In conclusion…

So im going to warn you that this may seem melodramatic, so forgive me, but I wanted to use this post to try to sum up the trip and talk about where the documentary is going from here etc.

Im going to start by saying that the chasm that lies between the developed nations and those that i visited in Africa is enormous. There is a deep and profound disconnect that exists, where there should be truth and understanding. Through the media people in the ‘west’ have a view of africa as somehow unhuman and inferior. The reality is that i think people want to dissociate themselves from the issues because contronting them is too difficult. You even see it in Africa; in Joburg people live in their multi-million dollar homes and drive their bentley’s 15 minutes away families are dying one by one of a disease thats treatable with ARVs and they feel no moral obligation to help.

The kinds of things that people have gone through, are going through or will have to go through are more than i can fathom. While i was in africa, the billboards promoting abstinence and aids awareness, the free HIV testing facilities in train stations, the stories that i heard in interviews with kids that had been orphaned by aids; none of it really sunk in. But now, after having left its slowly creeping forward. The reality of the situation becomes real because I have a stark comparison in front of me wherever i look. The scary thing is that no matter what I write, what stories I tell, or what arguments I make, you wont get it. I dont even get it yet, but im beginning to.

What frightens me is that i know how i feel right now but will i mask it in a month? will i try to fiorget about the kid who at 22 had been looking after his 5 siblings for the past 6 years after his parents died of aids? Will i think of the two girls who had to bury their mother outside the fron door of their hut because they didnt have the money for a burial, while i eat a meal that costs the same amount as thier school fees for a year? I dont know. I think that there is a balance that will emerge, but right now i dont know how its going to work.

In regards to my documentary, Ive realised that the issues that i was going to touch on are bigger than i could have imagined and i need to rethink the whle thing. -more on that later.

Id like to end on a high note though. I met a woman in swaziland who works for SOS childrens villages. We were walkiong back toward the village after having visited a family whos hut the organisation had replaced with a two room bulding for the 5 member family. I asked her how difficult it was keeping people motivated and positive when you have 70,000+ aids orpans in a country with only 1.2 million people. What she said was that, “HIV/AIDS has given Swazi’s the the oppotunity to come together, for them to confront the problems and work to solve them as a collective unit.”

Hearing that statement from someone in a country where 45% of the population is HIV+ was shocking to me. If she and the people in her community can be optimistic and dilligent in fighting these issues, why cant I, or anyone else?

Leaving Africa

So this visit is over. It went by so fast but at the same time i feel like its been months since i first landed.

Over the last couple of days things have gone well. The group from sauder and I went back up to swazi to go on safari for the night. It was amazing. Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos. Very cool. 

We also tried to go to Mozambique yesterday morning, and were all punped to see the indian ocean, but it didnt quite work out. We got all the way to the border, got our passports stamped, and when we went to get through the border crossing we found out that Avis has banned their cars from entering the country. ya. not cool. So we began the journey back through swazi to joburg.

I also saw a wild warthog. i think it was the ugliests cutest animal ive ever seen. you figure that out.

Ill write a summary about the trip later though because i cant really articulate it yet.

B

Tuesday

So its tuesday today. I have one more day here in Joburg and them am off to Swaziland again for two days before flying back to Vancouver. Nothing too exciting has happened recently. We’re writing up our report for the Aids ministry today and will submit it tomorrow.

I interviewed a guy yesterday who has worked for several aid organisations in afrtica and the picture that he and other people have painted for me in regards to African aid is depressing. Very depressing. Its interesting being here as a foreigner wanting to help, yet seeing africans who themselves have no interest in contributing to the solution. Its a much more complex and conveluted problem than i could have ever have anticipated.

I also had my camera(picture not video) stolen off me the day before last which has been demoralising, but everything happens for a reason. eughh.

we’re going to see a musical tonight which i think is called Imojo or something like that. It should be great. Its about life in SA during apartheid.

Brent

Death by Springbok

OK so i learned a couple things in the past couple days:

- Dont try to get through a toll booth at night outside joburg with a Canadian cerdit card… they dont take them and if you dont have cash they’ll tell you to stand on the side of the highway and ask people for money as they drive past.

- Sitting in the back of a pickup truck on side roads in swaziland sounds fun but can be very unsetttling.

- speaking of roads; there isnt a highway to swazi from joburg, its all side roads that arent lit.

- on lighting: dont rent a car from avis beucase the lights may need to be adjusted and you could be driving blind in rural africa.

- avoid walking around in Alex(outside joburg) with a camcorder; people “make calls’ and let thugs know where you are so they can mug you. luckily there are also very kind people in the area who will tel you if you’ve been “called in” so you can run the hell out.

- chicken livers are very popular here. i dont know why.

- From the individuals that i have met, the members of the Swazi royal family are great.

- and lastly, when driving in africa, keep your eeys peeled for springboks; they seem to like to dart in front of VW polos carrying Canadian tourists on unlit highways. Death by sprinkbok would not be a good way to go.

brent

Back to Swaziland

Firstly, id like to apologize for all my spelling mistakes; apparently mo wants to fix them for me. I have limited time online and to scroll up and down takes time because the internet and the computers are so slow where we are.

Ill be heading back to Swaziland tomorrow for meetings and interviews with the head of an aids organization and a local business leader. We have the day off from work at the aids ministry because it is Womens Day in South Africa tomorrow. We’ll be driving, and its about a 3 hour drive.

About the ministry: We were asked to help with the organizational structure, and we have a rediculous amount of work to do. Yesterday we had all of the employees together and i led a discussion on the values of the orgqanizationa nd any problems that the people felt were inhibiting the success of teh ministry. There was waaaaaay too much silence. The end result after 3 hours was a good one though. I hope that we can have a positive impact but at this point I have doubts as to wether our reccomendations will be adopted, as the currect system(or non-system) is firmly entrenched.

