Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving is a super special time for my family, it’s tied for Christmas as my favorite holiday. We’ve celebrated with my cousins and uncles and aunts in Virginia for the last 12 years. We eat delicious food, play our annual Hundersmarck-Willing-Landes-Delvalle family football game, watch the Macy’s day parade and open Christmas presents (yes we celebrate early together and yes it is awesome.) It would be so nice to be there with them to see the leaves change colors and walk around the crowded house in a warm comfy sweatshirt and catch up with my cousins. While I wish I could be there, I’m really happy to be spending this year with another family of sorts. All the Northern Cape crew and some of our North-West Province buds are together for a three day thanksgiving event of epic proportions. We've got four turkeys. enough said. It’s gonna be crAzZzy. There’s lots to celebrate cause we have soooo much to be thankful for—I mean shit, we’ve survived almost five months in the African bush!
Some more thoughts on being thankful…
Things I have been thankful for in the past and hope to be thankful for again in the distant future:
--my mom’s cooking. I daydream about my favorite things she makes way too often, I even dreamt about her pound cake the other night… I have a problem.
--Sunday morning bike rides on the Hawthorne trail with my dad
--FLORIDAAAAAA
--Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks
--washing machines
--indoor flushing sanitary porcelain toilets
--air conditioning, it’s getting hotter by the day and I’m starting to mellltttttt
--Reese’s peanut butter cups.. what the hell kind of country is this without Reese’s ?!?!
--clean feet. It’s impossible to tell whether they are tan or just constantly caked with dirt.
--water security. Clean, consistent, available water. Thoughts that occupy my mind: is the tap in the yard pumping water today? Is it going to turn off soon? Did that donkey just rub its ass on the tap? (I wish that one were a joke.) Do I have enough boiled so that if the power goes out I have enough to drink? Is this going to be the bacteria filled gulp that destroys my insides? Is there enough to do my wash? To take a bucket bath? Am I using too much?? Ahhhh it never ends. Everyone around me is dehydrated, no one drinks enough water. I watch kids at school literally fight each other for a cup of dirty water. Every time I see it I think about how I sat in college classrooms for four years listening to Political Science professors tell me that the wars of the 21st century are going to be fought over water and other depleting resources. I finally get it. God, do I get it.

Things I am thankful for “now now” (“now now” is an African phrase that means “right this second,” not in a half hour, not in three hours, not tomorrow, but now now)
--this crazy mixed up astounding challenging beautiful life
--my health. I realize how important this one is more everyday. I’ve had my fair share of stomach and intestinal issues so far, but I try to do everything I can to stay healthy and take care of my body. So many people around me don’t have the knowledge or the means to take care of themselves or their families. Healthcare? Forggettaboutittt. Theres a clinic in my village but the closest hospital is two and a half hours away and it’s a mess—one doctor, blood on the floor, women giving birth in the hallways, I watched a man die right in front of me when I was there…not an experience I’ll soon forget. There’s lots more death around; it knows no mercy and no age. There are funerals every weekend in my small village. One human life means something different in Africa. In first world countries if a person dies before old age it’s this horrible tragedy, an anomaly almost- we think we have this natural born right to live a long and healthy life, myself included. That mentality is a privilege. Here the opposite is far too commonplace. If you’ve got your health, well then baby, you’ve got a lot.
--my education. I cannot accurately express how lucky I feel to have had a good education. I’ve always known that if I work hard, I can be and do whatever I want.. that is so simple, yet SO HUGE. My only problem is figuring out exactly what it is that I want to do, and that is not a real problem at all. Most people on this planet, especially girls, can’t even dream about freedom like that. Education is the key, the answer, the light, the way, the truth... and everyone should be given the chance to learn and grow and feel empowered and make a better life for themselves regardless of where they happened to be born. Getting off my soapbox now now.
--for my parents who have always loved and supported me to the ends of the earth and back. They really are the greatest. For Laura, for Ryan, and even occasionally for Justin (J)
--for my FRIENDS. You know who you are and you know that I love you. I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!!!
--my German host family, the Rappolds, who I love, and who love to read my blog (Euch gebe ich einen “Shoutout” : Ich bin echt dankbar fuer alles was ihr fuer mich getan habt. Ihr seid ein wichtiger Teil in meinem Leben- aber das wisst ihr schon ;) They were the first ones who taught me how to make a home for myself in a place very far from home, how to understand and appreciate a different culture, how to learn a new language…that experience was the single most influential one of my life, without which I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.
--reading!!! I LOVE TO READ! I love that I love to read, and I love that I have endless hours to read. I’m devouring books like they’re going out of style. If I can instill a small part of my enthusiasm for reading in my students, that would be so great. That’s as sustainable as it gets.
--the stars! cause I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find a way to throw them in there. Nature in general is pretty cool I guess.
--my blackberry aka my crackberry aka my window to the outside world
--for the long and much anticipated summer vacation that is so close I can almost reach out and grab it
-- for aMericah
-- for Africa
--for all that I’ve experienced and all thats to come

