So much for my thoughts of a rather quiet, fanfare-less departure from Mabins Village. I thought no goodbye parties or functions were in the works by either Lepelle or my family. I was wrong. They just didn't tell me until the day before, apparently for fear I might say no. And if I thought they had a big to-do in mind, anything even remotely resembling Megan's party, I probably would have (fun as it was, I do not want to be the center of attention for anything anywhere near that elaborate). Luckily, I was assured that it would be just a small gathering to say goodbyes and share some food. Initially, with a smile, I pictured what a 'casual gathering' in the US might look like. Then I realized that if I have learned anything in the past two years it is that South African functions for any purpose have something of a set routine. That's right... an official program (on Lepelle letterhead no less!), speeches, prayers, singing, and of course lots of traditional food. I approached the afternoon with a bit of trepidation, but also the South Africa-developed attitude that what will be, will be and I can just roll with it. The Fare Well Party ended up being quite, surprisingly, lovely. There weren't too many people there- mostly just the folks I've worked most closely with over the past 18 months (Lepelle staff and board members, the Peer Ed leaders, some of the Peer Educators) as well as many members of my host family. There were quite a few speeches, but they were all short and sweet. Amusingly, many, though directed at me, were given in Sepedi. I caught enough of the gist though. I was also given a chance to say a few words and tried my best to acknowledge everyone with a few words of appreciation. I did feel like something of a celebrity with all the cell phone cameras pointed at me and many demands for photos to be taken with me. Lepelle also generously presented me with a few traditional wooden and woven items. After the formal program the afternoon evolved into a really nice time to chat with my South African friends and family. It turned out to be a great way to start saying goodbyes. Though I've been having some trouble believing or wrapping my head around my impending departure, but this made it a bit more real. I had a few misty-eyed moments with Matjatji, the sister I've been closest to here, that made it more evident that is going to be hard to leave some of these amazing people in a few days. Yes, there have been many challenges and rough patches, but I want to hold on to the good stuff.

In these last few weeks here in the village I'm finding it hard to sum up my thoughts and feelings. They are very mixed. I am very excited to be going home, seeing family and friends, etc but there are a few things here I will miss as well.

The heat, however, is not one of those things. While many of you back home are fighting snowstorm after snowstorm, those of us in this hotter part of the world where summer is in full swing only dream of cold temperatures. And just how lovely it would be to jump into a huge snow bank.

Though I've been winding down my involvement in various projects and activities, there have been a few recent work-related items of note:

-A few weekends ago we held a graduation celebration for our second group of Peer Educators who completed the Life Skills Training! It was another typical South African event, with speeches, loud music, dancing and traditional food. The kids were excited to show off their achievement to family and friends, and continued to show dedication to the program by coming up with some songs and short skits for the event with just 1 week notice.Shane, Tebatso and Comfort did a great job in handling the organization of the event, as well as having lead most of the training sessions along the way. The guys are now busy getting ready to start another round of training, while managing the community outreach efforts of the already-trained Peer Educators in 2 villages. Though there may still be some bumps in the road, I'm really proud of their efforts and dedication.

-I've been helping a fellow PCV in the area with a project at one of his organization's Drop in Centers. We are painting a world map mural, which has been a fun and productive project, though with all the detail work it is taking a bit longer than we expected. We finished almost all of the paint work yesterday- just need to add a Peace Corps logo- and will complete the project with some outlining before I leave. This project also brought up some back-to-basics lessons... like mixing paints to create new colors. Who knew it could be so difficult to create purple paint? It's just blue plus red and maybe a little white, right? Somehow it turned out to be NOT so easy. I'll post some photos on my picasa site when I'm able to do some uploading.

-I started teaching my coworkers how to use the internet. This has been a goal, for them and me, for quite some time. However, continuing computer problems had delayed the process, but we are finally getting somewhere. It's pretty exciting to open up that whole world to people- though we're just sticking to the basics of email and google searches for now.

-We are making use of some funding we are receiving through the US Embassy- purchasing some toys and recreational equipment for the Drop in Centers, supplementing the home-based care medical kits, and the big one- getting an irrigation system for the garden! Our funding proposal also included plans for a poultry-raising income-generation project, but we've run into some hitches with getting the land cleared so the coops can be built. About one year after it was supposed to be done, one of our three new plots is finally about ready to be fenced. So hopefully Lepelle will be able to get that project up and running after I'm gone. We already developed a fairly solid project/business plan and are working on making some contacts for help and mentoring, so I'm optimistic about the prospects.

That's it in a nutshell... Just two weeks to go in the village, one in Pretoria, and I'll be getting on a plane!

Happy new year! I'd love to say I'll be better about posting, but no promises...

I spent the holidays traveling through Botswana with some friends, with a side trip to Vic Falls over Christmas. We camped to save money, and that was an adventure in itself. We had good time:

-did an overnight trip in Mokoros (traditional canoes) in the Okavango Delta

-saw the salt pans and some meerkats

-didn't see many elephants in Chobe, but plenty along the highway

-enjoyed the comparisons between our very minimal camping and the decked-out campsites of our neighbors who take these type of trips frequently

-almost ran out of petrol, but were able to buy some from the butcher in a local village

-went white water rafting on Christmas

-climbed in a giant baobob tree

-did lots of driving accompanied by many great cds

Generally a good trip, though I was pretty happy to be back in a real bed after so many nights sleeping on the ground. I've posted some photos (with captions!) on my picasa site (http://picasaweb.google.com/christywahle/Christmas2009BotsZim#)

And now it's 2010 and I'm back in the village, and time is running out. I still can't really believe I've made it this far, but we are now in the final stretch. With PC approval, I will officially be completing my service on March 5. Since I'll have to head to Pretoria for the last few days for medical exams and other stuff I'm down to less than 2 months here. It's kind of hard to process- like most of the rest of this 2 years, there's good, bad and everything in between. Though I'm looking forward to going home, seeing family and friends, being in America, etc... I'm also kind of scared- of readjusting and facing real life. I'm starting the job search, but realize that may take some time. So, I'm going to try to enjoy and get the most out of the rest of my time here, finish my service, maybe do a bit of traveling (here and/or back home) and see what comes.

I just returned to the village earlier this week from another whirlwind bit of traveling"

-COS conference: the nuts and bolts about ending service and leaving SA in a few months, reflection on the past 2 years, some talk about future opportunities, and discussion about how to say goodbyes here and then readjust to America...

-Zambia with fellow PCV Kristen to visit Albert, a friend from grad school at UAB. He's working in Lusaka so we spent some time going into the communities with him to visit the local coordinators and TBAs (traditional birth attendants) he works with at health facilities around Lusaka. It was really interesting to compare and contrast SA and Zambia, as well as PC life versus a perhaps more 'typical' ex-pat lifestyle in Africa. Also spent a weekend visiting Vic Falls! Lots of fun adventures there- sunset river cruise, walking with lions, seeing the falls- though since the rainy season has just started the falls are currently more rock than water, but still a sight to see!

-Back to Pretoria to help facilitate the PC Life Skills training for the SA19 group and their counterparts. It was fun to hang out with other PCVs, the other fun SA17s who were facilitating, and to be able to share my experiences with using the Life Skills training to implement a successful program in the community

And now, back in the village, things are definitely wrapping up for the year. My organization, along with schools and most other NGOs here, is closing down for the holidays. Our Drop-in Centers will continue to run and provide meals for local kids for another week and they will reopen at the beginning of January. The office will be closed until January 11, so I'm heading out next week for a trip to Botswana with a couple of friends. Things in the village get a bit hectic this time of year-- summer heat, lots of people- both at the host family's house and around in the village- all without much to do, etc so it can be a good time to get away. I'll return after Christmas though and spend some time with the host family before everyone heads back out and gets busy with work or school.

And I know I said this last year, but I still can't believe it's Christmastime... the heat (so jealous of the snow everyone's getting back home!), lack of pine trees and decorations just doesn't jive. But that does also make it a bit easier to be away from home for one more holiday season. And I certainly can't complain about having the time to do some more traveling!

I've posted some photos from Zambia on my picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/christywahle/Zambia

If my internet and computer cooperate I'll try to get some captions on these in the next few days...

Another long overdue update- and it’s going to be a short one. I got back to the village last week after a wonderful few weeks traveling around with my Dad (some photos are up on my picasa site!). It was so great to have him here, so see some new parts of the country, have some fun adventures (including close encounters with all sorts of different animals) and show him around my little rural area here. He got to meet the host family (or a large number of them at least), see my hut first hand, eat some bogobe (pap) and morogo (cooked veggies)… the family was very excited to meet him, as were my coworkers. People are still talking about his visit and asking about him and when he’s going to come again. Haha… as much fun as we had, I’m guessing that might be my Dad’s last visit to good old SA.

I’d like to post some more detailed stories, but I’m running out of time for now. I’m already heading out of town again. First off, Pretoria for my Close of Service conference with the rest of the SA17 group. This will be the last organized meeting for the group I arrived with almost 2 years ago before we all head home or off on other adventures in a few months. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and catching up with those I haven’t seen in awhile. I’m not looking forward to all of the discussions about what comes next and all of the paperwork that has to be completed before we leave. But that’s all part of the game I guess.

Then, after the conference Kristen and I are heading to Zambia!! We’re going to visit a friend from grad school who is working in Lusaka. I’m really excited to spend some time learning about his work, and also taking some fun trips- Vic Falls, here we come!

Though I’ve been in and out of the village a lot lately, things are actually going well with my projects here. The peer educator groups are continuing and thriving under the guidance of my fantastic counterparts. The three guys who have taken over leadership of the projects are amazing! First off, they are just good guys- which can be a kind of rare thing here. And I continue to be amazed at how they have stepped up- their confidence and facilitation skills have improved tremendously in the past year. I’m so proud of them, and happy to leave the projects in their care. And that is huge. Sustainability can be a big struggle, and I really seem to have hit the jackpot. Of course I’ll keep working with them my last few months here, but honestly, at this point, they don’t really need my help.

Sorry for the overdue and rather short post, but I’ll try to get some more work and travel stories up here when I get back in December. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! And to those of you in the northern hemisphere enjoy the cool weather for me- summer is here with a vengeance around these parts.

Laundry. Not only is the fetch water/ hand wash/ line dry method more of an undertaking than the good old washer and dryer, but it can also come with some unexpected surprises as well. Over the past couple of months I’ve had a few unusual encounters:

Disappearing Stain

Way back during pre-service training I walked over to visit another PCV and hang out on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We found a shady spot outside to sit and she offered me a mango. I never pass up an offer for a mango straight off the tree (so good!). The only problem is that mangos are one of the worlds messiest foods- juicy and sticky and delicious. I was actually doing very well keeping myself clean until the very end when I lost concentration for just a moment and a big drop of juice cascaded down on to my shirt- hitting both the blue tank top and edge of the white one I had on underneath with bright oranges spots. Once my hands were clean I tried to wipe it off and set about doing my weekly laundry when I got home, attacking the spots more vigorously. Unfortunately this was to no avail. Though the spots faded to yellow, they were still visible on both shirts. Just what I needed- 2 of my limited supply of shirts were now not presentable to wear in public. I put the shirts in a bag and decided I’d try washing again, maybe with some bleach once I was at my permanent site. I tried again at least once, with no improvement. So the shirts got thrown in frustration into a plastic bag in the bottom of my wardrobe. When I moved to my new site the bag came along, but never got unpacked from the big duffel bag that lives under my bed. A couple of weeks ago while packing away my winter clothes I found the bag again. I decided to look at the shirts again to see if maybe the stains weren’t as bad as I thought. To my surprise when I pulled them out, there were no stains to be found! No joke. Not even a trace of the yellow spots on the white shirt. Do stains fade over time? Did I imagine them? All I know is that I now have 2 extra tank tops—just in time for summer.

Ants!

Earlier this week when I did my laundry I also washed my sheets (sadly enough, a big accomplishment for me these days). I started early, before 7am, and finished before it got too hot. When I got home from work in the evening, I went to take everything off the line, excited to sleep on nice clean sheets that night. And that’s when I saw the first ant crawling on my sheets. I brushed it off and reached up to pull off the clothespin and suddenly saw that there was a whole line of ants crawling along the clothesline, right across my sheets. Lovely. Back home, this sort of incident might inspire one to rewash said sheets. Not so much here. My standards for dealing with bugs have certainly changed. I spent the next 20 minutes brushing and picking off ants and trying to inspect the sheets carefully to be sure I didn’t miss anything. Then I shook them out one more time and took ‘em inside. Luckily the ants were just on that one length of line- one of the tree branches-turned clothesline posts must have attracted them somehow. So I was fortunate that they didn’t get to my clothes. And really, there are worse things that can happen to clothes on the clothesline- bird poop, mango fly eggs, wasps…

3am Wake Up Call

A couple of weeks ago I had a rude awakening in the middle of the night- something was stinging my leg. I brushed at it, and got stung again. It took me a second to wake up and figure out what was going on, then I jumped out of bed, out from underneath the mosquito net, thinking whatever bit or stung me was still in the bed. I groped for the light switch and was shocked by yet another sting to my leg. Despite my 3am-disorientation I dropped my shorts and jumped back about 3 feet with lightening speed. Then I focused in and heard a buzzing. So I grabbed my trusty bug-squishing flip flop and attacked the pile of my shorts lying on the floor. I still couldn’t focus my eyes properly to see the little bugger, but even after a lot of good whacks the buzzing kept going. Finally I saw the inch-long hornet-type insect, knocked it onto the hard floor and after several more smacks managed to silence it, and dispose of the little carcass into my grey water bucket. Still confused and smarting I managed to go back to bed. The next morning I had about 5 little red welts on my thigh. Thankfully the hornet or wasp-type critter was not all that potent- the stings weren’t too painful and had mostly faded by that evening. I still can’t really figure out how the thing got to me—I was inside a mosquito net… and it was definitely inside my knee-length shorts. And I had been wearing the shorts for awhile even before I went to bed. I had done laundry that day, so the shorts had been hanging up on the line all day. The only thing I can guess is that maybe it somehow crawled into the pocket and got stuck in there… but why he suddenly decided to attack only at 3 am is beyond me.

(written Sept 12)

Thursday was one of those days- when everything seems to go wrong or all of the little nuisances of life just build up one on top of the other. I woke up around 6:30 and spent some time just lying in bed thinking about nothing in particular, enjoying the relative quiet (just the cacophony of roosters crowing and the sounds of the few buses and taxis passing by), then right at 7am my morning of quiet relaxing contemplation came to an abrupt end. Suddenly my room was invaded with the sounds of banging, welding and soldering. My host family is apparently having some new burglar bars installed on some windows (bars on windows and doors is a totally normal part of life here—it’s actually unusual that some of their windows previously have NOT had bars)... and the guy hired was doing all the work at the house—right in front of my house, to be exact. These noises, and the intermittent losses of power (due, I can only assume, to his power tools blowing some fuse repeatedly). Lovely way to spend the morning. Since I didn’t have to be at the office until the afternoon, I had planned to do a bit of work on my computer and spend some time reading. The intermittent (and loud) workshop noises didn’t exactly do much for my concentration. Good thing I have headphones and some good music. I also felt kind of trapped- every time I opened my door to do anything there was the guy- just staring at me. As much as I’ve come to terms with the fact that I get stared out when I walk around in the village, the one place that is not supposed to happen is at home- I can usually move around in the yard, or sit out on the porch and read in peace. No such luck that day.

Work was also full of frustrations—I went to the office anticipating talking with some of my co-workers about upcoming projects and tasks, but despite there being 4 people in the office for once, after the usual greetings I was basically ignored. Two of them were working on some financial stuff for a little while, and the others seemed totally content to just sit and converse. And then there was tea time for 45 minutes. The one exception to me being ignored was for them to tell me that one of the computers isn’t working (again) and to look expectantly at me, like I can fix it. I swear, I should have studied computers before coming here. It seems that would have been a heck of a lot more useful than public health.

