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.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, January 30, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
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 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!
Monday, January 16, 2012
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!
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!
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