Merry Christmas, everybody! And Happy New Year! We know Christmas is still over a week away, and we haven’t lost track of the world that much. But in terms of wishing everyone happy holidays, this is our last chance. We leave this week on our vacation to Mozambique and Swaziland. To say that we are excited is an understatement. Come Sunday, we will be lounging on the pristine beaches of Mozambique for the next week or so. On our way back to South Africa we’re stopping off for a couple days in the tiny kingdom (yes, kingdom) of Swaziland. After that, we’ll be ringing in the new year with several other volunteers from our group in one volunteer’s village. All in all, we won’t be back here at our site until the beginning of 2012.
We are also excited because once we get back here we will, hopefully, become very busy with projects. We’ll have a few days to catch up on sleep before the new school year begins, and we’re optimistic about being able to help out at the primary school. Last week we attended the end of year ceremony for the primary school that included graduations for kindergarten and Grade 7 (high school begins in Grade 8 here). The principal seems to really like us (he gave Matt a 6-pack of Heineken out of the blue), so things are looking good at the school.
Well anyway, we won’t be posting anything here for several weeks. Happy holidays!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Week Three in KZN
Food: We are treated as management at the hospital, which means that our meals are provided for by the kitchen staff. For the most part, this is great. We definitely save some money by not having to cook every meal ourselves. Plus, it’s nice not having to cook all the time. The food is usually fairly traditional South African food – rice, beans, mealie pap and MEAT. This country definitely loves its meat. If we eat any more chicken, we’re afraid we might start crowing.
Names: Many volunteers are given new names in the local language of their sites. Yesterday, we received our Zulu names. Matt is now Sbusiso (Sbu), which means blessing. Sara’s name is not quite so traditional. She was renamed Zahara, which is an extremely popular South African singer. News of our new names is spreading quickly, and we have heard lots of “Sanibona, Zahara!” and Sanibona, Sbu!” in the last 24 hours. (Sanibona means hello.)
Names: Many volunteers are given new names in the local language of their sites. Yesterday, we received our Zulu names. Matt is now Sbusiso (Sbu), which means blessing. Sara’s name is not quite so traditional. She was renamed Zahara, which is an extremely popular South African singer. News of our new names is spreading quickly, and we have heard lots of “Sanibona, Zahara!” and Sanibona, Sbu!” in the last 24 hours. (Sanibona means hello.)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Our House
Is awesome. Well at least by Peace Corps standards. It’s on the hospital compound. We have a bedroom, living room, dining/kitchen area and an indoor bathroom. No washing machine or dishwasher (we aren’t that spoiled), but we have electricity and running water. Okay, the electricity often goes out when it storms (3x in the last 1.5 weeks) and the water sometimes goes out as well and turns brown after we get a lot of rain (it’s been brown all week), but, hey, we’re not getting water dripped on our heads every night like in our last site. Plus, crystal light juice packets disguise the brown in the water, so all’s good. Don’t worry, we do boil it before drinking.
Thanksgiving Plans: a number of volunteers are getting together for the holiday, but since we just got to our new site (and it’s not a SA holiday, obviously), we’re staying here. We did find turkey lunchmeat at the store, so we’re having grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Just keeping it classy. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving Plans: a number of volunteers are getting together for the holiday, but since we just got to our new site (and it’s not a SA holiday, obviously), we’re staying here. We did find turkey lunchmeat at the store, so we’re having grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Just keeping it classy. Happy Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
First Week
We have now been at our new site over a week, and a proper blog post is long overdue. Here’s a brief summary of our new lives: We arrived last Thursday afternoon at our new home at Salvation Army Mountain View Hospital in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN). The hospital is in a compound on top of a mountain, and we live on the compound along with many hospital employees. The hospital specifically treats TB patients (80% of whom also have HIV), and due to the length of the TB treatment many patients are here for 2-4 months. Adjacent to the hospital are two schools, one primary and one high school. The students at the primary school (kindergarten to grade 7) are all children from the local area which is called Ngwelu (pronounced Ing-way-loo). I call it an “area” because it is extremely spread out and isn’t really a village – although there is a local head man (sub-chief) who also works at the hospital. The high school is a combination of the local children plus children from all over the country. Apparently it has a good academic reputation and the cost of boarding is much more reasonable than the cost of other private schools, so that’s how it attracts students. To that end, the girls’ dormitory is right by our house and is the home to about 400 girls. The boys’ dormitory only houses about 200 boys and is about a five minute walk up the mountain from us.
So what are we going to be doing here? We are still trying to figure out which projects will work but our goal is to get involved with the children, especially the primary school. There doesn’t seem to be the same need for teachers as there was at our old site, but hopefully we can start some afterschool clubs for the children. With respect to the high school students, there is a young 25 year-old pastor who is in charge of the male boarders and he wants Matt to assist him. We have already helped him run 2 Friday youth meetings, and it seems like there will definitely be potential next year. The problem is that the South African school year is ending right now and the students are writing exams. The next school year begins in January, so that’s when we will really be able to start activities. The hospital staff also wants us to get involved with the patients, but we’re still a little unclear on what we can do to help because many of the patients come from rural areas and don’t speak much English. Ideas we have so far are playing games, teaching some simple crafts and doing puzzles with them, but hopefully with time we will come up with more ideas. On Tuesday we have a meeting in Vryheid (the closest city) with the Legal Aid Center. We are hoping to get some guidance from them on how we can help the patients with wills. The bottom line is we need to get through the next month. In mid-December we will be leaving on a trip to Mozambique (yay!) and when we return in January that’s when we will be able to really get some activities started.
The highlight of our time here on the mountain came last Friday night when we visited the girls’ dormitory. We went with the young pastor (who has basically been our personal guide this first week) at about 6:00 right after all the girls had finished eating dinner. And on a side note, this was our last stop on a looong first day of meeting everybody and awkward introductions. The girls were expecting us, and when we walked into the dining hall (basically a small auditorium) they went nuts. We have never heard girls scream like that EVER. It was like Beatlemania meets the Jonas Brothers on steroids. It was a couple minutes of pandemonium before the pastor could finally get a few words in to introduce us. When he finally introduced us he asked Sara to speak first. She only got a few words in before the screams erupted again. Sara probably only spoke for a net total of 22 seconds, but her “speech” lasted nearly five minutes with all the interruptions for screams. The same thing basically happened when Matt spoke. Never have either of us ever experienced anything remotely like that and, fortunately, never will we again. According to the pastor they were enamored with our American accents and the fact that we were from L.A. They would have cheered for anything that came out of our mouths. They even went crazy when Matt said “we’re not this interesting.” When we finally left, even that took a few minutes because everyone wanted to touch us. One girl lunged for Matt’s arm and ended up pushing him into Sara. Outside it wasn’t much better. Matt and the Pastor escaped out the gate but Sara got mobbed and ended up hugging about 30-40 girls in a couple minutes. All in all, it was a surreal ending to a good first day, and will end up being a highlight of our Peace Corps service that we will NEVER be able to forget.
So what are we going to be doing here? We are still trying to figure out which projects will work but our goal is to get involved with the children, especially the primary school. There doesn’t seem to be the same need for teachers as there was at our old site, but hopefully we can start some afterschool clubs for the children. With respect to the high school students, there is a young 25 year-old pastor who is in charge of the male boarders and he wants Matt to assist him. We have already helped him run 2 Friday youth meetings, and it seems like there will definitely be potential next year. The problem is that the South African school year is ending right now and the students are writing exams. The next school year begins in January, so that’s when we will really be able to start activities. The hospital staff also wants us to get involved with the patients, but we’re still a little unclear on what we can do to help because many of the patients come from rural areas and don’t speak much English. Ideas we have so far are playing games, teaching some simple crafts and doing puzzles with them, but hopefully with time we will come up with more ideas. On Tuesday we have a meeting in Vryheid (the closest city) with the Legal Aid Center. We are hoping to get some guidance from them on how we can help the patients with wills. The bottom line is we need to get through the next month. In mid-December we will be leaving on a trip to Mozambique (yay!) and when we return in January that’s when we will be able to really get some activities started.
The highlight of our time here on the mountain came last Friday night when we visited the girls’ dormitory. We went with the young pastor (who has basically been our personal guide this first week) at about 6:00 right after all the girls had finished eating dinner. And on a side note, this was our last stop on a looong first day of meeting everybody and awkward introductions. The girls were expecting us, and when we walked into the dining hall (basically a small auditorium) they went nuts. We have never heard girls scream like that EVER. It was like Beatlemania meets the Jonas Brothers on steroids. It was a couple minutes of pandemonium before the pastor could finally get a few words in to introduce us. When he finally introduced us he asked Sara to speak first. She only got a few words in before the screams erupted again. Sara probably only spoke for a net total of 22 seconds, but her “speech” lasted nearly five minutes with all the interruptions for screams. The same thing basically happened when Matt spoke. Never have either of us ever experienced anything remotely like that and, fortunately, never will we again. According to the pastor they were enamored with our American accents and the fact that we were from L.A. They would have cheered for anything that came out of our mouths. They even went crazy when Matt said “we’re not this interesting.” When we finally left, even that took a few minutes because everyone wanted to touch us. One girl lunged for Matt’s arm and ended up pushing him into Sara. Outside it wasn’t much better. Matt and the Pastor escaped out the gate but Sara got mobbed and ended up hugging about 30-40 girls in a couple minutes. All in all, it was a surreal ending to a good first day, and will end up being a highlight of our Peace Corps service that we will NEVER be able to forget.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
New Contact Info!
We are at our new site in KZN and are loving it so far. We are literally living on top of a mountain (basically in the middle of nowhere), and it’s beautiful. We promise to write a longer post soon, but for now here’s our new contact info:
Sara and Matthew Henning
P.O. Box 1827
Vryheid 3100
South Africa
Also, our internet connection here is terrible, so we can’t do Skype to Skype (plus, the data is really expensive). Calls to our cell phones are, however, free, so give us a call if you want to chat – we can accept calls from Skype.
Sara: 0112 771 202 9006
Matt: 0112 771 265 1646
Sara and Matthew Henning
P.O. Box 1827
Vryheid 3100
South Africa
Also, our internet connection here is terrible, so we can’t do Skype to Skype (plus, the data is really expensive). Calls to our cell phones are, however, free, so give us a call if you want to chat – we can accept calls from Skype.
