Just a Few Pics

I Just got back this afternoon, after another ridiculously long, albeit less tumultuous, trip. Anyhow, I thought I'd throw in a picture for the blog, since I couldn't do any of that in Africa. I'm going to try to get the really solid ones up on Flickr here in the next day or two...
Yes, this trip has definitely had a profound impact on my life. It's tough to describe, actually. I am not sure that it has necessarily changed me as a person, but it has absolutely changed the way I view the world around me. I have reappraised certain aspects of my life, mainly the problems I encounter, both in the long and short term. That doesn't make much sense...I'll put up something which may offer more insight in a day or two, when I'm a bit more lucid.

Today it might rain in Swaziland

It's true. I can't believe it. Even if it doesn't rain, it is cloudy, which is a first. There are rarely clouds anywhere here, as it is the dry season. This, of course is what we hear about too from the Swazis. Their gardens fail due to extreme drought. But, I've noted that already, so I won't go into it here.

This is going to be a shorter post, as we ended up having today off!! It is 11:45 a.m. as I type this, and I don't have anything to do. We were supposed to go speak to a group of businessmen this morning about counseling fundamentals and stress management. Phil and I actually volunteered ourselves for this, sort of taking one for the team, since we decided that it would not require the presence of our entire team to pull off a bush-league presentation to a group of educated business people. Anyway, it fell through. Awesome. It's not as though we missed the opportunity to counsel or educate a community in need, so I have a clear conscience.

Yesterday was our best day so far. We returned to Mafutseni, where we had gone this past Saturday, to speak to the community as a whole. The trick was that this time, we had to use a translator. We had this amazing local named Issac. Issac was only 19, but he had a natural ability to take what we said, translate, and throw in some idiosyncratic examples to hammer home the point; he could really galvanize the crowd. This was good, since Phil and I had the largest group to contend with by far, at about 60 strong. We gave a solid presentation, gave them some ideas about how to handle the poverty and strife that they faced, and it worked. They literally applauded some of our efforts mid presentation, and we successfully (with our friend Innocent Mzizi's help, too) conveyed to them that our mission was multifold. By the end, they understood that Seeds of Hope Outreach had already worked hard to build their community, and that we were there to educate them, to give them the tools necessary to wipe out substance abuse, and control the spread of AIDS/HIV.

That pretty much did it for yesterday. Like I said, highly successful for Phil and I, as well as all other groups. At the end of the day, we also fed them. This is always important, and it truly makes evident the epidemic of famine that is omnipresent.

OK, that's it for today. I will be posting maybe ONE more time tomorrow, since we're leaving and COMING HOME in just two days (three if you count the day of travel). We all cannot wait to get home and see everyone. I hope that this blog has raised a little awareness in everyone's minds, and there's so much more to tell when we get back. See everyone soon!

Tuesday and Wednesday

The work for the last two days has been much the same. We have been traveling all over Swaziland, visiting schools. The main goal is to present to them information regarding HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, depression/suicide, and stigma. It’s interesting here, as it is not just AIDS that is stigmatized, but myriad diseases and disorders. Anything from diabetes to mental retardation elicits unfavorable (at best) reactions from friends and family, to the point of people being ostracized. As such, much of our presentations focus on how the schools, churches, and communities can actually help these people, rather than abandon them to death or isolation.

Phil and I finally got to present together, on a host of topics, but most notably on substance abuse and treatment. This is a big deal for us, as we spent a fair amount of time before leaving putting together a knock out presentation. Up until yesterday, he and I would handle different groups and populations, as we tried our best to divide up the team based on our relative strengths. This has been a very effective strategy, and has allowed us to maximize our impact with the groups we visit. Anyhow, Phil and I gave a stellar presentation (at least we think so), and felt good about it.

The schools we visit are so similar: the majority of the students are orphans, and many of those are head-of-household. The shock has worn off with respect to this aspect. It is still a crisis situation, to be sure, but we’ve come to expect it everywhere we go. This is actually not a terrible thing for us, as it means that we can focus more on delivering effective interventions, and keep our personal feelings out of play.

