Final Thoughts!:

My five week study abroad in South Africa was an amazing experience; I was able to immerse myself in their rick cultures and learn about their ways of life. I am so grateful for these past five weeks, as they allowed me to really think about my life and my rights and even more securely confirm how lucky I am to be an American who has rights (something that not all South Africans have due to a very corrupt government).  Now don’t get me wrong, our government has many problems of our own, but the grass is always greener….when you are on the other side! I guess I’m a lucky to have explored and experienced the many fascinating cultures that make up South Africa, and even more lucky to be able to come back to the states and promote tourism to this amazing country! I do recommend going in their summer time (our December to February).

As I took my last cold hand shower in South Africa, I realized that it wasn’t so bad; at least I had running water, more than a lot of South Africans can say. There are so many finer things in life that I did without during the past five weeks and honestly, I did just fine. Makes you wonder what you really need and what you just think you need to be happy. It’s always nice to have times like these that allow you to reflect on what is most important to you.

Well, I made a lot of great friends while in South Africa and hope to visit them in the near future.  Nuala, our program director at NMMU offered me her rental home for the next time I visit. Soooo, if anyone wants to go to South Africa, let Aaron and I know! Your trip will be effortless, as I am now an expert in South African travel! Haha, hardly the case, but my credibility is higher than it was five weeks ago! I can’t wait to return in their SUMMER SEASON (Remember, December—February)! I want to sweat next time I come to South Africa! :) 
Ta for now!  

One week to go:

Our last week in Port Elizabeth came quicker than I anticipated. I couldn’t believe it when I had only five days left! I mean, time really does fly by! But I had so many wonderful experiences while in South Africa. I spent Monday and Wednesday at my placement site, Missionville School.  These were exciting days because Geraldine (see photos below) wanted us to make soup for the children.   

Geraldine and I before making soup

Enough soup for ~180 students and 20 staff; note that each student gets about half a cup :(

Donovan and I (Missionville Do it all man!)

She had never done this before but wanted to since I mentioned healthier, more nutritious options for the students (plus they have their own garden, so the resources are there). I was so excited! We peeled and chopped vegetables for hours then threw it in a huge pot (see photo above), adding spices, water, stock, etc. We didn’t have a recipe, we just went with what we felt. It turned out amazing! Cooking soup for nearly 175 people is hard work! But the students loved it, so we repeated this again on Wednesday.  When I left (Wednesday was my last day) she told me she doesn’t know how she is going to repeat Sop Dag (that is Soup Day in Afrikaans) when I am not there to help. It is a lot of work for two people, we don’t stop from 8:30 until noon. I don’t know how she will do it without me. It was at this moment when I was no longer frustrated with my experiences at Missionville; the entire time I was there I was aggravated with the time I was spending cooking, rather than educating others (what I intended/thought I would be doing while there); I never voiced my frustration with Pastor Russell or Geraldine and I was glad that I hadn’t. It was little things like cutting out butter and adding peanut butter to sandwiches, getting rid of the sugary Kool-Aid like mixture (kinda looked like a yellow highlighter exploded in water) that was most likely contributing to the rotting of the kid’s teeth, or having a vegetable soup day that enriched my experiences at Missionville.  I was able to help make these changes in their nutrition program and hopefully (fingers crossed) will continue even after I leave.  All is well. J

On Wednesday, Bradley fetched me to go to yet another high school, this time with 90 seniors! WOW! Bradley said we might as well get a few more before you leave! I was so excited because this put me well over my target sample of n = 130; the principal of St. Thomas High School allowed us to come in after the seniors’ written exam because all of them would be in the same place; it’s funny how some things just work out so nicely! We didn’t even have to read the survey to these students because they were proficient in English.  They flew through the survey and helped contribute to my final number of n = 286! That is over double of my target sample size! I am one step closer to graduating, folks (just have to write and defend the dissertation)! Thanks to Dr. Pillay and all the NMMU facility for all their support and resources for my study!

