Friday, October 23, 2009

Custody battle over East London dodo egg

Each morning, intriguing headlines from East London's newspaper, The Daily Dispatch, are plastered on telephone and lamp posts all the way to town. It's kind of hard to see Germans order flak jackets and Condoms make Tutu blush and not buy a paper (or check out the web site).

This morning's headline: Court battle over dodo egg.  

I had read that the East London Museum was home to what is believed to the the world's only dodo egg. It was brought to the museum by Dr. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a naturalist who was the museum's curator from sometime in the 1950's to 1971.  After she died at age 97 in 2004, the niece who inherited her estate initiated proceedings to reclaim the egg (and sell it on eBay?).

Knowing that the egg might disappear back into the family vault (or a private collection), the idea of going to take a peek piqued our interest so we made a trip over to the museum.  We arrived at 3:50 to learn that they were shutting down for the day.  Lights were being turned off and the staff was shuffling toward the door.  Thankfully, our request to see the egg was granted and we spent a few minutes in the gallery:


This is the dodo display - the egg is in the nest.




Upon closer inspection, we learned that this is actually a REPLICA of the egg. The real egg is stored elsewhere in the museum.

The case will be heard on Tuesday - stay tuned.

By the way, Dr. Coutenay-Latimer is best known for her discovery of the preheistoric coelacanth fish in 1938.  There is a sculpture of the fish outside of the museum:



Plans for the weekend: Karaoke at the Fig Tree tonight, Hiking on the Wild Coast tomorrow, and shopping, beach and possibly a boat ride on Sunday.  Our last weekend in Gonubie!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Screams in the night

I met a woman today who can’t leave her house after dark – especially on the weekends – for fear of being raped.  In her neighborhood there are 9 shebeens – or pubs; popular places for men and women to drink.

She told us, “The weekends are a mess.  If there are women at the shebeens with the men, they will most certainly be raped.  I hear screams of women in the night from all over the neighborhood.”

Her name is Sweetness.  In 2006 she founded Ubuntu Ma-Afrika, a non-profit organization that provides home-based care and education for people with HIV & AIDS, diabetes, depression, sexually transmitted infections, and victims of abuse and violence.  She does this because her beloved aunt died of AIDS.  Her aunt was embarrassed and afraid to tell people about her condition.  Without medication, it wasn’t long before she passed away.  With tears in her eyes, Sweetness told us that she believes her aunt would still be alive if she had accepted her condition and sought treatment.  Sweetness couldn’t stand by and watch others suffer; she needed to do something to help.

Her neighborhood is in a township outside of East London.  There are approximately 9,000 people in the township, many of whom are uneducated (there is only one school up to level 5), unemployed and poverty-stricken.  From 2 small rented rooms, she and the other leaders train volunteers to care for homebound patients, run awareness campaigns and educate, educate, educate.

In the room with us today were 3 other women.  I asked them why they volunteer.  The first began volunteering after she learned she was HIV positive.  The second, a retired nurse, just looked at us and said, “I hope now that you know about us you will help us.”  The third was very shy but let us know she’s been volunteering for 2 years.  A larger group of volunteers of all ages came through the cramped room to greet us.

Although the organization receives funding from the government, it’s never enough (and sometimes doesn’t come at all).  Their monthly rent is R500 (approx. $60 USD).  They lack the computers they need to keep proper records.  Because of their limited funding, they can’t do as many awareness campaigns as they would like.  Once or twice a month, a mobile clinic comes to the community.  That’s when the team springs to action.  As the 60-70 people wait in line for their turn at the mobile clinic, the Ubuntu Ma-Afrika volunteers are there to meet them, hand out literature, and talk about the many topics that make up their platform.

When I asked what the organization needed and how people could help, Sweetness shared this wish list: a decommissioned shipping container to convert into office space, clothes, food, medicine and, of course, money.  As I write this, Immi and I are brainstorming about how to launch a campaign to help.  If the organization can get a shipping container or a prefab building (which would be a luxury), the government would grant them a piece of land where they could set up permanent offices – rent free.

I am humbled and inspired by the strength and resilience of Sweetness and the many other South African women I’ve met on this journey.  I can only imagine how they may have suffered – as a society bound in the past by apartheid or as individuals still at risk for rape, abuse and violence.  I admire their ability to overcome obstacles, follow their passion and put whatever resources come their way to use in their community – and get by even when there are none.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Food, glorious food!

I am really enjoying our team dinners.  It's been a fantastic way to get to know everyone, discuss our projects and personal interests, and plan our sightseeing activities here in South Africa.

