Back by popular demand here are some more pictures from our fabulous adventures...please bear with me as the computer is having some kind of seizure...

Me in a rock...I am including this picture because my hair is surprisingly long.

Giraffe at Spioenkop Game Reserve about 30 minutes drive from home...we took the girls again on Sunday

Before the game park

Hiking with my dad

Lots of cows crossing the main road by my village...

My dad hiking up a storm

600+ year old San people cave paintings that are about 30 miles from my house...there are actually some up in the hills behind my house, as they are throughout the Drakensberg Mountains area.

Dung beetle

Me standing in front of Lesotho

Funny sign at the parking lot at Giant's Castle...

Jesse is one of the closest volunteers to me (he is in a village about 30 KM from Ladysmith). Over the years we have gotten pretty close and I have gotten to love his host family. They have adopted me as their daughter (Mama Makhathini repeatedly kept telling my dad this) so a goodbye visit was in order...Side note: the dress I am wearing was a goodbye gift from my coworkers. They wanted me to remember South Africa so they had a traditional outfit made for me!

Jesse's host mother, Mama Makathini, and I

Jesse's Host sisters

My dad and I with some of the family

Jesse and I with Mama Jabu, Mama Makathini, and her sister (who is wearing sunblock which is fashioned out of mud).

Happy youth club kids post tie dye

My dad with creche children (playground in background) who were strangely way more excited seconds before this picture was taken. They all call him "Umlume" (Uncle).

We visited with my close coworker Zodwa (we do all the work with youth together) at her house and this is a picture of her mother-in-law.

The mealies (like sweet corn) now have vines of flowers wrapped around them

My dad with a large group of youth club kids with their finished products.

Here are my host sisters with the bags I embellished with their names on them. They have designs they picked out on the back. Nothing fancy--I did these previously with my youth club and the girls wanted them too.

Just a quick update...

It's come down to the final 2 weeks in my village. Then, as the end of this month I will be going up to Pretoria to officially "check out" as a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) and boldly wander into the world as a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer).

I am really excited for the next chapter in my life, but it has become very clear to me that saying goodbye to this life and the wonderful people that I've met here will be very difficult.

The final two weeks (and this past week) have been/will be spent finishing up my last project--the BSSP Library. I started this project over a year ago with a group of 20 or so other PCVs to bring libraries to communities and schools all over South Africa. The books arrived in Durban in January and made it to my site, pretty miraculously, a week later (thanks so a good friend who runs a trucking company). I was planning on doing most of the prep work for the library by myself—taking stock of the books (writing down all the titles), labeling them so the library will have some order, etc. There are 700 or so, so it is a tough job. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by solid support from by already-swamped-with-work coworkers. Musa has been there with me the entire time, as well as 5 others who have come and gone, working around their own schedules. This shows me that I have truly become a family member of BSSP and what I am working on (whether it be the playground, youth club, fundraising, website or library) is important to them and worth spending time on. I appreciate more than I can express here in this blog. When it’s complete I will be sure to post pictures.

My dad will then be joining me after my goodbye week in Pretoria for an almost 4 week jaunt all over South Africa. We will be spending a good chunk of time in my village so I can show him where I lived, who I lived with, and the people who made these past two years great. I also will get to show him up close and personal what living in the village is like and what I actually did while I was here…we will be finishing up the library and tie dying t-shirts with my youth club! Also, we will be taking my host sisters back to the “zoo” (what they call it) which if you all remember is the animal park I took them to for Christmas which is located about 40 minutes from where I stay. Then we are off to Durban, Cape Town, and Kruger Park—what a wonderful way to say goodbye to South Africa for now.

Then, after that, I will be traveling with another PCV (by then RPCV) to Zambia and Malawi for a month and half. It should be exciting and will give me the chance to see other parts of Southern Africa. May 17th is my end date on this continent and I will then be heading back to Cleveland.

I can’t believe it’s been two years. Whoa.

Hey all!

I have been back for a couple of weeks now, but am struggling to write about my vacation for some reason. However, my friend Jeff who visited has posted pictures from our adventure to Kruger National Park and Cape Town. Enjoy!

Click here for pictures!

Ntofo, Me, and Nothabo

Hello all!

I am back from my amazing adventure that I had today with my host sisters. I decided that for Christmas I wanted to take them to the local nature reserve. My mom and I have talked alot about how the average South African really doesn't have access to the safari part of South Africa. Having this reserve so close made it possible for me to open that up to my host sisters. It was a good time had by all. Let me give you a detailed recap:

After picking up the car in Ladysmith this morning I drove about an hour to my house, first stopping in town to check my mail, as I am anticipating some birthday cake mix from my mom. I tried, in vain, to find a parking space in town within 4 blocks of the post office. In South Africa, small towns are very quiet and empty during the middle of the month. But at month end (when people get paid) or, apparently, the entire month of December, all hell breaks loose and it feels like at least one person from every family that lives in villages around Estcourt shows up to go shopping/get money from the ATM. Usually this results in 150 person-deep ATM lines and ridiculous grocery store pile ups. However, around Christmas time it gets even worse. Many people come home from Johannesburg/Durban to visit their families and the population of town seems to increase exponentially. Most people hate month end because it’s usually too crowded and insane, but I usually enjoy it because the town comes so alive and it feels like people are stocking up for Armageddon which I usually find hilarious. However, today it was too much. I ended up parking about 6 long blocks from the post office and after all that there was nothing. I actually found myself wishing I didn't have the car and had taken a taxi in. This is so funny because at this point I had only had the car for about an hour and I am always wishing I had a car at my disposal...

Next I went to my house, which is about 25 minutes from town in the rural areas. As I was pulling up to my house my 2 younger host sisters (who are 5 and 8) started screaming so loud that I swear you could hear them from 3 houses down. They were dressed up and ready to go, along with my 18 year old host sister. We drove about 35 minutes to the Spionkop Nature Reserve with has a huge dam, lots of wildlife, and horseback riding. I had never just driven around to see animals (previously I had gone to see them on horseback) so I was a little worried that the animals were all hidden away from the roads. This reserve is great because of the number of animals but they always seem to hide away from the dirt roads you drive on, which is a bummer. However, we immediately, before even entering the park saw 7 giraffe and once we got in saw about 7 more, lots of springbok, antelope, some kudu, and tons of zebra. The girls were all totally psyched and shrieking a lot, thereby scaring away a lot of the animals, haha.

A giraffe that walked right by our car

One thing that everyone neglected to mention to me when I was planning this trip was that my 5 year old host sister Ntofo gets terribly car sick every single time she is in a car. I think it's because she is never in them (maybe 3 times a year?) I mean I would have planned ahead or something or done something else fun…but oh well. At least I would have stockedup on plastic emergency bags... So, she threw up a total of 3 times, luckily she got outside all of the times and was fine right afterward. Ehhhh.

After the park we went to my favorite restaurant that is super close to my village and is surrounded by farms. Since we are situated right by the Drakensberg Mountains there is a ton of touristy stuff only about 25 minutes from us. This place is a called the Waffle Hut and everyone always jokes with me about how I love it way too much. So the girls were really excited because this was the first time any of them had been to a restaurant. They were all shocked that you could get whatever you wanted from a menu (instead of everyone eating the same thing), so I helped out by helping them choose what they wanted. Smi (my 18 year old host sister) made the comment that they were the only Zulus eating there and asked me why black people weren’t there. Honestly, it’s because most Zulus in this area don’t have much discretionary income. Also, more importantly, when Zulus eat out they usually get take away from KFC, Chicken Licken, or Nando’s (all chicken/meat heavy options). I talked to Nozipho about this later and she agreed. Waffle Hut's menu is definitely not meat-heavy, and therefore is not a Zulu hotspot. Also this place really caters to tourists and there are always a fair share of Europeans who are on vacation eating there. We did get a lot of stares due to our group make up and me being very motherly by cutting up Ntofo’s food, taking her to the toilet, and speaking Zulu. All the workers there are Zulu and they were all very taken with the girls and asking them their names and talking to me excitedly about them. It was all very cute but at the same time a little sad. Those kinds of reactions are really just examples of how segregated South Africa can be sometimes and how far it still has to go.

Anyways I’m certain that the restaurant was the girls’ highlight of the entire trip because that’s what they told my 33 year old host sister Nozipho (Nothabo’s mom and Ntofo’s Aunt) about immediately when she got home.

After the lunch it was about 3pm but Smi really wasn’t interested in going home just yet, so we drove about 40 KM to go to town. There was really no reason to go back to Estcourt but I think that since the girls never get to go to town they were really just relishing the fact that I was open to anything and willing to seemingly take them anywhere, haha.

Smi

Nothabo

Ntofo

after the day was over!

All in all the day was a success. I have lost my voice almost completely to illness, but had a fabulous time anyways. Tomorrow I am doing part 2 of my car rental and taking 3 of my closest coworkers to Pietermaritzburg (where my first site was—about an hour and a half away from my village) to go the movies. About 8 months ago I told them randomly that I would take them to the movies because they had never been. Because their Saturdays are taken up ¾ of the time with funerals in the village we hadn’t gotten to go yet because no one's dates were ever open, so I took advantage of the luxury of having this car and will be taking them there for the day.

I must say it is pretty fun to expose people to great things for the first time. Their wonderment and excitement is always amazing to watch. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure, I imagine.

So next week begins my vacation! I am picking up my friend who is visiting from the US from the airport and then we are going to Kruger National Park (more animals!) and then go to Cape Town. It should be amazing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

So I haven’t been very good at updating this lately. I’m sorry! I guess that I am suffering from that fact that I have just been in SA too long. I guess that I don’t find of what I am doing to be exciting or “blog worthy”. I mean I’m sure it is it’s just that nothing really shocks me or surprises me anymore, so it doesn’t occur to me to share it.

Recently, I have been all over the place. Last week was my Close of Service (COS) Conference where the group the arrived in SA on January 30th, 2008 got together for the last time. We had 30 to start—then 29—then 30 and now we are down to 25. The conference basically consisted of us reflecting on the highs and lows of Peace Corps service, what we would miss upon leaving, and what was going to happen when we got home (i.e. jobs, school, resumes, all that fun stuff).

It was bittersweet because this was the last time that I was going to see a lot of these people. It was also hard to hear the realities of the job market in America. We had this Returned Peace Corps Volunteer panel that had Peace Corps, CDC, and USAID workers who were currently working in SA with their respective organizations. They basically said that if you didn’t have a Master’s degree that you were pretty much out of luck and should consider a volunteer position to gain more experience…! WHAAAAT? WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS????!!!

Anyways, whatever. Usually pessimistic Therese has decided to face this transition with a forced relaxed confidence. I am terrible with transitions and had a really rough time when I graduated from college. Most of it was my own doing and I’ve decided not to put myself through that again! I recently did get into one of my grad schools I applied to, so I guess I don’t need to worry about that so much anymore, even though the cost terrifies me. I am nervous about my future but figure that in the end, it might be hard, but I will survive it whatever happens.

So I won’t be finishing Peace Corps until March, so the COS conference was a little premature. However, it does put me in the “finishing up” mode. Some people choose to leave early for work or school so they have it kind of early so they can catch everyone before they leave.

So, today is Thanksgiving in the States which, of course, means nothing here. Last year all the volunteers in my province got together for a weekend of fun in the 100 degree+ weather to eat and be merry. Due to people punking out and us all being relatively poor this time around, nothing of that sort will be repeated. However, I will be seeing some friends over the weekend and will attempt to celebrate in our own way if it kills us.

Today I will be getting ready for a training I am conducting on Monday with my coworkers where we will attempt to recreate all the crafts we made over the past 2 years so that they have confidence in running the club once I am not here. Believe me, they know how to do everything but the issue is their confidence in their abilities, which is pretty low. We will be attempting to remedy that.

Today I wish I was at home with the family watching the parade and eating Turkey and stuffinggggggggg but maybe that will happen next year?

I figured that I would end this post with a list of what I love/am thankful for in South Africa to go with the holiday:

-My host family (Nozipho, Smi, Nothabo, Ntofo, Sindiswa, and Musa)

-Zulu music and dancing

-Neighborly Ubuntu (caring for each other).

-Livestock that roam freely (cows, sheep, goats, chickens, guinea fowl).

-My coworkers (Zodwa, Lindi, Thuli, Mama Mpembe, Fezile

-My youth club group and the amazing kids!

-The crèche (preschool) kids who bumrush me for hugs when they see me and call out “Yes Sister Sthe” while I am in earshot. They think that this is my name, not just Sthe.

-My village. It is beautiful and safe and everyone is very welcoming and sweet.

-Having and making my own schedule

-Everyone looking up to me and thinking that I am a genius (although this can get very old)

-Feeling like a Mom to Nothabo, Ntofo, and Sindiswa

-Being a role model just by the fact of where I live

-Slow paced life

-Being concerned about things that matter instead of frivolous BS that America seems to be obsessed with (celebrities, scandals, etc.)

-Babies on the backs of their mothers

-African babies/children in general

-People greeting me or yelling to me as I pass

-Everyone knowing me (which also can get old).

-Living in a rural area

-Being in Africa

-The reliability of taxis (even though they can take forever to fill).

-My room

-Being on my own (it can get lonely tho)

-Cow birds. This may sound weird but there are these wonderful white birds that sit next to/on cows here and have a wonderful symbiotic relationship, which I really love for some reason.

