Olivia Shaw
Olivia Shaw
South Africa, 2021
VIEW FINAL REPORT
My name is Olivia Shaw and on January 13, 2021, I will be hopping on a plane to Cape Town, South Africa to begin work in Woodstock at a group home for immigrant and refugee children. I will be living in Cape Town for about six months and am so excited to see how my work will develop in my time there! Read More About Olivia →

My First Holiday in South Africa!

Hello from the United States!

I write this post after safely arriving home in Nashville after a bittersweet departure from Cape Town. My last days in Cape Town consisted of tear-filled goodbyes with the children of Lawrence House, rock climbing and hiking in the beautiful weather with good friends, and savoring the local food and coffee one last time- but! Before I write a post to process this time and the season of adjustment that I’ve transitioned into now that I have returned, I want to share stories and pictures from a very sweet trip I was able to take with some friends I made along the way! This post might not feel pertinent in context of the work that I was doing, but it was quite a highlight of my experience in South Africa.

Zebras! Not one of the Big 5, but one of my favorite animals.

In June, my friends and I began our journey to the Kruger National Park by flying into Johannesburg where we indulged in some DELICIOUS Turkish food and tea. We HAD to go to Nandos for dinner as it originated in Johannesburg! (We had delicious churros and I ordered them many times after this as a Nandos staple item). From Johannesburg we began our drive to the Kruger National Park to see if we could spot the big 5 (can you guess what they are?) We spent two days in a hut enjoying bush braais and safari rides.

Our personal tour guide for our morning game drive. What do you think his name is?

After our time in the Kruger National Park we drove to Drakensberg along the Panorama Route and soaked in some of the most incredible views of mountains and scenery. We stayed in a backpackers lodge and hiked Gudu Falls all the way to the beautiful waterfall! 

After this, we flew to Durban to enjoy a relaxing bike ride on the promenade and some local food (you can’t go to Durban without trying curry). The next morning, we woke up and flew back to Cape Town to rest up for the work week as some of our friends began to pack and say their goodbyes to us and Cape Town.

This trip was the first proper “holiday” that I was able to take while living in Cape Town and it was truly a wonderful experience! I’m so grateful that I was able to see so much of South Africa and it’s beauty.

 

In your corner,
Olivia

Terminations, Transitions, and Transparency

As I transition into my final two weeks in Cape Town, I do so in a country that has entered back into Level 4 of lockdown. A new variant of Covid-19 has entered the country which is now the third variant of Covid-19 that South Africa has had to battle. It has been hard for me to write this post, as I’ve struggled with accepting that my time at Lawrence House has come to an end, and rather abruptly. I began writing this post what feels like months ago in an attempt to proactively begin processing my transition out of my time with Lawrence House yet here I am writing this post, actively missing the children and staff, wishing I could be with them during the lockdown.

As my time in Cape Town comes to an end, living with other international volunteers, I find myself in a perpetual season of goodbyes with good friends as they depart from Cape Town to return home or onto the next adventure. It has been a bittersweet few weeks. Goodbyes are never easy and transitions are particularly hard for me. I have found myself constantly having to remind myself that life continues when the internship ends. The work is never done. The day ends. The funds run out. Your time at a job must finish. I find myself desperately trying to remind myself that my work and my time with Lawrence House does not come down to the days that I lost my patience, the times that I had to enforce rules, or the instances I relied on other staff members to reinforce respect and boundaries- rather that my time with the children was meaningful and enforcing rules is part of the caretaking role.  

One of my favorite places to walk (Newlands Forest) that I’m going to miss dearly!

I’ll be honest, the work doesn’t feel finished. What I learned early on in social work is that the work is never done, and if you let this truth dictate your career and personal life, the job will become infinitely harder. The work that I’ve done with the children at Lawrence House may have long term effects that I will never see. What I was reminded of here by a colleague is that we do not invest in these children and pursue this vocation for the outcome. We chose social work to do good, meaningful work- work that we are passionate about and work that we believe in. I continue to choose social work because I still believe this is true.

