I think I’ll Build a House Today.

This morning started off like any other morning does on our program – early, rushed, sleepy seeds still in the corners of our eyes. After not enough sleep last night, I woke up at 6:30 to make the bus that was going to the house building project in the Mflueni township. There were volunteers from TSiBA (students, faculty and staff), Northeastern University, and from Metropolitan Health.

The day was very structured and well run. We were broken down into groups of 8-10, then sent to various locations in the township where houses had been started. My group leader, Hugo, and several contractors showed us how to lay concrete blocks and concrete to assemble the inner walls. But first, we had to transport all the concrete blocks from outside to the house. We had a great assembly line going. And those blocks were HEAVY. [I have done Habitat for Humanity in the past, and this was probably 5x more strenuous than Habitat] Then we actually started putting up the walls. Again, everything is harder than it looks. The contractor showed us how, and he made it look so simple. However, when you have to mix your own concrete, things get a bit tougher.

3 Parts Sand, 1 part Lime, and lots of water. We mixed our concrete on the floor of the house with shovels. First you need to combine the dry materials, then create a little pool in the middle with water. Then mix well. It seems easy, but it’s not. We learned a song that miners sing, so that made the process go a little faster, but it was difficult nonetheless. After mixing the concrete, we started assembling walls. It was tough to keep the walls level though, and we had to make many adjustments. Jen and I made a pretty good team though laying the blocks. I was impressed. Post block laying, you have to “bag” the wall to fill in the gaps with more concrete, and smooth out the wall.

This lasted all day until we finished the walls. It was pretty cool to see all our work at the end. The house itself was very small in comparison to American homes (it was about the size of my living room at home, maybe smaller) however it is going to make some family or person very happy. The way it works is that they can apply for a house at this organization, then if selected they agree to mortgage terms which are usually quite long. If the person can’t pay it at first, they offer a very long grace period. It’s incredibly empowering, as at the end of the day we presented a woman with her finished home. She had never lived in a home before and the smile on her face brought tears to my eyes. As the cut the ribbon to open her door, all the volunteers erupted with applause. We were a part of giving this woman a safe place to live. I will never forget the smile on her face.

I’ve done many service projects in the past, but this one was much different. I think it was so different because of the location. We were in a township. Townships are fascinating to me in that it is really a community, not a neighborhood. There are always children wandering around, smiling, and wanting to talk to you. [Side note: They were yelling ‘unlango’ to us as we walked past, I later learned that this meant ‘whitey.’ They don’t get out of the township much if at all, so seeing a white person was shocking and new to them] People are always sitting in groups, playing cards, drinking, etc. Water is communal. There are braiis going on everywhere (barbeques). Countless “hair salons.” I have so many pictures of townships because it really is a different type of life that I wish I could fully understand. All I know is that it’s very unique and something that I’ll remember long past this trip.

Today is the last day with the TSiBA students. We are going to a dinner tonight downtown in Cape Town – the Fat Cactus, yummy tex-mex. It’s going to be weird saying goodbye to them. They have become so close to us and I only wish that we had more time. Together, our group has made a huge difference in such a short time.

Tomorrow we leave for Durban to go to God’s Golden Acre. We have to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM. These days are so busy, but so rewarding and wonderful. I can sleep when I’m dead.

-Hills

It's Coming Together.

Last day of classes was today. We had a final discussion on P&G’s Clean Water Initiative and Toms’s Shoes. We were focusing on weather the company’s were starting these initiatives for Profit, People or Public Relations. It’s kind of a difficult conversation to have in a group because while my initial reaction to P&G’s Initiative would be solely for public relations and that’s bad… one must remember that it’s a business. P&G is an American company whose goal are profits-and this program may be driven by profits. By this project, they are in turn getting R&D in the low-income market and branding their name which may lead to profits in the future. Is that necessarily a bad thing when you’re in business? I would say no but many disagreed with me, and with legitimate reasons. I trying to go into these discussions with a very open mind and really listening to my peers. It’s definitely going to (and has already) had an affect in the companies that I support.

Post last day of class, we did a bit of project work. Jen and I finished up the research on free financial education and found two courses we’re suggesting to Christophe on Friday. SO glad to get that piece out of the way. It has been hanging over our heads; what seemed like an easy task (free online training) was actually much tougher than we thought… like most of the project.

