Michael W. Sherman's Peace Corps South Africa Blog

Nairobi, Kenya

After my family visited me here in South Africa, I went to meet them in Nairobi, Kenya.

My uncle Joe lived in Nairobi for a summer back when he was in high school. 30 years later he returned with family in tow. I felt very lucky to be there–it was truly an amazing time.

Nairobi:

My arrival:

From left to right, standing: Joe’s Nephew Ben son of Julius (standing), Joe’s Nephew Ben son of Mary (seated), Laurie, Me, Louise, Mia, Joe’s Brother Julius, Joe, seated is Joe’s Sister Mary.

After I arrived we went out to eat…at a Chinese restaurant. It was better than any Chinese I’ve had in South Africa. Here Mia tries to get cousin Ben to eat something:

Check out these sweet sodas that cost like 60 cents:

More to come…

Do I Sound Like Public Broadcasting Yet?

And again I shake you down, dear readers, for some cash. After all, it rules everything around me.

I’m running a half marathon to raise money for the KLM Foundation. The KLM Foundation provides children from economically disadvantaged (rural) communities scholarships to attend private school. Their focus is on finding and educating the future leaders of South Africa.

KLM is an especially important charity because South Africa’s rural Black population is drastically underrepresented in the higher echelons of South African society and government. I know most of my readers know about apartheid, so I’m not going to get into that now. But even in 2012, vast inequality persists in South Africa. The children of the current elites–regardless of color–enjoy tremendous advantages in South African society. Rural communities and the people who live and grow up in them are increasingly marginalized, unable to compete and cut off from the government programs intended to redistribute wealth and power to Blacks. The “new” South Africa still looks like the old South Africa outside of the cities–rural areas are just as neglected and impoverished as they were 20 years ago, and the odds of a rural child “making it” haven’t changed much. Rare is the rural child who manages to grow up, leave their village, and ascend to a position of leadership in South African society. Which is why KLM is so important.

Most educational charities in South Africa focus on tangibles–school building, computer labs, libraries. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa, you don’t have to look far to find a failed computer lab or library. While assets are important, many communities lack the expertise to use and maintain assets purchased for them by well meaning charities, and these assets end up neglected or stolen. KLM is one of the few South African educational charities focused on human beings instead of physical assets.  Your money has a tremendous impact; an impact that will last far beyond a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Donating is easy:

1) Go to the KLM Foundation Website and click the Donate button in the top right corner. (Or just follow this direct link)

2) Fill out the form. You can donate (much) less than $100 if you want. 5$ is fantastic.

3) In the Longtom Marathon box (“If you are making this donation in support of a participant in the Longtom Marathon, please indicate the runner’s name”) put my name, Michael Sherman .

You can also donate by check. Ask me for help or read the instructions on the Donate page.

Please let me know if you have problems or questions, or have a peek at the KLM website.

Thank you all for your consideration. It means a lot to me and to a good charity. Hopefully I’ll be able to mail a letter or postcard to my donors. Maybe that’s not as cool as a tote bag with a Ken Burns DVD, but it’s the best I can do on a Peace Corps stipend.

Pics My Family Took at My School

While my extended family was visiting me, I made sure to take them to the school I work at. It was a fun visit, but sadly short on account of flight schedules.

My uncle took a bunch of really good photos of my school. Since I don’t have a lot of great school photos, I thought I’d share them.

Around the school:

Read more

Checking out Nkomazi Municipality and Visiting Peace Corps Volunteers

When people visit me, I like to show them more of South Africa than the tourist sites. So I made sure to take my family to the Nkomazi area to see “real” South African life.

Our first stop was the best eating house ever:

Bonus graffiti:

We also stopped in to visit a few PCVs. Check out the used booze collection of this mystery PCV (it’s not the one pictured):

Read more

Another Visit to Kruger National Park

In September (yeah, I’m a little behind on the blogging…), I had another set of visitors–my great aunt Louise, my uncle Joe and his wife Laurie, and their 8 year old daughter Mia. Much fun was had by all.

Their primary reason for being on the continent was to visit Joe’s Kenyan host family from his time in Nairobi back in 1980 (more on that in a few weeks), but they swung through SA to see Cape Town, Soweto, and their favorite Peace Corps Volunteer.