Sara: 0112 771 202 9006
Matt: 0112 771 265 1646
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Life in Pretoria Update
So what are we doing? Some of you may be asking this question. We are STILL in Pretoria, however we know where we are going. Next Thursday we will be leaving for our new site (number three for those keeping score at home) in Kwazulu Natal (KZN). We will be working at a Salvation Army hospital in Mountain View, about 80km east from Vryheid. Another 40 km to our east is the area known as Nongoma which is where the Zulu king resides. If you're picturing James Earl Jones in Coming to America, I don't think the Zulu king will be quite that awesome. His power is mainly ceremonial at this point. But, the pro of being so close to the king is that a number of cultural ceremonies are centered in Nongoma. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.
At this new site we will be living in a rondavel, which is a traditional circular African dwelling. Pictures shall ensue. Our living quarters will be a little cramped, but we have a flushing toilet, running water and electricity. In Peace Corps, who can ask for anything more. Our rondavel will be located on the Salvation Army hospital compound. On the same compound is a primary school and high school, and some of the high school students are boarders. So although we won't be in a village per se, it will be nice to have a sense of community just in our compound.
We are still enjoying our time in Pretoria, but we are excited to finally get to our new site and start working. The timing is fortunate though because this weekend we will be able to go down to Durban to celebrate a friend's birthday. We leave Saturday and get back in Pretoria Tuesday afternoon, with one last day to enjoy everything Pretoria has to offer (McDonald's!).
If we don't post before next week, we will definitely give an update as soon as we get settled in at our new home. Take care everybody and enjoy the fall (because Summer is coming here!).
At this new site we will be living in a rondavel, which is a traditional circular African dwelling. Pictures shall ensue. Our living quarters will be a little cramped, but we have a flushing toilet, running water and electricity. In Peace Corps, who can ask for anything more. Our rondavel will be located on the Salvation Army hospital compound. On the same compound is a primary school and high school, and some of the high school students are boarders. So although we won't be in a village per se, it will be nice to have a sense of community just in our compound.
We are still enjoying our time in Pretoria, but we are excited to finally get to our new site and start working. The timing is fortunate though because this weekend we will be able to go down to Durban to celebrate a friend's birthday. We leave Saturday and get back in Pretoria Tuesday afternoon, with one last day to enjoy everything Pretoria has to offer (McDonald's!).
If we don't post before next week, we will definitely give an update as soon as we get settled in at our new home. Take care everybody and enjoy the fall (because Summer is coming here!).
Friday, October 14, 2011
Still in Pretoria
We are in Pretoria waiting for a new site. Peace Corps has some sites they are working on, so we are hopeful that something good will work out soon! Sorry for the lack of communication, but our (new) laptop is broken so we are again without a computer. Otherwise, things are good. We'll update as soon as we learn more.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
And We're Out
So it’s finally official, we are leaving the Eastern Cape. It’s a somewhat long story and we’ll fill you all in soon, but here’s the current situation. Matt has a meeting on Friday in Pretoria for a Peace Corps committee that he serves on. So he was going to have to leave tomorrow night anyway to arrive Friday morning. Today Peace Corps told us that we should pack up our things and both come to Pretoria tomorrow. We will each travel with one bag and on Tuesday Matt will return with a Peace Corps driver to quickly pick up the rest of our belongings. After weeks of uncertainty and waiting, it’s been a very surreal day. The awkward part is that our NGO still has no idea that we are leaving. They have known for a few weeks that it’s been a possibility, but Peace Corps is not notifying them until Tuesday (as you can imagine this piece of news doesn’t always go over well, but fortunately our organization is too apathetic to care!).
So for the foreseeable future we will be Pretoria residents. It’ll be nice for the first few days but we are anxious to get started at a new site as soon as possible. We will let you know more later, but back to packing now.
So for the foreseeable future we will be Pretoria residents. It’ll be nice for the first few days but we are anxious to get started at a new site as soon as possible. We will let you know more later, but back to packing now.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Quick Update
The water is not getting turned back on. We're still in Pretoria but taking the overnight bus back to site today. Peace Corps is giving our org 3 weeks to find us alternative housing. If that doesn't happen (which is very possible), we'll be moved to another site. We don't know where we might go, but it won't be in the Eastern Cape.
We're fairly disappointed and sad, but, as this point, we just want to know what is going to happen and move on. We're fairly anxious about going back to site. It's going to be hard teaching, working on projects, playing with the kids, etc. when we know there's a high likelihood of leaving in a few weeks.
Anyway, please hold off from sending any mail/packages for now. We'll keep you all informed.
We're fairly disappointed and sad, but, as this point, we just want to know what is going to happen and move on. We're fairly anxious about going back to site. It's going to be hard teaching, working on projects, playing with the kids, etc. when we know there's a high likelihood of leaving in a few weeks.
Anyway, please hold off from sending any mail/packages for now. We'll keep you all informed.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Nothing Works
Our water doesn't work. Our fridge doesn't work. Matt's ipod, watch and sunglasses aren't working. And our laptop is making crazy noises. At least it's warm.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Water...ugh
Quick post to let you guys know that our water was turned off by the govt. Even though we have been paying what we owe, they shut it off due to the huge past bill from the owner. We spent the weekend in East London, and we just need to make it thru the week b/c we have a training in Pretoria (yes, again) next week. The problem is we don't have an outhouse or taps in our village, so our house isn't really livable. Our supervisor is going to try to take care of it this week, but it would take a miracle for it to be turned on w/o a significant payment. We have no idea what is going to happen, but we'll post more when we find out anything.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Cannot Believe We've Been Here 7 Months
Week 2 of teaching is in the books (we only teach Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) and we can say that things are still going well. The challenge we still face is that we haven’t yet worked out a schedule with the man who teaches 5th and 6th grades (combined classes). Our tentative plan with the principal is that we’ll teach for an hour or so on each of the three days. This week, however, we taught for two and a half hours on
Wow, 7 months. Sometimes it feels like forever, but usually we just wonder where the last 7 months have gone.
Monday and Thursday and on Tuesday we taught the 4th grade all day. So at least for this week we became more like substitute teachers. But we are more than happy to do it because the kids love us and it’s very rewarding.
On Monday we took a short break between subjects to field any questions the kids may have about America. Two highlights were whether there is Vaseline and carrots in America?
Word of our teaching has spread very quickly. Actually, word of pretty much anything we do spreads quickly. But with respect to our teaching, we’ve been approached by children from two other primary schools and one high school student to come teach at their schools. So it looks like our fan club is slowly building unbeknownst to us.
When we haven’t been teaching this week we’ve been at our NGO and things are also going well there. We are still in the process of starting an afterschool drop-in center for orphans and other vulnerable children. We have been “in the process” for some time but there is definitely movement and we should know in the next couple weeks when we will actually be able to open the doors, so to speak.
We will post again when we have more to say. And on a side note, it’s very difficult to make these posts humorous when life is going well, so I guess as readers you should be rooting for something bad to happen. Maybe a drunk lady will kiss us this weekend. Fingers crossed!
Wow, 7 months. Sometimes it feels like forever, but usually we just wonder where the last 7 months have gone.
Monday and Thursday and on Tuesday we taught the 4th grade all day. So at least for this week we became more like substitute teachers. But we are more than happy to do it because the kids love us and it’s very rewarding.
On Monday we took a short break between subjects to field any questions the kids may have about America. Two highlights were whether there is Vaseline and carrots in America?
Word of our teaching has spread very quickly. Actually, word of pretty much anything we do spreads quickly. But with respect to our teaching, we’ve been approached by children from two other primary schools and one high school student to come teach at their schools. So it looks like our fan club is slowly building unbeknownst to us.
When we haven’t been teaching this week we’ve been at our NGO and things are also going well there. We are still in the process of starting an afterschool drop-in center for orphans and other vulnerable children. We have been “in the process” for some time but there is definitely movement and we should know in the next couple weeks when we will actually be able to open the doors, so to speak.
We will post again when we have more to say. And on a side note, it’s very difficult to make these posts humorous when life is going well, so I guess as readers you should be rooting for something bad to happen. Maybe a drunk lady will kiss us this weekend. Fingers crossed!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Things Are Good
Wow, we’ve been waiting a long time to be able to write those words. As most of you know, between being frustrated by not having much to do and having water drip on our heads while we try to sleep, our first few months here at site have been fairly challenging. This week, however, was actually great.
First of all, we’re now teachers. Or at least trying to be teachers. We visited the primary school in our village a couple of weeks ago, and the principal was very enthusiastic about having us help. We taught two Life Orientation (sort of health+life skills) classes this week, as well as a short math lesson. On our first day, we asked the 17 5th-6th graders which of them knew where we lived. All 17 of the students raised their hands, which made us laugh. The hope is that we’ll go to the school for a couple of hours three days a week. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and a number of the kids struggle with English. It is a national requirement, however, that classes past grade 3 be taught in English, and it is extremely unlikely that the kids will be able to pass high school (the Matric exam, which is an exam needed to pass high school, is in English) if they don’t learn the language, so hopefully our presence will be beneficial. Plus, the kids seem very excited to have us there, at least until our novelty wears off.
Secondly, our NGO co-hosted a community Women’s Day event this week, which was really fun. The majority of the people in attendance were kids from area schools. We watched kids play soccer and played with a number of kids from the school where we are teaching. There were performances by school choir groups, traditional dancers, gospel singers and way too many speakers. A man we are friendly with emceed the event and embarrassed us by making us stand up in front of everyone. We talked to tons of people and actually felt like part of the community for the first time.
Also, as we may have previously mentioned, the man who emceed the event works with Sports and Recreation and wants us to help develop a softball program for kids. He actually invited some members of the Eastern Cape Softball Association (or something like that) to the event. Our friend may have touted Matt as some softball expert, which of course meant the 20 year-old female softball player (who previously played on the under-19 national team) wanted to pitch to Matt. It was too late for Matt to explain that he played co-ed D-league slow pitch softball in Santa Monica. So Matt, wearing jeans stuffed with keys, wallet and cell phone, had to dig in against this South African softball whiz. The first pitch was inside and almost hit Matt in the kneecaps. When Matt swung at the next pitch it was the most pathetic imitation of softball, or athletics in general, these kids had ever seen. Matt was determined to make contact with the next pitch no matter what. And Matt certainly made solid contact, as he fouled the pitch off to the right …. directly into a boy’s forehead (luckily it bounced once). Fortunately, the boy is fine, though he may not be interested in softball anytime soon. The next day, our friend the emcee with a good sense of humor, told Matt that he had been fielding questions all morning from the police because the boy’s mother was angry. He said he was kidding, but only after Matt’s complexion turned ghostly white.
The good news, however, is that the kids showed a lot of interest in softball, and we’re thinking about buying a wiffle bat and ball to start playing with the kids in our village. And we will definitely be playing SLOW-pitch softball.