and MOST IMPORTANTLY….for the shower I just took.

Thank YOU, Danke, Ke a leboga, Ke itumetse thata thata!

Happpy Thanksgiving!!!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

:) heyy there  
I’ve been living at site for about six weeks now and all’s well. I’m not allowed to identify the name of my village online for security reasons (something about the possibility of using PC volunteers as soft targets for taking down the US gov’t, very pleasant to think about) so I’ll call it Simba-- cause everyone loves a good Lion King reference ;) Life in Simba is going very well, it’s different from anything I’ve experienced before, but I like it a lot.
My host family is really great, things only get better the more time I spend with them. They are good kind people, plain and simple. Both of them are retired but they always manage to stay busy. My Gogo (I call her Mama Molefi) is the gardening guru of the neighborhood- she spends hours everyday in her garden and in the community garden down the road. My host-father, Papa Molefi, is always doing something with his hands, working on the engine of his tractor, fixing something, or building a structure of some kind. He worked in a coal mine for 35 years so I think he’d go crazy if he didn’t occupy himself like that. Neither of them finished elementary school but they made sure all of their twelve children finished high school (no small feat in rural Africa) and more than half of them graduated from some kind of professional school. They fully recognize the power an education can give a person and worked hard themselves to give their children what they did not have. That’s not the norm in this village at all. All that and they’re just nice to be around, I feel very lucky to be living with them.
Papa Molefi loves soccer and I’ve spent lots of time watching games with him on TV. His team is the “Orlando Pirates” (Orlando in SA, go figure). There are two major teams in the country- the Pirates and the Kaiser Chiefs- and their rivalry is SERIOUS. It’s one of the first questions people will ask you, “Chiefs or Pirates?” and they’ll size you up from there. People love soccer more than their mothers. I was on the fence about who I like more but it took about five seconds of being in his presence while watching a game for me to become an unequivocal Pirates fan for life. His enthusiasm is infectious.
School is going well. Peace Corps calls the first three months at site “Phase II: The Integration Phase,” (we call it “lockdown,” affectionately of course). During integration, I’m not technically supposed to teach or start any significant projects. I’ve been given weekly assignments by Peace Corps which are supposed to facilitate my getting to know the teachers, the way the school runs, and other important aspects of the community. The idea is not to rush into anything so a PCV can make good decisions about how to spend their two years. I have to find out what the school and the community want and need, and what they’re willing to work with me to create, otherwise they won’t be invested in the projects once I’m gone and no real sustainable change will have been created.
Having said that, it’s a little impossible not to want to get started and hit the ground running. I’ve started teaching English to grades 4, 5 and 6 a couple days a week and I like it. The feeling I get after a good lesson is a great one. In January, when the new school year begins, I’ll start teaching for real with my own classes everyday. We also decided it’d be best for the beginning of the sports program to coincide with the new school year too- for now it’s just pickup games and lots of high fives from elementary school soccer ballas. I observe a lot of classes too. My favorite thing to do is sit in on the kindergarten class; you would not believe how fun it is to yell out the days of the week and count to 100 in Setswana with a bunch of six year olds. Speaking of which, Setswana learning is going well. I study it a lot and try my best in every conversation. Everyone is so encouraging and immediately impressed with what I’ve learned, no matter how many mistakes I make. It’s the same the world over, people will always be happy you’re trying. I’ve got such a looong way to go, I decided I’m going to keep at it til I reach honorary Afreeekahn sistah status.
The teachers are really nice. They are all women besides one man. I feel like I’m walking into a women’s club every morning in the office- they’re a funny bunch of ladies. The principal is great too, she’s very committed to the school. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them more and more. I can tell they’re warming up to me and watching out for me, which is a good feeling. That’s one of my biggest priorities right now, because building relationships with everyone as best as I can is the only way to get anything done, not to mention it makes life significantly more enjoyable on a day to day basis.
I’ve learned a lot about the South African education system in the past couple months. The good, the bad, the ugly. One example: After 3rd grade, all instruction and testing switches to English from the home language (in my village it’s Setswana). The problem is that the students are never really taught how to speak or read English properly before the switch because there are not enough teachers who can teach it correctly. They end up losing the ability to read and write in their home language without really acquiring the ability to do it in English either. A large percentage of South African students are illiterate, they manage to go from grade to grade without ever learning how to read. They can’t pass tests, not because they’re stupid, but because they can’t read or understand the material that they’re being tested on. The school holds them back a couple times, (there is a 6 foot 2 seventeen year old MAN in the sixth grade at my school), then just fudge the grades and let the kids pass so they can be someone else’s problem. Its craaazzzzzy to witness. Most kids drop out before they finish high school as well. For these reasons and about a hundred more, I want to start teaching. I’m not a certified teacher and I sure haven’t been doing it for long, but already I know I’m capable of helping them with their language skills, just listening to a native speaker can make a big difference.
