Wanderlusting in South Africa

Odi and I eventually did make our way to Lesotho for the Anglican Students Federation (ASF) conference.  This conference is for all of the Anglican Students across Southern Africa.  The conference is being held at the National University of Lesotho in Roma, and there are approx. 350 students attending.  Odi is one of the field workers in charge of the Siyafundisa program, one of the projects that is overseen by the Anglican AIDS Healthcare Trust, and Be The Change, Int’l –the organization my internship is through.  Siyafundisa means “teaching our children.”  The project is designed as a peer education program, and quite a number of the students present have attended trainings already and are peer educators.  In this, it feels very similar to the HIV/AIDS education programs I have been a part of in the US.  However, unlike in the States, where the majority of the students in those programs have never known anyone with HIV or AIDS, here most of the students have had their lives directly affected by the disease.  The peer educators led a few sessions during the conference, and my and Odi’s job was simply to help organize and facilitate in whatever way we could to make the sessions run as smoothly as possible.  

            What I love most about being at the conference is all the music.  These kids sing—seriously, like all the time.  A choir can break out at the drop of the hat.  Song erupts in the middle of a church service, or in between sessions, or really just about anytime!—an awesome way to pass the dead time!  I’ve taken some short videos of what I mean—hopefully I’ll be able to upload them so y’all can hear/see what I mean!

            The conference also had a wide variety of speakers from all over Southern Africa—including one of the former bishops who is now chairing SAFCEI—a faith-based environmental organization.  He gave a terrific presentation and shows that South Africa is also doing some really great work in trying to take better care of our Earth.  P.S. I got some videos as well as the slideshow from the presentation, so all my eco-friends back home—get ready for movie night when I return!

            The church services here at the conference are actually great fun and quite well done—again the music is what takes top prize for me!  Many thanks to the HDS Noon Service for exposing me to so many different traditions—not that the Anglican church is so foreign to me nor terribly far from my religious roots, but I think it’s at least partially because of noon service and the TME service that I felt so comfortable.