Going Rural

I just learned I won't have service after tonight for awhile. Hopefully its a lie and I really will! We're going to a place called Kokstad and then Umtata that are supposedly REALLY REALLY rural. Yuck!  :-(



Kokstad, South Africa

Umtata, South Africa





More Safari and First Homestay

I definitely like seeing the kids more than animals. We're at another park now and the 500th giraffe you see isn't as cool as the first. We stayed at the roundhouses at the game park so it was really nice, but the cabin we're at now is gross.

Two nights ago we had our first home stay. My host family was nice, but they weren't very talkative and they went to bed not long after I got there. Yesterday I went to the school my host mom teaches at. I didn't like it that much because a lot of the kids didn't know English so I couldn't communicate with them. Even though school is supposed to be taught in English after grade 3, I sat in on a 6th grade science class that was almost all Zulu (click on the link to listen to "The Circle of Life" in Zulu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qNSwXm-Cl4). 

After school we went to a nature reserve and went on a hike to see giraffes and zebras, it was alright but we were all really tired and didn't want to go anyway. Then we had a bonfire and dinner and everyone went to bed pretty early.

Today we had our first service project. We went to a boarding high school and scraped the paint and sanded the walls in the dorms. I'm pretty sure I'll have lead poisoning or something because we didn't have any kind of mask to stop us from breathing it all in. I would have rather been painting or something. My throat has been sore the past couple days and that didn't help at all.

We're staying at the nature reserve again tonight, but tomorrow I think we're going to a guest house, I don't know what city we're going to though. It's actually really cold in the mornings and at night here.  It's hard to say I wouldn't rather be at home, as much fun as I'm having I'd jump on the next plane out if I had the chance.

SAFARI TIME!

The safari was soo much fun! By 9:00 am today I had been within feet of a family of zebras, giraffes, rhinos, warthogs, and antelope. It was so much fun, I took millions of pictures. But it was freezing, like the "40 degrees riding around in a car with no windows" kind of freezing. Then we went on another drive at 3:00 just in our van and an elephant was within 10 feet of us! It was actually kind of scary, there's not much you can do if an elephant comes at you. We didn't see any lions or leopards though, but I didn't expect to. A teacher I was talking to at one of the schools said he's been here over 10 times and still hasn't seen the cats. Plus the grass is at its highest right now so everything is really camouflaged.


I can see why this might be scary...

There's a walking safari here where you just go out with a guy and a gun. That would have been really cool, but it was booked for the next two days. The safari was surprisingly cheap (the program paid for ours) but it was only 300 rand per person for 3 hours which is less than $50. We're having a braai for dinner, but we've had a huge breakfast and lunch today, I'm not even hungry lol.


South African braai (barbecue)

Tomorrow were going to an estuary for a boat ride at 8 am. Hopefully well see hippos and crocodiles in the water because we didn't see any today.


Estuary near Hluhluwe
I don't know if this is where she is going, but I hope she sees this many hippos!



Stop #3 - Hluhluwe Game Reserve

Hluhluwe Sunset

I actually have service her, its crazy! We came at the perfect time, right when the sun was setting. The scenery was beautiful!

This morning we went to Northwood Boys High, a public high school just for boys. In South Africa, public schools can still charge their students, this one was 25,000 rands ($3,571) a year (7 rand = $1). A lot of people didn't like the school because they said it wasn't fair to the people who couldn't afford it, and it isn't. I thought of it more like the parents just wanted to give their kids the best education. A lot of the girls judged the school and the students right from the beginning and I thought that wasn't fair. They had 15 rugby teams at the school and sent a lot of boys to college and pros for it. It seemed pretty similar to St. Marys or Brother Rice, but public.

After that we spent the rest of the day driving to the game park. After we passed through the front gates, it took another 40 minutes to get to our round houses, talk about the middle of nowhere! But I love it, I already saw a python and a herd of buffalo! We're on our way to dinner now, and I have to get up at 6:00 tomorrow morning to start our safari!

Map of Hluhluwe Game Reserve, not sure what camp Kelsey is in.

Entrance Gate to Hluhluwe Game Reserve

Hluhluwe bush camps (top) and lodges (bottom).

Pictures!