-Zulu

-Being able to feel the sun on your skin.

-Uphuthu (Zulu maize dish)

-Indian food everywhere

-Impromptu parties and loud music everywhere which is OK. You can’t file a noise complaint here ☺

-Getting in touch with old friends back home with whom I’ve fallen out of touch

-Large numbers of vacation time

-Feeling of accomplishment and pride of what I’ve done and being able to see it in front of my face.

I’m sure that I will think of more…however now I must actually do some work. See, there I go again, working on my own schedule.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans! (Or as Nozipho puts it after I wished her a Happy Thanksgiving: “Oh, I don’t know these white people holidays. Happy Thanksgiven!”~don’t worry, I corrected her to an American one not just a white one ☺).

Me and the Cleveland part of the map (my Zulu name is Sthe)

the closed liquor store directly across from my house

the Shembe worship circle where people of the Shembe faith worship all day on Saturdays. Shembe is only practiced by Zulus and is big in my area.

looking at the new center on the walk from my house

the new building for poultry project at the center

the new garden is doing very well thanks to the hard work of my coworkers

the ravine by the center

cows passing me on my way home from work

the kids at my center receiving clothes donations

they were very happy

Musa on the phone in her room

Nqobile, Swaziland, and I. Nqo is my supervisor's niece and Swazi is her granddaughter, they both live with her. The next few pictures are due to bubbles-induced craziness.

Ndofo, my new 4 year old host sister who is Nozipho's niece. She moved in last month

Nqo and I

Ndofo and Nqo

Swazi jumping from the tree

Swazi is usually really quiet and shy, but we were playing with bubbles

bubble happiness

my supervisor Fezile taking her laundry home. She usually does her family's at my house since we have a water pump in our yard and have great access to water. Otherwise you can only get water 2x/week from various pumps around the village.

A lot of Peace Corps Volunteers paint maps where they are to teach the kids and people around them about geography/world around them. Before I went to the US for my brother's wedding I started mine. It was a long process. We don't have electricity yet at the new center so all the drawing had to be done by hand. I started by drawing a grid on which to draw the map. Then I went home. When I got back to SA I started drawing the countries based off of a grid the Peace Corps puts out so that you can draw the country proportionally in case you don't have a projector. After what seemed like a million years I finished the countries and then I outlined them in permanent marker.

finished drawing the map

outlined in permanent marker

starting to paint in the countries

South America is almost done...

Africa and Europe are on their way...

me painting in the countries

this is after another PCV and I painted in most of the ocean. if she hadn't come and helped me I may have gone crazy...

here I am with the almost-finished project

ta-da! here it is with the countries labeled.

me with Africa. you can see where I labeled my site Bhekuzulu! right by Lesotho.

kids who wandered in to check out the finished map. they had been keeping track of my progress and loved that I labeled my house (after many of them asked me where I lived) and are getting it now how far I actually am from home.

Londiwe wanted to take my picture with the completed product

It was a shame to not get to include the kids in painting the map, but the paint I got was way too runny and I got paint all over my body. They don't have "painting clothes" to spare...This project took forever, however it seems to be worth it, as the kids come in everyday and read over the countries and recite them out loud. Also, they look for nations that have good soccer teams that they know. This map should be great for the World Cup!

One of my three best Zulu friends here is my coworker Zodwa. She is an amazingly strong woman who runs the Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Program and is someone I try to spend most of my time at work with. Because I am always working on OVC stuff I usually get my wish. Anyways, today we were talking about some struggles she has been having with the new Child and Youth Care Worker program. The US Embassy is paying for a series of trainings for 23 community workers to learn about becoming Child and Youth Care workers. I would define their job description as volunteer social workers for children.

Her main problem is that you give all these people skills and get them out there in the field (our surrounding community) and then they find big problems and there is literally nothing they can do about it. For instance, one worker lives next to an 11 year old girl whose parents have passed away and she lives with her Gogo (Grandmother). She doesn’t go to school, is perpetually filthy, and spends her days watching over 2-3 yr children who she may or may not be related to. For the outside observer it seems like she Gogo is abusing the girl and not allowing her to go to school. Once the worker took the girl’s clothes and washed them for her and then returned them and the Gogo got so angry about who was washing her Granddaughter’s clothes etc. etc. This is one of the times where I immediately think “what would I do if this was America?”. This is a reflex that almost makes the situation worse to stomach because in a country where resources are plentiful the situation would be handled immediately. First we thought of contacting a Social Worker in town. However, apparently their response time is about A YEAR so that is out of the question. An 11 year old was gang raped in our area months ago and we reported it to them and they still haven’t shown up…We don’t have any resources for children (aka $$ or a safe house) or a Social Worker we are kind of stuck. Our next option was at least to go reason with the Gogo. However, apparently she just screams at people and that won’t work. The best thing I could think to do was to bring a Police Officer with them when they talk to the Gogo. Of course the Police aren’t going to do anything, but I figured they could just stand around in the background looking imposing so that we could get our point across to the Gogo that what she is doing ISN’T right. Siiigh. And that’s the best that we can do. It makes me crazy!

Zodwa made the point that the new workers feel helpless because if they can’t even give the kids soap to wash their clothes and so they feel that they are essentially doing nothing. I responded uncharacteristically and went into this long discussion with her about how people in our area (my village) have become so used to death and children living on their own and supporting themselves that they forget the importance of a solid and caring adult in a child’s life. I think that an important thing that these workers can do is to just check in with the kid and get them to trust them and then be there when the kid needs them. Just every day walking by their houses and just saying “hi” and asking how the kid is doing, how was school, etc. Simple as that. I was encouraging her to stress to her workers that just being a solid role model in a child’s life can be life changing. I forget sometimes that things that seem to be common sense to me (role model=good) isn’t always to people who haven’t had the opportunities I have (like an excellent education and an interest in reading about research studies). My speech was a whole lot longer about that and a little rambling, which is why I say it was uncharacteristic of how I speak with my coworkers—I always want to get my point across so I keep it short and sweet. Apparently I am passionate about this, to a near psychotic level maybe, hehe. I just love children and it makes me so sad to see how they have to live here when a parent passes. I can’t imagine growing up running my house at age 9. It’s astounding. This is when I had this “AHA” moment. Let me explain, I am applying to graduate schools and kind of stepping around what I want to concentrate in within the field of Public Health. I’ve decided to concentrate on child health. Looking back it kind of seems like a no brainer, but I guess I just had to get there on my own time.

The other part of our conversation was pretty sad, if that wasn’t sad enough. It looks like there are a lot of upcoming struggles for my organization. Right now our main donor is finishing up their cycle with us at the end of the year, and try as I might I cannot find a donor who will commit that kind of funding ($60,000/year). This means that most of our employees will lose their jobs and that most programs will cease to exist. However, the same donor keeps hinting that they will fund us again, but this particular donor is like a middleman and gets their funds from others. This means if they don’t get those funds (most likely because of the economy) they can’t fund us even if they want to! I think it’s unfair that they just don’t make up their minds already because it’s already October and all my coworkers (and the people who receive our services) are depending on us. ARGHHH. We have no emergency plan. I have been fundraising around the clock to replace this but it doesn’t seem like it will happen while I am here. It just makes me want to break down crying and/or to run away from work screaming. I was talking to my other best friend at work (and I live with her) Musa and she made the point that I have been working around the clock on this and there is really nothing more you can do at a certain point. You can’t do it all, I guess. I do have to comment on a strange phenomenon, however. Whenever we seem to be at the edge of disaster (for instance, not have enough money to finish a building) we get a huge grant—like the MTN money we got. I’m not a religious person my any means, but this does make me feel like someone is out there watching over us. Haha.

It just feels that we are farther behind at my work (even though we have the new buildings and several new programs that I have been directly involved with) then when I started, especially if we lose this funding. , I know that I have “done a lot of good work” while I’ve been here but I feel like when I came to my organization it seemed to be running great! and now it is falling apart. I know I can’t fix everything and I know we have some new programs (like the income generating program) that seem to be coming along nicely that are directly because of me. However, I can’t help but feel like a little bit of a failure/chump.

Other than that—As for me, besides working on fundraising and the OVC stuff with Zodwa, I have been consumed with drawing a world map mural in the youth club room. Zodwa pointed out to me today that this will be a sweet edition once the World Cup comes through and the kids want to figure out where all the countries that are playing are located. Hooray! This didn’t even occur to me. Zodwa watched us lose (us being South Africa) to Hungary yesterday and was pretty psyched to see where it was in the world. Today I was painting America and Zodwa kept saying that the mural was “AWESOME” because I was painting America and that is what Americans say all the time…she is so right. I will post pictures when I’m done. Since I drew it from scratch it has taken about 25 hours so far…it better look nice. Just sayin’.

So as of Sunday, I only have 6 months. This is amazing to me. I never thought I would make it this far! I feel like I have a lot more work to do before I go.Since my time coming up includes an agriculture training and a final Peace Corps training, me visiting another volunteer to help her with fundraising and building a brochure and website at her site, and my Christmas/New Years vacation I won’t have a lot of time left to do actual work…maybe 4 months. That is pretty crazy. I must say that I feel ready to move on and am excited about the next chapter in my life and am anticipating getting on with it, even though I will miss my coworkers and village dearly. Also, my Dad is thinking of coming to visit me right when I finish, which would be AMAZING! If you know him and see him around, do me a favor and encourage him to pay me a visit. ☺

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Honestly, I am a bit stumped about what to write about these days. Anyone have any ideas?

So yesterday was the first day the kids could use the playground. The concrete had to settle and dry first so they wouldn't rip it out of the ground or anything. This was really difficult for them, as the playground was finished on Wednesday and they had to spend all day on Thursday staring at it longingly. So, when I got to work on Friday the kids were all basically just standing there and staring at it. My coworker and I rounded them up and tried to instruct them best as how to be safe on the playground. However, every time Zodwa took a breath they started running towards the playground. Anyways, when they finally got to it the noise was so loud pretty much every one at work (we had an event with about 500 community members at the centre yesterday) came to see what the heck was going on...It was amazing. I really can't describe it. All I can say is this gift that all of you gave to the kids of Bhekuzulu and all the hard work that went into this was totally worth it.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

love,

t

So 10 months later, an outpouring of support from the Near West Side, Clarkies, and Laurel girls and bam! the playground was finally built yesterday and today!! It is looking stellar. Unfortunately the kids can't actually play on it until Friday when the concrete has settled. This, so far, has been a hard task to accomplish because the kids are just so excited about the playground. All that is left to do is to buy swings for the older children. This shouldn't be too hard, as we are almost to our funding goal!

I just wanted to a HUGE thank you again to my community back home. Your support has been amazing. I really can't believe how supportive everyone has been to me in general as well as with this project. Look what we can accomplish when we work together!

Below are some photos of the 2 jungle gyms, swing sets, monkey bars, and mini climbing wall thingie.

love,

t

I would just like to take this time out to say

1) I am back at my house and work after my trip to the US and then a quick hop over to Pretoria for a Peace Corps training session I was facilitating.

2) On return to my site I have discovered that the club met almost every single day that I was gone! This is amazing because it shows the true commitment 3 of my coworkers have to something that I have worked really hard on. My faith that the youth club will live on after I leave is growing...

Hey everyone! I am almost back in SA and will be there as of Tuesday next week. I have posted pictures of January-August that I hadn't gotten around to...enjoy. Click below!

Jan-Aug 2009 Peace Corps

So once again it is time for grass burning season. This is also known in some circles as "winter". AKA it lasts maybe 3-4 months. Anyways, around the end of July, as it happened last year as well, some stranger takes it upon themselves to burn the grass behind our house. It always comes dangerously close to setting me and my possessions on fire, considering the wall you see below is actually the wall of MY room. Anyways, I digress. We cut a moat-like area around our house so that the fire stops a couple of feet away. If you don't do this you actually have about a 95% your house will catch fire, as it is almost guaranteed that if you don't burn your grass someone else will. The reason for this is that the grass grows to about my shoulder height (5 feet?) pretty much everywhere by the end of the summer due to that massive amount of rain KZN gets. This is very different from Limpopo Province (where I spent my first 2 months in training), which is similar to a barren wasteland. Limpopo does not have the kaleidescope green affect of KZN during the summer where the grass is so tall and green and bright that your eyes hurt. The burning also replenishes the soil for farming or so I’m told by my Zulu friends. However, after a quick googling (due to a hunch on my part) I discovered it is only positive for soil when the land is burned only every few decades or so, but in actuality yearly burning causes depletion of nutrients in the soil and makes it difficult to farm…

A scary thing about the burning season is that people insist on burning the grass next to the main road to town during the day (also at night, or so I am told, as I am basically stranded in my village after 6pm). This is a two lane road in which cars go speeds up to 70 MPH. So, a couple of weeks ago we were chugging along in a taxi and there was a lot of smoke up ahead to the point where you couldn’t see anything in front of us. Of course there was a car stalled in our lane. So, with little to no hesitation the taxi driver blindly goes into the incoming lane to pass the car (which is a normal practice here...during regular driving conditions). If a car had been coming down the lane we would have been in serious trouble…So while burning is fun to watch and its results make for an interesting winter landscape, my conclusion is that it is dangerous (every year a family or two’s house burns down—last year with the family inside of it), bad for the soil, and all in all isn’t a very good idea. And this completes my rant on burning.