Then we took a short tour of the South Africa Astronomical Observatory. It has the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a very old observatory, but the buildings are all in pretty nice shape.

Headed back to TSiBA for another meat-heavy lunch then project work. Luckily the internet was in full force today, so we got a lot of work done. We finished out PowerPoint presentation for Friday’s ceremony and also compiled all the templates, resources and articles that we’ll be presenting Township Patterns. Now that all of the deliverables are set up and clear, I’m feeling really good about the project. I’ve learned a lot about the South African culture in regards to personal finance: there isn’t much discussion or planning around it. I only hope that these resources will help the women that work at the Co-Operatives because they deserve that. Women are supporting huge families on their salaries, but somehow are unable to make financial goals and properly plan for their futures. And it’s not their fault – they simply haven’t ever received education on the topic. While this project primarily benefits Township Patterns as a governing company (in regards to production, cost reduction, loans), it also has an enormous potential to help families get out of poverty. That is among the most difficult parts of this project – to see beyond the two weeks that we are consulting. If we didn’t find a way to do that, we would have failed. However I’m quite proud of the work my group has produced and I’m looking forward to presenting it on Friday. Our group has made some great progress both individually and as a group.

After project work, we visited Khayelitsha Cookies which is a company that makes high-end cookies and sells them to grocery stores, hotels and other companies. They are a for-profit company but haven’t profited yet because they really take great care of their employees. They employ non-skilled women from the Khayelitsha Township and teach them how to bake, fill out paper work and run a business. The women get great benefits including transportation, sick days, and seem to be in high spirits as they work. I was very impressed by the company, but was shocked by their prices. They were incredibly under priced. Everything is done by hand – no machines (the idea is to keep the women employed) from the packaging to the mixing to the cutting of brownies, yet a package of 5 cookies only costs R 8, the equivalent of about $1. It’s absurd. They would sell for 5-10x as much in the United States. Nevertheless, I bought a bunch, as did Northeastern for our final presentations.

Finally home after another long day. We’re doing our last Potluck Dinner tonight. Kind of sad, but it’ll be a great time. The friends I’ve made here are wonderful and I couldn’t have asked for a better group.

Cheers.

Extreme Southwestern Tip

Today we had a busy day planned – Cape Point. It actually is not where the Indian/Atlantic Ocean meet, contrary to popular belief. [Cape Point is often mistakenly claimed to be the place where the cold Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean and the warm Agulhas Current of the Indian Ocean collide. So unfortunately, we didn’t see the so-called “line in the ocean,” which is a popular myth.]

We started off the day at Boulder Park to see the penguins! It was this gorgeous area where there was a great beach that penguins have flocked to. They were African Penguins. This area is cared for by the park, but the penguins are not constrained to the park so they can migrate whenever they want.

Next on the list: a bike ride around and to Cape of Good Hope. Why not take a Sunday morning bike ride? It was absolutely gorgeous. We biked past baboons and ostriches. Baboons here are very aggressive, and we passed one that had grabbed a tourist’s bag, ripped it open and took out the camera. We were encouraged to keep our backpacks close and not to eat food around them. After a bike ride we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. It was absolutely beautiful. There was a rocky beach, but just down the shore from actual Cape Point. We hung out there for a while until we embarked upon our hike up to Cape Point.


Our hike was absolutely wonderful. Natural beauty at its finest. The shoreline, the mountains, and the beautiful white sandy beach that we found. The small group I was hiking with decided to take a dip – it was certainly chilly, but definitely worth the swim and the long path we had to take to reach the beach! After our swim, we headed back to the visitors center, where the cable car takes people up the lighthouse and met up with the rest of the NU/TSiBA group.

After loading into the van, the NU/TSiBA group went to an ostrich farm to feed them! They were actually quite docile, but managed to nibble on a a few fingers.. no harm done! After a quick feeding, our buses went our separate ways and the exhausted NU crowd basically slept the entire bus ride back.

This week is our final week with TSiBA. I don’t know how I’m going to say goodbye to it – the students, the classes, the institution. After two weeks, our group has gotten so close and I’ve learned countless things from each and every student I’ve met, the places we’ve visited and the education we are sharing. Leaving will be sad, but knowing that we’ve done everything in our power to make a difference will make us proud. This week will be another busy one – time to get down to business and achieve these goals we’ve each set for ourselves.

