Project Amandla - Books For Africa

As many of you are aware, I participated in a project called Project Amandla. Project Amandla is a partnership between Peace Corps Volunteers serving in South Africa and the non-profit, Books for Africa. Amandla means power in Zulu -- any child that has access to books can become powerful beyond measure. When I first heard about this project, I immediately thought of two places that I wanted to implement libraries: Amangwe Village and Crossroads Teen Centre, both of which I hold very dear to my heart. This project allowed me to have access to over 1,400 books.  

Crossroads Teen Centre Library

My primary organization, Crossroads, had a library that was already established, however, it was in dire need of more reading materials and a makeover.

Crossroads Library before Project Amandla - Books For Africa

The teens that visit Crossroads normally come from very rural areas and often have no access to proper books. Through Books For Africa, we were able to add approximately 500 teen, adult, and educational books for the centre. Recently, I walked in the library one Friday afternoon and one of the teens had their feet kicked back on the table and was deep into a book. This made all of the hard work worth it.

Crossroads Library After Project Amandla - Books For Africa

Crossroads Library After Project Amandla - Books For Africa

Amangwe Village Toy Library

I started visiting Ethembeni Care Centre on World AIDS Day in December 2012. I immediately fell in love with the centre and I have continued to go and visit with the patients and the children. Visiting these individuals has become one of the most meaningful parts of my service and I have obtained friendships that will last a lifetime. I quickly noticed that the children had no form of educational support or entertainment, except a TV. It is extremely disadvantageous to these children to be out of school during their treatment. I felt strongly that these children were in need of books and would benefit from Project Amandla. I knew these children need access to books, but I also wanted the books to reach as many youth as possible. So, I discovered that Ethembeni Care Centre is within an organization known as Amangwe Village. Amangwe Village currently has a toy library that benefits 70 crèches (early childhood development centres). This library is comprised of only basic toys and very few books. Once a month, the representatives from each crèche gather together and exchange toys. When I approached them about adding books to their library, they agreed that monthly, books would be rotated throughout Ethembeni Care Centre for the children, which was my biggest priority. This allows the children receiving treatment to have access to English books and for the books to reach a large amount of children throughout these 70 crèches.

Book handover to Amangwe Village

I donated these books to Amangwe in memory of my dear friend Bongeka whom I met in 2012 at Ethembeni Care Centre. She was the first person I told about Project Amandla and she was so excited for the books to come to Amangwe. She was constantly asking when they were coming and how she could help. Ngiyakumbula usisi wami.

Bongeka and myself

Ntambanana Rural Library

At both Crossroads' and Amangwe’s library, space was limited and they were not able to keep all 733 books that they were allocated. So, my friend Natalie helped me find another location that would benefit from the remaining 600ish books.

Ntambanana is beautifully located about 15 minutes outside of Empangeni. They have a beautiful library that was built by the district. The only thing is the shelves are pretty empty. These books will help fill the shelves and educate the youth of Ntambanana. The staff and community members seemed really excited and I am confident they will take great care of all of the books.

Handover of books to Ntambanana Rural Library. Here Bennie and I are pictured with the Inkosi (chief) of Ntambanana, the library manager, and an Ntambanana counselor

One of my favorite parts of this project is that you guys were a HUGE part of it. I would not have been able to do it without the monetary support of my friends and family from home. For some silly reason, the way the project was set up, I was unable to see everyone who donated unless they specifically wrote that I could see their name. Below is a list of individuals that Peace Corps reported to me as donors. If you donated and were not on this list please let me know so I can thank you! I apologize for taking so long to post pictures, but I just finished the libraries the week before I left. Thanks again to everyone not only for their monetary support on this project, but for all of your support over the last two years. I could not ask for a better family and group of friends. Love you always.

John and Lisa Dewitt
John and Darcy Edwards
Joey, Chantell, Dizzle, Aspen, Clayton, and Logan
Scott, Melissa, Caden, Hannah, Jaxon, and Allison Edwards
Jory, Kimbo, BayLeigh, and McKenzie Killam
Richard and Wendi McFadden
Morgan Kay Marietti

Crossroads Olympics

So I get stupidly excited for the Olympics and obviously we recently had the Sochi Winter Olympics. I was fortunate enough to watch a limited amount of exciting hockey but was able to catch mostly everything else, including the not so exciting curling. I think maybe the broadcasters were a little confused on the exciting sports because I saw way more curling than hockey. At Crossroads I decided that it would be fun to do a mini Olympics. I informed about 40 teens that we were going to do this Olympics activity, but I first wanted to know if any of them knew where the current Olympics were taking place. Not one teen in the room knew. This was interesting to me but I guess I can understand because South Africa does not participate in the Winter Olympics.