There are several people who enjoy cooking and have taken turns preparing feasts in the evening. Anil has made dal, Sharon has made ziti, Priya has made spectacular rice dishes that I wish I knew the name of and had the recipes for :-), and tonight Immi and Steffen made german potato salad, sausages, pasta and green salad:

Immi and Steffen

 Close-up of our feast:
 

 I had an apple pie workshop for Anna and together we created a masterpiece:
 

I've been trying to get Immi to "de-shine" my photos, but no luck, so here I am, with Anna, in my shiny glory:


Everyone enjoyed the pie, especially Tak:



And we had an unexpected guest at dinner: Smokey, our housecat:



Tonight we decided that we would go to Port Elizabeth on Saturday morning, spend the day exploring that city, and stay overnight in a hostel that Steffen has booked for us.  We'll get up before dawn on Sunday and head to Addo Elephant Park for a 6 am sunrise game tour and then wind our way back to East London.  Sounds like it will be a fantastic weekend!

Friday, October 09, 2009

Our first lesson in Xhosa

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. It's a tonal language and is easily identifiable by the clicking sound. Most of the people at Ruliv speak Xhosa and they were excited to teach it to us. Today we got a lesson:



Our first day at the office wrapped up with a braai to wish one of the members of the Monitoring and Evaluation staff, Stuart, farewell. Stuart is headed to a new job in Bangladesh. He said it's "rough living" but he and his wife have lived there before and are excited to go back. They both work in the field of rural development and "aren't at a point in life where they want it easy." So, with some grilled meat, we said "all the best" to Stuart and sent him on his way.

Tomorrow we visit an orphanage and take a visit to a township. We shopped this evening for treats and toys for the 110+ kids, ranging from 6 months to 18 years. Apparently, donors to this particular orphanage have not been as generous due to the uncertain economy. Hopefully with our toys and donation to their operational fund, we can bring a little cheer and relief, even if it's only for a brief time.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Africa Umoja

Umoja, meaning unity, is a fitting description for the group's first weekend in South Africa.  We got to explore a bit of Jo'burg as we got to know one another.

It's a very diverse group; we are 14 people representing 7 countries: Brazil, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, United States and Uruguay; we span about a 20-year age range; our 'day jobs' include technical sales, process/lean six sigma black belt (who wouldn't like to have a job title with 'black belt' in it), human resources, web specialist, communications, staffing manager, and many more.  Since we spent time on many teleconferences over the past 3 months, we already knew something about one another, but it's so much easier to get to know people when you meet face to face.

Our weekend included a visit to IBM South Africa:



The highlight of the weekend was our trip to the Lion and Rhino park:



 
 

The white tiger cubs were definitely my favorite.

We are now in East London, a very industrial town on the Indian Ocean.  It's a river port, which makes it a prime location for a Mercedes-Benz plant; this plant makes all of the right-hand drive Mercedes for Europe.  We flew here on 1time, which I'll have to actually fly 2times - it's how we get back to Jo'burg at the end of the month.  The landing in East London was not what I'd call relaxing, it was more like a nose dive toward the runway.

Tomorrow we meet our clients.  I'm part of a group of four (Immi, Anil and Anna are the other three) who will be working with Ruliv, an NGO focused on helping rural businesses succeed.  Our task: to focus on marketing and communications.  We have a general statement of work for the project but we'll spend our first week speaking with the team at Ruliv and will more accurately define what we'll do for them.  I think one of the most important aspects of our project is to define a strategy that the Ruliv team can realistically execute on once we're gone.  We'll have the time to get the project going but we need to leave them in a position to carry the work forward.

Oh, and how did I learn about 'umoja?'  It's the title of an incredible dance musical, Africa Umoja, that many of us saw over the weekend.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Good Morning JFK

The schlep to the airport is complete, now it's wait time before fly time. Morning recap: I got lots of goodbye kisses from Lady and Ruby said Bon Voyage by barking up her breakfast. I dropped Freddie at Purdy's for the 6:24 and the dropped myself @ JFK. I'll be flying on the South African Airways plane in this pic:
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Getting ready to fly South, uh, to South Africa

Dear Blog, it's me, Melissa.  It's been over a year since I added anything here but I'm back.  I can't promise I'll stay forever, but I'll be around for at least a month.  I plan to fill you up with great pictures, videos and stories of my adventures in South Africa. 

I depart from good 'ole JFK on October 1, so you can expect to see me dusting you off and getting you ready for the big trip.  I see there are a lot of new things I can add - like a YouTube channel, an RSS feed, and nifty lists that I can use to share my itinerary and favorites from the trip.

Ok, I'm ready to get started.  Let's see what this puppy can do...