raffle with large prizes.

Through the many facets of the project, TTTDP believes that we will reach over 1,000 people in the community, and begin to bring about a culture of open dialogue about HIV/AIDS.

Statement of Need

The focus of our project will be on Tshamahansi Village, although anyone from neighboring Magongoa Village will also be welcome to attend and participate. Tshamahansi Village is located in Mogalakwena Municipality, Waterberg District, Limpopo Province. Tshamahansi is situated 18km north of Mokopane, the nearest town. With a population of 13,393 people living in 2,682 households, Tshamahansi is the biggest village in the Mogalakwena Municipality and among the biggest in the Waterberg District. Almost all people living in Tshamahansi are of the Tsonga and Sotho tribes, with small numbers of others. The primary languages spoken are Xitsonga (91%) and SePedi(8%).

In addition to its large size, Tshamahansi is also a very poor village. According to Census 2001 data, out of all working-age adults, only 21% are employed. The rest are either unemployed (22%) or not economically active (57%). The “best and brightest” usually leave Tshamahansi forever, making futures for themselves in the large cities of the Gauteng Province. Among all adults 20 years of age or older in Tshamahansi, only 44% have completed primary school education or further; the rest either have no schooling or left school before completing primary school. 60% of the population has no monthly income, so a sizable portion of the community receives their income from old-age pension grants and child support grants provided by the government.

Tshamahansi, on the whole, is a fairly “young” community, with 37% of the population under the age of 15, and only 28% over the age of 34. It is telling that the number of children in the village is so high; many parents who move to Gauteng leave their children with their elderly parents. Since the number of elderly people is not very high, many of them are placed in charge of 2, 3, or more of their grandchildren while the children’s parents work in Gauteng. Due to this situation, many youth grow up without a strong parental figure or positive role model. These youth become influenced by negative factors and begin engaging in risky sexual activities at a young age, without thinking about the consequences of their actions. These dangerous practices give HIV/AIDS the opportunity to spread among community members at an alarming rate. Although the disease is spreading in Tshamahansi, people still do not talk about HIV/AIDS or take responsibility for their actions. In this highly at-risk area, TTTDP believes that a large-scale HIV education and testing campaign is vitally important.

Information about HIV/AIDS reaches people primarily through schools (where teachers often have outdated information or unprogressive opinions) and through media like television. Many residents still hold fallacious beliefs about the spread of HIV/AIDS, its effect on the body, the effectiveness of ARVs, and the necessity of the HIV/AIDS test for those at-risk. Even those few who have correct information still engage in risky behaviors; this is especially true of youth. Many youth can recite the causes of HIV/AIDS, the ABCs (“Abstain-Be Faithful-Condomise”), and other information about the disease, but they do not create the link between these concepts and their own lives and behaviors. This PCV trained a group of 14 youth (7 male, 7 female) from the two high schools in Tshamahansi Village between August and November 2006 to be Life Skills Peer Educators. These youths had been singled out by their teachers as the “best of the best,” but many of them lacked vital knowledge and held outdated opinions about HIV/AIDS before the Life Skills Training began. Considering that these were the “best of the best,” the evidence is clear that there is an urgent need for information about HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi.

To date, large-scale programs and activities have not been developed in the area of HIV/AIDS education in Tshamahansi Village. As a result, myths about the disease circulate in the village, and HIV/AIDS is a topic that is off-limits in most conversation. Most people are unwilling to go to the Tshamahansi Clinic to receive free testing; on average, only 30 to 40 HIV/AIDS tests are conducted in the village each month, and that is the mandatory test that is given to pregnant women. The results of these tests are that about 10 tests per month, or 25% of the results, turn out to be positive.

Most people in the village are unwilling to go to the Tshamahansi Clinic to get tested for a number of reasons. One reason is that many people fear that other people will gossip and spread rumors if they go to the clinic to get tested. Many people are afraid of the test itself; they fear that the needles will be painful and the test will be very difficult to go through. People also worry that others will discover their status, which, if positive, can be very detrimental to the person’s reputation in the village. But most importantly, people are unwilling to get tested because they are afraid they will be positive. A number of people have told me that, “If I find out I am positive, I will die sooner because of the stress of knowing than if I had never found out.”

