Livin life and Lovin it
Hello hello,
So I FINALLY decided to get an update out :) .
I think I am going to try this more often, but once school starts - no guarantees. I never think my life can get crazier, but then it does! One semester at a time...
Being busy is no excuse to not have time...but sometimes it has to do.
I should have a South Africa blog up soon with the dispatches we sent out, but this is my update. The trip was great. And I still LOVE South Africa. People are so warm and caring and the country is gorgeous.
First we had an 8 hour Paris adventure, it was fabulous! Saw the Eiffel Tower and L'Arc de Triomphe. Then off the SA!
I really enjoyed being at the University of Zululand, even though it is the most rural place and there is not many places to go, people are really welcoming, we have two 'mothers' who take care of us while we are there, and the students love hanging out with us. We did three days of focus groups and then some in depth interviews as well to see what effect the module has had. We found that the students who learned the module in the past couple of years taught over 10,000 people! That is so crazy I still don't believe it! We need to step it up in the US! It was also a great experience in the sense that we got to talk to learn more about who they are, how they feel about the epidemic, etc. Good times :) . Also the time when I was stressing about having to write SWE award applications though! They got done :), but not having internet was hard...and having to be on the internet as well, cause it was slow and I generally like to disappear off the face of the earth when abroad. Not possible this year...
Durban was amazing as well - I LOVE working with the primary school students. They are so bright and so enthusiastic. Little kids teach the module so well. It is great to see the young kids empowered to teach others. We selected six of them to teach in front of the entire school of ~600 kids and they were so confident when answering questions! All the hope they have even though they are living in a poor community in really inspiring as well. This is the school we raised funds for and we were able to donate fans to the school and donate food packets and clothes to vulnerable children. I had three girls to pick out clothes for and they were great to work with! Very funny, we were playing games all the time :) . I think I played more games with my kids than I did in my entire childhood! The impressive thing about Cato Crest is that the teachers are so motivated, despite the lack of resources and the difficult community they are in. South Africa made me realize who true heroes are. And those teachers are it....they work tireless even though they are underpaid and face a lot of sadness.
Besides the primary school, I taught at a Community College in Durban as well. The students were jokers but they did very well learning it. That environment reminded me of U of M though. Hard to get the kids to get up and teach the module back to us!
Johannesburg - many of our former students had graduated from WITS, so besides doing in depth interviews with two of our former students we did not really work there. We did spend a day teaching students and workers at a community college and saw some real stars there as well :)
Namibia! - Ok, I love South Africa, and I love all the people there and the work we do....but Namibia was one of my favorite parts of the trip! My favorite day was climbing sanddunes...I felt amazing. I was literally skipping that day, running around, going on picture adventures....to the point where a few people were like: ashley...you look really happy today...you cannot even contain your happiness! I was like: uh...am I usually not happy? But I guess it was over apparent that day. What can I say...I love big cities...but natural beauty is amazing and I get really happy being outdoors. I climbed to the top of Dune 45 - the most famous sand dune in Namibia - and I did not want to come down. So after our little photo shoot there I ran down, cause that was at least another adventure. Also got to see a dried up river bed with petrified trees. Surreal is what I am going to say about that. And most of the people did not even do that part because they had already climbed a sand dune an said what more could there possibly see in the dessert when our guide dragged lead the way off to ...sand....and more dessert...Umh, a whole lot!! That part was just as good as being on the top of the sand dune! I went all out. Apparently a scene in one of JLo's movies was shot here.
We also saw a canyon that day. And then a day later we drove to an animal sanctuary where we got to see animals who were rescued because either farmers captured them or killed their parents etc., and if they come there as babies and are brought up by people they cannot be let into the wild anymore, because they will look for people to get food. We saw lions, cheetahs, leopards, african wild dogs and baboons. It was a cool place to see. It also raises funds for a bushman village. Bushmen are very impoverished in Namibia because they cannot live the traditional way anymore due to commercialization...
O, you can volunteer at this place! Definitely recommended for you animal / nature lovers.
Other things....stayed in the fanciest, most different 'hotels' ever.
Other random thoughts/things I did:
-I could definitely move to South Africa if only for the fact that they appreciate tea! A church I went to even had a tea garden! Note to self: have tea garden in future home :) . Or a tea corner if space does not permit a garden.
-Bollywood dance/play - amazing!! Maybe I will move to India instead?
-Aunt Nazha's dinner party! She cooks the best food and is so hospitable :)
-Lebanese Church the next day.