Then I walked over to the high school to support the Peer Educators as they did a presentation for one of the Grade 9 classes. Over half of our group didn’t show up, including some who were supposed to be part of the presentation. Luckily a couple of other kids stepped in and did a good job. Afterwards one of my co-workers said she is hearing different stories about why some of the Peer Educators didn’t show up- ranging from legit excuses to some just not wanting to come and not wanting to be part of the group anymore. So it’s possible that our solid group and successful project is not as solid or successful as we thought. We’ll be talking about that with the kids when we meet with them on Tuesday.

I went back to the office and after teaching a computer lesson where one of the kids didn’t seem to want to slow down and actually listen to what I was saying, I talked with one co-worker about a few things- mostly just how we need to talk about some things soon. And that she wants me to organize and lead a week-long Life Skills workshop in her community (150km away) over the school break--- in two weeks. Ummm... planning ahead? My lack of Sepedi skills? The relative infeasibility of one person leading sessions all day for five days straight? Lack of resources? None of this apparently matters. I told her I’d think about it.

Then half an hour after I got home she called- “Oh I forgot- did the Manager tell you? There is a staff meeting tomorrow. They want to work on the forms and procedures for the Drop In Centers so they can start operating again on Monday.” Nope. No one bothered to tell me- in the several hours I spent sitting at the office. Not even when I told several different people I was planning to go to town tomorrow to run errands, if there wasn’t anything they needed my help with at the office. And those forms and procedures? Yeah, I helped them come up with those about a year ago when the DICs first opened. Then back in July, after a lapse in services, when we finally found out we were going to get renewed funding I emphasized multiple times that we should work on those very things so that they would be ready- in advance- when the funding came through, so that just maybe they wouldn’t have to go through a last minute scramble to get things prepared. But no one stepped up to do the work, or to work with me to get things done. So this time, no, I didn’t change my plans. I decided that their emergency is their emergency. I gave them plenty of chances to do the work, ask for my help, or at least tell me about the last-minute staff meeting.

Besides, after one of those days, I needed the break in town- run errands and get some things I needed to accomplish done, and just relax and chat for awhile with another PCV over coffee and lunch.

Thankfully days like this where nothing seems to go right aren’t too common... but, man, it can be tough to avoid dwelling on things and get my head back in the game.

**update Sept 16- The peer educator group meeting went ok- though not all of the kids were there (some couldn’t come for valid reasons, others I’m not sure), those who did show up mostly seemed committed. And today one of the girls even walked all the way to Bochabelo just to sit in on our training there! We had invited them all to come if they want and, if they are interested, help out… so at least a few of them are still making me proud 

And with my co-worker, we talked more about the purpose of the proposed workshop, which she says is mostly to help guide the youth group leader so she can lead the full training. So we were able to cut that down to a few days, spending half of the time just working together with the leader, then having me lead one or two sessions as an example, then she’ll lead a session or two and we’ll give feedback. Still for various reasons I won’t go into not a perfect situation, but a much better compromise.

After full days of work on Saturday and Sunday, I think the burglar bar-making process has finished, so I am back to my nice (relative) peace and quiet.

Last weekend the remaining members of SA-16 (the group of PCV who arrived in SA just before my group) headed to Pretoria for final paperwork, meetings and medical exams. Later this week they will board planes heading back to the US (either directly or via other travel adventures). Amongst this group is my friend Megan, aka Maapula. She spent her two years of service living and working in good ol’ Metz village, which is a few kilometres down the road and the home of our friendly local post office. Since I moved to this area I’ve gotten together with Megan about once a week or every other week- we walked to the post office, checked for mail and sent letters, vented about our work or Peace Corps, and just chatted about life in general. No matter what we talked about or how lousy my week might have been going, I always left feeling better.

Also, I’d encourage you to check out Megan’s blog- She has some great photos and descriptions of life here in Limpopo…

About a month ago, Megan’s host family threw a big goodbye party in her honor. Some of us local PCVs joined in the festivities and I have to say, it was quite the event! Tons of people, traditional food, a program including speeches and costume changes, a band, cake, dancing, drunken men, a VIP table just for us PCVs... the whole works (I have a few photos up on my picasa page). Despite many challenges, Megan had definitely had a positive impact on her community throughout the past two years- and through those challenges she stuck it out. Not an easy thing to do here. So to Megan and the other SA-16s I just wanted to say congrats, well done and good luck!!

September officially ushers in spring here in South Africa. However, in this part of the country, the Highveld of Limpopo, ‘spring’ seems to be only an imaginary concept, or one so fleeting that you blink and it’s gone. Though other parts of the country (and even the Province) might be different, where I live September brought heat. That’s right- essentially since September1 we’ve had temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius and above. For those of you more used to the Fahrenheit system, we’re talking mid- to upper nineties. All I have to say is Yuck.

I have put away my blanket- it’s few short weeks of usefulness are over. I don’t think I’ll be needing it again in the next 7 months. I’ve also packed away most of my ‘winter clothes’ (a few long sleeve shirts, light sweaters and a couple of sweatshirts, etc)—a few to come home with me eventually, but most have gone into the ‘things to give to people here / donate to OVCs’ pile.

It is once again time for tank tops, skirts and sandals; fans and sunscreen; sweat and copious amounts of water. Ah, ‘spring’.

One of my new projects here is teaching computer lessons to some of the caregivers (field workers) and peer educators. Since I started working with this organization I have been giving informal lessons to some of the staff as opportunities arise- things like shortcuts for manipulating text, creating a budget worksheet in Excel, etc- most of them know the basics, so we’ve just been improving their skills. Many of the field workers and youth in the community, on the other hand, have never used a computer. We’ve had some problems with the three computers in the office, but two of them finally seem to be working consistently. So now I’ve finally been able to set up regular lesson times with some of the local caregivers and kids from our peer educator group. Not exactly one of the things I envisioned doing as a PCV… but so few things here are what I expected, and computer skills are definitely useful. I’m using and adapting some lessons prepared by other PCVs, which has been very helpful in keeping me organized. It’s harder than I would have thought to start completely from scratch (ie- this is a mouse and how you use it, this is how you turn on/off the computer, etc). It can also be a test of my patience. I have gained new appreciation for my friends who are teachers and all of my former teachers. But so far it is going well- the kids especially are very excited and they have the great quality of inhibition in experimenting with all of the different menus and buttons and asking questions. The field workers are doing well, but the language barrier can slow things down a bit, and they are more afraid of ‘doing something wrong’. Hopefully with time they will grow more confident as well.

I get called many different things here. Little kids yell “lekgowa” (lah-hoo-ah) when they see me. It basically means white person, and as few adults try to correct the kids, it’s apparently socially acceptable for them to scream the word over and over as I walk down the street. I try to introduce myself, so they can at least yell my name if they are going to yell something (they are), but that doesn’t often sink in. However, there are times when kids will call me by the name of one of the other volunteers who has lived in the area anytime in the past three years… that’s certainly preferable to lekgowa, but still somewhat irksome- I do realize that us PCVs tend to have one big blatant similarity, but does that have to mean that other obvious differences are ignored and we are considered to be the same person (or at the very least related)?

Men, especially the younger, inebriated variety tend to vary their addresses between ‘hey’, ‘hey you’, ‘yous’, ‘missus’, ‘baby’ and ‘I want to marry you’. Feigning deafness and walking a bit faster comes in handy in these encounters.

I also get the usual cultural greetings- ‘Thobela’, “Dumela’, ‘Re a lotsha’, And though there are a few people who just stare at me when I try to greet in Sepedi, it’s always fun to meet one of the old ladies who doesn’t know what to make of me, and just busts into a wide grin. Things go a bit downhill if they try to talk to me beyond the script of the typical greetings, but that’s when the old smile and nod tactic comes in handy.

Getting back to names… it’s traditional for people here to give visitors a name in the local language. Peace Corps Volunteers usually get named by their host family during PST and for many people, that name sticks with them throughout service. It didn’t work out quite that easily for me. During PST we stayed in a Sepedi speaking area, so my host family gave me a Sepedi name, Mokgadiste (still not positive about the spelling, but it was pronounced something like ‘moh-kHI-djee’). Yeah. Not only did it take me almost the whole of PST to learn how to pronounce it, I never got a clear answer of what it means. The best I could figure is it a name to designate someone as an ‘honored member of the family’. Very nice, but… when I moved up to Venda to start service, they wanted to give me a Venda name. So I became Ndivuwo (the ‘n’ is essentially silent). While also a bit tricky to pronounce, this name means ‘thanks’, because they were thankful I came to live and work with them. I usually introduced myself with both my real and African names, so I always had to be ready to answer to either.

Then, when I moved here to my permanent site, I came back to a Sepedi area. Meaning no disrespect to my PST family I told people here I didn’t have a Sepedi name (I honestly just couldn’t remember how to pronounce it properly at that point). Though my family said they would give me a name, it took them a few weeks to decide. Then my host sister gave me the name Takgalo. It means ‘joy’ and is also her daughter’s name (though she usually goes by a nickname, Mokgadi). She said she chose the name because the family is happy I am here, and she wanted me to have an extra tie to her. Even though many people still call me by multiple variations of my ‘American name’, and some people here laugh a bit when I tell them my local name, it is nice in some ways to have that extra bit to help try to fit in a bit better.

That’s about how I feel about the Saturday event we planned for our peer educator group back in May. It was supposed to be a half-day networking, discussion and fun event for the kids- a chance for them to meet and interact with another peer ed group in the area, talk about what it means to be a role model, set personal and group goals, share some creative expression in the form of dramas, songs, poetry and artwork, and just get out of our village for the day. For the most part, all of that happened. And our kids really seemed to enjoy the day- and that is what matters in the end- that was the Good (and what I try to focus on). Along the way, however, for those of us from Mabins who planned the event and tried to make it work, there were definitely some big bumps in the road. That’s where the Bad and the Ugly came in.

We had been talking and coordinating with the leader of a peer ed group in another village for about a month previous to the event. We were going to arrange and lead most of the program for the day. They have a nice hall (ie good-sized meeting room) they volunteered for the venue for the day, and also agreed to arrange the ‘catering’ (lunch). We had some funding to cover our share of the food costs, as well as transport for our group to get there. We also asked both peer educator groups to prepare some ‘entertainment items’- dramas, songs, poetry, artwork, etc generally related to the topics of the day or the ever-present HIV/AIDS theme. Not too much to ask, right? Basically they had to arrange food (which is something that is done at EVERY SINGLE meeting or event here) and the kids had to come up with a few simple creative items. We had been very clear and consistent about the start time and general plan for the day, but in the end that didn’t seem to matter. To make a long story short, our transport was a bit late picking us up, but that didn’t matter- especially since we had planned to get there early so our kids could practice their dramas. The other group didn’t show up until an hour and a half after we were supposed to start—and they all just had to walk short distances to get there. On top of that, most of them seemed to have no idea why they were there that day, and certainly had not prepared any ‘items’. Now meetings and events do often start late here, but usually kids are on time at least, so I thought we might be starting 30 min to 1 hour late. By the time their leader showed up, I was pretty displeased. Then, after my coworker and I finally managed to actually talk to him he had to gall to tell us we couldn’t start for another hour because their group had to do the cooking for lunch! What?!! It turns out they decided to use this event (that we were essentially sponsoring with some of our funding) as an income-generating opportunity for their group. And that was going to delay everything substantially. Keep in mind, we had transport arranged for later in the day to get home, and I didn’t want to keep the kids out past dark, and we had quite a few things planned for the day. We first tried to explain things rationally- ‘we need to start soon- we have already been waiting awhile, and want to get through everything before it gets late, our kids have worked really hard to prepare their dramas and songs etc, etc’. As he alternately stared at me or just kept insisting they had to cook so we couldn’t start until later, I became increasingly frustrated. I’m sorry to say that’s when the Ugly crept in… my ‘rationalizations’ became more heated and demanding. I didn’t say anything out of line, but I certainly became more… assertive, shall we say. In response, he first stared at me with a completely blank expression, then after a moment or two, turned to my coworker and started talking to her in Sepedi. (I don’t really speak Sepedi, but this guy speaks very good English—so it’s not like he couldn’t communicate with me) Talk about rude. I felt like I had been slapped. I, in my gaping astonishment, tried to gather a modicum of self-control. Then I told them that if he couldn’t muster up the decency to respond to me that they would have to sort this out themselves, but I planned to start the program in 30 minutes. In the mean time I would be inside with our group of kids, finding something to do with them so the day wasn’t a total waste of their time. Then I turned and walked away. Probably not my proudest moment, but walking away was definitely a good idea. Even thinking back on it now the anger just boils up inside of me.

Fortunately our group of kids improved my mood a bit- they jumped enthusiastically into the icebreaker and energizer games I came up with on the fly (some of which were actually planned for later in the day, but I figured we wouldn’t have time for them)- Trainwreck and the Human Knot were both big hits. Once we finally started the planned program for the day with both groups, things went okay. Not perfectly smoothly, but I don’t expect that of any event here any more. When we finally were able to take our lunch break (not a very impressive lunch, I might add, especially given the outrageous price they were charging us) I had a chance to talk briefly with a fellow PCV who works with an organization that has it’s office next door to the one we were working with. He told me his organization has had many problems with this one. They refuse to work with them on anything, and are trying hard to find a new location for their office so they won’t be at all associated. It always helps to be able to vent a bit to someone who understands, and can commiserate a bit. For the rest of the day I tried to ignore the other group’s leadership and focus on the kids and getting through the activities we had planned. Despite the various ups and downs, we all survived the day.

A little more on the Good- I did meet a few nice people- there were the two ladies we met in the morning who had come to do a workshop on bead work for the organization-- no one showed up for them, and they had traveled a long way. We shared our frustrations, and they told me a bit more about the interesting work they do, helping organizations start income-generating activities. My coworker took their contact info in hopes we can call on them to help us out if we make some progress with the local support group.

One of the girls kind of associated with the other peer ed group, but who actually works for AIDS Foundation of SA, befriended me during the day. She was just genuinely nice and we had a good chat. She also was very complementary about the program we organized and our group's efforts. That was nice to hear.

Above all, our kids made me truly proud- they didn’t complain at all through all the trials of the day (at least not that I heard), they all actively participated during the discussions and activities, they were eager to go along with the games I came up with last minute as we waited in the morning, and above all their ‘creative item’ efforts were truly amazing. I had expected just a short simple skit, maybe a song and one or two of them reciting poetry. But they all really got into the act- writing and performing two good and theme-appropriate dramas- complete with props and costumes (!), several songs, three original poems, and three pieces of artwork.

I must say they put the other group, with their decided lack of effort and preparation, to shame. And they enjoyed what they were doing- though we had arranged one afternoon that week for a practice session, they insisted on 2 additional afternoons of practice as well as some time before the event on Saturday. All that to say that I’ve really been blessed to work with such a great group of kids. I can only hope that they have learned or gained something by being part of this group and that maybe it will help them in the future to pursue and reach some of their goals. They really are bright and talented kids and it’s fun to work with them, despite some of the challenges along the way.

Here's one of my long-overdue posts... I'll start with some vacation recaps. More to come later about my projects in the village and a week with the monkeys.