Promote Pathways

Today was a new day. It was a day for me to calm down, figure things out and to learn. After an extremely stressful day yesterday, I realized that I need to step outside of myself and assess both the situation at hand, and what I can feasibly accomplish in about 8 afternoons.

My group went to visit two cooperatives today in Khayelitcha and Manenburg. We got picked up at TSiBA in a white van with: no seats, no windows, many boxes, and fabric. This was the delivery truck for Township Patterns when they go to the cooperatives. Township was generous enough to provide us this transportation for our two visits. It was definitely an eventful visit in that our driver made lots of U-turns, abrupt stops and some Xhosa jokes that I wish I could have understood.

The first cooperative we visited was Somulele in Khayelitcha. I don’t know what I expected, but this was not it. The cooperative was literally just a room with about 10 sewing stations, a MOUNTAIN of Pick ‘n’ Pay green bags, and boxes of fabrics. The women were very quiet when we visited. The leader, Patricia, was busy when we visited at 2:00 PM but agreed to speak to us more at their break time at 3 PM so the students that spoke Afrikaans stayed behind while we went to the next cooperative. I learned a lot about the black culture today in that when they work, no disruptions whatsoever. We were intruding on their work time, which is their income. It felt uncomfortable for me, but something I wouldn’t fully understand without the visit, without seeing the sense of fear in their eyes.

While Nolwazi, Cindy and Jenn stayed behind to speak to Patricia at 3, I got a ride to Manenburg from an employee of Township Patterns with the other members of our group. The Manenburg Township is a colored community, and I was told that it would be much friendlier and laid back. The second I walked in, the team leader – Jennifer, greeted us with open arms, introduced herself to everyone and encouraged us to sit around with the women and talk about their personal savings, finance and educational goals. It’s very awkward to sit down with someone (especially a stranger) and ask them such personal questions. However, we were encouraged to just be ourselves and chat. I wasn’t prepared to do so as we had already decided that the South African students would do the interviewing. But, when I sat down with one of the women, the conversation just flowed. We spoke about everything from her family to her education to her relationships at Township Patterns. She was incredibly honest with me which I respect immensely. She was 57 years old, had been working for 30 years, and was having trouble saving because she both supported her family so much and had a soft spot for her grandchildren. We discussed a preliminary monthly budget, computer training, and her goal of a trip to Mecca, which would cost her about 40,000 rand. I left the cooperative feeling so much more connected to this project because I wanted to help her save and to help her understand the power of her earnings. For a woman who works as hard as she does, she deserves so much more, and she even admitted that.

On the opposite spectrum, I spoke to Jennifer (the team leader) who does indeed save her money, and made sacrifices to have an emergency fund. Working in the same room together, making the same exact salary every month, there was a woman who is in complete chaos with her well-earned finances with a woman who diligently saves and is able to reward herself at the end of the day with whatever she chooses. The two interviews couldn’t have been more different.

After two very successful visits, we headed back to TSiBA and met up with the other groups. The consensus among us is that we need to set some attainable objectives. We can’t promise a full out business plan, a high-tech website, an investment plan… it’s simply not logical. However, Jen put it perfectly when she said – We need to promote pathways to opportunity. That is what we will deliver at the end of this. That is something to be proud of. As long as we give them the resources, tools, and inspiration, I will feel that this project is a success.

Cheers,
Hills
Tomorrow: an hour of class followed by a visit to Khayelitcha for a “cultural experience.”

First Day of Consulting; Dinner with the Dean.

This morning was like the first day of class. For me, I was quite excited as I have taken Professor Shaughnessy's Social Entrepreneurship class and knew exactly what we were in for - engaging lively dicussions that push my boundries of thinking. Others may have been a bit more apprehensive as we have had quite a nice break from classes and there was a feeling not unlike returning to fall classes after a perfect summer.

Although I was eager to jump straight into the "nitty-gritty" details of South African entrepreneurship, I have to realize that not everyone on the trip has the same levels of prior knowledge. So Professor began with a concise foundation of what it means to be a social entrepreneur and ways to define the many different forms of entrepreneurship.