What I didn’t expect, and what I’ve found to be just as challenging, is that the transitions in the personal life I have built feels just as challenging. On an evolutionary and biological level, we as humans are creatures of habit. Our bodies rely on homeostasis to remain at a constant. Change is hard. When I first moved to South Africa, (firstly, I moved during lockdown, so everything was closed and there were no friends yet to make), everything was new… It was inevitable that I was going to meet people, I was going to find community. I found people who shared the same faith as me, people who were also not in their country of origin and learning as they were going, people who enjoyed the same extracurricular activities as me. It was inevitable that I was going to make Cape Town home. This made living here holistically more meaningful. It gave me people to come home to and share about the work I was doing. It gave me people to explore my new city on the weekends with. It gave a new meaning to the word “home”.

There are so many things that I’m going to miss. At the forefront of my mind and most pervasive at this moment, is the permission to opt out of wearing shoes… Pretty much anywhere. I can’t imagine that Portland Brew would serve me my latte without them. I will scour diligently for the places in Nashville where my feet can be free upon my arrival. Seriously. 

As I enter this last season of what will be very hard goodbyes, I do so with a heavy heart, but I also do so with excitement to return home and hug my people- the ones who have been cheering me on since I began just thinking about applying for the Lumos travel grant.

In your corner,

Olivia

P.S. Here are some pictures from a recent camping and climbing weekend!

Gratitude for Take Away, Please!

Gratitude for Take Away, Please!

Something I am recently increasingly grateful for! This wall above my desk has slowly accumulated more pieces of art from the children of Lawrence House. Most recently, letters from friends from home have been added to the wall. It’s the first thing I see in my room when I walk in and it is such a sweet reminder of the people in my life and how blessed I am!

 

Even living in a city that makes life feel like vacation almost everyday, I am not immune to burnout or long days or hard days. I believe that transparency is the key to the work that I do, and am doing, especially here. One of the aunties at work shared with me that when she is having hard days, she is transparent to the children and tells them that she is not in a good space that day. Being transparent with our residents allows the opportunity for the children to practice extending grace to us adults when we need it most. She also reinforced the truth that is this: children can tell when adults are authentic and when they are pretending. She believed that by lying to the children and not being honest, they could tell that we weren’t being our authentic selves with them- so how could they trust us? I also believe that in order to reinforce that the children have permission to express their hard emotions like sadness, anger, and disappointment, we must be vulnerable enough to experience these emotions around them in a healthy way. By modeling how to manage emotions that the children may struggle with, it is the hope that through life space intervention, they will learn how to manage these emotions themselves.

 

Please hear that I love the work that I do, but there are days that I was exhausted and felt like I couldn’t muster the energy to bear the responsibility of supervising twenty-five children. With any job, but especially social work, there are days or weeks when it is hard or slow or heavy… Or all of the above, at once. It was in these seasons that I was reminded that I must bring myself back to a space of gratitude. Call this reminder Jesus during Lenten season or call it Brene Brown from across the ocean, but I knew that I needed to develop a practice to help make me present to my environment and also grateful for the opportunity I had.

 

I believe that from gratitude, it is easier to practice other positive habits such as mindfulness, respect, patience, and active listening. I believe that the same can come from when we are aware of our space and grateful for it, so I developed an exercise that combines a therapeutic grounding exercise and the daily mindful practice of gratitude journaling. In the past, I have found that both (grounding exercises and gratitude practices) are useful, but my gratitude journals became redundant and my grounding exercises were becoming dull and meaningless, rather than orientating to the space I was residing in. The practice was not respectful of myself or the space I was taking up.

 

Here is an example of a gratitude journal: 

Today I am grateful for ________.

 

Here is what the grounding through the senses exercises looks like: 

Become aware of-

5 things you can see

4 things you can feel

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste 

 

What I developed marries the recognition of a person’s environment to promote orientation of person and place while reinforcing gratitude and overall positive, mindful perspective to what the person is becoming aware of in their environment. Here is Grounding the Senses through Gratitude, a practice:

  • Observe five things you can see around you that you are grateful for.
  • Be present to four things you can feel around you that you are grateful for.
  • Become aware of three things you can hear around you that you are grateful for.
  • Breathe deep. What are two things you can smell (or you wish you could smell if it isn’t supper time) that you are grateful for?
  • Relax your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. What is one thing you can taste that you are grateful for? 

