Karma Kounts

Friday, July 5, 2013

Getting oriented a few days in...

After a brief worrying about my team not arriving when they had guessed they would, a quick call with our Charlottesville contact, and a restless night’s sleep, the next morning brought me to breakfast with my team. They had decided to stay at the casino’s hotel in town- quite nice having walked up to the rooms after breakfast. The breakfast was a full and warm one, which was a nice change since I had put-off buying eggs until after the group decided on more finalized living spaces. We chatted about what we might expect for the day of orientation and what would- maybe- be required of us.

Upon arrival at University of Venda, we went to the new Life Sciences Building (since the orientation pamphlet suggested that was where the day’s events were going to be held). Upon arrival we made our way to an empty conference room full of chairs. It was a few more minutes before someone ran into the room slightly out of breath and led us to the place morning events would be occurring. The Senate Room is about 200 seats of blue high backed chairs in an auditorium style, but to get into the room, we pass through a cheering, singing crowd of students from the health sciences department (probably mostly nursing students since they are the only ones not on their winter holiday at the moment). They clapped and waved like we were a band of celebrities walking into the building, and it was an interesting and mildly strange dynamic for such an academic setting. Then, after we had all entered the students came in to perform a welcome song for all of the guests. This included us, some district managers (government people), university professors and surely more that were not introduced or whom I missed the introduction for. The scene and the noise was definitely overwhelming after being in the villages and sitting in Acacia’s tranquil porch listening to chirping birds and cars passing by on the road a bit away.

The day’s orientation included quick descriptions of University of Venda (UniVen), of the Water and Health in Limpopo Project, of South Africa’s Limpopo Province and then there was a Culture/Language crash course after lunch. The different sessions were broken-up by riddles that we UVA students were then put on the spot to answer then and there. They were so easy that you felt guilty about answering them, because if you were wrong you’d look really foolish, but either way it was a funny way to put people in the hotseat. They also sang to us which was fun and we did catch on fast enough to sing it back at them, which was cute and clever, but it all just felt so socially necessary. So what do I mean by socially necessary? Scripted, required, acted out, and yet so very different than our traditional orientations in the states- so we were of course just following seeming pressure and assumed expectation.

The lectures were helpful indeed, and by the end of the day my head was full of things that I had learned from the lectures, from traveling into a village the day before my team arrived, and just talking with Sid. Our team is going to be doing more of a training manual/training session than I had realized coming into the project. I am glad that we have a few people who know a bit more than me about chronic disease around now, but it will be very interesting to see how my public health brain works in the context of the individual health and practitioner views. In some ways, I have been doing stuff like this from a 20000 ft view already in different issues, and so the same theories and practices should apply.

The day also included lunch which was delicious and included the most local of dishes, Pap, chakalakya, chicken, sausage, veggies and rice. We had a mingling session just before lunch, and after getting our food first and heading downstairs to eat it, the group of 4^th years we had been talking with mostly dispersed. It was nice to meet them all- very friendly people, yet it was strange to me we didn’t spend the time getting to know the 3^rd year students we will be working alongside in the field. Many photos, lectures, smiles and introductions later, we were on our way back to Acacia for our 4^th of July braai (bbq)- hosted by Sid and I (momma bear as I am getting a name for).

While the night involved no fireworks that didn’t come straight off the charcoal being pushed around with a stick, the food was fabulous! Sid’s friends from South Africa made pap and the chakalakya, I worked on some pasta and then guacamole with Chris (my newest roommate), and then others brought over rice, chickpea salad, and corn so much other food I can’t even think of it all! The wine and beer lasted and by the end of the night everyone was exhausted and happy. It was good to see so many smiles around and even as a crowd headed to the casino, I knew it was definitely time for me to get some sleep after the fullest day of my time here yet!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Snippets and Snapshots: 10 Highlights from Uganda so far

Snippets and Snapshots: 10 Highlights from Uganda so far: My time in Uganda is flying by. I can't believe it's been five weeks already. Here are ten great things about my experience that I h...

This blog makes me homesick for Uganda.... missing the cuties, the family, and the freedom to roam around!

