This week’s work brings us to Cato Crest primary school where the challenge of teaching our peers at the University of Zululand shift to wide-eyed questioning fifth graders. Our small new-found friends are changing our perception of HIV; they are literally transforming statistics into living faces. There is a quote by Desmond Tutu on the back of our program t-shirt that says: “My humanity is caught up; it is inextricably bound up, in yours.” Here, now, it is evident that the issue of HIV goes far beyond “them” or “those people” and it rather rests in all of us. Humanity. We are now in Durban, a fast paced city that echoes the sensibility of Ann Arbor. It is vastly different from the rural close knit family of the University of Zululand. I find myself wondering what making a difference looks like. Is it a bag carried for an elderly person or a long conversation with a good friend? This is something I have wrestled with a lot this past week. What I find interesting about what we are doing is how much we, as American students learn. How difficult is it to understand the dichotomy of receiving from those who have less; those who are “oppressed.”
As my students taught the module in front of the entire school I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. Cato Crest genuinely opened their hearts to receive us and it shone brightly in their enthusiasm towards teaching. Why is it in the poorest places we find the deepest generosity? The entire Cato Crest culture is that of perseverance. My chest fills with air knowing that we aren’t the Americans here to take and simply observe misfortune. I reflect on the number of students we taught and truly see the success of our work. While not every student gets the opportunity to share the module in an assembly in front of their peers, they are still transformed by the mere learning experience. It happens at the very moment that our students realize they themselves can be teachers, that as eleven year olds they have the power to empower. The HIV prevention module reached an estimated 4,500 people last year.
My ability to wholly articulate these experiences are proving difficult at best. How can I explain the feeling I got when 900 young people shouted to show their appreciation for us and what we were doing? I can’t. How about trying to describe the feeling I got when I stared into the eyes of 17 Cato Crest kids who in the last 6 months lost both their parents to HIV? That can’t be put into words either. It is like trying to describe the sound of a feeling… No matter what I told you, it still can’t be explained.
Brown Rod, teammate of Pedagogy of Action, 2007
The group at Shakaland
Bharat is the only student missing since he insisted on taking the picture with his camera :)
Week 1 - Unizul
Mama Gugu, Nesha, Mama Zethu
Introductory Meeting
A meeting with the Rector of Unizul
We visited Shakaland, a traditional Zulu Village, and were learning about the structure in this picture
We headed to Mtunzini Beach for some fun in the sun after a long week of travel and meetings
Even though it was a day off, we did not forget our Pedagogy!
A group of students learning the module at the University of Zululand
We were just coming back from our first day of teaching!
Bharat, Christina, Lydia and Lys with a group of our students
Step Routine by Zakiyah, Erika and Brown that we performed for the graduation ceremony
Some of our students and their certificates
Our four wonderful assistants presenting Mama Gugu with a gift
Right before we got on the bus to Durban
Week 2 - Durban
Our welcome sign at the Rainsgrove Lodge
Marissa, Jerry, Erika and students at Mayville Primary
Erika and her students at Mayville
Brown and his students at Cato Crest Primary
Cato Crest students and their certificates for doing a great job!
Week 3 - Cape Town
On Robben Eiland
We met Mr. Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years in prison fighting for the new South Africa, and his former warden after our tour of Robben Eiland
Mr. Kathrada's quote
The building where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after getting out of prison
Cape Point
Cape of Good Hope, the most South Eastern Point of Africa!
Pedagogy of Action Ladies Posing at the most Southern Tip of Africa! (Where was Lydia?!)
Week 4 - Johannesburg
A student teaching back the module in Pidgin English at University of Witwatersrand
Nesha, Lebethe and Gita handing out certificates at the Wits graduation
The Crest of the Constitutional Court, which represents the traditional way that rules were made in South Africa, under trees.
Inside the Consitutional Court