Duke of Ed Gold Trip 2012: Peru Expedition Update

March 8, 2012

Upon my return to Peru, I did not know what to expect. I would soon find out that, although many landmarks were familiar to me, I was seeing everything in a completely new light. I was wiser and the shantytowns of Lima didn’t shock me. Rather they incited me to want to get to work immediately!

We spent four days in Las Palmas completing our community service project, which included a new set of stairs, a new fence, a fresh coat of paint and a new roof. By the fourth day, every student had mixed feelings about leaving Las Palmas. Although we may have been filled with excitement with the prospects of beginning the hike in Cusco, we would be leaving behind a community to which we had grown very close.– Emily Tiberi ’12

Five days ago, eighteen LCC students who would work on the service project in Las Palmas flew into the desert city, Lima. With last years experience doing the service project and the Salkantay Trek, I didn’t feel nervous. I was rather excited to see how things had changed over a year.

Every morning, when driving to Las Palmas, I noticed that the poverty levels hadn’t changed. The chaotic way of life and the number of shantytowns stacked on the desert was the same. It seemed as if I had not left Peru last March. When working at the community, the locals treated us with the same respect and warmth they had shown us in 2011. I remembered their names and faces and so did they. Under the scorching heat, we worked on the concrete roof until the very last minute. Today, we fly to Cusco. We are anxious about the hike, but at the same time, excited to walk the same path where Incas and adventurers explored.– Kenya Shatani (Pre-U ’12)


Duke of Edinburgh: Gold Winter Trip

2011_12_DofEd_GoldWinter_107From February 16 – 19, ten grade 11 students attended the Winter Duke of Edinburgh Gold journey. It was definitely a challenge, hiking and snowshoeing 44 km and dog-sledding 70 km within such a short span of time, and yet it was all so rewarding.

The part of this journey that remains so vivid in my mind is having the opportunity to hike through the sunrise. On the third day, we had to wake up at 4:00 am in order to accomplish our hike to arrive at the dog-sledding on time. Walking with flashlights when we commenced our hike and then slowly but surely seeing the sunrise is not only a memorable but also a beautiful experience.

Perhaps waking up at that hour was not ideal, but accomplishing such a unique hike was definitely worthwhile. After all that hard work, we spent two incredible days with the dogs we were dog-sledding with. The entire journey was one I will never forget and I am so proud to have completed it.—Caroline Ballard ’12.

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Australia: New Experiences

For just over a week, I have been living like a true Australian. So far, I have had the opportunity to visit the CBD of Melbourne, attend a footy game and appreciate Australia’s outstanding nature.

Here I am at Carey Baptist Grammar School, a partly outdoor school in the middle of the summer, while back home there are temperatures of below zero degrees! I have learned many new things about a country that used to seem so foreign to me. I now feel like I belong, having done nearly everything that an Australian would do on a daily basis.

My host family did a very good job at giving me a warm welcome to this country. On the very first day, it was a pleasant discovery to taste Tim Tams, which are incredible Australian cookies! On my second day, I went to school and made many new friends. My teachers were extremely kind to me as well. After school, on my third day, I had the opportunity to experience some of the beautiful nature of this country. I went to Studley Park and enjoyed the view of massive and stunning trees as well as exotic flowers.

On the Friday of my first week, I had the chance to attend an Australian “footy game.” This sport is mainly played in Australia and is similar to rugby. However, in contrast to rugby, to pass the ball to a teammate, you are allowed to throw or kick it. In order to score a goal, you must throw or kick the ball through goal posts. It was my very first time even hearing about this sport, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching a game. The game I attended was a preseason game in which three teams played: the Hawthorn Hawks, the Richmond Tigers and the North Melbourne Kangaroos. That night, each team versed each other once. In the end, they each had one win and one loss. I loved this experience!

On the weekend, I visited the CBD, Central Business District, otherwise known as downtown Melbourne. While I was there, I went biking along the Yarra River. Just two days later, I went kayaking on the Yarra River! Both activities were very amusing and exciting. I found it quite interesting to travel to downtown Melbourne from the bike path and waterway as there were things that caught my attention from kayaking on the Yarra River that I had not noticed when I was biking along it.

All in all, this has been a most amusing week and I am keen to know that there is much more to come. I have yet to see a kangaroo or a koala, but by the end of my six weeks, I will surely have done it all!–Matthew Kaspy ’14

Round Square: Every Day a New Adventure in South Africa

Waking up to a poolside breakfast followed by 18 holes of golf under the hot African sun seems like a suitable way to start off your day. Well, it’s how I begin most of my days here in South Africa. The air is warm, the sun always shines and life is good.

I am 23 days into my journey and have already seen more animals than most people would in their entire lives. From leopards, lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and rhinos, to even small creatures like snakes, lizards, and turtles, not to mention hundreds of different exotic birds. You name it and there’s a good chance I’ve encountered it in one instance or another.

The family I am living with is wonderful and I’d like to say that I am ever grateful for them taking me into their home. I am treated with great hospitality and living on the luxurious side of life. Even though I am living in a high-class community, I am very aware of the social and economic problems that surround me. South Africa is actually one of the most affluent countries in Africa, but it is still a developing country. About a quarter of the population is unemployed and lives on under $2 a day. Crime, sexual assault, and corruption within the government are major issues that face South Africa.

I began school at St Stithians College on January 16. St Stithians College is a Methodist, all boys’ school. The campus is over 105 hectors, and holds almost 3000 students. It may be hard to imagine, but it is over 226 football fields in area. Some students board in dorms on campus, while others live quite close. Apart from the fantastic classes and teachers, St Stithians provides a variety of sport teams and clubs that are open to everyone. I have the privilege of participating in the Chess Club, Photography Club, the Music Club, the Track and Field team, and the Fitness team. St Stithians has been very welcoming to me and the other few exchange students. There are two boys from Columbia and one from England who I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with. The four of us are going on a special trip to the Apartheid Museum tomorrow, the first of many places that we will be visiting.