I told the teens that they had until a certain day to come up with a team of 4 and have a team name. They would need to make a poster for the “Opening Ceremonies” to show off their team and they would receive points for it. We ended up having 4 teams, equaling 16 participants and a number of spectators.

Our first activity was of course the “Opening Ceremonies” the teams were announced and their posters were judge by Dan (another PCV), Bennie my counterpart, and myself. One teen, Sisana, from Crossroads volunteered to help be a judge and she was very helpful. We had judge cards like they use to do in the Olympics with a score of 10, 9, or 8. That part was really funny and the teens got a kick out of it. Thanks to Dan for the great suggestion!

Our second activity was to have the teams blow up a balloon one at a time until it popped, then the next teammate would go and they would continue until all of their balloons were popped. This was exciting, very noisy, and scary!

The third activity involved each team getting an initial clue. This clue would lead them to a place within the teen centre, which would then lead them to another place. They would continue with finding clues until all 11 clues were solved. For example, one clue said “open this and you can get lost in another world,” they would find this next clue in the library. The teens really enjoyed this activity and it really got their minds working together.

The fourth activity was a basic push up contest. They were able to pick one person from their team to do the most push-ups in one minute. They were all very noisy cheering each other on.

The fifth activity was a bit challenging. They were instructed to push a roll of toilet paper across the room and back; but the catch was they had to use a plunger (new of course) without using their hands. Once they got back to their line the next person would go until everyone in their team had participated. This was hilarious, frustrating for them, and so fun to watch! It was neat to see how they were trying to figure out the best way to do it. It was really cool to watch them all encouraging each other and laughing hysterically.

The last activity was our “Closing Ceremonies.” I had made Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards and they each had a treat on them. They also received “roadies” (points used in the teen centre tuck shop” for participating.

It was a super fun activity and it was perfect for a Friday activity. It encouraged positive communication with their team, leadership, dedication to their team, and positive sportsmanship. It also made them more aware of the Winter Olympics that were happening in Sochi.

I myself have been keeping busy with athletics. With several of my friends, I participated in my first long swim in the Midmar Mile Race. This is the world’s largest open water swim. It was very hard and very choppy but I am glad I did it and finished it. I also participated in KwaZulu Natal’s most beautiful Marathon and Half Marathon in Peitermartizburg. I did the half marathon with Bennie and I was really happy about it. Then we were silly enough to do another half marathon in Richards Bay the following week.

Things are coming to an end at my site and I have one more book handover on Saturday and then all of my projects are closed up. I will write a separate blog post about the libraries next week and I am so happy with how they have turned out!

I have 11 days until I get to see my daddy and my mommy and I couldn’t be more excited. Other than being excited to see everyone I am experiencing more emotions than I thought possible to experience at one time: nervous, sad, happy, anxious, terrified, and a bunch of others that I just simply can’t explain. I look forward to the next chapter of my life and so thankful to have had such an amazing experience in this one.

December Holiday

When I arrived in South Africa and was in Pre-Service Training, the thought of ever making it to my Close of Service (COS) Conference was so unreal and so very far away. Well, COS conference has come and gone and I can’t believe it. 22 of the original 36 PCV’s in SA25 came together to discuss the logistics of closing up our sites and preparing mentally for going home.

COS conference really put it into perspective that I only have a few months left in service. Actually, today is my two-year mark of arriving in this beautiful country. I can’t believe that I only have two short months until I become a Return Peace Corps Volunteer. What a journey this has been!

After COS Emily, Julie, Dan, and myself took off to the Drakensberg Mountains to do some hiking in Lesotho. We spent the first night in a beautiful backpacker on the foothills of the Drakensbergs. I was ecstatic to see some mountains since I am use to the small hills of Empangeni. The next day we took off for Lesotho. We drove up Sanni Pass and it was breathtaking.

