Trevor's Photo Journal

Of the many lessons I learned from the Tenteleni project coming to Barberton earlier this year one of the most important is that in development work it is often better to be a connector rather than a doer.  This is especially important in South Africa where having an outside perspective allows me to flow seamlessly among so many isolated - yet neighboring - communities.  The Barberton and Nelsprite area is famous for some of the best paragliding in the world, and it was actually through members of the Tenteleni team that I met the head trainer of paragliders in the area.  On Friday of last week he approached me saying he had a great opportunity for kids to come out to an International Paramotoring competition where members of the South African Model Aircraft Association (SAMAA) would making balsa wood planes with all kids that showed up (They have a SA Lotto grant to take this amazing program all over the country).  Because I've been working in the schools for the last two years I knew the right people to approach and in two days managed to get 30 kids to show up at 8:30 this morning with signed indemnity forms ready for a field trip to the Paramotoring competition.  There was a slight problem in getting transport arranged for the kids, but the Czech National Paramotoring team graciously volunteered to take the kids over.

In the photo set below you see members of SAMAA helping the kids cut and glue their windup model plane.  Some of the kids rushed right through and didn't bother matching up angles, but many were quite meticulous about cutting each piece of wood.

And the planes do fly! The kids spent the majority of an hour and half waiting for transport back flying the planes.
Here's everyone with the Czech National Paramotoring team as well as South Africans and a few Namibians. 
And here's pictures of all the gliders in the air. The most interesting task we saw was the economy class where each pilots was given the same amount of fuel and had to complete as many circuits as possible.  Watching over 60 gliders do laps over the airport field was pretty awesome.

Since the start of matric exams at the end of October all the 12th grade students at Kamhola Secondary have been camping over at school and studying together well into the night. I stopped by the school to drop of some forms today and found them doing their laundry on this beautiful Friday afternoon. I admire their dedication to finishing of their secondary schooling strong; however, I know that all that happens during this extra study sessions is studying of old exam papers. Since similar types of questions are on the exam each year this is rather effective at increasing test scores, but not very good at increasing understanding of the content. It's the problem with testing - as soon as you create the test you've set a benchmark by which everything else will be determined. You could call it the Heisenberg Assessment Principal.

All the lights at one of the high school in my area were stolen right before exams started. In a mad rush to make dark classrooms at least semi usable for exams the principal got this giant extention cord which before every exam is unwrapped and thread over the fence into a near by church and lights plugged in. After each exam it was to be wrapped back up and stored in the office. This usually ends up being the general workers job - in every school general workers are some of the hardest working individuals and usually know more about what the kids are doing/and aren't doing then the educators.

This evening Team USA played Bafana Bafana (the South African national soccer team) in the Nelson Mandela Challenge in Cape Town. Since I don't have a TV in my room I decided to go watch the first half at a tavern just around the corner. As you can see in the picture the turn out wasn't that great. Besides the two people running the place there was the lady decked out in South African colors in the far corner who I think fell asleep 5 min into the game and the guys at the table right next to me. I didn't actually expect many people to be there since it was the middle of the week and the middle of the month. The township on nights during the week almost deserted. I only stayed for the first half and came back home to check the score online. Team USA scored with 5min left to win it - good for us, but bad for Bafana Bafana.

These learners saw me taking a photo a few days ago and yelled after me as I passed "Shoot a mina". I wasn't in to much of a hurry so stopped and asked them to pose. For the first few photos they just stood their and I could barely get them to smile. After a few tries and some suggestions to do something crazy from me this came out.

A small four room RDP house has a small extention built on turned into a tuck shop - a place to go by soda, maize meal, candles, bread, and maybe a few other common house hold items. There are millions of stores just like this all over South Africa all with a very limited selection and inflated costs. At the same time such a shop represents a family trying to make a living, they may be copying a business model from everyone else, but they are out there putting in work to make a little more money. I especially like this photo because someone has hung their laundry on the fence in the background - creative use for a fence in my mind.

Following yesterdays picture haircut shacks are another common feature of township life. I think there are between ten and fifteen similar shacks adversising hair cuts spread through out the township, however, I haven't had my hair cut since I've been here so can't say if I'd recommend them or not; but I've never seen the barbers that work there use anything other than an electric razor attached to a car battery.

Car washes are one of the most ubiquitous aspects of township life. When I first arrived within a 4min walk from my house there were three and since then two more have been built. On a Saturday afternoon they are all full with two to three cars being washed at anyone time and lots of people just hanging out talking. Car washes are the place to hang out as most play loud music, are located next to a tavern, and often have shade and benches around.

There's a reason soccer football is the beautiful game; it's so universal.  All you need is a round shaped object and a group of friends.  In this series of photos you see a group of boys having the time of their lives playing a pick up game of soccer after school.  They have a very flat small plastic pink ball and tones and tones of enthusiasm and that's enough to play a great game.  I watched them play for a good half hour and still didn't actually know if there were teams or it was a free for all.

Rain rain go away come again another day. Unfortunately heavy rains have come down just about everyday this week leaving many of the dirt roads through the township undrivable. Above right next a sharp corner on the major road out of one area of the township two cars navigate the giant creek bed that formed in the middle of the road. The taxi on the right is actually passing the VW Polo which forced to crawl by the conditions of the road.

Just around the corner the road looked like this:

And here's a road I don't think a car will be driving on any time this summer. Since this looks like this a week or two into the raining season every year people have adapted their driving habits to never use this road.