December Holidays

Well, COS (Close of Service) conference is over, and we’re back at site.  You could definitely say COS was bittersweet.  On the one hand, it’s amazing that we’ve all come this far.  Our group has been in South Africa for almost two years, and people have done wonderful work in their villages.  COS definitely brought forth feelings of accomplishment and, of course, people are starting to look forward to going back to America.  On the other hand, it’s always sad to say goodbye.  Some members of our cohort will be leaving in the next few weeks, and who knows when we’ll see each other again.  We’ve shared an experience that few people will ever understand, and it’s difficult knowing that this adventure is coming to an end.  Regardless of the mixed feelings, it was a great week including a trivia night and a TIA (this is Africa) party that featured some amazing costumes.

Now we’re back at site until December 28.  We’ll spend Christmas here and then travel to the Wild Coast (beach) for a few days before doing a six day hike with a couple of volunteer friends.  There is a small soccer tournament here this weekend, but it’s otherwise fairly quiet in the village now.  The boarding students are of course gone for the holidays, but a good number of other people are off visiting family as well.  I’m sure we’ll still get plenty of visitors next week though!

Lady Gaga and Other Updates

Last Friday we went to see Lady Gaga in Johannesburg.  Not exactly a concert we would jump at back in the States, but big acts rarely make their way down here and when a group of our friends wanted to go, we were game.  Unfortunately, she was on the opposite side of the (huge) stadium.  But all in all, we had a lot of fun and it was a great experience just going to the stadium that hosted the final match of the World Cup. 

Now we are back at site and find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands.  School is not officially finished until the end of this week when report cards are handed out, but none of the students show up.  Actually, two students came today because they were so bored at home.  They ended up getting to watch Mamma Mia on our laptop, so not a terrible day for them. 

This Saturday we are leaving once again to make the long trip back to Pretoria.  (Pretoria is only about 30 miles away from Johannesburg and we stayed in Pretoria after the concert.)  This time we are going for a Peace Corps event – our final official conference.  It’s exciting and surreal that we’ve already made it this far.  When we first began, the idea of our Close of Service conference seemed too far in the future to even think about.  But here we are, about to come together with what remains of our training class (35 out of 46 still here) for the last time.  The reason the conference is now is because some people will begin leaving at the end of December.  We, however, will be sticking it out until the beginning of April for the full two years of service after swearing in as volunteers (plus a couple of weeks because we want to finish the school term).  For those marking their calendars at home, April 4^th will be our last official day as Peace Corps volunteers, and April 5^th we will join the distinguished ranks of the unemployed.  So we still have a good amount of time left, but considering how quickly our final conference snuck up on us, April will be here before we know it.  Yikes!

Girls Club

I (Sara) have had a number of girls clubs since the beginning of the year.  I do girls clubs with the high school boarding students, but my Grade 7 club is definitely my favourite.  The idea is to bring girls together in a safe, nonjudgmental environment to discuss life skills lessons.  For most of the year, I tried holding the club at school during a free period on Fridays.  Unfortunately, the learners often have to clean classrooms on Fridays, which interfered with my club.  A few months ago, I began holding the sessions at our house after school in Fridays.  The girls love the fact that they get to take over our house and evict Matt to the hospital office.

While we still do a short life skills lesson at the beginning of the session (e.g., friendship, goal setting, values), the main focus has shifted to baking.  Needless to say, the baking gets a bit crazy.  Imagine a group of 12-15 girls huddled around a small table, yelling at each other in Zulu, fighting over who gets to add the flour or beat the eggs.  “Too many cooks in the kitchen” does not come close to capturing the chaos.  I’ve had dough all over the floor and tortillas on the walls, but it’s been so much fun.  Luckily, the girls are really great about sweeping the floor and doing the dishes afterward.

School doesn’t officially end for a few more weeks, but we had Grade 7 graduation this week.  Most of the girls will be moving on to the high school to do Grade 8 next year (the boys are less studious, to put it mildly).  There have been many trying times in their classroom, but I’m really going to miss these girls.  While our first year in the Peace Corps dragged on and on and on, this year has gone by so quickly.  

Ngwelu Road Race

As we are apt to do, we have failed to update this blog in some time.  Oops.  Almost two weeks ago, we held a community 5K race with a kids’ fun run beforehand.  Although we didn’t get the enormous turnout we’d hoped for, it was still a success and a lot of fun.  Due to bad luck with the weather, we had to postpone the race twice.  And when we faced a conflict with the Grade 12 graduation, we were forced to run on a Wednesday.  Despite all the false starts, all the runners ended up having a great time, and we still ended up running in the rain and mud.

We managed to get a couple small donations from a friend in Pretoria and a local doctor.  This enabled us to charge very little money for the entrance fee and even give small cash prizes.  Whenever we wake up early enough to run in the morning we are joined by kids walking to school.  Two 6^th grade girls, in particular, run with us whenever they see us.  We were really excited with them because the younger one finished in 2^nd place in the kids’ fun run and the older one finished in 2^nd in the 5K.  When the older girl opened up the envelope and saw cash her jaw dropped, and the next day at school she sought both of us out to tell us that her mother was proud of her.  In a rural area with little in the way of entertainment, we were more than pleased that we could provide kids with something to do . . . at least for one very muddy afternoon. 