And, of course, we travel. We have truly seen much of the Swazi nation. It just occurred to me last night that this is the most exposed I have ever been to another country and culture, on many different levels.

A highlight! Last night, we were taken out to dinner by Dr. Eddie Rokundo, a local physician we met last week. He was gracious enough to take us to his favorite local restaurant, a bit off of the beaten path, but decidedly great. We had a fantastic time chatting it up, and I found out that he even went to medical school with a Charleston physician (Dr. Rokundo went to medical school in the U.S.), Dr. Sam Parrish. What are the odds of that? Dr. Rokundo had quite an interesting story to tell; however, it’s to long for this post. To sum it up, he was a member of the (former) Royal Family of Rwanda, and they had to go into exile during the coup of 1961. Maybe more on that later.

Another highlight! Myself, Phil, Anna, Chrissyl, Joanna, and Monique made the national paper! This was from our interview that we conducted with them while visiting an AIDS clinic last week. It got our word and mission out to the Swazi people, which is important as it buys us credibility. The most important bit, however, was the close-up shot of yours truly.

Only a few more days to go…

The Very Newest Post

Yesterday, which was the 19th, was our first full day off. Nothing to do, nowhere to be. Everyone slept in until about the same time, which was about 11 a.m. Dr. Campbell told us the night before that it was optional, so we all (except for Joanna) decided to take advantage. After waking up, we pretty much just kicked around for the day, mostly spending time at the hotel playing card games and eating some sugar cane by the pool. We also found Manzini’s mall, to my surprise. Manzini, while not a small town, is not at all well off, but I suppose every town this size must have a mall. The makeup of Manzini is the other reason we mostly stayed around the hotel; this is not a tourist town. I need no convincing that the Tum’s George Hotel lives up to it’s motto: “The Nicest Place to Stay in Manzini.” If you don’t live or work here, you essentially have no business in Manzini.

Today, we had, as it turned out, only a half day of work. We went to two high schools: Duze, and Siphofanen, just in case you wanted to know their names. The reason we had a short day is because schools here all close after 1:30 at the latest. Half of us went to one and half to the other. These schools, like most, are very poor. My team and I (which today consisted of Gretchen, Anna, Chrissyl, and Dr. Campbell) went to Siphofanen. We learned from the headmaster that about 200 of the students were orphan head-of-household children. Again, this is an extremely common phenomenon, as 20% of the population succumbs to AIDS/HIV, so although it is tragic, the shock is starting to wear off. Many of them cannot afford to pay for school, so the government tries to help out. The government, however, cannot afford to pay for everything, and the school does it’s part by allowing many students to attend free of charge. Education in Swaziland is highly prized. Indeed, I have been repeatedly impressed and astounded by the obvious achievement and intelligence of the students I have met. They ask very solid, interesting questions, and seem to take to the information we present quickly. This young generation of Swazis are taking to the idea of psychology very quickly, too. Many do not hesitate to take advantage of our offer for free (albeit exceptionally brief) individual counseling. We can’t do much with the time we give them, but it’s better than nothing, and it’s what we’re here to do. Most of what I ended up presenting on today was substance abuse and depression, and switched with Gretchen’s classroom towards the end of our time to present most of that to her class, while she spoke to mine about assertiveness and communication skills. Dr. Campbell had his classroom next to mine, and he had them rollicking with laughter, as tends to be the case; hopefully we’ll all be as good a presenter as he is one day…

We ended up our day going to the Manzini Market, which is an open-air market that mostly deals in needs, foregoing superfluous niceties. Dr. Campbell, however, has been here before, and was therefore able to take us straight to the trinkets and art area. I got some pretty decent artwork, etc., for not a whole lot of loot. In fact, we all agreed that we would break the bank buying this kind of stuff in the U.S. Good for us, good for the Swazis, no?

That pretty much wraps up this post. Again, I can’t post pictures, as the computer that I am forced to use freezes up when I attempt to upload them. I promise to throw on a greatest hits when I get back though, and many of you will get to see lots of the 600 pictures I have already taken (yes, really that many), and the many more I am sure to take. Next post, two days. Salakalahe (goodbye in Swazi, I still can’t pronounce it)!

