Happy Holidays

The internet place that I use every Wednesday is closing for the holidays! They say that I can call them and they'll open it just for me, but that makes me feel guilty. If I don't up-date in the next three weeks, don't worry. I'm happy and not dead although probably extremely bored.

But, that just means I get to say Happy Holidays now!

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Simply log onto Vodacom4Me. Username: 0765312149 Password: 735674
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holiday gifts

Last Thursday Becca, Alicia, and I went into town to get flu shots (it's not flu season, the US government thinks that the regular flu shot will prevent Avian Flu). I came home, expecting to find everything as normal. Instead, our living/dining room is filled with plastic bags full of tea, coffee, sugar, mealie meal, soup mix, corned beef, biscuits, pasta, oil, candles, matches, and jam. 51 packages were left for the elderly people in my community donated by the local Afrikaner farmers. I'm pretty sure that Elna and Jan-Paul's church got all of the packages together.

Elna volunteers at the pre-school in my village. She and her husband, Jan-Paul, grow cabbages to give to the elderly in their "peace garden." Neither are completely bias-free when it comes to race, but my they and my host parents respect each other. It's refreshing to see Elna driving around the village on errands (alone) when the other Afrikaners I've met are afraid to come into town. Equally refreshing is that her family is trying something to give back to the community and reduce the negative memories of Apartheid. I can see the vast economic differences between the two groups of people added to the recent history of repression I don't think I'd like Afrikaners either. Elna has a simple complaint: most people in the village won't give her a glass of water. If I asked would they share their water with me?

Above is a picture of an elderly woman carrying away her holiday food bag on her head just outside our gate. Below is all of the bags in our living/dining room.

Celebration of Meat

To bid adieu to the teachers and learners going to Mmera, the teachers at Ramojapudi planned a farewell function for them. Although they prepared for three months, the schedule, guest speaker, and photographer were decided upon two days before the event. I’ve been to events that ran on a strict schedule, but this was not one of them. Luckily for my cynical eyes, Becca came to enjoy the day as well. The original program is below, with my comments in italics and pictures included where I could.

PROGRAMME OF FAIRWELL FUNCTION

DATE : 27 OCTOBER 2005
TIME :09H00
Female teachers started cooking early in the morning and continued throughout the program. The program started at 9, so that’s when people started to arrive. Drum majorettes in bright green and yellow uniforms and furry hats escorted everyone inside. They even escorted cars! At 10:30, the principal told the programme director (MC) to start the program. People (including the guest speaker) continued to arrive until noon.

Programme Director: Molokomme N.L

1. Opening Prayer: Makgae G.D
What meeting, function, meal, or anything really would be complete without a prayer? Just as the prayer started, the sound system stopped working. She continues the prayer and it’s fixed during the welcome.
2. Remarks
3. Welcome : Molekwa A
4. Introduction of guests: Boya N.T
The guests, who include all of the teachers from other schools, Becca, the induna, and myself, are listed off.
5. Musical item: School Choir
6. Speech: School Principal
Between each item is about 10 minutes, spent waiting for the speaker or group to appear.
7. Musical item: Khutsong Care Center
Gogos from the local home-based-care center. They are extremely excited to be here and especially to sing! Grannies not part of the group yell, “eii eii eii!,” if they really like the song or run up to the group, paw the ground and yell, “kga kga kga.”

8. Messages of support
8.1 Ntone, Poetry, Masakana
Guests who arrived late are introduced. Ntone and Masakana are traditional dances. The dances were very similar to the ones in Moletji, except they wore different clothes. The gogos really enjoyed it and yelled a lot from the sidelines. Poetry is skipped. In-between the dances, the induna interrupts the program to speak. I think he talked about the importance of welcoming me into the community, but I couldn’t really tell. During the speech, the photographer comes.

8.2 SAP, Gumboots
Long speech by a South Africa Police officer followed by a group of boys. The boys were dressed in their father’s work jumpsuits and rubber boots. It’s kind of like Stomp, with rhythms beat on the boots with their hands and the boots stomping on the ground. They pantomimed a boss beating his worker to huge laughs.

8.3 Inspector
1. Beauty contest
Young girls in swimsuits doing their best cat walk. It was really funny to see the grannies get up and cheer when their relatives walked by. The gogos got much closer than in the picture below!

2. Funny
Boys dressed as girls and boys dressed as girls. The boys hit on the girls then the girls either except or decline getting big laughs.

9. Musical item: Mmera Primary School
10. Speech: Mmera Principal
11. Item: Aerobics
Exactly that. Odd to see girls in bicycle shorts kicking in the red dirt.