Finally, the other piece of news that has made our week good is that our NGO has funds again (after a huge delay from the gov’t), and our coworkers want to have a meeting on Monday to discuss putting a number of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) program back in place (yay!). We are hoping to reinstate an afterschool drop-in center at the organization. Basically, kids would have a safe place to come for a couple of hours after school to do homework, play games and have a small meal/snack. Our NGO had such a program about a year ago, but the Department of Social Development (our primary funder) had them stop it for a number of reasons that we’ve never really been able to get to the bottom of. We are hoping to develop a proposal that will convince DSD of the value of the program and start having kids come next month. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, we realize that there will continue to be ups and downs, but we are more hopeful than we have been in a looong time about everything working out at our site. Plus, it was warm enough to sleep without our sleeping bags two days this week. That also helped morale.
First of all, we’re now teachers. Or at least trying to be teachers. We visited the primary school in our village a couple of weeks ago, and the principal was very enthusiastic about having us help. We taught two Life Orientation (sort of health+life skills) classes this week, as well as a short math lesson. On our first day, we asked the 17 5th-6th graders which of them knew where we lived. All 17 of the students raised their hands, which made us laugh. The hope is that we’ll go to the school for a couple of hours three days a week. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and a number of the kids struggle with English. It is a national requirement, however, that classes past grade 3 be taught in English, and it is extremely unlikely that the kids will be able to pass high school (the Matric exam, which is an exam needed to pass high school, is in English) if they don’t learn the language, so hopefully our presence will be beneficial. Plus, the kids seem very excited to have us there, at least until our novelty wears off.
Secondly, our NGO co-hosted a community Women’s Day event this week, which was really fun. The majority of the people in attendance were kids from area schools. We watched kids play soccer and played with a number of kids from the school where we are teaching. There were performances by school choir groups, traditional dancers, gospel singers and way too many speakers. A man we are friendly with emceed the event and embarrassed us by making us stand up in front of everyone. We talked to tons of people and actually felt like part of the community for the first time.
Also, as we may have previously mentioned, the man who emceed the event works with Sports and Recreation and wants us to help develop a softball program for kids. He actually invited some members of the Eastern Cape Softball Association (or something like that) to the event. Our friend may have touted Matt as some softball expert, which of course meant the 20 year-old female softball player (who previously played on the under-19 national team) wanted to pitch to Matt. It was too late for Matt to explain that he played co-ed D-league slow pitch softball in Santa Monica. So Matt, wearing jeans stuffed with keys, wallet and cell phone, had to dig in against this South African softball whiz. The first pitch was inside and almost hit Matt in the kneecaps. When Matt swung at the next pitch it was the most pathetic imitation of softball, or athletics in general, these kids had ever seen. Matt was determined to make contact with the next pitch no matter what. And Matt certainly made solid contact, as he fouled the pitch off to the right …. directly into a boy’s forehead (luckily it bounced once). Fortunately, the boy is fine, though he may not be interested in softball anytime soon. The next day, our friend the emcee with a good sense of humor, told Matt that he had been fielding questions all morning from the police because the boy’s mother was angry. He said he was kidding, but only after Matt’s complexion turned ghostly white.
The good news, however, is that the kids showed a lot of interest in softball, and we’re thinking about buying a wiffle bat and ball to start playing with the kids in our village. And we will definitely be playing SLOW-pitch softball.
Finally, the other piece of news that has made our week good is that our NGO has funds again (after a huge delay from the gov’t), and our coworkers want to have a meeting on Monday to discuss putting a number of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) program back in place (yay!). We are hoping to reinstate an afterschool drop-in center at the organization. Basically, kids would have a safe place to come for a couple of hours after school to do homework, play games and have a small meal/snack. Our NGO had such a program about a year ago, but the Department of Social Development (our primary funder) had them stop it for a number of reasons that we’ve never really been able to get to the bottom of. We are hoping to develop a proposal that will convince DSD of the value of the program and start having kids come next month. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, we realize that there will continue to be ups and downs, but we are more hopeful than we have been in a looong time about everything working out at our site. Plus, it was warm enough to sleep without our sleeping bags two days this week. That also helped morale.
All Volunteer Meeting
As mentioned in the last blog post, all South Africa PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) were invited to Pretoria for a meeting concerning the arrest of a former S.A. PCV last weekend. Peace Corps put us all up in a lovely four star hotel (showers!!) and held debriefing and counseling sessions. Many volunteers expressed the same feelings: anger that a PCV would do such a thing, embarrassment that Peace Corps was receiving such bad press based on the actions of one individual and sadness for the victims. A lot of time was spent talking about our feelings (we are In the Peace Corps after all!), listening to and supporting each other and reviewing how to report any improper behavior that we may witness. (No volunteer knew what was happening with the former PCV, but Peace Corps is required to give us all training in reporting anyway.)
Our main concern was that our community would find out about the accusations and associate us with them. After all, when our community hears “Peace Corps,” they think Sara and Matt, and we’re not sure they realize that there are about 170 PCVs in South Africa. Luckily, we haven’t heard anything from community members about the news. Either they didn’t hear about it or they didn’t make the connection, which has been a big relief to us. 99.9% of PCVs are good people who genuinely want to help others. We would hate for people to think that we have anything but the best intentions. Anyway, so far, so good.
Besides the awful circumstances that necessitated the meeting, it was really cool to have so many volunteers in the same place. We not only got to catch up with friends from our training class, but we were able to meet a number of PCVs from other classes as well. It ended up being a fun weekend.
Our main concern was that our community would find out about the accusations and associate us with them. After all, when our community hears “Peace Corps,” they think Sara and Matt, and we’re not sure they realize that there are about 170 PCVs in South Africa. Luckily, we haven’t heard anything from community members about the news. Either they didn’t hear about it or they didn’t make the connection, which has been a big relief to us. 99.9% of PCVs are good people who genuinely want to help others. We would hate for people to think that we have anything but the best intentions. Anyway, so far, so good.
Besides the awful circumstances that necessitated the meeting, it was really cool to have so many volunteers in the same place. We not only got to catch up with friends from our training class, but we were able to meet a number of PCVs from other classes as well. It ended up being a fun weekend.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Bad Publicity for Peace Corps
Peace Corps has unfortunately been thrust into the news here in South Africa thanks to the abhorrent acts of a former volunteer. Last week a volunteer who began his service one year before us (and resigned early last May for reasons now obvious) was arrested at his home in Connecticutt for child molestation. While serving at an AIDS center for young children he molested at least five girls under the age of six, one of them over the course of five months. Here's a link to a cnn.com article, and if you google his name you'll find countless more news stories: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-05/justice/peace.corps.sexual.abuse_1_peace-corps-volunteer-sexual-abuse-sexual-conduct?_s=PM:CRIME
In response to this mess, Peace Corps has called for an all-volunteer meeting this Saturday in Pretoria. These meetings NEVER happen, so it's going to be interested to see what happens with some 150 volunteers.
Sara is currently in Pretoria this week because she is on the Volunteer Support Network and they had training this week. Essentially, Sara is going to be a mentor to a group of new volunteers who are currently training near Pretoria. So the meeting doesn't inconvenience her in any significant way. I (Matt) on the other hand am disappointed. I had grand plans for Dorkfest 2011 (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings marathons) but, alas, they must remain on hold. . . .
In response to this mess, Peace Corps has called for an all-volunteer meeting this Saturday in Pretoria. These meetings NEVER happen, so it's going to be interested to see what happens with some 150 volunteers.
Sara is currently in Pretoria this week because she is on the Volunteer Support Network and they had training this week. Essentially, Sara is going to be a mentor to a group of new volunteers who are currently training near Pretoria. So the meeting doesn't inconvenience her in any significant way. I (Matt) on the other hand am disappointed. I had grand plans for Dorkfest 2011 (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings marathons) but, alas, they must remain on hold. . . .
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Back in SA
Our trip to Los Angeles was fabulous. It was warm and sunny, and we had such a great time with our family and friends. Courtney and Nathan had a beautiful (and fun!) wedding, and we were so happy to be there for it. Needless to say, it was pretty difficult to get on the plane to come back here. Somehow, we managed to force ourselves to leave paradise. After 30+ hours of travel, we were in East London. Unfortunately, our bags were not.
Our plane was about an hour late into Joberg, so there was wasn't a lot of time once we cleared South African customs and rechecked our bags before our next flight left. While we weren't completely surprised that our bags didn't make it, we were absolutely exhausted and not up to dealing with the issue. We were told in East London that our bags would arrive on the 4:30 flight from Joberg that afternoon. Since we wouldn't be able to make it back to site before dark with our bags, we decided to stay at a backpackers in East London. We were called around 5:00 and told that Matt's bag had arrived on the flight, but Sara's had not. At that point, the guy we had been working with told us that he was going to call Joberg about Sara's bag. Seriously? He was just now going to call Joberg and let them know that bags were missing? I'm pretty sure that bags are scanned now once they enter and leave an airport, so you'd think it would be fairly easily to locate lost luggage. This isn't 1991. Anyway, Sara's bag eventually arrived on the 8:30 flight. We were able to have cheeseburgers (2 for 1) at the restaurant next to the backpackers, so the lost bags were ultimately worth the hassle. Food makes everything better.
Now we've been back at our site for a week, and already we are looking forward to our next trip!
On a sidenote, we had a pretty humorous interaction last weekend. Someone asked us where in America we were from. When we replied Los Angeles, the young woman got excited and said “LA! The Big Apple!” And no we didn't correct her because it was too good.
Our plane was about an hour late into Joberg, so there was wasn't a lot of time once we cleared South African customs and rechecked our bags before our next flight left. While we weren't completely surprised that our bags didn't make it, we were absolutely exhausted and not up to dealing with the issue. We were told in East London that our bags would arrive on the 4:30 flight from Joberg that afternoon. Since we wouldn't be able to make it back to site before dark with our bags, we decided to stay at a backpackers in East London. We were called around 5:00 and told that Matt's bag had arrived on the flight, but Sara's had not. At that point, the guy we had been working with told us that he was going to call Joberg about Sara's bag. Seriously? He was just now going to call Joberg and let them know that bags were missing? I'm pretty sure that bags are scanned now once they enter and leave an airport, so you'd think it would be fairly easily to locate lost luggage. This isn't 1991. Anyway, Sara's bag eventually arrived on the 8:30 flight. We were able to have cheeseburgers (2 for 1) at the restaurant next to the backpackers, so the lost bags were ultimately worth the hassle. Food makes everything better.