The other major problem is the lack of support from students’ home environments. The majority of parents are illiterate, they don’t own any books, they can’t help their kids with their homework, they can’t pay school fees, sometimes they can hardly feed their kids. A significant population of the students have lost both their parents to AIDS or something else and a lot of those kids have little brothers and sisters at home that rely on them for survival, so education is understandably not a priority. There are also very limited prospects for their futures even if students do graduate high school. No one in my village works. There are literally no places to work besides the school and the one convenience store. Entire extended families live off a government pension of 1000 Rand (70 US dollars) that comes once a month. What I’m trying to say is that there isn’t a lot to motivate the students to care about school, so a lot of them don’t, and I honestly can’t blame them.
I’m probably sounding super pessimistic but it’s not all hopeless. Some of the kids at my school are really good kids with a desire to learn and to make something of themselves, and like I said before, there are a lot of books and other resources laying around that can be put to good use. These problems aren’t unique to Africa. They can be found at any inner city school in the United States, they’re universal. The only way to fight the system is to lower my expectations, minimize my scope, focus on one group of kids at a time, and try not to be so hard on myself when I don’t see immediate results. So that’s what I’m going for. If a couple kids learn to read, or learn to love reading, or learn to speak English a little better, or learn SOMETHING from me, I’ll be happy.
Two weeks ago school was out for “Spring Break” so I had a fun time gallivanting across the Northern Cape with PCV friends. Seven of us met up and traveled to one guy’s site for a couple days to camp in the mountains nearby. We received many warnings from the locals, and from the chief of the village himself, about the snake monsters and mermaid sirens that live in the mountains (S. African stories and legends are like nothing I've heard before—too crazy/awesome/irrational/entertaining), but we decided to brave the unknown and take our chances. Instead of mermaids and snakes, we found lots of cows, a couple monkeys, beautiful views and some good times. From there we traveled to a game reserve to do some more hiking and camping closer to where I live. In the course of the week we had our own personal meeting with the chief of a village, spent a very eventful and interesting night in the hospital when my friend Andrew got lockjaw, met and were completely spoiled with drinks and food by a very nice Afrikaner couple, were interviewed and published in the local newspaper, slept under the stars, hitchhiked multiple times... The whole week was a blast. I don’t think I stopped laughing for more than two minutes at a time. After a couple weeks in the village, it was so nice to be with people who totally get me, with no language or cultural barrier dividing us. I love riding in near broken down buses and trucks and taxis, gorgeous landscapes to my left and right, with friends (and sometimes chickens) next to me. We get a lot of vacation time which is really sweet cause I’ve got toooo many trips in my head that I want to do and nothing holding me back besides my meager bank account but that's never stopped me before and I’m not gonna let it now ;)
The pace of life is much slower here. Everyone operates on “African time,” which was one of the first things I learned about upon my arrival. African time means that if someone says they’ll be somewhere at 12, they probably mean 3. It means no one is in a rush to do anything. It means the littlest things take weeks to get done. It means sometimes school ends at 10AM on Fridays, just because. People walk slowly. They stop and have long conversations with each other on the road. They visit each other’s houses to sit on the porch and gossip at any time of day. Of course it can be a negative thing in excess, but I think there's something to be said for approaching life like this. They take each moment as it comes, largely concerned with what's happening now and not what's coming later.  It’s very different from the “rush rush rush, if you're not busy you’re lazy, sleep when you’re dead” work mentality of the US. I figure years of my life will be spent multitasking and being insanely productive and stressed out. Here, there’s no place for any of that and I’m happily adjusting.