It feels very strange to us that the election is tomorrow.  While it’s refreshing to avoid the constant media coverage, it is simultaneously frustrating to be so oblivious.  Someone recently sent us an email chain from 2008 when we made election night plans for people to come to our apartment and eat pizza as the polls closed.  Tomorrow night we will go to bed long before the result is known and await a test message from Matt’s sister Courtney to awaken us with the identity of our next president.  And then a few hours later we will go teach English to classrooms of Zulu students.  How times have changed!

Superlatives

If nothing else, we will leave here having taught our students English superlatives for “good”:  great, excellent, fantastic, outstanding, etc.  Because they always try to show off their English to us, our kids will drop “fantastic” or “excellent” to describe seemingly mundane, everyday things.  Recently, a group of kids watched a movie at our house.  When they left, one of the boys told Matt that it was a “fabulous visit.” 

Teaching superlatives, however, has also led to some unforeseen negative consequences.  All of these positive words roughly translate to “mnandi” in Zulu, and this same word is used to describe tasty food.  So Matt taught his 5^th graders early in the school year that “ukudla kumnandi” means “delicious food” in English.  At the time, Matt didn’t realize that mnandi was used not only for food, but also for every positive experience known to man.  Later in the year, Matt gave grade 5 a test and asked them to write a complete sentence about their favorite school subject.  We were thoroughly amused when one of the brightest boys in the class wrote “science is delicious.”  We’re not sure if our explanation of when to use “delicious” completely rectified the mistake, but you win some, you lose some!

Our Weekend

We’ve enjoyed a nice, rain-free weekend.  Because we apparently only know how to blog in spurts, why not tell you guys about our Sunday?  We were planning on going on a run, but when we were joined by our 10 year-old friend Aphile (pronounced A-pea-lay), we knew it would be more of a walk.  First things first, we had to walk with her to her house to ask permission from her mother, a local high school teacher.  It felt awesomely juvenile to ask a grown woman if her daughter could come out and play with us.  Fortunately she said yes.  So off we were on our typical walk to the main road, about 3 miles roundtrip.  At the road though, we spotted a bunch of baboons in the distance.  Because we had nothing better to do, we decided to check things out.  We ran into a group of young boys from our primary school who were walking in the same direction.  We asked them in Zulu “what are you doing?”  They responded in Zulu “we are fine.”  Hmm.  On the second take, with help from Aphile, we found out that the boys were going to throw rocks at the baboons.  Matt asked in Zulu if they wanted to kill a baboon.  They said yes and showed us their rocks.  We obviously started walking with them.  When we got to within a good 50 yards of the baboons, some of the young boys got excited and started running.  The baboons ran faster, much faster.  The boys heaved their rocks into the air, all falling at least 30 yards short of the mark.  A failed mission for the boys, amusing diversion for us. 

On the walk back Aphile was telling us about a book she is reading.  After our conversation included a mix of English and Zulu, we reached a roadblock.  We didn’t know the Zulu word she was using, so we asked her to show us.  The demonstration went as follows.  Aphile put Sara’s ipod on the ground and told Matt to walk 10 feet away.  Then she told Matt to call Sara.  “Zahara!  Zahara!”  (yeah we aren’t Matt and Sara here).  Aphile then told Zahara to walk to Sbu (Matt).  After that happened, she ran up and grabbed the ipod and ran away.  “Oh, steal!” we both laughed and told Aphile. 

When we got home, church was finished which meant one thing:  here come kids.  We had a noisy afternoon with 12 year-olds watching Terminator 2 (Schwartzkegger was requested) while the little ones colored on the ground. 

All in all an ordinary Sunday, but as we reflected on it we realized that what we consider mundane can actually be pretty entertaining to people back in America.  We are organizing a 5K race and kids’ fun run for this upcoming Saturday, so we will definitely let you guys know how that goes.  

What I Really Miss

Of course, we miss our family and friends, but people aside, it’s surprising what you end up missing.  You’d think I would miss having a washing machine or a dishwasher, but I’m pretty used to washing clothes by hand.  When it rains for several days straight (like it did this week), it would be nice to have a dryer, but no big deal.  Honestly, I’ve sort of forgotten what it is like to have a dishwasher.  As long as you don’t let dirty dishes build up, washing by hand is fine.

What I DO miss, however, is our Swiffer.  Sunday is our mopping day, and it is a physical and emotional ordeal.  After five minutes of mopping, the mop water turns brown, and 50% of our house still remains un-mopped.  Once, the actual mopping is finished, you then have to wait for an eternity for the floors to dry.  Confined to our bedroom, we typically twiddle our thumbs in boredom waiting for the sun to make its brief daily cameo and accelerate the drying process.  Once the floors are dry, there is a brief feeling of euphoria, however fleeting.  By this time, it’s nearly one o’clock and church will be letting out soon.  That means kids will soon be coming over for a visit, tramping dirt and mud all over our once immaculate floor (okay, not really immaculate but whatever).  Mopping sucks.  Big time.

Water Gods Part II

Thank you for turning the water back on in the kitchen today.  We are extremely grateful.  It seems like you feel we are not yet ready for hot water or for water in our bathroom, and that is okay.  But there is a lot of thunder and lightning right now, and we are worried for what your future plans might entail.  Please be nice to us.  We understand you will turn the water brown if you must, but please just let it stay on.  Thanks in advance.