After lunch we met with our consulting groups to embark upon our missions. After listening to all of the presentations yesterday I am quite confident these projects will be a lot of fun, as well as teaching everyone involved a thing or two. (More like three or four.)

Yet, all of this was outshined by the night's dinner activities. The Dean of Northeastern's Business School is visiting us until tomorrow, and it has been quite a pleasure to be able to share our personal experiences with him. So tonight we had a group dinner at Mama Africa, where we had an absolute blast! I tried kudu, springbok, osterich, warthog, and crocodile... but I think the springbok was my favorite.

Dean Moore was a great addition to our crew and fit right in. We were all very eager to talk with the Dean about why we were on the trip and what it meant to us, and he was more than eager to listen. Ben and I had a great covnersation with him over dinner about our various travels outside the US, and the different experiences we have all experienced.

The night closed with delicious cakes made by one of the companies we are consulting; Comida Catering.

Now it is time for bed. Until next time,

Jason Morris

Entrepreneur Introductions

Hi All

Today was the first day of our official consulting project. It started off early at 7:45 AM, but unfortunately because of the flooding and sudden influx of rain, we were a bit behind schedule.

We got to TSiBA to start the entrepreneur presentations; there were 10 companies, each having 6 students to work with them, 4 TSiBA students and 2 NU students. The projects range from catering companies to stationery and micro finance companies. Mine, however, is a bags/textile company. It's a great concept because there is Township Patterns CC which supports NPO Township and Township Cooperatives. We will be working with the cooperatives who are groups of women that are given orders by the company and then fill the orders, and in turn invoice Township Patterns CC. It's an incredibly successful company; they did all the bags for Gap in the red campaign, and are also promoting green bags for Pick 'n' Pay (the local grocery store chain here). I'll be sure to pick up a few to bring back to the states. Our primary goals with Township CC are the following: to research the textile industry and compare labor costs, to train women in the cooperatives on the basics of financial management and personal finance, and then to leave the cooperatives with tools for success in their future at Township. We are going to visit their corporate headquarters on Wednesday which is in downtown Cape Town. Then on Thursday we will be taking a truck ride to deliver materials/orders to two of the township cooperatives. Can't wait to see where they work! It's definitely a lot to do, but I'm looking forward to it. In the process I'm sure that I will learn a lot from Christophe (the owner) and my fellow NU/TSiBA students.

Alright, back to work on my project about a South African entrepreneur - Patrice Motsepe. On tap for tonight: project, sleep and prepping for a busy day of figuring out a game plan for our consulting project.

Cheers, Hills

Weekend Team Building Exercise

Saturday has finally come, which means it is a time for all of us Northeastern and TSiBA students in Cape Town to relax. Maybe not, actually! We got up early to catch a bus to Table Mountain to potentially hike it. It’s funny how none of us actually realized what we were getting ourselves into. Half of us weren’t dressed properly – we were wearing shorts and a top. Let me remind you that it’s winter here. However, to give us some credit, we’ve enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather since we’ve arrived in Cape Town almost a week ago – I’m talking about shorts and t-shirt weather. The top of the mountain was invisible to us; the dark clouds blanketed the top half and sent down a cold, shivery breeze. And although a few of us were feeling adventurous, it was suggested as a group to make other plans that wouldn’t put us in potential risk of hypothermia. So we decided to hike across the mountain from Canstantia to Kirstenbosh – about 90 minutes of dirt trails, woodsy paths and stream crossing, to the beautiful Botanical Gardens.

Once we collectively crossed the mountain, we hopped on a bus that took us to District 6, specifically into the Bo-Kaap district, where we had lunch at one of Cape Town’s most famous Cape Malay restaurants called Biesmiellah. I didn’t identify most of the food that was served, aside from the chicken marinated in curry sauce and the rice, however, it was delicious and well deserved after a shin splinting hike.

Once again, it was a pleasure to spend time with the TSiBA students and bond. Call it what you will; a teambuilding exercise, but it was nice to see everybody share stories and laugh in happiness or in hopelessness over a long, tiring hike. In between the discussions along the hike, some of the students, including myself, would just stop and look around to enjoy our environment, listen to the creatures of the wild, and fully take in the beautiful Cape Town, South Africa.