Highlights of a normal weekday include: waking up as the sun is rising (which a couple months ago would have made me want to murder someone but now it’s routine), drinking coffee on the back porch with Mama and Papa Molefi who have already been up for at least an hour. Throughout the course of the day someone usually asks me if I’m married, why not, and will I marry them/their son/their grandson/their neighbor. It was funny to me in the beginning but now it’s getting old, I’m considering just marrying one of them so it’ll stop…kidding.  I usually have a couple visitors after school, students from the high school who come over for help with their homework. This I like very much for two reasons: One, that they care enough to ask for help, and two, because I can see if they’re actually getting it much better one on one. Then I usually go for a run, which I’ve been doing way more than I ever did at home- something about this African soil’s got me itching to go go go. It’s the part of my day where I feel the most in control and the most free. I signed up for a half marathon in March so I gotta start training for that sometime. It’s a PC fundraiser that nearly all of us are doing, should be awesome! Then it’s all about taking it easy, either with a good book, with a movie, with email writing or music listening or news reading or quality fam time. We watch “Generations” together every night. “Generations” is the most famous and loved South African soap opera and nearly every family in this country stops what they’re doing to watch it at 8:00. It’s dramatic and ridiculous but strangely addicting, and it’s half in English and half in Setswana with subtitles so it’s great for my language learning. I usually end the night by wishing myself and all the bugs and other living things in my room sweet dreams.
Somehow, things have gotten themselves off to a great start. The longer I live here, the more sure I am that I can make this life work for me. I know I can have an impact and I know I’ll be impacted in good and important ways. I keep waiting for the “what the F am I doing here?!?!?” moment, that devastating moment of utter and complete freakout and uncertainty, but it hasn’t come and I’m hoping it never does. I’m where I’m supposed to be, under these African skies…
Wishing you all the best! with love.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Dumelang! Le kae? (“hey! how are you?” in Setswana)
Lots of new things have been happening lately so I thought it’d be a good idea to give an update of my life these days.
Training is almost over, on September 8th my group will be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers and i’ll start my two year service at my site. The last two months have been a little like a honeymoon stage. The days have been long but nearly always enjoyable and interesting, with fun weekends and lots of good times. Some fun day trips too-we went to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, to the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, and on a safari near Rustenburg.
Visits to the museums and our experiences living in a completely black village have sparked intensely moving conversations about race, poverty, and human interactions in this country- both within the context of a Peace Corps facilitated discussion and among ourselves. Talking about topics like these and experiencing their effects on my daily life is one of the most fascinating parts about living here. In the US, the noise of a million things distracts me from delving into important topics like this…but here I live it, breathe it, hear it, experience it every day- its inescapable. Apartheid ended pretty recently in the grand scheme of things and there is such a long way to go. A real transformation of this country is going to take generations. However, I genuinely appreciate being given a chance to play a small small part in the change, and to watch this country grow and develop firsthand.
The days in Makapanstad are slowly coming to an end. I took my final language test today and passed! We’re throwing a goodbye party for all 56 of our families this weekend with dancing, singing and skits to thank them for all they’ve done for us, and then it’s off to my permanent site next Thursday. Things are about to get super real super fast. Good thing I’ve got a pretty rockin’ assignment to look forward to! I found out two weeks ago that I will be living in a small village in the Kalahari Desert in the Northern Cape province teaching English and coaching boys’ and girls’ soccer at an elementary school !!! So its pretty much perfect :) I was very excited to get the news.
I visited my new village last week for four days, met my new host family and principal and checked out the school. It went really well! I’ll be living with an older couple who are sweet as all get out. They have twelve (TWELVE!) children who are grown and gone. They’ve hosted two other volunteers before and loved them both so I know there is a lot of potential there for a meaningful relationship.                                      
I have my own one bedroom structure unattached to the main house which is going to be my one stop shop for sleeping, cooking, bathing, eating, and hanging out. I don’t have running water, but I do have electricity which will make cooking much easier and me a little less of a cavewoman. The last volunteer who was there left me this encouraging letter about my family and my school along with a box full of useful things (speakers, a guitar, maps, books, teaching resources, cooking spices, trail recommendations, and other useful tips) which left me feeling comforted on my first night there.
