Background: On Tuesday, 27 October, the team met with Riedewhaan, Nafeesa, Camelita, Scott, and Nicola at 12:30PM, in a weekly meeting that occurred throughout the project. Later that day, the team met with Scott and Nicola to touch base and recap on the earlier meeting.

Meeting with Sponsor and Advisors

Setting: FCW Office

Cast of Characters:

FCW: Riedewhaan, Nafeesa, Camelita
WPI: Scott, Nicola
WPI Team

Scene:

We were anxious for our first meeting with FCW staff and our advisors because we were wary that there had been some miscommunication with FCW. The start of the meeting consisted of introductions and attempting to get everyone up-to-date with what we had done so far with the programmes. We emphasized how we were unsure of the contribution we were making to the programmes beyond being extra pairs of hands. So far, we had really only watched the children while an FCW representative spoke with caregivers about ECD. While playing with the children had been fun, we didn’t see a substantial project stemming from these interactions. In an attempt to get everyone on the same level of understanding, Nicola stressed the concept of a deliverable or some sort of tangible product. This deliverable could be a written document or a built structure, and is something that is expected of all WPI projects. The concept of working with co-researchers seemed to be a big challenge in the development of the project, as ideally they would be members of the Vygieskraal community itself, but had yet to be identified. In response to this request for a deliverable, Riedewhaan introduced the idea of preparing a case study of the programmes held in the Vygieskraal Stadium. The case study would analyse the stadium-based project as a model for using a public space to hold ECD and related programmes for informal settlements. He also told our team about the possibility of writing a proposal to the City of Cape Town to improve public access to under-utilised public facilities, using the Vygieskraal Stadium as an example of this process.

Throughout this meeting, frustrations were expressed, ideas were brainstormed, and issues were clarified. However, after over an hour of discussion, our team felt overwhelmed and had a hard time processing all of the information discussed. We also had the feeling that, while much confusion was cleared up in this initial meeting, the project itself did not have a clear direction. Open discussion with FCW employees and our advisors would be key in the next few weeks to ensure that a feasible project could be developed.

Meeting with Advisors

Setting: St. John’s Waterfront Lodge

Cast of Characters:

WPI: Scott, Nicola
WPI Team

Scene:

We left FCW right after the group meeting to have a smaller meeting with our advisors at the lodge. Our emotions were running high with frustration, a tension our advisors sensed and wanted to ease. They let us begin the conversation so they would have an understanding of what was on our minds. We voiced the fact that, although we had just had an extensive conversation with our sponsors, we still felt like we weren’t being heard properly and were getting concerned about the time that was passing without tangible work being produced. The first half of the meeting turned into a venting session for our team, and then it was Scott and Nicola’s turn to speak. They started off by reassuring us that they saw where we were coming from and that our emotions were justified, which helped calm us. They moved on, however, to help us see where we had in fact made progress. Additionally, they brought up points to help us take into account FCW’s point of view. While we hadn’t been designing the morning programmes as we had initially expected, we had been making connections with members of FCW and a few of the older caretakers of Vygieskraal. It was interesting when Nicola pointed out that although we hadn’t yet seen and been immersed in the Vygieskraal community, we were in fact being welcomed by the FCW community. We hadn’t thought of it that way and it was a nice reminder that they were embracing us, just as we had hoped the residents of Vygieskraal would.

Furthermore, our advisors helped us recap the project ideas that had been suggested in the earlier meeting in order to better organise them in our minds. Given all of the possible directions that were brought up in the meeting, we discussed the opportunities and drawbacks that the different routes carried. It was a challenging process, but our minds were put to ease by the fact that our advisors were aware of our concerns and were willing to lend us guidance. While the meeting concluded without a definite project plan in place, we had narrowed down our options for later thought, and we felt that Scott and Nicola were on the same page as us!

Reflection:

Going into these meetings, our team was feeling a lot of confusion and frustration trying to figure out where the project was headed. We originally thought that we would be working with FCW to create programme plans from the ground up, when in fact they already had manuals for parenting and afterschool programmes. As a result, we felt like babysitters when working with the kids, and that we were in the way when we needed translations from Afrikaans to English during the parent discussions. This frustrated us because we realised that our sponsor did not have the same understanding of our project that we did. It was hard for us to mentally adjust to the shift in our project from what we had planned for during A-term, to where we were as we attempted to find a project direction. We haven’t really felt like we fit in yet. We were a little relieved though, as we saw that our sponsors had a better understanding of where we were coming from. It wasn’t easy, but we are striving to create a working relationship with our sponsors and to establish new project goals that could benefit the community of Vygieskraal, our project needs, and FCW’s current programmes.

Looking Forward:

Our team was on what we considered a project rollercoaster these past few days. We spent seven weeks planning for a project with FCW staff and Vygieskraal residents, and when push came to shove we realised that we needed to adapt the approach we’d be taking in the coming weeks. We were hard-pressed to develop an understanding that projects at this specific project site are rarely set in stone, and being adaptable is a key feature of working with people from different cultures and backgrounds. It was scary at first, as we thought we were completing a project completely different from what we had planned for, but after countless discussions with our sponsor, our advisors, and our team, we were able to get a clearer picture of the project. Looking forward, we are eager to work closely with our sponsor and residents of Vygieskraal to develop a project in conjunction with everyone involved.