When my friend came to visit in May we had a great time traveling around- first I subjected her to a couple of days in the village- complete with bucket baths and some interesting encounters with my host family. We took a quick trip to visit Jessica the Hippo near Hoedspruit- yes, a domesticated hippo… at least so far she’s pretty tame. It’s a bit scary getting up close and personal with one of the “most deadly creatures in Africa”, but Jessica is in some ways more like a big (very big!) dog—she even eats dog food and sleeps in the house with her human friends/”parents”. After a few days through Blyde River Canyon (including a little adventure on the giant bridge swing) and Kruger we headed to Cape Town for a few days. The city is very different from any part of SA I’ve been in thus far—much more westernized in many ways, and just a beautiful area. The views from atop Table Mountain are stunning. We did a couple of great tours in the area- one through the winelands, which was a lot of fun- nothing like starting the day off with a display of how to open a champagne bottle with a sword, several glasses of champagne… followed by more great wine and food throughout the day (though my recollections of exactly which wines and at which wineries is a little fuzzy ;) ). We also did a great tour of the Cape Peninsula- biking through part of the national park on the cape, hiking between Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, seeing the foam line “dividing the oceans”, visiting the penguins in Simon’s Town and Seal Island. There were tons of lovely panoramic views along the way. It’s just so different from my part of the country here… in so many ways. But I can completely empathize with those who fall in love with the city and never want to leave. It certainly has a lot to offer—and I could definitely stand to spend more time admiring the views.

We stopped in Joburg for a day or two before my friend started her long journey home. We had such good luck with all of our travels up until then, and given our track record living/traveling in Europe, we should have known it was too good to last. Our flight arrived a bit late in the evening, so we were ready to crash when we got to the backpacker… but that’s when our luck ran out. First they wanted to put us in a more expensive room than we had booked (and charge us the extra cost of course), so we asked to see the other room. It was outside, up some very dark back stairs, and off a courtyard area- with a very sketchy shared outdoor toilet and shower stall. The room was tiny, not particularly clean, and cold. We debated sticking it out for the night (I’m used to that sort of thing by now), but decided to go back to the other room. After disturbing the guy working there again, taking him once again away from his bartending duties and football viewing, we headed back up to the indoor, more expensive, but not much nicer room. Before I even had a chance to put down my backpack we were both startled to see a movement on one side of the room. It was a GIANT rat that darted out from behind a chair, around the chair, and to the curtains, scurried spasmatically trying to scale the curtains semi-unsuccessfully for what seemed like an eternity before it finally got it’s footing and disappeared, we assumed, out the window. We both stood there frozen in mild shock for a few moments before freaking out. It was now after 10pm and our options seemed limited. I was about to admit defeat, try to shut the window and pray we didn’t hear any more noises in the night, but my friend was a bit more active and assertive in her response. She immediately pulled out her guidebook and started calling places to see if we could get a room elsewhere. Unfortunately there was a big cricket game going on in town so many places nearby were booked. We finally got a positive response from a B&B in the ‘artsy’ neighborhood. ‘Positive’ may be too strong a word- they reluctantly admitted they had a room, even though they don’t usually take walk-ins- I don’t think our story of wanting to get out of the rat-infested backpacker impressed them much, but they agreed to give us the room for the night. Though the prices were much higher than we had planned to spend, we stayed two nights- it’s hard to resist a little extra luxury and comfort once you’re in it. And the neighborhood was very cute as well, providing a nice area to walk around and cute local restaurants. The last day and a half of the trip went fine- and our last stop, at the Lion Park was a definite winner—it’s hard to resist the appeals of a place that lets you play with lion cubs! The little fellas were quite playful and friendly- though at one point I had to stop and think about how close I was getting to potentially dangerous feline claws and jaws. I’ve posted some photos of the whole trip up on my picasa site.

Wow, it's kind of hard to believe it's already July. Six months ago it seemed so far away, and I often wasn't sure I would make it here that long. Once again I seem to have horribly failed my 'duties' as a blogger. I thought I had posted at least once since my vacation in May, but apparently I imagined that. I certainly have some vacation stories to tell (and I have posted some photos of that trip and my Swaziland trip on my picasa site), and I will try to get some of that up in the next few weeks. And it's not that nothing else has happened in the meantime. Things have been up and down, as usual at the office, with both successes and challenges. I do need to post a few updates about the Peer Educator group- the training ended well and we are getting ready to move on to the next step once school starts up again after the winter holidays. Yes, it is winter here, though up here in the northern parts of Limpopo Province winter is relatively mild- chilly temps overnight, but man... that African sun can still heat up the days!

It's honestly just difficult sometimes to sit down and write about life here. At times I don't want to think too hard about it for various reasons. Sometimes I'm not comfortable sharing things on a public forum (and it's possible that there are things I don't want PC reading...). Mostly it's just the the ups and downs. If I'm not fast enough to write about the ups, the downs can snatch away my motivation and ability to see things from a more balanced perspective. But, as I mentioned, there are some things I want to share.

So... lots of back-dated updates to come- just not right away. I'm heading out of the village for the next week to do some work/volunteering of a slightly different sort. More on that as well when I get back in a week. In the meantime, here's part of a journal entry I wrote a few days ago.

July 9, 2009

Last night I joined my host family at a traditional event. Two of my host sisters, their husbands, the five smallest kids and I piled in cars and drove to the next village to see the boys at the circumcision school perform. Circumcision school involves the traditional “going to the mountains”, traditional learning, and of course circumcision for young boys in the villages. Two of the kids in my host family went last year and were circumcised and are there again this year to complete their traditional education. The boys range in age from 7-13, though most are 12-13 when they go to the school. It takes place for 2-3 weeks in June each year during the long school winter break. During the last week the boys are allowed to come into the communities, wearing traditional clothing (grass skirts and such) and they ask for offerings to buy bread, and some days put on small shows of dancing, which is what we were going to see last night. Beyond that, I don’t know much about the traditional school because what happens there is supposed to be a closely-held secret among the men who have gone through it. Unfortunately they did not start last night until after the sun set, and given the lack of other lighting in that remote part of the village, it was very difficult to see much of anything. Not even my host family was able to pick out their kids from the lineup of 60+ boys. No photos allowed either. I asked the family before bringing my camera and they weren’t sure. At the site they asked around a bit and found that another man had a camera the night before. So I pulled mine out and took a few photos of the little kids as we were waiting for the traditional school boys to emerge from the veiled area where they camp and were apparently eating their dinner. Within the next 10 minutes 3 different men came over and told my host sister that we were NOT allowed to photograph the boys. I had sort of been expecting that, so wasn’t too worried. I quickly apologized a put my camera away. Not that I would have gotten any good photos in the dark anyway. Once the boys were led out we joined the crowds lined up to watch as the boys were brought forward in groups of about 10 to dance. Despite my host sisters’ explanations, I was still a bit confused by the entire proceedings. At one point a bunch of men from the crowds rushed forward to surround the dancing group. I have to admit, I was a bit startled/frightened—keep in mind I don’t go out at night here and suddenly I was in the midst of a large crowd of villagers in the dark, feeling very much like an outsider. My host sister was also pulling me slightly away from the crowd, but then told me that one of the boys’ skirts had fallen down, and the men were going to help shield him until they could get him re-clothed! We ended up leaving not too long after that- between the ‘cold’ (probably 50-60 degrees) and the limited vision, my host sisters decided they had had enough.

It's been awhile now... but as an update, the half marathon went well. All 21 kilometers. I walked with a friend, and we weren't exactly going for any records, but we enjoyed lovely scenery, conversation, and the water/snack stops- for 3 hours and 45 minutes. We had two guys in our group who ran the ultra marathon- 56km! Now that's an accomplishment. In comparison it makes me feel rather silly for soreness of my muscles the next day. Regardless, it was a fun weekend. After a few other adventures I don't want to post about here, I headed to Swaziland with another PCV for a few days of vacation. Swaziland is a small, but beautiful country almost completely surrounded by South Africa (and a bit of Mozambique). With rolling green hills, mountains and rivers there are lots of opportunities for outdoor activities, and we took full advantage in our limited time. We went on several hikes (with a couple of misadventures along the way- including some confusion over paths and me getting attacked by little hornet-like bugs at the top of a summit, which led to us racing back down the steep mountainside without much chance to enjoy the view). We also had a full-day of outdoor activities- we signed up to do a full day of white water rafting, but since the river was a bit too low for that, we got a half day of rafting (only up to class 3), then tubing down the rapids, then abseiling (rappelling down a rock face over the river) and a bit of kloofing (jumping off a 10+m cliff into the turbulent waters below a waterfall). Thanks to some good luck I actually have some photos of all of this (there was a couple taking photos and video to make promotional materials for the tour company that day), which I'll try to post soon. After a very enjoyable holiday in Swaziland I headed back to site and village life and work. The peer educator group is still going well, despite some issues with lack of advance preparation by one of my counterparts. We meet every week as a planning team to discuss how things went at the previous session and decide 2-4 weeks in advance who will be responsible for leading which parts of each session. In my mind, that should be more than enough time to prepare, especially since the manual we are using is great and lays out all of the lessons very explicitly. Yet still we can be in the middle of a training session, turn over facilitation to someone and be met with excuses of 'not having time to prepare'... due to things that came up that day! I have to remember that planning in advance is not something most people here are used to doing. Sill... it can be frustrating. But last week went much better and we started talking with the kids about some plans for the end of the term when they are finished with the training and can start organizing activities to share their knowledge with their peers.

Things were pretty slow in the office this week as most of my coworkers were out most of the week helping with election activities.

I'm now getting ready for another fun adventure- even though I feel like I just got back from vacation, it's time to head out again! A good friend from home is coming to visit! We're going to spend some time in the village and in some of the surrounding area, then head to Cape Town for a few days! I'm so excited to see my friend, and to have someone from home see where I live and get a glimpse of my life here. There are so many things here that are hard to explain. You just have to experience it...

I'm getting ready to head down to Sabie for the Longtom Marathon tomorrow. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who contributed!! I really appreciate it, and so do the kids who will benefit from a good education! I'll let you know how the loooong walk goes. I'm going to be kind of busy the next couple of weeks (including some vacation travel) so it might be awhile before I post again, but then I should have some good stories to tell and photos to post. I did post a few new photos in a couple of folders on my picasa website last week- some more pics of my host family and some of the peer educator group.

It’s been one of those weeks, fairly typical of life here. Some days (or hours) are good, some not so great. I felt like I was busy, but still spent plenty of time reading and finding ways to occupy my time. Most of my accomplishments and ‘busy-ness’ were related to the peer educator group- between planning for and holding this week’s session, and planning for the next couple of weeks. We had some rough patches during the session this week- again, there was a potential scheduling conflict (which seems to be the norm now) of learners staying after school for tests and extra lessons, but that all got moved, so we went ahead as usual. I guess I hadn’t done the best of planning with my co-facilitators, and when we got to one of the activities that they were supposed to lead, things got a bit chaotic, and I ended up taking over, which was not ideal. But it was a good lesson for us all, so we are now going to work harder at doing more advance planning and I am going to work at taking a step back and letting my co-facilitators take more ownership of the group. I’m trying to capacitate them so that this project will hopefully be sustainable and continue full steam after I’m gone. I met with one of the other facilitators today and we had a really good planning meeting, so I think things will go more smoothly next week. We also met with one of the nurses at the clinic to ask for her help with an upcoming session. She’s amazing- extremely dedicated to her job and it’s obvious that she really cares about the patients and community, and is really into prevention education as well. She was more than happy to help us out, providing some good resources, and agreeing to lead a session in a few weeks on STIs and HIV. There were also those slow parts to my week- yesterday we were supposed to have a meeting to plan an upcoming TB education campaign. That got cancelled last minute because someone from the Department of Social Development was supposed to come and review some of our work. Then, they didn’t show up. It was one of those potentially busy days when I actually ended up doing pretty much nothing. A great TIA reminder (This Is Africa)… I’ve realized that even though I would like to be blogging more often, I’m usually just not sure what to write about. There honestly isn’t a whole lot of variety here lately. I do realize that even what’s become routine for me is still very different from life at home, but I’m not really sure what anyone is interested in hearing about. As such, I thought I would try to make this a bit more interactive. So…. if anyone has any questions about my daily life, experiences, or thoughts on related subjects, here’s your chance. Post your questions in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them in upcoming posts.

Yesterday I managed to get some good training in for the half marathon... not fully intentionally. I was going to make the trek to the post office, and since it was nice out in the morning and not too hot yet, I decided to walk the 5-6km to the main road and catch the bus there instead of in my village (there are a couple of buses that come all the way into the villages a couple of times a day and go to either Hoedspruit or the other direction to Trichardtsdal). The bus (which is the cheaper public transport option) was taking longer than expected to come through the village so I just caught a taxi to get the Metz, where the post office is located. From the drop-off along the main road it is a 20-30 minute walk to the post office. I got there, bought stamps and picked up two awesome packages (thanks Dad and Aunt Shirley!!!), and headed back to the main road. By this time it was starting to get hot out so the walk back to the main road was slightly less pleasant. A taxi came by almost as soon as I got to the road, but that was where my luck ended for the day. Trying to go back into the village in the middle of the day is always a gamble. In the mornings and evenings there are somewhat predictable taxis and buses that go in and out, as well as a few people with cars going in or out for work (teachers and such- many of whom I've gotten to know along the way here) who I can sometimes get a ride with. However, between about 10 and 2, there is often not much traffic along the road into the villages, especially the public transport. Most people who live here just wait in the shade up at the main road until someone comes along they can ride with. I don't really like to wait- even if I get a ride somewhere along the way, it seems more productive to me to at least start off walking. And yesterday was one of those little-to-no traffic days - I kept hoping that a taxi would come along, but no such luck. So I ended up walking the whole way back too. Usually I don't mind that so much, but I hadn't really prepared to walk quite that much. I probably should have worn different shoes and carried more water with me (the one bottle I had with me was not quite enough with the building heat and unrelenting sun) and brought some sunscreen, as my one application before leaving in the morning didn't quite last the day. Needless to say I was a bit tired, thirsty and sunburned by the time I reached home and collapsed. Don't get me wrong, mail is always worth the trek... and at least I got some good exercise!

I just wanted to put up a quick post about an upcoming event I'm going to be participating in...

the Longtom marathon. It's actually a half- and an ultra-marathon, and I plan to participate in the half. I'd love to impress you all and say I'm going to run the half marathon, but that's just not going to happen for me right now (I could give a bunch of good reasons, but no one wants to read a bunch of excuses :) ). Instead, I will be walking the whole 21.1 km with some fellow non-runner PCVs. The event is on March 29 in Sabie, Mpumalanga Province, not too far south from where I live. It starts at the top of the Longtom Pass and goes downhill most of the way into Lydenburg. Many Peace Corps volunteers will be taking part, so it will a great chance to get together for the weekend. Beyond the social and athletic incentives, the purpose of the event is to support the KLM foundation (www.klm-foundation.org). The organization was founded by two PCVs who served here in South Africa a few years ago. They decided to hook up with the Longtom marathon as a fundraiser. Each year, they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent secondary school in Mpumalanga - Uplands College. It's an amazing chance for these kids to get a great education and open up a lot of future opportunities. The four children who have been chosen so far are excelling in all respects.

I really don't like trying to solicit funds, but some people have asked how they can support the work I'm doing here. And since we don't really need anything for the other projects I'm working on right now, this is a good cause. Seriously, no pressure, but if you are interested, any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $5 or $10, it is much needed. If you would like to make a donation, please go to the KLM website and just click on the 'donate' photo (it's a secure site).

Make sure to put my name in the white box where it asks for the Longtom person you want to sponsor.

Thanks so much for your support!