 

This exercise can be completed in its entirety in one sitting or an individual could focus on one item each day (one thing to smell everyday until it reaches ___ days) which could be a consistent practice of gratitude for 15 days, or an individual could target one sense per day for a gratitude practice for 5 days. As one of the uncles told me here, find your chocolate cake recipe. The exercise lends itself to being used in so many different ways, one must just try it and tweak as needed. I enjoy completing this exercise every so often. It’s winter in Cape Town, and I find myself no longer as grateful for the wonderful pool at Lawrence House as I once was- however I am increasingly more grateful for the long warm hugs I receive from the children as time passes and our bonds become stronger.

 

As I’ve said before, I wear hats and take on roles of jobs I feel completely under qualified and unprepared for, and I complete tasks that I feel immensely overqualified for. I weave bracelets. I carry around a water bottle with stickers. Some days I am a tutor, and every day I am the teacher of a small classroom. I plan programs for the children and sometimes we talk about God. Sometimes, we have ultra mega dance parties and I learn more about African culture in these hours than I ever did reading a history book. Some days I’m a music teacher, others I’m a gentle hug or listening ear. Some days I have the energy of the 8 year olds around me, some days I’m absolutely exhausted, but every day I’m grateful for the opportunity to be where I am. This exercise has aided in promoting a positive perspective on the hard days and reinforcing truths I already know, such as that I love the work that I do and that I’m infinitely grateful for this experience. 

In your corner,
Olivia

On Duty Recreation

Hello from Cape Town!

In my last post, I spoke about the helping professionals that come together to create what is referred to as the village in which we raise our children here at Lawrence House. These professionals provide a range of services from psychology to medical aid to educational support and so much more. What I want to share now is a little bit about the organizations that support our children emotionally and physically by providing the children with opportunities to experience the fun parts of being a child.These organizations do so by providing recreational activities with a therapeutic lens to allow the children to experience not only a fun day, but also process what they felt while engaging in the activity. This [experiential therapy] is a practice that is beneficial for all children, but especially those who have experienced significant trauma. Many of the organizations that partner with Lawrence House are outreach organizations that specifically target their services towards underprivileged youth or youth who have experienced trauma.

Some of the organizations that support our children through recreational activities and experiential therapeutic services:

The Mountain Club of South Africa provides outdoor recreational excursions such as hiking and studying the plants and animals as they go! Often, these days end with lovely braais (South African BBQ, only much cooler) as well.

Waves for Change provides a child-friendly mental health service to at-risk youth living in unstable communities. Through access to safe spaces, caring mentors, and a provision of weekly Surf Therapy sessions, W4C gives children skills to cope with stress, regulate behaviour, build healing relationships, and make positive life choices.

Dream Higher‘s goal is to bring rock climbing to the vulnerable youth of Cape Town, building confidence, bridging social divides and forming connections with the natural world. They believe that climbing exposes us to a range of emotions such as fear, frustration, pride, and joy; and to manage these emotions we need to learn self control, balance, patience and commitment. They also believe that this journey leads to growth and emotional balance.

Rainbow Dreams Trust reaches out to Lawrence House to send the children to a weekend camp known as Camp Hope on a yearly basis.

Kings Boxing Gym provides fitness and boxing classes for the children of the Salt River and Woodstock community for free!

Black Pool Soccer Club is an organization that was created to allow children the opportunity to play sports in the local Cape Town community.

Royal Sailing Academy is currently not in operation due to Covid-19, however this organization provides the youth courses and training to learn to sail.

La Lela Arts Programis a visual arts program as well as the Children’s Art Center.

Waterfront Theatre has extended a recent partnership to provide dance lessons for the children at Lawrence House!

