Launching Isipho to break the cycle of poverty and dependency in iNzinga

(Tom and Miranda)
For all of you who followed our trip last year via this blog, you will remember the time we spent volunteering in iNzinga, and the incredible impact the people there had on us. As many of you know, we left there determined to continue making a difference.

Over the last seven months we have spent evenings, weekends, holidays, and many other spare hours working on the best way for us to provide the help needed in the village. Our initial inclination was to find an existing non-profit to support that could deliver the sort of hand-up that would be strong and focused enough to lift the people of this village back onto their feet. We felt supporting an existing organization would be the best way for us to do that. In the end, we realized that we were in the best position to develop and deliver the consistent, focused effort needed. So, today, we launched Isipho.

You may remember Amahle, the two-year-old daughter of our host, who bonded with Miranda, and gave Miranda the nickname, Isipho, which means "gift" in Zulu. We registered the URL for www.isipho.org before we left South Africa, but we did not know at the time what it would turn into. Isipho will focus on two of the core causes of poverty there; lack of food security, and illiteracy. Through family and community food gardens, we will create a sustainable food supply which will end malnutrition in the village within five years. And, by providing education materials for each grade in iNzinga, we will drastically reduce childhood illiteracy during the same period. Please read about our programs here.

We have our IRS 501(c)(3) status, meaning we are formally a non-profit (incorporated in the state of Georgia), and contributions to Isipho are tax deductible. And, we also start Isipho with Cedara College of Agriculture (the main agricultural college in the area) as a partner to help us provide the gardening education that is lacking in iNzinga. And, we have already partnered with Shuter and Shooter Publishers to provide grade-specific books for the schools in iNzinga. We are well on our way to meeting all of our first year goals.

Now we need funds. And this is a difficult time to raise funds. So, if you can, please visit www.isipho.org, learn about the situation in iNzinga and our plans. If you feel Isipho is a cause worth supporting, and you are in a position to donate anything at all, please visit our donation page and contribute.

If you can not contribute at this time, there is still a lot you can do to help:
- Link to isipho.org on your Facebook, MySpace or other personal page
- Become a fan of Isipho on Facebook
- Friend Isipho on Flickr
- Put our Twitpay.me widget on your Twitter profile
- Follow Isipho news on Twitter
- Write about Isipho on your blog
- Tweet about Isipho
- Email your friends or forward this blog post.

We will occasionally update this blog, but are going to update Isipho mostly via an Isipho.org blog we hope to launch soon, and online social sites like Facebook and Twitter. We appreciate you following along.

Ngiyabonga! Thank you!

Photos Available on Flickr

(TOM) I was literally "in a fog" the first few days last week, and it wasn't as much jet lag, as emotion lag. I really, really miss the places, people, and time with Miranda. The attached photo is of the sunset from Lions head on our last day.

But we're definitely back...

And, I'm through the photos. After some hard deleting (from over 2,200 to under 1,100), some basic editing, and slow uploading, there are some places you can see just a few (400 or so...) small, low-res photos of us and our trip.

Now, on to downloading and editing 6+ hours of HD video.

T

Our last day

(TOM) Well, I'm sitting with Miranda, feet kicked up, enjoying the niceties of the Air France Club Room compliments of Delta, waiting to board the flight home (it's delayed).

The photos attached to this are of the sunset yesterday from Lions Head. We made the climb and enjoyed the sun, the rain, the wind, the stillness, the quite, the activity of people jogging past, images of city and mountains and ocean - all of it. It was just right. Before we went up there we went to an African Restaurant for our last chance to try Ox tail or tripe or Mopane worms (we again passed on all three). While waiting, we had some fun taking pics of each other from across the table. Mo's is just her being her; chocolate shake from a straw, peace sign, an expression that belies whatever thoughts and emotions may be there. Me, I'm just taking advantage of an empty restaurant and a pretty loud sound system playing some Percy Sledge. Good times.

(Some of you have asked about video. Well, we're recording in HD and I didn't get the software needed to convert HD to digital, so we've lots of work to do on video editing over the next few weeks. We'll try to post a highlight reel here when we get it done).

We flew to Joberg from CT this morning on another Mango flight. The last time we were on Mango (from Durban to CT) it was our first chance to see any photos from Impendle. We sat there next to each other, each with one half of the iPod earphones, listening to U2 (Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own, Crumbs from Your Table, Where the Streets have No Name, One, Walk On, Grace, The SunCity version of Silver and Gold, 40, Bad, etc.). We sat there looking at those images of Impendle over and over, weeping like little children. It was a powerful moment. I'm sure we were a site.

