Photos at Won Life.

That's Mac Festa, finance senior from Ohiopyle, Pa., and Tristan Gartin, accounting senior from Chapmanville, W.Va., with the Won Life children. Both are students at the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, Morgantown, W.Va.





Here's another with Elizabeth Slack, an accounting graduate student from Charleston, W.Va., and one of the children at Won Life.

Won Life

Here is a picture from today at Won Life. This is an organization that started as a small school and has been certified in what we call Kindergarten, is looking to expand to 1st and 2nd after the World Cup (through donations of semipermanaent buildings) and have a clinic in a township...

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Here in Capetown, South Africa, we met with Mike Talley from Living Hope. Also tagging along was Dave Toms a truly remarkable man who is working on several projects throughout Africa. We went into two townships to tour Living Hope's facilities: Masiphumelele and Ocean View. Living Hope is working on several fronts to combat the poverty in these townships. Throughout our meeting, Mike discussed several things that were stunning to me.

What do you want to be when you grow up? It is a simple question to answer. Think about it. You can look in my baby book that my mom has stored on a shelf somewhere and it would say, "Toll Booth Man." Looking back on that I am glad my career aspirations evolved. South African's in these townships do not have an understanding of options. It is remarkable as a Westerner. We were always told we can do whatever you want in life. Here though, poverty is the only way of life. There are 15 year old girls who think that because their parents have AIDS, they have to contract it. That because their relatives are having children at 16, they must have children at 16. This is the true thinking. The mindset is not there. Life skills such as, going to work, staying at work, showing up sober, working for the future do not process. This is why giving money and medicine is not making a substantial impact in the area. It does not go unnoticed. Bill Gates and President Bush (believe it or not), through the United States, have given untold amounts of money and medicine to Africans. The ROI (Return on Investment) is not there. (I say that as unbiased as possible). It goes back to the old saying, "Feed a man a fish, feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life." The giving is great. But the ability to help Africans stand on their own feet is not there. The new model being implemented by Dave and Mike, through different organizations, is, "Teach a man to build a fish farm." The mindset must be changed first before this can take affect.

I feel like we could write a book on everything we have taken in so far. The four of us (Rayanne, Lisa, Tristan, and I) spent three hours brainstorming of ways to help tonight and what we can be doing. The amazing thing is we will visit another township tomorrow and two more after that before we go back. So the ideas will be endless, I am sure.

It is almost discouraging to sit here and write because there are so many areas to go into and in such detail. Hopefully, after the trip, we will be able to put down all of our ideas and experiences into a concise articulate format that will do this all justice.

Jay Bilas Froze Our Internet!

Here in Capetown you have a choice of two sports: rugby and futbol (soccer). However, when it comes down to an Elite Eight game during March Madness, there is only one place to turn -> CBSSports.com. Unfortunately, I (Mac) cursed Jay Bilas and JB came back at me by freezing the WVU / Kentucky game. (Don't worry we still had audio, most of the time). So, we got to see or hear the game in real time. Unfortunately, it is 4a.m. here now but all of this does not matter because WE ARE GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR BABY!

(Photo Courtesy of Rayanne) "Final Four Baby"

Video Courtesy of: Rayanne.

Finally

We finally arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday at 4:40pm, or 14:40 here. We had a stop in Dakar, Senegal (approximately 12:50am EST Friday), refueled for an hour and then continued onto our destination. Surprisingly, the 17 hour flight was painless. We flew on an Airbus A340-600. The A340-600 is the largest plane in South African Airways fleet, which if my memory serves me right, is larger than Airforce One. It had a maximum capacity of 317 and was filled to the brim. I had an aisle seat so I was not bothering anyone when I got up every hour. I even managed to do a couple of laps around the plane. We were served three meals throughout the flight. I had meatloaf for dinner, an omelet for breakfast and pasta for lunch. They tasted pretty good for being an in flight meal.