We believe that being tested for HIV/AIDS is the first step towards acknowledging the disease, as well as a crucial step for those who may be positive to obtain the support they need. Through education and other incentives, we hope to motivate a large number of people to get tested at the local clinic over a period of four (4) weeks. If we can motivate hundreds of people to go in for the test, the risk of rumors spreading throughout the village will be eliminated. Also, through testing, people will gain valuable information about HIV/AIDS and learn about positive life choices that will help them to lead healthier lives. The message of practicing abstinence and, especially, of being faithful to one’s partner will be stressed throughout the entire project. In addition, if people do find out that they are positive, they will be given the medication and support that they need to help them live healthy lives. Finally, if a large number of people know their status in the village, they can serve as ambassadors in the community, espousing the benefits of testing and encouraging others to be tested. This could possibly serve as the stimulus for a dialogue about HIV/AIDS that has never existed in Tshamahansi Village.

Goals and Objectives

Goal

We hope that by increasing the number of people getting tested for HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi, we will make the process of getting tested for HIV/AIDS a non-threatening, acceptable practice among its residents. We hope that this will inspire a culture of open dialogue about HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi.

Objectives

1. We will provide 600 – 1000 people in the community with education about HIV/AIDS and healthy living, stressing the importance of abstinence and being faithful to one’s partner.

2. We will motivate 400 – 600 people in the community to receive a free confidential HIV/AIDS test during our “month-of-testing”.

3. We will provide the stimulus to make the process of being tested for HIV/AIDS a non-threatening, acceptable practice in Tshamahansi Village.

4. We will teach 8 – 10 unemployed, middle-aged women the skill of beading and will empower them through the formation of a beading group.

Beneficiaries

The parade, kick-off event, and month of testing will be open to anyone who wishes to participate. However, the target audience will be those most at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, males and females ages 15-45. The kick-off parade and event will be open to the general public, but admission to the final celebration will be limited to those wearing their beaded HIV/AIDS pins, which will be given out at the test. We are hoping to have 600-1000 people attend the kick-off celebration, and 400-600 to go through with the testing over the course of the four weeks. In addition, 8 – 10 women will learn beading in our women’s beading group.

Project Design and Action Plan

Women’s Beading Group

The first phase of this project will be to form a group of 8-10 women who will make beaded HIV/AIDS pins. These pins will be Tshamahansi-specific (i.e. they will have “Tshamahansi” or something of the sort written on them). The pins will then be given to the local clinic to pass out to people who are tested. The target group for beading is unemployed, single mothers. This will allow for income-generation, skills-building, and empowerment. Once the group is formed, we will find a venue and set up a schedule for beading. We will bring in a beading expert from the community to teach the women how to make the pins. After 600 pins have been produced, the women will be paid for their labor (R15/pin).

Completed beaded ribbons will be stored securely at the Tshamahansi Clinic. Each individual in the group will make her own ribbons and will be paid individually, in Rands. The money received can either be used as personal income for the women and their families, or can be re-used for the purchase of more beads to continue beading for additional income.

Parade / Kick-Off Event

In order to elicit support from the community and motivate members to participate, we will hold a parade and kick-off event during either the last Saturday in July or the first Saturday in August. We will create posters to advertise for the event, which will be hung up in local tuck shops, shebeens / bottle stores, churches, schools, busy intersections along the taxi route, water taps, Induna residences, the soccer grounds, and the clinic.

Parade

The parade will begin at one end of the village (either at the taxi rank or at Induna Baloyi residence) and will finish at the soccer grounds, the venue for the event. The total distance is approximately 5km. We will gather 50+ people to walk in the parade, and hire a local DJ from the village to provide music and a microphone, which will be transported on a donkey cart. We will use the microphone to advertise the event and encourage people to join us in the parade and attend the event. Also, we will make giant HIV/AIDS ribbons out of poster-board and sticks, which we will wave in the air to attract attention and to indicate that the day’s event will be HIV/AIDS-themed in nature.