Now we've been back at our site for a week, and already we are looking forward to our next trip!
On a sidenote, we had a pretty humorous interaction last weekend. Someone asked us where in America we were from. When we replied Los Angeles, the young woman got excited and said “LA! The Big Apple!” And no we didn't correct her because it was too good.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Blog is Back (hopefully)
We have a laptop!!! Okay, we probably shouldn't be this incredibly excited about a laptop, but we totally are. It's our computer, tv, radio and entertainment system galore, so whatever. We hope to blog a few times a week now, but we'll see what actually happens.
Anyway, we are leaving Los Angeles today (boo!) after a fabulous week. It's been beautiful and sunny, and we've had so much fun. A big congratulations to Courtney and Nathan who were married yesterday! It was a wonderful day, and we are so happy that we were able to be here for it.
Anyway, we are leaving Los Angeles today (boo!) after a fabulous week. It's been beautiful and sunny, and we've had so much fun. A big congratulations to Courtney and Nathan who were married yesterday! It was a wonderful day, and we are so happy that we were able to be here for it.
Friday, July 8, 2011
The countdown to having a laptop again is on!
Sorry, our posting has been terrible lately. We spent the last week (a little more) in Pretoria for our in-service training. Although the overnight bus ride was brutal, it was fabulous to see the rest of our training class again. We were stuck in sessions most of the day, but we were able to hang out during the evenings (sorry for partying, St. George Hotel). We're now back in the Eastern Cape, but only for about a week. We leave next weekend for AMERICA! Yep, we are coming to LA for about a week for Matt's sister's wedding (congrats to Courtney and Nathan!). We didn't anticipate making a trip back to the States so early, but we're really excited to see everyone (and LA will be WARM!).
And we are buying a laptop when we're there. Thank god. We promise to improve the blogging once we return.
Otherwise, things are pretty good. Our organization has not had a lot for us to do, which has definitely been frustrating at times. However, now that our three months of community integration/lockdown is over, we have the freedom to find other things to do in the community. We might help this group start a softball program for kids. We're going to visit some schools (Sara might do some teaching if they need her). There is a legal advisory center that is interested in our help (Matt is more interested in this one than Sara). Anyway, things are looking up.
And we are buying a laptop when we're there. Thank god. We promise to improve the blogging once we return.
Otherwise, things are pretty good. Our organization has not had a lot for us to do, which has definitely been frustrating at times. However, now that our three months of community integration/lockdown is over, we have the freedom to find other things to do in the community. We might help this group start a softball program for kids. We're going to visit some schools (Sara might do some teaching if they need her). There is a legal advisory center that is interested in our help (Matt is more interested in this one than Sara). Anyway, things are looking up.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Still hanging in there
We've sort of gotten used to not having a laptop, but life definitely gets boring at times. On a positive note, we both have read 20 books since coming to South Africa!
We leave for Pretoria for our in-service training next weekend. This marks the end of our lockdown/community integration period and means that we'll be able to see our training class for the first time in 3 months! The 13 hour bus ride isn't going to be too fun, but we're definitely looking forward to spending a week with our buddies.
We leave for Pretoria for our in-service training next weekend. This marks the end of our lockdown/community integration period and means that we'll be able to see our training class for the first time in 3 months! The 13 hour bus ride isn't going to be too fun, but we're definitely looking forward to spending a week with our buddies.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bye, bye, laptop
So the laptop cannot be fixed. Slammed. Sorry, but the blog posts will be pretty scarce until we get a new one. It's been raining A TON, so we basically sit around playing cards, reading and staring at the walls. Seriously.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
SLAMMED!
It's been a while since we posted and for good reason. This past weekend we spent in East London with another volunteer. We had a lot of fun, saw the new X-Men movie, ate some good food, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. So posting to this blog was far from our mind as we soaked in the sunshine of East London.
However, this Monday we were dealt a vicious blow when our laptop stopped working. The last two nights have been a little stale to say the least. Last night we went to bed before 9:00. We depended upon that laptop for entertainment (movies, music, etc.) and work. For Peace Corps we need to submit a report next week based upon our community "integration." We interviewed about a dozen community members, and many of our notes were on our computer. More importantly, we're not crazy about handwriting (what is THAT?) our entire reports. So basically, we've been pretty slammed.
Currently, I (Matt) am in King William's Town hoping to get our computer fixed. I'm waiting for a call back from the technician to see if he can fix it, or if it's even cost-effective. So everyone keep your fingers crossed that our livelihood will be saved! Otherwise, don't expect a fresh blog post for a while.
However, this Monday we were dealt a vicious blow when our laptop stopped working. The last two nights have been a little stale to say the least. Last night we went to bed before 9:00. We depended upon that laptop for entertainment (movies, music, etc.) and work. For Peace Corps we need to submit a report next week based upon our community "integration." We interviewed about a dozen community members, and many of our notes were on our computer. More importantly, we're not crazy about handwriting (what is THAT?) our entire reports. So basically, we've been pretty slammed.
Currently, I (Matt) am in King William's Town hoping to get our computer fixed. I'm waiting for a call back from the technician to see if he can fix it, or if it's even cost-effective. So everyone keep your fingers crossed that our livelihood will be saved! Otherwise, don't expect a fresh blog post for a while.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Happy Memorial Day Weekend
Ah warm weather, barbeques, long summer nights...for us, that will have to wait until November. Meanwhile, we were hoping to meet another Peace Corps volunteer in East London for the weekend, but the backpackers (hostel=shower!) was full. Instead, we are meeting up with her next weekend. We haven’t seen another American (besides each other) in over nine weeks, so we’re really excited to have a fun weekend away. Plus, next weekend is payday, which means there will be A LOT of drinking happening at our site. It’ll be nice to miss this month’s debauchery.
Unfortunately, we only get South African holidays off, so we’ll be back at work on Monday. We are supposed to attend a child protection awareness event in a nearby village on Monday, so we’ll let you all know how that goes. Have an extra hamburger or brat for us.
Unfortunately, we only get South African holidays off, so we’ll be back at work on Monday. We are supposed to attend a child protection awareness event in a nearby village on Monday, so we’ll let you all know how that goes. Have an extra hamburger or brat for us.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
The High-Five Gang
Highlight of the week:
It all started with 2 young girls who live down the road from us who love running out when we walk by to say “molo” (hello) to us. This has turned into us exchanging both greetings and high-fives with them. Their mothers laugh whenever they see us, because the girls, probably about three-years old, will literally sprint when they see us coming. Slowly, other kids have begun joining in the ritual. Now whenever we walk by the area where they live, we have numerous children (ages 3-6) running up to give us high-fives and say “molo, buthi” to Matt and “molo, sisi” to Sara. It’s been a tough week (for many reasons), but seeing the kids, who we now call the "high-five gang" line up to receive high-fives definitely cheers us up.
Bizarre item of the week:
As I believe we’ve mentioned before, Sara found a dead worm under her pillow a few weeks ago. This morning, we found yet another dead worm in the basin where we dry dishes. Where are these worms coming from? And where else are they hiding in our house? Seriously, so weird.
It all started with 2 young girls who live down the road from us who love running out when we walk by to say “molo” (hello) to us. This has turned into us exchanging both greetings and high-fives with them. Their mothers laugh whenever they see us, because the girls, probably about three-years old, will literally sprint when they see us coming. Slowly, other kids have begun joining in the ritual. Now whenever we walk by the area where they live, we have numerous children (ages 3-6) running up to give us high-fives and say “molo, buthi” to Matt and “molo, sisi” to Sara. It’s been a tough week (for many reasons), but seeing the kids, who we now call the "high-five gang" line up to receive high-fives definitely cheers us up.
Bizarre item of the week:
As I believe we’ve mentioned before, Sara found a dead worm under her pillow a few weeks ago. This morning, we found yet another dead worm in the basin where we dry dishes. Where are these worms coming from? And where else are they hiding in our house? Seriously, so weird.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Okay, so people read this blog :)
Thanks for the comments!
I'm up at almost 5 a.m., b/c operation stop the condensation was a major fail. We have windows open, but I think they are only serving to lower the temp in here down to frostbite levels. I may be exaggerating due to the lack of sleep, but my fingers are definitely turning numb.
We'll blog again as soon as we get some rest. Hope everyone is having a good week!
I'm up at almost 5 a.m., b/c operation stop the condensation was a major fail. We have windows open, but I think they are only serving to lower the temp in here down to frostbite levels. I may be exaggerating due to the lack of sleep, but my fingers are definitely turning numb.
We'll blog again as soon as we get some rest. Hope everyone is having a good week!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Becoming Nocturnal
Well, we’ve figured out the problem with the leaking roof. It’s not that the roof itself is actually leaking (except when it rains extremely hard for several days in a row). Instead, condensation forms on the inside of the tin roof, which is also our ceiling. During the night, the condensation builds and gathers until it eventually starts dripping down, usually around 3 or 4 a.m. And again last night, a significant amount of the dripping took place over our bed.
After burying ourselves under the blankets didn’t help us go back to sleep (dripping water all over is fairly loud), we tried wiping the condensation off the tin with our precious paper towels. Yes, paper towels are precious these days (PC cut our allowance, which we will probably blog about soon). Anyway, despite attempting to wipe up the water and opening a window on a cold night in hopes of drying the house, we didn’t get much sleep last night.
We do, however, have a plan. We are going to try to cut down in the evenings on anything that creates steam. This means no more bathing or boiling drinking water at night, and rice and pasta must be cooked in the afternoon. If this doesn’t work, our next strategy is to become nocturnal. The dripping doesn’t usually begin over our bed until about 3 or 4, so we should be able to get in a nice sleep from the hours of 5 to midnight.
After burying ourselves under the blankets didn’t help us go back to sleep (dripping water all over is fairly loud), we tried wiping the condensation off the tin with our precious paper towels. Yes, paper towels are precious these days (PC cut our allowance, which we will probably blog about soon). Anyway, despite attempting to wipe up the water and opening a window on a cold night in hopes of drying the house, we didn’t get much sleep last night.
We do, however, have a plan. We are going to try to cut down in the evenings on anything that creates steam. This means no more bathing or boiling drinking water at night, and rice and pasta must be cooked in the afternoon. If this doesn’t work, our next strategy is to become nocturnal. The dripping doesn’t usually begin over our bed until about 3 or 4, so we should be able to get in a nice sleep from the hours of 5 to midnight.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Culinary Masterpieces
The title is a bit (or a lot) of an exaggeration, but we are working with a hotplate and a toaster oven, so cut us some slack. As we’ve mentioned, we have learned how to cook homemade pizza, but our repertoire has continued to expand: we’ve also started making tacos. And by making tacos, we mean we even make our own tortillas. Homemade tortillas, in case you’re interested in making them, are way better than tortillas purchased at the store.
