Work, Work and More Work (and Some Fun Updates at the End)

Well my first ToC (Training of Coaches) is officially over and I must say, despite being thoroughly exhausted, it was an incredibly powerful, challenging and frustrating experience. I got to interact, share and participate in passionate (though sometimes misguided) cross-cultural dialogues, listen (and contribute) in discussions that sought to penetrate generations upon generations of social indoctrination. Now before I get too far into this, some of you might be thinking, “wait a minute Graham, I thought you were doing HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment education? Why is GRS suddenly engaging in such deep-seeded and thought provoking cultural discussions?” The answer to your questions is YES, although more specifically, YES to both of the above questions. What GRS has found is that HIV prevention cannot be solely focused on health education and disease biology. There are a myriad of external pressures, social and cultural norms, and even basic scientific misunderstandings that are undercutting our ability to disseminate vital information to at-risk youth. This inability to bridge cultural understanding was even more evident at this ToC that I participated in last week, the first ever pilot of the Generation Skillz program.

The Generation Skillz program is GRS’s first attempt to design and implement a curriculum for high school kids. Previously, GRS’s primary demographic had been pre-sexual youth age 11-14. Generation Skillz is therefore unique within GRS’s “family of curriculums” because it strives to not only target an older age-group; but is also the first curriculum that deals with the cultural factors that influence the spread of HIV across sub-Saharan Africa. The latter point is probably the most important distinction between the various GRS curriculums (Skillz 1.1, Skillz Street, Skillz Holiday and Generation Skillz).

Editors Note: I think it is important at this point to acknowledge that anytime you bring in new ideas, especially ideas that are incongruous with traditional social norms, you are going to be met with some resistance. I say this, or perhaps more accurately, I want to emphasize this point because at a fundamental level, people struggle with new and challenging ideas. For any culture in the world, adapting and understanding new ideas/customs/beliefs/attitudes is going to be a struggle, and likewise there are going to be “growing pains” associated with this development. It’s critical however, especially in these circumstances, to truly understand what’s important, and not focus/dwell on the negative. It’s too easy to get frustrated and say “why are these ideas so challenging?” The fact that these individuals are open and willing to listen and accept new thoughts/idea/beliefs shows an amazing capacity for personal growth. In my mind this is the most important thing to takeaway from this training. That people always have the capacity to learn, teach, understand and ultimately grow.

Okay, sorry about that tangent but I think that’s an important piece of information to convey. Now back to the ToC.

So, as I mentioned above, this Generation Skillz curriculum really tries to challenge its participants, to make them think critically about the four primary “drivers” of the HIV epidemic. Gender Based Violence (one of the four), which is a huge problem is South Africa, is so heavily influenced by gender norms that its impossible to talk about Rape (500,000 women were raped in South Africa last year) without talking about gender-based violence. Likewise, it’s impossible to talk about gender-based violence without discussing gender norms and relationship dynamics. As you may have guessed by now…it’s impossible to have a conversation about relationship dynamics and gender norms without digging-in and discussing the cultural role that gender plays within South African society. With that in mind, is it even possible to have a conversation about rape without addressing the idea of multiple concurrent partners (another driving force) and how that relates to both relationship dynamics (women viewed as property rather than partners) and gender norms (women existing as a subservient social class).

Editors Note: As with any statistically based discussion, we are generalizing based on numbers and percentages. In no way are these statements indicative of the entire population. These discussions are designed to make both genders think critically about why these issues are rampant within township communities. They are not meant to be a judgment of our coaches.

Okay back to ToC mode. So, the main goal of Generation Skillz (because it’s designed for an older more mature audience) is that it must delve into not only the physical aspects of HIV/AIDS transmission and proliferation but also, and perhaps more importantly, the psychological and cultural reasons that motivate and influence the driving forces of HIV. Even ideas that seem from the outside to be isolated (for instance, drug and alcohol abuse) are in-fact interrelated with the others.

Deep Breath…

Okay, that’s all I’m going to post about the ToC for now. I’m still digesting the experience and I’ll post more thoughts later in the week…but for now, here’s a recap of what I’ve been doing in the meantime (not work related).

Last weekend we all piled into our car, the Toyota Avanza (basically a giant goat cart with the engine of a lawnmower) and headed off to an ostrich farm two hours outside of Cape Town. Now at first you may be thinking, “why would you want to go camping at an Ostrich farm, they’re like one of the dumbest animals on the planet and there’s probably a good chance you’ll get mauled?” And to be honest, both of those statements are true. Luckily there was a fence around the Ostriches so instead of getting mauled I got to watch the ostriches run into the fence over and over and over again (like I said, dumbest animals ever). The camping was awesome though, the views were spectacular and the weather was perfect, it was a great trip with one exception…nighttime was freezing. For some reason (don’t ask me why) I decided not to bring a sleeping bag on this little excursion. I don’t know exactly what my thought process was, probably something along the lines of, “man I’m in Africa, it’s really hot right now, there’s definitely no way I could freeze my ass off at night…because it’s so hot right now.” Wrong again. Luckily, both Jamison and myself were equally poor planners, so instead of freezing my ass off by myself, I at least had a partner in crime. Unfortunately (for Jamison too) I decided to compound my first mistake with another. For some reason I thought “well I don’t have a sleeping bag, so instead of sleeping in the tent with everyone else, I’ll sleep in the car where it will be warm…” Again, terrible idea (awesome 2/2 on horrible decisions). Long story short, Jamison and I froze in the car, my teeth were chattering for the entire night, I was trying to pile wrappers and chip bags and various articles of clothing on top of me (like a blanket or better yet, like a sleeping bag). In the end neither of us could sleep, my inner hyperchondriac kicked in and I decided that we should crack a window in the car, for air flow (3/3 on horrible decisions). This compounded both of the other mistakes and somehow, and I honestly don’t even know how this was possible, made the care about ten degrees colder than outside. Anyway, it was a great day and a miserable night but in the end it makes for a good story.

Besides camping I’ve been trying to get into surfing. My dreams of shredding huge waves have quickly vanished however, replaced instead by a sobering new humility that I’m not really sure what to do with. Nothing like getting your ass kicked by waves for two hours, while watching five year old kids tear up the water, to really drive home the fact that 1) I really, really suck and 2) that I’m an out-of-shape former soccer player, with the balance of 72 year-old. Still, despite the fact that I’m setting records for most liters of ocean water swallowed (per hour of surfing) it’s an awesome hobby. Even if you don’t catch any waves, I’m still chilling on the water with dolphins, sea lions and MOM DON’T READ THIS…sharks as well.

Alright well that’s all for now, the pictures at the top are from the camping trip, enjoy.

Later.