Anyways, upon arrival we checked into our hotel and made our way to dinner. We ate at The Tribes Steak House. It was our first real chance to experience South African game. With the motto “Go big or go home,” I enjoyed ostrich, wild boar, impala, and kudu. All of the meats had a different texture but were amazing. Of course, dinner is where I had my first blunder of the trip. I attempted to order a glass of wine and ended up with the whole bottle. So, I had to share.

Today we traveled to Mamelodi. Located about one hour outside of Johannesburg, Mamelodi is a township of about 1 million people. The scenes were unforgettable. At every stoplight there were people walking down the streets selling everything from the day’s newspaper to sunglasses to fruit. The streets were lined with people selling everything; tires, used mufflers, chickens, goats and probably more that I did not pick up on. The middle class homes make the worst projects in America look like 7,600 square foot mansions. Most homes have barbed wire at the top of their six foot walls. The lower class lives literally in whatever they can make out of materials available on the streets. The walls are made out of sheet metal tied together with more metal laying flat on top with rocks to hold it down. The houses are maybe two or three feet apart from one another and go on as far in one direction as you can see. The South African government is starting to build two bed, one bath, and kitchen homes that are not much bigger than a small dorm room in order to relocate people out of the “informal townships.” They have a proper roof with running water and electricity; which is a huge improvement. These new townships also have enough land to plant a small garden so that the people living there can be self sustainable.

Throughout all of this, Pastor Titus Sithole has created a truly remarkable campus for the area. Pastor Titus leads a church in the township and after a mission trip to Ethopia ten plus years ago, decided he had to do more than just lead a church. Pastor Sithole and the church were able to raise enough money to buy land on the outskirts of the township. They built a church first and then began work on the hospice. The hospice is a two story brick building. The first floor was originally dedicated entirely to victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through their counseling and outreach program, Titus has reduced the number of patients dying of the disease enough so that they now only use half of the floor. The other half, within the past six months, has been converted into primary care. There are general practitioners, a dentist, and an optometrist. Preventative care is a large part of the business model in place now. The second floor houses social work for the government. The government pays rent to occupy the space. Next, a private school was built. They started small with just one grade. Every year since, they have added an additional grade. Next year the school will offer kindergarten through eighth grade. An HIV/AIDS orphanage opened around 2008. It now was 19 children. These orphans typically ended up here after their mothers passed away. The fathers are either dead or not involved. Usually, the grandmother then begins to take care of the children at this point. However, some grandparents are simply too old to handle this responsibility. This is where the orphanage came into play. However, family ties are an extremely important part of the culture. With this in mind, Pastor Titus and his church are currently building a retirement home. The retirement home will serve as a way the orphanage children can learn about their culture and roots. A counseling and test center was also built recently. This center specializes in HIV/AIDS. Counseling is pre and post-test. The lastest project currently under construction on the campus is a home for quadriplegics. Quadriplegics are typically removed from hospitals because they take up too many of the resources of the hospital. The project should be done in the next couple of months.

I have a few more key points on our visit:

• The church gets help from other churches in New York and Ohio.As a matter of fact, there was a group of 160 (from Cincinnati) coming down on the same flight as our group.They are staying in Mamelodi and helping Pastor Titus with construction.
• The culture of many South Africans does not help the HIV/AIDS situation. It is a polygamist society. So, if one is infected, all will be infected.
• The campus is debt free. All of this building was possible via donations, the church and grants.
• Some of the excess land is currently being used by the locals to grow a garden. This facilitates an entrepreneurial spirit and adds to the quality of life.
• This is the type of development that would have to be in place in order to establish an effective micro-lending system.
• Pastor Titus is in the process of taking his model continent wide.

Finally, as an advisory note, this post barely scratches the surface of everything going on there. Pastor Titus’ story is only one success and more need to be done. His vision is providing a means to an end of the poverty/HIV/AIDS problems so prevalent in South Africa.

It is Saturday the 27th, Right?!?