Last week when I went to the post office (in another village way down the main tar road), I met up with another PCV to walk and talk. Having other volunteers around is really important- there are times when you just need someone to vent to, commiserate with, or just basically someone who understands. I can attempt to explain to coworkers and my host family some of the challenges unique to our situation of living and working here, in a culture an environment so unfamiliar. And though they always friendly and try to relate, there is still a disconnect. I figured it was mostly due to the fact that none of them have ever really been in any sort of similar situation. Then my friend took me to meet a couple of women at an NGO in her village. One of the women was out for the day, but we spent a couple of hours talking with Rejoice, who is the OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) Coordinator for the organization. It was amazing-- not only was Rejoice really enthusiastic about her work (she and my friend talked at length about a couple of project ideas they are working on), but she really seemed to understand what we, as PCVs, are doing here and many of the challenges we face day-to-day. "You are like a tree. All of these branches and leaves are your ideas and projects. But a tree has roots and needs to be watered and nourished. If you do not receive support here from the people you are working with, all of the leaves will wither and not survive." Yeah. That's pretty much it. It's not that the concept itself is so novel- though the tree analogy is pretty good, but the fact that this came, unprompted from a South African woman working at a local NGO. Granted the NGO she works at is much more highly functioning and well funded than most of the others around here, but there's probably a significant correlation between the motivation/ideas/worldview of the staff and the operation of an organization. It was just refreshing to talk with Rejoice. It gives me some hope that maybe other organizations can learn from their examples if they can learn to work together. And I might be able to collaborate with them on a few projects as well.

Speaking of projects, we had another pretty successful week of Life Skills Training. There were no schedule conflicts, school closings or downpours, and we had 22 students show up! We decided to give them a break on last week, though the ones who didn’t come last week missed out on some food provided by Lepelle because they had to take a short assessment on knowledge and attitudes that the rest of the group completed last week. It was a bit intimidating to face a group that twice the size from last week, but it went well. Many of the kids were pretty shy at first, not wanting to talk in front of the group. But after a fun energizer/icebreaker activity they started warming up a bit. We reviewed some information from last week about what life skills are and why they are important. Then we had them break into groups to discuss scenarios involving peer pressure. Each group had to come up with a short role play of their situation and come up with a way to show how they, as peer educators, could support and encourage the good decisions made by the characters in their scene. I was very impressed by how well they worked together in their groups and some of the creativity and acting abilities displayed. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with these kids, and am hoping that they are also enjoying the sessions and getting something out of them as well.

My sincere apologies to any of my faithful readers out there who are still checking in... After a great holiday week in Durban (if you're going to spend Christmas away from home and family, what could be better than a day on the beach then a movie in a lovely movie theater?), I spent two wonderful weeks at home. I'm so thankful I was able to be there for my sister's wedding :) And it was so nice to see so many friends and family members, even though I really wish we had all had more time together. I've been back in South Africa for over a month now, which is hard to believe in some ways. It has not been easy transitioning back into life and work here. That's part of why I've been so delinquent with blogging. But I'm more or less getting back into the swing of things here, and it's definitely time for some updates!

Transitioning back and forth between South African summer and DC winter was a bit of a shock to my system, and then I had to do it all over again! It is definitely still summer here, though we have thankfully been getting quite a bit of rain. That not only provides cooler temperatures, ample and consistent water for drinking, bathing, and washing, but has also transformed the land over the past couple of months. When I arrived left Mabins in December, this is was the view from my front porch:When I returned in January, the landscape was transformed by the growing millies (which have gotten taller still since I took this photo):The down side of the abundance of rain is the pools of water left everywhere, which leads to… my current arch nemesis: mosquitoes! Those little buggers are everywhere and they apparently find me to be a very tasty treat. So I’ve been pretty consistently suffering from numerous bites. And I seem to be somewhat overly sensitive to some of these critters, resulting in large (1-2 inch diameter!) itchy welts. Not so much fun, but it makes me extremely grateful for the mosquito net that protects me from these hungry nuisances overnight. In other news, work has been up and down as usual. I was relatively busy for awhile helping to write and edit several grant proposals. Then there were some slow patches where pretty much everyone else from the office was off at various meetings, workshops or errands. But I do have one exciting new development- with the help of another PCV and the leader of a local youth organization, my coworker and I are starting a Life Skills Peer Educator Training (that last PC training in Durban back in December has actually proven productive). We talked briefly about the program in all of the grade 10, 11 and 12 classes and had close to fifty kids apply to participate. In order to make the group manageable, we narrowed the applications down and selected 24. We had our first session yesterday. Unfortunately, in typical SA style there were several unforeseen competing factors- school let out several hours early as many teachers were attending a workshop near Tzaneen, it was pouring down rain most of the afternoon (making it difficult for the kids to get back if they went home when school let out), and one of the donor agencies came to Lepelle for a meeting. That last one was not so much unforeseen- we did actually know about it a week in advance, but of course they showed up 3-4 hours late, so MC had to make excuses and leave partway through. We ended up with a group of 11 kids. Not too bad, given the circumstances I suppose. And in many ways it will probably be easier to work with a smaller group, and we know that these kids who did come are pretty committed. We want to try and stick to our original mandate that they have to attend that first session to continue to participate. So I’m not sure what happened with the other half of the group, but the ones who did make it seemed really excited to be there and take part in the group. We are hoping to complete a life skills training with them throughout this school term, including some extra emphasis on how to facilitate for their peers, then next term they will be peer educators- hopefully we can get them into some of the classrooms to pass on some of the knowledge and skills they learn and develop during this training. That’s the plan at least. We’ll see how it goes week by week.(A photo of the kids during the session- I will try to get some better shots in future weeks- they really did seem interested!)One major challenge is language. Even though secondary school students are supposed to be receiving all of their instruction in English, some of them are not very comfortable with the language. And I haven’t made much progress with Sepedi—certainly not enough to even attempt to facilitate any trainings. So on the one hand, it’s great to have MC working with us, as she can translate when needed. But she’s sometimes a bit too enthusiastic about motivating the kids and when I don’t know exactly what she’s saying, it’s hard to cohesively co-facilitate or lead a discussion. But overall, despite a few kinks to be ironed out, it was a good day. Hopefully the momentum from that first session will continue in the following weeks… And now that I’ve finally started up again, hopefully I can get some posts up more often (and maybe more photos too!)…

In the midst of finishing up some things at the office, packing for my next trips and spending time with my host family, I've neglected to finish my blog updates as intended. So the rest of the KZN holiday, Thanksgiving and life-skills training stories will have to wait.

I'm getting ready to head out for Durban via Pretoria (and my wonderful host family has once again hooked me up with a great transport connection- one of the relatives from Pretoria just happens to be heading back today and is going to drive me all the way to the bus station so I can catch my overnight bus to Durban! I love avoiding kumbi rides- especially with luggage. Aside from maybe a few short trips around town in Durban I shouldn't have to get in another kumbi for almost an entire month! Whoohoo!). I'll be there for about 10 days with some PCV friends, celebrating Christmas I suppose, though it still feels nothing like the Christmas season with the absence of cold weather, holiday decorations and Christmas carols... But it will be nice to spend time with friends, enjoy the beach (at least the summer heat lends itself to that) and other diversions of city. Then on New Years Eve I'm boarding a plane for America! I'm really looking forward to catching up with family and friends for two weeks (including a new little cousin!), and of course celebrating my sisters wedding :)

Since I probably won't be online very much in the next week or two I'll take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Had a really good day with the host family yesterday. Early in the morning my host sister Matjatji helped me with my laundry. It started with my innocent request to borrow the laundry buckets, which evolved into her insisting that I give her my bedding to wash. I initially refused, telling her that I would wash them myself. To which she told me that 1)no, it is too hard for me, 2)she wants to do it for me and it is her duty as my sister, and 3)she basically wasn’t going to leave me alone until I relented. In the end she proved more stubborn that me and I told her she could help this once but that I would be watching so that I could learn and next time it won’t be ‘too hard’ for me to do myself. In all honesty I had been putting off washing my bedspread because it is extremely cumbersome to manhandle through the washing process. So I was very grateful for the assistance. She got another bucket and washed the bedding while I worked on my clothes so we were able to chat while we worked, which made the work go faster and I always enjoy talking with Matjatji anyway. I’m sure my clothes washing is still not up to their standards and probably a subject of amusement for the family, but at least the criticisms have abated.

In the afternoon I went to sit out on my porch and write a few letters. Two of the girls (there are now several additional children hanging out and/or staying at our house for the holiday season and a couple of the family members have gone to visit other family) were playing various little make-believe games (as best I could tell from their actions, given my limited understanding of Sepedi). Before long they came over and asked if they could write too. I gave them each some paper and before long several of the other kids had joined in writing and drawing and playing around with paper and markers on my porch. I got out the camera, which was an instant big hit. A couple of the older kids (who speak very good English) started asking me more about where I come from, etc, so I went and got out my big world map poster and we talked a bit about geography and different countries and places we want to visit. Then they started teaching me some Sepedi words. Eventually as the sun set the kids scattered for home, chores, TV, etc but one of the boys told me before he left that he “learned a lot today”. So maybe even if projects at Lepelle continue to progress slowly I can be satisfied with other things here. And besides, two out of the three Peace Corps Goals deal with cross-cultural relations. Even if there are days when I need a lot of alone time, I think overall I’m doing ok on the cultural relations and exchange front. Two out of three isn’t too bad.

I think it’s about time I wrote a bit about the past few weeks.

Vacation (part I)

Elizabeth, a fellow PCV and I decided to take advantage of some of our holiday leave (in country only) the week of Thanksgiving. As we had to be in Durban the following week for a PC training, and neither of us had been further south in the country than Mpumalanga Province, we decided to head down to KZN for the week. We thought about trying to split our time between hiking in the Drakensburgs and other activities along the coast, but opted to spend the whole week along the coast so that we could join up with the KZN PCVs for a Thanksgiving celebration near Saint Lucia. We didn’t actually make a final decision on this plan of action until we were underway in our vacation, but having rented a car for the week, it was nice to know that we had the flexibility to really do what we wanted.

The week before we left I spent time finishing up some things at the office (I thought I might be gone for an extra week, and not return until after the office closed for the year—turns out I didn’t need to worry about that…), planning and packing for the trip. And trying to do some laundry before I left. Unfortunately, the rainy days I appreciated so much for their cooling effect on the temperature suddenly became my nemesis. I really just needed one morning to be somewhat clear so I could do my wash (outside) and hang everything up for a couple of hours to dry (outside). I received no cooperation on that front from the clouds. There were a few hours of patchy sunshine throughout the week, but only after I’d left for work, and by the time I got home the rain clouds were threatening again. So finally the day before I left I did a bucketful of wash in my room and hung everything up all over my small room, left my fan running full blast and hoped that things would dry. Thankfully, by the time I left early the next morning almost everything was dry enough to pack.

We planned to meet up in White River, where another friend of ours has recently moved. From my village, though the distance is less than 200km, it can apparently take as many as 6 different taxis and 5 to 7 hours to get there. With a little help from my host sister, who works near Bushbuckridge (one of the stops along the way) I got there via a bus, car (my sister got us a ride partway that cut out several taxis), and two taxis, in just about 4 hours.

White River is one of the towns here that feels almost like it could be in America. My friend was recently moved there from a very rural village. She went from being 2 hours from town with no running water and working in the community without a real organization for support, to living in flat with running hot water at a very well-run organization with roommates and coworkers with cars and in walking distance to pretty much anything she needs. It’s a bit surreal stepping into that environment just for a day, and I know it’s been a tough transition. It might sound like it would be an easy adjustment—back to most of the conveniences of life back home, but having lived in a village here, and with the expectations you build up for what PC service will entail (including all of the relative hardships), it’s not easy to go between the two ends of the spectrum here.

But we had a good time catching up and enjoying some of the benefits of life in town before Elizabeth and I headed off the next morning to pick up our rental car. We arrived at the rental place much earlier than anticipated (thanks to a slightly harrowing ride from her coworker) and thought we might have to sit and wait for a long time. We really lucked out when one of the employees came in, even though the office wasn’t supposed to open yet, and set us up with our car—a much nicer car than we had reserved since ours wasn’t ready! So for the price of the little chico (VW hatchback that is very small and does not have power steering) we got a nice big sedan! We were very excited to be traveling in even more comfort than we had anticipated 

It took almost the whole day to drive down from Nelspruit to Saint Lucia, but despite a few nasty storms and some frustrating construction areas, it was a nice drive- we were right near the Swaziland boarder for awhile, then headed down the coast. It was a very lovely, scenic drive. And it’s amazing how different KZN looks than the other areas of the country I’ve seen so far.

We stayed two nights in Saint Lucia. While there we met up with another PCV who lives a bike ride away from town and we all walked over to the beach. Though I’m very jealous of her easy access to the beach, the estuary, which is right on the other side of the sand from the ocean, is inhabited by lots of hippos and crocs, hence danger signs along the walkway to the beach (kind of unnerving) and warnings in town, as the hippos frequently wander through at night. So, with that close proximity to potentially dangerous wildlife and an apparently very strong rip current, swimming on the beach there was pretty much out. But we enjoyed walking along and sitting on the beach, talking and catching up. Unfortunately we received part 1 of a lesson that the sun here is super intense. It was cloudy that first day and we had forgotten to bring sunscreen. We weren’t out on the beach all that long, but I still managed to get a nice burn on my back and shoulders.

After exploring the options for activities in Saint Lucia, we had decided to just do a hippo/croc boat tour, then move on the next day and go further up the coast for other beach-related activities. The hippo tour was pretty cool- they bring you fairly close to a lot of the large and docile-looking (but apparently very aggressive) animals. It’s hard to get a really good appreciation for just how big hippos are, since most of them were almost completely submerged in the water, just poking their heads up periodically. But we came across a couple of groups with one or two animals slightly more revealed… and at that point- and also seeing the size of their teeth (they had a couple to pass around on the boat) and hearing their angry grunts when we got a bit too close, it became more apparent how these creatures can be so deadly if you cross them in the water.

We took a one day detour the next day before heading back to the coast to drive through Imfolozi and Hluhluwe Nature Reserves. We got there early, just when the parks were opening and spent all day driving around. We had some really good animal sightings including tons of rhinos, some elephants, giraffes (including one that came really close to walking into our car!), etc and even 3 lioness who were just getting up and heading into the woods as we drove up. The parks aren’t all that big, but given the road conditions (not so great in some places) and frequent stops for animal watching and photography, it took all day to drive around. And we also had a near-catastrophe when we turned down a road that was supposed to just be a dirt/gravel road like most of the others, but was being torn up for some construction work—unmarked of course. And it was a very steep hill. Partway down, afraid we might have already done some damage to the bottom of the car, we debated whether or not to try to turn around. We weren’t sure if the road would continue to be torn up and dangerous to drive on, or even get worse, or if it would be better to attempt to try to go back up the scary part we had just come down. We ended up not having a choice, as turning the car around proved too difficult for the space and conditions (even after we illegally got out of the car and moved some larger rocks and obstacles out of our path—thankfully no animal attacks during these maneuvers :) ). Luckily just around the next curve the road returned to ‘normal’. So nice of them to mark these roads that you really shouldn’t drive on!! We also fortunately did not seem to have caused any damage to the car and were able to continue our drive through the park, but stuck mainly to the tarred roads for the rest of the day.

We spent the next three days up in Kosi Bay near the boarder to Mozambique.... more on that and Thanksgiving and PC training in Durban in the next installment(s)

Just a quick note- sorry for the absence of posts the last few weeks. I left my site about two weeks ago for a week of holiday/thanksgiving travel and have spent this past week in Durban at a Peace Corps training. In the whirlwind of packing, tying up some loose ends for work, planning travels, and finishing a paper for my masters degree I didn't have a chance to post anything before I left and while traveling internet access has been very limited.

Before I left I did (finally) get my plane ticket to go home in the begining of January for my sisters wedding!!! I'm super excited about that and can hardly believe I'll be home a month from now!

I hope everyone back home had a great Thanksgiving. I was sad not to be able to join in the ususal family get-together. I did join up with a group of 15 PCVs in Saint Lucia to celebrate. Again, not quite the same as being at the Titrington-Carney festivities, but a nice way to spend the holidays away from home.

