Life Update

Here is an update on my life at the moment:

The Umhlaba Wami Photography Project is keeping me busy, busy, busy. Fortunately, I like being busy. I am learning the ins and outs of trying to form my own non-profit project, and quickly learning that the non-profit world is just like the corporate world, but without... profit. I have sat through phone calls of negotiation, I have had to discuss project ownership, I have written tons of emails looking for sponsorship and advice... it has been crazy trying to get this off the ground so quickly. Considering that another organization that does a similar thing asked for me to join them and become a subset of their project is actually a compliment... it means I am doing a good job [as for the results of that hour-long phone conversation, it is still up in the air]. But however slowly, things are progressing. This morning I secured a sponsorship of the children's portfolios/photobooks at the end of the workshop [so it will be more than gluing their photos on sheets of paper] through a company called RapidStudio! That is pretty neat. My first victory in a long line of rejections. I am also in the negotiating period of getting the work displayed at the Natal Museum, etc. It may seem like I am moving about things backwards, but when you try to do a lot in a short time frame you kind of have to hit all areas to once. I am hopefully meeting with the principal at Ingquangele High School on Tuesday to talk about using a classroom and see what time they get out of school. I am forcing myself to admit that I might have to begin my roll-out a week later than intended, but that is still pretty awesome. I am starting out "easy" by going to Snathing, a township that is closer to the city meaning that the children may speak some English. Maybe. Eek I am so excited! And completely nervous that this will be a huge flop.

I will not be sleeping the next few weeks as the Social Services and Training teams at Thandanani need me to make a curriculum manual for their Life Skills lessons that they teach to primary and high school students. At first I thought I would just be compiling the work that they had done, putting it all in an easy manual to give to their community volunteers. Well, apparently it is not that easy and they need it by the second week of February when they start trainings. We haven't even met about what is going in it yet.

And lastly, the other thing that I am working towards is the Natal Championships for track and field. Despite the fact that I haven't even been to the track at UKZN for the last two months, I want to place at the KZN Championships in long jump. Ha! If I did that I would have a chance to represent KwaZulu Natal at the South African Championships, but that is the point where I am going to have to gracefully drop out... because I am not South African. So I guess I need to start working out, as the Natal Champs are in less than a month. There is a gym that is about half an hour walk from me that I worked out in this week-- and it was literally like lifting weights in a sauna. Think bikram yoga room with exercise equipment. It was about 100 degrees and humid outside, and there I was in a small room with sweaty men that had no air conditioning. My sweat was at an embarrassing level. Note to self: don't wear light blue shorts if you are going to sweat through them.

And I guess that is all. I am at my half-year mark and between all of this I need to find time to write my midyear report for the Rockefeller Fellowship committee so they can see how I am doing... and so I can get the rest of my fellowship money. I also need to gain employment, as it would be nice to have a source of income when I go home. Oh, and I am going to Mozambique for the month of April to work in a bush. More about that later.