I feel like I have lost a day. We left D.C. at 5:40 on Thursday the 25th. We landed in Johannesburg at 4:30 PM on the 26th. We checked into the hotel, showered, then went to dinner. Then, I all but crashed into bed. But, let's back up a little....

The first leg of the flight to Dakar was not bad at all. I watched the Blind Side and 27 Dresses. Also, I just stared out of the window. The stars were so close I felt as if I could just reach out and touch them. I know it is a horrible cliche, but while staring at the stars all I could think about was the how much of the world I don't know anything about; so many people and cultures and ways of life. Before I knew it, we touched down in Dakar for a little over an hour to refuel. During this time, I just stood in the aisle. It felt so nice to stand after 6 hours; I knew the long leg of the flight was still ahead of us.

I normally do not sleep on flights, ever. However, I slept the entire way from Dakar to Johannesburg. I woke up once to eat breakfast (well, what a flight calls breakfast). Sleeping on a plane is normally viewed as a good thing, but this time it wasn't. I did not get out of my seat once to walk around. Once we landed, my calves and ankles were so swollen and tight. I felt exhausted, sore, and excited all at once. After claiming our luggage, we were excited to hear that the Mountaineers got the win and are now in the Elite 8!

We arrived at the hotel around 6 PM. After checking in, the first thing I did was shower. I actually washed my face twice. I am surprised that I did not fall asleep as soon as I was finished cleaning up. After everyone was ready, we walked across the street to eat a restaurant named Tribes. It was wonderful: the atmosphere, the food, and the company. Oh, by the way, I tried ostrich sausage. It has an interesting texture, but overall it was very good. By this point in the trip, it didn't even register that I was in South Africa, but I knew that would all change the next day.

My wake up call came at 8 AM on Saturday (I could have swore it was Friday). We had breakfast in the hotel and then departed for Mamelodi. The amount of construction that is happening for preparations for the World Cup is massive. I really don't believe it will all be finished by June. Anways...While in Mamelodi, we met with a man that we called Pastor Titus. He is an amazing man with an amazing vision of where he wants Africa and his service to be in 10 years. He and his church has built a clinic, an orphanage, a school, a counseling center and are currently building a disability home and a nursing home behind the orphange. Since family ties are so important in Africa, having a nursing home next to the orphanage assits in letting the grandparents care for the children. The school started out just with kindergarten and it is now K all the way through 7. The kids that started in K came back and they had first grade and it kept going. Next year, they will be K-8. While there, we went into the orphanage and was able to see some of the children that stay there. Let's just say, this was my favorite part of the day. They were so cute and they knew I was taking pictures of them; everytime I pulled out my camera they went from candid to posed! It was adorable. Also, we talked to the nursing staff at the clinic. We were not able to see or talk to any of the patients with HIV/AIDS, but the nursing staff was more than happy to answer our questions. All over their office were large notes from meetings were they discussed treatment and the overall theme was a holistic approach. You can' just trear the disease, you have to address emotional and spiritual problems as well. We talked to one of the counselors, Mama Peggy, and she gave insight to some of the problems she encounters. I mostly felt that everything pointed to the culture. Most women don't mind being a man's 2nd, 3rd, or 4th wife, so this lets the disease spread to a whole block of people, including the children. Also, when a woman (or man) is diagnosed with the disease, she is often too scared to tell her husband or others and it spreads rapidly. We briefly talked politics and I found out that the President recently took a 7th wife and annnounced that he had unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman and tested negative. With the President acting like this, it defeats a lot of education that people have heard about condoms and how easily the diesease could spread. Mama Peggy is a very inspirational woman that believes women need to start standing up for themselves. Her passion is inspiring. ...This is not enough to actually describe what happened at Mamelodi, just a little insight. What Pastor Titus is doing here is just amazing and he hopes to see this spread all over the country. He strongly believes that if all the churches would do something, maybe not to the extent of what he has done, that the benefit would be widespread.