So our last few days in Port Elizabeth were bittersweet; after awhile, you kinda want to get out of the same area; your ready for something new, even if that new, is something that is quite usual to you (like home). I wasn’t ready to leave, per say, but I was ready for something else. Needless to say, each night we ventured out to try some restaurants that we had been putting off trying, I had ostrridge one night, and kudu another; we went to Cape Town Fish Market on Sushi, buy one get one night! Perfect timing! On Thursday, Dr. Pillay and I went to three of the organizations to give them my donation for allowing me to do my research at their facilities (Missionville, House of Resurrection, and GrassRoot Soccer); they were overjoyed and so very grateful for the gift and it made me feel so happy to help contribute to their good causes.  I also got to say goodbye to Geraldine and Donovan (Donovan is the amazing Missionville fix-it man who helped me gather a lot of participants at Missionville; see photo) a HotHands Hand Warmer; they were so impressed! Donovan said, “Man, America makes everything!” After Dr. Pillay dropped me off at Beacon Lodge, I began to feel really sick; all of a sudden, I had shooting pains in my abdomen and couldn’t move; I already had a cold, but these were not cold like symptoms. Needless to say, I had the start of a viral infection and spent my last night sick in bed; travel home was not fun, as I didn’t eat for almost two days; spells made me sick, people and their eating habits made me sick; it wasn’t until my flight from London to Chicago that I was able to eat a few bites of breakfast on the plane. I hope all is good and well for me to go to Mexico!

Week of safaris and wildlife, coupled with a bit of data collection:

The last week has been a world wind in South Africa! I will start with Wednesday, August 8^th. This was the day that Bradley, one of the guys working with our program, set up a time for me to go to a local public high school to sample the 11^th and 12^th graders for my study. Many of these students are well over the age of 18 because they were held back many times throughout their education.  We started our day at 10am at Cowen High School, a primarily black public school. First, we went into an 11^th grade classroom; the teacher did not show up today and the students were all there, alone, working on their school.  I was amazed that they were not climbing from the rafters!  WOW! This wouldn’t happen in the states! Bradley decided that we would read the survey to them just in case they had questions, we could address them as a group. I started off reading and he quickly stopped me because of the reaction from the students.  My nasal accent was a bit much for them and made my English sound not so English to  them! Ha! So he took over and read for me.  After done, we moved to a 12^th grade class room and repeated this routine. I ended with 60 surveys! Awesome!

Thursday, August 9^th, we traveled as a group to two safaris! Oh my! So much fun! First we went to Addo Elephant Park (see www.sanparks.org). This was a self guided drive through the National Park. We stopped halfway and had lunch, overlooking all the wildlife.  We saw so many elephants, lions, zebra, kudu, and other African antelope. Note the wind in all the photos!

After the Addo adventure, we headed over to Schotia Safaris Tours (see www.schotia.com). OMG! I loved SCHOTIA! I told Aaron that I want to change our wedding destination from Mexico to South Africa, just so that we could get married on this park reserve.  Probably won’t happen, but I will explain why it was so amazing.  First, we met our driver Scott, whom immediately was friendly and excited to take us into the forest to see the wild. After about five minutes into the tour, he stops the car and tells us to get out.  What?!? We all follow him, trusting that all is well; he asks us to tell him what we see around us; well it was hard because of all the trees, some people said trees, others said rocks, dirt, flowers, etc. Scott told us that we forgot to mention the lions right over there, as he points to the lions about 500 meters from us!!!!!! Then instructs us not to react; wow, there stood 5 female lions grazing on a zebra that they captured and killed the day before. They were so consumed with their food, that they didn’t even notice us. We got back into the land cruiser and drove closer.  I had one rule on this trip, and it was not to get eaten by a lion! I was staying in the car! So we drove up and spent a few minutes learning about lions and how they capture their prey (see photos). 

It was such an unbelievable start to this trip! This really set the stage for what was to come.  

After about an hour through the forest, Scott points to me and says, “Hey Stellina, I want you to be our tracker. Go ahead and hop out of the land cruiser!” I said, Scott, I really don’t want to get eaten by a lion! He reassured all of us that lions were not in this area (we had just gone through an electric gated area) because there were rhino and other endangered animals that they wanted keep away from the lions. I felt better and got out of the vehicle. He had me sit on the roof of the truck and be the “wildlife spotter” aka “tracker.” I sat on the roof and looked ahead for animals, only finding carcass of past animals that remained after suffering as prey to another. Scott stopped the car and said it was time for a snack. He trots over to a termite pile like a kid in a candy store, rips off a mound of dirt and starts placing termites in his mouth. OMG! Then he tells us to do it; without hesitation, many people just started eating the mites! 

Of course, I was dumbfounded as to why this was so desirable.  Since Scott liked to pick on me, he forced me to eat a termite! Yikes! At least I can say I did it! We continued on into the forest spotting tons of wildlife, including rhinos, monkeys, African antelope, zebras, ostrich, and giraffes. 

