Community Week 1

Community Week 1!!! The block I was most anxious and most looking forward to. On day 1 it was a pleasant drive to the small community just out of Durban. The scenery was good, and the driving was less than adequate! South African drivers… need I say more? The community creeps up on you. Nestled amongst much greenery and small hills and valleys, are little houses close together and many different coloured tenements. The poverty is  also evident, and litter mars the greenery next to the main road. We first met with the CCG( community care givers) and learnt some of the history of the community and the work that they had been doing.

And the first thing I learnt was that community work is a long process. As our supervisor reminded us, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It all depends on how much effort you put in. But still there may be disappointments ahead. Years of work can often seem futile, and you will have many ups and downs. I guess the best way is to go in with a positive attitude. Do the best you can. Even if you cannot change the world, you may just change the life of a few people. And that’s ok with me.

Next we walked around the community a bit. It was a peaceful environment with the sound of happy children from the Primary School the only noise breaking the air. We visited the clinic and a crèche nearby. Visiting the kids just warmed my heart. We were swamped by dozens of joyful faces thronging to hug us. Children are just too precious! I cant wait to start working with them!

 We also visited the primary school which was busy preparing for their sports day. I had to hold myself back from laughing on seeing two 'smallies' getting reprimanded by the vice principal for fighting.

"We're friends again Sir, he apologised for hitting me".

"But you were the one who hit him".

"No I wasn’t ".

 Kids! It felt good to be back in the school environment. Seems like forever ago that we were back there. We spent the rest of the day discussing how we will move forward at Ridge Café- a little café next to the CCG that had amazing aromas and a great vibe. I knew I was going to love hanging out here!

The next day we tried to find our feet on our own and start organizing ourselves in a more orderly  fashion. I must admit it was tough. Our role as the last group on community is to continue and close up existing projects, while trying to ensure their sustainability. We had 3 huge files to sift through, which proved to be quite problematic. Somehow we were not getting this filing system right. Our group decided that we needed to do things differently. We were going electronic! Technology is the way to go nowadays, seriously! From now on we will store everything electronically for our own and future groups easier access. That still left the issue of sorting through and understanding the information left for us. I spent the day reading the file a few times, texting and emailing various people to try and get more information, and trying to set up meetings and programs for our future projects. We had our first stroke group on that day. 2 people arrived, but it wasn’t a complete flop as more promised to come next week. At least we had a basic idea of what was the need and could start to move forward.

I feel like we have an enormous hill to climb. So many projects, so little information in some cases, and definitely so little time. How are we going to sustain these projects as well as try and make sure they have an impact? There are many exciting prospects on the table, such as the parent and teacher training, and a new speech therapist who wants to volunteer in the community. As an OT I know the difference I can make, and I think we need to face the challenges head on. I hope we can all keep it together and finish strong.

Till next week

xxx