My school is called Bojelakgomo Primary School and I was very impressed after observing two school days there. The school has more resources and is more aesthetically pleasing than any other school I’ve visited in South Africa. There is a multinational NGO made up of Australians and Germans who have taken it upon themselves to help the school. They come twice a year and have built bookshelves, donated books, started a garden, and helped in other important ways. There is student art work on the walls along with educational posters, and nearly every kid has their own chair – things that are very rare to witness in a South African school. At first I was like, “man this school doesn’t need me,” but after talking with the principals and the teachers, I can see how much is lacking under the surface. I’ll explain what I’m going to do more later as I settle in and my work there evolves but I know I want to focus on reading comprehension and literacy. The last volunteer started some really good projects that I want to continue with as well as create some of my own. The teachers also really want to start a successful sports program, since there is such a high demand and no one willing to step up to run it. I’m really excited about that- I could see the students light up when I asked them about playing soccer, I cant wait to get started.
My house is in the northwest corner of the village and when I step outside my door I can see miles and miles of nothing but AFRICA every way I look. I decided it looks like a mix between the straight up African bush and middle of nowhere Arizona. I feel safe there, everyone I met was welcoming and easy going. I was also happy to learn that to greet family and friends there I say something different than what I learned in my training village. In my new village people say, “Ga Gona Molato” which is the Setswana version of “Hakuna Matata” (which is Swahili- who knew??) and LITERALLY means “no worries.”  So tons of times a day, I’ll begin every conversation with “no worries,” which just makes me smile at the thought.
Another thing that makes me smile is the sky. The sunsets are ridiculous explosions of orange and red and the sun is monstrously huge on the horizon every night at dusk. In addition, I cannot describe how beautiful the stars are so everyone will just have to come visit me and see for themselves. I promise itll be worth the trek. I’ve never seen that many individual stars, that many constellations, or the milky way that visible in my whole life. AMEN for mother nature, she knows what’s up.
All in all, my site visit was a very encouraging start. I didn’t have any substantial freakout moments but it was a little crazy to be in the place that I will call home for the next two years. Ive been building up to the moment for what feels like a long time and to drink it in, to let myself feel the weight of it all, was overwhelming and exciting at the same time.
Even though it will feel like I’m alone in the middle of nowhere, I actually won’t be too far from a bunch of PCVs. My village is within an hour of 16 other volunteers and we can all meet up on the weekends in each others’ villages or in the main town where we’ll do our grocery shopping (a town called Kuruman, two and a half hours drive south).  We’ve already created this great support network made strong by common ground, hilarious moments, long conversations, and our shared experience of South Africa. I know someone will need me to build them up from time to time, just like I’ll need to hear those same words when I’m feeling down. The Northern Cape is a good spot- im psyched! We have lots of hiking and sandboarding and adventuring to do.
On the way to our sites we experienced a luxurious two days at this hotel in the middle of nowhere. We called our all too brief escape from reality “Posh Corps.” Somehow, even after only two short months, being reintroduced to comforts Ive experienced my whole life was a little shocking. Using toilets inside that flush and taking showers and sleeping in crisp clean sheets and eating delicious food was like heaven.  I took my first shower in two months and damn was it a beautiful thing. The girl I roomed with, Tara (who will actually be working in a village of Kalahari Bushmen—eat that up anthropology majors) flooded our room and bathroom cause she forgot to put the shower curtain in the right place… I thought it was hilarious, we joked that she’d already forgotten how to take a shower.
There have been many memorable moments in the past couple of weeks and I want to share a couple; these are what I call my TIA moments-- which means “This is Africa” –it’s a phrase used to describe any absurd, beautiful, awful, illogical, crushing, happy moment … haha I know that narrows it down a lot. An example: I was on a run with a couple people one day and this guy driving a donkey cart (a makeshift wooden cart pulled by two donkeys) came toward us. As he passed us, I saw that he was texting on his phone. I absolutely lost it and turned to my running partners exclaiming things like “WHERE AM I?? what planet is this???” I know I looked like a crazy person and we all just started laughing uncontrollably. This guy was riding on such a primitive piece of transport, yet texting on his cell phone and it was too much for me to handle.  Other such moments include when I realized my new host family has a DVD player, but no running water (priorities people!), or when Gogo Joyce asked me to teach her how to text on her new phone, or when hungry children are eating rocks on the side of the road as a BMW cruises by. Contrasts like these are everywhere, and sometimes when I experience them at an unexpected moment, they hit me hard. This country is unique in that sense: the third world and the first world collide on a daily basis and the result can be completely disconcerting and downright ridiculous at times.
So yea, my thoughts are all over the place lately but this is a little slice of recent happenings. Things are about to change again big time. I think I’m ready. I want to find a way to make this new village mine, to begin to make some kind of contribution to the people around me, and to keep my sanity at the same time. Luck Luck wish me luck!
Came across this quote and liked it: “Humanity was born in Africa. All people, ultimately, are Africans.”