It has been quite the experience so far, with over a month to go. I learn new things everyday, and am grateful to be a part of Round Square. Who knows what I will do next? Every day is a whole new adventure. – Liam McMahon ’14

Our African Experience and HIV/Aids

This past summer, Melissa and I embarked on the trip of a lifetime. Not knowing anyone, we signed up to go on a community service trip to South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. All we knew was that the food may or may not be good, the people we’d meet may or may not speak English and the bugs may or may not give us malaria. What we didn’t know was that HIV/Aids would be the topic of conversation for 12 days out of our 25-day trip. We had known that Sub-Saharan Africa was more infected with Aids than the rest of the world. Out of all 35 million people infected with HIV/Aids, 25 million of them live in this region. But we didn’t understand that the majority of the people infected had little to no understanding of how to save their own lives.

To our knowledge, the first community we visited was where HIV/Aids had the most impact out of the rest of the towns we went to. This township was called Acornhoek, located just west of the famous Kruger National Park in South Africa. Acornhoek has a population of 150,000 people. 50% of this community is infected with HIV/Aids, which means 75,000 people are infected. The average income in this region is 300 to 1000 rand a month, which translates to a maximum of 120 dollars per month, which only covers 14% of the monthly cost of ARV’s, the aids treatment medication that lessens the symptoms. The cost of ARV’s is from $10,000 to $15,000 a person PER YEAR or $833 PER MONTH.  This fact is not only extremely sad, but it is also very scary.

We worked five days in a smaller village within Acornhoek, at  the Sihlekisi Primary School. This school was government funded, however, the caliber of the teachers and the curriculum was questionable. In the schools, they learn very basic things about HIV/Aids prevention, but it is often times countered by the stigmas in their culture. Another problem is that the things they learn about HIV/Aids are in English, and the children understand very little English. The children were on their break when we were there, so they came to schoolyard everyday to play, and everyday they returned wearing the same dusty clothes, the same bare feet and the same smile running from ear to ear. Despite the 50% chance that these kids were fatally ill, and that they were extremely poor, they always had a smile on their faces and were ready for any game of soccer or any hand game we had prepared. The hardest part was that we couldn’t believe that our new little friends might be sick. It didn’t make sense to us that a child so happy and so pure could have HIV/Aids. The realization when we were given the 50% statistic hit us like a brick. It just made no sense.

One of the nights we spoke with an older Afrikaans man named Pieter; he owned the lodge that we stayed at near Acornhoek. He was the man who told us of the fate of 50% of the children, and he explained the stigmas of the native African people in Acornhoek. The first stigma he explained was the city theory. This theory is that women believe HIV/Aids come from the city, mainly Johannesburg. They believed this because the men often go away to work in Johannesburg for six months at time. When they are there, the women believe that they get lonely and hire prostitutes. When they come back home to their isolated villages, they force their wives to have unprotected sex because they view condoms as a symbol of betrayal and distrust. More often than not the women, the men and their children wind up getting infected, which only validates the assumption women make that their husbands are cheating on them.

Once contracting HIV/Aids, the people view it as a consequence to sinning and are completely shunned. Women will hide when they bottle-feed their children, as using bottles is a sign of sickness. Another reason to be shunned in these types of villages is to want a better life. The people who leave to get higher education in Johannesburg or Cape Town often times cannot return home, because they are seen as traitors who leave their families behind. This causes a lot of trouble because we all know that with education comes knowledge on prevention and, obviously, success. A successful person within these communities is exactly what they need for motivation, and that very rarely happens because people do not want to be excommunicated.

Another one the major problems is the government’s release of false prevention tactics. In 2005, a 31-year-old woman who was known to have HIV accused Jacob Zuma, who is now president of South Africa, of rape. Jacob Zuma insisted that it was consensual, however the girl still kept pressing charges. The problem in all this was that it came up that he did not use a condom, even though he knew she had HIV. In response to that, Zuma stated that he took a shower to, quote on quote, “cut the risk of contracting HIV.” HIV/Aids specialists and health educators tried desperately to clear this mess, however, in a country where HIV/Aids is so widespread, it is RIDICULOUS that a political leader would say something so untrue and detrimental to the health of his own country.

Many of the children in these towns have been orphaned by the HIV/Aids epidemic. Since many of middle-aged parents are dying due to the sickness, the grandparents of the children end up being their caretakers. The elderly have no source of income because they are too old to work. Essentially, this also makes them too old to care for children, and the government has no pensions or funding for guardians. Currently, there are very few organizations that care for the elderly. Since the grandparents and parents of children have such a high mortality rate, children very often become orphaned, which has grave consequences. When children, mainly young girls, cannot support their families, they resort to prostitution. This leads us back to the spreading of HIV/Aids mentioned before. The entire process seems to go around in circles.

After our trip, we came home with so much more insight on what our role was in the future pertaining to HIV/Aids prevention. This trip has forever made us activists on what Africa really needs in order to stop this epidemic. They don’t need shoes, because they won’t wear them. They don’t need toys, because that causes dependence. They need money for ARV medication, they need care for the elderly, and they need knowledge and a change of view on condoms. What they really need is access to education – not the tangible things we can give them. They need to learn how to take care of themselves, because if we do it for them, they will never learn. The money you all have donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation will give them treatment, care for the elderly and education. When it comes to Africa, give back in ways that will improve health and education, because with health and education comes a better life.

Help prevent HIV/Aids, help save Africa, help save the world. Thank you.—Melissa Cape ’12, Alexandra Storozum ’12