Monkey Business

So the excitement of the day was a monkey that was in a tree inside the gates of the school.  A bunch of Grade 7 kids were outside during class, and we saw them start throwing branches and rocks at the monkey.   Adults got into the action as well.  When we came back to school after lunch, the gate was locked.  We called a teacher to let us in, and she told us the men inside the gate were trying to get the monkey while trespassing at the school and she was waiting for the police to come.  Turns out she was joking and just wanted them to apologize.

Anyway, all the learners made a beeline for the trees after school.  Tons of rocks and branches were being thrown, and at least two learners tried to climb the trees (one making it probably 30 feet up the tree).  The monkey was freaking out and making huge leaps from tree to tree.  I asked a kid (one of the Grade 7s who speaks passable English) what the other learners were doing.

Kid: Trying to kill the monkey.

Me:  Noooo!!!

Kid: They want to eat it.

Me: No way.

Kid: Do you want the monkey?

Me: No, but I don’t want it to be killed.

Kid:  But monkeys are food.

Don’t worry.  The teachers kicked everyone out of the schoolyard before the monkey was actually knocked out of the tree.  Just a small reminder that we aren’t in America anymore.

Dear Water Gods,

Thank you for raining practically nonstop for 3 days straight.  That was really fun.  Our water turned brown, but Crystal Light can make almost anything drinkable.  We didn’t even mind that our laundry has been soaking in a bucket ready to go outside since Tuesday.  But now our water has been off for awhile now, and we’d really like to bathe.  Also, we’re running out of clean underwear.  Please throw us a bone.

Sincerely,

Needs to bathe in Ngwelu

How You Know You Live In A Small Village

11.   Boys pee on your toilet seat because they are used to latrines.

22.  The entire village runs out of milk and bread.

33.  Cows, goats and chickens routinely walk by the classroom windows and are chased out of the school gate by learners.

44.  The village’s taxi driver buys you a live chicken for dinner just because he likes you (don’t ask).

55.  Most of your male learners are herd boys after school.

66.  Soccer and netball are always played barefoot.

77.  Some kids walk for over an hour to come to school, yet each grade has only one class.

88.  Babies cry hysterically when they see you because they aren’t used to white people.

99.  Since everyone knows you, people will stop the village’s sole taxi when they see you coming a block away in town.

110. Everyone has known your name (or at least your African name) since your second week in the village.

111. Daily, kids give you their parents’ cell phones to charge, because most people don’t have electricity.

112. You can run to the main road and back (~5k) on the only road in and out of your village and see no cars (besides hospital vehicles, only a handful of people have cars).

Update

In light of the tragic events at the platinum mines in Rustenburg last week, we want to let everyone know that we are doing fine.  In fact, all news that we have received has come from either the internet or friends and family in America.  We have yet to hear any South Africans mention the shootings.  Additionally, Peace Corps hasn’t sent any updates/warnings with respect to the incident.  Last year, during the London riots, Peace Corps emailed us that travel to England was restricted.  Hopefully that illustrates how overly cautious Peace Corps can be.  So in short, we are not affected by the event.  It is obviously a terrible tragedy that illustrates the deep tensions between unions and the South African police, and we can only hope that we have witnessed the last of the violence.

On a more positive note, we are still doing well at site.  Last weekend we met up with a couple friends and finally had a chance to watch some of the Olympics.  We loudly cheered on as the American ladies won the 4x400 gold relay.  We may have started a chant or two of “USA!  USA!” but, fortunately, the South Africans were largely amused by us. 

In continuing the Olympic tradition, the theme of this past week has been sports.  On Thursday, our school was visited by a primary school about 10 miles away and we hosted two games of netball and two games of soccer.  Netball is a distant cousin of basketball:  all passing, no dibbling, no backboards o the hoop and areas on the court restricted to certain players.  It is exciting to watch and kids were very fired up with cheers.  Whenever we scored a basket, all of the kids rushed the court.  After the netball it was the boys’ turn to play soccer.  Sports for children are virtually nonexistent in rural areas like ours, so this was a very exciting day for the kids.

This past weekend, our community hosted another soccer tournament.  The entry fee was considerably higher than the tournament in June, so unfortunately the primary school boys were unable to play.  Despite the absence of the boys playing the part of Cinderella, the tournament was still a lot of fun and provided much-needed entertainment to the community.

To sum it all up, despite the terrible incident at the mine last week, we are entirely safe and still doing very well. 

P.S. Our new goal is to post once a week.  Sizobona (we will see).

The Dooleys Vacation in Africa

Sara’s parents came to visit for about two and a half weeks, and we all had quite the vacation.  After picking them up from the airport in Joberg, we rented a car and drove to our site in KZN.  It was Matt’s first time driving on the left side of the road, but he did a great job (after the first couple of hours, which were a little scary).  The school term was ending, but Sara’s parents were able to see our school and meet our kids.  The teachers surprised us by putting on a huge braii (bbq).  They made tons of food and really made Steve and Cindy feel welcome.  After stuffing ourselves with meat, we then enjoyed a number of our students performing traditional dances for us.

After leaving our site, we drove to St. Lucia, which is a small town on the ocean.  We took a boat ride our first night and saw some crocodiles and tons of hippos.  The next day we went on a game drive (safari), which was fabulous.  Even though it rained on and off throughout the day, we saw plenty of animals.  Two of the highlights were seeing lions and later rhinos right next to the road.  Our guide said we were very lucky to be so close to the lions.  We also saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, warthogs and a hyena.