Let’s see what else we have "mastered." Matt has perfected the art of making pancakes while Sara lounges in bed on Saturday mornings. We’re really not sure why we used to purchase pancake mix. Homemade is almost as easy and significantly more delicious. We made hummus this week, which was not entirely successful, but we think we’ll get it right next time. Sara may have started baking cookies and brownies much more frequently than necessary, but it’s totally worth the calories. We also pop popcorn on the stove/hotplate, which we recommend trying as an alternative to microwave popcorn. I feel almost like Laura Ingalls Wilder. Okay, Laura and Mary probably weren’t enjoying tacos in the big woods or on the prairie, but whatever.
Next up, we want to try making doughnuts and bagels. If anyone has a good sesame bagel recipe, please let us know. If you read this and decide to head over to Bagel Nosh, we don’t want to hear about it.
Our apologies: We have tried uploading pictures to this blog on multiple occasions, but it eats up our data much too quickly. Sara tried uploading photos to Facebook Friday at a cyber cafe, but that was also a fail. We promise to post pictures eventually. Until then, you can continue to enjoy our wit and enlightening observations. Ha. And by “you,” we mean our mothers and Amy G., who may well be the only people reading this blog.
Finally, congrats to Katherine Henning for graduating college this weekend! Even though you make us feel old, we love you.
Let’s see what else we have "mastered." Matt has perfected the art of making pancakes while Sara lounges in bed on Saturday mornings. We’re really not sure why we used to purchase pancake mix. Homemade is almost as easy and significantly more delicious. We made hummus this week, which was not entirely successful, but we think we’ll get it right next time. Sara may have started baking cookies and brownies much more frequently than necessary, but it’s totally worth the calories. We also pop popcorn on the stove/hotplate, which we recommend trying as an alternative to microwave popcorn. I feel almost like Laura Ingalls Wilder. Okay, Laura and Mary probably weren’t enjoying tacos in the big woods or on the prairie, but whatever.
Next up, we want to try making doughnuts and bagels. If anyone has a good sesame bagel recipe, please let us know. If you read this and decide to head over to Bagel Nosh, we don’t want to hear about it.
Our apologies: We have tried uploading pictures to this blog on multiple occasions, but it eats up our data much too quickly. Sara tried uploading photos to Facebook Friday at a cyber cafe, but that was also a fail. We promise to post pictures eventually. Until then, you can continue to enjoy our wit and enlightening observations. Ha. And by “you,” we mean our mothers and Amy G., who may well be the only people reading this blog.
Finally, congrats to Katherine Henning for graduating college this weekend! Even though you make us feel old, we love you.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Water Issues
Our host family in Limpopo had running water and a bathtub, which was awesome. They didn’t have hot water though, so we had to warm up water on the stove for bathing. This meant that you ultimately only had a couple of inches of water in the tub (unless you wanted a freezing cold bath), but at least it wasn’t a bucket. The problem was that the water was often “out.” They were at the end of the village water line. Thus, when the tank “on the mountain” was low, there wasn’t enough water to reach our house. Luckily, they had a few large storage containers outside, and there was a tank down the road where Uncle Jacob would lug empty buckets in his wheelbarrow to get more water. When it rained, the water in the mountain tank would rise, and we would have running water again in the house. So although it sucks walking on muddy roads, we were constantly hoping for rain. It didn’t come often.
Despite the lack of a bathtub, it was nice having a constant supply of running water here in the Eastern Cape. That is, it was nice until last week when the water stopped. Luckily, it was only off sporadically for a couple of days. It was off again for several hours again this week, but it has been fine since then. This is much better than the days (and even weeks) we’d go without running water in Limpopo. However, the problem is that we don’t have water in storage here or an outhouse, so we are not equipped to deal with water shortages. You may think you’d never hope for an outhouse, but you begin to question yourself when you’re not sure when your water will come back on. We may have, additionally, gone an extra day (or two) beyond decent cleanliness last week without bathing due to the water shortage. It happens.
The other major difference compared to Limpopo is that here in the Eastern Cape it rains. A LOT. In fact, today is the fourth day in a row of rain. We are supposed to be moving out of the rainy warm season into the dry cold season. So far, however, it feels more like we are stuck with the worst of both worlds: the cold and the rain. When your roof is tin and nailed onto not nearly enough wooden beams, the tin pulls away from the beams when it’s windy, leaving you with holes in your roof. We’ve been lucky in that it usually doesn’t leak when it rains. Except when you hit about day three of rain in a row. Which was yesterday. Thankfully, it’s only been leaking in one area this time (so far).
Strangely, the time when the roof leaks the most is not when it has been raining but when the weather warms up a bit. When this happens, the roof starts leaking at night. Unfortunately, one of the leaks is directly above where Sara sleeps. This means that she has been woken up (more than once) by cold water dripping on her face at 2 a.m. Trust me, it’s quite unpleasant.
By this point it probably goes without saying that the weekend has been fairly uneventful. We’ve holed up in our home due to the rain. We’ve been playing cards, watching movies on the laptop and reading (we both finished our 13th book since coming to South Africa!). Hope everyone had a nice weekend and HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!
Despite the lack of a bathtub, it was nice having a constant supply of running water here in the Eastern Cape. That is, it was nice until last week when the water stopped. Luckily, it was only off sporadically for a couple of days. It was off again for several hours again this week, but it has been fine since then. This is much better than the days (and even weeks) we’d go without running water in Limpopo. However, the problem is that we don’t have water in storage here or an outhouse, so we are not equipped to deal with water shortages. You may think you’d never hope for an outhouse, but you begin to question yourself when you’re not sure when your water will come back on. We may have, additionally, gone an extra day (or two) beyond decent cleanliness last week without bathing due to the water shortage. It happens.
The other major difference compared to Limpopo is that here in the Eastern Cape it rains. A LOT. In fact, today is the fourth day in a row of rain. We are supposed to be moving out of the rainy warm season into the dry cold season. So far, however, it feels more like we are stuck with the worst of both worlds: the cold and the rain. When your roof is tin and nailed onto not nearly enough wooden beams, the tin pulls away from the beams when it’s windy, leaving you with holes in your roof. We’ve been lucky in that it usually doesn’t leak when it rains. Except when you hit about day three of rain in a row. Which was yesterday. Thankfully, it’s only been leaking in one area this time (so far).
Strangely, the time when the roof leaks the most is not when it has been raining but when the weather warms up a bit. When this happens, the roof starts leaking at night. Unfortunately, one of the leaks is directly above where Sara sleeps. This means that she has been woken up (more than once) by cold water dripping on her face at 2 a.m. Trust me, it’s quite unpleasant.
By this point it probably goes without saying that the weekend has been fairly uneventful. We’ve holed up in our home due to the rain. We’ve been playing cards, watching movies on the laptop and reading (we both finished our 13th book since coming to South Africa!). Hope everyone had a nice weekend and HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
When You Don't Have TV...
“I know that guy Osama Bin Laden is after you, why do you think?”
A young man we met a couple weeks ago asked us this question. We’re not sure whether it was a serious question or a half-joke. Considering he had previously asked Sara if she was a CIA agent it’s probably the latter. I was reminded of his comments, however, in the wake of this weekend’s events.
Bin Laden’s death is the most significant American event to occur since our arrival in South Africa, and it was interesting to experience it while being on the other side of the world. Many of you heard the news Sunday night and probably spent much of your evening glued to your television sets. The news came to us in the form of a phone call from Matt’s parents at 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning. It was surreal news to awaken to, and about 15 minutes after the phone call Sara received a text message from her sister telling us the same news.
When we got out of bed at about 9:30 (Monday was a holiday, our lives aren’t that amazing) Matt immediately used our modem and signed onto the internet, where the news was plastered everywhere. We read about the celebrations in Times Square and at the White House. Facebook was littered with our friends’ (some more so than others) insightful comments. Over breakfast, we talked about Bin Laden’s death and its implications for our country’s future.
Then we got dressed, took a taxi into King William’s Town where we did some shopping, and surrounded ourselves with people seemingly ambivalent to the news. Had our cell phones been turned off, we likely would have gone through the entire day without ever hearing about million-dollar compounds in Pakistan.
Yesterday we bought a newspaper, interested to see how the South African press would cover Bin Laden’s death. It did indeed make the front page, but the article didn’t discuss the details of the attack or even make a reference to 9/11. Instead, the article was filled with quotes from South African intelligence experts who opined that any counterattacks would probably not be directed at South Africa but rather North America, specifically the United States. Pretty incisive journalism. You had to flip through several pages of the newspaper to read about what actually transpired in Pakistan or commentary on how Bin Laden’s death would affect the War on Terror.
Thankfully we have internet access at work . . . .
I know this blog entry is not that informative and probably not that interesting either. However, it was an experience for us to live through a major event knowing that it was receiving constant press attention back at home and everyone was talking about it. It’s difficult to articulate, but the experience made us simultaneously feel very connected yet disconnected from the United States.
A young man we met a couple weeks ago asked us this question. We’re not sure whether it was a serious question or a half-joke. Considering he had previously asked Sara if she was a CIA agent it’s probably the latter. I was reminded of his comments, however, in the wake of this weekend’s events.
Bin Laden’s death is the most significant American event to occur since our arrival in South Africa, and it was interesting to experience it while being on the other side of the world. Many of you heard the news Sunday night and probably spent much of your evening glued to your television sets. The news came to us in the form of a phone call from Matt’s parents at 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning. It was surreal news to awaken to, and about 15 minutes after the phone call Sara received a text message from her sister telling us the same news.
When we got out of bed at about 9:30 (Monday was a holiday, our lives aren’t that amazing) Matt immediately used our modem and signed onto the internet, where the news was plastered everywhere. We read about the celebrations in Times Square and at the White House. Facebook was littered with our friends’ (some more so than others) insightful comments. Over breakfast, we talked about Bin Laden’s death and its implications for our country’s future.
Then we got dressed, took a taxi into King William’s Town where we did some shopping, and surrounded ourselves with people seemingly ambivalent to the news. Had our cell phones been turned off, we likely would have gone through the entire day without ever hearing about million-dollar compounds in Pakistan.
