M

y team and I are working on an exciting Community Engagement project with two street artists who sell their work outside Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto.

This year we decided on developing the skills of local street artists by exposing them to a new art form they had no training in- Pottery! Our hope is that the artists can incorporate the new skill into their existing works and pass on their new found knowledge onto others and expand their repertoire. 

We are looking to address MDG's 7 and 8

 

Here are some pics of the artists' (Lesly and Lebo) work at the museum...

 

International Youth Camp... 

Amazing Memories... 

Amazing Lessons...

I attended International Youth camp / International Work camp around this time last year in Qunu Eastern Cape- birth place of Nelson Mandela- which was hosted by the Nelson Mandela Museum and German CVJM (YMCA). The camp gave me the amazing opportunity to interact with 70 diverse young adults from all over Europe and Africa with participating countries such as Belarus, Botswana, Germany, Israel, Kenya, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malawi, Namibia, Netherlands  Poland, Russia, South Africa, Slovakia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

We discussed world issues that affected us as young individuals our countries and our communities and we learnt that we had a lot in common with one another. We were separated into focus groups namely; Care Work and Fine Arts, Photography, Drama and Story-telling, Poetry and Music, Archives and finally Documentation which was the elective I fell under. 

My elective had the daunting task of recording all the events of the memorable two week long camp and this is where my passion for leadership and humanitarian efforts truly deepened. Speaking to people my age from all walks of life really opened up my eyes to just how much there is to still learn and how much I still had to give back in my life and for that I am eternally grateful.

 To see more of what we did on the camp and to read an article I put together during my time at the camp check out the International Workcamp blog at:     

http://qunu-workcamp.blogspot.com/

The article is titled 'Once Upon A Time...' 

Disappointment...

The South African Oxford School dictionary defines disappointment as:

D

isappoint: verb to fail to do what someone hoped for or desired or expected. Disappointment noun.

But what does it really mean to be disappointed in someone, but more over in yourself? Well... I’ve recently dealt with disappointment and found a really easy way to conquer this somewhat tricky hurdle of life, I told myself: ‘Palesa, disappointment is like a strong wind, and you in this case are a mountain...the mountain will never bow down to the wind!’ it sounds a little silly when I say it out aloud, but low and behold it really worked, nothing sucks more than a strong black woman buckling under pressure and there’s nothing cute about throwing yourself a pity party, so instead of staying in bed in a foetal position I figured I’d look at disappointment as a stepping stone for greater things in life, and at the risk of sounding extremely clichéd- everything happens for a reason... right?

I did however notice the stronghold disappointment has- not within me, but in my peers, how depressing it was to hear people say:  “ Don’t worry about it friend” or  “You’ll be okay...” disappointment never really bothered me until everyone around me brought it up, so was I disappointed or we’re they? “ To fail to do what someone had hoped or desired or expected.”

Who is this “someone” they’re speaking of? Because as I recall I was perfectly fine until everyone started making a huge deal of my and disappointments relationship, disappointment and I knew exactly where we stood in each other’s spheres until everyone came and blurred our love- hate relationship. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying friends shouldn’t show compassion when they feel you’ve been hurt by something- its human instinct to want to comfort a loved one when they’re...well...disappointed, but don’t we tend to jump the gun by assuming someone is more affected by something then they let on, flocks of friends coming to you to tell you how sorry they are can really put a damper on a girls mood.

 Luckily we all have that one friend with enough common sense to recognise that you might not need a pep talk on dealing with life’s hardships, all you might just want is time alone... just you and disappointment, re-evaluating your relationship, re- building boundaries and accepting that hey... shit happens, and once you know what’s what, you can build a bridge- on your own terms- and GET OVER IT!

 So to my friends out there, just in case you didn’t know, I’m taking this opportunity to let you know: Yeah, disappointment sucks, but it’s not the end of the world- As Marlene Dietrich said: Friends are Gods way of taking care of us, and as much as I love you... The sad looks just aren’t stundee, and if I didn’t bring it up clearly I don’t want to talk about it yet, or it really doesn’t bother me that much...so (and I say this with every fibre of love in my being)...back off and let a sistah breathe!!

Deuces!

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you fail, you will land amongst the stars” – Les Brown, Motivational speaker.