Sunday, September 29, 2013

2 Seconds for September!

Video's up and running! Voila, enjoy - or as the South Africans say - Genit!


Thanks for following this blog... it would be super if you could recommend it so someone else too! (Not that I'm  desperate... ;)


Train Tracks

Train Tracks with LR Schmidt Students

In grade 11 at Newington – my high school – a bunch of “leaders” were called together to do a workshop with Rising Generations, Australia’s leading forum for young leaders. Having already attended a camp earlier in the year, where everybody was open and willing to embarrass themselves for the greater good of having fun and showing others they were leadership-material, I was a little sceptical as to how RG’s tactics would work in opening up a group of generally sensible teenage boys with egos to rival Kanye West’s*. So when our two RG mentors decided to play a game where every time they said train tracks we would have to pump our arms up and down and “toot” to mimic a train,  I sighed and shook my head in disbelief. How could they expect a group of young men to embarrass themselves in this way?

Team of friends and leaders atop the zig zag path 
In hindsight I realise that responsibility is one of the biggest motivators for any kind of person, whether they are kids, teenagers or adults. Responsibility is infectious. Responsibility is an insect-borne disease that spreads as each person proverbially bites another and spreads it. And perhaps, most importantly, responsibility induces change.

So when the two mentors gave us the responsibility of tooting whenever train tracks were mentioned, they gave a seed of responsibility to each of us sitting in the room that day. It took a couple of goes before everybody felt it, but in the end, everybody did. From then they built up what our responsibilities were and eventually gave us the responsibility of leading the school.

Working together on the community garden
The other day when we were taking a group of kids who were relatively unruly, I thought that I would try the train tracks game to see if they changed their behaviour, and sure enough, with enough simultaneous tooting, they began to gel with themselves and with us leaders. The boys who had been crass and rude had suddenly become attentive and willing to join in with our activities. It is truly an incredible moment when you see someone’s attitude change right in front of your eyes – something really serendipitous. Our games were played with so much vigour and excitement, and as we came out of our skins to ourselves and each other, we planted the seed of responsibility for each other. Ultimately, the idea is that they will slowly become responsible for their own bodies, their friends, their school, their community, and finally the world – making change in a local way to impact the world – to build the train tracks before building the train. Kids especially seem to lap up responsibility - especially in this community. We have already given the responsibility of food security to many young people in the first village community garden which would operate in future to sustain those without garden beds and food. 

Working on food security with the community garden in Greyton

I feel like I've become more responsible through my travels and taken on a lot more than I would have done otherwise. I've learnt that all sorts of things like the environment and the development of people are things that I really need to feel responsible about – despite only being a small cog in the bigger scheme of things. For me, the reason I am responsible is because I am a Christian and I act as a person of God, for others, it is for the future of the world, economically, environmentally and personally, that drives them.

So I pray everyone who reads this will also pick up some burden of responsibility and be agents of change in their own communities... Happy training - toot toot! 

* Not a fair generalisation of my class of ’12 to be honest, more of a generalisation of guys around that 16-17 age group.


P.S. I realise that this is a bit more of a serious post than I would usually post and also one that has come after a long absence from my page (SORRY!!). I haven’t been feeling creative lately amidst all of the community work that’s been going on. I’ll do my best to update with photos, videos and posts more regularly and I apologize for not doing so sooner!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Hi a film for you

A stop motion over 14 or so days from Singapore airport through Sri Lanka to Joburg to Cape Town in South Africa


Enjoy!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Building Bridges and Breaking Walls

Picturesque Greyton

Greyton and its surrounding area is a picturesque town surrounded by often snow capped mountains, natural plains of the native bush - fynbos - and fields of crops and animals. It is a place that oozes serenity and whispers in your ear:

"Slow down, relax, just breathe in the fresh mountain air and sigh contentedly, relish in the environment." 

Despite being change of pace from the bustling city of Sydney, the chaos of Bali traffic and the high rising jungle of apartment blocks in Singapore, Greyton is a town that is also changing and healing, becoming more self-sufficient in an environmental sense and knitting itself tighter as a community. The town and neighbouring Heuwelkroon and Genadendal have quite a history, especially with the near 40 years of apartheid in South Africa between 1948-1994. And despite it being two decades next year since apartheid was abolished, the economic and social disparity and disconnect between the coloured and white population is more than evident when you lift the proverbial rug.

My first impression of the adjacent township of Heuwelkroon was at a memorial gathering for a young boy who had passed away from cancer the year before. I walked around the compacted dirt roads with my friend and Greyton Transition Town* member Candice, as the only White and Asian people in the township. My first impressions were that of sadness, seeing that people were living in such small houses cramped in like sardines in a can and in such poor living conditions compared to the houses that I had seen in the town of Greyton and the barn that I was staying in.

However, as the children ran up to us with smiles on their faces I remembered how so many people in poorer parts of the world without the confines of society could find happiness and beauty in the smallest things. I remembered that these people are often many of the most genuine and pure people that I had the honour of meeting, and I was glad for their attitude.

Sure enough, many inhabitants of Heuwelkroon are genuine and pure people, always helping each other out and helping us in our work too, most of all, the sentiment that I felt was that they are accepting and kind people, always offering to share despite having little.

With the new generation of people, there is a growing respect between cultures and a bigger willingness to integrate together into a larger community unmarred by the scars of apartheid nineteen years ago, however, the invisible walls between the two cultures in Greyton and Heuwelkroon are not that easy to break down, nor are the evident divides between the Rastafarian and Christian communities in Heuwelkroon.

There is a plethora of issues that need to be addressed, especially that of alcohol and drug abuse, entrepreneurship and unemployment, and the need for life education and empowerment for many youths who have little aspirations.

I am not a hero who can fix any of these issues in the 2 months that I am here, but I have the utmost confidence that in the years to come, brick by brick, the invisible walls that divide the social standing between the residents of Greyton and Heuwelkroon will fall, organically, as seeds of change sprout and grow.

There are projects in place and people who are passionate about the future of their town, there are capable young people who are filled with ideas to bring the community together. A young girl named Nokwasi had the idea of a community garden, which we are making a reality: A communal space for people to grow food together and sustain themselves and their families. A return to the idea of self-sustainability and food security.

While I am here, I am working with primary and high schools to encourage environmental awareness and to develop a relationship with them, advocating them to have bigger aspirations and to become tall poppies, supporting each other to be better and better. My time is limited and short, but I hope to plant an idea that will grow and flourish long after I leave.

What am I? I am but a plank in one of the bridges that are being built towards a sustainable and integrated future in Greyton.

*Greyton Transition Town is the organization that I am working with for the 2 months that I am in South Africa see www.greytontransition.co.za