This is my room next to the flames. If it comes to close to something you wet some cloth (preferably somthing heavy like jeans) and then slap the flames in a different direction. Of course if I did this there is probably a 100% chance I would injure myself in some way. Haha.

This is directly behind my room and a view from my window (6 feet away).

Another fire shot.

Do not worry please. I have survived my 2nd and final burning season. Hurray!

Love,

t

Today was the party celebrating 1 year of the youth club. We went all out, getting 4 cakes, individual pops for everyone, candy, and chips. So basically we were just hyping them up on sugar and then sending them home to their families. Again, I was impressed by the children’s thankfulness. After the party about 10 kids pulled me outside and as a group yelled “thank you for everything you have done for us” when I came around the corner. It is a little embarrassing that they think that I am paying for all of this. However, Nozipho reminds me that if it weren’t for me this wouldn’t be happening. Whatever I guess. Today I finally got all of the club stuff out of my house and into our beautiful and shiny new LOCKABLE cabinet. This really gives me peace of mind because we have had some trouble with theft of our supplies. My supervisor says that people just steal so they can own something, not to actually use it (I mean who actually needs thin paint brushes at thief homes?) I must clarify—the stuff wasn’t being stolen out of my home, just if there was any supplies at the centre (and there was because we hadn’t moved into the new room yet). Anyways, I am starting up on that mural again tomorrow. 2 more days of work before I leave for Johannesburg to start my long journey home.

Pictures of the party below:

He actually asked me to take a picture of him doing this--he posed. He was pretty excited about the party, to say the least.

These are some of my high school girls in the club. They are wonderful, and also occasionally uncomfortably obsessed with me.

This is the group of the kids who surprised me after the party, who started screaming whilest I took this shot.

This is the current Youth Club. They are wearing the t-shirts they have been making the last 2 weeks (I am too, but you can't really tell). They are estatic that they can actually take them home with them. The women in the picture are my coworkers who manage the club with me--Mama Mpembe, Thuli, Lindiwe, and Zodwa.

Also, a side note: the construction vehicles that are in the background are from are Municipality and they are building a road next to our centre so all types of cars can reach us. They work about an average of 3 hours every day. Also for about 2 weeks the machines were "broken" even though they never fixed them and then just came back after two weeks and started using them again. haha.

Hooray!

I took a picture of this hair cutting tent in my shopping town. Hair cutting tents are just barber shops and they line the streets pretty much. Every one has a modified cloth poster like this one. However, this one is so much better. The modified sign just popped up a couple of weeks ago. Am I wrong in saying that Obama's haircut is pretty straightforward? Obama Cut is amazing.

Yesterday was a good day, despite it being freezing outside (it was SNOWING, of course nothing stuck to the ground). I went in to work and started drawing the grid for the map mural. This mural would definitely only take about a day if we had electricity and a projector…but since we don’t it will probably take a full week to even draw it out. Here’s hoping that I don’t mess it up. I was going to use this map from this book by Peace Corps that instructs you how to do it but then I looked at the map and saw that apparently Zaire was still the name of a country and the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia still existed. Hmmm...Later in the day about 90% of the kids in the club showed up unannounced after school and decided they wanted to have an extra day of club. Considering how cold it was and no one told them to come in, it was pretty impressive that they all wanted to be there…Also I think it had something to do with the fact that they are all obsessed with the painting t-shirt project we are currently undertaking. Here are some pictures below. I gotta say, that the best part of my entire time in the Peace Corps is when I am working with my kids. I love them and we all have a really good time. They don’t take anything for granted, they set up and clean up after themselves (going as far as taking a broom out of my hands), and are really amazing and dedicated little artists. Also the fact that they all look at me like I am a famous and beautiful celebrity probably helps, just kidding, or am I? ☺ Also it should be noted that this was the first week in our NEW ROOM for the club!!!

Who knew the Bhekuzulu Youth Club was sponsored by Nike?

Nomthembizethu painting up a storm (she is amazing...)

Great smile.

Concentrating very hard. Do you see a Nike theme here?

Today started out pretty terrible. I really have no problem doing anything that is asked of me. But when it is shouted at me in command form over the phone at the last minute it starts to get on my nerves…Today was the Bristol-Myers Squibb Secure the Future Foundation visit from America. Basically it was a bunch of doctors and scientists who vaguely reminded me of my dad coming to look at our project to see where their business’ donation money was going. First they met some beneficiaries of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission program and then came to our site for a presentation and tour. This visit was do or die because our 2 year funding cycle with them ends in 7 days.

So, I woke up this morning at 7 (when I always get up) to my host sister telling me in an irritated tone that I really needed to get up and what was I doing? Ok ok, here is something that the world should know about me. I am a morning person, but if you wake me up and immediately request something of me within the first 30 seconds of me being up you will be responsible for ruining at least the first 4 hours of my day, if not its entirety. Anyways, my assignment was to finish the presentation for the visitors, print our said presentation in case the projector broke (on loan from the local computer store running on the water pump generator), write the program for the day, and print out a bazillion brochures so that we could properly market ourselves. I was given a good 3 hours to do this, but still, I could have been doing this, for I don’t know, the entire week?! Anyways, this is of course the exact moment where our power begins to shut off every 3 minutes due to a circuit breaker issue (I think?). So, we had to unplug everything so that I could use the work computer that is currently taking up our kitchen table (my house also serves as our office for now until we get electricity). 2 hours later when the power decides its feeling better and wants to work I am back to business, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I then proceed to wait for my sister who has told me to wait for her until she gets back from town with all the food for the event. She arrives, there isn’t enough room for me in the car, so I just head out by myself.

I get there and find out from the PMTCT coordinator that I was supposed to bring the 4 flash drives sitting in my kitchen that belonged to various BSSP staff even though there is no real reason why we would ever need them today (“why wouldn’t you bring them?!!”). So, I turn around, nearly run home (“the people are almost here!!!!!” hurry!!!!!”) pick them up, and then return 30 minutes later (meaning I was in my house for about 30 seconds). When I get back to BSSP I then hear from the coordinator that the programs that she didn’t actually describe to me how to do weren’t correct. She wants me to go back to the house and rewrite them. At this point I am starting to get a little peeved because everyone and their mother is treating me like their personal assistant. I offer to go back (begrudgingly) but wait! She actually reads the programs and they are fine. Crisis averted. It is then another 2 hours before the visitors arrive (looks like I didn’t have to run to home and back…).

I then spend the next hour preparing food for the 200 or so community members who have just wandered in because they knew an event was taking place (due to the tent and loud speakers). After that the BMS people finally arrive 2 hours late and the fun begins…for real.

We gave them a tour, I did my schpeal about what I do and all that to people who actually knew who the Peace Corps was (this doesn’t happen that often). It’s nice when people flatter you about your time in PC. I think I might get tired of it eventually. However, especially on a hard day like this it is nice to hear ☺. I remember how impressed I was with PCVs before I actually did this. I mean I guess I still am, its just real for me now. Anyways, I made a new friend from BMS who lives in Durban and asked that I come and stay with her soon (maybe in September?). Then it was time for the presentation and then indlamu (traditional dancing!).

The visitors snatched up my brochures and bought a ton of crafts from our PMTCT mothers, which was great. They loved the traditional dancing. Poor guys where nearly naked in 40 degree weather (see below). The BMS staff then left on their bus (there were 30 of them) and drove down to Durban where they got onto their private plane and flew back to America.

Drum roll please…We impressed these visitors so much that the director of BMS Secure the Future Foundation Southern Africa committed to funding our programs for at least another year!!! It’s amazing what a little bit of schmoozing can do. This means that the PMTCT program is covered and I can stop sweating about that one. I AM SO EXCITED! This is definitely a coup. I really have to say that this felt better than when I secure funding on my own through letters and grant writing. This was truly a BSSP staff group effort. Everyone played their part. It is really wonderful to feel like a part of something when outsiders come to visit. I am a part of BSSP. Hell yeah.

Walking to work during the winter

Let me tell you, it is definitely too cold to be dressed like that. However, they are amazing dancers. They are from the local high school and a number of them are in my club!

Wow.

love,

therese

Lately the reality of my life has really started to get to me. It’s more the reality of the life here, I guess. Recently a number of my friends have had bad things happen to them…I’ll give you an idea of what I am talking about. My host sister’s mom is very ill and then her aunt and cousin got into a car accident. Her cousin died and her aunt is in the hospital. My best friend’s mom is in the hospital as well and isn’t doing very well. My coworker’s son was arrested for rape. While he may deserve this, it is really taking a toll on my coworker. One of my closest coworkers lost R600 ($50) when she fell into one of the mini canyons (they are called dongas) that are found throughout our village and hurt her foot. She didn’t realize her wallet was gone until a couple of days later. This women supports about 13 people on R1500 ($140) a month, so this is a big big deal. Finally, I just found out that a 10 year old girl was gang raped in my village. One of the local taxi drivers heard about it and brought it to our (my organization’s) attention. We will do everything we can for the girl, but honestly the social welfare system just isn’t prepared to take on serious cases like this. My host sister estimates it will take social workers about a year to remove the girl from her house (she was raped in part because no one is really there at night in her house so she is all alone). The girl is already traumatized and has stopped going to school. The police will probably not be able do much, as by the time they get to it months will have passed. It makes me furious. I feel so helpless that I can’t help the little girl or any of my friends with their various hardships.

Due to these recent events I have been thinking a lot about my life in America. Straight up stuff like this (obviously not including the rape of the 10 year old) hasn’t really happened to my friends. Maybe one or two but not all of them, at once. Maybe its because I am growing up and my friend’s family members are getting older, I don’t know. I just feel like for some unknown reason life is just harder over on this side. Even if you do have a salary and are living pretty comfortably and I can’t find a reason for this. It is just phenomenally unfair. I am tired and feel like I just want to quit a lot of the time and go back to wonderful oblivion where I didn’t have to encounter this stuff all of the time.

So, lately I have been working on a myriad of projects at my centre. Basically it’s the usual boring old stuff—begging random international NGOs for funding so that none of our programs will quit once the funding that we have runs out…Fun fun. Not really. It would be fun except that it makes me very panicky and worried all the time about the future of the centre. No worries really, the centre isn’t going to close down or something, but we are at risk of losing some employees by January 2010 if we don’t scrounge up a new funder from somewhere. It really makes you think. Even as a well run and growing organization it is still very difficult to get money to run your programs. What happens then to other smaller NGOs with less experience and education? It’s really depressing to think about. (I feel though that I have done a great job transferring these grant writing skills to my coworkers, so once I leave I am pretty sure that they will stick, at least somewhat ☺. This will be good if we can ever actually find an organizaionts that is looking for new NGOs to fund). It’s amazing how things can turn around so quickly in this business. One minute you are celebrating a success on one project (for example: starting a garden, opening the new centre, computers, playground, etc.) and the next minute you are up all night worrying that certain elements of BSSP are going to have to shut down. I am bit embarrassed to say it, but on my worse days it makes me just want to quit international development and/or NGO work altogether. It’s really difficult to make inroads on something and then see all your hard work wash away so quickly.

Besides the money crusade I am working on the room for my club that is in the new building. This week with the help of 2 of my coworkers 2 coats of paint on the walls were done as well as a full painting job on the floor. It was my first experience painting on concrete, which is really not an easy or fun process. Next week we will debut our new room to the club! There will actually be enough room for all of the kids and a place to store all of our goodies. After I return from the US my plan is to draw a world map mural with the kids (this is a Peace Corps project that is popular). This room is going to be sweet. Once it’s finished I will take some pictures.

A couple of days ago I awoke to a beep on my cell phone alerting me that I had an SMS (text message). Background information: In SA you can link your banking to your cell phone so you can buy airtime from it as well as be updated when anything happens to your account. They may do this in America, I’m not really sure. Anyways, I looked at the message and lo and behold there was an extra R34,000 in my bank account! This means that the first of the playground money has been transferred over to SA Rand so that it will stop losing its value while in Dollars. This also means that I could quickly schedule an appointment with the builders for September 8th and 9th to build the playground now that I have the money for a deposit! This also means that I danced down the hallway of my house to my sister to give her the good news, it was really a spectacular sight.

Today was my host sister's daughter Nothabo's 8th birthday. Over the past year I have become an Aunt to Nothabo, as this is what she calls me (as well as Sthe, my Zulu name). It's very strange to me to feel like a mother on a regular basis. However, I must say I do make a kick ass Aunt. I do this by pretty much mimicking my mom's amazing mom qualities, by crafting with her and Sindiswa (her good friend who she lives with during the school week and who lives with us on weekends) and doing fun non-TV related activities. Anyways, we made a big deal out of her birthday. I say that it was a "big deal" because the majority of kids here don't have the luxury of celebrating their birthdays due to obvious circumstances. We threw a party and had a great time. The party was definitely not comparable to American standards (in excess, length and gifts, etc.), but great nonetheless. Even better I think. This party will probably haunt my children forever, as I will always refer to it when they are being whiny Americans (like I was/am):::"well when I was in Africa the children didn't expect anything for their birthdays and just enjoyed the little things", etc. etc. I already pity them.

Pictures from the party below.

Nothabo and me

Birthday cake that I made for Nothabo. Barbie themes are apparently universally popular...

My family (L to R): Sme, Me, Mbali, Sindiswa, Nozipho, Bonakele, Mama Hadebe. In front Thobeka and Nothabo. I work with Bona and Mbali at work but they are very close friends. Thobeka is Mbali's daughter.

