Junior Achievers

Everything in Swaziland is easy going, but I promise you nothing is ever easy. There is no sense of urgency, nor is there any obligation to feel rushed. This sense of attitude [for me] is perfect when I am on a vacation or just chillin on my mom’s sofa, but it drives me crazy when things go slowly in the work world. Much of Africa is like this—here they run on “Swazi time”, and I am sure in other parts of Africa they run on “___ time”. The old saying here goes, “there is no rush while the sun is still up”; all the while I am running around saying “time is money! $$$$$”. It can be extremely frustrating when you are trying to get a group of people to move at a brisk pace; meanwhile they are dragging their feet.  This conditioning happens naturally; think about it, in the states if you are walking in a crowded area, you better keep moving or else you’ll get knocked into. There is a certain pace of life that each culture grows up in—and here the rate is slow. But this post isn’t about culture blah blah blah…. This is merely a preface to the past few months I went through.

In March I was approached by Junior Achievement (JA), which is an NGO from America that works specifically in schools to teach business skills. They do this with many different programs; when I was in 8^th grade I even remember JA coming to my school for 8 weeks to teach my class about the different types of businesses. In Swaziland the main project JA does is an after school club with Form 4 students where they start their own mini company. They also partner with companies around the country to do job shadow programs with Form 5 students, as well as a day-long activity with Form 2 students called Economics for Success. I am happy to say my school has participated in all three of these programs. So anyways, back to March, JA came to the school to start the new season for the mini company with the Form 4 kids. I started recruitment by meeting with the class. No response.  A few weeks later, I met again…. No response. JA called to see why we had not met with the students yet, but I told them don’t worry we’ll get them to join any time now. Still no members. Now it was May and JA came to do a training session for all the facilitators; I got my box of supplies, but still no students. The former facilitator who had no reservations of doing the club this year due to his already demanding schedule stepped in to help me round up the students. Together the teacher and I went to the Form 4 class one more time to recruit them. We gave them this lecture about how we are the defending champions two years in a row and how our school has a reputation of being winners and we need to follow that success. Ideally the club needs 20 students…. after our last recruitment venture, we only had 12.  [Here is where I start to pull my hair out.] 

It is now June and we haven’t even started with the club. I have spent the past 4 months trying to get kids to do this program. If it wasn’t for the fact that my school had won the JA Swaziland Competition, then go on to win the African Competition 2 years in a row, I would have given up and said not worth it. However, I knew the potential at this school and the support from RSSC, that there was NO reason why should not do JA this year. So here is what we did, the facilitator and I paired up with the neighboring school that is also under RSSC and we coached both teams. Each school would come up with their own company and produce their own product, but the training sessions, the support, the facilities, they would all be the same.  So with our schools being now 8 weeks late into the competition, we FINALLY started. [Here is where I started pulling out grey hair.]

From mid-June to the End of September, we met with both schools on Saturday mornings training them on the basics of how to run a business. They chose their own managers, decided on a product to make, and did market research, break-even point, SWOT analysis, drafting business plans, selling shares, manufacturing and selling a product, and finally liquidating their assets. They did a corporate responsibility project where they went to a rural community outside of Simunye and selected 5 child-headed homes. They helped those families plant a garden and helped them learn how to sell their crops to generate revenue. The kids did several trips as well; we went to Manzini and Ezulweni so the kids could do their market research, they went to a CSI awards ceremony where they rubbed elbows with some of the biggest CEO’s in SD, then last week we went on a picnic to Malolojta in Northern SD where we climbed the 2^nd highest mountain in the country. 

Near the end of the program, the students from my school started to lose their motivation and dedication; as a result, we never completed the project. [Here is where I started getting ulcers.] Their mini company’s idea was to create Math Application for cell phones and computers where our targeted consumers could log into app and get access to all kinds of math help. The product was designed in such a way that when the buyer purchased the product, they would be given an access code specifically to them where they would log on and be able to connect with other students who also bought the same app. The idea itself is great, but it was too ambitious for this group of students we had this year. As a result, my school didn’t make it into the top 10 ranks, but we did however win the prize for the MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT, which came with the highest cash prize of the whole competition.