This post goes before "two dramatic days"

For some reason, this didn’t post the other day, even though I checked it. Whatever. This post goes before “Two Dramatic Days,” and not after.
OK, so I’m going to cover what we’ve done over the last couple of days. Two days ago, on Tuesday, we sort of had the day off, but spent it riding from Joburg to Swaziland, which took, overall, about 5 hours. The nice aspect of this ride was the chance to view the landscape of both South Africa and Swaziland. Well, parts, at least. Nothing really eventful on that day. We checked into the Tum’s George Hotel here in Manzini. It is quite nice, and the people here are very friendly.
Yesterday (Wednesday the 15th), was our only “day off,” which was slated to begin with a press conference here at the TGH after breakfast. We quickly learned that here, they operate on “Africa Time,” which means that there’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. To make a long-ish story short, the conference was called off. So, we went on a Safari. This was awesome. In S.A. and parts nearby, they have what are known as the “big five,” which are five animals held in high regard. They are: the lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and water buffalo. We saw lions, elephants, and rhinos. I have some amazing shots, including a four-photograph composite panorama shot that has to be seen to be believed.
Today we drove to the local TV station, and Dr. Campbell and his sister, Cynthia Prime were interviewed as we stood in the background looking fantastic. Afterwards, we broke into two teams: Donna and Gretchen went to a rural church, and Phil, Monique, Chrissyl, Joanna, Anna, and I went to an AIDS/HIV clinic to do a presentation and assessment of their structure/system. What we did not know was that we were also to be interviewed by the newspaper and TV station (the same one that we went to in the morning). The newspaper guy got our press release, which he was happy to have, and the TV reporter really grilled us. However, Phil and I handled the interview with the casual aplomb of ordering ice cream; we are studs. So, tonight, in about two hours, we make our television debut on Swazi TV. The great thing about much of this is that we truly are the experts everywhere we go; mental health counseling, as I mentioned in the last post, is completely new to this part of the world. The zeitgeist has shifted such that we are not shunned (as we may have been just 10 or 15 years ago), but welcomed. We did a presentation to the clinic staff after the press conference on stress management and burnout, and they were writing as though their lives depended on it. Indeed, this was the area they identified as the most needed, which was a giant red flag to us that they were quite burned out. This is simply an occupational hazard that we know is associated with counseling of any sort. All in all, the day was very successful, and/as we are becoming more and more familiar with the local/regional/national cultures.
OK, that’s it for this post. I will have another one up within two days, if not sooner. I am finally over my jet lag. Thank goodness.