I apologize for the lack of postings lately! I have been all over the place and away from my computer. Also, I have been feeling quite apathetic lately about most things. I will snap out of it soon I hope.

Over the past month I was in Pretoria watching the Confederations Cup and then a training for my coworkers about using soccer to teach HIV/AIDS to kids.

For people who don’t know, the Confederations Cup is like a trial for the World Cup. Things went really well. The earlier games were a little empty, but they sold out at the end. A difference between soccer in SA and everywhere else apparently is the use of the vuvuzela by fans. The vuvuzela is a long plastic horn that people blow in the stands. It makes a loud noise and it seems like 25% of people in the stadium have them. They are loud. European players really hate them and want them banned from the World Cup because they say they are distracting. However, they make for an amazing atmosphere at the stadium and they are really South African, so I say they should stay. However, some of the people I went to the games with definitely don’t agree with me on that one.

I went to the US-Brazil game and the Brazil-Italy game. The US was embarrassed in their game against Brazil. It looked almost like they forgot why they were at the game or that they were soccer players. It was awful. But they improved later in the group stage and went on to come in 2nd place in the entire tournament. The Brazil-Italy game was a little more heated but Brazil still won 3-0. It was great to see such good players so close up against each other. It made me regret my decision to miss out on the World Cup next year (I will be traveling during it) because the games were so amazing, however, I think it will be really fun to watch it from home or wherever I am at that point.

It seems like SA is almost ready for the World Cup. However, when I was in Pretoria about 5 people that I knew at my hostel were robbed while walking on the street, some even early in the day. I wasn’t robbed, thank goodness, however it was awful to worry about all week. I think that SA just needs to step up police presence away from the stadiums. At the US-Brazil game on the way out there was a line of 300 police officers mingling with seemingly no purpose.

As for the past week, I attended a training for 10 of my coworkers about communicating HIV/AIDS information through soccer-related activities. The training doesn’t involve kids actually playing soccer, but instead doing soccer and netball related games and drills while learning about HIV. I think the training went well. However, it really underlined some problems I have with international development. Again. For one, it is really difficult to train Zulu speakers in English. You would think this would be obvious, but apparently it isn’t. Even with the best intentions and trying to translate back and forth, when you are talking about personal experiences and learning really serious information it really just doesn’t work. ARGH!!! So annoying. My point is that 21% of South Africa speak Zulu (the most of any language in the country) so it seems like it might be smart to have someone on staff who speaks it (South Africans who live in Gauteng Province or Urban areas are generally multi-lingual, so it isn’t hard to find), instead of an American who speaks quickly, whose accent makes it that much more difficult to understand what is being spoken, and who speaks no South African language at all. It seemed like our group picked up most of the information, but, like I said, it was hard to understand in depth because of the translation issues. Like my friend says “I speak German and if I went to a lecture in German I would get the jist of it, but if it was in English I would be able to understand it completely and find the deeper meaning”. This does not seem like a hard concept for anyone to understand.

Another hilarious part to this week was telling the American trainer how much we (everyone at the training) hate these specific cartoon commercials about HIV prevention that run on the air. Click on this link for one of them. The trainer guy, of course, absolutely adores them. They are funded by USAID, PEPFAR and Johns Hopkins. However, they are entirely in English in an accent that no one can understand, even South Africans who speak perfect English or whose first language is English. This is because the characters in the commercials speak very very very fast and in this South African accent that to me is one of the hardest to understand (I think the accent is supposed to be that of a colored South African, (which is a politically correct term for a race here—people of Malaysian, mixed race, sometimes Indian racial mixes, or descendants of the Koi San people). Anyways, this apparently never occurred to him. What I want to know what research went into creating these advertisements. I mean they basically produced an ad that no one understands and then spent probably over millions of Rands on airtime. Also, even if it was in understandable English it would not be targeting the population that most needs this kind of information—non-English speaking South Africans who live in rural or township areas. Argh! Really, they could have just hired 1 South African and this problem would have been spelled out to them quite quickly. It is just surprising to me because Johns Hopkins was involved, and they are world-renowned for their Public Health/Development Masters and PHD programs. I think I should find out who is responsible for these commercials and write them a letter. I think I will. I will keep you updated with any response I receive. Haha.

So just in case you are one of the few people on the planet I haven’t discussed with yet---I will be in American for 3 weeks in August to attend the Claxton-Lane wedding celebration, a.k.a Nate’s wedding and I couldn’t be more excited! I am just trying to get everything together work-wise before I depart for almost all of the month of August. Currently I am straightening out final playground prep (building looks like it will happen right when I get back in September, as long as funds work out, the company comes through, and the land is ready, so basically the perfect storm. I also am doing a fundraising push that will hopefully fund our Orphans and Vulnerable Children Program for years to come, as our current funding ends January 2010. Eek! So if anyone has $100,000 they just want to throw at me, I would be forever in your debt ☺.

Also, yesterday I celebrated my first 4th of July in which not one person knew it was a holiday or that the 4th of July is anything special. It was pretty weird. It turns out I actually love the 4th of July, who knew? I think its the street fireworks that I miss the most. ☺

t

Yesterday I went to a local government office to print some things for a grant application I had finished. Our generator is broken again so that means no electricity and therefore no printing capabilities. Anyways, I went there with my supervisor who has worked on a number of projects with some of the employees for NGO stuff around the area. Before we left for their offices my supervisor grabbed a stack of blank printer paper...it really didn't occur to me what it was for, so I didn't ask. We got to the brand new building in my town and went into the office which had central heating (a first for me in this country). It was going at full blast so it felt kind of like an oven and caused me to immediately strip off my 3 extra layers. Anyways, I got down to business and was ready to print when my supervisor whipped out the stack of papers and explained that they don't have printer paper here....Um, excuse me? Are you serious? This would be an office of a large government department....After we finished up the lady asked us to leave the remainder there, which we gladly did. I would say that this visit pretty much sums up my experience and understanding of the SA government's inner workings. Another example: When during his State of the Union Address President Zuma promised to provide 500,000 jobs by the end of the year (remember the speech was given in mid April) but failed to mention how he is going to do this or where these jobs will come from or what sector they will be in. If it were that easy I'm pretty sure that it would have happened a long time ago...Maybe Obama should take this tact with the economic crisis. At least it would make me feel better. Haha.

In other news, the fence is FINALLY going up at my center! You know what this means....! The playground beginning construction can get started! I am so psyched. While we haven't finished all the fundraising yet we do have enough to get the ball rolling on the project.

In the last couple of weeks I have had to revisit the meaning of the word “necessity” over and over. Three weeks ago the geyser for our hot water broke out of the blue. This was the number one luxury in my life—a bathtub with hot baths inside the house! Before I moved to this rural area and was living nearby a town with plus or minus 300,000 I didn’t even have water indoors. So you can imagine the irony when I moved to the deep rural village and I was living in luxury. Anyways, the breaking of the geyser has forced me back to boiling my water with a kettle and bucket bathing. This still isn’t too bad because I still have a bathtub and so I won’t spill water all over my floor, which is what I hate the most about the process before.

Two weeks ago the electric plug in the kitchen broke, forcing us to make do with using one electrical appliance in the kitchen at a time. Which you wouldn’t think would be difficult, except when there are 6 people jockeying for position in trying to boil water for the bath and or make dinner.

Last week the plug in my room broke. It actually caused a very mini and seconds long fire (more like a spark explosion) and a horrible shock to my arm, causing it to go numb for several hours (don’t worry I’m fine!). This meant that I could no longer use electric items in my room. You really don’t realize your dependency on this stuff until it is gone. For me the hardest part was the lack of a heater. The inside of my house is now usually a frosty 45-50 degrees and with no central heating a standing, plug-in heater is a must.

Today I got the electricity back in my room when an Mkhulu (Grandfather) from the village came over and fixed it for me. I was actually really worried it wouldn’t be fixed for a long time because of the “Africa time” sensation that is an issue in every part of my life. Generally it should have taken about a month to get fixed (for various reasons, mainly just getting someone out here to do it) but since I asked to have myself reimbursed from my good old American bosses, my supervisor saw that there was more of a schedule that we were on. I am very thankful for her on most days because she really does look out for me when it counts.

Today the kettle for the hot water broke (this is an electric kettle that you plug in—it cuts the time down to about 6 minutes to boil a pot full of water—essential for bathing 6 people 2x a day). I doubt it will be fixed any time soon, meaning that I will have to get in line about an hour before my bath to boil my water on the stove (once the food is finished). Also, the generator that we are all depending on at work for computers to work while we wait to have the electricity installed broke this week, meaning that my house is the new home office.

Over all, I would say that none of these things (except the generator, we need that badly) will probably be fixed while I am in South Africa. In part due to money and other parts due to the fact that we live in a rural area and it’s just hard to get things together and fixed.

Strangely enough for me, the queen of impatience, I don’t really mind about this rash of inconvenient occurrences. I actually didn’t lose my temper or anything, which old Therese probably would have done after the first appliance, the geyser, broke (it’s cold here! Bucket bathing is not a fun task in the winter).

My situation is so much better than the majority of my village—which has no electricity. While my village is somewhat close to town (20 KM) most of the people do not have either water or electricity. It is strange to be so close to “civilization” (aka KFC and a supermarket) but have no modern conveniences available. One of my favorite coworkers goes to bed at 7pm every night because she doesn’t have electricity and it is freeeeeezing because she lives in a mud building (they are terrible in the winter). I can’t imagine cooking my water on an outside fire or sleeping at 7pm and waking at 5am. We have frequent power outages because the electricity in my area is not very strong so it does not seem to withstand very much rain or wind. Every time that happens I am just really depressed because I just go to sleep at 7. That for a life would make me sad.

All I can say is that whenever I go to a backpacker’s youth hostel type place I savor the showers and the warm rooms and laundry machines. I don’t think it will be possible back in the states to ever look at my life or how I live the same ever again. Because in the US I will always have electricity and water and won’t have to wait an hour and a half for a taxi, making a 20 minute trip turn into a 2.5 hour adventure (like what happened today). I think that my future children are doomed to me coming back at complaints with: “well in Africa…they don’t even have. [insert blank here]”

It occurred to me today that I haven’t written in this blog for quite awhile. This needed to be rectified, so here I am. However, I am at a loss of what to write about, even though I have been away from my site for just over 2 weeks…here we go.

The first week of my travel was spent in Pretoria (aka Afrikaaner paradise) for the Peace Corps Mid-Service Training with my fellow PCVs who started their time with me in late January 2008. This training basically marked the mid-point of my service, although it was a couple of months late. It’s really hard to believe that I have already reached that point. 16 months ago I was really doubting if I could cut it in the Peace Corps. So, I guess I have “cut it”. Haha. Anyways, I think that my main way of making it has been forgetting that I am in the Peace Corps and instead just being some crazy white girl who lives in a rural Zulu village and works at BSSP. This way, in my brain at least, I am more detached from my Americaness and American friends in SA, such as PCVs. SMSing is huge here in SA and I used to be obsessed with keeping in touch with my friends primarily for support. Now, however, I leave my phone at home a lot (which angers my friends in the village to no end…) just because I’m not relying on outside support so much and can depend on myself and those I have gotten to know here. I’ve gotten to a point in my service where my ‘best’ friends are actually living with me in my village. I feel that with a number of my coworkers and neighbors I have finally crossed that cultural divide…well at least as much as is possible for the time being. The best statement about my current lifestyle is from one of my best friends here when talking about a group of Americans she had met;

-Friend: “Americans can be so annoying and full of themselves…” (she is basically referring to Americans she has met in general)

-Me: “Hey! Remember I’m an American…I agree with you sometimes but still…be gentle .” (jokingly)

-Friend: “Girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl you’re an Aaaaaaafffffricaaaan (exaggerating for attitude). You aren’t like them”.

While I’m not sure how true that comment is, it was one of the greatest complements I have received while being here.

Aaaaanyways, where was I? Oh yes, I was in Pretoria two weeks ago. After the 1.5 day training where Peace Corps treated us to a pretty nice hotel it was back to the city centre and lots of doctors appointments. I had my teeth checked and cleaned (no cavities, thankyouverymuch), got a new eyeglass prescription and new lenses for my existing frames, and had a doctor’s appointment regarding my mysterious stomach problems I have been having as of late. So I guess I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or the less embarrassing term—IBS. In my case this just means some nasty bacteria did a number on my stomach lining, making pretty much anything that isn’t a potato irritate my stomach. The term I like to use is “Africa-induced IBS”. This was a bummer to hear, because unlike a parasite you can just take a pill to get rid of, I now have a condition that will probably last until I get back to the states for good, as I encounter a lot more crazy bacteria living over this side. Whatevs I guess. What can you do? It's not the end of the world.