I just added pictures to most of Kelsey's posts, so go back and take a look!  I just found them on the Internet, so I'm sure her's will be much better, but atleast you can see where she's been!

Last Day in Durban!

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Today we went to the Verulam Islamic School in Durban. Its a religious school but anyone can go there. They were so welcoming to us, we got breakfast and lunch and a huge welcoming from the students. A 7th grader recited a verse from the Qaran, he's memorized 27 of the 30 chapters! And then a little girl sang us a song about how her mom was amazing, but then it was just a dream and she was an orphan. It was really sad, I don't think there was any dry eye in the house. I watched a sex ed class, the teacher talked about rape and arranged marriage and it was really interesting.

After that we had a lecture about the economics of teaching...

Right now I'm on the way back from the Zulu healer's house. It isn't like you'd expect, he was very westernized. He said if someone comes to him with a head injury he makes them go get an x-ray or if he thinks someone has AIDS he makes them get a blood test. It was a really cool conversation about how he combines modern medicine with traditional practices to help his patients.

I hope this is what he looked like :-)

There was an article written about our group in a South African magazine.  It's called "America's Future Educators Visit South Africa" and it was in the Coastal Weekly.  I'm sure there are a lot of newspapers called that, but if you can find the article online then you can finally see my face! (I can't find it online)

I miss all my TV shows! The TV here is really behind in what season they're showing, and a lot of the local shows are in either Afrikans or Zulu. Afrikans is understandable sometimes because they have similar words but Zulu is a language with a ton of clicking in it so there's no chance.  I'm having better luck with food, but all I really want is a salad.  It sounds weird, but everything here is cooked and I haven't had a salad since I got here. A lot of the food is heavy in gravy and there's a lot of starch, so a salad would be so refreshing right now.

Tomorrow I'm going to the game park after our last school visit. I'm spending the weekend there and then staying in the rural towns for all of next week. I have no idea if I'll have service or when I will be able to talk to people next. Hopefully I can find some, it's going to be really hard to have no communication.

Next stop...Hluhluwe Game Reserve!

 Love and miss everybody so much, hopefully talk to you soon!

More School Visits in Durban

I'm laying on the couch contemplating doing homework and thought it'd be more fun to write another update for everyone at home!

Today we went to a quintile 5 school (schools are ranked 1-5, 1 means poorest so they get the most government funding). It was in an area that was only for Indians under apartheid and now its about 50% black and 50% Indian. During our welcome the choir sang for us and a girl performed a traditional Indian dance, everyone was really glad to see us.

Here, most people speak 4 or 5 languages and at the elementary school the kids were learning English, Afrikans, Zulu, and Hindi. I watched a 2nd grade Hindi class and it was amazing to see how much they knew. The kids treated all of us like we were celebrities, they'd all mob around us when we walked in the hall and I probably signed 100 autographs.

The staff made us food so I had Indian for lunch and dinner today, something else that doesn't like my stomach... Tomorrow we are visiting an Islamic school and then going to our lectures at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. Then, if it isn't raining, (its rained all day today) we are going to a village to meet a traditional Zulu healer, or medicine man. I'm really excited but it's going to be a very long day.

I leave for the game park on Friday in the early afternoon, I'm not sure if I will have service there but I'll send another e-mail before we leave the city.

1/3 of the way done!

First Days in Durban, SA

Yesterday we went to a school for the deaf. South Africa doesn't practice inclusion like America does, so I'll never see a disabled person in a regular school here. The classes were really small, like 7 or 8 kids, and they had boarding for kids from far away. They used to teach American Sign Language but switched to South African Sign Language, I didn't even know there were different ones! The teachers don't like it though because they don't know South African Sign Language as well as they know American. But the school was interesting to see. After that we had a lecture on special education in SA, I could barely stay awake.

Last night I went out with some girls to a Cuban bar and restaurant. It was alright but too expensive for me and there wasn't really anyone there since it was Monday, so we made it an early night.

Today we went to a township school, which is a really poor school that basically only black kids go to because it is determined by where you live. It was a high school, and it averages around 50 kids per class! The school doesn't have enough books for that so all the kids have to share. Teacher absenteeism is a big problem here, I passed 4 or 5 classes out of 30 that didn't have a teacher. There is no program for subs in SA so the students are stuck doing nothing in the room until the bell rings. The kids were all really friendly and wanted know a lot about America. They asked me things like if I knew Beyonce or Obama, they think celebrities are everywhere in America. I had a good time at the school and our 2 lectures afterward weren't too bad, the days are just so long. We started at 8 and finished our debriefing at 6!