Raising a child up at the basic level does mean food, shelter, and clothing- but raising a child should also mean providing children the ability to express themselves, to find something they love to do and to let them explore until they find it. It can also mean signing them up for activities just to get them out of the house and give them space to make friends or a space to process whatever they’re feeling. We are so grateful for the organizations that choose to support our children time and time again, and the impact they make on their lives. I’ve witnessed first hand the excitement on the children’s faces when they remember that they have an activity that day or that they have to get ready for soccer. I love the time I get to spend with the children when I walk them to soccer or to a fitness class. I love when our children come home from surfing and tell me that they stood on their board and how happy it made them. I love getting to tell them that I’m so proud of them for doing something hard and doing something brave, and I love trusting that the organizations that they’re going with are providing safe spaces for therapeutic reflection or that there are protective factors in those organizations that are building relationships with our children and providing consistent positive support.

Selfishly, I think I also love getting to bond with the children while doing outdoor activities like hiking or camping or swimming. These soft moments or energetic moments are just as crucial for rapport building and relationship development as supporting them in crisis can be. These spaces are where trust is built. This is where I’m learning good, meaningful work still happens.

In your corner,

Liv

P.s. feel free to explore the organizations that support the children at Lawrence House and think about ways in which you can get involved with your local organizations!

P.p.s. here is my workspace when I write my posts at home! I recently received a care package with some wonderful letters from friends in Nashville. 🙂

At Lawrence House, we recently had a going away party for the Manager as she was promoted to a new position. We decorated the whole home for the occasion! 

Welcome to Our Village

Welcome to Our Village

What do we mean when we use the expression “It takes a village to raise a child” ?

I don’t get to post pictures of my sweet kiddos, but they love to take pictures of me too. Just know that they’re on the other side of the camera!

Within my scope of practice of social work, I would refer to the entirety of a child or family’s helping professionals that are involved with or contracted to work towards the success of the child or family as their “village”. Working as a unit of team players requires communication and collaboration between each of the helping professionals. It takes understanding the role of each professional and respecting their unique and specialized work with the family.

At my previous job before moving to South Africa, my role was to provide behavioral counseling to high risk youth as well as work with the families to practice conversations of collaboration and problem solving. Often, the youth I would work with would be suffering from something deeper that might be triggering the challenging behaviors the family was seeing. The children at Lawrence House are similar in this way: they are children who have experienced really hard things and require physical and emotional support.

Our village at Lawrence House supports our children’s individualized and unique needs to the best of their ability in many different ways. Because the children’s custody belongs with the country of South Africa, their physical and medical needs are secured.

We rely heavily on our community to provide services for our children at an affordable rate. Lawrence House relies also on food donations from local grocery stores that we receive several times per week. Over the past several years, Lawrence House has also developed strong partnerships with local grocery shops such as Woolworths and Pick n Pay to receive weekly donations of food in addition to government funding for other necessities for the children. What I am constantly reminded of and in awe of, is the underlying and simultaneously overarching narrative of Ubuntu (I am because We are) that is so deeply threaded into the culture of our corner of the world.

We rely heavily on volunteers because there are often not enough resources for the children, or due to documentation, visas, or paperwork, the children are ineligible to register for these necessary resources. There are barriers sometimes to individualized education, school enrollment, psychology services and other services. 

What happens here is one of a few things: the children can wait in a limbo phase until they are connected with the appropriate resources that they need, which can be anywhere from a couple of days to months and months, or they [Lawrence House] will broker out to someone who does not traditionally fill this role and ask for support.

I find it challenging to describe my position at Lawrence House or summarize exactly what it is that I do because when a role needs to be filled, often it comes to myself or another intern to manage the task. Since beginning my placement at Lawrence House, I have been responsible for analyzing a Psycho-educational Assessment and developing and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for a child at Lawrence House and implementing the treatment plan (aka specialized tutoring for a child with severe learning delays) to developing a curriculum for teaching english to one of our children who did not speak any english when immigrating to South Africa. I am a volunteer, a teacher, a friend, a supervisor, and a mentor. I provide de-escalation and crisis intervention when our children become dysregulated. I am a hand to hold, a listening ear, a hug hello, a hug goodbye, a hug after a hard day. I go to camp with the children, I join for hikes,I plan field days, I teach the children games, I walk to soccer practice (one of my favorite times of the day), and cheer the children on. They do life and I for a little bit of time, I get to come in their space and join them in it.