I will try to get a longer post up when I get back to my site in a few days. I've had a great time both on vacation and here in Durban but am looking forward to getting back to the village for a bit before leaving again for the holidays and my trip to America!

I've also fallen way behind on emails- I owe a lot of people replies and whatnot and I will try to catch up on all of that next week

I had a bit of a bonding moment with my host family last night. I had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, thanks to my Dad for sending me the chocolate chips all the way from America- they are surprisingly very hard to find here… So I shared some with my host family. As easy as it would be for me to eat a whole batch myself, sharing with fellow PCVs and my host family seemed the better way to go. And they were certainly a hit! The kids, adults, and gogo all voiced their enthusiastic approval. And my host sisters are now clamoring for the recipe. They asked where I learned to make such a delicious treat, and I explained that my mom liked to bake, and growing up we would sometimes get a treat of homemade cookies in our lunchboxes (not to mention at other times too- holidays, beach vacations, etc), and when I was little I loved to ‘help out’ in the kitchen and eventually learned how to make cookies on my own. It’s funny how a little thing like a cookie can remind you of home and family. But my family here was very excited to try this American treat, and my host sisters proudly declared that “for today we are Americans”

And today my host family put together a little event to show me more about their culture. With the help of MC (my coworker) they pulled together a bunch of traditional items- bowls, baskets, millies grinding stone, etc and traditional Pedi clothing. They showed/told me what the different items are used for and made from, and then had the kids in my family and some neighbors help out to do a bit of a cultural fashion show. I have to admit, it was slightly awkward. Though I am very touched that they went to all the trouble just for me, it’s a bit strange being the sole “audience member” at such an event. Especially as the traditional clothing they had the children wear is more of what you might imagine of African cultures- very little covering. The women modeled some of the ‘more recent’ traditional outfits, which are still worn to various degrees and on certain occasions. However, I was told that the childrens’ attire, which some of them were obviously not terribly comfortable in, is pretty much only used for a couple of ceremonies- such as the graduation from initiation schools (where the boys are sent into the mountains for several weeks to several months to learn about manhood and for circumcision; girls attend an initiation school as well, but it is in the village, and no one is supposed to talk about what goes on at either). Eventually the kids warmed up a bit- I think it helped that a whole group of them got dressed up, but they all seemed quite happy to don their western clothes again. I took a bunch of photos- that was basically my designated job for the day, but since I still can’t get blogger to cooperate with my connection/browser I will have to try to get them up on picasa (along with a few pics of the millies preparation) in the next few days

Last night when I went to the back of the house to talk to my host family and return a bucket they had loaned me I found gogo and some of the kids in one of the buildings behind the house, sitting on the floor, doing... something. I couldn't quite tell what. They were gathered around one of the traditional flat woven baskets, running their hands through what looked like dirt and peanut shells. Ndala, the oldest boy (13 years old) explained to me that they were preparing the millies for planting. Since the rainy season is here, ploughing (mostly by hand) and planting has begun. In order to assure the millies will grow well and produce a good crop, the Pedi people apparently have this tradition of preparing the seeds. I couldn't get a full explaination of what exactly was in the basket, other than some of the seed, but gogo added another dark brown powdery substance, then some water, and she and the kids mixed it with their hands, then rubbed some all over their hands and foreheads. I'm not sure how many people still perform this ritual before planting, but it sounds like it is mostly the older generation who clings to the tradition. Still, pretty interesting to watch. One of my host sisters came home shortly after the little ceremony ended and we talked for a bit. She told me they want to have a small 'traditional day' where they cook all the different traditional foods so I can try them and see how they are prepared and also have some of the kids show off traditional clothing and dances. Not sure when this event will take place but its something to look forward to.

Backdating a bit… (lost power while typing the first part on Monday and it’s been a long week so I’m getting back to it)

11/03/08

As I’m typing this there is a crazy storm going on outside! I went to the soccer field for a jog at 6:30 as usual, but none of the other women showed up. And I can guess why—as I was leaving my house one of my host brothers questioned if I was going running—“but there’s lightening!” he protested. I hadn’t yet noticed, but yes, there was some building of clouds starting and I could see the reflections of some lightening- but it was still on the other side of the mountains, so I promised him I would watch the sky carefully and went anyway. I quickly headed home after finishing my laps as I could see the storm clouds and lightening were moving towards our side of the mountains. Within a few minutes the wind kicked up to a wicked level—I was outside, taking advantage of the cooling temperature, but had to seek refuge inside from the onslaught of dust and small debris flying wildly through the air. And now the electricity keeps flickering on and off and I won’t be surprised if it goes off for good soon. However, after temps topping 105 today I couldn’t be happier to see a storm roll in, even if I have to spend the rest of the evening finding ways to amuse myself by candlelight!

On a different topic … I’ve had a few interesting cultural exchanges in the past week. I spent a few evenings sitting outside with my host family, mostly listening to the conversations go back and forth in Sepedi. But sometimes, especially when some of the kids join us, questions tend to start flowing my way (in English, or translated as needed of course). The questions often aren’t unique to them—they are questions I get asked pretty much any time I have conversation with a South African who finds out where I’m from. For example, I had the opportunity to address some similar questions Friday afternoon- my supervisor asked me to go to Hoedpsruit to run some errands (faxes and such). The gentleman in charge of the water situation in the municipality and a contractor have been working on a bore hole near to the office, and they were heading to another village and offered to give me a lift to a taxi rank closer to town. On the way, we had a pretty typical “what’s it like in America/ compare it to South Africa” conversation, like the ones with my host family.

They are very interested to know about where I come from: America – the greatly idealized nation. I’ve had lots of opportunity to correct a few wide-spread misconceptions. No, all Americans are not in fact ridiculously rich, nor are we all either celebrities or best friends with all the celebrities. There is poverty in America. There are cities and rural areas – also cows, horses, etc in some places (but no monkeys or elephants, except in zoos!), as well as rivers, mountains, fields and forests, depending on which part of America you are in.

Tying all of this back to the storm that is still raging outside, the water guys also asked me what we think when, say, lightening hits a tree. I told them it’s pretty much just an act of nature. He replied that many South African believe that when that happens “someone wanted the tree destroyed”. As we were nearing the taxi rank I didn’t have a chance to question any further, but that goes right along with the beliefs in witchcraft that still prevail here to some extent. It’s hard to say how much people actually believe that sort of thing, but I’ve certainly been told various tales and superstitions that “people here believe” though few people have claimed outright to share the conviction. But witchcraft or no, a lot of people are afraid of lightening- my host family certainly does not enjoy storms and keep asking me if I am not afraid of them too. I have to keep insisting that I actually like storms and really appreciate the rain and cooling temperatures, despite the powerouts and the fact that lately, when it rains, giant cockroaches seem to find my room a nice shelter (and then meet their fate with the bottom of my shoe or a can of DOOM).

11/7/08

To continue… Another hot topic of “America conversation” lately has of course been the election. It’s not often that I hear people in the villages discussing world news or politics, but Obama fever has certainly been the exception. In the weeks leading up to the election I was asked many times who I was going to vote for and why. And the response following the election has been pretty impressive as well- everyone here seemed to know almost before I did about the results of the election (though I wasn’t able to join in any election-watching parties that some PCVs here held, I was certainly taking advantage of my internet access to keep up-to-date despite the time difference). Since Obama was elected the news has been full of reports of celebrations all over Africa. It is kind of amazing that an election in a country so far away (that many people here might not be able to identify on a map for lack of ever having really seen a map- they also often think America and England are either pretty much the same, or right next to each other....) can have such a resounding effect on people here. The message of hope and opportunity it sends to those who may have thought they had neither could just be the motivation that some people need. I know that the election will have numerous impacts on people, governance, etc back home and I don’t mean to ignore or downplay that, but living in another country right now I have the unique perspective to see how America and its politics can have an impact so far away. (and I’d imagine folks back home are getting bombarded by the media with all sorts of different opinions and speculations… )

I don’t want to get much more into politics here, but will just say I am excited about the upcoming change in administration and really hoping that the new President will be able to continue on this momentum and bring positive changes at home and globally.

After another sporadically busy week at work (people going all different directions for last-minute meetings; me taking an ‘emergency trip’ to Hoedsrpuit to pick up a statement from the bank for the auditor; etc etc), we did finish up with the mini libraries- all of the books and selves are delivered and set up- except at the drop-in center here in Mabins because we are still working out the space, but that’s another story. And this weekend I attended two events. The first was Friday evening- one of my sisters asked me that morning if I would join her that evening at the twins’ graduation (from pre-primary school) at their school in Hoedspriut. With the vague assurance that there would be transport “around 2” I made sure to be back from work in plenty of time- only to wait for an extra hour and a half and then be told to take the bus with another relative. No problem… just go with the flow. Two of the older boys met us at the bus stop in Hoedspruit and led us through a neighborhood and some fields to get to the school. The event was suppose to start at 5:30. As the school is a private school, in town, and most of the faculty and staff are Afrikaaner (the student population is about equally mixed), I thought the ceremony might actually start on time or close to it, so I was a bit concerned when we showed up a bit late. Apparently ‘African Time’ is a concept that transcends racial boundaries, however. The ceremony didn’t start until after 6 and no one seemed at all phased. When in Africa… The graduation was very cute—the kids all marched in with candles and sang a few songs, then went backstage and were called one by one to come out in little caps and gowns to receive their ‘diplomas’. My host sister asked if I thought they had told the kids what to do during that last part, and we had a bit of a laugh because none of the kids seemed to know what was going on, or where they should go. Very cute.

On Saturday Lepelle had an event to launch a Child Care Forum. I hadn’t heard much about this event in advance, so I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect, other than the usual event components here of speeches, prayers, singing, and food. The event was supposed to begin at 10, so knowing how things work here I showed up right around 10 not expecting things to be ready. Sure enough, there was a group of women working on cutting vegetables and stirring puts of pap, some men just sitting around, and several people in the office working to write the agenda, which I was then asked to type up. The event was held in one of the bigger classrooms at Kgwana Secondary School (right next to where our office is), and even once someone went back over to the office area to tell everyone they were ready to begin people just sort of sauntered over a few at a time in no big hurry. We finally started a little before noon and it went for about two hours. As everything was done in Sepedi, other what I could gather from the agenda, I really have no idea what was said, or for that matter more than a general understanding of the purpose and expectations for this Child Care Forum. I guess I’ll just have to ask someone in the office this week. The ceremony included speeches by people from our organization, the Ward Councilor, the local social worker and a woman from the Dept of Health and Social Services; a few bits of entertainment- some of the kids (mostly OVCs) singing and dancing; prayers and hymns; and distribution of donated clothes to the OVCs. Then they asked me to stay with the ‘honored guests’ to be served food there while everyone else headed back over to the office area to gather under the trees to eat. I helped clean up a bit, then we headed back over to the office and I helped out with a few things on the computer as we were apparently taking advantage of the fact that many of the caregivers were there, and starting with some of the report forms that have to be turned in this week. All in all, a pretty typical African event.

I was going to post a few photos of both events, but unfortunately connection and/or browser are not cooperating. I will try to at least get some of the photos onto my picasa site in the next few days...

This is another really long post… I will try to be better about posting more frequently- like when I actually type all the little parts up to begin with!

The past two weeks have been a bit hectic. Everything seems to happen last minute at work here, especially where meetings and deadlines are concerned. And it’s not entirely the fault of my coworkers. Often they only receive notice about meetings the day before they happen or receive a call that something needs to be faxed that afternoon. That might be an inconvenience back home, but here it is multiplied. First of all, the two computers we have at the office are only semi functional—one is laden with viruses and other nasty bugs, but we can’t clean it yet because we have to first be sure we can back up all the files that will probably get deleted (one more thing on my list of to dos), and the other has been fixed several times over the past few months—two separate repair places have replaced the hard drive (something that I’m a bit suspicious of…) – including one guy showing up unexpectedly one day to take it in again for repair (at least no one told me in advance- and I was working on some documents—I was able to go home and get my laptop to keep working, but then had all sorts of issues trying unsuccessfully to get my computer connected to the printers). They did bring it back the next day (MUCH faster service than I ever expected) and it seems to be working ok… for now. Oh and we don’t have a fax machine in the village, much less at my organization. Someone has to travel about 30km down the main tar road to get to the closest place where we can send a fax. Nothing is easy here.

Monday Phillis and Sophy went to buy supplies for DICs I thought hadn’t yet been funded. Tuesday of last week, since there had been no time the previous week (due to the scramble to complete and turn in monthly reports, made more hectic by several of those last-minute notices about meetings taking several people out of the office) MC asked me to draft up policies for the DICs. There have been some issues with theft among the women working at the greenery, and they are afraid similar issues could arise at the DICs, so they wanted to have a serious meeting with the carers who will be working at the DICs and Lepelle staff and several board members. On Tuesday they set the meeting for the next day, furthering the scramble.

The day of the meeting there were lots of people in and around small office- for paper work, copying, computer delivery, some typical down time, meetings, me working on policies with chicken slaughtering, cleaning and cooking taking place right next to me (yes, I am in Africa…) and trying to get Phillis to review the policies to no avail before the afternoon session with the Board and the carers. The meeting seemed to go better than I expected, mostly thanks to Javine (one of my sisters, a board member and one of the founders of the organization) and MC who was able to make it, though she thought she wouldn’t due to school obligations. To my understanding we were tyring to get the DICs up and operational within the next few days, which meant I’d have to keep working to get the policies reviewed and revised by the staff and help develop some of the tracking and monitoring tools. And inventory the books that a previous PCV working with the org got donated from Books for Africa, then divide them between the 4 DICs we are opening. Amazing how some days I’ve just sat in the office, waiting to discuss some ideas, so with nothing I can do at the moment, and then suddenly there’s so much to be done. Also, I think I’m finally accepting the fact that I need to just go ahead and take initiative to start some projects or introduce new organizational methods, and just have everyone else jump on board along the way. At least until we can establish some better organization in the office, I think that may well be the best way I can help. I have lots of ideas for other projects or ways to expand on current services, but we really need to take care of some of the basics first.

On Friday I took the day off from the office to go to Tzaneen with Zana and do grocery shopping, run some errands, both for me and for my organization, and enjoy some of the perks of being in town for the day. It took 2 hours to get there, even though we got transport right away- we got stopped by traffic police twice along the way, delaying things a bit. Tzaneen is a bigger city- complete with a rather westernized shopping mall… (which still provides quite a sensory overload coming from village life, though I am slowly adjusting to moving between the very polar environments that exist in this country), but also market areas, esp by taxi rank and bus station. I do miss having a car- it takes extra planning when going to town to avoid carrying too much for too long- and to be sure anything that needs to be refrigerated isn’t carried around in the heat for too long. And if you get groceries or larger purchases at some stores, you have to think about whether or not the next place will have a parcel counter to hold everything while you shop—at Fruit and Veg (as fantastic as the name suggests!) we had to pile our other bags of groceries into the bottom rack of a cart, which we then had to be careful to watch while we went through the store. And always have to remember to bring along my eco-friendly tote bags—to avoid tons of plastic bags (which you have to pay for), as well as to be able to carry more in a bigger, sturdier bag. Though I’ve discovered the bags I’ve gotten here, while they look nice and sturdy, don’t always quite hold up to all of my abuse of heavy groceries lugged around town. You also have to plan to make sure not to get more than you can carry—both bulk and weight wise- so I have to think carefully about buying cans of stuff or sacks of flour or cases of long life milk (which, despite the initial frustration in transporting the weight, is something I never thought would be such a blessing—to be able to get 6 liters of milk at once, not have to worry about it spoiling in the heat on the way home, and to keep it on the shelf for a couple of months). Overall, even with some of the hassles, we had a really good day in town- accomplished all of our errands and grocery shopping, and were able to splurge on a few treats along the way—like lunch and ice cream… that always makes my day. And we had a pretty smooth trip back- didn’t have to wait too too long for the taxi to fill before leaving town, and then we caught the bus that goes through the villages right when we were dropped off on the tar road.

