Travel Day from Cape Town to Durban--- O what a difference for the Marist College Contingent

Today we had to get up really early to make our flight to Durban. We don’t think that any of the group was too thrilled about getting up early and leaving Cape Town because we have all grown to love it so much; however, we are all really excited to head to a new city and have more fun and exciting adventures. As soon as we landed we got off of the plane and headed to a Zulu village that served both as an educational facility and their homes. One of the men explained many of the traditions and culture of the Zulu tribe, describing everything from their home styles and designs to their crops and development of bio-fuel.

There were a few opportunities for some of the group to try some of the activities that the Zulu chieftain was explaining about the way in which traditional Zulu’s live. One activity was the use of a particular cow that is native to Africa. Long over looked because it doesn’t produce as much milk as the European cow, they found them to be far more resilient and able to handle the sharp changes in the African country. Generally, these cows weren’t slaughtered and they were kept for milk. However, Africans have a tough time digesting the milk from the cow and allow it to sour for a few days to allow the nutritional value to increase and make digestion easier. A few people volunteered to milk the cow with the guide. We were also given the opportunity to patch the floor with cow dung in one of the traditional huts. They also use the cow dung and urine as a source of energy. We got to taste the beef for lunch when they served us a traditional Zulu feast. It was delicious, one of the best meals we have all had thus far in South Africa. First, they served us beef that you could dip it in salt and bread. Then they gave us plates filled with a variety of different dishes from cous cous to sweet potato. We also were served fruit after the meal. We were also given freshly squeezed juice made by the villagers. Before we departed, we were shown some traditional Zulu dances and given the chance to try some dancing out ourselves. We then traveled back to Durban to celebrate Eddie’s birthday!!! Happy Birthday Eddie!!!!!!!!!!! And we miss you Marissa!

Day 10- Stellenbosch and more

The last few days have been great and we (Allison, Joel, Tiffany and Marissa) really had an amazing experience working with the Heal the Hood Project. Today was a rather easy day after our long week and our pending trip to Durban. Since we have a really early start tomorrow, we headed out to Stellenbosch to see what wine making was all about in South Africa. We spent the first part of our morning in the town which resembled something close to what one would see in New England. The town was quaint with little shops and people sitting outside having their coffee and late breakfast. The town is one of the oldest in South Africa and many of its buildings hinted of eras long past.

We then headed to the campus of the University of Stellenbosch. The campus was quite beautiful and rich flora native to the country. Two of the most interesting features of the campus were the underground library and the Student Union Building that resembled a mall. One of the things we noticed as we have traveled through various South African campuses has been the style of the school in regard to where it is. The University of the Western Cape was filled with security measures including iron bars over the windows to prevent would be vandals from entering. Stellenbosch appeared to have no such measures and was dominated by a majority Caucasian population who were extremely affluent. The social differences continue to be evident.

We then spent some time at the Neethlingshof Estate where we walked through the wine cellar and our guide explained the wine making process. The country side was full of grape vines with rose bushes found intermittently. These rose bushes, we were told served two purposes. They were to gauge the health of the grape vines as they are sensitive to disease and second, to draw beetles from the grapes. We then moved to Spera Estate, where some of our group had the chance to pet a cheetah and wonder around another beautiful winery. Over-all, it was an easy day and a good break before our early departure tomorrow.

Stellenbosch, South Africa

University of Stellenbosch's Garden


Neethlingshof Estate







Spera Estate---Cheetah visit

Last Day of Community Service

Hello all, group one's pictures will be posted at some point tomorrow, so will a full blog from group two. Enjoy your night.

Group One

We spent most of our day reviewing what we had experienced with Emile and Fabian the previous two days. One of the things that they stressed heavily with us was to critic them and offer them as much advice as possible about the direction they were headed and we did just that. One thing we all wanted to be careful of was not to insult them or what they have been doing but at the same time demonstrate that we truly believed that they were doing good things for the community. One of the small items that we suggested changing today was one of their shirts that they produced. It had a cartoon character “giving the finger” and was intended as a sort of political statement. While it certainly accomplished those ends, it really isn’t suitable for an organization seeking funding from corporate sponsors.

Another suggestion we offered was using their connections. The organization has reached many kids and has been in many different schools across the Cape Flats (housing units) region. From an American business perspective, the world operates on who you know and we stressed that they should utilize who they knew in various industries to accomplish their end goals. They really wanted some support from politicians in the area and we explained to them that if they knew people that are connected to these politicians and could connect or recommended that their organization meet with that politician that they should try to explore this venue to garner political support. They immediately acted on the advice and Fabian arranged a meeting with a friend of theirs next week.

They seemed to really appreciate our advice and took it to heart. Fabian and Emile would like to take the Heal the Hood Project to a new level and hopefully our time spent with them will help them get there. We exchanged email addresses before we left and all look forward to hearing from them in the coming weeks

Group Two -RAPCAN

Today’s blog from group two will be uploaded tomorrow. Group two was accompanied by Eddie Summers today and we were very productive at getting several agenda items accomplished for RAPCAN. While it was the last day of our community service project, we recognize that there is so much more that needs to be done at this organization, however, because of a resource issues things fall through the cracks. Today the staff of RAPCAN sent us off with a nice “see you soon” versus the traditional “good bye”, we enjoyed this community service project immensely and hope we can continue our relationship with RAPCAN when we return to U.S.A. Hopefully we can motivate Marist College students get involved and help us with supporting the work of RAPCAN and other NGO’s in developing countries.

Group Three-Building a Community Center

Today our group returned once again to the township for one final day of community service to help get this community center off and running. Once again, we saw the lack of motivation from the community members and the hired workers to complete the project as we worked by ourselves. After two hours of diligently working, the contractor finally showed up and helped us out a little bit after multiple attempts at trying to get him to work with us. He remained working with us until the end of the day. Our day was somewhat mundane until about ten children from the township stumbled upon the work site and decided they wanted to interact and work with us. They sang, danced, and engaged in conversations with our group members before deciding that they would like to pick up the tools themselves and help us out. It was fun to work alongside the children and it was nice to see that there were some people in the community that wanted to help others. They worked very hard and helped us finish our task in a very short period of time and at one point, individuals from our group were trying to get involved and the children from the township responded with things like “hey, that’s my shovel.” They were the bright spot of the day and it made this day the best of the three. It was a great experience overall and we feel that we accomplished a lot in helping this community move forward with the building of their community center. This center will accommodate a variety of needs for the community, including having a place for children in the township to interact with each other, to gain educational insight, and most importantly to keep these children off the streets of the townships which is infested with gang activities, drugs, unemployment, depression and a low self esteem. This center will bring hope to a community that severely lacks it. It feels good to know that we did something to help them, and we almost wish that we had one more day to do a little bit more, not necessarily to continue the physical work, but to interact with the communities’ youth. There is no one in this world more pure than a child and it was from these kids that we heard some thoughts that turned our heads. The skills that they displayed were remarkable and surprising given their “background”. There are families living in these communities that have a chance, a way to get out, but it comes down to hope and believing that it can be done and actually going out and trying to reach your goals. Church/religion has provided the hope, but there is still the lack of effort in these townships to improve their state of living given the lack of support from the government and the outside community. “It doesn’t seem boring in America. It is really boring around here.” Said one of our young helpers. We just hope that it isn’t too late before they realize their potential.