Kimberly Cummins

We Fell in Love with Our Students

Leaving Johannesburg was very hard for many of us. We were so used to being in a hotel and a big city that it was a shock when we moved to a small rural area. Our preconceived notions of life at the University of Zululand changed once we fell in love with our students. We taught to peer-educators at the university, some of whom had already learned the module in the previous years and 20 of them had taught the module to about 7,000 people at the university and in their communities. It was also really good to know that students really like and appreciate the module and think that it was effective enough to share with the people in their communities.

Teaching to the students was challenging but inspiring. There were many logistical problems that we had to stumble over, but in the end, our students did nothing but inspire us. Many times we felt as though our students would not understand the module, but, every time they did well it surprised us. In the past school year that we spent preparing for South Africa and reading the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paul Freire, I thought that we understood everything there is to know. We tend to think that a group of people less privileged than we are would have more obstacles in learning the module, and we were surprised when we saw that they could learn it as well as we did. From teaching in Johannesburg and Zululand, I have realized that I cannot expect to help people if I do not trust that they can do well.

We attended the graduation ceremonies for students at the University of Zululand and we were able to see the President of South Africa, Dr. Jacob Zuma, who is also the Chancellor of the University of Zululand. Our Professor  Nesha Haniff was able to meet him the day before. After the graduation, we were invited to sit in the VIP Lounge and eat lunch with the President. He is the fourth democratically elected President of South Africa. What makes his recent placement in office so special is that he is a Zulu man, so the people at the graduation cheered for him loudly as he passed through the crowd. The day was a highlight, not only because the President was there (and danced), but also because in his speech, he used the quotation that our group chose for the front of our t-shirts. The quotation by Steve Biko came from his book, Selected readings: I write what I like, which is the title of Carla’s dispatch, where he states that Africa will give the world a more human face.

Teaching in South Africa has been an inspiration to me every single day, and I know that my colleagues feel the same way. We look at our students, even our college educated ones, and think that they are uninterested and incapable of learning and understanding because of the limited resources given to them. The first day that I taught at Zululand, I had a student who seemed so uninterested in everything. It really hurt my feelings to think that the things I had to say were so boring to him. The next day he seemed a little more interested when my group had to translate the module into Zulu, a native language in South Africa. Later on that day I made him come back because I wanted him to graduate from the program. When he returned, I was stunned by the excellence of his teach back in English and a second time in Zulu. I was so proud of him. I realized that, like myself and many students I know, he needed a little push and one-on-one time with me. It warmed my heart to know that he cared enough to come back to make sure that he showed me that he knew the module and that he wanted to be able to take it back to his community so that they too can learn about HIV.

On this trip, I have finally learned that the module and the information it gives is not just about HIV – it is about a system of empowering people. For the short time that I have been here so far, I have grown in so many ways that I would never have imagined to be possible. I am learning to be more open, giving, and appreciative of everything I have. This trip is far from over, and my colleagues and I are ready and willing to face the highlights and challenges with open arms, hearts, and minds. Thank you for supporting us, and please continue to do so.

Kimberly Cummins (Zulu name Nomcebo) – Teammate Pedagogy of Action 2009

Priscilla

In Durban, we stayed at the Rainsgrove Lodge – beautiful bed and breakfast. When we first arrived there, we were introduced to one of the women that worked there. Her name is Priscilla. She hugged all of us – even the few of us that she had never met before. A couple of us stayed behind while she talked with Nesha. She tearfully told Nesha that her daughter had died just a month before due to tuberculosis, pneumonia, and meningitis. While Nesha comforted her, we all stood there stunned. The conversation between the two of them really moved my heart because her daughter was only twenty-one years old – the same as I am. I later found out that she was born the same year and month that I was born.

Because of our work in HIV and from our knowledge of how HIV works, I immediately knew that her daughter had HIV and died from AIDS. Priscilla did not say at that moment that her daughter had HIV and we all understood why. She could not bring herself to say this because of the still powerful stigma surrounding HIV in 2009; HIV positive people are still shunned by their communities. HIV is such a huge epidemic in this country, and even though we were just visitors, we were still affected by it.

For the time that we stayed at Rainsgrove, we all fell in love with Priscilla. She served us breakfast every morning and cleaned our rooms every day. I felt a great connection to her because the day I hurt my arm, she sat and talked to me, amidst all of the work that she still had to do. The morning before we left, I presented Priscilla with a few tokens of our appreciation. Although many of us felt that money could be spent towards other things in her life, we understood that she wanted to use it to pay for a headstone for her daughter’s grave. None of us really took the time to sit and think about how affected and infected everyone around us was with HIV. None of us know what it feels like to lose a child, but with our gifts and our time there, we hoped that we brought a smile to her heart.

Kimberly Cummins – Teammate Pedagogy of Action 2009