now you, too, can do something.

As many of you know running has become a pretty important part of keeping sanity for me. Every year PCV's from South Africa (and some of the surrounding countries) run a marathon called Longtom. Actually, Longtom is an ultra marathon (longer than a typical marathon) and I'm for sure not in the shape to do that but I will be running the half marathon. I'm really excited.
Longtom isn't just for fun. It's also a chance to raise money for the KLM foundation. Their website is: http://www.klm-foundation.org/; please check it out. The organization was founded by two PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) who served in South Africa a few years ago. They decided to use the Longtom marathon as a fundraiser; they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent secondary school in Mpumalanga - Uplands College. I think maybe you all are starting to get an idea of how hard it can be for village kids to make it out of the village and into higher education and going to a good secondary school is an incredible first step.
I think the KLM foundation is pretty amazing, and it's a chance for you to stop being a spectator in my efforts to make small change in South Africa and sponsor me in my quest to run a half marathon.
Please give what you can; any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $10 or $20, it is much needed. (Of course, I'm not going to fight you if you want to give more) It is tax-deductible. So please go to the KLM website to make a donation, just click on the 'donate' photo. Make sure to put my name in the white box where it asks for the Longtom person you want to sponsor. The online donation is preferable, but if you need to mail in a check, please make it payable to KLM Foundation (US) and send it to:

KLM Foundation (US)c/o Bowen Hsu461 So. Bonita AvenuePasadena, CA 91107
And make sure to include a note that your donation is in my behalf.

You can spare $20. This is a good organization run by Americans who know how awful it is when people use the faces of impoverished african kids to buy land rovers or nice houses. These people will use your money really well.

Plus, if you donate I promise to take a picture of myself just as I finish the race and I'm red-faced and exhausted and sweaty and send it to you...

no power... etc.

I'm in Pretoria on a very rainy day. Next week I'm going to a training and I'm taking this weekend to get ready, to see some important people and to drink absurd amounts of coffee. It's been less than a month since I came back from Christmas/New Year's vacation and already I'm away from my village again which feels sort of strange.
I've told many of you that South Africa is like two countries in one because the economic divide is so great that you literally have both a developed nation and a developing nation within the same border. This week there was a little reminder that the "developed" portion of South Africa still developing. Eskom, the South African power company has been instituting "load shedding". This means that for hours a day (sometimes three or four, sometimes more) every day the electricity is just out. All over the country. Eskom announced this week that these blackouts will continue for the next five years. FIVE YEARS. The damage to the economy is already in the billions of Rands.
I've seen a lot of other Peace Corps Volunteers in the last few days, including my friend Michael who I'd count as one of the smartest people I know. Peace Corps South Africa volunteers are an interesting group of people, and the level of conversation when we get together tends to be pretty intense.
There were people from Peace Corp's DC offices here this week doing a program evaluation. One of the questions they asked was if Peace Corps should be in South Africa. It's an interesting quesiton. There have been some really great conversations about it this weekend. South Africa of 2008 is not Ghana of 1969. There is a huge number of university educated South Africans well qualified to work in schools. Many of the reforms teachers, students and others are calling for in the educational system are not grassroots reforms, they are system wide, broad based changes. These are not the types of changes new university graduates from the US are going to be effective in instituting. This argument is made pretty well in a recent OpEd piece in the New York times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/opinion/09strauss.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin)
I'm learning a lot. I'm working my tail off to do what I can in the schools I work in. I'm growing as a person and as a teacher and eventually I'll bring that growth back to the US. It's strange because I am questioning what role Peace Corps South Africa can really play in educational development but at the same time I'm in now way feeling less committed to my individual work. I don't see my work as futile, but I'm not sure how much of an impact I can realistically make.
An unavoidable lesson to be learned serving in South Africa (and I suspect elsewhere) is that as the world changes and as global markets dictate more and more the fate of haves and have nots devlopment is also changing. If you picture me as a dusty hippie PCV from the late '60's teaching English under a tree you're vastly wrong and probably in good company. I think most Americans like the IDEA that there are other Americans (mostly young, smart, well educated Americans) out there in poor countries making the world a more even playing field. I don't teach under a tree, in fact I don't teach at all because this country has qualified teachers. I also have come to realize that the level playing field is such a distant possibility that I'm not willing to fully give up hope in it but I'm also not willing to pretend that it is possible in the current state of international interdependancy and political affairs. It's a nasty beast we're all a part of. I'm going to keep hammering away at my part...