sala sentle  (stay well)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

hellloo :)
I’m here! It’s greaaat. Don’t know where to begin.. there’s too much to say but i’ll just start writing and see what comes out.
I got to DC on July 5th and realized once again how much I want to live there in the future, that city is too cool. We were there for two days, meeting lots of people and dealing with logistical things and such. Flight was good, arrival was good. We spent the first four days in country at a college campus that was way nicer than I expected it to be. I think they didn’t want to shock us too badly right off the bat. The best part was the monkeys walking all over the campus. I thought it was hilarious every time I turned a corner and found myself staring into some inquisitive monkey eyes. Lots of info, lots of hanging out.. it was a nice transition before we officially started training.
There’s 56 PCVs in our group, which is called SA24 -cause we’re the 24th PCV group in South Africa. Everyone is normal and cool, interesting to talk to, up for some serious adventures and fun to be around. Not that I expected otherwise, but you never know. I hoped for a couple people I would feel comfortable with, but I got many more than that. The first couple of days were really great for that reason cause there were so many people to get to know. I was constantly laughing and genuinely enjoying every conversation I had over meals or tea or late at night... it made the transition between leaving home and starting this new life really good and not very scary at all. 90% of the group is under 30 (most people are like 24 but there’s a few straight outta college kidz like me), the other 10% are retired and in their 60s. Of the 56, one of the guys graduated from UF two years before me, one of the girls was a Rotary Exchange student like me, 2 others went to college with two people I went to high school with, and one girl is good friends with a very good friend of mine who I met in South Africa last year. On top of that, 4 of us speak German fluently. All of that makes me feel like this is where I’m supposed to be. We’ve already started to build relationships that I know i’ll need to rely on when things get rough. We’ve had crazy awesome dance parties, good discussions about everything under the sun, impromptu jam sessions, star gazing sessions, soccer games, yoga and running workouts etc—all the ingredients for solid friendship foundations. We learned we get a good amount of time off to visit each other once we’re at our sites and additional time to go on trips together, so naturally the planning has already begun. Some of us will even live relatively close to each other since Peace Corps organizes our sites in clusters (from 5 to 15 people in a cluster) around a town that we can all meet up in. It’s nice to have a support system, jumping into the abyss with friends by your side is easier and wayyy more fun than doing it alone.
4 days after we got to SA, we moved to our training site, a village called Makapanstad in the North-West Province. We’ll be here until the first week of September, after which we’ll be placed in a specific site/village for the next two years. Makapanstad is pretty rural, not much development besides houses and shacks and the occasional bar. There’s cattle and other animals wandering along every path and there’s dirt/dust on the ground and in the air that’s causing my allergies to act up like it’s their job. Orange trees, lemon trees, trash scattered all around, makeshift fences and gates, alarm clock roosters, barking dogs, constant catcalls/crude remarks/marriage proposals directed at all the female volunteers, kombis or taxi vans speeding along the one paved road, and people walking around greeting each other are the normal sights and sounds of the village.
 Here I met my very own African grandmother :) Her name is Gogo Joyce and she’s made me feel really comfortable in her home. Grandmothers here are called “Gogos,” and they are by far the most badass members of South African society. People do not fuck with Gogos. We were told to befriend old women wherever we go because they’ll look out for us, make sure no one messes with us or tries to rip us off. Joyce is always smiling. She’s super helpful with my language skills, always teaching me words and phrases, patient even when I ask her to repeat things over and over. She gave me an African name: “Lerato,” which means love in Setswana. All the Africans I’ve met and befriended call me by my new name. She laughs with pleasure every time I introduce myself to her friends and neighbors as Lerato, I can tell she likes showing off her new American granddaughter.
Last weekend one of the guys threw a party (there aint no party like a Peace Corps party) at his house and we all had to ask our host moms and Gogos for permission to go. Some of them wanted to know Josh’s family’s name and address… flash back to middle school sleepovers haha. It was a little silly but nice to feel cared about by these African families who have voluntarily opened up their homes to a bunch of foreigners.
Gogo Joyce is teaching me how to cook! My parents told me I couldn’t come back til I learned to cook so I decided it was time to give it a shot. The food here is decent enough. During part of training we’re taught how to cultivate our own gardens which I’m really excited about. I’m almost looking forward to cooking for myself for the next two years (gasp). There are a couple reasons for that: Clean water and properly cooked food are a real issue for some of us. To drink a glass of water I have to: boil water, let it cool, filter it through a brita filter, and then drop some bleach in it, leaving me with a “clean” bleach-like tasting cup of water for my drinking pleasure. To brush my teeth, I have to boil water. To do the dishes, I have to boil water. To wash a piece of fruit I want to eat, I have to boil water. Never in my life have I thought so much about clean water- I already know it will be a central theme of my service. This makes cooking food much more complicated as well. Some PCVs’ families are not as sanitary as mine and it sucks worrying that everything you eat might make you sick. The point is that it will be nice to get to our sites so we can control what we eat and drink without offending anyone.