 

In your corner,

Liv

 

Off Duty Recreation

Off Duty Recreation

Hello yet again from Cape Town! I’ve been enjoying the South African summer so much that I’ve collected pictures and neglected to share them as I’m experiencing them! Consider this an introduction to the off duty recreational activities I get to enjoy when I’m not working- and sometimes, when I am!

Hiking

One of my favorite hikes I’ve trekked so far is Platteklip Gorge, one of the routes that ascends Table Mountain (there are many routes up this infamous mountain!) It was my second time hiking Table Mountain and I’m keen to go back and try out other routes (India Vester and Skeleton Gorge are my next stops). Often some of the less steep routes are filled also with runners, hikers, and bikers, so there’s something for everyone.

 

 

Something I’ve loved about working at Lawrence House is how active everyone is. I’ve been able to join the group home for camping and hiking outings with the children and often you can find them surfing, rock climbing, hiking, and playing soccer as often as me! There are incredible non-profit organizations with wonderful outreach programs that provide opportunities for children to explore these recreational activities and as a firsthand witness, I can confirm that they are so well received. Some of these organizations are DreamHigher , Waves for Change , and  The Mountain Club of South Africa .

 

 

 

Surfing

I had never surfed before moving to Cape Town, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn something new! Aside from the stiffness the day after my first lesson, I also fell in love with this sport! Every time I’m out on the water I feel myself becoming a little better and a lot more confident on my board. I’m excited to see how I’ll continue to progress in my time here and it will make leaving Cape Town that much harder!

Backpacking/Camping

Easter weekend I spent camping in Greyton with a few friends and I was beyond excited for my first proper camping trip in South Africa! We spent four days and three nights at the base of beautiful mountains that neighbored a river. Somehow we managed to snag arguably the best lot in the entire campsite.

Rock Climbing

I began climbing last year and absolutely fell in love with the sport. At first, it was something that I enjoyed doing simply for the company that I was with, then I began to improve and invest in the stories of the people around me who were passionate about it. I’d never had a sport that was for me and that I could take pride in. There wasn’t a sport that I could say “find me here doing this everyday” until I got a rock climbing gym membership this side and let’s just say… You can find me here most days if I’m not outdoors doing the real thing!

As I’ve transitioned out of my “adjusting” phase of living in Cape Town, I’ve been blessed to meet and be surrounded by wonderful people who have taught me so many things as our relationships deepen. I have found a church group that has welcomed me and made friends who share my interests in all things outdoors. Everyday I’m learning about South Africa’s culture, communities, and the way that they care for their people. I’m constantly humbled and amazed by the peoples’ capacities to show love to one another and also the speed at which taxi’s drive. I’m constantly a witness to acts of kindness that reinforce Ubuntu (I am because we are) and simultaneously the hectic driving the taxi drivers partake in here- both of which equally contribute to a proper South African experience!

 

 