While my school didn’t place, the other school we coached did! They made it into the top 10 and went on to win the whole thing!!!!!!!! They also won the prize for the Best Corporate Responsibility (the project where we went to the child-headed homes). The product that this school made was door tags, really nice door tags. Example… when you go into an office you see a door that says “Manager” “Reception” or “Restroom”, that’s the sort of tags the kids made. They sold their tags to the surrounding schools. At the JA Expo where the top 10 teams presented the project, they kids nailed their presentation! At the end, the judges asked questions about the product. One question was why didn’t the kids have more buyers? The CEO of the mini company gave the best answer ever; he said “The reason why we didn’t get as many buyers as we wanted was because the market doubted us. Not because of our product, our product is flawless and reasonably priced. They doubted us because of our age; they never gave us a chance. That is the problem with this country, they underestimate the youth. So if the buyers would actually give us a second look, I know they would buy.” BOOM!!!!!!!! How great was that?!? The audience was roaring!  Like I said earlier, no doubt we won. 

Now the team goes on to represent Swaziland in the African JA Expo; they will compete against 10 other countries. Best of all, we have home field advantage. Just as I said before, my school won the African Expo for the past two years; as a result, Swaziland is hosting the JA African Expo! It’s such a big deal for this little country.  The expo will be December 4-6, and that is where we are hoping to take home the title for the third year in a row!

Successful Couple of Weeks

The past couple of weeks I have been going through an emotional rollercoaster. I had just hit my one year mark at the end of June, was dealing with the aftermath from the break-in at my house, and I’d also been frustrated as heck about the swazi school system for this second term. It happens to the best of us; sometimes we just get so drained that we just need a break. For my health and the safety of others, I had to take a few steps back and just rest. I had to put a pin in several of my projects and hope that soon I can take out the pin and continue them. As much as I wanted to do things “my way”, I had to let go and just let things happen. This is one of the hardest lessons for a PCV to learn.

After not really doing anything productive [or at least what I consider productive], I started to just looking where I can help in, rather than start any new projects. I took the role as volunteer and mentor, instead of leader. One of the projects I have spent a lot of time with has been the Junior Achievement club at my school/ Junior Achievement is an NGO from the USA that teaches high school kids how to be entrepreneurs. In the Form 4 class (11^th grade), students actually start their own mini company creating a product, marketing it, producing it, and selling it, then liquidating the funds. The contest is a pretty big deal, and I am happy to say that in 2010 and 2011 my school won all of Africa! This is even more of a big deal.  Anyways, 2013 we are doing the program again and gearing up for the contest, the past few weeks have been busy working on our project. Most recently, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC), the company town I live in, donated 84,000R ($8,400) to the program. There was a big media spread and our picture made the paper!  In other news the 2 weeks before that, my counterpart and I led an all day workshop with the JA program for the Form 1 and 2 classes. It was called Economics for Success. Roughly 100 students attended and learned how to balance a budget, choose a career and how to shop responsibly. This is basically an intro into the course and by time the kids reach Form 4, they will be ready to do the big competition. 

This past weekend I helped out at a family fun day in my community hosted by a local preschool.  I must admit, I was very surprised by the turn out and the quality of the fun day. There were tons of food, games, prizes, and lots of activities for kids. It was nice to see whole families come and spend the day having fun. I invited the dance crew from my high school that I manage to come and perform. The previous night, they had spent 5 hours on a Friday night at my house practicing for a dance competition later that next day. So that morning they performed at the fun day and did great! So great, that they even found a sponsor! It was really wonderful because some of my little dancers that I actually teach were there and were able to see kids older than them do incredible things. The boys benefited from that performance, because five hours later they went up the road to a dance competition and won 1^st place out of 7 teams, with prize money of R1,000!!! It made me so happy to see the boys’ hard work paid off.  This also really encouraged them, because it validated that they are in fact amazing. I saw talent in these boys, and other people are now starting to take notice. 

Speaking of dancing, I am also relieved to announce that my dancers that I have been teaching are going to be performing soon soon! Next week I will be having a dance recital where my kids will perform 8 dances. Than the week following, my other group of dancers that I teach at school will be performing for the closing assembly. I’ve been teaching these dance classes for well over 2 months, and let me tell you… I am so ready for them to get on stage and show off. Honestly, every practice they beg me to perform and they keep asking if we are going to competitions and if they can be famous and on TV. When I was their age, was I ever like this? Mom, don’t answer that question.  So in the next couple of weeks, I will be sure to post pictures and let all of you followers see how they did!

Finally I would like to wish my mom a happy birthday!!! July 28 she celebrated her birthday. I ordered her a book from amazon.com and had it sent to her. The book was “In the Kingdom of Roses and Thorns”. I read a while ago and wrote a review for it- you can read it here. Hopefully she will like it and tell all of you to read it as well!

