May is taking its sweet sweet time but March and April were a blur. At the end of March over the school fall break I traveled to the Mpumalanga province close to the border of Swaziland with five other PCVs. Once again we had to admit to ourselves that the NorCape is inferior to that part of South Africa. Sand and sunsets are cool and all, but the green mountains and vistas were my kind of stunning. We had a killer time hiking through Blyde River Canyon and canyoneering through the rivers and waterfalls that make up that area. It was a simultaneously strenuous and relaxing week- the days were spent exploring, the nights chilling on the porch of our guesthouse making dinner together, drinking wine, playing cards and marveling at how good we had it.
From there we traveled the short distance to the base of Sabie mountain where we met up with about seventy other PCVs from all over SA. We got there Friday morning and began one of the crazier weekends of my life. I got to meet lots of volunteers for the first time. There are four different groups of us in country at any given time, a new group arrives every six months as the oldest group finishes up. Since we usually only go to trainings with our own class, it was really great to have a chance to meet the others. Saturday morning most of us woke up at 4:30 AM to catch a bus that drove us up the mountain to the starting point of the Longtom half marathon. It was freeeezing at the top with so much wind and fog that I couldn’t see twenty feet in front of me. The conditions were a joke, laughing at the absurdity of what I was about to do seemed like the best preparation tactic since I could barely stop shivering enough to stretch. But it turned out awesomely. The visibility got better the farther I ran, with a pretty view of the valley below opening up before me towards the end. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed myself the whole time. I ran with friends and talked a bunch, I ran alone and thought a lot about what the hell I was doing running thirteen miles on a mountain… I built it up to be bad but when it wasn’t, my body found a rhythm and the time passed easily- I finished in one hour and 55 minutes which was more than fine with me. I got the race itch, I wanna run another!
It was an inspiring day as all the PCVs who attempted the race finished- the most incredible of which was my girl Jill, who blew all our minds by finishing the ultra marathon race in under five hours and twenty minutes. The Longtom Ultra is grueling and regarded as one of the toughest ultra marathons in the world. Five PCVS, four guys and Jill, ran the 30 miles/56 km UP and DOWN the mountain. They didn’t take the thirty minute bus ride to the top like we did, they ran every step of the way. Jill was the third woman to finish overall (and the first of all the PCV men), and she’d never even run a regular marathon before. She was the talk of the race, strangers were exclaiming how impressive it was. The day ended with a marathon sized BBQ back where we were staying and late night dancing despite our sore muscles, it was a memorable night. I want to thank all my family and friends who donated to my race fund, you guys were so generous. We raised over 20,000 dollars in total for the KLM foundation which supports arguably the best secondary school in South Africa. It was great to be able to give that much in scholarship money to (cliché but totally true) the future leaders of this country.
As if that wasn’t enough excitement for me, the next day I got on a plane and flew HOME :) too exciting for words but I’ll give a brief overview. When the customs officer stamped my passport in DC and said “welcome home,” I almost leaned over the counter and kissed him. It was a two week whirlwind- so fun, comforting, gratifying, natural, strange, funny, and a little unbelievable. I didn’t try to process it all, I just let it happen, knowing I’d have days to think it through later when I was back in my quiet room. All six of my family members were in the same room at the same time, something that hadn’t happened in over fourteen months. I got to do nearly everything I wanted to and spend time with everyone I wanted to. I drove all over town with the windows down and the music up, went to the springs, the lake and the beach- springtime in Florida at its finest. I spent days and nights with my best friends and family, talking laughing dancing eating laying chilling being. How good it all was is a testament to the awesome people in my life. I’m a lucky girl.
I was worried it would be extremely hard to come back after being reminded of life in Gainesville, but it hasn’t been too bad. The night I arrived back in SA, I was wearing my high school soccer sweatshirt in Pretoria when this girl in the bunk bed next to mine starts freaking out because she not only graduated from Buchholz High School in 2002, not only was on the soccer team and had my same sweatshirt, but is also a PCV who I’d somehow never met or heard of before. whaaa ?? We were dumbfounded. In my head I was like “Ok universe, I read you loud and clear. Thanks for the sign.” Home is here, home is wherever I am. The world is smaller than it appears... I’m not alone even though some days I feel otherwise. Feeling the love and support from across the atlantic gives me the energy I need to pour into school and work at site. I’ve always been like that- some people need to cut themselves off from their former lives to be successful in their current situations. I thrive best and feel most fulfilled when I know how solid the important relationships in my life are. So thank you all.
