Background for Lebogang Maitshidi

I was born in a small town called Ipelegeng in the North West province, South Africa. Back then things were very tough for our family because my father was working away from home we only saw him during the holidays. My mother also had to go to work because the salary that my father received was not enough to provide for all of us.

I did not enjoy my childhood life because we moved a lot we didn’t stay in one place for a long. I started to go to school right here in Kanana and then the next year I had to go to another school over two hours away to continue with my studies. I stayed with my grandmother for 3 years and I came back home to Kanana because I missed my family, and I felt like I didn’t belong with them, they treated differently.

I had to start over again and be the “new kid” in the block which seriously sucks. What I hated the most about the moving was the new stuff like new school, uniform, friends and neighborhood.  My life was one big roller coaster ride that lasted for years. I started going to high school and I matriculated here in Kanana.

I spent 6 years in high school because I repeated my 9^th grade. Damn, I will never forget the feeling of being worthless, stupid, a failure. The first two months of that year were the worst, I felt like committing suicide.  My life was just a mess it was so difficult to accept it. But because of God and my family I managed to pull through. I changed my life for the better I went to church and made it my rehabilitation center. I accepted Jesus as my savior and I realized that my life changed.   

I started doing well at school and I never repeated a grade after that. After I passed my matric I was confused I didn’t know what to do whether to get a job or go to varsity. I discussed it with my family and they all agreed that I get a job, save, and go to varsity. But I guess the man upstairs had other plans with my life 

I got a call from my deputy principal to come by her office the next day and I agreed to meet her because I was still free at the time. So when I arrived at her office she asked “what are you doing now with your life?” I didn’t know what to say so I just kept quite because I was so ashamed to answer her question. She saw from the look in my eyes that my answer was not a positive one before I began to answer her she told me about a college that will be opened by Americans and if I’m interested in being a student for that college.

Lastly she told me that I don’t even have to pay a cent, I have to admit at first this was just too good to be true, I wanted to see it myself. I agreed to be part of it and she told me to bring the certified copies of my ID and matric statement. After doing so we had a meeting with the organizers of the college. At the first meeting I mate Kay Goss and Jan Paschal which were the founders of the “Every Child Is Ours” initiative.

They introduced themselves to us and told us what they will be doing right here in Kanana and they also explained what the course we will be studying is all about. What I liked the most about Emergency Management (EM) was that its number one priority was saving lives and giving back to the community who were survivors of a disaster. Lastly they told us that the college will be opened the first part of September and we will be studying for two years.

So in September the college was opened as promised but too little was done. The studies that we were going to study were online studies and there was no internet. It was not just the internet thing that bothered me they were actually quite a lot but the internet topped the list for me. White tried his best for to keep us updated with the lessons that Kay sent to us. The ball was rolling too slowly for other students some of them decided to quit.

We were supposed to be 30 by number but only 18 stayed. When Mr. Landon Densley arrived at the college things started to change dramatically. He taught us what an EM does and the responsibilities that come with it. He told us that EM is a very emotional job because you have to deal with people who lost their homes, jobs and families. Lastly he taught us that we have to prepared because if we are not we are preparing ourselves to fail.

HIGHLIGHTS

Wow, so much has happened I don’t even know where to begin. My first highlight was to be able to make my own family plan and talking with the Disaster Management Center (DMC) of South Africa. They came to our school and we were able to ask them different questions about DMC here in South-Africa. My biggest highlight is being able to be part of this college learning about EM is such a big honor for me. Just to be able to make a difference in the lives of other people means a lot for me.

LOW-LIGHTS
    

My low-lights would have to be having everything done in the first days of the school. When we were supposed to start with our classes’ things did not go as planned. The class that we were supposed to use was not organized yet. We had to choose it ourselves and the biggest was of course the internet.

SECOND SEMESTER  

 At the opening day I realized how far behind I was with my school work I had catch up as fast as I could so that I can submit everything in time and be able write the test. On the other hand we had to finish our practical which was the school plan and do new lessons from Kay Goss. Everything is such a mess in its hard to cope. The great thing about this semester is that we received late Christmas presents from Mr. Landon Densely which were pretty cool.

FUTURE OUTLOOK   

 My future outlook is to see myself as a certifiedemergency manager. Helping different communities to prepare, respond, recover, and mitigate for any kind of a disaster that may occur in their communities. For me being an emergency manager is not about having a job it’s about having the opportunity to save lives and making a difference. It’s more of a calling for me and I am more than willing to do my best and God will simply do the rest.