South African township school classroom

We've been making our own dinners and they're pretty good. Last night I made sausage and veggies and tonight we're having chicken and potatoes. We leave for the game park on Friday afternoon and we're there until Sunday afternoon. Luckily when we're there our food is paid for, I can't believe how much money I've had to spend on food since I've been here!
 
11 days down! Love and miss everyone!

City #2 - Durban, South Africa

Hi Everyone,
This is Kelsey's sister, Sarah.  Kelsey has been really busy and doesn't think she'll be able to keep up with the blog.  Since I know a lot of family and friends are reading it, I'll be updating it for the rest of her trip with the emails she sends my parents almost every day.  Still feel free to leave comments for Kelsey, I will be sure to pass them on to her.  She misses everyone a lot and she would love to hear from you!  Here are the last few days that she has missed, starting with the most recent.
    
May 21, 2011
The BBQ on Friday was pretty good.  They have a sausage here called voorwurst that I really like but that was about it.  Meat here is really expensive so they don't have very much.  They serve something called "pap" with every meal.  It's like a cornmeal paste but it has no flavor, I don't like it.


My night out was fun, the people are really nice and love talking to Americans. I heard we have pretty accents, but I'm pretty sure they aren't, lol. It was fun to go to a bar, all the white guys look like "eurotrash" though (think guys with mullets and wearing capris). Two guys told me I would make a good wife because I don't smoke, haha. 

We just got to our flat in Durban (#2 on the map).  There are 3 people in my flat, it's really nice. We're right on the Indian Ocean and we have our own kitchen and bathroom. Halfway through our ride we stopped at an orphanage for kids who have lost their parents to AIDS or have AIDS themselves.  The kids were all so happy despite their situation. The orphanage was made up of concrete buildings, but it was nothing like you would see in the U.S. I loved playing with all the kids, they were so cute. Michigan State University funds a lot of the orphanage, it was sad because it was in a township made up of tin shacks. 

I've taken so many pictures I'm going to have to buy a new memory card for my camera.  I won't be able to upload pictures until I get home though because you can't do it at the Internet cafes.  The trip is getting expensive, food costs a lot so the $50 a day we get for food is used up quickly since we basically have to provide all our own meals.  We start school visits on Monday, I can't wait!

Durban, South Africa

 

Day 7 in Johannesburg/Pretoria

May 20, 2011

US Embassy in Pretoria

Today we went to the U.S. embassy and two monuments in Pretoria.  We just got back and tonight were having a traditional african bbq at the hotel.  Then we have to pack because were leaving at 8:30 tomorrow for Durban.  It's an 8 hour drive, it's gonna suck.  Talk to you soon!

Days 4, 5 & 6 in Johannesburg/Pretoria

May 19, 2011

Soweto, South Africa

We're on our way back to the hotel tonight, today was a busy day. We drove to Soweto (40 min.). It was where all the student uprisings and protests by blacks were that helped end apartheid. We went to the Hector Pieterson museum (the first person killed during the protests). A man called Brown was our tour guide for the day, and he was involved in all the student uprisings and protests during apartheid. It was our first time out of the city into a township. Townships are close to what people think when they think of Africa. They're really poor and a lot of the houses are made out of tin. It was really sad to see people still living like that.

Hector Pieterson Museum

After that we went to the house that Nelson Mandela grew up in, it was actually nicer than I expected. A group of little boys came up and started singing to us, it was sooo cute. We all gave them money, but when we were getting in the car a guy came and took their money. We tried to get our money back but our driver and tour guide said it wasn't worth it. It was so sad because he didn't deserve the money and took it from little kids.

Nelson Mandela's childhood home

Next we went to the Apartheid Museum, it was really amazing. I bought 2 childrens books, one for lawson called "The Baboon Who Went to the Moon" and one for my classroom of African tales about how animals were made.

Apartheid Museum

Now we're on our way back to Pretoria, but the traffic is crazy. A bunch of us are planning on going out tonight, talk to you soon!