They stayed with me where I live, which was super awesome of them. But we still made sure to enjoy to many things to see and do here. And at the top of that list, as always, is Kruger National Park.

BUT…

It’s funny visiting Kruger now. Half of the animals are found in my backyard:

I hate monkeys now, I really do. They’re like racoons. Sure, they’re cute. But they’re pests and they’ll totally mess you up despite how adorable they are. The monkeys are always going through trash around where I stay, which would be bad enough. But they also steal food right out of people’s hands, cause people to cut down fruit trees to keep monkeys away, and one day even came into my office (while I was there) and fearlessly stole my lunch. They aren’t cute anymore–they’re a herpes vector. For real.

Read more

Pictures of Puppies!

There were a few pictures posted right when the puppies were born, but here are some more…

Joy the dog had 8 puppies. Here they are as newborns, crowded under mom:

I had never seen puppies so young. Their ears and eyes were shut when they were born:

But after awhile, they got cuter:

Read more

Photos of a Dead Cow, Freshly Butchered for a Wedding

Two of my teaching colleagues slaughtered a cow for their sister’s wedding.

NOTE, ONLY PROCEED IF YOU WANT TO SEE BRUTAL DEAD COW PICTURES. I’M TALKING TO YOU, AMERICANS AND VEGETARIANS. Nobody in South Africa blinks at the site of a dead, vivisected cow. It’s food! Yum!

Read more

More Funerals

The funerals just don’t stop, sadly.

From the cemetery, you can see a distant group of government houses:

The burial begins

We already spent 2 hours in church before coming to the cemetery in procession.

There’s a lot of dirt to move:

I don’t understand:

Hitting you up for money, suckers.

Less than two months to go before I possibly die trying to run 56k. I’m going to run some sort of race to raise money for the KLM foundation, which sends promising rural South African students to private school. I’m still well short of the goal of $5600. So looks like I’ll be running a mere 13.1k. Weak.

I know some of you hate me, now’s your chance to take me out and not have to worry about legal repercussions. I’m looking for that big, fat $5600 check. That’s half what a hitman would cost, and you can’t be found guilty of conspiracy. The only thing you’ll be guilty of is helping to make the world a better place.

The KLM Foundation was started by some former Peace Corps Volunteers with the goal of educating the future leaders of South Africa. From the  KLM foundation website:

Kgwale le Mollo (KLM) Foundation gives educational scholarships to girls and boys from economically disadvantaged, rural communities of the Mpumalanga province to attend secondary school at one of South Africa’s leading institutions. The programme emphasizes scholarship and service and as a result, award recipients are talented, motivated young people who wish to better themselves and their country. We recruit young people who want to change their world.

In collaboration with Uplands College, the KLM Foundation offers tuition and maintenance scholarships to young South African students entering secondary school. Each year, one recipient scholar is selected to enroll in the 8th grade at Uplands College. Tuition, room, board, academic fees, travel expenses, tutoring and a modest allowance are provided to the recipient scholar for five years.

KLM Foundation identifies and nurtures young South Africans with the potential to lead their country into the future. Despite the barriers of poverty and economic deprivation, South Africa’s rural communities possess the talent, innovation and vision that brought about the democratic transformation of the country a decade ago. Now, more than ever, young South Africans of talent and promise need the education to carry forward that legacy.

Donating is easy:

1) Go to the KLM Foundation Website and click the Donate button in the top right corner. (Or just follow this direct link)

2) Fill out the form. You can donate (much) less than $100 if you want. Even a few bucks is awesome.

3) In the Longtom Marathon box (“If you are making this donation in support of a participant in the Longtom Marathon, please indicate the runner’s name”) put my name, Michael “Shin Splint Mothership” Sherman .

4) Revel in your support of a future South African leader and government-funded physical therapy.

You can also donate by check. Ask me for help or read the instructions on the Donate page.

Please let me know if you have problems or questions, or have a peek at the KLM website.

Thank you all for your consideration.

Visiting Rural Limpopo

After National Science Week, I made a quick jaunt up to Limpopo to visit my buddy Mike. His site is extremely rural.

This was my welcome dinner:

Mike’s life is a little strange, as he has 2 sites. The first is accessible by taxi from a major city. The second, however, requires an adventure…

Clearly, we’re up for an adventure.

There’s a bus, but it only runs on certain days (and only leaves the village in the morning and returns at night). So we had to slog:

Read more