Kick-Off Event

The kick-off event will begin directly after the parade. Through advertisements around the community, word-of-mouth, and the parade, we are hoping to attract 600-1000 people to the event. In addition, in the weeks before the event, we will speak to various groups in the community, give them handouts, and encourage them to tell others. These groups will include high schools, churches, pension days, traditional leadership structures, the Ward Committee, and others.

The program will promote the “Month-Of-Testing,” and include various speakers who will emphasize the importance of knowing your status and acknowledging the presence of HIV/AIDS in Tshamahansi Village. A representative from the clinic will talk about support services available and ensure confidentiality in the test results.

We are hoping to bring an HIV-ambassador to the event to speak about living with AIDS to show people that life can indeed go on after they find out they are positive. Also, because many people are very afraid of the test itself, the PCV (Omar) will publicly be tested in front of everyone to show exactly what happens during the test. Pamphlets will be available to all guests, which will include information about the “month-of-testing” and educational information about HIV/AIDS. These pamphlets will be written in English, SePedi, and Xitsonga to allow for maximum understanding. Information in the pamphlets, as well as information provided by all of the guest speakers, will stress the importance of abstinence and being faithful to one’s partner.

The event will also include entertainment for all guests. The same DJ from the parade will provide music, and we will have HIV/AIDS ribbon face-painting, along with some other small games/contests with small, inexpensive prizes. We will also try to find any local groups available to provide free (In-Kind) entertainment, such as traditional dance troupes, musicians, etc. Punch will be available free of charge, and we will invite local vendors to sell food.

Month of Testing Drive

Directly following the kick-off event, we will begin 4 weeks of testing. During this period, we hope that 400-600 people from the community will be tested for HIV/AIDS at the Tshamahansi Clinic. As an incentive to be tested, participants will be given a prize bag, including:

§ A beaded HIV/AIDS ribbon made by the women’s beading group
§ A “Certificate of Bravery”
§ Condoms
§ Candy/sweets
§ An information card to pass along to a friend (written in English / SePedi / Xitsonga)
§ An invitation / directions to the final celebration
§ A blank raffle card for the final celebration

We will decorate the clinic during the month, and create a large banner advertising the events that will be hung on the clinic gate. Many of the decorations placed in and around the clinic will stress the importance of abstinence and being faithful to one’s partner.

Final Celebration Event

Following the 4 weeks of testing, we will hold a final celebration function to reward everyone who participated in the testing. Admission will be reserved to people wearing the beaded HIV/AIDS pins they were given in their HIV/AIDS test prize bags.

The event will celebrate the huge accomplishment of the people tested, and include motivational speakers who will speak about the importance of acknowledging the disease and being proud of knowing your status. These speakers will stress the importance of abstinence and remaining faithful to one’s partner; speakers will encourage guests to practice these ideas to stay healthy. A representative from the clinic will speak about support services available for those who tested positive. Pamphlets, written in English / SePedi / Xitsonga, will be passed out to people. They will include information about healthy living and support services available, and will encourage open dialogue within the community.

Entertainment will be provided by a local DJ, and we will provide a variety of games and activities. There will also be a raffle with money donated from businesses in Mokopane and organizations in the United States. People who were tested could bring in their raffle tickets from their prize bags to enter the raffle free-of-charge, and stand a chance of winning one of five monetary prizes between R500 – R1000. Free lunch will also be provided to everyone in attendance.

Sustainability

Obviously, the event itself is not sustainable – funds for repeated testing drives and celebrations would be unavailable, unrealistic, and unnecessary. However, the event itself is designed to create a sustainable change in Tshamahansi, namely a culture of open dialogue about HIV/AIDS. The sight of 400 – 600 people from the village going to the clinic to receive the free test would pique attention in people who might otherwise have dismissed those who receive a free HIV/AIDS test as promiscuous or irresponsible. In addition, the act of testing itself will lose its stigma, and the hope is that those who have been tested (especially those who test negative) will disseminate useful information about testing throughout the village, taking pride in knowing their status and encouraging others to do the same.