-KZN Philharmonic Orchestra in which one of our group members played!!
-Mtunzini Beach - One of the most gorgeous untouched beaches....
-Paris in 6 hours on our way to South Africa!! Yes, absolutely possible. No, you do not get to be immersed in the culture, but Eiffel Tower, Champs d'Ellysees and l'Arc de Triomphe in 6 hours...yes, we did it and it was fabulous! We even had some time to hang out and eat some french bread and croissants. Fabulous. Definitely going back.
Now that I have written a book I think I will stop....
-O wait - if you ever make it to South Africa, the Soweto Tour with Kenny and the tour of Constitutional Hill are a must. Kenny speaks with such hope and insight about South Africa and one of its most famous townships. He is truly inspiring. Constitutional Hill is home to a former women's and men's prison - turned museum. The women's prison especially touches us since it is rare that attention gets paid to the women's view of history and the women's experience in prison, so it is a really important thing SA did. The Constitutional Court is also on Constitutional Hill and is very well thought out, so it is one of my favorite spots.
Transition to NYC:
-Family of twelve to alone and chill place to world in overdrive - kind of hard, but got better fast :) I had rather gone to a place more familiar for a break, but scheduling worked out this way, so gotta ride with it. Slowly falling in love with NYC. People are kind of mean and hurried, but you just gotta ignore that I guess.
I have been up to the most random things since coming here:
-I went to the Today show for Rihanna this morning! What an adventure.
-NY Palace Hotel for tea! They film some scenes of Gossip Girl here :) .
-Bodies exhibit. Look it up if you really want to know.
-Window Shopped 5th ave - not so random I guess :)
-Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge!
-Played in F.A.O Shwartz....almost made my own Barbie
It's been good fun. Have a friend who I met during orientation, after which we figured out we lived in the same building....and then we got our work assignments and we both work on the same floor 3 desks away. So needless to say we are stuck at the hip. She is my random adventure buddy :) . We got up for the Today show at 6am and we are going to BET's 106 and Park (Top 10 Live countdown) on July 2nd!! Our goal is to go to Goodmorning America and Saturday Night Live as well before the summer is over. We wanted to go to TRL but that starts too early...
Anyways....time to sign off. I think I have given you enough to read until my next e-mail comes a year later...
-xoxo-
peace out,
ash
Publish Post
So I FINALLY decided to get an update out :) .
I think I am going to try this more often, but once school starts - no guarantees. I never think my life can get crazier, but then it does! One semester at a time...
Being busy is no excuse to not have time...but sometimes it has to do.
I should have a South Africa blog up soon with the dispatches we sent out, but this is my update. The trip was great. And I still LOVE South Africa. People are so warm and caring and the country is gorgeous.
First we had an 8 hour Paris adventure, it was fabulous! Saw the Eiffel Tower and L'Arc de Triomphe. Then off the SA!
I really enjoyed being at the University of Zululand, even though it is the most rural place and there is not many places to go, people are really welcoming, we have two 'mothers' who take care of us while we are there, and the students love hanging out with us. We did three days of focus groups and then some in depth interviews as well to see what effect the module has had. We found that the students who learned the module in the past couple of years taught over 10,000 people! That is so crazy I still don't believe it! We need to step it up in the US! It was also a great experience in the sense that we got to talk to learn more about who they are, how they feel about the epidemic, etc. Good times :) . Also the time when I was stressing about having to write SWE award applications though! They got done :), but not having internet was hard...and having to be on the internet as well, cause it was slow and I generally like to disappear off the face of the earth when abroad. Not possible this year...
Durban was amazing as well - I LOVE working with the primary school students. They are so bright and so enthusiastic. Little kids teach the module so well. It is great to see the young kids empowered to teach others. We selected six of them to teach in front of the entire school of ~600 kids and they were so confident when answering questions! All the hope they have even though they are living in a poor community in really inspiring as well. This is the school we raised funds for and we were able to donate fans to the school and donate food packets and clothes to vulnerable children. I had three girls to pick out clothes for and they were great to work with! Very funny, we were playing games all the time :) . I think I played more games with my kids than I did in my entire childhood! The impressive thing about Cato Crest is that the teachers are so motivated, despite the lack of resources and the difficult community they are in. South Africa made me realize who true heroes are. And those teachers are it....they work tireless even though they are underpaid and face a lot of sadness.Besides the primary school, I taught at a Community College in Durban as well. The students were jokers but they did very well learning it. That environment reminded me of U of M though. Hard to get the kids to get up and teach the module back to us!
