Water

So I have been living in South Africa for two weeks as of tomorrow, which sounds like a long time until I think about that I only have 8 weeks left. In those eight weeks I have to visit Cape Town, go on a safari, play with baby lions, oh and do an analysis on ten country offices for Habitat. The big part of the project gets going in the beginning of August when I visit the Ugandan and Malawi (or "real Africa" as everyone here has told me) national offices to implement my survey, talk to partners, and visit build sites. Since my survey is written and in the editing process, I am currently working on some other internal research stuff for the Orphans and Vulnerable Groups (OVG) project. We are in the process of grant shopping and really interested in a grant that incorporates Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) into the communities where we are building. The past two days have made me realize my love/hate relationship currently with water.

My task was to do some quick Best Practice research on WASH and figure out how to make past projects Habitat friendly. So for those of you that didn't read about 2947385103 pages of info, here are some things I learned about WASH:

• 884 million people in the world don't have access to piped or some type of well water
• 2.6 billion people don't have access to improved sanitation (improved sanitation means there is hygienic separation between human contact and waste) 
• Clean water and good hygiene can reduce the spread of disease and mortality rates
• Only 31% of sub-Saharan Africa has access to improved sanitation 
• 1.7 million people in the US don't have access to plumbing in their household
• it is unbelievably important to wash your hands, don't be gross

(See this cute little girl washes her hands..I borrowed this picture from UNICEF btw)

The love: Tourists, ex-pats, and even some South Africans have really weird phobias about water here. They are convinced that they are going to get "a belly full of worms" (you are welcome Class 7). It is safe to drink out of the tap here and our office has a purified water cooler, so I'm not exactly brushing my teeth with Dasani.. until I go to "real Africa". Reading about WASH made me really thirsty, really sad, and really thankful. I have been almost in tears when my approximate 4 minutes of hot water runs out in the morning, but I'm also not walking hours, sharing an outhouse with 10 other families, or part of the 1.7 million Americans without plumbing. Perspective always wins.

The hate: My refrigerator left a nice big pool of water in the kitchen..I'm calling it "the great flood of Craig Park"

If my rant touched a soft spot in your heart, you can donate to Habitat or organizations like water.org that are doing cool stuff to alleviate water issues around the globe. Mark your calendars because March 22nd is World Water Day!

Skype Dates and Madiba

So this nearing the end of my first week of work with Habitat. The past four days have been a total orientation-filled blur. Everyone in my office has been incredibly nice and really helpful when it comes to figuring out this place called South Africa.



Wednesday was Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday, so naturally we celebrated Mandela day here! In honor of his 67 years of public service, South Africans were encouraged to give 67 minutes of public service yesterday. Since Habitat doesn't do anything small, they are celebrating Mandela week by building 67 homes in the country. Sixty seven homes in one week is unbelievable. The man-power, supplies, and organization it takes to make that happen could rattle even the most organized of offices. Major kudos go out to South Africa HFH for getting the local sites organized. Twenty five of those builds happened in Johannesburg, while the remainder were divided between Cape Town and Durban. Our office was split, the newbies went to the build site, while the veterans went to an orphanage to donate food and play with the kids. The build was in Orange Farm, but it might as well have been on Mars..it took us over an hour to get there in traffic, which apparently is normal in Johannesburg. Several of corporations here in South Africa had volunteers, hundreds of people out for the day. It was the most incredible way to celebrate someone who dedicated his life to a country he truly loved. During the lunch line people were playing music that was written for Mandela, dancing, and just having a good time. I have yet to meet a South African that doesn't love Madiba (in South Africa it is a sign of reverence to refer to someone by their clan). President Clinton was even in South Africa for the celebration, sadly he didn't get my message about making it to Orange Farm. Mr. President, feel free to contact me while you are in Africa if you need a student photo op or something!

The statue of the man himself in Nelson Mandela Square.

The office building a house, normal Wednesday activities. 

The community of Orange Farm and the cool Habitat flag

Getting directions, you can see the temporary HQ to the left 

What I feel like I did on Wednesday...

what I actually did on Wednesday.

The perfect way to start ending my first week of work was a couple of Thursday night Skype dates. The first was with none other than team Arkansquad in India aka Mitchell and Maggie. I got a tour of their apartment and got to hear about all of the shenanigans they are getting into. Everyone should check out their blogs to hear about the cool work they are both doing. I also got to call my parents on Skype...just in time to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Love you and hope you have had a great day!

The First 48hrs

Not the crime show, just my life over the past two days:

London's Terminal 5. If you ever need recommendations on what to do for 8 hours while you are there; I can give you the best places to eat, nap, how to get internet, and the secrets they don't tell you about gates B & C.

I arrived into Pretoria around 10am which is 3am home time. My initial thought about Johannesburg was how big it was. Seriously this city is HUGE! I was told that it is the largest city in the world not located near a body of water. Since it is winter here everything is a reddish-clay color. The days are around 60 ish degrees, but it is overcast. The best way to describe it is if Arizona met Northwest Arkansas in the winter then grew about 500%.  After getting picked up and taken to the office to get my keys I decided that I would push to try and stay awake for the rest of the day...woof. The very first thing I did was take a shower-cue the Hallelujah chorus! Annette, my awesome boss, was kind enough to take me on a tour of Hatfield and show me how to get a cell phone/use the train. The cell phone is my life source. I can't explain to you how amazing it was to call some of my classmates that have been here for a month and hear their voices. Today (Saturday) I explored Hatfield and went to brunch with Annette in Johannesburg. I'm really looking forward to Monday to start work, everyone in my office has been incredibly nice and some schedule will be just what I need. British Airways happened to lose my small bag, which should be delivered tomorrow. Say a prayer that it comes and my hairdryer and jacket are still there.

View of a street in Hatfield. The bright green tree on the right is called a Jacaranda tree. Sometime during September they should be turning purple!

The University of Pretoria is a few blocks away...just in case I need to get another degree when this is all said and done.

I love London?

Well it is finally here, the moment you have all been waiting for...my IPSP! Nine hours of flying and four hours of sleep later I am currently in London-Heathrow, which will be my temporary home for the next six hours. The worst part is not trying to amuse myself for the next few hours, it is that I DESPERATELY want to take a shower. Such a first world problem. At three pm CST I will depart London and head to South Africa. I did manage to creep on an Olympic team checking into the border within the first 15 minutes of being in London. I think they were from France...

 What have I been doing all summer while my precious classmates have been playing all around the world? I thought you would never ask! Here is an abbreviate list of the highlights: wedding, wedding shower, bachelorette party, wedding shower,wedding, engagement party, wedding, oh and and elopement celebration (not mine obviously). During that time I did somehow manage to read Catcher in the Rye and do my PPR and Country Analysis. In all seriousness, it was great to celebrate such happy occasions with some of my closest people.

While I'm in South Africa I will be working for Habitat for Humanity International's Africa and Middle East Orphans and Vulnerable Groups division. I am assessing what strategies of interventions need to be changed in order to ensure that the program is affective. I also get to travel to Uganda and Malawi to play with kids that have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS (well really I'm conducting on-the-ground research, but that doesn't sound as fun). Now you are all caught up fair reader. I'm going to explore the wonder that is Harrod's in Heathrow.

 PS. If you see my parents or siblings give them a hug; they have been super cool about sending their favorite child/sibling to another continent for three months.

PPS. I really do love London, just not from the airport.