So last week I was in glorious Cape Town for a training for an organization called Grassroot Soccer. It is an American-based NGO that uses the power of soccer to spread HIV prevention. It’s a good concept and something that I am definitely interested in working on. Peace Corps has formed a partnership with them in South Africa and I got picked as one of the first 3 PCVs to take part. This is exciting primarily because I will be one of two sites in KZN (another PCV as well) in the entire Grassroot Soccer program! I’ve gotta say though, I had a crazy experience at this training. I felt like such a snob. The other PCV (who is in my group) and I spent our time digesting the ins and outs of the program and then critiquing it to death. Whatever, it’s a good program, but being the important international development experts that we are (sarcasm) we saw some big flaws. However, doing that kind of work and looking at how a model is running in an area that I have gotten to know so well and love is very interesting. I actually feel like I know what I am talking about! I guess what was hard for me to swallow was the American-heavy staff (80%ish) telling the Africans (the ones who KNOW their communities) how to run things. See, how things work here in South Africa, is that every single community is different. Every community has different attitudes about everything, especially touchy subjects like HIV, so it is important to work from experience on the ground. This is why I love organizations like AIDS Foundation who have big donors doling out the big bucks to South Africans who in turn fund small organizations and help build capacity. This is also why I am starting to like Peace Corps when the volunteers are good. Sure, it's still my internationals butting in, but you have to be here for 2 years so you actually have the chance to learn about your community before you help to start make the big changes you dream about (or at least that is the hope). But, I digress. Anyways, the point is that I like the program, I am excited to have it at my centre, it should make a big impact, and that I am a big big snob who thinks she knows everything. Phew! The End.

So Cape Town was amazing (as always) but, again, I saw it with completely different eyes from the last time I was there in 2006 now that I have a real grasp on SA politics and culture. Cape Town has to be one of the most beautiful cities anywhere. Seriously. It doesn’t really feel at all like an “African City” but like Europe (according to people who have actually been). People are always hailing Cape Town for this and saying “why can’t the rest of South African be like this???” White South Africans (who share this view, and there are many—I swear I’m not being racist…everything in South Africa has to do with race…everything) tend to point to the fact that the Western Cape (the province where Cape Town is) is the only province not run by the African National Congress (ANC), but instead by the Democratic Alliance or DA (who, for the record, my Zulu friends refer to as “the white party”). Yeah I will give everyone the fact that the CBD of Cape Town and surrounding suburbs is amazing. Imaginary scenario:

Person coming into Cape Town: "But hold up—what were those miles and miles of shacks that I passed on the way from the airport?

Cape Town Tourism person: Ohhhhh that’s nothing, look over there, isn’t Table Mountain just absooooluuuutely breathtaking?

Back to real life: I feel like Cape Town has followed the model of American cities that are trying to revitalize their downtowns. They make everything uber expensive and push all the poor people to the outskirts of town. Cape Town has successfully done this to the extreme, to the point where you actually have to drive about 30 minutes to get to the township of Khayletshia (sp), one of the biggest townships in SA. On the way there, there are thousands of shacks clustered together. In this visit Grassroot Soccer had us pay a visit to Khayletshia to visit with some coaches they had recently trained as well as take a walking township tour. These tours are always a bit awkward for me, because it feels like what a game park feels like (observing the wildlife?), however, these are PEOPLE and these are their HOMES and shouldn’t be gawked at. Whatever. Anyways, the group that took us around was this group of 12 men who started an crime prevention group that holds night soccer (6pm-2am, Friday and Saturday nights) to keep youth (primarily guys) from doing drugs and drinking on the weekends---which is really really cool. They decided to start the tours 1) for some badly needed cash 2) to have a township tour where you actually GET OUT OF THE CAR and WALK AROUND. Usually people just drive through (like a game park, seriously), take pictures, and get out of there before they get robbed (this is how it was actually described to me by one of the Khayletshia tour guides, who found this ridiculous)—just so they can say they have been to “real” Africa. Puuuhhhhleeeaaasee. On the tour we went to a traditional shabeen (bar) where they drank traditional beer (only the men) and then a run of the mill shabeen (like in my village) where they sell marketed/normal beer. Then we visited a turf soccer field at a primary school built by an American NGO. The best thing about the soccer field for me, besides the 45 children kicking balls around and running, were the kids age 5 or 6 just rolling on the grass having a good time. This makes sense because there is no grass in Khayletshia, only sand and dirt. It was nice to walk around and to get to talk to these guys about their experiences. Also, just for the record, even though Khayletshia is a township crammed with shacks next to each other with tiny paths to walk down, I think it is beautiful. I haven’t seen it in other townships really, but Khayletshians take pride in where they live, and so paint their houses an amazing array of primary colors. It’s nice. I guess the point of a township tour is to remember that this poverty still does exist, so I guess there is some good coming out of it, even if some idiots don't get out of their cars.

So, after a harrowing flight back from Cape Town to Durban in which I threw up 5 times (gross). I arrived at my destination. I was supposed to go to a rugby game that night, but instead slept for 18 hours at my friend’s house while they all went to the rugby game…fun. I’m fine now—please don't worry. I think I had food poisoning. My stomach is really weak right now, like I said before, so even the smallest bacteria messes it up. Note to self: stop being obsess with sushi...

On the drive back I was kind of dreading going home. It’s always hard to go back to the “3rd world” after living it up in the “1st world” (I know these aren’t politically correct terms, so sue me) no matter how short the time is (this includes only one day). However, I was pleasantly surprised at my arrival that I was SO HAPPY TO BE HOME! I was at home finally in my bed in my house in my village with my family. Days later this pleasure has yet to cease. It’s a wonderful feeling to be missed by people who actually care about you. My coworkers were all really excited to see me and joked that they thought I would never come back (looks like I need to prepare them for August in advance…). I am now back at work, in the middle of everything with a full page of things to do. I am currently writing my organization’s annual report for the donors and stakeholders. Fun fun. Actually, I am enjoying myself because since there has been no petrol for the generator at work I have been working from home. I never get time to myself at home--so it being empty means I can BLAST my music as loud as I want and sing loudly and do all those bad or embarrassing things you can’t do around roommates. Even with all that, I worked on it for 7 hours and got a lot done.

So, I have A LOT OF WORK TO DO before my trip to America in August. This is an exciting development which I am actually proud of from time to time. The buildings are almost complete (see picture) meaning that soon I get to set up the club room and paint the walls with a mural and then get to set up the computer lab. Hooray!

building that will have the computer lab

building that will have the club room and bakery. this is the one i have fundraised a lot of the money for and put a ton of effort into.

Ok, this by far the longest entry I have ever written. I better stop now or I will continue blabbering on about nothing. This officially makes up for my lack of posts over the last month.

Today.

Today I made a long awaited visit to one of my closest friend Zodwa's homes. I've visited before, but in 2008, and hadn't made a new trip since. The walk is about 40 minutes (my village is so rural that the houses are very spread out), in which I have to pass 3 shabeens (bars). This means lots of drunk men hollering at me and asking for money, and because I try to avoid that at all costs, I don't visit too often. This is probably the worst part of my time in South Africa and keeps me from being social as I wish. I cannot stand being hollered at or feeling unsafe, so it is difficult for me to walk freely around deep in the village. In my immediate area everyone knows me, but when I venture out of that radius and run into people from parts of the village who ride different taxi lines or simply drunk jerks, I get into trouble. Don't worry, it's nothing more than harassment, I am safe, but these days I can't seem to put up with any of this type of aggravation and dread it all of the time.

Aaaaanyways...

Zodwa lives with her husband and a large family (somewhere in the mid teens). I spent most of the visit playing with her son who just turned 1. I feel like I have a special connection to him, since he is the only person I know here who has been in this country a shorter time than I have. His mom came back from maternity leave 3 days after I joined BSSP.

Other than that I worked on Zodwa's homework with her--she is being certified as a Child and Youth Care Worker by their National Foundation. Her work is a bit difficult for a non-native English speaker so I am always happy to help. Her real dream is to become a certified teacher so that she can go back to teaching, which she did for 7 years at a farm school about 40 KM away. It was too far to travel every day so she had to stop. Unfortunately, school costs way too much money, and since she is the only one in her family working, she doesn't have any to spare.

One thing that always wows me when I visit a coworker is how well I am treated. Obviously, Zulu hospitality dictates that I am fed when visiting. However, every time I receive a meal I am always impressed. It is my experience in this country that people who have little will share everything with you.

Zodwa's 3 children (including Kwando the 1 year old) danced for me for about half an hour. Watching a 1 year old try to seriously dance while he is still learning to walk is hilarious. He can even switch from pop to Zulu dancing. Great.

On my walk over:

Transport deeper in the village...

Kwandokuhle, the cutest baby ever! In Zulu tradition you keep the front tuft of hair (as pictured) after your first haircut, which he just had a couple of days ago.

Some of Zodwa's relatives and 3 other village boys

Zodwa didn't want me to take her picture, but I secretly took some of her on the walk home (Kwando is on her back).

New pictures from the craft club:

We are teaching the kids sewing with the added bonus of them getting bags to take home. I am pleased. They are loving the project, improving every day, and even the boys are getting into it! When we first started none of them wanted anything to do with sewing.

Check out the Nike Swoosh

We are very crowded since moving to the new centre. I can't wait until the buldings are done so that we can finally have some space. It stinks, but I find myself feeling lucky when some kids don't show up. We just don't have enough room. On this day about 60% of the kids were there because it was pouring outside and was freeeeeeeeezing.

I took this picture to show how much wind and cold is coming through the walls (we haven't really finished these buildings yet because we had to move in immediately. They will be fixed after we move to the new, complete buildings).

Progress of the new buildings:

This is the building the club will be held in as well as the bakery.

Administration building which will house offices along with the computer centre

My house is in the background:

A couple of months ago one of my favorite creche (preschool) children came to school with a totally burned chest. His older brother (maybe a year older) had ironed his chest. This was one of the moments that solidified the fact that I could never work in medicine. It was nauseating. when I saw it I just felt so awful for him--I got really dizzy and felt for a minute like I was going to pass out. this was a pretty embarrassing reaction, considering that he hadn't even gone to the clinic yet to have it looked at and was still present at school. He was just sitting on the ground looking sad and morose. this is so unlike him--he is the happiest kid anyone has ever seen and is always smiling. Always.

Anyways, the whole incident was a big mistake--his 4 year old brother was just trying to get the wrinkles out (south africans are notorious for being obsessed with ironing). We got him to the clinic and then he moved into town with his uncle for a while to be nearby the hospital.

He is finally back, 3 months later, happy as ever. His chest is looking good, just a lot of scar tissue, which will hopefully lighten with time.

Situations like this forces reality to slap me across the face. South Africa is full of them. I am so lucky and i take soooooo much for granted. He is an orphan being raised by extended family after losing his mother to domestic violence. Despite these adversities he is still a happy-go-lucky little kid. This is in comparison to the American little boy that Heather and I witnessed at the Cradle of Humankind who spilled maybe 4 tbs. of water on his sock (in 100 degree weather) and then cried for about 25 minutes as a result.

If there was one kid i would be taking back to America with me, it would be him.

It gets difficult feeling like a spoiled brat all the time. It crushes your soul after awhile.

Random pictures from around my village:

My current office space optimizes south africa:

Creche children mobbing me upon my arrival:

My best friends @ creche:

It was recently drawn to my attention that I have not posted on this blog for 3 weeks. Every time this happened I am reminded that there actually might be people out there reading this thing...and so I update.

Joburg

Over Easter weekend I went to Johannesburg with another PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) to stay with her coworker. This was the best option to visit Joburg because it's big and scary and we, as PCVs, aren't allowed to go there unless we get specific permission (which we did) from the Peace Corps due to crime. So, having a tour guide (and her many nieces and nephews) served us well. Oh, I guess I should mention that we aren't allowed there due to crime, however I am happy to report that I was not a victim of crime the entire weekend. Ha ha! I am reminded though that Durban has the same statistics as Joburg, only it is just smaller. I have yet to have anything happen there either except get my phone stolen (maybe). But, I digress.

How do I describe Joburg? well...hmmm...it is BIG. I am not a frequent visitor to New York City but it reminded of it except that NYC has tall buildings. Joburg has about 4 skyscrapers and a weird thing that looks like the space needle. Other than that there may be about 30 or so apartment buildings that look to be about 20 floors tall. Joburg is flat. Flat flat flat. Its like someone took their giant god hand and pushed down on the buildings, thereby forcing them to spread out in a circle. Joburg's greater area, including informal settlements and where I was staying, is about 11 million people. Imagine how big that 'circular' area is.

Big cities affect me like nothing I have ever experienced in my life before. I live in a rural village. I am not used to such big places, full of McDonalds and advertising and a large shopping center on what feels like every 5th city block. I was standing outside one of the nights looking up at the stars, which is something I try to do at home in my village often (other than that I don't usually leave the house after 6pm). The stars were almost inexistent. I also noticed that the sky was purple. At home in Bhekuzulu on a clear night there is a virtual blanket of white twinkling stars. Most nights it is so black that you can't see you hand in front of your face. Haha I am exaggerating, but you get my point. I started to think about this. Does Cleveland’s sky have the same purple glow at night? I know that there is light pollution, etc. but I think I would remember the same sickly light night sky that feels that it’s every essence has been invaded and destroyed by the human race. Ehhhh. I know this reflection may seem a little idiotic, but being so rural has really changed my outlook on things. I am no longer all about cities. Who would have thought?

Anyways, while in I basically visited with Heather's coworkers family alot. They were wonderful and welcoming and hilarious. It 1) made me miss my family 2) wish that I had 5+ brothers and sisters. I also visited the Cradle of Humankind where the earliest Australopithecus was found. It was a pretty sweet cave. There really wasn't much to it, except that we discovered that the underground cave system goes from the Joburg area all the way to Mokopane (nearby where I had training for 2 months in 2008). Crazy.