 After the sun began to set, we headed to an old stable for tea and roosterbread (amazing SA bread!). Some of us climbed a tree, then headed off to see the hippos and crocodiles at nightfall and then to dinner.  To our surprise, we hear this loud roar over the sound of our engine. It was loud enough to startle Scott, so he gets on his 2 way radio to another nearby tour guide. They inform him that a male lion is on the prowl and isn’t too far from us! Scott gets excited because this doesn’t always happen with tours. So we head over to where the lion is supposed to be and WOWOWOWOW! Not more than 10 meters from us roams this huge, male lion, roaring to his family (the females we saw earlier). We travel alongside the lion for a few kilometers; he often glared over at us, it this was perfect timing for my camera to die. Wonderful! I guess I took too many pictures of zebra and didn’t save my battery for the unexpected.  Luckily, I was able to obtain a few good pictures from other students. After we had enough of the lion (which was about an hour), we headed to dinner! It was freezing cold, each of us wrapped in a wool blanket, poncho, and tons of layers. Our dinner was amazing and we even had Mava Pudding for dessert! Please Google this South African dessert! It is to die for! After dinner, we headed back to our land cruisers, and Scott shared his knowledge of the stars and the galaxy; we saw the Milky Way and a ton of star formations. It was beautiful; the sky is so clear in South Africa, not damaged with pollution like we have here in the states. After the stars, we headed back to the front where we saw the lions at the beginning; the male joined back up with his ladies, grazing on the zebra. It was a great day at Schotia! I was one with nature, literally, and had an amazing time! I told Aaron we must return and stay on the reserve in the bungalows; they looked absolutely stunning on the hillside, overlooking the wildlife. 

GrassRoots: On Friday, I went to GrassRoots to collect data.  GrassRoots is an American organization that uses Soccer to educate school children about HIV and AIDS.  This is a longitudinal, three year study, that looks at how their program contributes to the rise or fall of HIV contraction among the youth.  The folks at GrassRoots were very kind and helpful with my research, as fellow researchers often help one another out, since data collection can be challenging at time. I was grateful for their support!

On Saturday, a few of us headed out to a place in Port Elizabeth called SeaView; this is a wildlife reserve that allows you to come in and play with the lions, tigers, leopards, hyenas, etc.  I’m no fool; I don’t play with dangerous animals, so I opted to hang outside their cages, watching all the others risk their lives. I took photos through the fences and still had an amazing time.  I called Aaron while I was there, asking him if I was being silly for not going into the cages, and he said something along the lines of, no and he really wanted me to come home, so I knew I made a rational decision! (see photos)

On Sunday, another group of us took a bus about 3 hours to a city known as Titsikamma; here you can bungee jump off the tallest bungee site in the world; zipline through the forest, spotting wildlife along the way; or ride/handout with the elephants.  I opted for the elephants (see www.elephantsanctuary.co.za)! It was amazing. Since it was so windy, no surprise there, we weren’t able to ride the elephants, but we were able to walk hand in trunk with them. It was amazing! (see photos)

House of Resurrection!

I spoke with Pastor Nicolette, who has agreed to have me come in and ask the mommas to complete my questionnaire on 8-7-12.  I should probably start by saying that House of Resurrection, formally known as AIDS Haven, is an orphanage for abandoned children whom are either affected by or infected with HIV or AIDS.  When we first visited this location (during our first week), I knew I couldn’t be placed here without being an emotional basket case.  See, Pastor Nicolette told us about some of the ways in which they obtained some of the 35 children in the home.  One little boy was found in a black garbage bag, in a dumpster, at two years old; his hands and feet were bound together so that he couldn’t free himself; shame! The youngest child, a little girl is who is now 15 months old, was also found in a garbage bag when she was only a few days old.  I got to hold her for a few hours the other day; soaking her in; looking into her eyes, wondering how someone could just throw her away! I feel so much hate for that mother or father, but then I also have no idea what it must be like to grow up and live in such circumstances; in a lot of these cases, women are raped and infected with HIV/AIDS; if their family finds out they are pregnant, they can be stoned to death, and the family could also suffer negative consequences for having a daughter that got pregnant. They must abandon their babies out of pure fear and disgrace.  Back to the story, we got to play with the kids for a few hours after they got home from school; they just love seeing white people and Americans of all colors.  Apparently my eye color really struck them as unusual and many of them asked me if they were mine or the lenses :). Sweet, yet modern in their thinking! 

Like I said above, while at House of Resurrection (HOR), I  was able to study all the mommas; the mommas are volunteer women who spent 3-4 days per week away from their family, and live on the property with the children.  Each momma has six kids in a house; and each set of six kids has two mommas that alternate nights.  This helps them grow-up in more of a structured, normal life, rather than a traditional orphanage.  The mommas care for these children like they are their own, many of which they have raised from just a few weeks old, all the way to 18 years (the adoption rate is low since many of them are infected).  I had a great time at House of Resurrection and I have a lot of respect for these women for dedicating their lives to giving abandoned children a rather normal, structured life.

