A Special Week

Last week, I had the opportunity to not only take part in a Special Olympics event, but also to visit Kutlwanong (pronounced Klu-klano), a special school in the Royal Bafokeng Nation.  Although, I am working for Special Olympics, I don’t have a lot of contact with the program side of the organization.  So I really enjoyed actually working with and seeing the community that I am “aiding.” It was a good reminder of what it is all about!!!

Kutlwanong

Kutlwanong is a boarding school for deaf learners and people with intellectual disabilities.   Learners start at the preschool level and go all the way up to vocational school (high school level).

Girls dorm.  Students in the sewing classes make the comforters and curtains.

Preschool Boarders

One of the students with intellectual disabilities

Some of the learners with intellectual disabilities

What the students were learning

Students pass a certain age learn professional and life skills like construction, welding, sewing, cooking, and building furniture.  Here is a wall the learners built.

Computer class with deaf learners.  I got to assist in this class.  It was a lot of fun!

Female soccer team warming up before practice

BTW-I have started Special Olympics youth clubs with learners from the mainstream schools.  We will be adopting Kutlwanong and another neighboring special school.

Special Olympics North West

Rustenburg hosted a province wide Special Olympics competition that brought together all of the special schools in the North West.  Learners or Athletes competed in 7-a-side Unified Soccer, Unified Basketball, and Table Tennis.  BTW-unified sports is a Special Olympics program to promote inclusion by having equal numbers of individuals with and without disabilities on the same team. 

Here are a couple of photos from the event.

What is so “special” about Special Olympics?

Special Olympics gives people with intellectual disabilities the courage, strength, and the desire to dream.  I wanted to conclude this post by sharing the dreams and visions of two athletes from Namibia that I met at a Special Olympic Africa Leadership meeting.

--Mei

My Mission (I am going to South Africa)...

Peace Corps' Motto on a Billboard

The time is finally here. I leave for South Africa tomorrow (whoop, whoop)!!!  I have a two hours flight from Washington, DC to Atlanta, GA and then a 15 hours and 20 minutes flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.  As such, I think this an appropriate time to give you an understanding of what I will be doing in South Africa.

I am going to South Africa as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer.  I originally served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa, from 2000-2002.  Peace Corps Response allows Returned Volunteers (the program actually just opened up to professionals with 10+ years of experience) to serve in professional, short-term assignments around the world.  I will be working with the Special Olympics as a Marketing and Events Manager.

The Special Olympics South Africa and Special Olympics Africa will be hosting a Regional (Africa) soccer tournament at the Royal Bafokeng Sport Palace (one of the stadiums built for the World Cup) in Rustenburg in October 2012.  The tournament will bring together inclusive teams from approximately 16 countries to showcase the skill and ability of the Special Olympics Africa athletes and provide a platform to increase awareness and support of the Special Olympics movement in South Africa and the Africa Region.  I will be responsible for successfully activating all the marketing, awareness and engagement activities for this event.

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Card-check, Visa-check, Passport-check: I'm ready to go!

When I arrive in South Africa, I along with two other Response Volunteers will be taken to Pretoria for orientation.  Over three days (Peace Corps training is normally three months but shortened for Response Volunteers), Peace Corps will coach us on how to maintain our health and safety during our service and provide an overview of South African culture, history, and language.  We will also do administrative stuff like get our IDs and open bank accounts.  After we swear our allegiance to the U.S. we will leave for our post. 

However, instead of going directly to my post, I will spend the next two and a half weeks in Randburg (a town on the edge of Jo'burg) for Special Olympics orientation.   When I finish there I will attend a weeklong Special Olympics Africa leadership meeting in the Royal Bafokeng nation (the area where I will be living).  So about the second week of March, I will be deployed to my post and move into my temporary new home in Rustenburg.

Not sure what my internet access will be once I am country, but will reach out as soon as possible.  Wish me luck and please keep me in your prayers.

-Mei