South Africa PVC links

No random comments this week. . . I attempted to load more pictures, but I think it might take a few more weeks or until I'm in Pretoria for the few I have to be loaded.

On the left are links to other Peace Corps Volunteer blogs. It's interesting to read them because we all are having different and similar experiences at the same time (and some of them have pictures!). They're short and good to procrastinate with. :)

Thank you for all of the warm thoughts over the past week.

preconceptions

I should like to save the Shire, if I could-though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or invasion of dragons would be good for them. But I don't feel that way now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again
-Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkein

Instead, I'd begun to imagine my life in a foreign country, some faraway land where, if things went wrong, I could always blame someone else, saying that I never wanted to live there in the first place. Life might be difficult for a year or two, but I would tough it out because living in a foreign country is one of those things that everyone should try at least once. My understanding is that it completed a person, sanding down the rough provincial edges and transforming you into a citizen of the world.
-"See You Again Yesterday," Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris [the rest of the essay is hillarious!]

It's taken me awile to realize what I expected from Peace Corps service. I didn't really know which country I was going to, so I didn't contemplate a culture. Once I did find out where I was going, I searched for all of the information that I could coming up with 1. It's not safe in South Africa and 2. Everyone that has been here loved it.

It took me until October to realize that I expected a green, lush setting . Yes, the trees are green now that it's rained, but what about the brown fields and ground? And why is it brown for the majority of the year? Other volunteers brag about the avocado, mango, guava, and banana trees in their backyards. I have some scary chickens. I think the chickens know they're ugly and run around trying to avoid each other.

During training, volunteers came and told us to cherish the little happy things. My patience is better than it was at home (I swear Mom!), but there seems to be so much mediocre time just waiting to be filled with something. Relationships aren't built in a day; I didn't expect them to take more than a month either. I wait for people to warm up to me with an every-ready smile. I explain why I'm in South Africa for the thousandth time; I greet for the millionth. Yet, I am still waiting for the beginnings of relationships to grow into friendships or peer-working-relationships. Previous volunteers warned that it really takes a month or a year to form the type of realtionships I want. Patience. . .

I also didn't count on sticking out this much. I mean, I knew I would, but I always thought the joy of screaming, "Lekgowa!" (white person) would wear off and eventually I'd become Lethabo (my South African name). Even children screaming "Lethabo!" and waving gets old after awhile, but being labelled as the 'other' was never fun to begin with.

But unwanted attention from children is a small worry. Men (any where from 16 to 40) hit on me so often. At home, I'd flirt a little then walk away or tell the person to leave me alone as soon as I'd had enough and the person never failed to leave me alone. Here, I greet (it's rude not to) then suddenly, the situation turns for the worse. I spot blood-shot eyes and an open beer but without beer it can be just as bad. "I love you!" "When will I see you again?" "You're beautiful!" "Have my baby!" "Marry me!" play like a broken record. I fear talking to men. I'm even starting to wonder if there's something I'm doing wrong, but reason steps in and saves me from persuing that thought.

The nurse warned me that most Peace Corps volunteers lose their periods, "It's normal, don't worry if it happens to you." I just didn't really believe her.

I always imagined answering, "are you homesick?" with a resounding, "NO!" Instead, I say, "No, but I think about home a lot." I'd love teleportation to be worked out or to discover a wormhole down the street. I don't want to go home forever, just long enough to enjoy a movie, macaroni and cheese, brownies, (the current fantasy), feel the brisk air, or just giggle over any of the great things that happen here without a week's delay. I'm sick, but I don't want to go home.
Happy Thanksgiving! Look for a wormhole close to you. . .

Where?

After reading a letter, I realized that I’ve mentioned that I live in a village and go to town, but never really explained what that means. Here’s the low-down on place names in South Africa:

TOWN - a city or any place that has a grocery store. Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban are the largest. Pretoria (where Peace Corps office and most embassies are located) is about six hours away. There, it’s easy to forget that you’re in Africa with the bars, restaurants, and the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. Lephalale (formally Ellisras although both names are used) is about 45 minutes away. There, I can do grocery shopping, get pictures developed, go to Clicks (think Walgreens), eat ice cream or macaroni and cheese, go to a one-screen movie theater, buy clothes at Pep (cheap) or Mr. Price (like Old Navy), buy books at CNA, or go the post office. There really isn’t an American equivalent to Lephalale. It’s the only place to buy groceries in a 100 km radius and other than the list I made above there are some bars and a ‘One Price’ stores (which sell random cheap things). There aren’t houses close to the stores and fewer people live in Lephalale than in any of my villages. Very first world, Peace Corps NGOs live in towns (some even in Durban!)