Today we flew from CT to Joberg on Mango and were again crying a bit, but also laughing and joking, staring and thinking, sitting quitely, remembering, pondering, missing what we're leaving and what we're going towards. Like our emotions, the mix of music was more diverse as well; songs about coming home, about needing nothing but love, about little feet, about not taking things for granted, about two cute but ugly people, etc. I guess we were a bit like South Africa itself; a mixed up, highly energised, passionate, blend of a lot of diverse perspectives and emotions and experiences. Pretty good if you can just maintain enough control...

Next?
Well, Miranda and I have already discussed how we can stay connected to Impendle, continue to help the people there, and help facilitate others who want to help as well. There are a couple of options available. I don't know what it will be, but we keep coming back to the idea of "isipo", "gift", the name Amahle used to refer to Miranda, and the thing we received every minute of every day in Impendle and the rest of South Africa. Somewhere is an isipo that we need to share with the people of South Africa and the rest of the world. Please keep asking us about it. It is easy to get some balance and feel more connected to the world, and adjust priorities when on vacation. The day-to-day grind of the American lifestyle - of getting ahead before anything else - tends to get in the way of our better selves that thinks of others well being as much as our own. Please help us remember and act; don't let us off the hook. That can be your isipo to us. Stay tuned here to see what we decide to do.

Any time any of you want, we're happy to have you over to share some SA food and wine and photos and videos. Thanks for coming along with us on this trip of a lifetime.

Miranda blog last entree in SA

Mo
yeah, last 3 days have been quite interesting.... ive either been tired and sluggish, or barfing, or dehydrated, but during that time saw great whites, baboons, lions, and many other things, like WEASELS AND PENGUINS AND MOUNTAINS OH MY!!!. daddy did the paragliding, but i was really dehydrated, and took 2 Excedrin right after i had a cup of coffee, so i was overdosed on caffeine, on a stimulant, and was dehydrated. after and hour or two of bed rest and 15 glasses of water, i felt fine and went on a major shopping spree, so i could look fantastic for the african fashion show that we "went to".
we ended up not getting in, but our picture is on a website, we saw some seriously chic people, were in the background of a fashion TV show host's shot, and got some flippin sweet trendy clothes.

WHICH INCLUDE, BONNIE, THE AWESOME ARMY-MARY-POPPINS-VICTORIAN BOOT THINGS!!!!!!
and a fluffy blouse. (i used my streength to reep my blouuuuuse!!!! -- Nacho Libre)

Sorry for the random outburst.

Robben island was pretty cool. Our guide was in the prison for several years, and was tortured in the detention center.
I gotta go get on the plane. I love you all!
Mo

The Rainbow Nation

South Africa is a beautiful place because of its diversity; of topography, geography, climate, weather, plant and animal life, and mostly its people. There are problems for sure; people and parties governing who really have no history of governing nor mentors to follow, and too many with apparently pretty bad judgment and too much self-interest; crime and poverty and disease that are completely related and all too high for any society to maintain long-term. Etc. But I don't think there is another place with such promise and opportunity.

Today, our last day, we went to Robben Island. From there one can see some of the most dramatic images possible of the brutal past of oppression, images of the Cape city booming and yet also young and open and natural, images of hope and strength and the ability to be oppressed and overcome and also forgive. It was much more powerful than I can communicate. The pile of multi-colored rocks at the entry to the lime quary, which started on a post-aparthied reunion when Mandela walked there and placed a rock at the entrance representing all of the people who perished there and without word everyone else followed. The holding pens for the guard dogs, which were bigger than the cells for the prisoners. The diversity of prisoners, Indian, Coloured, and Black African, including those who were professors and did nothing more than speak eloquently against racism and were branded enemies of the state, to regular people who trained in urban warfare and were caught with weapons. The eerie familiar story of fear leading to the government edicts approving torture, and the recention of habeus corpus and the right of trial for those deemed "terrorists" in order to protect citizens from those who would take away their way of life. The impact of Mandela's and Tutu's (and other's) wishes that those responsible for Aparthied not be punished, but be encouraged to tell the truth as a part of a process of forgiveness and reconciliation - how the love and forgiveness of the oppressed overcame the fear and distrust of the oppressor, and gave this country the great chance it has today.

Mostly, though, I was impacted by one statement that I saw and heard several times in this stark, sad prison. So, along with one image of a lilly that has randomly began growing on the floor of the lime quary, I'm going to share the following quote:

"WHILE WE WILL NOT FORGET THE BRUTALITY OF APARTHIED, WE WILL NOT WANT ROBBEN ISLAND TO BE A MONUMENT TO OUR HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING. WE WOULD WANT IT TO BE A TRIUMPH OF WISDOM AND LARGNESS OF SPRIRIT AGAINST SMAL MINDS AND PETTINESS; A TRIUMPH OF COURAGE AND DETERMINATION OVER HUMAN FRAILTY AND WEAKNESS; A TRIUMPH OF NEW SOUTH AFRICA OVER THE OLD."
Ahmed Kathrada, prisoner 468/64