To the few people who have dropped by here in the past year in hopes of finding something new to read: My apologies. I was originally planning to use this blog to update my family and friends on my experiences in South Africa, but then found an easier (but much more annoying) method in line with infrequent Internet access: mass e-mails.However, after two weeks of nationwide school strikes and a

The Mochakis, one of the families I stayed with when I first arrived in South Africa had a ceremony one evening to honor their ancestors. The kids and I were not permitted to witness the actual events taking place in the darkness outside the house that night, but we heard the rattle of stones tossed onto each corner of the tin roof and, the next morning, saw a calabash laying in a small hole in

The neighborhood kids and I are hooked on Nollywood soapies. My host family has DSTV (lucky for me) and one of the channels, 102 -- known as Africa Magic -- runs Nigerian dramas for most of the day, every day. So many afternoons, after the kids and I are out of school, they will quietly slip into the house and congregate on the floor in front of the television. One of them, usually Phuluso, the

In the Internet cafe in Makhado, a formerly all-white city in northern Limpopo, an Afrikaner boy next to me is playing a computer game with realistic graphics based on the movie Blackhawk Down (about a military shoot-out in Somalia). He's about 10 years old with that sweet baby calf awkward wide-eyed innocence, shaggy blonde hair cropped close to his head. His mouth hangs wide open in

In a year or less, Tshifudi Village will no longer look quite like this. Work has begun to pave over the dirt road. While a tar road will greatly assist transportation in the area, especially during the rainy season, I can't help but feel a little wistful at what will be lost. Sleepy little Tshifudi will certainly be sleepy no more.

Random stuff from my village:Several people have told me that the light skinned babies are referred to as "Sheila's children."Today I rode in the most decrepit taxi I have ever seen. Probably made in 1970s (red vinyl seats, altho with springs coming through). Rust and dents everywhere. Holes in floor. Sticker on dash read: "It's All in God's Hands."The employees of Shoprite, the only supermarket

It has been a very busy winter in South Africa – for me, anyway.I am finally back to school after a three-week holiday (part of it spent in the Drakensburg Mountains of the KwaZulu-Natal Province) and one week at a remote village in Mpumalanga Province preparing for new Peace Corps volunteers (they arrived July 27).In less than a week I will be gone again, accompanying the staff and students of

Sunset in Ixopo Originally uploaded by riesergal. Ixopo, where I spent my holiday last week, is a place in the Kwazulu Natal Province described by author Alan Paton in Cry the Beloved Country as "lovely beyond any singing of it." It is. Can you see the baby eland munching grass?

Last week I accompanied students and staff of one of the primary schools where I volunteer on a field trip to Mapungubwe, a national park where South Africa meets the borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana. The three countries are separated by two rivers, the Shashe and the Limpopo ("the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees," where the "Bi-Coloured Python Rock-Snake"

How was I ever able to function in a world without Wiki? Having access to it and Google from my cellphone means I can be the smartest person in the room -- well, at least the most resourceful. What do Zoroastrians believe? Wait, let me check. What is the name of the woman in that movie we are watching? Hold on, I'll find out. The student just fell down unconscious, but his eyelids were moving so

I was in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, on Easter Sunday, on my way back to Venda after a two-week holiday in the southernmost part of the country.In the hostel where I was staying with my fellow PeaceCorps travelers that morning, I woke up with a song in my head:"Jesus Christ is Risen Today." My Dad used to sing it with such gusto at the beginning of every Easter mass, and for me it has

As spring comes to North America, autumn is on its way in South Africa. Vegetation in Venda is abundant and still quite green, the sun still blazes most of the time, but lately there have been a few cloudy, chilly days reminiscent of October in Ohio. When the temperature drops, I yearn for pumpkin pie and hot cider. Because the pumpkin season is not quite here, I have had to settle for the leaves

The contrast between developed and undeveloped areas of the world that I mentioned in my last entry is actually a regular challenge working in South Africa. Parts of the country are quite developed, as you may know, while the rural, predominately black areas where we are working are nearly the same as they were during apartheid -- with the exception of the recent addition of electricity. Running

I've been back in Venda since Jan. 2, but it's taken me a while to find my equilibrium.Going home was more difficult than I imagined. There was the culture shock of readjusting to a world where even the poorest kids have shoes, but it was intensified by traveling to a very materialistic society during the most materialistic time of year.It hit me the moment I walked off the plane into JFK. The

In a little more than 48 hours I will be in Ohio -- where the temperature is 20-something Fahrenheit and there are mounds of snow on the ground, I am told. A dramatic switch from summer in South Africa. I expect to have other adjustments besides getting used to the cold. I'll be with my sisters, friends and other family members saying a final goodbye to my father, who passed away just before I

One of the biggest misconceptions I had about South Africa regards animals. In our Peace Corps orientation in Philly, many volunteers (me included), wondered about the possibility of encountering wild animals in our remote villages. We worried about getting ambushed by a lion or run over by an elephant. It's funny now. I did see an elephant very close to where I am living, but it was securely

Schoolchildren follow me home from one of the three primary schools where I am working.

A gift of South AfricaAs I was sitting in the crowded, quite battered minibus taxi on my way to the town of Thohoyandou to write this today, I tried to pass the time by reading a book by Deepak Chopra (The Book of Secrets, a gift sent by my sister Julie). I was immersed in the chapter titled "There is No Time But Now" as the taxi's rusty sliding door kept sliding open. Since I was the one sitting