Last Week's Recap

On Wednesday last week, Nuala, the program director at NMMU, set up a time for me to follow a local dentist (Dr. Piasha Pillay)! It was an amazing experience! She answered all my questions about the government’s plan to grant oral healthcare plans to everyone, regardless of income. Like I thought, this plan has been a dream for the last 15 years and to date no one has seen any signs of actually implementing it.  I didn’t really know what to expect since most people in South Africa do not go to the dentist; they see oral hygiene as a luxury and would rather feed their families then seek preventative oral care. For instance, where I am volunteering at Missionville, a worker had a toothache and went into the bathroom and just pulled his own tooth out..done..fixed he said.  WOW! Many people do not have teeth because they remove them when they hurt; I guess similar to a hangnail for us!  

So back to Dr. Piasha and her patients.  We saw three patients. Three…that is it.  Only one was on the books and two were walk-ins.  The first lady got fit for dentures, cost about $100 US dollars. The other two patients came in willingly to have a molar removed due to pain. It was funny because prior to them coming in, I asked Dr. Piasha about pulling the teeth vs. fillings.  She said that she would rather fill them; in fact, she said she tries her best to persuade them to allow her to fill the teeth because having them removed decreases their quality of life because it hinders their ability to chew and eat certain foods.  No sooner after she said this lady (35 years) came in, wanting her molar removed. Dr. Piasha asked her to sit down, she numbed the area ONCE!!! And then took this tool that looked like pliers and just yanked the tooth out of her mouth (patient cost, around $40 US dollars).  The lady clutched onto the exam chair and tears streamed down her face. It was a brutal experience for her and for me to watch her in such agony.  Dr. Piasha placed cotton in the area where the tooth was removed and told her to bite down until it stops bleeding (which may take an hour). No stitches. Then she rambled off a bunch of instructions about eating, rinsing, and cleaning the site. The lady didn’t hear a word she said because she was in so much pain.  The entire time this is going on, I keep thinking, “oh my goodness! What a mess! No wonder people come to the dentist in South Africa! If they come in, their experience is terrible and they don’t come back; or they hear these stories from those who have and then they never seek care because of it.”  The lady left and then a man (30 years) came in for the same thing.  Again, Dr. Piasha, didn’t do what she told me about persuading them to fill the tooth, rather than pulling it.  She just numbed him once, and began to pull the tooth.  The man stopped her and said he was going to be sick, he was so nervous! He ran to the bathroom, got sick, regrouped and then returned.  He had heard stories from friends/family about the pain. She told him to settle down and to relax. I told him to take a few deep breaths, and he looked at me and said, “really, yeah right!” He knew what was coming.  When she began, his legs dangled in the air and he put nail marks in the arm rests. True pain! Again, Dr. Piasha rambled off some important home-care instructions (which he didn’t pay attention to) and then told him he could leave.  

After seeing this twice now, I asked her about what she said about pulling vs. filling. She told me that those were “too decayed and calcified”, which they appeared to be because they were about the twice the size of a healthy molar. Sill, in my opinion, educating them on why she has to pull vs. fill the tooth may prompt a cue to action to take better care of your teeth.  I also asked about a helpful take away sheet with information about what to do to clean the site after leaving the office, maybe something that lists how they should take care of the incision site. She said, “if they don’t listen, it’s their problem!” Then my next question, what about infection? Do many patients get infected because they don’t take proper care of the site? She said, absolutely and many people get very sick and develop infected gums. She also told me that most of her patients don’t return for a follow-up because they don’t want to find out they need more treatment done. It was a shame to see what happens here, granted it was only one dentist, I have a feeling this is how it is across the board. She asked me about the prices of care and dental insurance, as well as procedures in the States. I was honest and told her that none of what just happened today would happen back home.  Before treatments, typically we are numbed more than once, and although treatment isn’t very desirable, the initial procedure isn’t as painful as it appears to be here; that pulling a tooth is rare in someone under the age of 50; procedures are a bit more costly in the States and not everyone has dental insurance, so many do pay out of pocket like in South Africa; and many dentists give their patients typed instructions before they leave so that they have something to refer back to once they get home.  

Needless to say, if I had even slight tooth pain while here, I would grin and bear it until arriving in the US.  It was a great experience and helps me make sense of my data that I’ve collected for my dissertation.  Many people noted that they do not seek care at the dentist because of pain. They have either heard stories from others or had bad past experiences at the dentist. I offered Dr. Piasha the suggestion of providing patients with an informative sheet after a procedure, but I don’t suspect that she will actually implement it. Shame.