In your corner,

Liv

Climate Control

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” -Mark Twain
Platteklip Gorge, a route of Table Mountain.It’s surreal to imagine that I’ve already surpassed two months in South Africa, and that I’m steadily approaching the halfway marker of my time here! When I think about where I am now versus where I was in preparation to moving, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for all I have learned through the communities here and the cherished stories of individuals that I now have the privilege of holding.
It is these very stories that have exposed the true meaning in what I was attempting to learn about before I was ever here to experience it. Written stories, biographies, movies, history books, standup specials- these are amazing foundational blocks when beginning to learn about another culture, but as Trevor Noah (a native South African comedian) stated in his standup special Afraid of the Dark, “Traveling is the antidote to ignorance” and I believe that.
When I first began to share to the people around me that I would be moving to South Africa, I was often met with concern and questions. The concern was genuine and valid, but it was not rooted in a genuine and valid understanding of South Africa. The political climate may be tense at times, but their climate is not altogether dangerous and I wholeheartedly believe that I’m not naive for saying that. I also sincerely believe that if we lived our entire lives in a place where we feel secure and safe, we would not grow or be challenged, and our ability to impact our environments would be drastically limited.
Those who experience uneducated and baseless fear for other cultures, races, sexualities, and religions, I fear suffer from something worse than fear. They suffer from a heart ridden with hostility, bias, and prejudice that has reinforced unjustified fear.
So consider this an introduction to climate control if this is one of the first times you have been asked to think critically, engage with uncomfortable material, or have been challenged with information that contradicts ideals that you have learned and come to know as truth.
If you are experiencing feelings of curiosity, conviction, guilt, inspiration: Read. Explore. Ask questions. Watch documentaries. Below are a list of books, comics, films, and other pop culture resources to learn about South Africa and the true political climate- a climate that is more than justified, a climate manifested from years of political unrest, blatant racism, segregation, colonization, heartache, and hurt.
Books
  • When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
  • A Long Walk to Freedom
  • Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
  • A History of South Africa: 4th edition, by Leonard Thompson & Lynn Berat
  • Zapiro comics
  • Madam & Eve comics
  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
  • Nelson Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend, ownby Christo Brand
  • Awakenings: The Art of Lionel Davis (available at the District 6 Museum)
  • No Future Without Forgiveness, by Desmond Tutu
  • My Traitor’s Heart, by Rian Malan
  • A Rainbow in the Night, by Dominique Lapierre
Films
  • A Long Walk to Freedom
  • Invictus
  • Skin
  • Sarafina
  • Cry, the Beloved Country
  • District 9
  • Trevor Noah standup (That’s Racist / Crazy Normal / It’s My Culture)
These educational resources provide a foundational, textbook understanding of the political climate of South Africa, but it does not often yield the opportunity to be deeply internalize the affects that the political climate has on the culture. This you can only learn through connection, relationship building, and conversations saturated with empathy and trust. If it’s not South Africa, (for your own sake or mine), pick your own country, cultures you’re exposed to consistently, questions you have about the climate you inhabit. Ask all the questions, learn what you can, and demand justice. Sign the petitions, call your state representative to advocate for the injustice and crime that is occuring in your own neighborhood. And take time to rest and implement self- healing practices while you are learning and advocating. Empathy is hard and draining and challenging, but this is where the best work begins to occur.
The best antidote to this discomfort is to place yourself, steady and ground yourself amidst the intersection of compassion, education, humility, and curiosity- this is where meaningful learning and respect for others develops. It is the start to developing a heart posture of understanding that is conducive to an environment that breeds advocacy and justice instead of fear and bias. It is a type of understanding that goes beyond head nodding and sympathy. It says “I understand that I will never understand, but I will stand with you and listen and never stop seeking to understand.” It is an understanding that does not encourage us to step forward, but inspires us to step back from our platform of privilege and in our place, push others forward so that they can be heard.
This is the place and the posture that sparks and ignites, and grows to encourage others to listen, change and then grow themselves because there is simply no other rational way to respond. I’d love to hear about ways that you are learning to extend a helping hand to your own communities or vulnerable communities that are suffering and in need of advocacy: send me a message and tell me what you’re learning about right now so that I can learn with you!
In your corner,
Liv

Hamartia

Hamartia

This week felt different than the last. I think I can attribute this to my continued adjustment to my environment. I’m beginning to recognize locations, contribute to directions (except when I managed to get my house mate and myself lost as we were looking for the shop to purchase electricity for our house), and walk places on my own with a little more confidence.

Suddenly-

somehow,

through a series of events-

I’ve found myself surpassing the month mark of residing in the city of Cape Town,

that sits on the coast of the country of South Africa,

that belongs to the continent of Africa-

an ocean away from what is known and comfortable

and an ocean away from home.