This week has been a bit up and down as well. I haven’t been feeling that great (sort of a replay of what I had on vacation a few months ago). I have been pretty fortunate overall in the health category. I have to admit coming to Africa I expected to have to deal with quite a bit of illness, especially after learning about all sorts of lovely infections and parasites that run rampant in this part of the world. In a tropical infectious diseases class I took in grad school, on several occasions guest lecturers would specifically site Peace Corps Volunteers as individuals often inflicted with these diseases (not realizing two future PCVs were in the class). So I guess I can’t complain too much. And I’ve managed to go into the office every day. I possibly would have stayed home at least one day, except this week turned out to be a pretty busy week here.

After everything last week they really wanted to get the DICs up and operational this week to some extent- including delivering the food to the other three centers (one is here in Mabins, right next to our office), getting the inventory and tracking forms I created completed, and getting the books sorted and delivered. Nevermind that half of these things should have been considered and probably completed or at least better organized BEFORE the food was purchased and the ‘start dates’ were set. I have to keep reminding myself that’s just the way things go here. So, I’ve spent several more days finishing with the book inventory, then labelling/numbering and sorting all 20+ boxes to be delivered. Somehow my coworkers thought I should have been done already- or that it would only take a few minutes to sort the books. And I guess if we had just picked a few boxes to go to each site, that would have worked. But it didn’t seem quite right to me that one center might receive 4 boxes of math textbooks and nothing else- I thought we should try to balance the number and type of books at each center. And this takes time for one person to manage (especially since the room where the books have been stored is less than organized so getting access to several of the boxes is a bit of a trick)- and probably a bit more since I wasn’t feeling 100%. But I finally finished. So, as soon as the next food delivery is made they can take the books as well.

In some ways I am a bit disappointed by the books we received in the donations— there are a lot of textbooks, which could be very useful in some settings, but kids here do seem to get some textbooks in the schools, and the donations didn’t generally include a large enough set to even give all the kids in one grade in a school the same book. I was really hoping there would be more kids books- just sets of early readers and short easy novels. Reading is just not emphasized here enough- most adults don’t like to read (even at the office it can be tough to get someone to actually sit down and read a 2 page document, much less a novel). I’m sure lack of leisure time and language skills play into that, but given my love of reading, I just have trouble completely understanding. It would be really great to also get some books in the native language here, but books in English are super helpful- the schools here are supposed to do all instruction in English starting in grade 4 – even though they barely teach any English at all in the lower grades. So any additional chances for literacy and language improvement would be helpful. But, there are some kids books and literature texts that have short stories and such for younger reader that will be in each mini library, so that will do for now. I’d love to try and get some reading and literacy activities started in the DICs. I’ll have to wait and see how that works out and if the books are actually used, and then maybe I will think about trying to solicit more donations.

So overall I’ve spent the week busy with the books and a few other things around the office or at home lying on my bed. At least a couple of days were a bit cooler- a nice respite from the heat. I haven’t bothered to check lately to see what the temperature has been, but I’m guessing it’s still generally hovering up around 90-100. The lack of humidity makes it a bit more tolerable. But I am very glad to have a little fan in my room- and the traditional hut structure I live in is actually really good at staying relatively cool during the day- it does get a bit stuffy overnight, even though the outside temps tend to drop, but with no screens on windows in this country and mosquito/malaria season upon us, I have to shut my room up tight.

Well, I think that's about all the news here for now!

I’ve been meaning to post more about day-to-day life here. I’m still adjusting to the new community, family, work, etc and establishing daily routines, but here are a couple of my journal entries from the past week

Sunday

Today was one of those days that went from being potentially horribly awkward to bringing a sense of belonging, in as much as I can ever really feel like I belong here. I had agreed night to attend church with the family, as one of my sisters kept asking me, and I felt bad for turning her down on an offer to do something else yesterday. Normally, or at least back home, I don’t go to church out of that sort of guilt, but I have to admit I haven’t really been attending church regularly here. It’s been one of the cultural differences that I haven’t been able to overcome. I’ve attended several different protestant denominations of churches over the years, so I’m not completely set on one style of service and worship or anything, but depending on the church, things can be very different here. The first church service I attended here in South Africa was a ZCC church, one of the most popular in this part of the country. The “church” consisted of a concrete pad outside under a tree, which I thought was pretty cool… at first. But the traditions of the church dictate that the few men in attendance sit on wooden pews while the women sit on the ground, legs straight out in front. Other than periodic standing or kneeling, you’re not supposed to move. Oh, and the women also have to be well covered- long skirts (no pants), head scarves, and shoulders also have to be covered (my short-sleeved shirt wasn’t adequate, so I also had a light cardigan). All of this in heat of an African summer. For at least three hours- sitting still on the hard concrete with the ants and other bugs with only a slight amount of shade offered by the tree. Add to that the language barrier, not understanding almost anything that’s being said or sung during the 3+ hours… and that’s a good part of the reason I’ve been hesitant to commit to attending church regularly here.

When I moved to Venda I went to a few different churches with my host family and friends a couple of times, and though they weren’t ZCC churches, I still just never felt very comfortable. These were more like some of the contemporary churches at home- they were held in larger, warehouse-like structures, held relatively large congregations, sang more up-beat songs, complete with drum and keyboard accompaniment, and the preachers used microphones (and yet still found it necessary to shout through most of the sermon). Being in such a large crowd is always a bit awkward here as I stand out so much. And the attention is a bit distracting. And again, with the language barrier, it can be a lot to handle for three hours straight.

So, it was with some reluctance that I got ready to go to church this morning. I considered coming up with an excuse to stay home, but finally decided I would try it at least this one time. My reluctance grew as my host sister knocked on my door around 10:30, saying she was just getting ready (we were originally supposed to leave at 10, but I figured that wouldn’t happen), then we didn’t leave until almost 11 and she told me “we’re late”. Lovely. Just what I need- in addition to being a spectacle just for being there, we’re going to walk in late, and this sister is the type of person who would have no qualms of marching up to the front row, proudly ‘displaying’ me. Luckily, it wasn’t quite as bad as all of that. The church is fairly small, complete with roof and wooden pews (for everyone!), and as we quietly walked in during a hymn and sat in the middle I recognized many of the people there (at least half the congregation is family, and I found out later even more are extended family). I still got some stares, especially from some of the children I didn’t know, but it helps to be part of a big family sometimes. The pastor, who I learned later speaks fairly fluent English, was at home recovering from surgery, but the man who preached (a cousin) did his best to make me feel welcome, saying it was nice to have me there, I was brave for coming when I knew I wouldn’t understand much of what was said, and he tried to translate a bit periodically for me. He also said he kind of understood how I felt, as he had once attended an Afrikaans church, and not speaking the language or being familiar with the sit/stand/kneel rituals, felt very out of place. It’s nice sometimes when people can actually recognize and understand what it’s like. After the service, I was greeted warmly by many people and then we headed over to the pastor’s house to sing a few hymns and pray with him. On the way, Mokgadi, (the only girl out of the 6 kids living at home), who has been very shy around me since I arrived, grabbed my hand and encouraged her cousin to take my other hand. They walked with me the whole way to the pastor’s house, sat next to me, and held my hands as we walked home. It seems insignificant in the retelling, but that gesture, in addition to the welcoming I received at the church just made me feel a bit more like part of the community and part of the family.

Laundry

One downside of moving is that I’m having to relearn some of the little daily routines—where/how to fetch water, where to dispose of garbage, where to throw grey water, etc etc. Yesterday one of my sisters (probably my favourite- shes Mokgadi’s mother and she has been so friendly and helpful- not that the others haven’t, but she always seems to be there, anticipating my questions and needs, or just ready to chat) asked if I need to do wash. Yes, in fact I had done a few small items in buckets in my room, but had been putting off anything more because I don’t know the wheres and hows here yet. I told her I would have some time this morning before leaving for work if she could show me. Doing laundry here is definitely not one of my favourite things. It’s time and labor-intensive, and can be a bit of an embarrassment because I never seem to be able to do it “right”, though each family I’ve lived with seems to have a slight different “right” way of doing it. So I figured I would have to swallow my pride a bit and just ask what their way is. I got off pretty easy in Venda, since the kids were at school during the day I could do my wash without an audience, and was able to even do it in buckets in my room. Here, with the different space and water situations, that’s not going to work most of the time. I really had to swallow my pride, as I got corrected several times on my technique, then my sister asked if maybe she shouldn’t just do it for me. Good grief… I know I’m not very good at hand-washing clothes. I’ve only had the past few months to practice (man, do I miss washing machines!). And it was in some ways nice of her to offer (aside from the underlying connotation that I can’t do it right), but I know she has lots of other work and chores to do, and doesn’t need mine on top of it (even though they still refuse my help on certain things—like filling up my water barrel). It’s also just a big adjustment for me. I had been living by myself for several years before coming to SA, and in many ways pride myself on being able to take care of myself and do everything for myself. So being in a position where I can’t have that same degree of independence and self-sufficiency is humbling. And at times frustrating. But I can’t stay upset for long- I when I finished and stopped to talk to my sister again for a few minutes and thank her for her help, we had a nice laugh about my lack of wash-by-hand experience and she assured me repeatedly how much they love having me here and how it’s her ‘duty’ to help me learn my way around and learn these new ways of doing things. Just a little cultural note... As we talked she was mending some of the walls around the compound with a lovely mixture of dung and soil. This apparently has to be done about three times a year, and I’m just hoping that the walls of my little hut don’t need to be retouched. It’s one thing to know my hut was built in the traditional style, but might be quite another to see (and smell) a fresh layer go on, even just the outside.

What's this? Two posts in quick sucession? Don't expect this trend to contiue much longer, though I am going to try to post more frequently- and I will hopefully have much more to say now with my new situation.

Yesterday evening, and then again today, I decided to take MC up on her offer to join the fitness club she and about a dozen other women in the community have formed. They meet at the soccer field that is just down the road from my house and walk and jog for 15-20 minutes, then move to a paved, covered area inside the gated clinic property to do calisthenics for another 30 minutes. I have to admit I’ve kind of fallen off the exercise wagon the past couple of months, but it felt so good to be out jogging again (though I’ll have to rebuild my stamina a bit…), and especially to have other people out there with me. It cuts down a lot on the heckling when there are South African women out running and walking too, and not just the crazy white girl working up a sweat all alone. Since many of the women work, they start a little after 6pm, as the sun is setting- which is great both because it’s much cooler outside than during the day (did I mention we’ve had temps ranging from 75-99 degrees the past few weeks? And I thought I’d have a bit more of a reprieve before summer hit) and because it adds to the amazing views. Running around the field with a backdrop of the mountains silhouetted black against the star-spotted darkening sky… pretty amazing. And it’s just a breath of fresh air to be outside at night (literally and figuratively!), since the safety concerns in this country generally limit nighttime strolls in many places - especially for women, and doubly so for white foreigners who stick out, just asking for trouble. The village is, however, generally very safe, though I still don’t plan on going out at night by myself (and some of the women in the club walk me home since my house is on their way).

The fact that there is a women’s fitness club at all here, especially in the village, is really impressive. Exercise generally does not seem to be high on most people’s priority list. That’s probably partially due to the fact that women especially traditionally have so many duties around the house (cooking, cleaning, laundry, raising children, fetching water, etc etc etc). But that doesn’t mean that people here are all in good shape… I think many of us PCVs can testify to the negative effects pap can have on one’s physique. Not to mention if, like the locals, you were to eat it pretty much three times a day and in massive portions. So, like I said, women taking initiative and getting together for fitness is impressive. And a great motivator for me to work out and a chance to maybe get to know a few more people in the community.

I’m in my new village now, slowly getting settled in, setting up my room, getting to know the new family and the new organization I’m working with. So far so good.

The moving process was a bit hectic- my APCD and a driver arrived in one of the PC baakies (pick up truck) Friday afternoon and we wasted no time in getting loaded up. I said a quick goodbye to my host sister and we drove off. A few hours later we arrived in Mabins (also called GaMametja), my new village. We picked up one of my coworkers, then pulled into the family compound where I’ll be living, greeted the gogo (grandmother) and unloaded my things on the porch of my new little house- a small one room traditional structure- mud/dung walls, thatched roof and all. I’ve posted a few photos of my home, the family compound and views around the village on my picasa page (no captions yet- the website wasn’t cooperating earlier). As soon as everything was unloaded the PC staff and MC, my coworker drove off, leaving me to sit and wait with gogo, who doesn’t speak any English. The family compound consists of a main house and a bunch of smaller 1-2 room structures surrounding it in a fenced-in yard. Gogo stays there all the time, as well as six of her grandkids, but they go to private schools in Hoedspruit and Tzaneen, so during the week they leave very early and arrive back home around 5. Four of gogo’s daughters are home some as well- they work varied distances from here, so they either travel each day, or sometimes stay closer to work a few nights or all week and come home on weekends. One of the sons works in Joburg and comes home maybe once a month or so. Several of her other children live nearby in the village and visit periodically. So I guess it can get kind of busy around here, but my house is on the other side of the compound from most of the activity.

Back to the moving in story… all of my belongings were left out on the porch because one of the daughters, who was returning from work in Giyani, wanted to put down a mat on the floor before we moved everything in. She arrived a few hours later and we eventually managed to get the mat down and move the furniture (bed, wardrobe, 2 small tables) and all my stuff in. The room had a light bulb in place, but it’s wired from the neighboring structure and there was no light switch in my room. A guy was supposed to come the next day to put in the switch as well as an outlet. So I didn’t unpack much and slept that night with the light on. The next day I sat outside and read most of the day—first waiting for the guy to come, then waiting for him to not only deal with the electrical issues, but also to hang curtain rods on all four walls. The daughter who brought the mat also insisted that it was not acceptable for me to live with the gray mud/dung walls showing, so we had to put up curtains. I told her that it wasn’t necessary- I could spruce up the walls with photos and other things, but quickly relented—there is no arguing with some of the women here. They wouldn’t let me do anything to help, despite my repeated offers, I was just told to ‘go sit and rest’, so I sat out on the porch step and read. The curtain rod-hanging process unfortunately resulted in EVERYTHING in the room getting covered in a layer of dust (between hammering into the walls, and also having to hammer out a chunk of the wall that bulged out a bit). So we (two of the sisters, MC and I) had to move everything out of the room, clean everything off, clean out the room, clean off the mats, then hang the curtains, then move everything back in. I have to admit, by the end of this process, even though I hadn’t done much all day until the moving in/out and cleaning, I was getting pretty tired and a bit frustrated—I really just wanted to be able to settle in. But in the end it was worth it. Though I would still be fine without the curtains (they are a bit frillier than what I would probably have picked, and they move the ‘walls’ of the small room in another few inches), they look nice and brighten things up a bit. And once I get everything else a bit more arranged/organized so that I can cook, bathe, relax, and sleep all in this same space, I can pin my photos and things up to the curtain (also need to buy some pins).

Sunday I just had the day free to start to unpack and relax. In the afternoon I met up with the volunteer who lives in Bochebello, the next village, another few kilometers off the main tar road (Mabins is about 6km from the tar road- though they are tarring the road that leads through the villages, but like everything else here it’s a long process). She is part of the newest group of PCVs to arrive in South Africa. Their group is ‘education’ volunteers- they are working in the schools, doing some teacher trainings, other capacity-building projects, and helping with the transition from the old Bantu education system. They just finished training and she moved into the village a week before I arrived. I had met her when I was visiting a few weeks ago- she was here doing her site orientation. We met along the road between our villages and first walked down to her village, then back to mine, stopped for a bit at my house, then I walked her halfway back to her village. It’s really nice to be able to meet up with other volunteers so easily. Later in the week she and I are going to visit a couple of other volunteers who are a few km down the main tar road.

