My First Trip to Soweto

Soweto stands for South Western Townships. People refer to it as a suburb of Johannesburg, but in reality, it is it's own thriving city of 4 million people. During Apartheid, it was the segregated area where blacks were forced to live. It was also where the earliest uprisinigs against the Apartheid regime took place. The home where Nelson Mandela was arrested and dragged off to jail simply for speaking the truth still stands, and now serves as a museum. The only white people I saw all day were in line at the Mandela museum.

Although still quite poor, it's a vibrant community, rich with the entreprenurial spirit. While driving down the street, there are many private homes with a sign outside. Hairdressers, car repairs, any type of cottage industry is represented. The streets are lined with produce stands and all kinds of tiny stalls selling all manner of goods. There are also tons of cooked food stands. This week is the equivalent of spring break (although it's almost winter here), so there were tons of children playing in the street (mostly soccer). It really is the quintessential democratic game, and I'm not surprised that it's the world's most popular. For the price of one ball, an entire neighborhood of children are kept entertained and active for as long as it takes to wear through the leather.

I mentioned earlier that the neighborhood where I am staying reminds me of Southern California. If that is true, then Soweto is like Mexico. There are parts that are beautiful, parts that are more affluent than others, but rows of tin shacks serving as homes are also quite common. For every late-model Honda, there are 20 cars so rusted it's difficult to tell who the manufacturer was, and a couple of donkey-drawn carts. For every bright and shiny gas station, there are 12 roadside stands where the owner is barely ekeing out a living. I, of course, fell in love instantly, and I can't wait to go back when I have time to explore all of what the area has to offer, and do a little shopping.

We stopped by a rather sorry looking building made of concrete blocks with a very wornout playground outside. Imagine my surprise that the inside contained a sophisticated computer lab where during the day, they have classes for adults (for 100R per month, about $15) and after school, they have programs for children so they can learn computer literacy from a young age. My "tour guide" tells me that all of the equipment was provided by the US Government. It's a nice thing to think about when you're overwhelmed by news of some of our government's ... um... less popular expenditures of late.

After this brief field trip, it was on to the real business of the day, selling condoms. My tour guide is actually an SFH sales rep. We stopped by his house to pick up the stock and then we were off to visit about a dozen retailers. Our target for the day were "non-traditional" outlets, meaning, the small locally owned businesses. We stopped by a couple of foodstands and small markets and chatted with the owner about stocking our products. We were selling two different brands of condoms, one a subsidized brand that we sell at a loss (the balance made up by donor funding). The other is a premium brand that we sell at a tiny profit to help pay overhead expenses. In either case, the shop owner sells them at a standard retail profit which encourages them to keep stock on the shelves and keep their customers well supplied. I had to be back in the office for some afternoon meetings, but even in my short time out there, our sales rep Sean convinced three new retailers to carry our condoms, not bad considering that we only had time to visit 5 shops.

I'm (tentatively) scheduled to go out with our mobile HIV Counseling and Testing team tomorrow. My primary work here will be with our Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) team, and I'm excited to see them in action. With Mobile VCT, we bring the testing to the people, with tents set up for private counseling sessions, and a vehicle outfitted to serve as our lab (think blood mobile). We use rapid test kits which means no needles, and no going back a week later to pick up your results. A finger prick provides all the blood needed, and it takes just 15 minutes for the results to be ready. Tomorrow's field trip is supposed to be to the downtown train station where hundreds of thousands of people arrive in Jo-berg for work each day. If all goes according to plan, I should have a full report for you next week.

Susan

My To-Do list is getting longer, not shorter!

When I headed out for ZA, it was with the intention of having an entire week off to get all of my affairs in order. However, it didn't work out that way. After arriving in Jo-berg late Sunday night, I arrived for my first day of work early Tuesday morning.