North of the South's Wild Side

Limpopo, Venda, South Africa….where are you going? So the best way to describe where I am at is that I am in the more northeastern district of South Africa. Now in that province is pretty large, but I am in a town called Thohoyandou if you really want to map it. The place isn’t too rural, though is clearly near places that are quite rural. We have a Shoprite and an Oasis grocery store nearby ask well as a post office and phone store, but technically I am not supposed to go walking around alone. Shame. One of my favorite things to do is get to know a city by walking. Kampala, Paris, Musanze, Kigali, you name it, I walk it – generally. Guess not here.

This town (which I haven’t seen too much of due to my advised inability to walk) there is a university, a ton of NGOs and clearly a lot of UVA students. Our lodge alone will be hosting more than ten (who are accompanied by other university students from the States). There is a mosque from which the call to prayer broadcast over loud speakers each day and evening in its beautiful melodies.

Monkeys. Now the monkeys of our lodge are EVERYWHERE, and the little bandits ran in and out with a loaf of bread yesterday from one of the other student’s cabins. While bad, what was worse was that once the spoiled loaf had been recovered, it was fed to the monkeys reinforcing the “steal food, get food” mentality that these monkeys. Having said that, they are adorable! Having been spending the majority of my time at the house, these crazy little monkeys and their less devious black tip ferrets have been providing me quite the array of amusement.

Luckily, it has not all be about the monkeys. Since I have been getting to know the other students lodging at the same place as me, the weekend was filled with making those friendships. Not only did we have a braai or cookout on Saturday (including a croc and bird watching experience), but we spent Sunday doing a day safari! Of course the rest will be describing these fun little trips rather than actually describing the villages of Limpopo, but that will come with my research team!

The day safari involved a bit of a drive to the Punda Maria gate to Kruger National Park. We paid for our admission (200R) and then after using the pretty nice toilette, we headed back to the car and into the park. It was about that time that we all jokingly said, “so where are the animals?” Within seconds, 3 VERY large elephants came into view directly in front of the car on the tarmac! The first reaction was clearly to hit the break and the second was to pull out cameras and stick them through windows! It was an incredible entrance, but was met by a few other elephant encounters that even put these one’s (lazily crossing the road) to shame.

Our second fabulous elephant encounter (there were other encounters between our entrance and this one) was at the watering hole. We pull up to a y-shaped intersection not quite sure where to go. Seeing another car doing the same we assumed it was for the purpose of being lost as well. On the other side of the jeep across from us, another elephant was splashing water at himself and quite happily drinking from his own trunk! This was incredible, but shortly after we snapped out photos he headed off along the water’s edge. Little did we know that over the next hill, he was meeting about another 8 elephants who were mud-slinging and fighting each other shoulder deep in the waterhole! It was amazing to hear the tusks hitting one another and the force of them moving the water literally out of their way as they roughhoused. It was of course silent without the car engine on, and so all you heard were the elephants and then later the bucking of the zebras that snuck-up behind us!

Overall, the day featured a black back jackal, warthogs, ostriches, giraffes, zebras, impala, wildebeests, baboons, vervet monkeys and goodness knows some beautiful birds! Strange to be a tourist before a local this time around, but without a reason to be in the villages each day, it is hard to get to know one’s surroundings! But the monkeys of our chalets are the vervets we met in the park, and they were equally mischievous! They managed to steal an entire loaf of bread off of our picnic table!!

After lunch, our drive continued and the elephant sightings did, too! We not only saw a stand-off between a Civic sized car and an elephant, but also so the cars behind back-up slowly and get as far away as they possibly could. The elephant was likely trying to make sure that her/his baby could cross the road safely, but what could have been just a crossing guard moment turned into a 15 minute (at least) stand-off with our cars moving slowly backward and the elephant sizing us up. It walked straight toward the car ahead of us, but we managed to continue backing-up to give the one in front safe distance to slam into reverse if they needed to (aka if the elephant decided to charge). Luckily, it did not and moved on.