After a few days in St. Lucia, we drove to the Drakensberg Mountains.  They are beautiful!  It was a little cold, but we got really lucky with the weather considering it’s winter here.  We did a lot of hiking during the day and played many games of cards at night.

Next, we drove back to Joberg and flew to Zambia to see Victoria Falls, which were, in a word, incredible.  The falls were beautiful on both the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides, and we now fully appreciate why they are one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  While in the neighbourhood, we took a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana.  We were on a river boat in the morning and did a game drive in the afternoon.  Chobe was amazing and we saw tons of animals.  One of the highlights was seeing elephants swim across the river to an island.  We had never seen elephants swim before, and it was definitely a memorable experience.

After Zambia (and a short jaunt into Zimbabwe to see the falls from the other side), we flew back to South Africa and spent the last night with Sara’s parents in Pretoria.  The backpackers where we usually stay also runs a guesthouse, so we were able to show them where we stay when we’re in Pretoria (and where we lived for over a month while waiting for our site change).  It was the 4^th of July, and the backpackers had organized an American-themed trivia night.  There were quite a few other Peace Corps volunteers in Pretoria, so there were many Americans playing trivia.  And....our team won!  Our prize included a case of Dr. Pepper and poptarts (things very hard to come by in South Africa).  Sara’s parents flew back to America the next day (well, over the next 2 days!).  It was an extraordinary vacation, and we hope they enjoyed it was much as we did!

Soccer Tournament

This past weekend there was a soccer tournament that Matt helped organize.  It was more successful and entertaining than we could have imagined.  As some of you may not know, soccer is the only sport for many South Africans.  Rugby and cricket are popular among the white population, but in our corner of the country soccer is the be-all and end-all of sports.  Young boys are kicking balls, rocks, rolled-up plastic bags (basically anything) from the time they can walk.  In short, soccer is kind of a big deal here.

Ten teams entered the tournament, and with the nominal entrance fees and some donations we were able to buy medals for 1^st and 2^nd places, refreshments, and we had a little money left over for prizes.  We were also fortunate to borrow a sound system from the church (if you play House music, they will come). 

              

The highlight of the tournament came during the second game.  Our boys at the primary school formed a team.  Prior to the tournament, everyone hoped to play them in the first round.  When we asked people whether our boys had a chance, everyone laughed.  Before their match (against a team of high schoolers and men in their early 20s) they appeared out of place.  The other team was going through organized warm-up drills.  The boys milled around joking with each other.  The men all wore cleats.  The boys were barefoot. 

But after the first ten minutes something strange happened.  Everyone in the crowd of about 200 collectively realized that the men had not yet scored and if the boys managed to remain tied at the end of the game, they would have a chance in the shoot-out.  Halftime came and the game was still a scoreless tie.  During the 2^nd half everyone was on their feet cheering loudly for the boys.  Then with about 10 minutes left, it happened.  They boys scored.  50 people rushed the field.  Then 5 minutes later it happened again.  This time 100 people rushed the field to celebrate the boys’ 2-0 lead.  The boy who had scored both goals was hoisted onto people’s shoulders.  Some of the men on the other team lied down on the ground looked ashamed and dejected.  One of the primary school teachers collapsed on the ground to mock them.  The game ended a few minutes later and people rushed the field again. 

Even though the boys had only made it to the next round, they had instantaneously become the true champions of the tournament.  Nobody cared when they were blown out in their next match because that one victory had ensured success for the entire tournament.  And no subsequent games would match the drama until the end of the championship itself (which remarkably went to 14 rounds in the shoot-out).  Mthoko, the 13 year-old who scored both of the boys’ goals, was awarded a medal for Young Player of the Tournament.  He proudly wore it to school on Monday and when we told him (for the 20^th time) that we were so proud of him, he guaranteed 1^st place next time.  Sizobona.  We will see.

As for everything else, life is still good here.  The school term ends next week and the children are now writing exams, so things are pretty slow.  Sara’s parents arrive next Tuesday, and we are eagerly looking forward to sharing our site with them and then travelling for a couple weeks.  This weekend we will be in Pretoria and we will definitely be posting pictures from the tournament on facebook.

I Know You Are But What Am I?

                If you read our “recent” post, then you know how things were going 6 weeks ago.  Now let’s get caught up to speed.  We are now at the beginning of one of the coldest months of the year, but so far so good because it hasn’t been too bad yet.  We were recently talking about the fact that this time last year we had already been emotionally crushed by winter.  But every day that we wake up to see the sun, we know it is one less day of brutal coldness.

                As for the month of May, we have nothing exceptional to report.  Things are still going well at the primary school.  We received a couple boxes of donated books, and one of Sara’s 6^th graders has taken on the role of librarian with adorable enthusiasm.  At the high school, Matt has started a history club that is slowly growing in popularity, but with the second term ending soon he won’t have any more meetings until mid-July.

                Next week there will be a big community soccer tournament that we are helping organize.  If things go well, and it’s looking like they will, we should have some good photos to share online. 