TOWNSHIP - kinda like a black suburb. During Apartheid, blacks were not allowed to be inside the towns at night and instead made their homes here. Soweto is the largest, outside of Johannesburg, and has a history of student and political demonstrations/riots. District 6 in Cape Town was a township completely emptied of its inhabitants during Apartheid and the current government is trying to repopulate the area. The options for shopping and thing to do are much fewer than in town, lots of shebeens (unlicensed bars) and shops selling mealie meal, bread, cold drink (soda), cell phone minutes, soap, and occasional fruits and vegetables. Usually, there are street vendors with a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, simba (chips), and sweets. Over the past ten years, there has been a rise of white-only suburbs outside of major cities (white flight, crime rates are high in cities and townships). They vary from Beverly Hills-esqe (where the diplomats live outside of Pretoria) to shanty towns and everything in-between. I’m not quite sure if the shanty towns are included in the township description or not, but they occur in the same locations. Most townships are nice places to live. In general, townships aren’t safe for white people although several Peace Corps NGOs live in townships.

LOCATION - a lot like a township except not outside a town. A place where black people were allowed to live, usually out in the middle of nowhere where no Afrikaners wanted the land. There aren’t townships outside of Lephalale (it’s too small) but there are several locations about 10 km outside of town. Similar shopping/things to do as townships. Pretty third world, Peace Corps NGO and education live here.

VILLAGE - this is where I live! Shongoane 3 (formally Ga-Monyeki) is laid out like any suburb would be; organized streets, houses on plots all about the same size, people greet each other in the streets, buses and taxis pick up along the two main roads, but there are some major differences. Shongoane 3 has about 20,000 people. There are four shops (like I described for the townships except none of them sell cell phone minutes for some reason), many homes double as shebeens (nothing like a drunken serenade at night and being woken up with one in the morning), and none of the roads are paved (making travel treacherous after heavy rain). There is one primary school and one high school. There’s a mechanic’s shop. Tons of goats, donkeys, and chickens wander the streets with occasional cows, turkeys, dogs, and pigeons. Even the taxis are run-down, imagine a 16-passenger van with doors that can only be opened from the outside (the handles stopped working), most seats lost the vinyl covering, and some are hot-wired. Truthfully, I’ve listed everything that there is in Ga-Monyeki. There aren’t many places to work here! Many people have jobs in Johannesburg and come home to their wives and children a few times a year. Other villages have much more to offer. Moletji was closer to a larger town, had street vendors, tow post offices, six primary schools, and a community center. Many community members had jobs either in the closest town or in the village. Shongoane 1 (formally Setateng) has internet (yay!), a post office, many more stores, a few clothes shops, and petrol. I go there whenever I want to use the internet. Homes in the villages can vary from running hot water and all the amenities to a two-room, no electricity, and concrete-brick building. But, people seem so happy in the villages and sometimes it's idylic. . . yesterday children were playing soccer in the street and I overheard my neighbor singing while in her pit toilet. Good times. Most Peace Corps Education live in villages, with a few NGOs living in villages as well.

FARMS - usually an Afrikaaner-owned tract of land employing people from the local villages, Mozambique, Botswana, or Zimbabwe. Farms grow tobacco, mealies, corn, watermelon, cabbage, and butternut in my area. There are also beef and game farms, along with a couple of tourist lodges. Some farms are large enough to have their own schools. I am only speaking about the farms in my area! First-world for the owners. . .

I almost forgot! The only thing as popular (and occuring as frequently) as shebeens are churches! All over towns, townships, locations, and villages. People are very accepting of Christian religions.

Now, Lend Me Some Snuff; I Am Your Neighbor!

