Morgan Through A Lens

Dumelang!

I’ve written a bit on my blog about Zazi, a program that Peace Corps Volunteers implement to teach young women and adolescent girls about sex and other health topics, but until now I haven’t gone into great detail.

Well, I ran a Zazi program in my village and I brought ya’ll along for the ride!


Zazi is a program for South African women, created by South African women. Zazi was originally designed for girls 15 and older, but I believe in positive intervention at a early age, because stopping negative behavior before it starts is a lot easier than trying to change existing negative behavior, so I set up my Zazi program for middle school girls, ages 12-15. Whether we like it or not, girls are having sex at young ages and they need to know this information before they contract HIV or fall pregnant (the South African way to say it).

Please check out the Zazi website, www.zazi.org.za for more information!
Most of the kids who come to the centre are primary school age, but there ar…

Dumelang!
Before I left for SA I wanted to write a post about packing for the Peace Corps. Ultimately, time got away from me and I never wrote one. However, a post written after the fact (including what I brought, what I brought that I didn’t need, and what I wish I brought) is probably much more useful for future Peace Corps South Africa volunteers.
Firstly, keep in mind that this is a packing list for Peace Corps South Africa, NOT a packing list for all Peace Corps countries. What to pack changes drastically throughout the PC, and even throughout PC Africa countries.
Also, this list isn’t exhaustive. I’m not going to include obvious things I brought (ie, toothbrush). If it’s not on this list and you’re thinking “I use that on a daily basis, I need that” then by all means, bring it.
Lastly, I left for South Africa in January, which means I was lucky enough to do my packing and shopping during the holiday season. I bought most of the “big ticket” items on Black Friday, Cyber Mond…

Dumelang!

The Peace Corps mission is guided by three goals:

1. To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women
2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans

All of PCV activities (should) meet one of these three goals. I do Goal One projects in my community (Zazi, health sessions etc.), and I frequently blog about my experience in South Africa to meet Goal Three, but I wanted to do some more Goal Two projects.

So, what better way to introduce South Africans to American culture than to throw a Halloween party?!

Halloween is not celebrated in South Africa, and definitely not in my village, but it’s my favorite holiday and I wanted to bring it to the children of Mmametlhake.

I ran into a challenge when I realized that South African communities are very wary of witchcraft and sorcery, which is a big part of Halloween.…