Today I had my first day at work. The office is just a ten minute walk from where I live. There are three people who work in the office on a daily basis- Phillis, the program manager, Frank, the home-based care coordinator, and Sopie, the OVC coordinator. MC is the financial officer and she teaches at the secondary school across the road from the office, and she comes over when school lets out around 2:30 and sometimes during the day when they are on breaks. After she finished a bit of paperwork, and after the obligatory tea time, Phillis and I walked over to the tribal authority office to meet the officials there. That’s part of the traditional culture here- the tribal authority is the local form of government, and they deal things ranging from land allocation to hearing complaints (domestic disputes, etc). If someone wants to move to the area or build a new house, they basically have to get approval from the Tribal Council. So as a formality, I have to be introduced to them so that they know I will be living here and working with Lepelle Consortium. It’s also important to get to know they as they can help or hinder projects (they also have to give approval for any events held in the village- such as an awareness campaign). None of the officials were at the tribal authority today, so Frank will take me back tomorrow, since Phillis will be gone at a meeting. She also took me over to the clinic to meet the nurses and get a brief orientation to the clinic and the services they offer, etc. However, they were having a pap smear campaign, as well as doing antenatal checkups, so they were pretty busy. I met a few of the nurses, but we will also go back there tomorrow and they will show me around a bit more. After we returned to the office, Frank took me over to the greenery project. About two years ago, Lepelle received a grant from the EU to start a community garden to help provide food to some of the patients the caregivers visit, and also some of the OVCs. The Tribal Council gave them a 100m x 100m plot of land, and they have built up an amazing garden. There are five women who come in during the week to work at the garden- they don’t get paid regularly for their work, but they do get to take vegetables home to their families, and when there are profits from selling surplus vegetables in the community or to the grocery stores in Hoespruit, they are able to split some of the profits. Each of the women working in the garden is affected by HIV – most of them have a family member who is infected so they are able to help in providing food to their families. Lepelle really wants to be able to pay them a small stipend as well, but unfortunately they do not have the budget. That is one of the main problem here, as with many small NPOs in SA- there is so much they want to be able to do, but they have so much they are trying to do and either don’t know about funding sources, don’t have the time or skills to complete grant proposals. Hopefully that is something I can help them out with- as well as working on developing better and more efficient project plans and budgets. And hopefully they can work to get the garden to be a better income-generating project. The ladies at the garden are super nice- even though they don’t speak much English, and don’t speak much Sepedi, they were so happy to see me again (I visited the garden briefly with Elayna when I was here before) and they gave me some spinach and tomatoes to take home. When we returned to the office I got to meet a few of the caregivers who work in Mabins, when they stopped by the check in for a few minutes. Lepelle has 32 caregivers who are working in 8 villages in the area. The ones who are in villages farther away don’t come into the office very often, but they visit patients and OVCs every day and submit reports about their work. There was a lot of time in the afternoon when my coworkers were chatting in Sepedi- I’m not sure how much was work talk- probably not a lot, as there seems to be a good deal of down time. I took the opportunity, as I had no chance of following the conversation, to look through some of the files – constitution, policies, annual reports, etc to get to know the organization a bit better. A bit later they decided they wanted to have a little welcome celebration, so Frank went to a nearby tuck shop and got cold drink (soda) and cookies. MC joined us, and then she and Phillis and I met and talked about the organization, my background, and what they are hoping to accomplish. It was really encouraging--- MC especially is amazing- one of the most motivated and dedicated South Africans I have met. She told me flat out that South Africans have a lot of ‘bad habits’ – ‘African time’, not always following through, doing things at the last minute, etc but they really want to be more professional and get away from those habits, so they want me to give any help and suggestions I can to assist with organization, as well as help with projects and grants. So I’m pretty excited—even though I know there will be frustrations and that changes won’t happen overnight, I’m happy to be working with people who want me there and want to work with me and want to improve the services they are offering to the community. I’m ready to get started… Between the rural setting and work situation, I feel like I’m finally starting to have the experience I was hoping for, and may actually be able to contribute something to this community over the next year and half.

As with most things here, this new site process has taken a bit longer than expected, but I'm finally moving today!! My APCD sent me a message early Monday morning to say that she was going to look at and approve my housing in my new village, and to be flexible because she might have to move me that day, but would call me soon. I had started packing a bit, but suddenly had to kick it into high gear and frantically ran around cleaning, packing, defrosting my little fridge, taking photos and cards down from the walls, etc. Within a couple of hours I was pretty much ready to go, but didn't hear back from her until later in the afternoon. The housing they found was fine, except she wanted them to fix something with the electricity (the room had a light bulb, but no outlet and the light was powered by a wire strung from the main house, which is apparently not preferable), so she wanted to wait a few days to move me until they could get it fixed. So, I was back to waiting for a few days, and trying to get by unpacking as little as possible. She finally called this morning and is going to come and move me in just a couple of hours! Apparently the guy who was supposed to deal with the electrical matters hasn't been able to come yet, but is supposed to come tomorrow. And the organization really wants me to come and get settled now so that I can start working with them on Monday. And I have to say, I'm pretty anxious to get there myself. I'll to post again once I'm there and settled. :)

I forgot to add this to my last post-- I have a new mailing address for my new site:

PO Box 325

Moetladimo 0891

South Africa

It's about time, right? So my one week away visitng a potential site turned into two weeks, two site visits and a quick layover in Pretoria. I went down to the site in Northwest Province hoping it would work out- and the orgainzation I visited is great, they are doing really good work and the people at the office seem very passionate about what they do, but for several reasons I won't go into it just wasn't the best fit for me. And thankfully my APCD completely respected my feelings and reasonings on the matter. So when I met with her last Friday in Pretoria to discuss the visit, we quickly turned to talking about new options and came up with one we both agreed would be a good potential and worth it for me to visit. It is also a site that has a current volunteer who is just finishing her service. A couple of phone calls and a few hours later I was all set to extend my trip with a visit to her site. And... I have a new site!!! I'm almost afraid to say it becuase they are still working on finding housing for me and I have a slightly irrational fear that something will fall through, but everything else really seems to be in place. It's in a rural village in a beautiful area near Tzaneen. And by 'rural' and 'near' Tzaneen I mean and hour+ taxi ride from Tzaneen to where you get dropped off on the main tar road, then another 6km into the hills/mountains to get to the village. I love it. I'm sure there will be days that I hate the transportation hassles, but really in the end I think it will be copmletely worth it. I'll be working with a home-based care organization - they provide a hospice service of sorts in 8 villages and are trying to expand the scope of their work - some potential upcoming projects include starting drop-in centers for orphans and vulnerable children, community gardens (they already have an amazing one going in one village), HIV support groups, collaborating with the clinics for various trainings, etc. I'm really excited about the possibilites and the people in the office seem excited to work with volunteers and open to new ideas. I know there will be plenty of challenges and frustrations (and the current volunteer is fantastic-- she spent the week showing me around and telling me all about both the ups and downs of life and work there, so I feel like I got a very fair and honest perception of the realities) but there is so much potential and I know better, especially at this point, than to expect to make vast changes or to see huge amounts of progress overnight- it's all about small successes, whatever they may be. And there are a few other volunteers close by, including a new education volunteer who will be just down the road in the next village (even further from the tar road) so I will no longer be quite so isolated (kind of funny, seeing as I will be in a much more rural area). Once I move (hopefully in the next week or two...) I will try to get some photos up online. For now I'm back in Venda, starting to pack and wrap things up and say goodbyes here. There will definitely be some people and a few other things I'll miss here, but I'm really looking forward to the chance to start fresh... and maybe it's partly just the fact that things are finally moving along, but I really am excited about this new site.

Well, as is apt to happen here, there has been another last minute change in plans and my site visit has been pushed back another week. It actually works out ok – my stop in Pretoria on the way to the site will coincide nicely with the weekend a bunch of my friends will be in town for other various PC stuff. And, last Friday, shortly after I got confirmation that my trip was off for the weekend, another PCV sent me an sms saying that she was going to be near Thohoyandou on Saturday with a coworker and if I was going to be around we could meet up for the day. We had a good day- spent some time with her coworker’s family, walked around and got lunch in crazy Thohoyandou ... It’s always really nice to just be able to hang out and talk with another American for a few hours- someone who completely understands all the various challenges and other aspects of life here as a foreigner trying to fit in.

So (for real this time...?) I'm heading out to do this site visit this weekend, with a short stopover in Pretoria. Hopefully it will be a good match and I'll have good news next time I post

I’m still waiting for a new site, but there has been some progress. Though a couple of potential sites haven’t worked out, there is a new option. I’m going next week to visit the site and talk with the supervisor and current pcv (who is finishing up her service and heading home in a few weeks). If things work out, I could be moving and actually have work to do very soon!

Baobabs

In the meantime, in my state of site-transition-limbo I’ve been back to finding ways to keep myself occupied at my current site. But I have had a few things to keep me busy. A couple of weeks ago a few friends were doing some sightseeing in the area and invited me to join them for the day. We drove north towards Zimbabwe in order to try to spot some baobab trees. After a bit of initial uncertainty (none of us had actually ever seen one before except in photos, and apparently some of the species are more distinctive than others…), we soon found what we were looking for, many times over. Baobabs are ancient trees, native to Madagascar, mainland Africa and Australia. They can get to be very large. These trees are also distinctive in that they don’t have rings (so to find the age of the trees carbon dating is used)- they store water in the trunk of the tree, which can eventually leave a hollowed-out area. In fact, apparently somewhere in Limpopo the hollowed-out inside of one of these large trees has been converted into a pub.

25 billion dollars

In the course of our drive we ended up near the Zim border. Not to worry, we didn’t actually cross the border, we just got close. When we stopped at a petrol station near the border before heading back south, we had the opportunity to buy some Zim currency. That’s right… I am now a billionaire… of sorts. I don’t know how much you hear about Zimbabwe back home, but the country’s recent election and the troubled economy have been prominent news items here. The inflation in the country is out of control. In January they issued a 10 million dollar note, and as of last weekend they issued a 100 billion dollar note. I bought 2 - 25 billion dollar bills-- for less than 1 US dollar each. Yikes. Oh, and the bills have expiration dates. They were issued in May and expire in December. On the one hand, it’s kind of amusing to have such a large bank note. On the other, it paints a rather bleak picture.

More on Zim

Last week I spent some time with a girl from Zimbabwe. She’s a student at the University of Venda in Thohoyandou. I met her boyfriend, a German student who was doing research here, in Pretoria a few weeks ago. He was heading back to Germany, but he said I should get in touch with his girlfriend – and he happened to have a few things of hers that he needed to return, so I also made a convenient courier.

Anyway, she asked me what comes to mind when I think of Zimbabwe— I had to admit I honestly don’t know much more than what I hear on the news- about the election troubles, violence, poor economy and food and fuel shortages. According to her, that’s not the full/only picture for everyone there. Another lesson in how the media picks out the worst part of any situation and ignores anything ‘normal’ or ‘good’. My new friend is very proud of her nationality, and though she didn’t comment directly on the current economic troubles, she did tell me about a few positive aspects of life in Zim. For example, education has been made something of a priority. Students must pass/complete at high level to finish secondary school. As such, it can be hard to get jobs in Zim because everyone has this same high base standard and many continue their education while working. But, it can be easier to get jobs in neighboring countries where pass-standards aren’t as high. Also, there is a lot of assistance for university education - all Zim students at the University of Venda (and I’m assuming other universities?) are receiving full scholarships from the Zim government, covering tuition, room, food, and an additional monthly allowance. Not a bad deal… and it’s Mugabe who is responsible for initiating and continuing these programs. Now this is just what I heard from one girl from Zimbabwe- I’m sure other people’s opinions and experiences are very different, but it was interesting nonetheless to hear some more positive things about a country that recently has been getting nothing but bad press.

A day by the pool

A few of my friends came to visit this past weekend. They had intended to do a tour of some of the cultural sites in Venda, but due to miscommunication and then the tour guide trying to rip us off with the price and refusing to bargain (no, we will not pay more for a tour that will be shorter than what we were originally promised), we ended up looking for other options. A friend here in the community helped us out when I told her our situation and asked for advice by arranging transport for us to Phephu Resort. We had no idea what to expect from a ‘resort’ here, but ended up having a great, relaxing day. The resort was built around a natural hot springs. We were first enjoying sitting around the small hot springs pool with our feet in the water, until the park guards informed us that’s not allowed. Apparently you can stick your finger in the water to see that it is, in fact, hot, but that’s all. So, we moved on to the rest of the park where they have a few small swimming pools, a large grassy area, soccer field, covered pavilion, etc. Not really fancy or anything, but a nice place to spend the day. Unfortunately we hadn’t been planning on swimming, so we weren’t dressed for it, but had a great time just sitting by the pool. Even though it’s still winter here, and a few weeks ago I was chilly even with long sleeves and a fleece jacket (more so when I was traveling south of here), the past few weeks have warmed up quite a bit, so yes, the weather was great for swimming in an outdoor pool. Walking around Thohoyandou on Friday it was hot outside. Not Africa-summer hot, but enough to make us seek out shade and water. Sitting by the pool on Saturday I almost felt like I could have been at home- aside from both the fact that we were, as always, something of a spectacle as the only white people around, and the presence of numerous baboons and vervet monkeys wandering around, unafraid of human presence, scavenging trash cans and unattended bags for food.

(I put a few photos from these past few weeks up on my picasa site)

Reading recommendation

One advantage to having so much free time on my hands lately is that I’ve had a chance to do a lot of reading. There are a lot of books floating around here, as most volunteers bring and/or have books sent from home, and few people want to waste precious luggage space to haul them back after service. So I was able to stock up a bit at the ‘library’ at the PC office in Pretoria, and also trade with other volunteers when I see them. In any case, I just finished “The Syringa Tree” by Pamela Gien. It takes place mostly in the 60s and 70s here in SA, in Joburg and also an area not too far from where I live. It’s an interesting cultural/historical perspective and insight into life here, told from the perspective of a white South African girl.

In the same vein of books by South African authors, I also recently re-read “Cry the Beloved Country” for the first time since high school. I didn’t remember much of the book, but it certainly takes on new meaning after having lived here for awhile.

That’s all for now… I’ll let you know how things go next week!

Once again I have to apologize to anyone who is actually still checking this with any regularity. I was gone from site for over three weeks with limited access to internet. And before I left, I had typed up a few potential blog entries, but nothing has really been sounding right and I honestly haven’t been all that motivated to post anything. But the past few weeks have been really good- first I met up with the rest of my fellow SA-17 PCVs after a long three months at site for an in-service training in Polokwane. It was great to see everyone again, and hear about the varied experiences everyone is having at their sites. Everyone’s site placements and experiences really are extremely different- from location and living situations to type and infrastructure of the organizations we’ve all been placed with. The training itself was good, with sessions on project design (that brought back memories of that time-consuming and frustrating, but worthwhile Project Planning class back at UAB…), grant opportunities and grant writing, and a few days of language and culture. I also had a chance to sit down and talk about my specific site situation and challenges with a few of the PC staff. More on that in a bit…

The training was held at nice little conference/lodge facility with comfortable beds, warm blankets and heaters, tvs and hot showers! Needless to say, that also made the training just a bit more enjoyable 

At the end of training, most of us headed down to Pretoria to attend the Ambassador’s 4th of July celebration, see the ‘big city’, hang out, and take advantage of the end of lockdown and our newfound freedom to travel. On the 5th I headed out with some friends on a little vacation to Kruger National Park! Some fellow PCVs’ supervisors own a bush house just outside Kruger and as their family was using it that week, they arranged for us to use a friend’s bush house for a few days. We spent two days driving through the southern part of Kruger and a third day driving around the beautiful surrounding area, up to Blyde River Canyon. Aside from the fact that I ended up a bit sick, we had a great time (thankfully, this was a ‘sit in the car all day’ vacation, and I felt better while just sitting still, so it worked out ok). The first day at Kruger we saw a pretty big variety of animals, including 4 of the ‘Big 5’ (lion, cape buffalo, elephant, rhino, leopard). The second day we saw elephants. Lots of elephants. And had an elephant almost charge our car, but we got out of the way, then the same elephant started charging the car behind us- several cars had to rapidly back up to get out of its way. As much as I love zoos and animal parks back home, nothing compares to an experience like this. To just drive around, not sure what (if anything) you’ll see or when, then to see animals right along the side of the road, or to drive around a curve and have elephants cross right in front of you… it’s pretty cool. Our third day, driving up to Blyde River Canyon was also great—that whole area is so beautiful.

