“No gift given in love and accepted in gratitude is small” - Anonymous
After a full night’s sleep (the first for many on the team) and an all-American (or is it South African) breakfast, we commenced our orientation. Despite much talking and getting off track, we managed to set our goals for this service program, which are: to be an ambassador, to meet new people and build friendships, to learn about the culture and environment; to serve the community and to have fun.
This team loves to laugh so we met our final goal immediately, which led us to define our characteristics of an effective team. We adopted Don’s acronym for Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) and outlined the characteristics as:
Gentleness, sense of humor, communication with tact and kindness, trust and honesty, respect, consideration, listening, doing one’s share, responsibility, common courtesy, enthusiasm, flexibility, cooperation, patience, teamwork and lots of smiles.
As topics arose, we volunteered for (or were assigned to) various responsibilities.
Rachel will serve as social director for our free time activities.
Teresa will type up the journal. (Editor note: change to Barb)
Mona will oversee health and safety.
Deborah will plan the 2-week departure celebration.
Dan will plan the 3-week celebration with an assist from Mona.
Don will help Barbara after Bob leaves.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon consisted of policies, code of conduct and a basic language lesson from Bonke. Bonke also provided some insight on cultural issues, making sure that Dan understood he may not kiss another man’s wife and most definitely never hug another man.
We broke again for another American meal – PB&Js – yum! Then off to a truly African experience.
The village elders, children and other members of the Malungeni village welcomed us to their community with song and dance. Children sang happy birthday to Mandela. Women performed traditional dance, and children took turns showing us that the dance skills begin at a very early age.
We were struck by the incredible respect the younger people show for their elders – bringing them food and water – and the sense of community among all ages. Caring for the elderly, waiting their turn to eat, serving others and cleaning up – all participated and seemed to know their place. We all shared a meal of sampa (beans and potatoes) dressed with a delicious sauce of sausage, flour and spices.
Afterwards, Bonke took us on a short tour of a few key places:
A small public store where Dan can buy candy.
a community center where we might conduct a tiling project;
The school grounds
And a few churches.
We returned to the guesthouse where Rachel shared the wonderful teaching supplies she brought. The items never seemed to end as she continued to reach into her duffel bag, pulling a rabbit out of the hat each time. Mona added to the pile with games and books.
We headed off to dinner and word games – which we all passed with a little help from our friends.
Some of the highlights of the day –
Herding sheep with a whistle;
Marking sheep with paint rather than branding;
A village woman’s cell phone ringing in the middle of a traditional African dance;
Member of the youth council (saying) – the young people convinced the elders to allow Global Volunteers;
That we have electricity on demand;
Mahzywi telling us he thought the U.S. included North and South America!
Nkuli’s comment that it took an African to run the United States!
We are in area 1 of Malungeni with a population of about 600.
It was a long, full day with half the team retiring right after dinner and the other half talking long into the night with hopes of solving the economy and the U.S. healthcare system. We’ll see….
As dogs bark in the distance and I survey the galaxy of stars from the perspective of the Southern Hemisphere, I realize it is now time for bed…
Respectfully submitted,
Teresa
After a full night’s sleep (the first for many on the team) and an all-American (or is it South African) breakfast, we commenced our orientation. Despite much talking and getting off track, we managed to set our goals for this service program, which are: to be an ambassador, to meet new people and build friendships, to learn about the culture and environment; to serve the community and to have fun.
This team loves to laugh so we met our final goal immediately, which led us to define our characteristics of an effective team. We adopted Don’s acronym for Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) and outlined the characteristics as:
Gentleness, sense of humor, communication with tact and kindness, trust and honesty, respect, consideration, listening, doing one’s share, responsibility, common courtesy, enthusiasm, flexibility, cooperation, patience, teamwork and lots of smiles.
As topics arose, we volunteered for (or were assigned to) various responsibilities.
Rachel will serve as social director for our free time activities.
Teresa will type up the journal. (Editor note: change to Barb)
Mona will oversee health and safety.
Deborah will plan the 2-week departure celebration.
Dan will plan the 3-week celebration with an assist from Mona.
Don will help Barbara after Bob leaves.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon consisted of policies, code of conduct and a basic language lesson from Bonke. Bonke also provided some insight on cultural issues, making sure that Dan understood he may not kiss another man’s wife and most definitely never hug another man.
We broke again for another American meal – PB&Js – yum! Then off to a truly African experience.
The village elders, children and other members of the Malungeni village welcomed us to their community with song and dance. Children sang happy birthday to Mandela. Women performed traditional dance, and children took turns showing us that the dance skills begin at a very early age.
We were struck by the incredible respect the younger people show for their elders – bringing them food and water – and the sense of community among all ages. Caring for the elderly, waiting their turn to eat, serving others and cleaning up – all participated and seemed to know their place. We all shared a meal of sampa (beans and potatoes) dressed with a delicious sauce of sausage, flour and spices.
Afterwards, Bonke took us on a short tour of a few key places:
A small public store where Dan can buy candy.
a community center where we might conduct a tiling project;
The school grounds
And a few churches.
We returned to the guesthouse where Rachel shared the wonderful teaching supplies she brought. The items never seemed to end as she continued to reach into her duffel bag, pulling a rabbit out of the hat each time. Mona added to the pile with games and books.
We headed off to dinner and word games – which we all passed with a little help from our friends.
Some of the highlights of the day –
Herding sheep with a whistle;
Marking sheep with paint rather than branding;
A village woman’s cell phone ringing in the middle of a traditional African dance;
Member of the youth council (saying) – the young people convinced the elders to allow Global Volunteers;
That we have electricity on demand;
Mahzywi telling us he thought the U.S. included North and South America!
Nkuli’s comment that it took an African to run the United States!
We are in area 1 of Malungeni with a population of about 600.
It was a long, full day with half the team retiring right after dinner and the other half talking long into the night with hopes of solving the economy and the U.S. healthcare system. We’ll see….
As dogs bark in the distance and I survey the galaxy of stars from the perspective of the Southern Hemisphere, I realize it is now time for bed…
Respectfully submitted,
Teresa
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