Upcoming Elections

I am going to refrain from taking sides on political parties on this blog (this is something my bosses in Washington would not appreciate and I think have forbid us from doing in the public arena) but it is worth mentioning that it is coming up on Wednesday and talking about the current climate around me. The country has been taken over by politics. Of course, this happens in every country where an election is upcoming, but to me South Africa's example is a little different because SA is a true democracy that has a political party that has taken in some cases over 2/3 of the vote since independence/freedom/1994 making all the political fighting seem a bit pointless to me. I guess the opposition can't give up though, right?

However, it is very interesting to see an election from a rural South African's eyes. My village is majority African National Congress, or the ANC, which is the party that routinely gets the 2/3rds and is responsible for the liberation of South Africa and Nelson Mandela and all that. This would not be too surprising except that my Municipality (kind of like a county) is Inkatha Freedom Party, or IFP. The IFP is a Zulu Party that used to take the majority in the KZN Province until the last election. It is really doubtful that they will be able to gain much in this election, considering that Jacob Zuma, who will soon be the president of this fine country as he is the President of the ANC, is a proud Zulu.

This IFP/ANC mix has made my area a hot spot for political maneuvering. The ANC is very scared that they are going to lose ground Nationally because about 3 months ago a wing of the ANC split off and formed a new opposition group called Congress of the People, or COPE. So, they must campaign in KZN where Zuma is practically worshiped in some parts. I'm sure that many of you have heard that Zuma was facing corruption charges for the past couple of years. These charges had been lobbed at him with help from former President Thabo Mbeki (they are both ANC) who apparently does not like Zuma. Mbeki's faction of the ANC used to be in power, but Zuma, despite facing rape and corruption charges, has led his faction to head the ANC. The majority of Mbeki's faction have now broken off into COPE. Cynics say that they are just doing this because Zuma's ANC leadership would never give them positions of power within the government. Whatever. Anyways, the point is the ANC now has competition that is polling about 20% Nationally and high in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces, so they are nervous. Because of COPE they may lose their majority of the Western Cape to the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is strong there and currently is running their campaign with the slogan: "STOP ZUMA". My big problem with South African politics in general is that there is no actual strong opposition party to the ANC. Opposition is healthy for democracy. Maybe in 10 years this might actually occur and right now the ANC is starting feel the pinch.

So, apparently, my town of Estcourt has turned into an IFP party. There are cars with IFP flags hanging out of the windows with loud speakers parked in lots on every block attracting crowds. Even in the Municipality parking lot. The absolute best part of South African campaigning is the amount of singing and dancing that takes place. This can be witnessed here. This is an example of politicians doing traditional dancing, however, I can assure you that they also dance to popular music. A lot. Haha. Also, I just found an interesting article about Zuma you might read to get some more information about him.

Anyways--back to the point! It is very interesting to see the complete devotion and blind loyalism some of my friends have for Jacob Zuma. They really don't know anything about him. People really do no research about their candidates or political parties whatsoever. Newspapers are really the only realistic way to do this, but those cost money and are often difficult to read because of education backgrounds. I know that this happens in America--people vote for a candidate because they are handsome, or white, or Christian, or whatever--but it is extreme in this case. These people are so devoted to him (I can quote my coworker saying that like Julius Malema, Chairman of the ANC Youth League, she will "kill for Jacob Zuma"). Whether or not that is actually true I really don't like hearing that from anyone, even if it is kind of a joke. I am going on the record that I would not kill for Barack Obama. There, I said it.

So, on election day I will be at home. We have work off and I'm not going anywhere. Our instructions are always to avoid anything political, so that is what I will be doing.

Work

Work is coming along. People are still fighting and all that, but there is a solid effort to get people to work together, which is really nice. We had a team building day on Friday where everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Afterwards, I had one of those "I wouldn't trade this for anything moments" where my coworkers were having a dance off and forced me to take part. Yes, that is right I showed off by best Zulu moves. It's great to participate in this kind of stuff--people really appreciate it and you get to laugh at yourself. Also, on the many kilometers walk home I continued to display my Zulu moves to my coworkers and the school children nearby and the passing cars. It is really funny to walk on the main road outside of my village because you get a lot of "ARE YOU CRAZY" stares from the passing white drivers, which generally crack me up.

The buildings are almost finished, so I am going to start building the computer lab and setting up the club space. I can't wait for the computer lab's building to be finished--I will be starting up computer classes for my coworkers. The playground should be started in the next couple of weeks and then comes training that marks my MID SERVICE--I am finished in less than one year from now--in about 11 months.

This is the longest post I have ever written.

One of the most hilarious things about South Africa is the constant mixing of “1st” and “3rd” worlds. I guess this is really common for the majority of Africa these days, it’s just that it is incredibly apparent here. It is a likely scenario that in a village a well off family (let’s say of a person who works in town or maybe a teacher or something) won’t have running water or an indoor toilet but will have satellite television where they can get CNN, Al Jazeera, and the E channel. The best example I can give at the current moment is the fact that the office I am working in with 2 computers, a scanner, and big old copy machine is being housed in a mud building. We don’t even have electricity yet—it’s all running on a generator. Don’t get me wrong, the majority of people in my village live in mud buildings, so it isn’t something new to me. However, it is pretty funny that when I get to work I have to sweep big chunks of mud off of the desks. The walls in the main office haven’t been finished yet (by filling up the cracks with mud to make the structure more long term. We are going to plaster them as well once we get the money) because we have been using the space until the new buildings are finished. The printer that usually works in our office (the other one breaks every other print job or so) currently is on the fritz. I have tried to stress the important of covering up the appliances at the end of the day, but it really hasn’t taken. My recent fix for this is to turn the printer over and try to shake the mud out. Anyways, I think, finally this time the printer has a huge clump stuck in it that no amount of (safe) shaking will fix (I say safe because, obviously, if you shake a printer too much it will break…). I think that the local computer guy will even find this situation hilarious, and he only lives 25 KM away.

South Africa is definitely not what the majority of Americans or people living in the "1st" world for that matter would imagine it be. You do get the general African "vibe" in rural villages here, "vibe"meaning tribal cultures, use of Zulu only, traditional healers, etc. However, people who live in cities and don't have family members living in villages live completely different lives, lives that can be characterized as very American. It's amazing to me that most of these people can just speed by informal settlements and villages where people are struggling to feed their families in their fancy cars and then just arrive at their homes that have fancy security systems to keep the real world out.

Sometimes I think that this is why the crime in this country is so high. At my last house by Pietermaritzburg, I explained to my host father this reasoning, and, after acting a bit astonished and remarking that I "don't act very white" he agreed with me. It must be so difficult for a person who is struggling to survive and provide for his or her family to see the millionaire's homes and cars and totally foreign existences. It makes that a person might react that way in order to get what they need. I know that this isn't why most crimes are committed, but I can understand that kind of desire and greed taking over a person when they live in a house that doesn't have electricity but see a person driving down the street in an Audi (very popular here). Most everything is available somewhere in South Africa. Sure, what I want might not be easy for me to get all the time, but I can definitely get it 3 hours away in Durban. The fact that everything is available here but the majority of people don't have the money to buy it is so awful and unfair. People here are OBSESSED with KFC but going there for a meal costs exactly the same as it does in America. Feeding your family costs R150 ($15) but the unemployment rate in my municipality is 89%.

Sometimes the world just baffles me I guess. Sorry this beginning of an upbeat post went so serious and on a random tangent. I just don't understand why life can be so unfair sometimes.

i generally miss my dog. alot. recently this stray showed up at my house to peruse the garbage pile that we burn weekly (like everyone else in the village). she looked pretty skinny and like all the dogs in the village was terrified of humans. after a couple of weeks of treating her to some delicious leftovers and scraps as well as coaxing her into a light head scratch and, finally, and most disgustingly, pulling off 7 of the largest ticks i have ever seen in my life (the size of nickels), she has found a way to accommodate her fear of being beaten by humans and now follows me around like she is mine. a couple of days ago she showed up with a rope tied around her neck (i assume to keep her in the yard in which she belongs) but had broken free so that she could come pay the Hadebe-Dlamini-Claxton residence a visit. it's good to see that someone in the village seems to like her and take care of her somewhat, even though she spends the majority of her days in my back yard. today when i saw her she instantly laid on her back to allow me to give her a belly rub. after telling this to my mother (who i might add used to HATE dogs with a passion before we bought cub during the christmas vacation of 1st grade) requested pictures. so, here you go:

here she is trying to lick the camera. she has gotten so friendly lately.

we've decided to call her "mdlebe"--which means ears in Zulu (as you can see below, the name suits her very nicely). i say we, as though my family actually likes her, which is definitely not true. however, my newest housemate helped me name her. while my family doesn't really like her all too much (they just do not like dogs), they put up with her because she is sweet and i obviously love her. she is harmless and all that so it isn't a big deal. they think i am crazy.

i have had to cut down the petting though. i fear that she might have fleas and may have given me fleas for a day or so until i realized it. don't worry, i took care of it. isn't living in africa grand?

a picture of me outside one of the temporary new offices at work.

me with one of my favorite babies from the creche (preschool). she will be one of many benefiting from the new playground!

this is an excellent picture of me hugging the computers out of excitement. it's amazing that things come to fruition. this means that we will soon have a computer lab that will be available to the entire community. this will help them learn computer skills so that they will be better positioned to get jobs in town/anywhere.

this is the very FIRST thing i ever did at BSSP. the second day i was there i sat down and wrote this grant application. it's nice to see a therese claxton production working. hooray!

So, I would just like to make a monumental statement....GET READY!

I, Therese Claxton, love what I am doing, where I am living who I am friends with, etc. right now. I am very very happy. Phew. There I said it. Hahahaha. I am actually doing really great. If i sound surprised, it's because I am. I never really thought I would be so happy or comfortable here. Ever.

It's a nice feeling. Apparently most PCVs (who are left and are on the way to making it the full 2 years) are supposed to be comfortable in their second year and I have officially reached it. Many of you know that I have been having a difficult time during my previous year as a Peace Corps Volunteer (which is expected, of course). I am in no way saying it will be smooth sailing from now on, I just have finally gotten used to everything, comfortable with where I am, who I live with, and most importantly the work at my center. Get this...when I am not at work there is actually work i should be doing there! People actually miss me! Hooray! this might not seem like a big deal to you Non-Peace Corps Volunteers. But to us PCVs it is a huge accomplishment. It is so difficult for the majority (I would say upwards of 70%) to find things to fill there time. Also, I actually LOVE LOVE LOVE what I am doing!

What am I doing, you ask?

-Fundraising for the playground and then planning out its structure. I am officially now an architect. Haha, not really, but still, I feel like one. Go here for more info.

-The 10 computers I got for my center are coming tomorrow! This means more of me planning out the new computer center, building the desks (whaaaaaat), setting it up, and doing all the networking business fun.

-the Bhekuzulu Youth Club is still going strong (which is amazing to me). We still have money from my PC grant and still have kids interested (upwards of 40 depending on the day). My coworkers who work in it (specifically 2 of them) are so great and really spearheading it. It definitely would not be running without them. They are the best. Tomorrow we are having a big planning meeting for the next 5 months of the club. this is going to become a real staple of Bhekuzulu Self Sufficient Project's work, not just my crazy idea anymore.

-Fundraising....SOOO GUESS WHAT! This week I think I got the center another R75,000! This will go to our hurting halfway house and child headed household programs that are struggling due to lack of funds. This means that I have been able to fundraise about R225,000($22,500) since I've been here. I am pretty excited about this. The greatest part is that now that we have a new position of Programs Manager (like an Assistant Director) I have someone to transfer these skills to so when I leave they aren't all gone. She is great and I love working with her. The money we have gotten has gone to start a community garden, build 3 of the new buildings (the temporary ones we are in now), and keep one of the halfway houses running. I also am involved with perpetually asking for donations--like for the xmas party that we had in december for 170 of orphans and vulnerable children we serve. Anyways, I prefer being modest generally. But, I am feeling good today about this new donation, so there. sorry! this being said, alot of our programs are struggling without money right now, so I must continue my fundraising work ASAP, like, tomorrow.

-I am going to paint a huge mural of the world on the outside of one of the new buildings. It is going to be sweet. Also, I might just paint a ton of murals everywhere because that would be fun. This will be done with some of the older interested kids from the club. We will have weekend parties and paint up a storm once the buildings are finished

-I do a lot of publicity for the center. I made their website which you should definitely check out to see all the sweet progress of the new buildings (click here for that). I also have done brochures, maps, and letters getting out the word on us. I am starting a quarterly newsletter with the Programs Manager this week.

-The bakery is getting its supplies delivered next month. Once we get electricity (we are operating on a generator right now) we will be up and running. This project frightens me. I will be RUNNING this bakery. I am not a business manager. However, I will put all of my life into it, so hopefully that will tip the scale my way.

-My newest project is setting up a curriculum for the early childhood (they call it creche here) program. We have 45 cutie babies come to the center every day. They are my biggest fans (every single time I see them they yell my name in unison until either I am out of site or I have been there too long and they get tired of yelling it--also they all mob me for hugs every single time I enter the creche gate) and whenever I am feeling bad I just go over there and play with them a whole lot. Anyways, they basically just toddle around and climb on the now 1 working swing and weirdo climb box. So, I'm thinking of structuring some fun daily activities that the teacher can do with the kids. The teacher is a very sweet woman who I get along with very well who really really wants to improve the program, so it should work!