 

There is something however about moving to another continent, losing all of your friends, all means of comfortable transportation, and all sense of independence that makes you realize how dependent you might have been on routine, dependability, and predictability. I’ve found myself wedged in such a a new and unique place of functioning completely independently- i.e. living alone, and feeling totally and utterly helpless sometimes.

I thought that planning to move to another country in the midst of a pandemic was challenging- as it turns out- the actual post-move “trying to make friends and meet people and experience your new home”  in a pandemic is the real challenge because I haven’t been able to do most of these things due to Covid-19 restrictions.

I’ve begun learning that especially in times of transition, my body reminds me that it deeply craves a sense of homeostasis. I am in awe of how often I am unaware or completely disregard blatant human condition to seek out what is known, predictable, and comfortable. We seek safety. I say this as a reminder to myself and those who have been following along with me as I’ve learned: amidst blessings, amidst good seasons of life, amidst gratitude- you have permission to feel sad and acknowledge hard things without feeling guilty. This is something I’ve been learning to grant myself.

What I’ve gathered thus far is a series of challenging truths: that maybe in this season I’m learning less about South Africa and more about myself. Maybe it has everything to do with the culture, the work I’m doing, or the Lord’s presence amidst it all- yet I continue to try to find a way to make it about myself. Maybe the truth is I will always inherently try to make everything about me because I’m human. I think that by sitting with these truths and continuing to process my experiences, I continue to chip away until I find the parts of my character that have long remained unchecked and asleep to the world around it- the same parts that, if left unacknowledged, become one’s hamartia. Maybe the truth in this season is that- as important as the work that I’m doing is- maybe the work that South Africa is enforcing me to do inside myself is equally important.

Enjoy this picture of me with even more mountains and beaches in the background!

In your corner,

Olivia

Transitions

14 Feb

Transitions

One of the artists, Petru Naomi Lotter, told us first hand about her art and its meaning, then she dedicated this ant that she was painting to us!

Happy Valentine’s Day! This Valentine’s Day was spent with new friends and filled with sunshine and warm weather. I spent the afternoon bike riding through the streets of Salt River suburbs where artists from a conglomerate of communities came together to participate in the International Public Art Festival. There truly is nothing like summer in the city! 

One of the largest and arguably most integral systems that has been adversely impacted by Covid-19, I believe, is the education system. Our systems have attempted to adapt to the conversations of elected officials, Covid-19 data, projected rates of infections as well as accommodate to the evolving needs of its students and families; however, I think on a global scale, our schools were not adequately prepared from the beginning to handle the shifts that have taken place over the past year. Working in a group home also means that the conversation of school looms largely over the meetings and conversations had among staff and between children in the home. As the new strain continues to spread among South Africa, it poses new questions and new threats everyday that continue to impact what exactly will happen with the school system and when and how classes will resume.

One of the challenges we face at Lawrence House is variance in schools (public and private) and the drastic age differences of children in the home. The children of Lawrence House range in age up to twenty-one and even those in similar age brackets do not attend the same school. What this means is that there are a multitude of schools and approaches to how school will resume and how the schools will facilitate in person and distanced learning for its students. It also affects how and when I will work- every week since I’ve begun my schedule has altered slightly and it will continue to do so for the time being.

This week I began attempting to develop some resemblance of a school schedule that works on rotation for the varying school schedules based off of age, school, and dates of distanced and in person learning. Even students who are in the same grade and attend the same school may still attend in person learning on alternating days. In addition, each school has unique policies to distance learning days and what will ensue in regards to packet work, virtual class, or class-specific assignments or homework.

What I have learned and observed from the children at Lawrence House as well as the staff and administration at the group home is this: children need socialization. After close to a year of quarantining and strict isolation, the youth are ready to be out and to socialize. They are feeling the deprecations of sustained deprivation from their peers, from social activities, from physical extra circulars, and even school- yes, what I have heard is a resounding excitement for school to resume. I have also heard from the staff that they are collectively yearning for a bit of quiet and structure during the day to hold their necessary meetings, attend court, work with the magistrate, apply for visas, and all of the other administrative work that flies under the ever-obvious radar of what is considered child and youth care work. At this point, I also feel as if I am vicariously yearning for school to resume as well.