                Our home has cemented its reputation among local kids as the place to be.  We recently had 15 kids hanging out after school.  It’s amusing to see what the kids perceive as “luxuries” in our home.  At various times, we have found kids mesmerized by Matt’s razor, a 2” by 3” camping mirror, Sara’s cheap Target wristwatch, and running water in our bathtub.  Not to mention our ipods, camera and laptop, all of which carry hypnotic powers.  As for our laptop, you wouldn’t believe which movie provides the most entertainment and garners the most requests . . . . Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.  It’s disturbing how well we can now quote the movie from memory.

                Well that pretty much captures what’s going on these days in our world.  Sara’s parents arrive in two weeks, and we’re very excited to both share our experience with them and then to go on vacation. 

                We should probably promise to be better about blogging in the future, but we hate breaking promises so we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure.  Hope all is well, but it’s time I stop handwriting this blog post – Pee-Wee is about to find out there’s no basement in the Alamo. . . . 

We Suck at Blogging

Umm....yeah. So we actually wrote this blog a month ago but never posted it (and we thought we were bad at blogging then). Anyway, this should fill you in up to a month ago. We promise to blog again later this week updating you on the last month. Sorry! ................................................................................................................................

 So as the title of this blog post should indicate, we recognize our failure to update this blog in over a month. And, so much has happened in this past month that it’s impossible to adequately summarize in one post. But we will try nonetheless. A month ago we went to Pretoria for a week of training. This was our midway training and it was a great chance to catch up with all our friends in our training class. One of the highlights of the week in Pretoria was that we went to our first rugby game. We got to see a Super 14 match (which is the elite league that features the top teams in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand). The team from Pretoria thrashed the defending league champs from Australia, so it was a great experience. Now we just need to go to a soccer match to experience the other major sport in South Africa. Cricket is also big here, but no thanks. At the end of training we went to the half marathon that we’d been fundraising for. It was a lot of fun and there were about 75 PCV’s (peace corps volunteers) at the race. Together we booked all the beds in a Backpackers (hostel), and after the race we were treated to a huge feast that was prepared by a dozen PCV’s who didn’t run or walk in the race. As for the race itself, Matt got first place among all volunteers ..... who were not in shape to run it. He crossed the finish line in a blazing 3:05. Sara finished an entire hour earlier. The best part about the weekend is the fact that as a group, all PCV’s raised over $20,000. This money will send two disadvantaged children to one of the best schools in Southern Africa and will pay all their expenses from grades 7 until 12. Thank you everyone who supported us, and it’s nice to be a part of something that will truly make a positive and tangible impact in the lives of two children.

After the race weekend, we travelled with our friends Will and Rachael to Cape Town for a little over a week. Cape Town was, in a word, awesome. We went to Table Mountain the first day in the city, and the views were breathtaking. Then we spent a couple nights in wine country and spent a full day wine-tasting at various vineyards. Later in the week we had the sobering experience of visiting Robben Island, and we were fortunate to have a tour guide who had actually spent seven years on the island as a political prisoner. All throughout the week we enjoyed delicious foods, including the best Mexican food we’ve found in South Africa on Easter Sunday. Perhaps the best part of Cape Town was just the feeling of being in a city with a vibrant culture. We often commented to each other that Cape Town felt like a mix between San Diego and San Francisco. All in all, it was a great trip and we are so glad we went.

Now we’ve been back at site for a little less than three weeks. The second term is underway at school, and we are back in the swing of things. Recently, we have befriended an eighth grader whose mom works at the hospital. Her name is Wandy and she comes to our house basically every day. If she wasn’t such a great kid it would probably be annoying, but fortunately we enjoy her company. April 27th is a national holiday commemorating the 1994 elections, so we are now relaxing and having the benefit of a nice long weekend.

Cobra

As Matt said over the weekend, “our home has become a Dave & Busters.” People (mainly kids) stop by for help with homework, to eat snacks, watch movies on the laptop, play UNO, read our magazines and even ask for legal assistance. Although it can get annoying from time to time, it’s fun for the most part. The high school closed yesterday for the term break and the primary school is closed today for Human Rights Day (in recognition of the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, when peaceful protesters were killed, leading to international sanctions against South Africa), so it should be a quiet day.

In other news, we saw a cobra with its neck expanded to form the hood in our yard yesterday. We almost walked right by it without noticing. Instead of being properly freaked out, we ran inside to grab our camera. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we were unable to find it again when we went back out. Also, Sara saw a large family of baboons on her run yesterday. Usually, our animal viewing is limited to cows and goats (which are everywhere!).

Friday we leave for Pretoria for a week of training. Saturday the 24th marks the one year anniversary of our swearing-in as volunteers, which is hard to believe. So next week is our midpoint training. After training, we leave for a 3-day weekend for the half-marathon, and then we have a week of travelling in Cape Town. In other words, our next three weeks should be, in a word, awesome.

Life

We have been very busy lately and apologize for not updating our blog. We apologize to our loyal readers and hopefully this post will bring us all up to date. For starters, we are still teaching Reading at the Primary School. We are falling into a routine with the kids in Grades 4-7 and loving every minute of it. Well, nearly every minute.

A couple of weeks from now is the end of Term 1, and there will be a two week break. We will be spending our break in Pretoria (for a week of training and our mid-service doctors’ appointments), then off to the half marathon and finally a week in Cape Town. So as we’re wine tasting, relaxing by the beach or strolling through the markets, we’ll be thinking of you guys!