Two Dramatic Days

Yesterday, the 17th, was the toughest day so far. Our first visit was to an extremely small rural community called Mbekelweni, which was about ½ an hour outside of Manzini (which is, of course, where we’re staying). Dr. Campbell was, again, unable to be with us, but we have quickly become comfortable without him, and are relying on each other as a team. I believe that we are becoming quite effective and efficient. At any rate, I had been thinking and trying to prepare myself for this day, as I had a pretty good idea about what was coming down the pike. This was our first visit to one of the communities of extreme poverty that we had been seeing as we drove around.
The location of our visit within the community was a care center that was being constructed by outside groups. The construction was not taking place as we were there, and there was no indication that it was to resume any time soon. The building that was the most complete was a cinder block structure that had a roof. That was it. This building was the place where a group of about 40 orphans, most about 4 or 5 years old, spent the majority of their time. They were being “educated” by three Seventh Day Adventist women who cared for them no fewer than five days a week. The women did this for no wage. Their schoolroom consisted of a few benches without backs, and a single chalkboard propped against a wall that measured something like 2 feet by 4 feet. Phil and I did some stress management and counseling with the caretakers, as we know that these people are all but completely burned out. We essentially teach these people that it’s OK to be attentive to themselves; to take a break from caring for others. This, of course, is difficult, as Swaziland is essentially a land in crisis, and so everywhere they go they have work. This is actually why they need this type of intervention. They don’t have the kind of coping skills necessary to deal with the tremendous strain that they face. We teach them to look out for each other, to take breaks, to provide positive comments to each other, and to ask for help if they need it. This all sounds basic, I’m sure, and you may be thinking that we’re not doing much; however, these ideas (as I’ve previously stated) are unknown to them, so we’re actually teaching them brand new skills that they can continue to use to improve their overall well-being. Anything that they can do to help themselves after we leave is an improvement. The rest of the team worked with the children (Phil and I have largely settled into the role of dealing with adults and caretakers) as best they could. Of course, since they were so young and some spoke no English, there was not a whole lot that could be done with them. Basically, with the children, the team tries to meet with them as a group, telling stories and processing feelings, and then identifying children with the greatest needs and pulling them aside for separate counseling. We ran late getting there (as usual), so we spent only about 45 minutes there. As we left for our next destination, the entire bus was silent. I imagine that everyone was doing the same thing as me, which is to say re-evaluating my entire life.
About an hour later, we arrived at Big Bend. At this time, please scroll down to the map of Swaziland, look in the southern portion of the country, and locate Big Bend. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here. OK, now that you’ve found it, you now know where the poorest place in the world is. Not poor, not really poor, but the poorest. I tried, but could not think of any place or people worse off than them. They live their lives in the midst of famine, drought, disease, death, and hopelessness. There is one water pump for the shanty town, and it is usually “closed” as there is no water to pump. The Big river, for which the town is named, is almost completely dried up. The orphanage that we went to is run by five church volunteers and their pastor. I say volunteers, but they really do it because no one else will. They do it six days a week. They have no jobs. They run out of food for the children constantly, and so they are only fed every two to three days. This is because their government either ignores them, when they make the two hour trek, or because the government cannot do anything for them. When we got there, we were slowly approached by all of the children, with their hands outstretched, hoping for anything. We gave each of them a small bag of Cheetos, smaller than you would get from a vending machine, and it was like gold. We were able to provide socks and shoes for a couple dozen, and they wouldn’t even put them on. The children just held on to them like you might do with a diamond. I don’t even know if that’s the right way to describe it. You couldn’t even imagine receiving something and holding on to it the way they did.
Phil and I met with the caretakers, as we had for the previous school, and through one of them that translated, we heard the whole story. I looked over at Phil and he looked the way I was thinking. We both were floored by what we heard, and didn’t know if they would tell us to take our psychological services and take a hike or not. Again, I am really at a loss for words to describe to you the situation, and the computer here freezes up when I try to upload photos. To skip to the end, after about ½ and hour, we had them with smiles on their faces and laughing. We did more or less the same type of work as we did in the morning, but with greater intent and intensity. After we did our thing, we insisted that they stay on the porch, while we took care of the children, even for just a short period. They didn’t need convincing, and didn’t come out until just before we left. I feel that if we have made the most destitute and desperate people in the world laugh, than we can do almost anything. More than that, we let them know that people all the way on the other side of the world were thinking about this remote place and it’s people. And so we gave them hope.
This post is already running long, and summing up today will be tough. We broke into three groups and did presentations and discussions at different points of a rural community called Mafutseni. Gretchen, Chrissyl, and myself met with adolescents and young adults to cover empowerment, communication skills, depression and suicide, and substance abuse. The last topic really hit home with them, since it was a big issue. Since these people have no skills to deal with this crisis, it was empowering for them to learn that they did not need money, or tools, or anything material to make a difference in their community; they only needed each other, and the collective support they could provide. Maybe more on that later. We’ve actually had somewhat of a day off, as we got back here at 2. We really need a breather, as the work we do here really works over the soul. Alright, next post in 2 days. Until then…

Greetings From Africa!!!

