Chinese Native Teng visted the Museum of Africa, Pilansburg and tells the tale

Today I got couple of “Joburg Firsts”, most of them are historical artifacts, maybe not a very long history but a remarkable meaning for Johannesburg.

The first radio broadcast in Joburg.

An early barber chair in Joburg.

An early telephone switchboard in Joburg.

The Digico Micro 16S mini-computer was designed in 1967 and purchased by Barclay’s Bank in Joburg in 1969. This machine has a total CPU memory of 16KB, a core memory cycle time of 6 microseconds a print speed of 10 characters per second.

The first University in Joburg.

An old fashioned American cash register in Joburg.

The first car in Joburg.

The first skating rinks in Joburg.

The first crimes in Joburg.

And there are more Firsts in Joburg, if you really would like to see, come to Museum Africa and explore by yourself, it’s quite near the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, maybe not as good as you expected, but I would say it’s worth going for a short visit.

In the meantime, one team went to Pilanesberg National Park, they saw a lion, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, wildebeests, hippos, jackals, warthogs, impalas, Kudus, springboks, white rhinos, and a small frog.

If you don’t have too much time to visit Kruger, I would recommend Pilanesberg as a good substitute for Safari.

Also, another group went to FNB Stadium in Soweto to watch the soccer game, Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates, and they were forced to share the spoils, after playing out a 0-0 draw.

Although the weather was quite hot, everyone really enjoyed watching the soccer, a very good opportunity to experience the local sports culture.

Thusday Community Service Day is described by Martin

Blog for CSC SA 16, Thursday, October 27

Community day at CSC SA 16

By Martin Gerhardt

Today was not only a special day for me, but for the entire team.

This day was intended as community day and it led us to Orange Farm, a township located approximately 45 km from Johannesburg.

In this township we visited a community initiative Itsoseng which was founded 1997.
(http://www.probono.org.za/itsoseng-womens-project-orange-farm/)

“We didn’t want to wait for someone taking care of us, but became active ourselves to improve our live and the living of our people” said the managers of this initiative in their opening words. “For us, this is a form of demonstrating leadership”.

       

And this leadership is paying off: In the meantime about 24 members are taking care of essentially 2 major projects: Day care for children and recycling of waste.

To gain money from waste, the members are collecting the waste in cities nearby. Then they sort it dependent on the different materials. Some of the waste can be re-used, other is sold for a few Rands to local recycling firms. You can’t image, how many different plastic materials are around. And they all have to be separated e.g. identified by numbers at the bottom of bottles etc. If they are not strictly separated, the recycling firms do not accept them. A special kind of science for itself.

       

The other major part of the initiative is focused on day care for kids. About 100 kids come there from the local townships over the day from 8 am until 4 pm. They are between 6 months and 6 years old and get three meals a day. Depending on their age, they are split into different classes. Since their mother tongue is Zulu or Xhosa, they also get introduced to English, but also to Math and general knowledge to get prepared for school.

       

One third of the costs for these kids is covered by government, the remaining portion needs to be spent by the parents, which pay about 200 Rands per kid per month. For them it is a lot of money, for us it is just a few dollars (15 US$).

Ok, but now to work!! Since we are here for pro bono work, we split our group into several teams. Some of them supported “digging” work for a new office building. As hard as they were working, I am wondering, whether the found some gold or oil?

       

Others did gardening to plant vegetables for the food of the kids.

   

Borek and Teng helped to get the local people trained for their new computers which they have recently received as a gift. And how thankful these people are for any support cannot be better impressed by the words they returned on a properly functioning computer.

       

And many of us did day care for the kids within the different classes. I also joined this task and got engaged with the 4 – 6 year old kids – introducing them to gymnastics. And I promise, when I come back, to bring a soccer ball with me and we play together, since soccer overcomes all language problems.

       

       

And didn’t we do a good job?

I felt we all enjoyed the day, to do something useful and to support other people.

But what also amazed me a lot, is that despite of the poorness of the people and the low poverty level, these people always get easily a smile into their face. They, especially the kids, show such a positive vivid vitality, which is kind of inspiring for myself. And on our way back I became a bit reflective and was wondering, whether these people really needed our help today or whether we came here to kind of reflect ourselves – coming from and returning into a world of highest prosperity.

Maybe, we just better understand what we have got when we get a closer look to the other side of our living. In this sense it might also be another view of Ubuntu – I am because you are!

Martin

Lisa Gable casts her vote for the US Presidential Election in South Africa!

Week three of our Corporate Service Corps program closes today.  Teams are actively working to summarize their findings, create recommendations and next step plans for their clients.  Time has flown quickly.  While the countdown to project close looms, another countdown exists for me and my U.S. teammates.  Eleven days until the U.S Presidential election.   