Ok that is that. You people [I mean wonderful readers of this fine blog :-) ] seemed to like it the last time I had that happiness peace corps graph, so i updated it for you (i have alot of time on my hands).

* just something i just googled and i thought it was funny. oooh life in africa

I was coming home on Sunday on a taxi. A Zulu woman a couple of rows in front of another PCV and I who were coming back with me passed a letter back to us. I was extremely flattered and thought that it was a good representation about how friendly and welcoming South Africans can be.

[it's a bit hard to read: Hey there Strangers, I couldn't help but notice that the both of you are quite Zulu educated. From the hand gesture when the lady was giving the fruit guy money and the gentleman can speak alot of Zulu. Good for you guys. It can only get better and welcome. --Stranger :-) ]

So, as of 2009 there has been many changes at Bhekuzulu Self Sufficient Project. Obviously, we moved about a 20 minute walk into the heart of the village. Also, there is even less space at the new center than before (while we wait for the rest of the buildings to be built). So, as a result the Bhekuzulu Youth Club (the club I run) has faced some challenges; 1. the population of kids who come to the center has changed due to the increased walk for many of the children, especially the high schoolers, now that the center is much farther away from the high school. 2. we have only a small room, that in america might fit 20, fitting upwards of 40. Of course, this is a short term problem that will be fixed by April or May.

However, because the kids were already so excited about the projects and are committed to attending the club, we really couldn't just wait until the buildings were finished. So, we are continuing with the afterschool projects. We are currently beading bracelets. Because of the increased time it takes the kids to get here, we are now down from almost 2 hours to 1 hour for each session. Because of the time change, the projects now take many more days to finish. Instead of the weekly project set up we now go for as many weeks as it takes to get the project done before moving on. I think beading (because it is such an intricate and especially time consuming project) will take a full month. We also have had some additions and subtractions to the club because of the location change. Suprisingly enough, mainly due to the commitment of my coworkers and myself, the club actually continues to run rather smoothly. hooray!

Pictures from beading:

Here are some great pictures I took of some of the girls in the club after we finished for the day playing an abbreviated game of netball.

So, with the move to the new site, I make about a 20 minute trek each way to my work. So I figured I would show you the walk...? I guess I am more bored than I thought...

Pictured above: Looking behind me towards my house

Pictured above: Houses I pass on my right

Pictured above: Stones that I must hop across to avoid the mini pond/bog that this area turns into during the rainy season. I have only fallen off of these rocks twice. They really only save you from water that goes up to your mid leg.

Pictured above: The baby creek i cross over to get to work

Pictured above: next to where i cross the creek

Pictured above: Gate to a house that I pass on my left

Pictured above: A house I pass on my left. They have an abundant field of maize. This is great, because not alot of people in my village have home gardens, despite the soil being generally good for planting in this area. At the old location it was a little to salty.

Pictured above: Village wildlife

Pictured above: Crevice to my right

Pictured above: More of that crevice. I almost was forced into it a couple weeks ago when I was walking home due to a charging bull. Luckily I flipped over some barbed wire on the other side to save myself.

Pictured above: Path next to crevice

Pictured above: A jungly yard I pass every day. There is a house in there somewhere.

This is the barbed wire that I flipped over

Pictured above: Path leading up to my center

So, I somehow anticipated this post being alot more interesting. However, I thought it might be fun to show everyone my new daily walk. I usually really enjoy it--it is nice to get out into my community instead of just walking next door to get to work every day, which is what I was doing before. There are only a few draw backs: 1. when it is really rainy and muddy, I fall often. Therefore I usually am covered by mud by the time I get home, meaning more frequent hand washing of clothes. this = a big pain. 2. I don't really like having to greet every single person I pass. It gets pretty repetative when I pass 20-30 people on my way home. However, if I do not greet someone in Zulu Culture I am deeply (depending on the age) offending them. 3. I don't like drunk men. They get on my nerves. Enough said. Oh the fun of living in a village!

So this morning I walked into the kitchen to find that a baby chick had walked into the kitchen looking for its mother. It was pretty sad, actually. It was obviously freak because it couldn’t find her. I felt sorry for it….until it ran behind the fridge and climbed into the cooling mechanism thingie. Great. So, my sister Smi and I spent 20 minutes trying to coax it out so that it could return to the outside. What an interesting way to start a day. Haha.

So, my two little sisters, Nothabo and Sindiswa, her friend who has started living with us full time, have been making Valentine’s Day cards for pretty much everyone they know. It has been fun because they didn’t ever really do “creative-type” things (as Nozipho puts it) before I came and provided them with the paper and markers.

Then, I made Valentine’s Day cookies in the afternoon and afterwards Smi, Nothabo, Sindiswa, Nozipho and I played two hours of barefoot soccer/netball/ pickle in the middle until it got really buggy and dark. It was so much fun and I really like being part of a family here. I think that my relationship with these girls makes my Peace Corps experience (+ my work of course).

Afterwards we ate ice cream and watched the Valentine’s Day movie that was on TV. Nice.

Around 9:30 tonight I went outside to look to see if the chick was still around. She was and had curled up under a pipe trying to keep warm and was shivering. I scooped her up and put her in a box in my room wrapped in a nest-like towel, and she fell fast asleep. I think that I will try to help this little chick out, I don’t really want it to die since it has no mother and all that. Plus I am super bored.

So, as of January 31st, I have been in South Africa for 1 full year. It's so weird that time passes that fast. I guess I feel almost fully integrated here, part of my family, and I occasionally have stuff to do at work (just kidding...but i will get more into that later). It is so strange for me to be away from home for so long--I had only gone 4 months (Namibia) before this. Oh well, I've gotten used to it.

SO last year was pretty crazy, and I am proud to say that I survived it. I can honestly say that I never thought in April of last year that I would still be in South Africa, blogging to my heart's content (or serving in the Peace Corps for that matter). I am proud of myself! True cliche: I feel like a "changed" person in many ways that I won't elaborate on here.

This year's projects are set (in my mid at least) and they are:

-Continuation of the Bhekuzulu Youth Club (we are finally up and running again after the move!)

-Starting and managing the income generating bakery--the building is currently being built, so we have some progress there

-Starting the computer lab that I got the computers for and then tutoring my coworkers/running mild computer classes for them.

-I might be starting a library as well. We will see.

-Fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising fund raising.

I always thought that living in a rural place would be awful. Not just a rural village in Africa, but I rural place pretty much anywhere. I am, by definition, a city girl. I mean I might not be from the largest of cities, but I am a city girl nonetheless. The idea of living in a rural area or even a small town has always scared me. Anyways, I digress.

Now that I live in a rural village in South Africa, my thoughts on this have started to shift. I live out of town, about a 30-minute drive. I don’t have a car, nor am I allowed to drive (Peace Corps’ rules). However, being "stuck" in the village doesn't really bother me. I actually like it. Who would have thought? I don’t get to town very often, but when I do (about once a week if I don’t go for work), I take a taxi. Taxis in Southern Africa are a phenomenon that is really incomparable to anything in the States. I’m generalizing them, because from personal experience I know that taxis in South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique are all very similar, so I just assume they are the same in other Southern African countries. The taxi that I refer to usually sits (legally) 15, but in the morning out of my village, sometimes fits an upwards of 23 (some of them being children). The newer taxis that the South African government are encouraging people to buy in time for the World Cup to improve safety standards are larger and much more comfortable (my village has one). The driver’s usually have some sort of music blaring so loudly that you can hardly think. It ranges from African house music to ministers preaching in Zulu to Celine Deon (yes, you read that correctly—she is very popular here).

You get a taxi by standing on the road in front of my house, waiting for it to appear for however long it takes. This can be really annoying and quite tedious. When you are leaving town to go back home, you get into a taxi at the taxi rank and wait until it fills. In the afternoon mine usually fills very fast, but in the morning it can take hours. Long distance taxis (from major city/town to city/town) can take forever to fill. Sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 4.

When I get on the taxi in my village I greet the people on board and then squish in. sometimes rows that are built to fit 3 have to 4 or the 3 people in that row are large, so the seating is so tight you feel like you cant breath. Unfortunately, this gets 100% worse when it is 80+ outside, which is most of the summer. For some reason, no one (especially gogos) never want the windows to be open, so you end up frying. You pay the fare by row, (mine costs R8/ 80 US cents) each direction. If someone shorts the driver (and this has happened to the taxi I have been on a number of times) the driver will just stop o nthe side of the road until the passengers figure out who shorted him and yell until that person pays, or someone gets fed up and just pays the difference.

So that explanation leads me to today’s interesting occurrence on the taxi…It has been pouring all day. My new center is about a 20 minute walk to the road where you catch the taxis. So my coworker and I, who had to unexpectedly go to town to get some supplies for the club, were walking to the taxi. It was 9AM so the taxis were hurting for passengers (most people who wanted to go to town had already gone or would be going after lunch). The taxi driver spots us walking in the field, still about a 15 minute walk. He waits for us—not even knowing if we want a taxi. It was amazing, and very nice. This is almost unheard of. Anyways, it was raining and I had forgotten my coat, so he even waited for me to run into my house and grab it. Crazy. So after I get in with Zodwa, we are crawling up the road into my village, eventually filling up (you get on early, even if it is still going into the village so you can make sure you get a seat). So, the taxi turns around so that we can go back towards the main road.

We are almost in front of my house again when another taxi drives towards us going at high speeds (on a dirt road in the rain, smart, right?). My driver decides to play chicken with him—he does not want to have to move out of the way into the ditch to wait for him to pass, so he tries to get him to move. Instead of this happening we almost have a head on collision. At this point all the passengers are yelling at the top of their lungs.

So both taxi drivers step out into the rain and start fighting, in Zulu, about what happened. The other taxi driver comes up to our taxi and opens all doors and tells us, the passengers, that it is he who is supposed to go to town to take us, not the driver we already have, and that we should get out and go to his taxi. My driver refuses and slams the door, continuing to yell. My driver is from the big taxi company in Bhekuzulu (4 taxis in my village owned by the same guy) and the other guy just drives it for someone else.

Both of the drivers, who are now soaked to the bone, get back into their respective taxis and start them again. However the other driver is still angry and starts to drive into our taxi, forcing mine to drive backwards in the wrong direction for about half a mile down a dirt road in the rain. The other driver was just following our exact path so we cannot get around him. The drivers get out of their cars to yell at each other 2 more times, but nothing can get this crazy guy to stop. At this point, all of the passengers are starting to yell loudly at the other driver (the passengers mainly consisted of gogos and umkhulus (grandfathers)). My coworker just starts laughing,--just another day in the taxi.

Finally, our driver is fed up enough that he drives straight and the other taxi and swerves out of the way just in time and gets around him. We are all realized—until the other taxi turns around and starts chasing us. The other driver goes around us at high speeds, almost hitting some goats, a cow, and a woman on the way. When we get out to the main road to town we see that the crazy driver has parked in the middle of the road and gotten out of the taxi and is no where to be found. We pass him in the other lane, barely avoiding an oncoming car, and then we are on our way to town. However, in order to make up for lost time, the driver went about 50 KM/HR over the speed limit, in pouring rain. I feel pretty lucky that our taxi did not flip or get crushed during that exchange.

When we got to town our driver was very apologetic about the other driver, and that was that. The passengers all got off of the taxi and disappeared into the taxi rank and out into town.

I have been asked to elaborate on some stuff that I have written about in my blog. This is nice, because sometimes I feel like I have reached the point where I have nothing else to talk about. So, if you ever want to learn something about what I'm doing here or really anything about this magical place, just post a question in the comment section. Anyways...

1. Tell us a little more about what the after school program you have helped to start is doing. What they're learning what crafts they like.....

The Bhekuzulu Youth Club does crafts and teaches life skills. So far, we have done pretty simple crafts, such as self portraits, picture frames, and bracelets. Unfortunately we haven't the chance to progress because of the rogue church who moved into our old space and now because of the school holidays. However, we are starting with a bang next week and are going to be doing more intricate crafts. This includes beading, sewing bags, and making wire cars (kids' overwhelmingly favorite toy here). We have done a number of lifeskills lessons such as hygiene, teenage pregnancy, team building, and nutrition. Lessons coming up are HIV/AIDS, crime, alcoholism (a HUGE problem in my village/South Africa), manners, etc. I will keep this blog up to date on our goings on, since this is club is my baby and my favorite part of my "job" here.

2. What is a day-in-the-life of a person in your village like? Are all people farmers? Do they all have cows? Goats?

My municipality suffers from a 89% unemployment rate. This means that many people in my village stay at home all day. There is lots of hanging out (men) and cleaning (women). The people who have jobsin my village either work at one of the schools, at the shoe factory in the neighboring village, or maybe work at a store in town (Estcourt). People who work at home may heard goats or cows. There are a TON of animals in my village. Owning lots of cows is really important here, as you use them to pay lobola (bride price) for your wife when you want to get married. Many people don't get married because they can't afford to pay the price to their bride's family. I would say that a sad thing about my village is the prevalence of alcohol. there are many shabeens (bars) in my village, and many of them open before I am even out of bed in the morning. Drunk men are my constant nemesis. I have never gotten terribly bothered by a drunk (in a scary way) but I do get harassed all the time, especially since a bar is across from my house. I have to say though, for kids drinking is hard to avoid. Boredom in the village is overwhelming, so many kids just start to drink to fill up the empty hours.

