Molweni,
Well, I'm now three-fourths of the way through my volunteer placement on the Scalabrini Centre's Employment Help Desk (EHD). Just when I think time could not travel by any more quickly, it turns around and does so in leaps and bounds! I suppose that I should not be surprised by this . . . I have been, after all, taking in all that Cape Town and South Africa have had to offer and I've been enjoying it in ways that I am still at a loss to describe; that alone will make time pass quickly.
Last week I got trained to do the intake interviews for new clients to the EHD. It's something that I had requested to do, but I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do so given my relatively short eight-week placement at Scalabrini. But, thankfully, the opportunity came this week and I was happy to jump at the chance. So, I was trained on Wednesday and part of Thursday, and I did new client intake on Thursday and Friday.
The intake process itself isn't that difficult -- it's essentially the initial data collection system that allows Scalabrini to keep track of what types of people are coming to the EHD for assistance -- but the informal parts of what happens during the intake process proved to be more challenging. Why? Well, first, there are some clients who don't speak much English and are more comfortable communicating in French (and I speak almost no French, although I'm surprised at how much of it I'm able to understand if someone speaks very, v-e-r-y, v---e---r---y slowly and simply). Fortunately, there are French-speaking staff and volunteers who can translate if needed, or, if all else fails, I can resort to using hand gestures and facial expressions that seem to get the point across.
More importantly, this initial intake provided face-to-face time with an even wider array of clients, who had a correspondingly broader range of needs and personalities. In just two days, I talked with clients who were incredibly posed, motivated and put together, to clients who had never attended a day of formal schooling, to refugees who had no country, no paperwork, no home, no job, and no concept of where to turn next. It's been another lesson for me in being thankful for the opportunities that I have had in life . . . and another lesson in the capacity of the human spirit.
In my down time, I attended the first weekend of the "Out in Africa" film festival, which is, I think, the only LGBT film festival on the African continent. Jessie, Nikkie, Dana and Elizabeth (thanks, ladies!!) from the CCS program joined me for the double feature on the first night - The Cutter and A Kind of Language. While I enjoyed both of the South African short films, I really loved A Kind of Language and can only hope that the production team is able to secure funds to make a feature-length film. It indirectly speaks to much of what I've found so hard to describe about Cape Town and South Africa and the lengths that people will go just to survive. Over the course of the weekend, I saw two additional films - Amphetamine, a film from Hong Kong, and Road to Pride, another South African film - both of which were great.
After the first night of the film festival, we went out with the remainder of the current group of CCS volunteers for Oktoberfest on the V&A Waterfront. And the pictures that I've been tagged in on Facebook are a result of that bit of beer-drinking, off-key signing, out-of-step dancing fun. And I went out to Cafe Manhattan (again) and Bronx Bar (don't worry, not all of the LGBT establishments in Cape Town have NYC-themed names, but it's just where I wound up!) in De Waterkant later that weekend. I've gotten a chance to meet some of LGBT Captonians, and to talk with them about growing up gay/bisexual in Africa. It was an honor to have them speak so honesty and openly about their upbringing, and another lesson for me in being thankful for my own background. And I'll get to see more of the LGBT community this week, when I head off to a fundraiser for Positive Heroes.
So, until next week, be well!
Sala kahuhle,
Troy
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