Two doors down from our house are numerous houses where teachers stay during the week. One of the high school teachers has a daughter and son who we spend a lot of time playing with. The girl is 9 and one of the best students in Matt’s Grade 4 class. Her brother Junior is in Grade R (kindergarten) but he’s only 3. The primary school principal permits him to attend Grade R as a courtesy to the high school teacher. 2-3 afternoons per week we play ball or Frisbee with them, and it’s gotten to the point where Junior runs screaming into Sara’s arms when we see him in the morning at school.

Matt’s chess club has also been very successful. It’s for the boys at the high school and it meets every Wednesday afternoon and Saturdays when Matt is at site. Today, they had a tournament and it was a big hit. About 25 boys participated. All of the boys who play are boarders who come from bigger towns. So, the next step is to try to involve some of the boys who live in the local community.

Sara has been busy with her three girls clubs. Currently, she is holding girls clubs for the high school boarding students (grades 8-12), but she is thinking about starting a fourth club for the local grade seven girls. The problem is finding a time to meet since many of them live very far from school. The purpose of the clubs is to teach life skills and also just to be (hopefully) a female role model. The girls have SO many questions about love and relationships, so that’s been our main topic thus far. We’ll eventually discuss topics such as self-esteem, dealing with parents, peer pressure and premarital sex as well.

We’ve also been busy helping students with homework. High school students are asking us for help more and more, and it’s not unusual for us to get a knock (or several) on our door requesting our assistance. We have made it clear that while we can help with English and Life Orientation homework, they do not want to ask us for help with physics.

So all in all, life is still good here on the mountain. We are slowly coming to terms with the fact that winter is coming once again, but at least we know that we won’t have water dripping on us during the nights! We will try to be better about updating our blog in the future, and we hope all is well with all of you.

Wedding

Yeah, yeah. We’ve been promising to blog about the wedding for weeks. Now, of course, the memories are less clear, but we’ll do our best. The wedding was down in the valley from where we live. There is no electricity in the valley (only three families have generators) and people have to haul water from taps, but it’s absolutely beautiful. The wedding was at the home of the induna (headman). He works as a groundskeeper at the hospital, so we know him, but we had not met the bride and groom.

The wedding was supposed to begin at 10, but everything here runs on African time. We showed up at 1:30, and it was actually perfect timing. Ten minutes after we arrived, some of the older women began a traditional song and dance. The first hour or so at the wedding was awkward, as per usual. Many of the people attending the wedding had seen us around, but the bride’s family was from a different village so we still received quite a few stares upon arrival. We had a few people ask to take pictures with us as well. Soon though, the bride and groom arrived and the wedding party moved into the tent.
There was not enough room for everyone in the tent, so we were content to watch outside with the majority of the other guests. This was not to be. We were ushered through the crowd right to the front of the tent. There were not enough chairs, so extra chairs were brought out from the house for us. Matt ended up sitting directly behind the bride and groom. In fact, he was so close that when the best man dropped the ring, Matt picked it up. It was definitely awkward to be given such special treatment, but it is fairly common. I don’t think we’ll ever get used to being treated like celebrities.
The ceremony inside the tent was a fairly traditional Christian ceremony. It was in isiZulu, so we didn’t understand much though. After the ceremony we were fed. At the head table. Celebrity treatment again. After the food, however, the fun started. All of the wedding guests went outside for a traditional Zulu wedding.

The Zulu wedding consisted largely of singing and dance-off’s between the two families. The signature Zulu dance move is a high leg kick. Some of the younger men and women repeatedly kick their legs up to their heads and then stomp their foot on the ground in time with the music. It’s pretty awesome. Most family members were dressed in traditional Zulu attire: the women wore skirts and beads (traditionally women didn’t wear shirts, but everyone over 18 wore a bra) and the men carried shields and sticks. The two families (extended families with about 30-40 people) would always face each other. One family would sit down and watch while the other family sang and danced, and then they would trade places. Meanwhile, about 100 of us non-family members stood around and watched. The Zulu wedding lasted about 3 hours. We are not nearly good enough writers to capture the energy of the Zulu wedding, but suffice it to say that we had an amazing time and we are looking forward to the next one.

Half Marathon

Well, we are running a half marathon on March 31, and we need your help. It's actually to support a really great cause (info below). We only need to raise $100 each, so even a $5 donation would help a ton. We're also probably going to send out an email about this, b/c we don't know who reads this. If you could send a small donation, we'd really appreciate it (and we promise we'll start training!).

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, we've now been in South Africa for over a year! With the holidays now over, we are looking forward to upcoming events.
One of these is the Longtom marathon. It's actually a half- and an ultra-marathon, and we plan to participate in the half, which is 21.1 Km. It's happening on March 31 in Sabie, Mpumalanga Province, not too far from Kruger Park. It starts at the top of the Longtom Pass and goes into Lydenburg. Many Peace Corps volunteers will be taking part, probably over 70 of us, so it's going to be a lot of fun to get together with them for the weekend and run in this beautiful part of the country, which we haven't yet seen.

