Creating an Culture of Learning

In mid-March my tenure with Grassroot Soccer ended, and I began working full time at Thembelenkosini Care Givers (TCG). Many of you who follow this blog will remember Thembelenkosini as the children’s community center in Senaoane, Soweto where AJ and I built the library a few months ago. Since then, we had continued to work part-time at TCG whenever time allowed, assisting the founder and director of the organization, Khosi, with any projects she needed our help with. It quickly became a place we grew extremely fond of and we felt ourselves establishing real, meaningful relationships with many of the kids at the center.

With my time at GRS ending, I knew that I wasn’t ready to leave Soweto and began thinking of ways to supplement the experience I had while working for Grassroot. I didn’t have to look very far. After just one conversation with Khosi, she agreed that I should spend my last 5 weeks in South Africa working for Thembelenkosini and living with her and her family in Senaoane.

So, for the past 5 weeks I have been working with Khosi to restructure, redesign, and renovate how her afterschool program works and how we can more effectively fulfill our mission to physically, emotionally, creatively, and intellectually enhance the lives of children in the community of Senaoane. I’ve worked with Khosi in helping her understand the nuances what foundations and private donors are looking for before agreeing to donate money to an organization, the importance of establishing partnerships with other NGOs and businesses throughout the community, developing a strategic plan for where she sees TCG going and how she’s going to get there, designing the website, and creating an arts & crafts program to supplement the educational and nutrition program, and much more. It has undoubtedly been a great learning experience for both of us.

After spending just a few days at the center however, I realized that while the center was not necessarily in bad shape physically, it did not provide the kids with the type of environment that was conducive to learning. I thought back to all of my elementary school classrooms and how they were filled with bright colors, big posters, inspirational quotes & poems, maps, and all types of other things that put us into the spirit of learning. Those things did not yet exist here. Khosi and I both thought that for the TCG to take a true step in the direction of being a place of educational enhancement, it was important for us to create an environment that would stimulate the kids’ levels of intellectual curiosity.

So, after the go-ahead from Khosi, as well as some cash in my pocket from performing at the Maun International Poetry Festival, I set out to physically renovate the inside of Thembelenkosini.

By no means do I consider myself a visually artistic person. Slam poetry is one thing, but to have my creative visions manifest themselves through a paintbrush was a whole new ballgame…a very messy ballgame. So after a week of going through dozens of rolls of tape, having enamel paint trapped in the crevices of my fingernails, misspelling Thembelenkosini on the wall and having to start over, basically showering myself in paint thinner, helping the kids put their hand prints all over the wall, and making the owner of the local paint store really happy with this new surge of business, I completed the renovation of TCG.

It’s an awesome feeling to step into a room and experience how a simple paintjob can so drastically change the atmosphere of a place. Additionally, I believe that allowing the kids to play a role in the renovation (they came up with the idea for all of the handprints and decided on the words to be painted along the wall) really gives them a sense of ownership in the center that I’m not sure existed before.

We’ve already noticed a difference in the kids’ attitudes when they are here as well as their desire to go into the library and pick up a book without anyone telling them to.

I leave in just a few days, but living in Soweto and working at TCG has enhanced my experience here in South Africa 100-fold. As I begin to transition into Teach for America in a few months, I know that because of my time with both Grassroot Soccer and Thembelenkosini Care Givers. I will be a better teacher next year than I otherwise would have been. 

Tizzy's sister contributed her artistic talent when she came to visit

Tizzy's handywork

FedEx shipped 200lbs worth of books to our center free of charge

Celebration time

My Poem in Upcoming Documentary

So since I've been living in South Africa, I've been fortunate to be actively involved in the slam poetry scene here. A few months ago, I received the incredible opportunity to have one of my pieces featured in an upcoming film entitled, "They Go to Die", which profiles the lives of several men working in gold mining industry of South Africa. The director has just released the portion of the film that will be featuring my poem and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. This is an important issue that I have become extremely passionate about during my time here and I hope that this poem, as well as the film as a whole, can humanize an issue that is so often trapped within the confines of academia and medical journals.

Smith Family Does South Africa

A few weeks ago, the entire Smith family clan came together for a 2 week vacation/ultimate holiday/African extravaganza which included time in Soweto, Lesedi Village, Kruger Park, and Cape Town. With both Jesse and I currently living in South Africa, the family decided there was no better time to come check out the motherland. It was hands down the best family trip we've ever had. Here are a few snippets of the awesomeness:

 

 

Maun International Poetry Festival

Dredd X

Last weekend, I traveled to Maun, Botswana to perform in the first annual Maun International Poetry Festival.  The festival was coordinated and put together by a local spoken word group in Maun called PoetAvango, who put on monthly sessions for the poetry lovers of their country. The founder of the group, Dredd X, a talented poet/guitarist with an unyielding smile and an amiable sense of humor, invited me to be part of the festival a few months ago after seeing of my videos on youtube. Needless to say I was more than happy to take him up on such an opportunity.

At first, I was daunted by the prospect of an 18-hour bus ride, but there no way I’d let that stop me from meeting and performing with some of the best poets in southern Africa. The bus ride itself ended up being pretty easy, relatively speaking, with a few good books and a long nap used to pass the time.

Zwesh

In Maun, I roomed with another poet from South Africa named Zwesh. There are a lot of adjectives I could use in an attempt to describe Zwesh, but they would all be insufficient. Basically, Zwesh a wise African sage who dropped amazing Rasta knowledge on me the entire time I was there. Seriously, I don’t think this dude could go 5 minutes without saying subtly profound things. He also helped guide me through the chaos of the mini-bus station when we had to transfer buses, and moved vendors and taxi drivers aside as if he were parting the Red Sea.

Outspoken, Brighten, and Upmost

I also made good friends with two immensely talented poets from Zimbabwe, Outspoken and Upmost-Mybrotherskeeper. These guys run a really impressive arts for social and political activism organization back in Harare, and considering the current political climate in Zim, I commend them highly for the important work they’re doing.

Friday evening there was a workshop/symposium for all of the poets to discuss the our personal writing processes as well as the state of spoken word, what role it plays in our society, and how we can harness the power of our art to inspire others to bring about social change.

Saturday during the day there was a youth poetry competition where 10 teenage girls from Botswana competed in the finals of the Women Against Rape (WAR) poetry slam. The theme of all of the pieces had to do with gender-based violence and these girls went in! It was some of the most passionate poetry I’ve ever heard and you could tell that this was coming from a very real place for all of them.

Saturday night was the main show, where poets from across southern Africa got on stage and presented work that ranged from modern slam, to storytelling, to monologues, to traditional tribal poetry. While we had to bring the festival indoors because of the rain, it was definitely a cool experience to see so many different styles of poetry manifesting themselves on stage.

If only I actually glowed like this onstage

Overall the experience was a great one and if I’m lucky, it won’t be the last poetry festival I perform in.