In Lion King Style the encore involved most everyone- the warthogs, zebras, wildebeests, and of course the elephants- but this time, there was a trick-up its trunk. This elephant managed to knock over a tree in less than 2 minutes. He’d been eating from its lower leaves and decided that the upper ones were just too high up. SO when you weigh a few tons, you just think let me knock this tree over right? Well, apparently for the big old elephant, the answer is yes! The elephant lined up his tusks on either side of the tree and just started to move slowly forward. The cracking of the tree led to an adjustment and a continued moving forward of massive animal against the tree. So with the closing of the gate came dinner time for this hungry elephant…shame that it got dirty in the small poof of dust that flew-up as it fell!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Universality of "the" Dream

So to bring my blog back to text and photos, I want to do a long overdue update. First off, I should say where I actually am- Limpopo, South Africa. Currently, I am spending most of my time getting to know the other students here from UVA and the other American Universities. This is after a long pair of flights from Atlanta to London and London to Johannesburg for a 5.5 hour drive to the Acacia Wildlife Lodge. Who knew that my first and second trips to South Africa would fall in the same summer, and be so very different!

Cape Town deserves some serious mention since it was the month long program that began Graduation Day (and for which I arrived late). The program was focused on qualitative methodologies. By this, I mean it focused on mapping and interviewing locals in the townships of Cape Town. Townships are places that black Africans were forced to live in during the Apartheid regime, and today are still generally forced to live in for more socio-economic reasons. It was definitely quite a disheartening experience to see too little having changed with the end of Apartheid, and to see people talk about the Apartheid period as being just as good or better than the current state of living. Particularly with the illness and love that this country has for “father” Nelson Mandela, it made me have to seriously question what he thinks about what he has accomplished. Did he fight for legal equality only? I don’t believe so, but perhaps he is content with that in the sense that it leaves the future up to his colleagues, but then perhaps he is not content. Perhaps he too is disheartened by the opening of colored and white areas to the black elite. Now, this is not quite as depressing as that might sound- the township residents came from small villages to Cape Town during the late 1980s/early 1990s and settled with the hope of moving-up in the world socio-economically. They saw the townships as their way to economic equality or freedom or, at least a way to help educate their children for a brighter future.

If working in Uganda, Rwanda and here in South Africa has taught me anything, it has taught me that there are ABSOLUTELY no greater gifts than love and education. As a young American, I have been incredibly blessed by both of those things family. It’s easy to take things for granted, and thank-you has been said before, it cannot be said enough. Education has always been something I valued, but its value comes from my family. It was put into the hard work of parents and grandparents, and their hope that it would make life better. Not everyone will see the shadow that is a lack of education, but here in South Africa, it has been incredibly obvious who received a good education, and who did not. There is so much poverty that is created through lack of training, lack of skills, and a lack of flexibility in adapting to one’s situation that there is little one can do to help. Maybe an affirmative action could help the next generation of South Africans, but then again, hope has to remain in the hearts of those living here first. Educating children who can barely be fed from funds of social grants and small incomes are already being shown as parent priorities for their children.

South Africa’s townships are fascinating. They are urban slums with pure running water, and toilets on each property. People own their land, and there are not people talking of utter starvation occurring in their households. It is urban poverty- in some ways, a privileged poverty, but nonetheless people live in corrugated aluminum shacks and/or cinder block houses. They have dogs and walls for protection and drugs have become a rampant problem. There is little that parents can do when they feel there is no respect for elders to stress the importance of education, and my project on women showed that feeling safe- was not even in their vocabulary, but danger was.

Again, people don’t feel hopeless; they impress upon you their future, their problems and their desires for change. They work to bring change and they maintain optimism. Even through physical barriers implemented by city planners of Apartheid, people move to the city full of sky scrapers and beautiful natural parks, hikes, hotels, aquariums, marinas, tourism, and homes. There is room for poverty. Cape Town caught me by surprise by being so similar to the US and yet so African: arts markets, refugees, fear of Western Culture, variety of languages, racial suspicion, baboon patrols and even its linguistic clicks. The American dream is really the human dream. It was Gandhi's dream, MLK's dream, Mandela's dream and is that of so many others around the globe. In many ways, this is the most important lesson learned- it’s not American; it is universal. Hope.