May 18, 2011
Municipal election day here in South Africa!  Went to election headquarters and chatted with the top political analyst in South Africa and got to meet the Secretary General of the ANC! Exciting day :-) 

P.S. He was a Spartan, Go Green!

May 17, 2011

Today was really interesting. Our first lecture was boring, it was about South African history from 1652-1910, but after the lecture we heard singing outside.
We went outside and they were singing a song campaigning for the elections tomorrow. They were with the ANC and singing "my mother was a kitchen gal and my father was a slave, that's why I'm a communist" in Afrikaans. I took some videos and it was really cool to see.

After our second lecture we went to a South African restaurant that was better than I've had. We went to a market and I bought a salad bowl for my mom with a bunch of animal prints on it.

The African Leadership Academy was cool. I learned they have a contract for all their students that say 10 years after they graduate they will come back to Africa to better the continent. The only part I found disappointing was that it cost the equivalent of $55 million and there are only 108 students. Its very nice and advanced, but in a country like this, $55 million could fix so much.
Tomorrow we are going to the voting polls to talk to people, I'm really excited about that.

African Leadership Academy

Days 3 and 4 in Johannesburg/Pretoria

I don't have much time, so this is gonna be really short.  Sorry

Yesterday we had two lectures, one at our hotel with a professor from here in South Africa about the earliest history in Africa.  The other was at UNISA, the University of South Africa, and it was an overview of the history of education in South Africa.  It was beautiful there, there were waterfalls and flowers all over campus and mountains in the background!  It definitely wasn't like East Lansing, but I'm not complaining! haha

University of South Africa

After that we went to the Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, right across from City Hall.  I got a lot of good pictures and hopefully I'll be able to post some soon! We had a catered lunch at the museum, and it was a little better than the other food I've ate here.  They had cooked pumpkin that I liked, but that was about it.  I gotta find something I like soon, I cant live off pumpkin for 5 weeks!

Pretoria City Hall

Museum of Natural History

Right now were in between our two lectures, and then were going to a cultural musuem in Johannesburg.  Then were going to a private boarding school started by a MSU alumni for children from all over Africa called the African Leadership School.  Even though I've been extremely homesick, I'm excited for today and hope I get to meet some of the kids at the school.

Love and miss everyone!
Kelsey

Day 1: Goodbye Home Sweet Home. Hello South Africa!

Pretoria, South Africa

 

Today was exhausting, physically and emotionally.  I rode to the airport with my family and Alec and said goodbye to them all one last time before going through security.  anyone who knows me knows I cried A LOT.  Even though I've been preparing for this day for months, say bye was harder than I thought.

I went through security and found my gate, it was only 4:15 and my flight wasn't until 7:20.  This is when I got really impatient and I really just wanted to board the plane and start my journey.  Three hours felt more like three days.  Finally the rest of the girls showed up and we boarded the plane.  The first flight was about 7 hours to Amsterdam and we got dinner and breakfast.  Dinner was pasta (yuck) and breakfast was some weird egg and mayonnaise sandwich (double yuck).  Thanks to benedryl, I slept through most the flight.

The Amsterdam airport was beautiful, I wish we could've spent longer there.  It was filled with tons of cool shops and there were flowers everywhere.  But, our layover was only 75 minutes and we had to go through security again, so there wasn't any time to stop. 

The next flight was from amsterdam and Johannesburg and it was 11 hours!!  By far the longest flight I ever want to be on.  They served us lunch, a snack, and dinner, all of which were unedible, but I expected that.  I slept through the snack, but I kinda heard them asking if people wanted a tuna or cheese sandwich, and decided it wasn't worth waking up for.  The dinner was pizza, and it was the most terrible thing I've ever tasted, ughhhh.  I was nice and comfortable on the plane watching TV, but then they broke.  So, I popped another benedryl and went back to sleep for the rest of the flight.

