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!