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
posted by Melissa @ 1:07 PM
3 Comments:
Howzit!?
I'm envious of you sitting out in the dark African night, I miss it so bad... Have you figured out the Southern cross yet (I never did, some critical componant was outta sight always!) or does everything still look upside down?
At least your teachers show up! We have been to schools where teacher truancy was higher than learner truancy, and also the first order of the day was to whack the kids who were late (by train through no fault of their own) on the hand with a thin stick... so sore, and not constitutional! Having said that we found the kids delightful and easy to engage. You are EXPECTED to sit around and do nothing in the staff room, that's what white people do, I'm sure you noticed - white people and important people delegate, delegate, delegate, you don't DO anything!
The scars are still fresh from Apartheid, and getting under them can be complex, frustrating and fraught w stereotypes! South Africans can be hard in a stony kind of way, sometimes just being willing to "look" and help non verbaly gets you "seen" better. Also gets your brand of "help" better understood.(which is historicly not always of any real use, often a harbinger of abuse... let me help you move off this land etc.) Cynicism is ingested with Mothers milk there too often, expectations are not that high in rural areas because it's more mentaly healthy to be pleasantly surprised than constantly disappointed so American optimism (ingested with mothers milk here) is not always appreciated at first. Don't be discouraged by the PC attrition rate or the training, these people don't mean to be treating you like kids, they just don't know many other ways to manage groups except as unruly kids! They are STILL treated like kids by many lighter colored South Africans even if they are Chiefs.
It is totaly cool that you are living with an Induna, great score and I am really, really happy for you. Though I'm not familiar with the part of SA you are in, in Zululand Induna's are held in high regard. The Chief is generally known as Nkosi (White "boss" is too) but the real leadership advice often comes from an Induna who is often chosen for innate ability, education, lack of ego, and understanding of common good... a kind of business manager for the Nkosi. chosen for individual qualities rather than heritage (though that helps). Madiba (Mandela) was being training to be an Induna when he was young.
I'm SO happy you got a cellphone. Much safer. You should post if it's Vodafone or another carrier so we can buy you cell time and email/SMS you the code to activate it.
You mention Game Farms nearby, I'm assuming they are for tourists, you might tap them for resorces as many Game Farms like to look good and genuinely do good by bringing some of their tourists by. The kids sing a song and practice their english.
The thing we were asked for most by teachers once they got our value was:
a) to provide correct english pronounciation for learners to model.
b) To assist teaching Math (which is 100% taught in English from 3rd grade? Maybe 4th)
c) and to find cheap paper to use (ask the Game Farms to save photocopy rejects? Computer printouts that can be used on the blank reverse).
We were disappointed to find that the FIRST use (after considerable training investment on our part) was that the teachers put their connectivity to use in searching for another job closer to a large city! We quickly got them to promise to stay in touch and get us into whatever school they went to!
Is it getting hotter now summer is on it's way?
Be well, Margaret
the new wizzy site is up here
http://www.wizzydigital.org/
it didn't post in the link provided
Everything looks upside down! A few nights I've seen a big smattering of the milky way. It'd be cool to figure out the sky, but I'm normally too tired at night to do anything but sleep.
Yes, my Baba is very highly respected in the community. People come all the time recieve his advice and he often has meetings with the chief. I was told that Nkosi means chief and king in Sepedi. My chief happens to be a woman, but she's still called the king. Occasionaly the indunas are called kings as well (which means I'm a princess!).
My cell phone is vodacom. I would love cell phone minutes!
Yes, the game farms are for tourists but there are others that just to raise the game, and then sell the meat. I met a couple of Americans last weekend who co-own a game lodge close to my village. They were very interested in seeing 'traditional' singing for their tourist groups and would love to help the schools. The only thing I'm worried about is continuing the stereotypes that seem so firmly in place. I'm hoping that as time goes on, I'll figure out a way to bring both groups together that help both AND doesn't perpetuate the stereotype.
My teachers are here, but the amount of teaching/work they do varies greatly on the teacher. I'm starting to find a few teachers at each school that really want to work with me. I'm excited about them!
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