Yesterday we bought a newspaper, interested to see how the South African press would cover Bin Laden’s death. It did indeed make the front page, but the article didn’t discuss the details of the attack or even make a reference to 9/11. Instead, the article was filled with quotes from South African intelligence experts who opined that any counterattacks would probably not be directed at South Africa but rather North America, specifically the United States. Pretty incisive journalism. You had to flip through several pages of the newspaper to read about what actually transpired in Pakistan or commentary on how Bin Laden’s death would affect the War on Terror.
Thankfully we have internet access at work . . . .
I know this blog entry is not that informative and probably not that interesting either. However, it was an experience for us to live through a major event knowing that it was receiving constant press attention back at home and everyone was talking about it. It’s difficult to articulate, but the experience made us simultaneously feel very connected yet disconnected from the United States.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Baby It's Cold Outside
(Sorry about the corny title. Moving on.) Winter is coming. And it gets seriously cold. It was 47 degrees at 8:00 yesterday morning. INSIDE our house. I don’t want to even imagine how cold it was at 4 a.m. We have almost perfected the art of layering to go to sleep. Matt wears a pair of pajama pants over a pair of sweatpants and two long sleeved shirts over a t-shirt. Sara usually wears lined North Face pants, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt and a large sweatshirt. We then sleep in sleeping bag liners under two sheets, two big blankets and two throw blankets.
We have both obviously lived in much colder environments and thought we should be able to handle the cold. When we could see our breath while still in bed, however, we decided enough was enough. Yesterday, we took a public taxi to our shopping town and purchased a kerosene heater. By the way, don’t google “dangers of kerosene heaters” if such a heater is your only viable option. We purchased kerosene at a store in town, which was poured into a two liter empty soda bottle, and we were ready to go. Matt was able to set up the kerosene heater fairly easily, and we were able to spend our evening in relative warmth. We turned the heater off when we went to bed though. For now, we’re paying heed to the scary carbon monoxide warnings (damn you, google). We’re also trying not to think about the fact that winter doesn’t officially begin for another month…welcome to Africa.
We have both obviously lived in much colder environments and thought we should be able to handle the cold. When we could see our breath while still in bed, however, we decided enough was enough. Yesterday, we took a public taxi to our shopping town and purchased a kerosene heater. By the way, don’t google “dangers of kerosene heaters” if such a heater is your only viable option. We purchased kerosene at a store in town, which was poured into a two liter empty soda bottle, and we were ready to go. Matt was able to set up the kerosene heater fairly easily, and we were able to spend our evening in relative warmth. We turned the heater off when we went to bed though. For now, we’re paying heed to the scary carbon monoxide warnings (damn you, google). We’re also trying not to think about the fact that winter doesn’t officially begin for another month…welcome to Africa.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Holidays
The past week has been the perfect storm for holidays here in South Africa. Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays. Wednesday April 27th was also a holiday commemorating the 1994 elections that were the first ever held under South Africa’s new constitution – when Mandela was elected president. And next Monday is a holiday as well, but our co-workers can’t remember what the holiday actually is because there are too many this time of year. I think it’s something like Workers’ Day, or May Day. So what does all this mean for our work schedule? It means that we’re going to put one day of work in during a 10-day stretch. Not too shabby. The one regret is that we are not allowed to leave our site during our first 3 months – the preferred nomenclature among volunteers is “lockdown” – so we are unable to fully take advantage of this amazing stretch of holidays.
With one notable exception. Last weekend Peace Corps staff allowed all of us to travel anywhere within our province for the Easter Weekend. Anxious to enjoy the end of good weather, we spent three nights on the beach in East London. Mother Nature cooperated, and the days were in the 70s and there was very little rain. We even squeezed in a visit to the mall and caught a flick (for what it’s worth, we recommend that you guys check out the King’s Speech if you haven’t already). We stayed at a hostel across the street from the sand that had a great surfer vibe and was immediately next door to a solid restaurant/pub. We met a South African guy who was fascinated about our membership in the “Los Angeles fraternity of law.” We kept trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade him that it wasn’t precisely how it’s depicted in movies.
One of the amusing parts of the weekend was that whenever we talked to South Africans at the hostel, they couldn’t believe that we were living in a village, let alone didn’t own a car. Their jaws dropped when we explained that we took 3 public taxis to drive the 50 miles from our village to the hostel. To clarify, they did not think it was idiotic or dangerous for us to live there, but rather they were thoroughly impressed that we left the US to live there. It was actually very uplifting. And as an added bonus to the weekend, one of the guys already added us as friends on Facebook.
Now we are back in our beautiful village and it’s hard to believe that we’ve been here over a month. We still don’t return to work for four more days, so that should give us a lot of time to keep trying to woo the neighbor girl. Which means Sara will be baking cookies tomorrow. And probably the next day.
With one notable exception. Last weekend Peace Corps staff allowed all of us to travel anywhere within our province for the Easter Weekend. Anxious to enjoy the end of good weather, we spent three nights on the beach in East London. Mother Nature cooperated, and the days were in the 70s and there was very little rain. We even squeezed in a visit to the mall and caught a flick (for what it’s worth, we recommend that you guys check out the King’s Speech if you haven’t already). We stayed at a hostel across the street from the sand that had a great surfer vibe and was immediately next door to a solid restaurant/pub. We met a South African guy who was fascinated about our membership in the “Los Angeles fraternity of law.” We kept trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade him that it wasn’t precisely how it’s depicted in movies.
One of the amusing parts of the weekend was that whenever we talked to South Africans at the hostel, they couldn’t believe that we were living in a village, let alone didn’t own a car. Their jaws dropped when we explained that we took 3 public taxis to drive the 50 miles from our village to the hostel. To clarify, they did not think it was idiotic or dangerous for us to live there, but rather they were thoroughly impressed that we left the US to live there. It was actually very uplifting. And as an added bonus to the weekend, one of the guys already added us as friends on Facebook.
Now we are back in our beautiful village and it’s hard to believe that we’ve been here over a month. We still don’t return to work for four more days, so that should give us a lot of time to keep trying to woo the neighbor girl. Which means Sara will be baking cookies tomorrow. And probably the next day.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Update on neighbor girl
We offered her a cookie this morning. And she took it (without crying). Progress!
We are traveling tomorrow morning to East London (the closest big city to us about 80k) for the weekend. We are staying at a backpackers there and are planning to go to a MALL and probably see a MOVIE. It's supposed to be warm on Sunday (Easter), so we'll probably spend the day at the beach. You can tell, however, that we're most excited for the MALL and MOVIE. Maybe too excited. Anyway, we probably won't update again until early next week. HAPPY EASTER!!!!!! Love, Sara and Matt
We are traveling tomorrow morning to East London (the closest big city to us about 80k) for the weekend. We are staying at a backpackers there and are planning to go to a MALL and probably see a MOVIE. It's supposed to be warm on Sunday (Easter), so we'll probably spend the day at the beach. You can tell, however, that we're most excited for the MALL and MOVIE. Maybe too excited. Anyway, we probably won't update again until early next week. HAPPY EASTER!!!!!! Love, Sara and Matt
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Our neighbor girl . . .
. . . is seriously terrified of us. She's between 1 and 2 years old, and she cries and runs into her house whenever she sees us. Not to be cruel (b/c she is honestly scared), but it's actually fairly comical. We originally thought that maybe we were the first white people she's ever seen - at least up close. We thought that maybe she just couldn't figure out what we even are and felt it best to stay away. Her grandma tries and tries to get her to like us, but it just isn't working.
Another neighbor told us yesterday that the only white people she's really been in contact with are white doctors who gave her shots, so she believes she's going to receive an injection whenever she sees us. I guess I don't really blame her for crying and running away. My plan to win her over with brownies might need to be stepped up a bit though.
Another neighbor told us yesterday that the only white people she's really been in contact with are white doctors who gave her shots, so she believes she's going to receive an injection whenever she sees us. I guess I don't really blame her for crying and running away. My plan to win her over with brownies might need to be stepped up a bit though.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Eating and Bathing
What we eat:
Pizza. Seriously. Well, when we lived with a host family, we ate traditional South African food - pap (also called porridge, which is a staple here in South Africa is basically thick, odorless, tasteless cornmeal), rice, chicken, pumpkin, etc. However, we now have our own place and have recently discovered the joys of homemade pizza. Long gone are the days of delivery. We have to buy the cheese and sauce in our shopping town over the weekend, b/c our site unfortunately doesn't sell mozzarella. We do buy the flour, oil, veggies, etc. here and enjoy pizza night at least twice a week. We've also starting eating significant amounts of home-made pancakes, and we may bake cookies or brownies later today. Yeah, we're not really losing weight anymore.
How we bathe:
We fill up our basin with cold water from our one sink. We bathe in our kitchen area, which means we don't have to move the basin once it's filled with water. We then heat up two pots of water on our hot plate to warm up the basin water. That's pretty much it. We make the person who is not bathing hide out in the bedroom partition, b/c the process is ridiculously awkward and not contemplated by "in sickness and in health." When the process is done we both -- the basin is quite heavy when filled -- carry the water outside and dump in our yard.
The purpose of bathing:
It's not to per se achieve a state of "cleanliness" but, rather, to avoid the always approaching state of stinkiness. Through bathing we strive to attain the equivalent of 5 o'clock shadow at home -- in other words, if you shower at home you're not perfectly clean at the end of the day. Your end of the day feeling is what we're shooting for.
Pizza. Seriously. Well, when we lived with a host family, we ate traditional South African food - pap (also called porridge, which is a staple here in South Africa is basically thick, odorless, tasteless cornmeal), rice, chicken, pumpkin, etc. However, we now have our own place and have recently discovered the joys of homemade pizza. Long gone are the days of delivery. We have to buy the cheese and sauce in our shopping town over the weekend, b/c our site unfortunately doesn't sell mozzarella. We do buy the flour, oil, veggies, etc. here and enjoy pizza night at least twice a week. We've also starting eating significant amounts of home-made pancakes, and we may bake cookies or brownies later today. Yeah, we're not really losing weight anymore.
How we bathe:
We fill up our basin with cold water from our one sink. We bathe in our kitchen area, which means we don't have to move the basin once it's filled with water. We then heat up two pots of water on our hot plate to warm up the basin water. That's pretty much it. We make the person who is not bathing hide out in the bedroom partition, b/c the process is ridiculously awkward and not contemplated by "in sickness and in health." When the process is done we both -- the basin is quite heavy when filled -- carry the water outside and dump in our yard.
The purpose of bathing:
It's not to per se achieve a state of "cleanliness" but, rather, to avoid the always approaching state of stinkiness. Through bathing we strive to attain the equivalent of 5 o'clock shadow at home -- in other words, if you shower at home you're not perfectly clean at the end of the day. Your end of the day feeling is what we're shooting for.