On the way from Mamelodi to the airport to fly to Cape Town, I saw a billboard stating that you can buy a house for R399,000. That is Rand 399,000 and is about $50,000. The houses were two stories and looked as if they were at least 4 bedrooms. This really put things in perspective. Most people in this country will never see that type of money while a lot of Americans make that in a year. What was even more surprising was that 2 miles down the road were "squatter camps," where people live so closely and in metal boxes. However, the government is starting to move people into better homes and give them a tract of land so they can grow their food and sell food to others.

Upon arrival at the airport, we went through security and checked our luggage and then waited for about 2 hours for our flight. When we landed in Cape Town, the first thing I noticed was the water. Being on the coast is great :) Tomorrow we will be traveling to Robben Island and will get to view Mandela's jail cell.

It is now close to 1 AM here in Cape Town and you know what that means....GAME TIME! Myself and the 3 other students are going to be cheering on our Mountaineers and sporting our gold shirts. I hope we can beat UK tonight... LET'S GO!

Are you sure your scale works?!

It is currently 1 AM and I just zipped the last zipper on my suitcase (carry-on). I had to text one of my residents to use their scale because I am afraid that it is going to weigh too much. 28 pounds. It will fit in the overhead compartment. It will. It will...maybe if I keep saying the suitcase will fit, it will come true tomorrow.

Instead of worrying about clothes and shoes and 3 ounce bottles of liquids this evening, I went to dinner with some of my favorite people in the world- old friends as well as new(er) friends. While eating some American food, a bacon cheeseburger of course, we talked about our freshman year of college, how things have changed and where life is taking us. When dinner was over, I had to make one last trip to Wal-Mart. (what international trip isn't complete with a late night Wal-Mart run?!) With my newly purchased chewing gum and fruit snacks in hand and departure from Morgantown only 10 hours away, I felt the need to actually start packing.

My backpack and suitcase are loaded down with more than I will need, but that's the point: I plan on coming back with less than half of what I'm going with. My camera batteries are charged, my journal is packed (thanks Dianna!) and most of my good-byes have been said. I can't say what I am expecting from this trip because I have a feeling it is going to be more than I can even imagine at the moment. 8:40 AM is going to come early and I am going to try to sleep...try being the key word. I do have over 20 hours of travel tomorrow. Oh well, I can sleep on the plane :)

Checklist? Check.

It is after 10:00 p.m. now. I am running through my checklist for the final time. Malaria prescription, check. Sunscreen, check. Passport, check. Laptop, check. Money, check. Work for the plane, check. The list is endless.

In just under 12 hours, we (a group a 9 of us) will embark on a roughly 26 hour journey that will land us in Johannesburg, South Africa. 17.5 hours of the trip will be spent in the air. Yes, 17.5 hours was not a typo.

So, why are we going to South Africa? We are going for the World Cup, right? Wrong. The World Cup begins in June. At least 10 people have assumed that is the reason I am going. In reality, we will be taking part in an Honor's Thesis trip with Dr. Neidermeyer, or Dr. N. Among the sightseeing, we will be helping out several not-for-profit groups with their information technology, or simply IT systems and accounting work in Joburg, Capetown, and Nelspruit. The trip is also a bit of a fact finding trip to ascertain a location to establish a Micro-Lending program.

Now that we have discussed why I am going to South Africa, it is time to determine what kind of clothes to bring with you. I don't know about anybody else, but I for one brought running clothes. You can't train for a marathon and take a week off a month before the big race (Pittsburgh Marathon May 2, 2010). I am fortunate enough that everywhere we are staying has a fitness center with a treadmill. If it can be arranged, I may even venture outside of the hotel for a run.

Okay, in all seriousness, jeans and older clothes that can be left behind to make room for souvenirs are mainly what I brought. I am 3-bag heavy though (laptop bag, carry on, and one checked bag not weighing over 44 pounds).

Tomorrow is finally the big day. It is time to get some sleep.