After we went through customs, we went to our hotel.  On the way we passed a guy openly drinking a beer while he was driving!!  that scared me, and we asked our driver if there was a law against that here, but we didn't get a clear answer.  We had to go through two gated areas to get to our rooms, which I would say is somewhere between Holiday Inn and Motel 6.  The weirdest part was that there was no peephole to see who was knocking on our door and thw shower flooded our bathroom :(

I can already tell this will be very different than what i'm used to and it will take a lot of adjusting.  But, I'm happy to be here even though I miss everyone from home very much.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to an internet cafe tomorrow and we be able to update again!
Love you guys!
Kelsey

The Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

I thought I'd start this blog to keep in touch with all my friends and family while I spend 5 weeks traveling in South Africa over the summer studying education and history.  This will definitely be my longest entry, but I thought everyone might want to know what exactly it is that I am doing.


When?
I am leaving in 10 short days (May 13th)!!! I'm leaving from Detroit, then transferring planes in Amsterdam before continuing on to Johannesburg.
I am leaving South Africa 36 days later (June 18th) and flying from Cape Town to Amsterdam and finally back to Detroit.


It's an 18 hour flight, but with the layovers, it will take over a day to get from one place to another :(


Where?

I will be in 8 different cities in South Africa over a 5 week period.  From 1 to 8, the cities I'll be staying in are 
1.Pretoria and Johannesburg 
2.Durban
3.The Hluhluwe Game Park 
4.Transkei in the Eastern Cape 
5.Umtata, 
6.King Williamston and Fort Hare 
7.Port Elizabeth
8.Cape Town
We stay in different kinds of housing in all the cities we are visiting.  Everything from dorms, apartments, hostels, and home stays with families.



What?
So, what am I doing during this study abroad? 
I am taking two independent studies, one in teacher's education and one in history (both are my majors).  A study abroad isn't a vacation, I have a list of assignments, papers to write, and exams to take while I am in South Africa.  However, the learning is a lot more hands on than it is in a regular class.


What will I be doing in the different cities?
Every city will have a focus on something different.
1. Pretoria and Johannesburg

• Introduction/setting the context of how schooling and education in South Africa works.  Which means A LOT of lectures and discussions about history, culture, and politics in South Africa. And A LOT of visits to museums.

2. Durban

• Here, we will be focusing on HIV-AIDS in South Africa.  Over 5 million people in South Africa are currently HIV positive or living with HIV-AIDS.  This is the most in the WORLD.
• We'll have lectures about AIDS education in South Africa.
• Visit schools, educational institutions, and NGOs (non-govt organizations)w working to educate people and stop the spread of aids.

3. Hluhluwe Game Park

• A small get away weekend and a game park.  I will see lots of animals and sleep in a tent/hut in the middle of the park (don't worry, the animals won't be able to get to us.)

4. Transkei in the Eastern Cape

• This is the first rural place I will be staying in.  The focus here is on rural development issues. Here I will be visiting schools, NGOs working on community development, and doing a service project.

5. Umtata

• I am especially excited for this, I will be visiting Nelson Mandela's birth place, youth-center, and museum.  Also, I'll be staying with a local family in their home. 

6. King Williamston, Fort Hare

• This is the first African University I will be visiting, we will again be focusing on rural development issues with education.

7. Port Elizabeth

• This is called the "Detroit of South Africa" it's a huge port and city in South Africa.  In Port Elizabeth we will be focusing on the school to work transition and industry.  We'll also be learning about resistance in the Eastern Cape.
• I'll spend one night in the Tsitsikamma Park before leaving for Cape Town.

8. Cape Town

• In Cape Town the focus is on townships.  There will be a lot of community service projects and tours of different places.
• In Cape Town we will be visiting Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were imprisoned), District Six (urban displacement area), Cape Point (Boulder/Penguin Park), the South African Parliament, and taking a tour of the Wine Country (drinking age is only 18, yay!!)

Who?

Obviously I'm not doing this by myself.  There's 11(?) students going on the trip, all girls.  We have a professor leading the program who will be with us the whole time and a grad student coming along as his assistant.

Why?

Why did I choose South Africa?  Well, I am part of the Global Educators Cohort Program at Michigan State University.  It's a section of the College of Education that focuses on education with a more global perspective.  Everyone in the cohort has to complete a study abroad before their junior year of college.  I first heard about the program when Dr. Metzler (the prof traveling with us) gave a presentation to my TE150 class.  Before I had heard about this particular program, South Africa was a place I was interesting in going to for my study abroad.  This program was so perfect, I'll be doing exactly what I love while I am in schools and learning about the history and cultures that define South Africa and their education system.