A couple of us are planning to contact MTV about making a cribs episode, Peace Corps SA style, since our living situations are so pimped out. Some of us have inside toilets (the chosen ones!), some of us shit in holes in the backyard, some of us have showers, most of us take bucket baths (i’ll let you imagine that one.) It can all feel pretty crazy. Sometimes I feel like i’ve time traveled back many decades. But it’s nice to live simply and cool to know I’m reducing my carbon footprint considerably. Taking a bath is quite a process. I have to build a fire outside to heat the water so I’m not taking a cold bath in the cold (it’s winter here and the mornings and nights can get prettttty cold.) The first time I did it I laughed to myself thinking “what the hell am I doing building a fire outside in the cold in Africa just so I can take a bath?? how is this real life??” but people can get used to anything, and it’s one of the many foreign things thats starting to feel normal to me.
I’m learning Setswana! It’s one of the more widely spoken of SA’s 11 national languages so I was stoked about that. About 3 million SA people speak it as well as all of Botswana’s population. We were broken up into smaller language groups of 4 or 5 and nearly every day we have lessons with our language teachers. It’s overwhelming but i’ve got the basics down. There is soooo much more to learn but having short conversations here and there makes me feel like I’m retaining a good amount of it. There are a couple of crazy sounds that I’m trying to master but I know it’ll take time. Meeting white people who can speak Setswana is not an every day occurrence around here. Some of the people I’ve met have never even spoken to a white person period. (Race and SA’s complex national history is a WHOLE nother humongous topic that I will save for another day.) Speaking the language well is extremely important… half our battles will be about building relationships in our communities and getting people to trust us- learning the language is the fastest way to integrate myself. Mandela’s words can explain it better than mine: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, you will speak to his mind; if you talk to a man in the language he was born speaking, you will speak to his heart.”
We’ve also had a couple of school visits at different schools in the area to introduce us to the South African school system, making like 7 visits in total. I’m at a middle school that is pretty run down .. some kids don’t have chairs to sit on, no electricity, nothing on the walls, no flushing toilets (that’s pretty standard for everywhere though), a serious lack of teachers, lack of funding for basic school supplies and many other problems. However, there are a couple of teachers who definitely know what they’re doing and a good amount of students who want to learn. No matter what a school physically has or doesn’t have, I know it’s the teachers and students who will make or break my experience so I’m just hoping for the best later on.
In addition to language lessons, all the PCVs and training staff meet up nearly every day at a building in the center of the village to have training sessions about all the things that will affect us for the next two years: how to stay healthy physically and mentally, illnesses we need to watch out for, HIV/AIDS, sexual assault info, safety and security in general, race relations, what life at our sites will be like, teaching methods, the South African school system, the system under Apartheid, South African history and politics.. the list goes on and on. Sometimes my brain goes into overload mode and I feel like I can’t absorb one more word, but I’m impressed with how well organized and informative training has been. We’ll never actually be ready for what’s coming at us, but our awesome training staff is trying to at least make sure our villages won’t kick us out immediately..
I got internet on my phone last week which is soooo great cause now I don’t feel so disconnected. I can email friends and family, read the news, BBM anyone that has a blackberry like my mama :) text other volunteers here, etc. I find it funny that I had to move to Africa to get a smart phone for the first time haha but no complaints. It’s nice- I don’t feel so far away from home anymore.
Overall, life is real good. I’m very happy to be here with these people doing what we’re doing. It feels surreal about 10 times a day and i’m sure that’ll continue for a long time. There are moments when I feel SO high on life and others where I wonder how exactly I’m going to live here for so long. I recognize how incredibly much is waiting for me, how much I have to learn about this country, about Africa, about teaching, about race, about Setswana, about myself, about LIFE. I’m in no rush to learn it all at once as my schedule is pretty wide open for the next while. For now it’s about having as much fun as possible, and taking each day as it comes.
I’ve left out lots of things but I’ve already written a novel so I’m gonna call it quits for now. If you made it to the end, ke a go rotloetsa (I congratulate you). Hope you are all happy and healthy and lovin’ yourselves some summer days.  Drink an ice cold AMERICAN glass of water for me :)
Peace and love peace and LOVE.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

