South Africa, Cape Town, First Impressions

South Africa, Cape Town

After living in the Dominican Republic for 33 months, I went to Indianapolis for about five days then journeyed off for my first trip ever to what my friend Laura calls the “Mamma Africa” and on to the small coastal town of Cape Town. Cape Town South Africa! Never in a million years would I have thought I would arrive here in Mamma Africa. It always seemed so distant, foreign and unreachable. Africa was the place for, well I don’t know really what I had made up, however it was just too far removed from my experience. I think I had put up economic barriers, like usual, along with which came a variety of other barriers (mostly psychic and make believe but man those seem so darn real sometimes) which really aren’t helping anything or anyone in the long run.

Anyway, perhaps you aren’t reading this necessarily to see the inner/outer workings of my thought processes. I’m going to take a stab at doing this blog again, to keeping you updated to my physical, emotional, professional, cultural and various other meanderings.

To catch you up on my life most recently, one of the projects I worked on in the Peace Corps Dominican Republic was an HIV prevention curriculum based on teaching basic HIV knowledge through the use of games, activities and fun. The curriculum was developed by Grassroot Soccer, an NGO based in South Africa, and we (Peace Corps DR and DREAM Project) adapted the lessons to fit the cultural context of the DR and named the curriculum Deportes para la Vida or Sports for Life. The lessons are simple, easy to teach, easy to learn and in the end of each lesson a simple preventative message is taught. In addition, the program is not only a curriculum, but also a leadership development program. Typically the lessons are taught by host country nationals, in my case by Dominicans, Haitains or Dominico-Haitianos. The local leaders, whom at the end of the five day training earn the title of trainers or coaches, are taught the program methodology through the five day course which includes teach backs, a variety of ice-breakers, leadership, planning and becoming part of a larger community of volunteer leaders. The trainings and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the coaches are supported by the DREAM Project (a local Non-Governmental Organization or NGO) and the Peace Corps Dominican Republic. I had the good fortune to work with the program delivery (teaching) for essentially my entire service. I was directly associated in working on program administration and delivery with the inspiring National Director of the Sports for Life initiative who is a DREAM Project employee. Throughout my project I collaborated with a great number of highly dedicated, motivated and passionate Volunteers, staff and Dominicans.

In the DR we have literally BLOWN UP (this is a good thing) this program by developing a large number of trainers who partner with Peace Corps Volunteers in their communities to teach the program. We have seen success implementing the curriculum in terms of number of youth reached (the target age range for recipients is 12 to 18) and number of trainers/coaches developed. Peace Corps Dominican Republic, in partnership with DREAM Project, had developed a leadership and incentivizing structure which includes a way to move up the ladder to becoming the next level coach. I have seen some incredible growth amongst the youth leaders who at each step of the way are able to take on more responsibility, leadership and ownership of the program.

That’s the short of it…I’ll write more about it when I get down to finally writing my masters paper…

So, through what I call my good fortune, I was offered an opportunity to come to Cape Town, South Africa to spend a week with the Grassroot Soccer staff before heading off to Equatorial Guinea as a “Consultant” on one of the Grassroot Soccer programs in development here on the great “Mamma Africa.”

The flight to Africa was surprisingly smooth. With the exception of a two and a half hour delay at the commencement of my flight in Indianapolis, all of my connections were well timed and the international airlines have their shit together. I got food and tons of it (I can’t even venture to remember the last time I received one full meal on an airplane much less three), all you can drink beer and wine (I only took advantage of having a couple beers) and the movies and television were all you could watch. Needless to say, I felt like a kid in a candy store, much like I felt for the entire week in Cape Town.

Upon arrival in Cape Town, my first impressions of the GRS staff was absolutely incredible; warm, friendly, kind, sincere, authentic, energetic, professional and fun. Whether or not the office climate is truly that way when there isn’t a conference or major event is to be determined, nevertheless they seem to know how to put on a good face. I immediately felt welcomed both professionally and personally. I spent a week representing the Dominican Republic, Deportes Para la Vida, Peace Corps DR and DREAM Project (despite not being directly asked to do so by any of the organizations nor GRS, I just did it).

The conference I attended has been developed to connect the GRS programs operating throughout Africa and allows their leaders the opportunity to meet, share best practices, discuss solutions to common problems and overall participate in the family atmosphere of GRS. Included in the conference were representatives from Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia and South Africa. GRS operates in partnership with either local NGO’s or have fully developed an Affiliate program in these countries.

I was able to take advantage of getting to know my Equatorial Guinean project partner a little more and learning about the multi-faceted GRS operation on the continent of Africa was, to say the least, exciting and stimulating. Throughout the entire week I felt encouraged to express my opinion, fully participate in the conference and generally get to know the GRS culture. The environment created was just what I needed coming off of a three year stint as PCV. While in Peace Corps I did experience aspects of what I will call “learning culture” it definitely did not permeate throughout Peace Corps. While it is possible I have been blinded by my excitement upon arrival to “Mamma Africa,” I trust my feelings to guide my experiences and I have an optimistic feeling about it.

One of the commonly shared frustrations amongst program managers was difficulty in motivating volunteer coaches and specifically how much to pay them, if anything. After struggling with this very issue with our Dominican Republic program for the last year of my Peace Corps Service, it was reassuring to note we aren’t the only program feeling as such. While GRS doesn’t offer any tried and true solution to any issue (they certainly do not offer a one size fits all answer), I was encouraged to learn GRS has organized a Coach Development curriculum and are invested in the coaches learning and futures beyond working in the capacity of program delivery.

I was quite simply excited, honored and felt very fortunate to be the Dominican Republic representative chosen to come to the Promised Land of GRS. We speak often of GRS in the DR and to actually see and experience the oft referred to office, meeting the founders and the experiencing the caring staff was like going to Mecca for me and likely would be the same for many of my fellow PCV’s and DPV colleagues. I perhaps have seemed to put GRS on a pedestal, making them out to be this wonderful and perfect group of people, perhaps they are. Nevertheless, if I have put them on a pedestal, they asked me to join them on that podium as part of their family and firmly embraced me with thoughtfulness, support and love on my journey.