So, the dentist experience was informative and beneficial to understand the culture and care here in South Africa.  After that, I flew to Druban, South Africa! Durban is where the South African’s vacation to (similar to our Florida or California).  Durban is on the cost and is warm all year long! Perfect for this freezing lady! I traveled with Kayla, Chrissy, and Sheila. We spent four days there soaking up the sun (still too chilly to get in the ocean), shopping, exploring another South African City, and visiting our program director's mother and family whom live in Durban. Kayla and I went on a safari (see photos) and had a blast! We were the only ones on our open-air tour truck! We had a blast and found it very hard to return to the fidget cold Port Elizabeth.

Laggard Blogger...

Blame the slow and unreliable internet connection! Wow, the internet is one thing that I miss dearly.
I am pleased to say that the last week has been full of excitement and culture. Let me start from the beginning of last week, Monday, July 23, my dear friend Alana's bday :).  Well, this was the first day of our community site visits...I was assigned as a floater among all sites so that I have a large subject pool for my dissertation data collection, great! I started off at Missionville Township School. This is a school surrounded by shacks and serves a place for disadvantaged children to grow and learn. All great things, except for Pastor Russel (the principal) who is a bit full of it. He has been super unreliable and honestly is wasting our time (I change sites next week, thank goodness :)).  Instead of helping with the children, we are promoting learned helplessness.  See, Missionville also serves as a center that caters to the poor and needy whom were affected by the apartheid government a few years ago.  These people are all allowed to receive food (2x a day) and clothing (1x a month) from the government. Each day hundreds of people line up and wait to receive these items, then throw their trash (from the food) on the ground.  All they do is wait and sit. Get up and do something! The government services are not helping them at all; these acts of kindness aren't actually doing these people any good.How about make them work for their food, or sit in in an educational class/lecture for an hour or so, then get food? there's a thought! Wow, makes me really sad when I see how hard others work here (e.g., carrying heavy items on their heads, taking care of sick children, etc.). I guess I got to get a taste of the real South Africa after Apartheid.
Anyway, there is this one really nice lady at Missionville who works in the school; her name is Geraldine and she is the one and only lunch lady.  Her job is to prepare breakfast and lunch for the 200 children (the only two meals these kids receive each day; most do not eat at home due to their parents being drunks and unemployed). In the morning she prepares porridge and in the afternoon, some type of sandwich and artificial juice. I help her with the lunch work and have actually taught her a few things. The lunch schedule rotates between bread, butter, and shredded cheese sandwiches, bread butter, and peanut butter sandwiches, and bread, butter, and sardines.  Sick! So I asked her why so much butter? What's the point? The kids aren't malnourished; they don't need the added fat. So I introduced the idea of PB&J! Who would have thought this would be a new phenomenon in South Africa! She and the children loved it! No butter either:).  Next mission, get rid of the Kool-Aid drink, but it's baby steps.

On Thursday we went into an even poorer township and spent the night at a backpackers lodge. Here we spent time with the Momma's again and even visited a few homes of local artists. It was really sad to see their living conditions but inspirational at the same time because of the beautiful art they produce.
The Momma's all filled out my survey! Woo Hoo! got about 15 participants from that sample. This was an interesting experience because most of these women, average age of 65, couldn't read; so I read each question to them and helped them fill out the survey. I appreciated their support and they enjoyed taking it too!  The momma's also asked a local dance team to come in and do some traditional dancing (See pictures below). Some of the dancers also took my survey! That's right...I'm gonna graduate!

Saturday we headed about three hours west to an Afrikaans farm (Afrikaans are the white people, the majority of which are farmers who have a lot of money). The girls stayed on one farm (about 6000 acres) and the guys stayed on another (about 4000 acres) that was near by.  It was unbelievable what we saw; tons of wildlife, natural waterfalls and springs, and natural trails. These farmers also had domestic workers, similar to slaves, which was really sad.
The house I stayed at was one of a game hunter; his wall of pride out does my fathers; but he did extend an invitation for the men in my life to travel back, stay with him, and go game hunting.  See pictures below; we also did some target shooting and went on a ride into the woods during the late night to see the animals in their prime. Very cool! Very COLD!

Well, I am about to head a bit north to Durban, South Africa.  This is were the South African's vacation to.  I'm staying on North Beach and look forward to a bit warmer weather, a new city to explore, and hopefully my first warm shower in weeks :).  I will try and update this blog while there if the internet is stronger. TaTa for now...

Pure South Africa

A poem in celebration of Nelson Mandela Day