In ONE WEEK I'll begin a whole new adventure in South Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer! For this reason I want to start this blog so I can stay connected to all the people I care about. It's a little daunting to think about posting my words into cyberspace cause I usually just write for myself, but I figured I needed to suck it up and get with the times.

I'm feeling pretty good about leaving these days. I graduated (WHOOP!). I've had the best summer I could ask for. Leaving now just fits, it's the natural next step. I feel as ready as I'm ever going to be (not that I'm ready by any means..) but so far all the stars have aligned, now I just have to do it. I feel ridiculously lucky to be going back to South Africa. I love this country with my whole heart. Its beauty is unique and breathtaking, and its people, from my limited experience, are extremely kind and open. Having already lived and taught there, I feel like I have a tiny incling into the next two years and hopefully I'll have a better chance at succeeding. My world is about to widen. Times like this are really cool cause I feel like I'm standing on the edge, where everything I know is about to change and nothing will ever be the same as soon as I jump.. I'm exxxcited!


I have no doubt this experience will blow my mind repeatedly-- I'll be sick, so sick, I'll be sad and lonely and I'll cry, I'll feel frusterated and useless, I'll feel unsafe and scared and many other things I can't forsee. But if I can come back alive and in one piece, mentally, physically, and emotionally stable, I will regard this experience as a complete success.

I want to become a part of a new family on a new continent. I want to be an African woman's daughter. I want to try everyday to make sense of the foreign words around me until they come out of my mouth effortlessly. I want to learn to trust the people I will meet as they learn to trust me. I want to teach some kids in a classroom something, anything- even though I know they'll teach me a hundred times more than I could ever teach them. I want to climb mountains and swim in oceans and see as many sunsets as I can. I want to make my own opinions about a continent that is vastly misunderstood. I want to make a new life for myself, with new friends (all the other PCVs I'm going with seem SO cool), and in the process expand my comfort level to new and such great heights. I know I'll be pushed to my limit but in my experience that's the perfect time to find out what I'm really made of and just how strong I can be.

This next week is about sad and sweet goodbyes and packing everything I'm going to need for the next two years into two suitcases and a backpack.. harder than it sounds.

I'm going to miss this carefree and beautiful Gainesville life with the best friends and family around. You are all wonderful and I am so lucky to know you. You all better come visit, OR ELSE.

next time you hear from me, I'll be in Afreeeka.

PEACE out :)