Rekaofela

This weekend was work filled. On Saturday we had two programs running at resorts a little ways out of Kimberley. We worked at Warrenton and Barkly West with kids who are just about to matric (graduate high school).  I talked previously about these camps that have been housing these kids since August in another blog post. We had wanted to complete HCT’s but the Department of Education did not allow us to bring testers to the sites. Fortunately we are now allowed to go and complete our programs at these camps. Unfortunately this means that our next few Saturdays are devoted to GRS.

            Our day started off with Nick and I leaving the intern house and picking up two of our coaches from Platfontein, a small township about 20 minutes from us. It is a really beautiful place. The poverty is still present like in all the townships in South Africa, with people living in shacks, but the landscape is breathtaking. I swear it looks like a lion could creep up on you at any moment from the long blonde grass and trees sporadically growing here and there that surrounds Platfontein. It’s so close to Kimberley but at the same time it looks completely different to me.

Morning in Platfontein

            Anyway we brought them and our PC, Thembi, to the office where the Department of Education brought two bus taxis to transport our coaches the sites. Both taxis went straight to Warrenton which really made zero sense for the coaches that needed to go to Barkly West. Warrenton is 100km away from Kim and Barkly West is not in the same direction. We arrived at 9:30 at Warrenton and had to wait until 12 until a taxi was free to bring us to Barkly West, another hour drive. Safe to say I was already tired and frustrated with the lack of organization from the Department of Education. We had told the school at Barkly West we would start at 11, we didn’t arrive until 1 due to the Department of Education’s lack of urgency.

            We crossed the gate into the camp at Barkly West where the sign showed it was named Rekaofela. This is a perfect place for us to work at because we say ‘Rekaofela’ all the time during our practices. It’s our way to make sure the participants are listening by say ‘rekaofela’ and the participants answering with ‘rimoho’. It means ‘we are together’. Rekaofela is a really beautiful resort with a river running next to it and some nice green fields. There were even goats munching on the grass right next to the classrooms. What was even better was the enthusiasm of the girls. They’re all grade 12 so around 18 years old. I was happily surprised that most of them were participating instead of thinking they were too old for the games and information we wanted to share with them. It was a great way to bump me out of my funk from the morning. I can’t wait to go back next Saturday. I’m really interested to see how our coaches handle the issue of pregnancy with these girls because many were obviously pregnant as well as many shared that they had children already. Just in the class I sat in of about 30 girls I counted 3 that I could tell were pregnant. In Skillz Street curriculum a major point we try to teach the girl participants is to abstain or make sure they commit to having safe sex so they won’t get pregnant as well as not contract an STI. So much talk about avoiding pregnancy in order to reach your goals seems like a little too late slash also might offend these girls. I can’t wait to see how our coaches will approach this subject.

Goats at Rekaofela

Closing circle

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            After that Saturday, Sunday was completely devoted to vegging out. I did not even leave the compound. Just watched movies and read my book. If you haven’t read Cutting for Stone I would definitely recommend it, especially if you have any interest in the medical field. In the evening I watched the UVM women’s soccer team play UNH. Go Cats Go! Big cheers for all the seniors!

Biggest Cats fan in Africa!