Drama
A grade R play . . .cute but all in Sepedi and lost to me.
12. Introduction of Guest Speaker: Shapo MP
13. Keynote address: Guest Speaker
Guest speaker in his hood and bat robe. His speech is long, and he doesn’t seem to really understand who’s leaving and why. It was getting hot and I was getting really bitter.
14. Items: Kwaito 1 &2
South African hip-hop dancing. The music was kind of like Michael Jackson’s Thriller without the words and the dancing was a combination of break dancing and crunking. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture. The learners were amazing!
15. Presentation of gifts & Manganyi S.V
Presentation of awards by: Modise M.J
: Morumudi M.J
Awards in academics, athletics, attendance, and cleanliness. The gogos were very excited whenever a family member was called!
16. Musical item : School choir
17. Vote of thanks: Mabetwa N.M
18. Announcement: Mello M.M
19. Singing of national anthem

20.LUNCH*********LUNCH*******LUNCH*******LUNCH********
There was rice, bogobe, coleslaw, potato salad, mashed potatoes, beans, tomato gravy, beets, butternut squash, lettuce salad, beef, and chicken AND lots of cold drink and juice! I ate very well. Teachers and guests ate first and then learners and community members had whatever was left.



On Monday, Ramojapudi invited Mmera to lunch because they still had too much food! I went with the teachers from Mmera but I didn’t enjoy it as much as they did. All that was leftover was bogobe and nama. I ate a small amount of bogobe but the teachers each filled half of their plate with bogobe and the other half with meat. I think they each ate a pound of beef. Many teachers were shocked that I don’t eat meat and kept saying, “but you’ll die!” or “you’ll eat meat today!” I replied, “but if I don’t eat meat, there is simply more for you to enjoy!”

finally, pictures!

Scroll down to October 26th and see them!

World AIDS Day

Last Thursday, December 1, was World AIDS Day. There was a benefit hosted by Will Smith and Nelson Mandela in Jo’burg and it aired on TV. Special debates and shows were shown throughout the day. I spend the afternoon at a memorial for one of Becca’s teachers.

It was my second memorial service for a teacher, the first was for one of Alicia’s teachers, but the message was a little different. For both services teachers throughout the district came, a pastor prayed, family members and co-workers gave small speeches remembering the dead, and there was a song sung by the whole group in-between each speech. Both teachers died after a long illness but were in their late 30s to early 40s. At neither service did anyone directly state the cause of death. But at the service on World AIDS day, the circuit manager gave a long speech talking about the ABCs of HIV/AIDS prevention:
A abstain
B be faithful
C condomise.

I heard that teachers are the most effected profession by HIV/AIDS. 17 teachers have died this year in my district. Most of the teachers in my schools live in small cottages in front of the school and only see their families on the weekends, putting pressure on B. Add in the difficulties of telling your spouse (or anyone that you’ve been in a relationship with for a long time) to wear a condom and imagine the consequences, the whole nation linked.

Because of fear of being tested (why be tested if their isn’t a cure?), there isn’t’ firm data for the number of people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The disease also carries a stigma of ‘risky behaviors’ and people fear telling their friends and family if they test positive. Conservative estimates from SABC2 say that 20 percent of women and 11 percent of men from 18 to 45 years old are HIV positive with 300,000 people dying and 500,000 new cases each year.

Campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS have a very-middle class view: high self-esteem will prevent the spread of the disease. Let’s help your self-esteem! But 50 percent of the nation lives in poverty. How will high self-esteem help a poor woman tell her husband who works far away to wear a condom the few times a year that he visits?

Regardless, I haven’t seen anyone in my village that looks less than healthy and HIV/AIDS isn’t a topic of discussion on most days. Bigger concerns are water and unemployment. At funerals, no one mentions the cause of death. The sheer number of funerals gives me alarm, there are usually 5 to 7 each weekend for my small village. Will the problem continue to grow until a whole generation is gone?

Unfortunately, I don’t know as much as I wish to know about HIV/AIDS (including the herbal remedy that you mentioned, Margaret). In the beginning of March there will be a weeklong training giving us more information.

A good movie is Yesterday. It takes place in KwaZulu-Natal which has the highest infection rate of any province. It’s a pretty good picture of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, but I haven’t seen anyone throwing stones! It was nominated this year for a best foreign film Oscar.

in the good old days. . .

This is a bumper sticker on the inside of a taxi that I managed to ride on three days in a row. On the other side of the taxi there was another bumber sticker that sad, "Women are Opportunists." My favorite bumber sticker was on the glove comparent of another taxi. It said, "No heavyweights in the front seat!" with a graphic of two big mommas sitting and practically pushing the skinny driver out the window.

December 14: Alright, I've managed to ride this taxi two more times. . . Becca suggested that it be renamed the "Melissa taxi." When I rode it with Becca, the doors kept coming open from all of the bumps in the road and she almost fell out!