I have not had internet access until today, as some of you know...
We have been working like horses. Really. There is simply too much to tell about for right now, so let's get going, and I'll condense a bit. Or a lot.
On our first full day, we drove to Pretoria, which is the Captial of S. Africa. There, we presented to a women's conference, which was sponsored by a massive church conglomerate, which encompasses over 400 churches. There were supposed to be over 200 women at the conference; however, due to a strike at the university (the Tshwane University of Technology), we had only 35 or so women in attendance. This was actually good for us, as it made our job much more manageable. We broke up into teams of two each, and did 3 presentations total. The whole thing was made tougher by the fact that our supervisor, Dr. Campbell, was called away at the last minute to do some grief counseling. So, there we were, far away from anything familiar, in a completely foreign culture, in a room full of women looking for some empowerment and guidance. No sweat. Things went smoothly, and we actually felt good about it. Afterwards, we were able to do some one on one counseling with some of the women who elected to have it. This was remarkable, as psychology and mental health counseling are highly stigmatized in Africa, and we had been able to "convince" some of them to come forward and talk.
The most important aspect, in a way, of the first day was learning about their culture. Learning is sometimes a painful process, and this was no exception. My teammates and I each had a few foot in mouth moments as we tried to flex our acumen, only to find that we sometimes had no idea what we were talking about. These are diddicult to explain, and beyond the scip9e of this post. Just know that I just fired off a mea culpa and got on with it.
Day two: we go to a private parochial boarding school called Sedaven, in Binoni, which was about an hour west of Joburg. Before I go any further, it is important to note that this is in no way similar to any boarding school in the States. This school is very poor. Some students come from families with money, but they are the exception to the rule. One of my team members and I addressed the male half of the high school, about 100 of them. We addressed some of their concerns and questions. Whiler there are many differences between American and African students, there are also striking similarities. Indeed, the first issue we tackled was how to talk to and understand women. They are pretty much girl-crazy. Howerver, other, mroe serious issues were also addressed. I spent some time with a group of four preschoolers, none older than six, who told me of their parents' divorces, houses that were burned, attempted killings against family members, and one boy's loss of five uncles, who died in quick succession of one another, presumably of AIDS (as this is one of the leading causes of death in this part of the world). This was, again, the lot in life of FOUR students, each no older than SIX. Most of us do not suffer the tragedies of even one of them. It is truly heartbreaking, and yet these were the most positive, upbeat, and sweetest children you have ever met.
To end this post on a very positive note, our hosts in Joburg were nothing short of amazing. They treated us like family, truly. We were housed and fed and blessed (literally dozens of times) and amazed.
We just arrived here in Manzini, Swaziland, today, after many hours of travel. All is well with everyone.
Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to post everyday. Unfortunately, I am using the computer behind the check in counter to do this, and I have to pay 40 Rand (about $6.50...it's weird that this keyboard still has the dollar sign) per 1/2 hour, and I'll have to see about sneaking my flash drive around the back of this thing later to try and get some pics in. Until then...
Jennifer, I miss you very much, and I love you! Sorry, everyone else, you're just going to have to put up with that for now.

Hold your breath...

This could be it. I'm here at the airport, local time 5:15 in the a.m. I probably got here earlier than I needed to, but it has given me the opportunity to post this amazing post. Our team now must fly on 3 separate airplanes (and on bus) in order to get to JFK on time to catch our flight. Our 20 hours of travel time has also inflated to 30-ish. I guess that means I'm getting more for my money, right? This is a picture of me, at the airport, wracked with enthusiasm and wonder.

DELAYED!!!

Our flight was canceled today, secondary to a non-functioning engine on the airplane. I just returned from standing in line for over four hours, while United Air tried to reschedule the nine of us. While I am extremely thankful that they found a bum engine while we were on the ground, we were all, nevertheless, a bit let down, as we have been anxiously awaiting this day. Maybe it's sort of like how the astronauts feel when they get grounded. Anyhow, I am off to sack out, as I have to be back at the airport for round two in just about 6 hours. Enough for a quick snooze...

The Clock is Ticking

Just a couple of days to go now. I am basically posting this as a matter of course, since the last post was almost 2 weeks ago. Jen has been a huge help so far by starting a hand written list of things I might need to bring. Additionally, I printed out a pre-fab list from Microsoft, titled "World Traveler's something or other." This is sure to help me tackle my packing woes, which I'll need to do since corner stores and Wal-Marts are likely to be scarce in third-world nations. Micah offered up a helpful suggestion about making sure I carry protection. Anybody else?