3. Does everyone have a garden? How is a garden watered, in 100 degree weather? What do people grow in their gardens?

Many people do garden in the village. We are trying to start a garden initiative at my center by helping start "door sized gardens" at people's houses. This means that we are just trying to support people gardening for nutrition at their houses. So far, it has been going well. It is difficult for BSSP to start a garden at our site because the volunteers expect to be paid for their labor in money, instead of the vegetables that are being produced. This kind of defeats the purpose of us having a garden (we would do it to save money for our feeding schemes). People generally grow cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and pumpkin (really it is squash). You don't need to worry about watering here, because it rains almost every night during the summer.

4. When you are waiting in line to cook, what are the other two families cooking, before you?

My family cooks classic Zulu food. I eat with them a couple of times every week, but do my own cooking just so I can be a bit more comfortable. "Classic Zulu cuisine" includes phutu (maize that looks like a cross between couscous and rice), chicken, beef, spicy fish, cabbage, beetroot, squash, and lots of various things that kind of look and taste like curry. Because there are so many Indians in KZN (where I live), Indians spices sneak into Zulu food. mmmmmmm.

5. Sometime ago, you were thinking of starting a bakery. Has anything come of that thought?

The bakery is coming along slowly. Like I mentioned before, we already have the funding in and all the supplies purchased. We are waiting to have the stoves delivered until we have a building to put them, which I consider to be particularly essential :). Once the building is there, which could be in a couple of months, there will be a training for the bakery employees and we will have a fancy grand opening. I will keep you all posted.

OK, I guess those are all the questions for this time (from my mom, haha). Enjoy International Obama Day tomorrow, I know I will!

so, as many of you may remember, my center has had a change of address. it has been a difficult change--we are now operating in a mud building that is electricity free and is waaaaay too small for all of us to function. ugh. totally sucks.

having to walk 20 minutes to get to work gets me out into the village a whole lot more, which i am definitely enjoying. before, i would walk around the fence to next door and get there in about 1 minute.

so, today, i decided to go the long way over to my center with my bike. it was romantic at first, until i hit the long stretches of fields with grass that come up to your waist. i had decided to take a short cut through this field instead of up "the driveway" (tire treads from cars). i was almost there when i came upon a large stream that i was previously unaware of. hmmmm. mysterious. i decided to head back and go around the deep ravine with the stream in it when a gogo (grandmother) comes out of nowhere and yells to me "UYAPHI?" (where are you going?) I pointed to the center across the ravine and another kilometer of fields and then started to walk back to the dirt road so i could avoid the ravine. she started to frantically waive her hands, pointing at the center. so i stopped. she beckoned me over to her. being extremely tired at this point (did i mention it was 100 degrees outside?) and out of breath, i pulled my bike along side me over to the gogo. She then smiled at me and preceded to take my bike from me, pick it up, and wade over the stream to the other side and take it out of the ravine...WHAAAAAT? It was so crazy. Anyways, when we got to the other side i thanked her and she just smiled at me and headed back over the stream where she had come from and out of sight. did i mention that i had never met this woman in my entire life and she is probably about 65-70 years old? it was pretty astonishing.

end of story.

so, as you can probably guess, i am back from my vacation extravaganza. it was pretty nice. i saw alot of animals (rhinos fighting, lots of hippos, elephants, giraffe, etc., a 2 day old baby hippo) went swimming a bunch (mozambique and durban), and spent about 50 hours in some kind of transport (plush buses with ac, small bus with no leg room and exploding tires, and a taxi driven by a homicidal maniac over non existent roads for 3 hours during a downpour). I got to see a new country, which was pretty nice, and met 26 peace corps volunteers who i had not previously known (from namibia, lesotho, mozambique, botswana, and even south africa). apparently mozambique is the peace corps hot spot of christmas. unfortunately for me, it rained almost the entire time we were in mozambique--and we were camping. but, all in all, it was great. jeff was visiting from america, so it was great to see him, and i got to relaaaax which is something i was in dire need of.

now, back to work. like, i said, the new center is, how shall we say, incomplete, and so it makes it a little difficult to get much done. however, the kids return to school next week, and back to the center, which means my club starts up again! also, there is a new assistant director (new position) and she is living at my house. she is my age and university educated. this fact is important because she is very driven and has high expectations and lots of goals that she wants to see the center accomplish. i think it will be a wonderful partnership. yesterday i went with her to town to buy a bed and tv for her room. she is staying in one of the rooms behind my house but sharing our kitchen and bathroom. i’m happy to have a new person to hang out with and do something stuff. we will see how it goes.

it will take some getting used to, though. this means sharing a bath and kitchen with 5 people with 3 different dinners to cook. stand in line. whatever, not a big deal. it just seems like my personal space, which i already don't have that much of, is even less. i'm sure that it will improve, my host sister is very stressed out right now and in a perpetual bad mood. she is the administrator and bookkeeper so the audits coming up are stressing her out. after that she has tons of school work. it's hard to see the sun through the clouds.

anyways...sorry for that diatribe. so a new year brings new things to worry about and projects to work on. i am a little excited about it, but honestly, it is hard to get back into the swing of things. i miss home, and another volunteer from my group quit and went back to the states, making me feel the pull of home even stronger.

america isn't that great, is it?

today was full of very different occurrences. i use the word "different" because they were definitely all new to me.

once a month elderly people in south africa receive their pensions. i think that this is about 700 rand per month, which is about $90-$95 dollars. the women get their pensions as 60, while the men get theirs at 65--something the government is going to equalize soon. the pension day in each pick up point (where the money is distributed) basically turns into a carnival by about 10AM. Sellers of chickens, fruit, vegetables, clothes, and odds and ends descend the area where the money is being distributed (this is usually by village). the pick up point for my entire village is directly across the dirt road from my house. which means that on the first monday of every month there are cars blocking my street and entrance to my house and about 300 people condensed into a very small space. today i decided to walk into the heart of the bazaar with my coworkers because they needed to buy airtime (for their cell phones) and i was interested in the goings-on. because i am rather new to this community some people were seeing me for the first time. (their initial thoughts: WHAT IS A WHITE PERSON DOING HERE??? haha.) so at first it was nice, people greeting me, etc. we walked to the bottle (liquor) store across from me to get the airtime. Usually this place is deserted, but on pension day becomes the epicenter of the festivities. grannies and younger women kept coming up to me and greeting me and shaking my hand, kissing me (on the face or hand), thanking me for being there, or just introducing themselves (i would say this happened at least 30-40 times in about 15 minutes). i really appreciate gogos (grannies in zulu)--they usually (99% of the time) love me--therefore this is my favorite demographic in south africa. i think they just appreciate the fact that a white person is living in their midst-- because of apartheid something they never thought they would live to see. however, as i started walking away from the store i continually was pressed upon by about 15 drunk men who kept wanting to shake my hand (and wouldn't stop until i pulled away) or just following me and yelling crazy things in zulu. my coworkers thought this was hilarious. i, on the other hand, really didn't. as we were walking back to my work people were shouting my name and waving eagerly. the crowd was so packed it was hard to walk down the street. later, when i was driving through the crowd with my supervisor people were yelling and waving some more. craziness. in these situations i like to reflect about what it would be like to be a really famous person or maybe the beatles in the 60's. i do not think i could handle it.

one thing i definitely love about these days is the "african feel". while my village definitely feels "african" and my town does too, some parts of south africa could be mistaken for the united states (cape town, joburg, pretoria, durban). for instance, if you closed your eyes in some parts of durban you might think you were in san diego. the market, the people shouting, the crushing bodies and the friendship of all the community members is really great. it feels like a real market, instead of the one i shop at which feels pretty american, except that they really dont sell anything that i wish they did. the best part of this whole experience was when i was walking to my supervisor's car she was carrying a live chicken in a plastic bag (its little head was sticking out, staring at me). she then opened the trunk of her brand new VW jetta and put the bag (clucking and all) into the trunk (along with a chicken she had been holding by the legs), like it was no big deal. hilarious! before heading to town we dropped the chickens off in her garage so her niece would cook them for dinner.

after dropping off the chicken we drove down a path to find a house of a community member. my supervisor got out of the car to find the house (she really wasn't sure where it was) so she could pick someone up to take to town. about ten minutes later my supervisor comes back to the car with three gogos,a young girl, and what looks like an unconscious woman in a wheelbarrow. after we struggle for about 5 minutes to get the woman in the car, two of the gogos get into the car and are supporting the woman, who has now started to moan and breathe very very heavily. as we sped off into town to the hospital i wonder what would happen if my center was not in the community? would this woman die? what if someone in our area had a neck injury and couldn't be moved without the help of an ambulance or trained professionals? what would happen to them? thinking about this kind of thing on the way to town made me enormously proud to be working at my organization, to be in the peace corps, and to be giving up a plush and fun life in the US to do this work. seeing what we do up close for those who need it most makes you feel this way. i think i will go on more home visits.

the most amazing part of transporting the woman was how laid back the gogos seemed. they were so nice to me and so thankful and happy to be receiving this ride. even though something (i thought) very scary was going on, they were able to joke and smile. it makes you think about how much illness and death these women must have encountered in their lives and how strong they must be if this is how they act in crisis.

come to africa and experience this new life i have. it is amazing.

i have access to a rather fast internet connection today, so i figured i would put a couple of pictures up from recently: These are some of the younger kids who come to my center every day. They get meals twice a day and attend the creche. They are pretty adorable, no?

A recent sunset, i thought it was pretty.

this weekend i went to visit my host's family. it was for a cleansing. basically the point of a cleansing is to clear out the air, sadness, and kind of rejuvenate the house after someone has passed away. my host's brother passed away last month, pretty unexpectedly, so i went to meet her family and lend some support. i was out of town when he passed, so i was unable to go to the funeral service.

it was great to meet the family. it was full of those moments where i thought: "i never imagined i would ever be doing something like this". this happens to me quite often, however, this weekend i was overwhelmed with these occurrences. For instance, i spent my friday night huddled with four other girls on a mattress in the back of a (covered) pick up truck (bakkie) under numerous blankets to keep warm. as i was laying there on the mattress, i thought: this is a really strange way for me, a 23 year old, city-dwelling woman, to be spending her friday night (no bar hopping for me!)

when i jumped into the back i looked up at the stars--something i definitely do not do enough here (because i generally do not go outside at night). they were the brightest i had ever seen stars be. it's interesting coming from a city background and seeing things like this--it's really hard to imagine. the stars in rural america (i swear) do not come close to the ones here. we may not have street lights in my village, but the stars kind of serve as them. wonderful.

after a strange night of sharing a bed with a late sixties/early seventies grandmother (she was wonderful) in a room where the overhead light didn't turn off (??) i woke up to about 7 children screaming at the top of their lungs. also my 17 year old host sister continually came into the room and flipped the covers off my head and playfully asked me: why aren't you up? So, naturally, I figured that it must be 9 or something, and i was a little embarrassed for sleeping in so late. however when i looked over to the other side of the bed my gogo (grandmother) was still sleeping. i then looked at my phone--it was 6am. hmmmm. usually my family sleeps in until about 9 on weekends. apparently everyone was just so excited to be around each other that they had all gotten up extra early. when i finally got up around 730am (beating my gogo by about an hour) every single person i encountered asked me why i was up so early...hmmmm....

the rest of the day I spent reading, holding little babies, and helping cook (jikqe—zulu bread and other traditional food). We ended up leaving around 9pm. I was pretty content. I had spent the day holding babies, having old gogos grabbing and kissing me (on the face/lips/hands) and had met my family’s extended family. My favorite part of the day was when I was holding this 7 month old and I thought—hey, I have been in south africa as long as you! Haha. Not really, I have been here for 8 months now.

this weekend was full of moments that I have to try and hold on to and remember when I’m feeling like crap and I want to get the hell out of here. when I talked to my parents this weekend i promised them that i would try and do this more. i will definitely try.

world news

my obsession with world news is pretty out of control (in part because of homesickness as well as insane boredom). however the way I think about world conflict has generally changed. for instance, when there is a major world event (i.e. Russia invading Georgia) i immeadiately worry about the peace corps volunteers who are there. don't worry, they are safe. so far since being here i have worried about volunteers in china, thailand, georgia, and jamaica. today i checked out blogs about peace corps volunteers in georgia and saw that they are being removed and being sent back to america (or other countries to serve). i can’t imagine how hard it would be to be uprooted from the community that you have built so quickly (usually when you are evacuated by the peace corps you are given little to no notice and are not allowed to return to your homes to say goodbye to your friends and families or even get the rest of your stuff!). that totally sucks.

How I spend my free time

In this week’s installment of “how I spend my free time”

I am now am an excellent (amateur) baker. See proof below.

This is a great development considering that my boss just told me that she wants me to be in charge of the bakery!!!!!! (notice the exclamation points—I am very very excited). I will get to go to the bakery training as well as run the managing of the bakery. the plan is that I will run it and then transfer the skills slowly over time to ensure that it is running smoothly! hooray! Thank goodness I helped run angie’s bakery at the west side market with lizzie and judy when I was 14. putting those skills to work!

my computer is working. it's a little wonky, but it hasn't given up on me yet. this means you can all start emailing me again! hooray!

so, my computer is offically fried. apparently surge protectors don't really protect much here. i am going to try and figure out whats wrong (this will happen with a 3 hour taxi ride to durban) so I have to wait until i can do that. ugh. so, this means i will only have internet access at work. which is ok, but you have to fight for the one that has internet. everything will be ok though, i'm sure of it.