When we arrived at the backpacker, it was literally located within a Basotho (Sotho people who live within Lesotho) Village. Sheep and sheepherders surrounded the village, along with horses and cattle. It was cold and windy there so I can understand why the Basotho people keep warm by wearing blankets over their clothes.

We were stoked to go hiking so we found some local village kids to take us hiking up Hodgson’s Peak. There were about 8 kids who were willing to take us and it was a blast! We got nearly to the top and the clouds rolled in. The view would have been spectacular I am sure, but we were literally within the clouds and couldn’t see.

We wanted to go to the very peak but the kids informed us that there was a cattle point at the peak and there would be dogs that are not very friendly. It started raining like crazy so we quickly started heading down. Like 10 minutes after we booked it out, the clouds cleared, as did the rain. On the way back the kids kept us entertained with singing, small games, and lots of laughing.

Prior to our next hike up Saddle’s peak, we set off to find some traditional bogobe (bread). Between Dan’s Zulu, and mine, Emily and Julies Sepedi, we were able to communicate with the locals to find what we needed. The locals spoke Northern Sesotho, which is fairly close to Sepedi, so Julie and Emily did most of the talking. We found this lovely lady that went by the English name Emily. She knew what we were talking about and told us to come with her. We followed her into this warehouse where sheep were being sheered. I thought she misunderstood what we were asking, but she didn’t and she handed us some bread.

It was soo yummy! We bought plenty for our hike and off we went. On the way up, we meet this man who was a sheepherder. He was chilling playing his guitar made out of a plastic container, a piece of wood, and some plastic string. It was the coolest guitar and it was amazing to see how complex things can be made out of essentially rubbish.

When we got to the peak it was stunning. I can’t explain the view; it was like nothing I have ever seen before. Miles and miles of green rolling hills. Spectacular.

At the top I found a few stacks of white painted rocks and was confused about what they were for. So when I got to the bottom I asked a local man what it was for and it turns out they believe that the painted rocks will help keep the jackals away. This will help the jackals from eating their sheep.

Later that afternoon, Dan, Emily, and I decided to go for a horseback ride. It was awesome. We went for an hour and it was really relaxing and we saw some cool things. I was expecting the horses to go a bit faster but I think that is the thriller in me.

Our last day in Leostho we spent watching the Nelson Mandela funeral. What we were able to catch of it was neat to be able to watch. What an incredible man. While we were watching it, this nice family from Pretoria asked us if they could treat us to lunch. They were very nice and it was really neat to get to know them. We had asked them if they had spent any time in the village and they hadn’t. So after lunch, we walked them there and found a Gogo’s house that we had previously been to and treated them to some traditional beer. They had never been inside of a rondavel before so it was an experience for them. Peace Corps 2nd and 3rd goal are to teach the world about America, and to teach America about the world. Our Country director stressed the nonexistent “4th goal” of teaching locals about other cultures that surround them. This was a mission complete in the “4th goal.” It was a neat experience. We were also able to write whatever we wanted on the ceiling of the lodge and this is what we choose!

We left Lesotho and headed back to the first backpacker on the foothills. Dan and I took off the next day for an “In The Footsteps of the Bushmen” hike in uKhahlamba Drakenseberg Park. Besides the fact that it was raining the whole 12km, it was awesome and really neat. The Drakensberg’s hold the largest amount of rock paintings in Southern Africa. The paintings that we were fortunate enough to see had not been dated, but were estimated to be between 200-2000 years old. There are several animals that are painted but the most common is the eland (similar to an antelope).

It was an awesome experience to learn about the San people and it was amazing to see such old paintings.

Our last day, we headed for our last small hike. Unfortunately we could not make it all the way to the peak because baboons surrounded it. Those are not animals that I am willing to mess with. Regardless, we had an amazing view. We parted ways later that afternoon and I headed for Durban. I was lucky enough to spend a week in Durban over the Christmas holiday. We attended my friend’s nephews wedding and it was supper chill.

I had a really great December holiday. I left December 3rd and my org did not open up again until the 13th of January. I was able to find plenty to do once I got back from traveling. One thing I did was spent some time at my friends Bennie’s. It reminded me a lot of when I lived in the small village Bundu when I first arrived in South Africa. We spent a lot of time hanging out, cooking, and laughing. They dressed me in tradition Zulu beads and clothing and I thought it was so neat. I had a great time and hope I have another chance to visit before I leave in March.