We have an address (finally)
I guess we really live here now. We've finally rented a post office box:
Sara and Matthew Henning
P.O. Box 227
Keiskammahoek 5670
South Africa
Sara and Matthew Henning
P.O. Box 227
Keiskammahoek 5670
South Africa
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Peace Corps = Peanut Butter
Seriously. Peace Corps volunteers must consume more peanut butter than any other group of people. During training, it was quite normal to look around the room and see several people eating PB straight out of a jar. We will neither confirm nor deny doing the same.
Anyway, after about 2.5 months in South Africa, here are some things that currently define our daily lives:
- Peanut butter (of course)
- Rain on (and occasionally through) our tin roof
- Kids laughing hysterically when we greet them in Xhosa
- Amazing night skies
- Bucket baths in our kitchen area
- Dirty feet
- Incredible mountain views
- Crowded public taxi (minivan) rides
- Shockingly cold nights
- Daily analysis of our electricity usage
- Lots of runny playing
- And awkwardness; a lot of awkwardness
Anyway, after about 2.5 months in South Africa, here are some things that currently define our daily lives:
- Peanut butter (of course)
- Rain on (and occasionally through) our tin roof
- Kids laughing hysterically when we greet them in Xhosa
- Amazing night skies
- Bucket baths in our kitchen area
- Dirty feet
- Incredible mountain views
- Crowded public taxi (minivan) rides
- Shockingly cold nights
- Daily analysis of our electricity usage
- Lots of runny playing
- And awkwardness; a lot of awkwardness
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Just Another Day
Wednesday, we attended our first memorial service in South Africa. The memorial service was for a young teacher who had died a week earlier. One major difference between South Africa and the US is that it is culturally acceptable to attend a funeral or memorial service even if you have never met the deceased or even if you don’t know anyone who is related to him or her. Here, such events can be transformed from sober, morbid experiences to lively community proceedings.
Our supervisor stopped by our house in the morning at about 9:00 (this was not unusual because she was also there to check in on the guy she paid to repair our fridge [which deserves its own blog posting….]). Upon greeting us, our supervisor informed us we would be attending the memorial service that morning. When we later walked to the office together we found out that the service would begin at 11:00, which was fine because at that point it was about 10:30. At one point our supervisor left the room for a few minutes, and one of our other three co-workers (all of them are women in their late 20’s and/or early 30’s) remarked that she wouldn’t want to go to the memorial service if she were us. She asked one of the other women how long she thought the service would last. We gulped when the answer was 5 HOURS.
Led by our supervisor, we left the office at about 11:40 to begin the 15 minute walk to the community hall where the service would be held. When we arrived we could tell that it was standing room only inside: about 30 people meandered outside the hall and some were crowding the doorway. Through the small spaces between the crowd we could see that the hall was packed with about 300 people, all of whom appeared to be singing and dancing along with the minister on stage. Considering how hot it was, we were somewhat relieved that we wouldn’t be able to fit inside the hall and could, instead, remain in the shade. How naïve…..
When the first song ended, our supervisor turned to us and said something to the effect of “let’s make our way inside.” When she said this I (Matt) almost laughed because there was clearly no room inside and how could we possibly get past the 30 people in front of us in the doorway. But oh how the crowd parted for the “visitors.” We first slowly walked down the center aisle looking for seats but, not surprisingly, there were none. We kept walking forward. And everyone started looking at us. But we kept going forward. Forward. Forward. Awkwardly. When we arrived near the front we both helplessly looked at our supervisor. There were no seats so we should go back outside, right? Another woman helpfully offered, “go up on the stage.” Swell idea!
There we were, walking on stage to join the ministers, the speakers, and all the other important people in attendance of this man’s memorial service. We were both speechless. With eye contact we both told each other the same thing: AWKWARD!
After about 2 hours and 5 or 6 speakers we left EARLY, again all eyes turned upon us. So ended our first memorial service. The funeral is this Saturday…….
Our supervisor stopped by our house in the morning at about 9:00 (this was not unusual because she was also there to check in on the guy she paid to repair our fridge [which deserves its own blog posting….]). Upon greeting us, our supervisor informed us we would be attending the memorial service that morning. When we later walked to the office together we found out that the service would begin at 11:00, which was fine because at that point it was about 10:30. At one point our supervisor left the room for a few minutes, and one of our other three co-workers (all of them are women in their late 20’s and/or early 30’s) remarked that she wouldn’t want to go to the memorial service if she were us. She asked one of the other women how long she thought the service would last. We gulped when the answer was 5 HOURS.
Led by our supervisor, we left the office at about 11:40 to begin the 15 minute walk to the community hall where the service would be held. When we arrived we could tell that it was standing room only inside: about 30 people meandered outside the hall and some were crowding the doorway. Through the small spaces between the crowd we could see that the hall was packed with about 300 people, all of whom appeared to be singing and dancing along with the minister on stage. Considering how hot it was, we were somewhat relieved that we wouldn’t be able to fit inside the hall and could, instead, remain in the shade. How naïve…..
When the first song ended, our supervisor turned to us and said something to the effect of “let’s make our way inside.” When she said this I (Matt) almost laughed because there was clearly no room inside and how could we possibly get past the 30 people in front of us in the doorway. But oh how the crowd parted for the “visitors.” We first slowly walked down the center aisle looking for seats but, not surprisingly, there were none. We kept walking forward. And everyone started looking at us. But we kept going forward. Forward. Forward. Awkwardly. When we arrived near the front we both helplessly looked at our supervisor. There were no seats so we should go back outside, right? Another woman helpfully offered, “go up on the stage.” Swell idea!
There we were, walking on stage to join the ministers, the speakers, and all the other important people in attendance of this man’s memorial service. We were both speechless. With eye contact we both told each other the same thing: AWKWARD!
After about 2 hours and 5 or 6 speakers we left EARLY, again all eyes turned upon us. So ended our first memorial service. The funeral is this Saturday…….
Monday, March 28, 2011
We're finally real Volunteers!
Well…there has been a change in plans, and we’re now living in the Eastern Cape province.
The big change came about as a result of our site visit a few weeks ago (sorry, we’ve been terrible about posting). We went to a small village in KZN that was stunning. It was very close to the Drakensberg Mountains, pretty rural, you could see the mountains, etc. We didn’t arrive on our first day until late afternoon. We were staying with Sara’s supervisor whose house was…interesting. The next day, Matt went off to a neighboring village with his supervisor, and Sara went around our village with her supervisor. We met caregivers for the organization, local government officials and visited the clinic.
Matt sat through an awkward meeting in his village – Peace Corps provides handbooks that describe the differences between South Africans and Americans. For example, the handbook explains that “5 minutes” really means 5 minutes to Americans. They are intended to be a reference point for the assigned host family. However, during Matt’s community meeting is supervisor read the entire 40-page handbook. Including the section on how American women don’t appreciate sexual harassment from men.
Later in the afternoon we met back up to see the place where we were supposed to live. Our Peace Corps supervisor informed Matt prior to the site visit that he was “concerned” about the size of the rondaval (traditional round dwelling) but not to worry because the host family was a lovely religious family. With these two tokens of advice in the back of our heads, and following a hot day of awkward meetings, we were not exactly stoked to see our new mansion. Nothing could have prepared us, however, for the experience that awaited us.
We first heard the singing from about two blocks away. We instantly knew the singing was for us, but two blocks is just long enough for that last glimmer of hope that those are the loud neighbors and our real host family is quietly and casually waiting for us. When we entered the house the “singing” could no longer be so characterized as it was, more accurately, screaming. We were ushered into seats in the family room and surrounded by about 15 of the most vociferous South Africans we have yet encountered. When the singing stopped the family launched into an hour-long religious ceremony in Zulu, complete with a 25-minute fire-and-brimstone sermon from one of the younger men. The entire sermon was in Zulu except one brief part when the man looked at Matt and said “you are like an ocean” and then everyone laughed. The woman adjacent to Matt turned to him and explained “He says you are like an ocean.”
Our intended rondaval was so tiny it violated the Geneva Convention on living quarters for prisoners. There was no separation at all, which means that we would have been tripping over e/o while trying to bucket bath, cook, etc. So that’s how well our day was going at about 6:00 p.m.
Back at Sara’s supervisor’s house that evening, we were cooking dinner at about 8:00 when suddenly we began to hear loud banging noises on the tin roof. Sara and her supervisor stood up and looked at each other. The sounds kept coming one after the next, and then the window next to Sara shattered. Sara yelled for Matt who was in the next room, and the three of us ran into Sara’s supervisor’s room. Sara kept looking behind her honestly expecting to see people entering the house. Once in the supervisor’s bedroom, which unfortunately did not lock, Matt sat with his back against the door while Sara’s supervisor tried to call the police. At first she didn’t have airtime and then Matt’s phone didn’t have a signal, but she finally got ahold of someone. She told us to stay quiet, and Sara kept whispering to Matt “are they in the house, are they in the house?” The sounds stopped, and Sara’s supervisor then began saying “they are just trying to scare us.” Yeah, well it worked.
The police showed up fairly quickly, including one carrying a huge assault rifle. They said they would patrol the area for the next few hours. They kept saying that it was just “stupid people” and Sara’s supervisor kept saying it was just jealousy b/c we were there. Who knows. Our feeling was that we were absolutely not welcome in the community, at least by some people.
In the meantime, Matt called our Peace Corps security and safety officer. He was really great throughout the whole experience. He asked if we wanted to go stay with Matt’s supervisor in our shopping town. We declined since my supervisor didn’t have a car, and we had no idea if his supervisor’s house was any safer. We spent the night at Sara’s supervisor’s house, but it was definitely not a restful night of sleep.
The next morning, Peace Corps instructed us to catch a public taxi to Joberg. Yes, we were basically evacuated from our site visit. After what now can be considered comical delays on the part of Sara’s supervisor ( Peace Corps told us before 8:00 a.m. to leave and Sara’s supervisor felt the need to bathe, clean house, introduce Sara to more caregivers, take pictures, talking with board members, etc. We did not leave the village for over 2 and a half hours) we finally made it to Joberg and then Pretoria safe and sound. Soon afterwards, we officially heard that we would not be returning to that site and would not even be going back to KZN.
