Project Now Now

Now - Now adv.adv.

1. A popular South African phrase indicating that the time to do something is very soon, or sometimes it is actually time to do it.
2. Something that is said often times to simply appease someone that is impatient or has legitimately been waiting for action to happen for a long time but has been promised that action will be taken now now several times.

Ex 1. It’s time to go now now. (As in right now, it literally is time to go.)

Ex 2. We will do the project that we were supposed to do last week now now. (Just like you said last week the project would be done now now).

So as you see often times even if you say now now, it does not mean now now.

So it’s been awhile since the last time I posted (not including the posts that were included with this post). It’s not because I’ve been too busy. Rather I’ve been too lazy. I mean in between all my time sitting down watching TV and staring at my ceiling, I just cannot find the time to update my blog okay? Those precious minutes can be used by staring at the point in which the ceiling and wall actually meet. Seems the builders didn’t do a really good job of straightening that out, doesn’t even connect that well….

But that’s not to say that nothing has been going on. Let me lay it out for you in just a few seconds as these projects will be explained individually in future blog posts that shall be posted soon meaning the future is soon soon.

5 projects that may interest only me, that may or may not be explained in greater detail in future posts

1. The garden project in which we use compost, manure, and other fertilizers in deep circles and trenches is not going so well. Let’s just say the water died. Nothing like shelling out some of your own money to buy seeds for the organization and the workers tending to the garden with great care just to see all your small plant seedlings die after 3 weeks because the water goes ka put. Are we having fun yet?

2. The HIV education initiative trudges along. Lesson plans and curriculums have been developed and are slowly becoming the standard of HIV/AIDS education in the area. And our organization has partnered with another HIV/AIDS/STI education team to increase our effectiveness and to be able to reach out to more people. It has hit a minor road block. You would be surprised to see how difficult it is to get the education commissioner of the area to give us permission and allow us to be able to teach and tell school students to put rubber things on their twalalas and ding ding dongs is when engaging in the intercourse. No education in schools till this battle is resolved in our favor. But education outside of schools has gone very well, especially with the youth soccer teams especially with the promise of free World Cup tickets at stake.

3. Breakthrough on the research front as the Mpumalanga (province that I live in) Department of Health has acknowledged my existence! After submitting my initial research proposal (the proposal would analyze HIV/AIDS knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors amongst school youth in my area. I am trying to create official publishable data that can help this are develop a stronger and more specific regional strategy to combating HIV/AIDS rather than a general strategy based on information from Cape Town, which is nowhere close to us and not at all similar to this area.) 5 months ago and hounding them up until this time, I received an email that said something along the lines of “Oh wow, we did not realize how long ago you submitted this, seems intriguing enough, but we think you need to rewrite the proposal in a better format”. They even assigned a person to handle my case. So better format it shall be written in.

My project to reform the entire South African education system as we know it by instituting a system of learner feedback that curriculum specialists could use to help fine tune the learning curriculums based on direct input from the students has been put on the backburner. Ambitious much? Yeah was time to pull my head out of my ass. There were a lot of things on my plate, and unfortunately I was lost as to how to proceed with this project and it itself got lost. But don’t worry, I got some PHD’s on it. And they perhaps can help me carry this through.

4. Not sure what to say on the fundraising front. It could go either way at this point really. We had a very good meeting with the U.S. embassy after submitting a $10,000 grant proposal to start an income generating chicken coop project. What do I know about chickens? Very little but just like when John McCain was asked about his very little knowledge of the economy, I can say myself, “Don’t worry, I have advisors and I know a guy that know something about chickens.” They seemed pleased with the project proposal, the site, and the dedication shown by the workers. So in time we shall see.

We also applied for a 1.2 million rand grant (for all sorts of crazy $h*t) awhile ago which was a bit of a stretch to say the least. But we’ve been hearing from different organizations about how their proposals have been rejected. And surprise surprise, ours has not been rejected yet. This could mean two things: our rejection letter got lost in the mail somewhere (you know that South African mail system), or we actually survived to make it into round 2. Or it could be something totally different I have no idea, but I’m thinking the former rather than the latter is probably more the likely scenario.

We have full on nursing staff, but no equipment? Well let’s work on getting you some! Trying to acquire medical supplies is no easy endeavor when the local clinic and hospitals themselves are a bit undersupplied, but you know what we can give it a go.

5. It may seem lame, because believe me it is, but really and truly, Together Everyone Achieves More. Helping different organizations that often times are trying to do the same thing work in TEAMs is not as hard as you think. Linking organizations together to increase the efficiency and efficacy of each by forming partnerships just makes everyone’s life easier and makes sure that services are just more easily accessible. And that’s what it should be like. Even if some people that have never met you before refer to you as China or Mlungu (Sir you are a grown man, and a government official for Christ’s sake, what are you doing using that language, and yes I understand everything you are saying about me.)

An Aboriginal man in Western Australia named Darren once told me, “It is hard to see such suffering sometimes and often times people become very disheartened with the insurmountable challenges they encounter and are unable to act upon it. But every time there is a chance to become disheartened by something, there is an opportunity to be emboldened by it.” Indeed you are right Darren, there is too much at stake to be jaded. I hope I can make some breakthroughs because when it comes to making things happen and perhaps making a difference, the time is Now Now.