The event will have many beneficial and positive effects for the community as a whole, but there will be a large number of people (approximately 150 if current statistics can be extrapolated) who will discover that they are HIV+ during the course of the testing drive. TTTDP strongly believes that, after the month-of-testing and final celebration are over, support must be provided to all community members who received the free HIV/AIDS test at the Tshamahansi Clinic during the testing drive and discovered their HIV+ status. The Tshamahansi Clinic already has support in place for HIV+ individuals; they provide counseling and referrals to the Mokopane Hospital for further treatment and ARVs. When physical conditions worsen for HIV+ individuals in Tshamahansi, the clinic also provides access to Home-Based Care.

There is also a garden on the clinic grounds which all HIV+ individuals are welcome to use, free-of-charge. The clinic has some gardening equipment and access to water, so any HIV+ individual could easily show up at the clinic, use its garden, and grow nutritious food to feed him or herself, free-of-charge. According to the “Sister-in-Charge” at the Tshamahansi Clinic, this would also be beneficial in that HIV+ individuals would be in close proximity to the clinic and could be continuously counseled and monitored to ensure that they are taking their medication and eating nutritiously. Also according to the “Sister-in-Charge”, although there may not be immediate, direct benefits to those who have discovered their HIV+ status, the large number of HIV tests conducted during the testing drive will serve to improve the HIV statistics for Tshamahansi Village; this new information could serve to buttress requests by the clinic to the Department of Health for additional assistance in Tshamahansi in the form of additional HIV counselors or even a hospice in the village.

In addition, the group of 14 Life Skills Peer Educator that this PCV trained in 2006 has already received permission to start a Support Group in Tshamahansi; they have named it “Together We Can” (TWC). This group will also serve to support and assist those community members who may have discovered their HIV+ status during the testing drive. At the final celebration, members from TWC will invite any participants in the audience to attend TWC’s sessions and receive support.

The women who make the beads will have learned a valuable income-generating skill, and the hope is that they will continue to bead in order to earn some income.

And, finally, all of the members of this committee are living in Tshamahansi and will have been exposed to proposal-writing and management of large-scale events and funds during the course of the planning and implementation of this event. As a result, they will have the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to design and manage their own life skills projects in the future.

Done!

Well, I did it. For this March/April break I set myself two goals:

1. I would run the Longtom Half-Marathon in 1 hour 50 minutes.

2. Seven days after the Longtom Half-Marathon, I would run the Two Oceans Half-Marathon. My cumulative time would be less than 4 hours.

Bear in mind that, when making these goals for myself, I had only run one half-marathon in my life, and I hadn't even run the whole thing! (last year I finished Longtom in 2 hours 17 minutes) So I considered them to be pretty substantial, yet reasonable, goals.

Well, let me give you the results of my races:

1. Longtom: exactly one week ago, I ran with about 55 of my fellow PCVs (see picture above.....yes, Tom aka Hot Dog Man ran in a diaper and bonnet). I finished in 1 hour 50 minutes 41 seconds....achieving my goal-time!

2. Two Oceans: this morning at 6am the race began in the beautiful city of Cape Town. I ran along with ELEVEN THOUSAND people running the half-marathon....it's an amazing sight to see that many people running at once. (there were also eight thousand ultra-marathon runners who ran the 56 km Two Oceans Ultra Marathon today). I arrived at the start line this morning still a bit sore from Longtom last weekend, but I had set myself this goal and I intended to achieve it. I finished the race today in just under 1 hour 55 minutes. So, that puts my cumulative time for the two races at 3 hours 45 minutes, well under my goal-time!

So I've achieved what I wanted to (in terms of running, at least) this holiday. I'm happy that I was able to do Longtom to benefit the KLM Foundation (see below for more info about KLM). And I'm just as happy that I was able to travel across the country to run the World's Most Beautiful Race. So far, it's been a helluva vacation! (more on that next time)