Johannesburg - many of our former students had graduated from WITS, so besides doing in depth interviews with two of our former students we did not really work there. We did spend a day teaching students and workers at a community college and saw some real stars there as well :)
Namibia! - Ok, I love South Africa, and I love all the people there and the work we do....but Namibia was one of my favorite parts of the trip! My favorite day was climbing sanddunes...I felt amazing. I was literally skipping that day, running around, going on picture adventures....to the point where a few people were like: ashley...you look really happy today...you cannot even contain your happiness! I was like: uh...am I usually not happy? But I guess it was over apparent that day. What can I say...I love big cities...but natural beauty is amazing and I get really happy being outdoors. I climbed to the top of Dune 45 - the most famous sand dune in Namibia - and I did not want to come down. So after our little photo shoot there I ran down, cause that was at least another adventure. Also got to see a dried up river bed with petrified trees. Surreal is what I am going to say about that. And most of the people did not even do that part because they had already climbed a sand dune an said what more could there possibly see in the dessert when our guide dragged lead the way off to ...sand....and more dessert...Umh, a whole lot!! That part was just as good as being on the top of the sand dune! I went all out. Apparently a scene in one of JLo's movies was shot here.We also saw a canyon that day. And then a day later we drove to an animal sanctuary where we got to see animals who were rescued because either farmers captured them or killed their parents etc., and if they come there as babies and are brought up by people they cannot be let into the wild anymore, because they will look for people to get food. We saw lions, cheetahs, leopards, african wild dogs and baboons. It was a cool place to see. It also raises funds for a bushman village. Bushmen are very impoverished in Namibia because they cannot live the traditional way anymore due to commercialization...
O, you can volunteer at this place! Definitely recommended for you animal / nature lovers.
Other things....stayed in the fanciest, most different 'hotels' ever.
Other random thoughts/things I did:
-I could definitely move to South Africa if only for the fact that they appreciate tea! A church I went to even had a tea garden! Note to self: have tea garden in future home :) . Or a tea corner if space does not permit a garden.
-Bollywood dance/play - amazing!! Maybe I will move to India instead?
-Aunt Nazha's dinner party! She cooks the best food and is so hospitable :)
-Lebanese Church the next day.
-KZN Philharmonic Orchestra in which one of our group members played!!
-Mtunzini Beach - One of the most gorgeous untouched beaches....
-Paris in 6 hours on our way to South Africa!! Yes, absolutely possible. No, you do not get to be immersed in the culture, but Eiffel Tower, Champs d'Ellysees and l'Arc de Triomphe in 6 hours...yes, we did it and it was fabulous! We even had some time to hang out and eat some french bread and croissants. Fabulous. Definitely going back.
Now that I have written a book I think I will stop....
-O wait - if you ever make it to South Africa, the Soweto Tour with Kenny and the tour of Constitutional Hill are a must. Kenny speaks with such hope and insight about South Africa and one of its most famous townships. He is truly inspiring. Constitutional Hill is home to a former women's and men's prison - turned museum. The women's prison especially touches us since it is rare that attention gets paid to the women's view of history and the women's experience in prison, so it is a really important thing SA did. The Constitutional Court is also on Constitutional Hill and is very well thought out, so it is one of my favorite spots.Transition to NYC:
-Family of twelve to alone and chill place to world in overdrive - kind of hard, but got better fast :) I had rather gone to a place more familiar for a break, but scheduling worked out this way, so gotta ride with it. Slowly falling in love with NYC. People are kind of mean and hurried, but you just gotta ignore that I guess.
I have been up to the most random things since coming here:
-I went to the Today show for Rihanna this morning! What an adventure.
-NY Palace Hotel for tea! They film some scenes of Gossip Girl here :) .
-Bodies exhibit. Look it up if you really want to know.
-Window Shopped 5th ave - not so random I guess :)
-Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge!
-Played in F.A.O Shwartz....almost made my own Barbie
It's been good fun. Have a friend who I met during orientation, after which we figured out we lived in the same building....and then we got our work assignments and we both work on the same floor 3 desks away. So needless to say we are stuck at the hip. She is my random adventure buddy :) . We got up for the Today show at 6am and we are going to BET's 106 and Park (Top 10 Live countdown) on July 2nd!! Our goal is to go to Goodmorning America and Saturday Night Live as well before the summer is over. We wanted to go to TRL but that starts too early...
Anyways....time to sign off. I think I have given you enough to read until my next e-mail comes a year later...
-xoxo-
peace out,
ash