There’s good and bad news about the water situation I wrote about last time. Bad news first: the water in my village failed the NGO’s sanitation test miserably. They took extra care to tell me that of the different locations they tested, the water in my village is the worst. There are incredibly high levels of nitrates, magnesium, calcium, chloride, and E coli, among other things. The report they gave me was pretty depressing. I got a translation as to what those components actually mean for health risks and while it’s not deadly or anything, it’s not good either. Basically the high level of nitrates poses the most serious health problem. The amount of nitrates is more than 700% the normal and healthy level. It can cause acute health risks for babies and young children (particularly pertaining to physical development of their bodies), as well as complications for pregnant mothers- aka most of the people in my village. They said the bacteria levels can cause a range of infections, even if a person were only to drink the water one single time. I boil and filter all the water that I drink (and still this has got me a little worried about what kind of future health risks I’m exposing myself to) but that’s not practical for everyone around me. All this made me feel the complete opposite of encouraged. I understand that the NGO has regulations it has to follow to be able to provide its services but it just seems so ironic that PlayPump considers this water to be too dirty to make cleaner because—news flash-- people are drinking and using it anyway. everyday. They have been for many years. It’s all they have. Going through this reinforced my previous thoughts about how essential clean water is to life. To me, it’s a human right, as essential and integral as dignity itself. Whatever I said before, I totally got my hopes up that it was going to work out. Everything seemed to fit so well. Looking back, it fit too well, it happened too fast and it would have been too easy. That should have been a dead giveaway cause anything that happens quickly in Africa is not to be trusted.
But all hope isn’t lost. After I got the news that it wasn’t going to happen, I talked to a couple different people about what to do. My thoughts were- either I can try to find a company that will independently filter/clean the water so that PlayPump will reconsider, or I could find a new company all together. I emailed a couple friends from home who I thought could help and they did, providing me with more details about the dangers of the components in my water, practical and impractical methods for cleaning it, and possible American NGOs/companies that they thought might be able to help. It meant a lot that these people took the time to use their resources and email colleagues to help me when this problem probably seems so far removed from their lives.
The breakthrough came when I spoke to a man I met a while back who is the contractor for the orphanage they are building on my school’s property (I’ll explain the orphanage in a sec). His name is Johann and he runs an NGO in the town where I buy my groceries. He works in a lot of the villages in the area heading different development projects and he comes by my school a lot. He knew about the lack of water and that I was trying to find a solution. He told me he’d check up on some things and get back to me. Turns out he highly recommended my village’s situation to a company he does freelance work with- a mining company based in Johannesburg that installs pumps in rural villages for “team building exercises” (still don’t exactly understand why but I didn’t ask questions). I’ve exchanged multiple emails with this company and it’s looking good. They understand that the water quality in the Kalahari basin is basically all this bad. They don’t have any regulations about water sanitation that would stop them from being involved which was what I was most concerned about. As of now, they are coming to my village in June to see if the spot works for them. They said they will most likely install a pump, and they are looking into the cost of filters to see if it is something they can afford as well. The filter was never the most important part for me. It would be amazing to find a way to provide cleaner water to this area, but really, quantity for me outweighs quality. Like I said, people are used to the water the way it is- what they really need is more consistent access to that water since it is always turning off and there are not enough pumps spread out around the village. I want a pump installed in this particular spot because it will provide steady water access to all the students, staff and cooks at the school, to the future orphanage, and to the families nearby. A filter would be icing on the cake. I’m much more hesitant to get excited this time but maybe Round 2 will be different. If it does work out, I think it will be a longer process which is fine with me because the one thing I’ve got is time. Dealing with this has shown me that there are always options that haven’t been exhausted and that there’s plenty of money and resources in the world not to be able to solve a problem like this. Gah okayyy, enough about water. someone get me a beer.. please.