Being in South Africa has provided a respite from the constant radio, television and internet bombardment loosely called 'campaigning' in the U.S..  True, if a person wanted to catch the latest via CNN or NPR or ABC or any other news organization, it is doable, but for those of us who do not like to listen to the nonstop banter, my ears welcome the rest.

The flight home should get me there in time to vote.  

However, just to be safe, a few days before leaving I decided to request a mail-in ballot.  My county e-mailed me the required instructions and forms.  I completed them, and decided (at the suggestion of a CSC peer) to mail the ballot from the U.S. Consulate here in Johannesburg.  After a phone call to ensure they would accept my ballot (and finding out they closed at noon) we walked over to the Consulate.  As we approached the building I snapped a few pictures - it was exciting to see the stars and stripes flying so gallantly in South Africa.   When we arrived at the door, however, I was immediately told by one of the two guards standing there to erase my pictures.  Seriously?  Ever check out Google Maps?  Following rules, however, I showed the guard my phone as I deleted my pictures.  The guard then went inside for a moment to verify I could enter the building and mail my ballot; she motioned me in; I took two steps inside and the (different) guard in the building told me to leave the building.  Out I went, again in front of the entrance with the original 2 guards.  They asked me to remove the envelope (with my vote inside) from my backpack and place it on the counter.  The guard then swabbed it to ensure it didn't contain any explosives.  Just like TSA. Fair enough.  Envelope swabbed, all clean, now me and my envelope are allowed to enter the building.  

More guards inside. This is a screening room (a separate stand alone building from the Consulate).  My envelope went through the x-ray machine and I through the screening machine - we both passed.  They pointed me to a walkway (complete with yellow footprints) and said I should look for window 14 where I could mail my ballot.    I leave the little building, follow the yellow (non-brick) road and pass another guard.  He's pleasant and happy to have a customer.  

The footsteps bend around to the main building. More guards inside.  They smile and point at the sign that points me to window 14.  I follow the arrow to window 14.  There's a bell in front of the plexiglass but I don't ring it.  I can see people behind the window and they see me.  One motions to someone out of view who seconds later appears in the window.  She assures me she will mail my ballot, takes it through window 14 and ta-dah, I have voted!  (Well, not actually.  I have submitted by ballot to be mailed to the United States to my county of residence to be officially opened by the local Election Administrator who when then count my ballot. So, I voted!  (I am intentionally avoiding a discussion here about the U.S. electoral college).

I'm proud to be an American and am humbled by the freedoms provided by our Constitution.  If you watch any news program you know this year's U.S. election has been heated with strong sentiment on both sides.  Regardless of who receives the most votes, I am confident the transition of government from current leader to new leader will be a peaceful one.  

I encourage all of you who have the right to vote to use your right to vote. As a citizen of your country and as a human being of the planet we all share, our voices do matter.

(Footnote - I went to the mall the next day, which is across the street from the Consulate.  I couldn't help myself and snapped a picture:  

Akiko recounts the Lion attack, Client Meetings, Cape Town and just about everything else

#CSCSA16

October 24, 2016

AKIKO KISHIRO

We are already in our 3rd week – how quickly time flies! 

Everyone seem to be getting a little nervous for our final deliverables to be presented to our clients next week – a start of the dash for the second half. ☺

I am working on the project for the Department of Health – we’ve been visiting all over the province to understand how people manage data in hospitals and smaller clinics.  Since last week we did 2 workshops with representatives from all the districts to discuss how we could improve the data collection process, which is currently very manual and paper oriented. We had good discussion and hoping our work will be somehow helpful.

By the way all the room doors in the nursing college where we had the workshop were very “securely managaed”.

Work in Joburg starts early – usual hours from 8 to 16 or 17. Our client’s day starts even earlier in the car before 6am every day, traveling 2 hours and doing phone calls on the way (on speaker) … Very energetic.

Uber and the railway “Gautrain” is our main source of transportation when the shuttle is not available, as both were introduced as the most reliable, safe and convenient way. Gautrain is also very clean as no food / drink is allowed inside, we had to throw away full cup of coffee we bought right before the ride. ;_;

A bit about the weekend as well..

A subset of our group had a beautiful weekend in Capetown. Although the townships did look similar to those near Joburg.. it did feel like a different country and felt the same way when we got the message “welcome back to Africa” when we landed back to Joburg.  See the full lion in the picture?

Cape of good hope, originally named cape of storms, is one of my favourite spot as I can “feel” the history of the age of exploration and discovery – Diaz and Da Gama, which had been a story inside the books since childhood. .

And of course some of ….  Needless to say, they were great.

Capetown was also a beautful area with the unique flowers .. and animals. My favourite flower is the “Pin-Cussions” on upper left and down right in yellow. Others are “King Protea”, the national flower and “Bottle Brush” from the way it looks.

Speaking of animals let me finally share this picture that my teammate Kristin bought for me while we were at the Lion park last weekend. 
A sweet encounter moment and now I can officially say I was attacked by a lion in Africa..!!