I posted some of my photos from the trip on picasa. I think it’s pretty much all animals and scenery. I have some photos from PST that I’ll have to put up at some point as well. It just takes a long time to upload photos with my connection here.

After our great vacation, I ended up stopping in Pretoria for a few days since I still wasn’t feeling great. And it gave me a chance to sit down and talk with my APCD about my site since she had been out of the country at a conference during our IST. And I got to meet and talk with a bunch of SA-15 volunteers, who are all just finishing up their service and getting ready to head back home or travel awhile, then head home. In any case, it looks like I will probably be moving soon. I’ll post again when I know for sure and where, but I’m excited by the options. That’s all I’ll say for now, but that does mean that my address will probably be changing soon, so hold off on any letters for now (and if you’ve sent one recently, please let me know, so I can arrange to have anything forwarded if needed). I think that’s about all for now- here’s hoping things are about to change for the better. In the meantime, here’s the link for my vacation photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/christywahle

I'm sorry I haven't been very good about updating this thing. I had all the best intentions of trying to post something at least once a week, but I haven't really known what to say lately. Things are still pretty much the same as far as work goes. My supervisor was at a conference for two weeks and I just heard from her today that they are having some internal issues at the office. But in a week and a half I'll be heading to Polokwane for almost two weeks of PC training. Our supervisors are supposed to join us for a couple of days, so I will get to talk with her then, and she said that she wants me to come to the office when the have their staff meeting next month. So although progress has once again been put on hold, maybe things will starting moving in the next few weeks. Until then, I'm looking forward to the training- a chance to take a break, catch up with other PCVs again, and it marks the end of 'lockdown' or our three months of travel restriction. So after the training I'll hopefully be able to see other volunteers a bit more often and maybe see a bit more of the country.

In the meantime, I realized I haven't said much about life in general here beyond the work situation. So in the next few days I'll try to post something about daily life in SA.

The past couple of days were good overall- I finally have a bit of direction, or at least a more concrete promise of developing a plan for projects I can work on here. And there were other good things too- it was just nice to get away for a couple of days; met and had dinner with two girls who work for the national TAC office; stayed in a hotel overnight- nice bed, TV, and hot shower; made it to Polokwane by myself and navigated my way from the taxi rank.

But here’s how my little adventure started… I needed to be in Polokwane by 11 when the meeting/training was supposed to begin. After talking with my supervisor and a friend here I figured it would be best to leave my house around 6:15- thinking that should give me plenty of time to get to Thohoyandou, find the taxi and wait for it to fill up so it could leave for the 2-3 hour drive to Polokwane (if I haven’t mentioned it before, that’s how the taxi system works here- you go to the taxi rank and find the right one and the ranks are usually well labeled. Then you wait for an undetermined amount of time. There are no schedules- the taxis just don’t leave until they are full- all 15 possible people packed in. So you never really know how long it’s going to take). I that in the morning there would be people heading to Polokwane, the provincial capital for business, so I might have to wait as much as 45 minutes only if I was unlucky. Apparently, I misjudged. There were very few people heading that direction that morning. When I got on the taxi around 6:30 there were two other people there already (and I found out later that one lady had been there since 6!), so I sat back and waited. And waited. And waited. Ever so slowly a few people got on, and it wasn’t until almost 9 that we finally had a full car and could hit the road. So I figured I was going to be late and was worried because I didn’t know where I was supposed to go once I reached Polokwane- I was just supposed to call my supervisor for further directions. But I was a bit worried that would become more complicated if the meeting had already started. I should really know by now that I didn’t need to worry- nothing goes according to plan here and it’s a rare occurrence for a meeting to start on time. And I think the taxi driver sensed the frustration of the passengers because he didn’t waste any time along the way. We arrived in the city just before 11 and I called my supervisor, who gave me semi-vague address and told me things were delayed and to just go and wait there and they would be there shortly. I was a bit confused, as I didn’t really exactly what situation I was walking into, but with the help of a few friendly people on the street (after refusing the help of the overly pushy men waiting at the taxis who wanted to carry my bag and said they would guide me just for the price of a cold drink… um, no thanks I’ll find my own way…) I found the building, which it turns out is going to be the new TAC office and eventually everyone else showed up. And it wasn’t exactly a meeting, as I had been led to believe, but was a training on a new monitoring and evaluation system, led by two girls from the national office. One, from Canada, just started working for TAC a few months ago, recently completed an MPH and is developing and launching this new M&E system for the organization. The other, a South African, has worked some with TAC and a sister organization and is now helping out with these M&E trainings. They were both very nice and I ended up going to dinner with them that night- they graciously listened to my situation and had some good advice and also some suggestions for ways I could collaborate with their projects as part of my work. So, that’s one possible lead- and, the project they mentioned, which involves collecting and analyzing data from community clinics, would possibly give me the chance to actually do some epidemiology-type work here.

So it was a good evening- a nice chance to get out, eat dinner in a regular restaurant, a bit of potential work discussion, other good conversation, and then back to my hotel room, complete with TV (I have to admit it was nice to have the chance to relax and watch a cheesy American movie) and a nice hot shower. I really don’t mind the bucket baths at all, but still really appreciate the chance for a shower 

The next day, after the training session, I finally got to sit down briefly over lunch with my supervisor and three of the provincial program directors to chat a bit about what I’m supposed to be doing here. Despite all promises, they STILL hadn’t come up with any concrete ideas or the “job description” my supervisor has been telling me about for the past month. But, I did get to ask a bit more about what their programs involve- finally a few answers! And they mentioned a few ideas. So I have a little bit to go with now… and my supervisor said that by Monday at the latest she would send me a compiled list of potential projects. So, maybe by the end of next week I’ll hear something more about that. I did also get contact information from the program directors, though, so now I can just go to them directly. Even though the trip wasn’t quite as fruitful job-wise as it maybe could have been, it has at least finally given me a place to start- I have some more concrete ideas for projects, a slightly better idea of the scope of TAC’s work in the province, and contact info for both the program directors, and the M&E coordinator at the national office- I think she will definitely help me out if things don’t start progressing here. So I finally feel like I have some hope for actually doing some work here. I’m still a bit frustrated with the general lack of organization of everything- I feel like if I was living closer to the provincial office I might have been able to open up some discussions sooner- face to face seems to work best… but at least things are slowly starting to come together now.

Early last week I finally heard from my supervisor. It had only been over a month- not exactly sure this is what they mean by "African time", but I'm trying to just be flexible and patient and go with the flow. So I've just been waiting. And when I finally talked to her she said she had a meeting with the program directors at the provincial office and they were going to come up with plans/potential job descriptions for me by the end of the week. Well, the rest of the week passed without any further contact. But finally this afternoon I got another call from my supervisor and I'm now heading to Polokwane tomorrow for a couple of days to attend some provinical management/planning meetings and trainings. I'm spending the night tomorrow at my supervisors house so we should get some quality time to talk. Hopefully in a few days I will finally have a somewhat better idea of what I'm doing here. And if all that doesn't exactly pan out, I was talking with a coworker here in the community and she has agreed to help connect me with people in the clinic, schools, etc who I can maybe collaborate with on secondary project. And she said she had an idea of someone who might be willing to tutor me in Venda so I can maybe start making a bit of progress on that front. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, but still tentatively thinking maybe things will finally start working out here. We'll see...

(Wrote this over the weekend when I didn’t have my computer on and finally now getting around to typing it up)

We were warned that PC service can be a great big rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs. I just didn’t realize so many ups and downs were possible within the span of a week or a single day. It can be easy to focus on the lows sometimes, especially when I have a lot of time alone. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely need some time to myself or I’d go crazy. But when 3 days go by when I barely leave my room other than to visit the pit latrine or I force myself to take a short walk, it can be a bit too much time with my own thoughts, leading me to dwell on the things that aren’t going perfectly well- my continued lack of language skills, continued lack of job description, worries I’ll never accomplish anything here, and so on. But when I really sit down and think about it, there are lots of good things that have happened in the past week, too:

-Spending time with my host sisters and host family (the WHOLE family came home for the holiday weekend, so there were lots of people around for a few days)- though I’m still totally lost when they start going back and forth in rapid Venda, they really have made me feel welcome and like part of the family

-Mrs Mapeta (a friend of a friend) teaching me how to make pap, and sharing a laugh about how it might take quite a bit of practice for me to master the fine art. Seriously, it sounds like you just pour the maize meal into boiling water and stir, but ‘stirring’ can be much more diverse, involved and complicated than I ever imagined

-Having a mini-braai at a friends house- enjoying good food and drinks and learning a new South African game

-Having dinner and hanging out with new friends at the Christian school down the street

-Reluctantly going to hang out with my friend at the Mapeta’s house later in the week, only walk into the middle of chaotic wedding catering preparations. Before I knew it I was elbow deep in cutting veggies and stirring huge pots of various dishes- it’s quite a production to prepare to serve food to 700 people! And I ended up helping out the next day at the wedding, too. At first my friend just asked if I wanted to come to the wedding. Little did I know that meant donning an apron and hauling heavy dishes around and serving up pap, rice and chicken to the masses (it turns out there were actually over 1000 people at the wedding!). It’s funny- when I quit my last waitressing job I swore I would never work in food service again. I never would have thought that would be a problem in Africa! Luckily, as I was just helping out as a favor and not getting paid, I managed to get out of doing dishes- I have never seen such a HUGE pile of dirty dishes, pots, pans, etc…

-Running into friends from the school at the Mapeta’s house- they run a small store out of their garage, and while I was helping with the cooking one of the ladies came up and said “there are people who look like you out there- are they your friends? Go look.” Though I hate to perpetuate the idea that just because I’m white I know any other white person in town, it was nice to run into people I knew

-Actually getting out of bed to go for a run a couple of times this week

-Realizing that, despite my longing during the 2 months of training to cook for myself, I really do like pap. A lot. I was really excited to have the opportunity to eat pap not once, but twice this week! Who would have thought?

-Passing the one-month-at-site marker. One month may not seem like much in the grand scheme of two whole years, but it’s a start, right?

-Getting emails, messages, and letters from friends. Seriously, these mean the world to me right now.

-No load shedding (scheduled power outs) all week thanks to the three public holidays!!

I haven't had much time to get online in the past few days- between getting to know some people in the community, going to meetings and taking care of day-to-day normal stuff I've actually been a bit busier. And the loadsharing rolling blackouts that leave us without power for 2.5 hours a night three times a week aren't helping. I'm kind of getting used to the blackouts- at least now that I know when they will happen I can plan a bit better in advance so I'm not trying to cook dinner at 6pm right when the power goes out. Unless of course, there's a storm like on Saturday night where my half of town lost power unexpectedly for the whole night... But the power outs are a good excuse to hang out with my host family- my two sisters and I have gotten in the habit of taking a walk when the lights go out. Aside from having to be careful not to fall with the uneven ground and alternate darkness and blinding by passing cars, it's a nice way to help pass the time.

Before I forget, here's my new addres:

PO Box 2604

Shayandima 0945

Limpopo

South Africa

Now that I have both box number and key (and the key works in the box, I checked this morning!) I should be all set for real this time.

Yesterday I went to a TAC district meeting- where the district coordinator and representatives of all the branches in the district meet for planning of events, etc. So I finally got to talk to the district coordinator and a couple of other people a bit more about what I'm supposed to be doing. They assured me they have been talking at the provincial office and working on how best to incorporate me into TACs work in the district and province over the next two years. There is still some planning to be done, but for now I'm supposed to focus on helping the Shayandima branch with the public campaign we're planning to hold at the end of May. I've already been sitting in on the planning meetings for the event, but after discussions in the district meeting yesterday we're going to expand the scope of the campaign, so there is definitely some work to be done in the next few weeks. And it was just nice to finally have a bit of communication and to know they haven't completely forgotten about me!

In addition to that, it's been a pretty good week in general. I spent one day just hanging out with some coworkers and neighbors, and though I still get completely lost when they all start speaking in Venda, I'm starting to feel more a part of the group now. And my coworker had gotten a bunch of peanuts from the local clinic (they grow them on the clinic property) so we spent most of the morning boiling peanuts in a big pot over a fire.

I also made another really good connection in town. Just down the street from where I live there's a private christian school where a number of South African and international missionaries work as teachers. My coworker had taken me there one day the first time I was in Shayandima as she had heard there were Americans there. I had met one of them and promised to visit again when I moved back. However, when I first got here, they were away for the school break. But earlier this week I managed to catch up with the one girl I had met before and she invited me to have dinner with them all the following night. It was great-- I got to meet all the staff and just hang out and talk all evening. Given that there aren't any other PCVs very close by, it's really nice to other Americans close by. That may sound a bit weird, but honestly having fluent English speakers you can talk to who can relate to the experiences and cultural differences and all of that... it just helps. And all the staff are super nice and were very welcoming. And who knows, maybe I can collaborate with the school on some projects over the next two years. It is kind of funny to see the differences in the "living in South Africa" experience that we're having. They live and work on the school campus and don't go out into the community alone and don't take public taxis (the school has a couple of vehicles they use) and they were all rather surprised that I'm living with a family here and am pretty much on my own. In some ways I envy them- the little community they have within the school and rather nice living conditions, but at the same time I really enjoy having a bit more freedom and independence.

I will post a better update soon on what I've been doing the past couple of weeks- though as a warning, it really isn't very much (I'm still waiting to hear from my supervisor about those "plans" for me or anything else). But now I finally have that elusive 'more frequent internet access'. It does kind of make me wonder where I am- I mean, can I really be in Africa, but yet connected to the rest of the world from the relative comfort of my own little room? But then there are other parts of life that are not so convenient. For example, the address I gave in my last post is no longer the right place to contact me. It's a kind of long story, but I'll be using a different PO box now, one I actually have a key for. But I don't know the box number yet. Confused? Yeah... Hopefully everything will be sorted out tomorrow and I will have both key AND know the number of the box that key fits. Wouldn't that be nice? But if you have sent anything to the 969 box, it should still get to me. The coworker whose family owns the box is going to keep checking it for me for the next couple of weeks. Yeah, some things here are definitely more complicated than they should be.

Ok, now that I'm living in my new place, I have finally worked out a new mailing address. PC would prefer mail NOT be sent to the Pretoria address anymore (and it will take a long time to reach me). So, if you want to send me mail (which would be great, and I promise I'll write back!) please use this address:

PO Box 969

Shayandima 0945

South Africa

I also have a cell phone now... please send me an email if you want the number (I don't want to post it here).

Currently still basically waiting to try to figure out what my work will be. Between the site visit being over Easter and things apparently just being busy right now, it seems timing is not ideal. I talked briefly with my supervisor last week, but haven't heard from her since, other than that they are still "working on a plan" for me. So for now, I'm just trying to settle in here, get to know the town a bit and learn a bit about the work TAC members are doing in this community. It's really weird having so much down time after being so busy during the past two months of training. But I'm enjoying having time to read and relax...