We heard about a week ago that we were moving to the Eastern Cape. This meant that we were moving to a site unseen without knowing the language. Luckily, Xhosa, which is spoken here, is in the same language group as Zulu, so hopefully we’ll catch on fairly quickly. After swearing in as Peace Corps volunteers (yay!), we traveled about 20 hours to the Eastern Cape. We are living in a government RDP house (basically, the rural projects), and the area is absolutely beautiful. We are about 80ks from the beach and are very close to Hogsback, the area that inspired The Lord of the Rings (super boring movie – sorry)(that was Sara’s parenthetical, Matt thinks it’s super awesome). It is hilly/mountainous and COLD, at least at night. We slept with layers upon layers the first few nights. Thankfully, we purchased a blanket this weekend, so things are better.
We are really excited to be in the Eastern Cape. There are so many places here we want to visit and feel lucky to be living in such a beautiful site. Visitors are welcome (Trevor, google Jeffrey’s Bay).
The big change came about as a result of our site visit a few weeks ago (sorry, we’ve been terrible about posting). We went to a small village in KZN that was stunning. It was very close to the Drakensberg Mountains, pretty rural, you could see the mountains, etc. We didn’t arrive on our first day until late afternoon. We were staying with Sara’s supervisor whose house was…interesting. The next day, Matt went off to a neighboring village with his supervisor, and Sara went around our village with her supervisor. We met caregivers for the organization, local government officials and visited the clinic.
Matt sat through an awkward meeting in his village – Peace Corps provides handbooks that describe the differences between South Africans and Americans. For example, the handbook explains that “5 minutes” really means 5 minutes to Americans. They are intended to be a reference point for the assigned host family. However, during Matt’s community meeting is supervisor read the entire 40-page handbook. Including the section on how American women don’t appreciate sexual harassment from men.
Later in the afternoon we met back up to see the place where we were supposed to live. Our Peace Corps supervisor informed Matt prior to the site visit that he was “concerned” about the size of the rondaval (traditional round dwelling) but not to worry because the host family was a lovely religious family. With these two tokens of advice in the back of our heads, and following a hot day of awkward meetings, we were not exactly stoked to see our new mansion. Nothing could have prepared us, however, for the experience that awaited us.
We first heard the singing from about two blocks away. We instantly knew the singing was for us, but two blocks is just long enough for that last glimmer of hope that those are the loud neighbors and our real host family is quietly and casually waiting for us. When we entered the house the “singing” could no longer be so characterized as it was, more accurately, screaming. We were ushered into seats in the family room and surrounded by about 15 of the most vociferous South Africans we have yet encountered. When the singing stopped the family launched into an hour-long religious ceremony in Zulu, complete with a 25-minute fire-and-brimstone sermon from one of the younger men. The entire sermon was in Zulu except one brief part when the man looked at Matt and said “you are like an ocean” and then everyone laughed. The woman adjacent to Matt turned to him and explained “He says you are like an ocean.”
Our intended rondaval was so tiny it violated the Geneva Convention on living quarters for prisoners. There was no separation at all, which means that we would have been tripping over e/o while trying to bucket bath, cook, etc. So that’s how well our day was going at about 6:00 p.m.
Back at Sara’s supervisor’s house that evening, we were cooking dinner at about 8:00 when suddenly we began to hear loud banging noises on the tin roof. Sara and her supervisor stood up and looked at each other. The sounds kept coming one after the next, and then the window next to Sara shattered. Sara yelled for Matt who was in the next room, and the three of us ran into Sara’s supervisor’s room. Sara kept looking behind her honestly expecting to see people entering the house. Once in the supervisor’s bedroom, which unfortunately did not lock, Matt sat with his back against the door while Sara’s supervisor tried to call the police. At first she didn’t have airtime and then Matt’s phone didn’t have a signal, but she finally got ahold of someone. She told us to stay quiet, and Sara kept whispering to Matt “are they in the house, are they in the house?” The sounds stopped, and Sara’s supervisor then began saying “they are just trying to scare us.” Yeah, well it worked.
The police showed up fairly quickly, including one carrying a huge assault rifle. They said they would patrol the area for the next few hours. They kept saying that it was just “stupid people” and Sara’s supervisor kept saying it was just jealousy b/c we were there. Who knows. Our feeling was that we were absolutely not welcome in the community, at least by some people.
In the meantime, Matt called our Peace Corps security and safety officer. He was really great throughout the whole experience. He asked if we wanted to go stay with Matt’s supervisor in our shopping town. We declined since my supervisor didn’t have a car, and we had no idea if his supervisor’s house was any safer. We spent the night at Sara’s supervisor’s house, but it was definitely not a restful night of sleep.
The next morning, Peace Corps instructed us to catch a public taxi to Joberg. Yes, we were basically evacuated from our site visit. After what now can be considered comical delays on the part of Sara’s supervisor ( Peace Corps told us before 8:00 a.m. to leave and Sara’s supervisor felt the need to bathe, clean house, introduce Sara to more caregivers, take pictures, talking with board members, etc. We did not leave the village for over 2 and a half hours) we finally made it to Joberg and then Pretoria safe and sound. Soon afterwards, we officially heard that we would not be returning to that site and would not even be going back to KZN.
We heard about a week ago that we were moving to the Eastern Cape. This meant that we were moving to a site unseen without knowing the language. Luckily, Xhosa, which is spoken here, is in the same language group as Zulu, so hopefully we’ll catch on fairly quickly. After swearing in as Peace Corps volunteers (yay!), we traveled about 20 hours to the Eastern Cape. We are living in a government RDP house (basically, the rural projects), and the area is absolutely beautiful. We are about 80ks from the beach and are very close to Hogsback, the area that inspired The Lord of the Rings (super boring movie – sorry)(that was Sara’s parenthetical, Matt thinks it’s super awesome). It is hilly/mountainous and COLD, at least at night. We slept with layers upon layers the first few nights. Thankfully, we purchased a blanket this weekend, so things are better.
We are really excited to be in the Eastern Cape. There are so many places here we want to visit and feel lucky to be living in such a beautiful site. Visitors are welcome (Trevor, google Jeffrey’s Bay).
Monday, March 7, 2011
We're moving to the mountains!
Hey all. Another quick post (sorry, I promise to eventually provide more details re our lives). We found out last week that we'll be moving to the Drakensberg Mountains in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Our nearest big town is Escourt, and I think we'll be 3-4 hours from Durban (beach). We're ridiculously excited, although I'm a bit concerned about how cold it's going to be (esp since there is not heat). It should be interesting.
We leave tomorrow morning for our site visit. We'll meet our supervisors, visit our village, etc. We come back on Sunday for a little less than 2 weeks of additional training, and then we move to KZN for good. KZN has the highest HIV/AIDS rate of any SA province (~40%).
We will probably buy a modem in the next month or so and will be more in touch. I promise to also post pictures. One of these days...
xoxoxo
We leave tomorrow morning for our site visit. We'll meet our supervisors, visit our village, etc. We come back on Sunday for a little less than 2 weeks of additional training, and then we move to KZN for good. KZN has the highest HIV/AIDS rate of any SA province (~40%).
We will probably buy a modem in the next month or so and will be more in touch. I promise to also post pictures. One of these days...
xoxoxo
Saturday, February 26, 2011
We're Alive
Hey guys. We are at an internet cafe in Mokopane and wanted to quickly let everyone know that we're alive and well.
Peace Corps training is about halfway done (thank god). We are living in a village near Mokopane in Limpopo. Matt and I were assigned to the Zulu language group. We find out our site assignment (where we're actually be living for the next 2 years) hopefully next Friday. We're pretty sure that we'll be in KwaZulu Natal. Look it up for more information and to get excited to come visit us! :)
We are currently living with an older couple. He's 86 and the headman/chief of our village. She's 70. They are ridiculously nice and sweet, and we're having a great time. We have electricity. We technically have running water, but it's off way more than it's on. We have a tub, but we have to warm up the water on the stove and bath in like an inch of water. Basically, it's a bucket bath, but it's probably more than we'll have at our site. We're cool with it.
My feet are back to being covered in red dirt, and I'm loving it. I've been missing Kenya a lot but am so happy and feel so lucky to be back in Africa. We're really looking forward to moving to site and starting our projects, etc.
To those who have sent cards/letters, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You have no idea how fun it is to get mail (esp since this is our first time on internet in over a month). Unfortunately, stamps are hard to come by, but we promise to write back eventually. We really appreciate it.
Hope everything is well with all of you. We should start updating the blog more frequently in a month or so. Much love from South Africa!
Peace Corps training is about halfway done (thank god). We are living in a village near Mokopane in Limpopo. Matt and I were assigned to the Zulu language group. We find out our site assignment (where we're actually be living for the next 2 years) hopefully next Friday. We're pretty sure that we'll be in KwaZulu Natal. Look it up for more information and to get excited to come visit us! :)
We are currently living with an older couple. He's 86 and the headman/chief of our village. She's 70. They are ridiculously nice and sweet, and we're having a great time. We have electricity. We technically have running water, but it's off way more than it's on. We have a tub, but we have to warm up the water on the stove and bath in like an inch of water. Basically, it's a bucket bath, but it's probably more than we'll have at our site. We're cool with it.
My feet are back to being covered in red dirt, and I'm loving it. I've been missing Kenya a lot but am so happy and feel so lucky to be back in Africa. We're really looking forward to moving to site and starting our projects, etc.
To those who have sent cards/letters, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You have no idea how fun it is to get mail (esp since this is our first time on internet in over a month). Unfortunately, stamps are hard to come by, but we promise to write back eventually. We really appreciate it.
Hope everything is well with all of you. We should start updating the blog more frequently in a month or so. Much love from South Africa!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Almost There
WE'RE MOVING TO AFRICA!
We leave LA early Sunday morning. We have a short stop in Philly for staging and arrive in South Africa Wednesday morning. Apparently, we won't have much (if any) internet access until late March/early April (we'll be in training), but hopefully we'll be able to begin blogging regularly in a couple of months.
Our address for the first two months is below. We'll post the address where we'll actually be living for two years once we know it. We heart cards and letters.
We'll miss you all while we're gone, and we'll have ample space in our hut for visitors!
Sara and Matt Henning
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 9536
Pretoria 0001
South Africa
We leave LA early Sunday morning. We have a short stop in Philly for staging and arrive in South Africa Wednesday morning. Apparently, we won't have much (if any) internet access until late March/early April (we'll be in training), but hopefully we'll be able to begin blogging regularly in a couple of months.
Our address for the first two months is below. We'll post the address where we'll actually be living for two years once we know it. We heart cards and letters.
We'll miss you all while we're gone, and we'll have ample space in our hut for visitors!
Sara and Matt Henning
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 9536
Pretoria 0001
South Africa
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