I also met a guy through the ministry that colenteers at an organization in Soheto to teach kids skills in art so that they can express tehmselves and create products that they can sell in order to put themselves through school. 

Im out of time but I hope i can add pistures soon.

Brent

Ikageng Itireleng Aids Ministry

Today was my first day working at the aids ministry. Mama Carol is the woman that started the organisation 5 years ago and told us her story before we start working with the staff. Long story short, a childs mother died of aids, as had his father and he asked her to help pay for his mothers burial as they had no money. She didnt have any money to spare so she put an ad in the local newspaper asking for financial support. She received enough money, and was able to pay for the funeral, but with the money, also came a flood of calls from other children whos parents had died and who either couldnt pay for a funeral or had been left in their homes with no parents, money or food. She started the ministry to care for these kids and now supports over 1,700 kids.

Im not going to go into detail about everything to do with the ministry, but i wanted to tell two stories. The first one highlights the needs of the kids that are supported by mama carol and the ministry… There was a girl that came into the office and was introduced to us. Mama Carol then started telling us her story. She was at home with her father 3 years ago when her mother came home after discovering that her father was HIV+ but hadnt told her. She attacked the father, stabbing him 48 times infront of her daughter. She was then imprisoned and the girl was taken into the care of the ministry. The girl only recently started talking to her mother who is still in prison, and two weeks ago she was diagnosed with AIDS. She is now in the hospital dying of meningitis requesting that her daughter take care of her. The girl is almost finished high school and came into the office becuase she wants to finish high school but feel obligated to help her mother. Does she take care of her mother and fail high school, or does she leave her mom alone to study and write her exams. I cant even imagine. so thats number one.

 The second story… The ministry is short on money. They pick up and drop off some students for school because some kids live as far as 15km from their schools and because it can be unsafe for the kids to walk. They were trying to determine which kids could walk to school and one girl suggested that she and her younger sister could walk to school in the summer but in the winter when it was dark they could be driven. Although it was not ideal, the ministry was facing severe funding shortages and decided that it was an acceptable position. The next morning on their walk to school, both girls were raped.

Ill add more soon. – Brent

Johannesburg

I got into Johannesburg yesterday from Swaziland and met up with the rest of the team from UBC that im going to be working with on our projects here. I also heard more about teh orphanage where ill be working. I posted the link to t heir website a couple days ago. Joburgs a big crazy city. huge contrast, which is expected but no less strange at the same time. We’re staying in an area called parktown which is pretty nice, and its fairly central. We also went to the apartheid museum which was an experience. ill expand later. B

Kids, Glass and Planes.

Yesterday we were taken on a tour with one of the women from SOS to several villages in rural Swaziland to see some of the work they have been doing in the communities and meet some of the people. All of the sites we vid\sited were child headed households. The first such case was a home where the eldest was 22 and had been caring for his 5 younger siblings since he was 15 years old. Both of his parents had died of aids. A second stop brought us to the house of three girls who had lost their mother 2 years previous to aids. She is burried outside the front door of their 2 room house.

The trip yesterday was really hard. in part because its difficult to imagine what these young people ahve been through, and in part because I felt like a complete idiot. I asked the 22 year-old with the 5 siblings what he thought of us being in swaziland and possibly sending more students for development projects and it was explained to me that there have been so many people that have gone on the same tour, have promised the world and haev vanished without word, that they dont expect anything from us. It was a silent ride in the bus for a while after that.

On a lighter note, I met a couple from London who are here in Mbabane taking part in a glass blowing workshop and who invited me and Lisa(yes its proper english for me to say ‘me’) to a dinner and auction last night. The event was held on the workshop floor. I cant imagine it ever taking place in vancouver because someone would be sued. Although nothing happened last night i just picture the synthetic in some womans lululemon pants catching fire as she walked by one of the furnaces. There were about 20 peices that were being auctioned off, and the master glass blower from swaziland, and two dutch glass blowers all made peices as we ate that went up for auction immediately after they were finished. We werent aware that you cant call cabs in Swazi, so at about midnight we were invited to sleep at the workshop. Interesting to say the least.

OK, so planes: We’re heading to Joburg today on another flight and the thought of climing into another tiny prop plane makes me want to hurl. Once we get to joburg we’re meeting up with the team from Sauder and Ill start my work with the aids orphanage on monday.

gotta run. later. – Brent

Swaziland…

So after 40 hours in transit and a breif stop in London, I got to Swaziland on wednesday. Im staying Mbabane, which is the second largest city in Swaziland. The overwhelming majority of the population lives in rural areas. the total ppulation is bout 1.5 million; only 200,000 live near the cities. When we flew into Swaziland the country was fighting several forest fires and the smoke was so thick that our pilot almost coulnd land the plane… not a good feeling. Lisa was trying to convince me that is was all just dust. Uh huh.

The day aftere we got in, we met with representatives from an oganization called SOS and they toured us through their facilities for young kids and orphans. The accomidate about 200 kids at tehir schools. In Swaziland right now there are between 60,000-70,000 orphans. The issues are daunting. Swaziland also has the highest percentage of HIV AIDS in the world – approximately 45% of teh population. One of the biggest obstacles is that it is a highly religous culture. Rape is increasing in te region as many men beeive that if they have sex with a virgin that they will be cured. Girls as young as 4 are being raped and infected.

 We are here for two more days; I wish it was longer. the people are amazing and teh hope and resilience that is present here is phenomenal. -B