Planning, Planning, and More Planning

I realize it has been some time since I last posted a blog, so I knew needed to take a break from running with the lions here and let you know I am still alive. My first few months here I sat back and monitored the situation in my community and figured out what needed to be done. Now that I have taken the training wheels off, I have been moving at a full speed trying to get programs up and running. Last week I went to a workshop with my Swazi counterpart, and they (Peace Corps) trained us on how exactly to start a project to make sure it is sustainable—this was very helpful for my counterpart and I am glad they were able see how Peace Corps works; I feel like it brought both of us up to the same page.

So right now I am busy teaching life skills to the grade 10 classes. We talk about self-esteem, self-awareness, decision making, goal setting, gender equality and human rights, healthy lifestyles and career choices. The kids are great to teach and it is very rewarding hearing them share their story and seeing them develop into their own skin. I can’t speak for the other teachers in my school, but the atmosphere in my classes is different from anything they have had before. One of the tools I use in my class is a “Question Box”. I have a box set up on my desk in the library where my kids can anonymously submit questions they may be too afraid to ask in my class. Most of the questions I get are about being popular, wanting to have boyfriends/girlfriends, and how to get long hair like mine. I’m still scratching my head trying to find answers to these.  The school year is still new, so it is hard to generalize what the focus will be, but so far I have realized that one of the topics that’s needs a lot of attention is gender equality and understanding and appreciating their culture. In one of my classes we discussed gender roles. My entire class told me that women cannot run the family because they are too weak and too emotional. They said that women must stay at home while the men work. I kept digging into this topic saying “so women can’t do this… and women can’t do that?”, they all replied with a yes, thinking that it was the answer I was looking for. I flipped the script on them and shared how I was in fact raised by a single mom and how she worked to support me, and how I also have been independent and supported myself for the past few years.  Their gasps of bafflement indicated they knew they had thought wrong and their answers slowly started to change. What I take away from this, is that these kids are so use to just saying what is expected and never really question or think is this right or still the case of today? I come from a different type of culture with different things are seemed as acceptable. I am not trying to get these kids to see the world from the way I want them to see it; but rather I want them to learn to think for themselves and learn to challenge things taught to them, don’t just accept something said to you because society says too.

The classes I teach are so fun, but I don’t spend much time planning them. I already have the materials and the kids are required to come, so not much effort is needed on my part. The area where I really put on my running shoes is the clubs at school. With the help of the English H.O.D., I am starting up an English Club. Right now we have 125 members; that’s half of the school! Some of the programs we will do are Debate Team, Drama, Creative Writing, Book Club, Tutoring, and School Newspaper. Since this is the first time ever for this, we are spending this first term planning. It has been work trying to create activities for each group within the club. It seems like everything will go well though. Fortunately my administration is great and whatever I need, the Head Teacher is always happy to help. The second club I work with is, Junior Achievement (J.A.). I could honestly dedicate my whole service to this club because the amount of work it involves. JA is a young entrepreneurs club funded by the USAID. We spend 15 weeks coming up with a business plan, a product, production, marketing, and eventually we compete with 49 other schools in the country to see who has the best presentation over all. The past two years, my school has won the national completion and when to compete in Ghana and Kenya where they took home First Place for Africa! As great as that is, I am now the facilitator and definitely feel the pressure to live up to the reputation. It is lots of work, but this is what I wanted to do initially in the Peace Corps, teach business.

Along with JA, I will also be teaching business classes to all members of the community on how to be employable. I want to help people learn how to write a resume, hold a successful interview, find opportunities in networking, and focus on financial literacy. During the workshop I attended with my counterpart, we looked at the needs of the community…. Unemployment is a factor, but really it is the person’s capability to get and hold a job where we want to focus. I want to teach people how to market themselves and present their self in a professional manner. All too often, people in my community spend their time drinking their time and money away simply because they have nothing else to do. This is just one peg in the cycle of why HIV is still prevalent here. I want to give people a sense of value and self-worth so they will not slum to bad habits that turn into unhealthy lifestyles.  This project is still in the beginning phases, so again, lots of planning and leg work is being done to get this going.

The final club I find myself busy with is the Girls Empowerment Club. I am not the only stakeholder in this club, so it requires a lot of patience to make sure no one is left behind. This club works hand and hand with an NGO that deals with gender-based violence, so in order to get funding and fulfill certain requirements we have to do things by the book. This is a lot different than just some grassroots club that many other volunteers have started in their community. But I have high hopes that we’ll running soon soon.

I still have a lot more projects in the bag I want to pull out….. 2 years is not enough time.