In addition to having a good time though, the main reason for taking part is to support the KLM foundation. Their website is: www.klm-foundation.org; please check it out. We won't go into all the details of what they do since you can read that on the site, but we’ll just say that the organization was founded by two PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) who served here in South Africa a few years ago. They decided to use the Longtom marathon as a fundraiser; they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent independent high school in Mpumalanga called Uplands College. That's why we are so excited about helping them to raise funds; what better way to help this country than to educate a future leader? And the child they choose is very carefully selected, going through a four-tier application process. The seven children who have been chosen so far are excelling in all respects. We hope after reading about KLM you will find yourself as supportive as we are of their work.
There may be other projects we encounter along our way here, but this is very worthy indeed, and one for which we are asking your support. Please give what you can; any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $10 or $20, it is much needed. And it is tax-deductible. So please go to the KLM website to make a donation, just click on the 'donate' photo. Make sure to put one of our names in the white box where it asks for the Longtom runner you want to sponsor.

The online donation is preferable, but if you need to mail in a check, please make it payable to "Kgwale Le Mollo (US)" and send it to:
KLM Foundation (US)
c/o Bowen Hsu
461 So. Bonita Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91107
Please make sure to include a note that your donation is on behalf of one of us.

Thanks so much for your support, and especially for supporting the child who is chosen next year to attend Uplands College. We let you know how the weekend goes, and how many funds we, Peace Corps volunteers, collected.

A Sad Day

Well, we went to the wedding on Saturday, and it was a really amazing experience. Today, however, was a sad day for the community where we live, so we’ll blog about the wedding later this week. Last Friday, a young man whom we work with and are friendly with, was driving with his 16 year old cousin when they had a car accident. Our friend is okay, but his cousin was thrown from the car and sustained a severe head injury. He passed away this morning.

Since he previously attended the primary school where we teach, the teachers went to the boy’s family’s house this afternoon to pay their respects and asked us to come along. As we walked up to the rondeval (round traditional dwelling) where the family was mourning, the teachers began singing. We took off our shoes and entered the rondeval, which was empty except for the straw mats on which we sat and six women. The boy’s mother was weeping the entire time we were there. It was terrible to witness such suffering. In keeping with tradition, after about 10 minutes Matt and the two male teachers left and walked outside to where the boy’s father and two other family members were sitting. It is customary for Zulu community members to pay respect at the family’s house, and the men and women of the deceased’s family stay in separate areas of the home.

On the one hand, we felt a little awkward being in the presence of such pain since we did not know the boy. But visiting a mourning family or attending a funeral is considered a form of respect, so ultimately we are glad we were able to attend.

It's Official!

Today marks a year in South Africa. And the new CHOP (Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Program) group arrived yesterday. It’s weird. It sometimes feels like we’ve been here forever, and other times it feels like we just packed up our apartment. The last year has been full of ups and downs – from sweating like crazy during our first two months of training, to changing to a site in the Eastern Cape where we were rained on from our tin roof all winter but met some really great people, to moving back to KZN last November.

But things are really falling into place now. We are enjoying teaching the kids at the primary school. Yesterday we taught Duck, Duck, Goose to Grade R (kindergarten) and it was a huge hit. We speak the Zulu of a 3 year-old (okay maybe 2) and so we can kinda communicate with the Grade R kids. We got them to appreciate that when you said “goose” instead of “duck” something special was happening, but instead of only one kid getting up to chase you around the circle, they treated it like an air raid. Every single kid would jump up screaming and run away from the circle. The teachers were cracking up.

Tomorrow the lawyer from Legal Aid is coming to the hospital to meet with people who have legal issues. We’re excited because this will be the first tangible work that we’re actually doing at the hospital, but we’re also a bit apprehensive because the lawyer emailed us at 4:00 yesterday and it feels a bit rushed. Oh well, it’ll probably be fine.

This weekend there is a big wedding down in the valley and we were “invited” yesterday. This is how our invitation was delivered. Matt was talking to a man who works at the hospital. The man mentioned that his brother was getting married this weekend. He then said something to the effect of “I don’t know if you’re invited but I’m sure you’re welcome.” To a wedding. What he meant was I don’t know if you’ve received a formal invitation that are only sent to VIP guests, but you, like everyone else within 100 miles, is welcome to attend the wedding. We knew what he meant, but when you consider what he said literally it provided a stark contrast between our two cultures when it comes to the etiquette of wedding invites. And today after asking around, it seems like this wedding is a pretty big deal (the groom is the son of the Head Man of the community), and we’ll keep you posted if we attend.

So, one year. Not quite halfway there (that comes next month) but still a milestone worth acknowledging. Thank you everyone who reads this. By simply reading our musings you have provided immeasurable support. You keep reading during year 2, and we promise to keep writing!

The Last Few Days

We woke up early on Saturday to take the taxi (public minivan) from our location 85k (~50 miles) into Vryheid, our shopping town. There is only one taxi a day from here to town. It leaves at 7 a.m. no matter how full it is, but if it fills before 7 it leaves as soon as it’s full. Anyway, we got to the taxi at about 6:15, and it left at about 6:30, so not bad. We spent the morning running errands, grocery shopping and eating. The taxi back to Mountain View leaves around noon (or, again, whenever it’s full). If we miss the Mountain View taxi, we can take another taxi, but it’s more expensive and drops us off about 1.5 miles from home. Luckily, we were able to the catch the Mountain View taxi before it was full.