I want to mention the orphanage project too even though I can go into more detail later when the construction begins. There’s a multinational NGO that has been working in this area for around twenty years called “The Kalahari Education Experience” (KEE). Different groups from usually either Germany or Australia come at least twice a year to teach in schools or help build classrooms or any number of things. At my school specifically they have donated lots of books and teaching resources. They built two classrooms, as well as bookshelves in every room. They’ve helped in huge ways. My principal came up with the idea for an orphanage about five years ago. Then, just like now, there were lots of kids growing up in kid-run households, or kids living with their grandparents that were too old and sick to take care of them. She wanted to build a place for them to live during the school week so they could focus on school and receive better care. She pitched the idea to the KEE and they were more than receptive. As of now, the Australian group has raised over ¾ of their monetary goal toward construction, about 100,000 dollars. I met the two women who are heading the building design and the fundraising when they came to visit in November and they are such cool ladies. One of them was the first woman in charge of one of the main research stations in Antarctica many years ago, and she still spends two months out of every year there. They are both authors with very interesting lives who just happen to build orphanages in Africa in their spare time. They are super happy I’m here because now it is much easier for them to be in contact with the principal or any of the other people involved—I’m the only one for miles with internet access so I’ve become the liaison between Australia and the Kalahari. We exchange emails about all aspects of the project- methods, money, community involvement. It’s very cool to be a part of it because the plan is a great one and I know it will benefit the community in a big way once it’s finished. The Australians are coming again at the end of June for two weeks so construction should get underway around then. Here are links to the three newsletters they made to fundraise which explain things more clearly (with pictures!) if you’re interested:
School’s going well. I go back and forth between feeling like a good teacher and like a total fraud pretty regularly. This is the shortest term of the four so I feel like I’m cramming in lessons and assessments left and right. I gave my class journals after I got back from vacation and it was a huge hit. They love them and are always asking me if they can write. It’s great because I can have a unique conversation which each kid about whatever they want to write to me about. It’s given the quieter students a way to express themselves, and I encourage the ones who can’t write well to draw pictures instead. They all keep saying how much they want to meet my friends from America, so you guys should probably get on that and come visit. I also started tutoring sessions with a small group of my students having the most trouble. The five of them can barely read and even though they’re pretty good at faking it in class, it was painfully clear that they needed individual help. I’m using workbooks from second and third grade and working through them slowly hoping it’s helping somehow. At the very least I can tell they love the individual attention, and for a kid who isn’t paid attention to much at home, that can go a long way. I want to keep doing it the rest of the time I’m here and hopefully branch out into other grades with kids that the other teachers tell me need extra help as well.
I was sick last week for too many days, uncontrollably throwing up, constant nausea, the works. It was awful and a little scary at times. I felt weak and isolated- the doctors is three hours away on a bumpy jarring road and in addition to not knowing what they could actually do for me, I was pretty sure the ride alone would kill me. I couldn’t eat and I was trying to keep myself from getting too dehydrated. My mom talked me through it by text, I would have been even more of a mess without her. It reminded me how lucky I am to have been relatively healthy the last couple months and how seriously I want to stay that way. I wasn’t dying or anything but getting to the other side made me want to keep health and safety as my top priorities. The goal is to make it through to the end of this not too much worse for the wear.
Getting over the hostile takeover of my body by bacteria and coming back from the States are both contributing to this feeling of recommitment I’ve been having lately. The feeling comes and goes when it wants but I’m trying to sweet talk it into staying around for a while. As good as it was visiting home, I wanted to come back. I’m not ready to be done yet. It’s like Peace Corps and I are renewing our vows. The year mark is coming up and I’ve been told by tons of people that the “year slump” is about to hit. Around this time some serious soul-searching takes place, volunteers inevitably question what they’ve actually accomplished in a year, whether projects are futile and sacrifices are pointless... it’s so easy to get down as winter comes and the days get darker and the nights colder. I’m going to do my best to hold on to this feeling of recommitment when I have tough days. It’s the natural ebb and flow, I know going through the shit times makes the good times and small triumphs that much more meaningful. Besides leaning on friends and family, one of the ways I deal with the more difficult stuff involves writing pages and pages in my journal, and sometimes when I get really desperate I talk out loud to myself and to the donkeys who are listening to convince myself that I got this… But I’m not too worried (talking to yourself is normal right?) cause I know every little thing is gonna be alright.