A collection of random observations. . .
-Since women don't traditionally smoke, I naively thought that I wouldn't see women using tobacco in the village. I haven't seen any women smoking, but snuff seems to be popular in the female 35 and over crowd. Twice, there's been a knock on our door and the person wanted to share (ie have) my Mma's snuff.
-Learners fetch/clean/send messages for the teachers. Pretty much, if anything except teaching needs to be doen, a learner does it. Need to sit? A learner gets a chair. Need to talk to another teacher? Have a learner get her. Need to clean your dishes? Wax the floor? Don't worry, a learner will do it. Nobody thinks it's a problem and the learners seem thrilled to do it (a way of showing respect is to do tasks for someone). There's even a verb for it, from the Peace Corps Volunteer-written Sepedi Manual, "roma. . . send a child to do meaningless tasks."
-I've seen a few mice but lizards are all over the place. Our cat eats insects, table scraps, and lizards. I'm still looking for a two tailed one.
-SMSs (text messages) are fantastic. . . My favorite converstion so far included pickles, cookies, mealier meal, crack, and magic carpets. It's up to your imagination to put them all together!
-'Them' is the worst word ever created. It's very hard not to use it, but it seems to be the one word that keeps racial stereotypes going. I've spent some time with Afrikaners and while everyone I met is completely sweet and kind to me, they're afraid of the villages and make broad, negative comments about the people living here. For example: 'Their children are lazy.' 'The men only want to drink and don't want to work.' 'They all smoke marajuana.' 'They don't understand that we work hard for everything that we have (as opposed to them who don't).' Add in the women who are completely subservient to the men, and it's like I'm in the late 1960s with modern conviences. I do my best to dispel these stereotypes and hopefully get people to interact. . . The stereotype about Americans, 'They're rich.' Give us money!
-Young children are the best ambassadors! The children at the cresch (pre-school) are willing to hug and play with anyone, regardless of their skin color. Plus, such unconditional love brightens any day.
-It's rained! It rains about 200 mm a year in my village (about 7 or 8 inches), and the first storm happened on Friday night. My Baba shut off the radio and tv and informed me that using my cell phone would attract lightning, but I continued to SMS any way. With our corrogated steel roof, the rain sounded more like hail. Even a light sprinkle sounds like heavy rain. On Saturday there was 41 mm (a little over an inch) of rain, heavy enough to destroy some houses in my village, create pools of water in the dry river-bed, and wash out some roads. It had been so hot that I couldn't sleep at night, but after it rains it's nice and cool! Hopefully it will start getting green too!
-Breasts are acceptable to slash in the village while thighs are not (unless exercising). It seems that the larger the woman, the more acceptable the flash. I really didn't need to breasts each the size of my torso. . .

A Day in the Life

I've been trying to post pictures. . . I promise more are coming!

Tomorrow will end my third week as a volunteer. Every day brings a new surprise; sometimes as an annoyance and others as a ray of sunshine. Regardless, my life has settled into a day to day routine:
05.00 Wake up and get yogurt out of freezer (my family doesn’t have a fridge). If I’m going to Ramojapudi or Mmera, start boiling water for a bath.
05.15 Bathe in the bathtub! The bathtub’s a big treat after only have the basin for so long. I still use the basin and simply put it inside the tub, but I can splash water around without getting the floor soaked. I use about 6 liters of water each morning (and it ends up filthy and me clean!). Get dressed.
05.40 Make lunch. . . Peanut butter and jelly!
05.50 Realize that I’m going to be late. Double check that I have everything, lock my bedroom and burglar door, eat yogurt and rice crispies.
06.00 Maneuver bike outside of shack/shed thing outside.
06.10 Bike to school. There’s only a very busy dirt road, so I say “ah-ah-ah-ah” from the bumps and get very dusty whenever a vehicle goes by.
06.35 Realize that I’m the first adult there.
06.45 School assembly starts. Learners stand in lines in the schoolyard and sing a few songs then recite the Lord’s prayer (in Sepedi or English). Announcements, then they run to class.
07.00 School starts. I begin reading something in the staff room. Occasionally, a teacher will interrupt me and start a conversation. I encourage every interruption! Sometimes I run out of Peace Corps stuff to read and write a letter or read for pleasure.
11.00 Long break. Learners get food from the school-feeding scheme, usually motepa (soft porridge) with dry milk powder. Occasionally there will be bogobe (hard porridge) with cabbage or beans instead. Teachers eat in the staff room (a plain half a loaf of bread with a cold drink, soda). They look at my lunch with pity.
12.00 foundation phase goes home (grades R to 3).
13.00 School ends for all learners. Teachers have the learners clean the classrooms or fetch them things. Lots of sitting and talking by the teachers. Almost all conversations are in Sepedi and only when they’re trying to be nice or working really hard to include me they speak in English.
14.00 Teachers knock off. At Ramojapudi, the teachers will stay and chat until 16.00. Sometimes teachers leave early to go to town. Bike home.
14.30 Arrive home.
15.00 Graze, sit with Mma and Baba outside in the shade, read.
18.30 Dark, TV gets turned on. Sometimes we continue to sit outside in the dark.
19.00 Dinner, usually bogobe and cabbage. Occasionally I make squash or there’s spinach, rice, or beans.
20.00 I retreat to my room. Pick up room, prepare bag for the next day, and listen to iPod while doing calisthenics, maybe read some more. No one in Shongoane has seen my iPod!
20.30-20.50 Go to sleep.

If I’m going to Tshukudu or anywhere else I go for a run. The schedule of events at Tshukudu is same except it starts an hour later and I walk there.
I have two options for runs, cattle paths next to the dry riverbed (which has green trees and some grass) or down the road past game farms (all brown). Both options are like running on a beach.

Wednesday’s are administrative days. I use the internet and go to town every other week.
On Saturdays and Sundays there’s more reading, occasional visitors and laundry. I am the rinse and spin cycle! Mwuhahahaha