I still need to learn how to drive a stick-shift
-buy a car
-rent an apartment
-get a cell phone and a calling card so I can talk to all of you fine folks
-find a grocery store (or ANY store) open past 6pm (can you imagine!)
-get Sophie's pet permit
-figure out where the heck I am and where it is in relationship to everything else
-figure out exactly what my job is and start doing it (so far I've just been doing a lot of reading about all of the different aspects of the program)
-get my work permit/temporary residence permit

Those are just the major issues. The minor issues like finding a doctor, hair dresser, etc will just have to wait for a while.

My plan for tomorrow is to get my first manual trans driving lesson and also get Sophie's pet permit headed my way. I'm hoping that if I can get two or three driving lessons in before this weekend I'll be able to go get a car (my first ever!) so, wish me luck! Once I have a car, the rest of the list should be much easier to attend to.

The reliance on a car to get places is coming as quite a shock to me, who was for years the queen of public and pedestrian transportation. Now I'm being forced to join the ranks of the road ragers everywhere.

More to come...

Susan

Drywall Adventures

I am still working on getting my condo ready for sale so that I can join Susan in South Africa. I decided to replace my medicine cabinet which was old and crappy with a new shiny one from Home Depot. When I removed the old one I realized to my horror that the wall behind was in terrible shape. I was able to cut and screw in 3/4" by 16" strips of drywall, slather on a thick layer of joint compound, frame the opening with strips of joint tape, slather on more drywall mud, and wait for it to dry. Having never attempted such a repair before, I must admit that I am very pleased with the result.

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Heading Out

So, since this is my first effort at posting a blog entry, I thought I'd start with a disclaimer. I am completely technologically inept. I know remarkably little about the internet, computers, and, well, many things. If you have any insight to offer that would make this blog better in the future, please don't hesitate to contact me (sjk37169@gmail.com)

In less than 22 hours, I'll be on an airplane, carrying me away from everything I've ever known. It should be scary. It should be sad. But, for some reason, my impending departure doesn't seem REAL. I'm not sure why that is. I have an idea though. I've moved many times before. Usually, when I'm getting ready to leave, everything is gone. What was once a home becomes a house, a shell. I don't really have that now. Chris and Sophie are still here. My comfy warm bed is still in place, but I won't be sleeping in it again. There are still books on the shelves, still food in the fridge. It's hard to believe that I'm really leaving here forever. I'm certainly not leaving the good ol' USA forever, and probably not even DC, which has been my home for the last 8 years, but this little apartment has been my home for the last year+ or so, and in that short time I have made many happy memories here.

It's amazing how fast I attach to people, to places, to things. I suspect that I will be just as flustered, just as unsettled when I leave Jo-berg in two years as I feel heading there now. But this is just a suspicion. I'll keep you all posted in my future attempts at blogging (but please bear in mind my earlier disclaimers).

All my love,

Susan

Sophie learns to use Skype

We decided to teach our beagle, Sophie, how to use Skype to contact Susan in South Africa.

It's so easy even a little hound can do it. All you have to do is go to www.skype.com, download the application and follow the easy instructions. You will need a microphone and speakers to use it but you will be able to speak to us in real time. Please keep in mind that we are 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

Our Skype username is chris.feltman

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Our Engagement and Going Away Party

Susan's parents threw a huge going away / engagement party for us up in Philadelphia on March 10th. Susan's family was much better represented than mine because most of them live in the Philadelphia area, and also because her family is much larger than mine. This is Susan and I with her parents, her brother Micheal, and his girlfriend Karrie.

This is my father meeting Susan's father for the first time. My father is on the right and Susan's is on the left.

This is the beautiful sandwich platter that Susan and I made. Keeping Sophie out of the room during the operation was a serious challenge.














This is Susan and Stephanie, who is her best friend from high school.

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This is our friend Noel who is Susan's buddy from college, and my cousin Abbey having a beer or two in the back room













This is my brother and my father being amazed by all the food that was served.

Susan, Sophie and I getting ready for our trip.

Good News!

Susan passed her driver's test!

Susan Takes her Driver's Test

Susan is taking her driver's license road test today! She has been practicing so wish her luck!

Lots to be done ...

There are lots of things we still need to do before we go.