The taxi home was a bit of an adventure. First of all, since our community is fairly rural, most people don’t come into town very often. So when they go to town, they stock up. Picture a van full of people and then adding 10kg bags of rice and dozens of shopping bags. After loading up the van, we started our journey home. About ten minutes outside of town, we stopped so people could buy chickens for dinner. Live chickens, of course. Feathers were flying and the taxi began to smell a bit like a farm, but we were on our way again after about 15 minutes (of course, there was a lot of clucking to be heard the rest of the trip).

After making it almost halfway home, we came across an accident. Tons of people were standing around, and our first thought was that someone must have been hurt in the wreck. Soon, however, we discovered that a large truck had actually hit a cow. Unfortunately, hitting a cow isn’t all that unusual for where we live. Cows graze along the road, and drivers frequently have to swerve and slow down to avoid hitting them. Anyway, the cow that had been hit was now being slaughtered by the side of the road, and people were watching the action. It had turned into a community spectacle. TIA (this is Africa).
On a side note, we tried to watch Blood Diamond last night and gave up after 15 minutes. Both of us had seen it previously and rather enjoyed it. The reason we couldn’t watch was because Leo had the WORST South African accent we have ever heard. It was almost offensive. We were really excited to re-watch the movie, so it was disappointing that we couldn’t stand his accent. As South Africans would say, “Shame!

The Start of 2012

After about 3 glorious weeks of travel, we are finally settling back into our site. Our trip began weeks ago when we met up with our friends in Pretoria. Seven of us set out for Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. South Africans do not need a visa to enter Mozambique (we did) so we only bought bus tickets to the border. Our plan was to find a public taxi once we crossed the border for the final 90 minutes to Maputo. The border crossing was kind of a mess. Many Mozambicans work in South Africa and only travel home for Christmas holidays, so the border crossing was completely packed. Also, it wasn’t readily apparent where we would actually find a public taxi once we crossed the border. Fortunately, our bus driver basically adopted us (maybe pitied is a more apt word) and he let us pay the difference for tickets to get all the way to Maputo. More importantly, he made the entire bus wait for us idiot Americans to get our visas (an extra 45 minutes). As we drove over the border in the comfort of our bus, we realized how lucky we were to have the nicest bus driver ever.

There isn’t much to do in Maputo. Apparently, the train station is one of the 10 most beautiful train stations in the world . . . so of course we didn’t go see it. But we were only there for the night before making our way to the coast and the beautiful beaches of Tofo. We promise pictures will be posted some day in the not so distant future when we go to an internet cafe. We just can’t do it at our site.

After 5 nights in Tofo we travelled farther up the coast to Vilanculos for 4 more nights. Our trip to Vilanculous was easily the worst transportation experience either of us has ever had. We had to wake up at 4:45 to walk a mile into Tofo to catch a public taxi to a nearby town, where we then caught a crowded water taxi across the bay (picture the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland with about 40 more torsos and 160 more accompanying limbs). And that was the luxurious leg of our journey. From that point we had another 4 hours to go in a public taxi with all our bags. Mozambican taxis are the same size of South African taxis, but they manage to squeeze another body into each already crowded row of seats...and then proceed to pack additional passengers in as well (25 people in a minibus taxi seems to be fairly standard). The situation is exacerbated when 7 of those passengers are average-sized Americans (read: much bigger than the average Mozambican) with backpacks. We’d rather not relive the hell of those 4 hours, but suffice it to say, had Vilanculos been anything short of paradise, the 7 of us might not have been on speaking terms afterwards. Fortunately, it was indeed paradise. We took a boat trip to a gorgeous island where we snorkelled and enjoyed a delicious lunch on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas in Vilanculos, a stone’s throw away from the water at all times.

After Mozambique we spent a couple of nights in Swaziland. There isn’t a ton to do in Swaziland, but it’s absolutely beautiful and we had a great time just hanging out. The Swazi people are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. Everyone we encountered went out of their way to ask how we were doing and to enjoy our stay in their country. We stayed at a fabulous backpackers in Mbabane (the capital). The place catered to Swaziland PCVs (peace corps volunteers), and after a couple busy weeks in Mozambique it was the perfect place to relax for a couple days.
After Swaziland we came back to SA and, along with about 10 other PCVs, stayed at another volunteer’s site in Mpumulanga. Nearby her site was a lodge (with a pool!) where we all stayed on New Year’s Eve. We didn’t realize it, but South Africans like to set off fireworks on New Year’s Eve. So at midnight (or somewhere around there, everyone was going off cell phone clocks and you could hear countdowns for a good ten minutes) tons of fireworks were set off. All in all, it was a great way to ring in the New Year.

The next day we went to Pretoria to get TB tests (our new site, the TB hospital, wants us to get tested every 6 months), and we got to relax for a few more days while awaiting our test results.

Now we’ve been back at site over a week, and things are getting very busy. This past week was the first week of the school year, and we found out that we will be Reading teachers to grades 4-7 at the primary school. We’re excited about being Reading teachers because no teacher was previously assigned to Reading, so we won’t be stepping on anyone’s toes. Also, because it isn’t a course that’s part of the core curriculum, we will have a lot of flexibility in what we will actually be covering. Teaching will keep us busy because each grade has Reading 5 days a week for about 40 minutes. Once we get some more projects up and running at the hospital, we should be extremely busy (which is a good thing).
Hopefully this blog post somewhat gives you an idea of how we’ve spent the past month. Things seem to be going well here, the sun has decided to come out more and more, and we are optimistic that 2012 will be a good year for us.

Happy New Year!