The ambiguity of school and the implications of Covid-19 have also left me in a limbo state as I continue to adjust to what my role is. I think that the development of my role has been slightly stunted due to the continual changing of absolutely everything around myself, the group home, school, Cape Town, and the country of South Africa. I’ve had to remind myself that there is grace for periods where I feel less productive than I should. There is space to simply sit with the children and learn from them, listen to them, dance with them, and lean into Life Space Intervention. Good, meaningful work is not often explicitly therapeutic, healing and change can happen in the soft moments and in the mundane time between dance parties. It is mindfulness as an approach at its core and I think that I’m beginning to adjust to this approach and also love the peace and ease it can bring.

 

To learn more about the Cape Town National Public Art Festival, how it brings awareness to the indigenous South African communities, and the artists who participated, click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

In your corner,

Liv

Carrot Hole

Carrot Hole

At the time I began writing this, it had been just one week since my arrival to Cape Town (22 Jan)- here are some of the thoughts that I gathered in that week, and a little more since then: 

I can’t believe I’ve been in Cape Town for a week today! In the past week, I’ve done all of the things- but the greatest so far, was CAMP! 

As a previous summer camper, girl scout, and camp leader- when my supervisor asked if I’d like to meet a group of the children at Lawrence House for the first time by going with them to their yearly camp, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Meeting new people can be so challenging and I had no idea what to expect, but I knew that I loved camp and no matter where you are in the world, camp. is. camp- or so I thought.

The camp was located about two and a half hours outside of Cape Town and named Camp Wortelgat- which is Afrikaans for Carrot Hole. Even now, I still do not know the significance of the name of the camp- it never was properly explained…

Our adventure began with, as previously mentioned, a bus ride to the camp itself which lasted just under three hours. On this ride, the children of the home asked me questions of all varieties- however most of them consisted of something that had some relation to America and life in the United States. On this ride, I learned a lot about them as well- I began to learn names, recognize faces and voices, identify children that had closer bonds with one another. I learned that they loved music, dancing, and most prominently- TikTok. On this ride, I was able to see beautiful landscapes- hills, valleys, mountains, bodies of water- and the outside-looking-in view of Cape Town- shacks, poverty, townships, wealth, hotels, large buildings and industries. From a distance, I could see the tangible evidence of disparities and wealth gaps. 

The view from the outside of our thatch huts!

The children’s “Tree of Life” exercise. They drew these themselves to represent different aspects of their lives.

Upon arrival to camp- we immediately began our excursions. The camp program facilitators led us to our thatch huts where we were able to place our belongings and sleeping bags. Following this were the classic name games and ice breakers, and ate the most delicious camp food I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Then came the kayaking. From there our few days transformed into a rhythm of action, team building exercises, processing in groups, and rest and camaraderie (featuring ghost stories, card games, and spooking). Our camp was snuggly nestled between the foot of mountains and a beautiful body of water. At night, we could step out of our huts and gaze at stars in ways that I’d never seen before.

Our path while hiking, all blue skies! Summer in South Africa!

On the last day, our group went for a hike that truly felt as if we were the only people for miles (because we probably were). And by mid-day, we began packing our belongings back into the bus with full stomachs and hearts. We finished loading and left the same way we came in- by bus ride through landscapes that looked like they should be puzzles and not real places. By the bus ride back, I felt like the beginnings of attachment had started forming, and I knew this because I felt comfortable enough to fall asleep on the ride back. By the bus ride back, I had learned twelve children’s names and the beginning of their incredible, hard, inspiring stories and witnessed resilience, wit, humor, teamwork, and compassion. By the bus ride back, I had a revived sense of excitement for Monday, which would be my first day at Lawrence House! 

At the end of every day at camp, the children and staff would write a word or sentence to describe their day. On the last day we all took pictures in front of the wall and they wanted to take my picture!

In your corner,

Liv

*For privacy purposes, I am unable to post pictures that contain beneficiaries of Lawrence House. Enjoy the beautiful landscapes!*