From Encyclopedia To Pornography

Coming from North Carolina, I've become accustomed to questioning the actions and intentions of some people if I feel I'm being marginalized because of my race (or gender). With that said, I take that attitude from the states and magnify it by 100 here. Racism (and sexism) is in my face EVERYDAY! Its just the way things are here in South Africa, rural and urban.

Sunday morning I spent time at a used book stand. Cheap used books are my thing, so I took my time looking through them. After about 20 minutes, I ended up with three novels. One is about an ancient Christian relic stolen during WWII and the modern day recovery of the item. Another involves a murder-mystery during the Medieval Period in the town of Cambridge, England. And the third is an Anne Rice vampire novel (enough said). All three are decent sized. Between 300 to 400 pages (give or take), so nothing I plan to read in its entirety on a 30 minute taxi ride.

As I was paying for the books, one of the owners commented on how much I'm going to enjoy the stolen Christian relic novel. He really liked it and found it to be a good read. The man was very polite, white, and kind of hippy-ish. After saying such positive things about one of the books, he said "if I like these, then I'll probably enjoy a couple of other books he has". So, now I'm intrigued and I follow him over to another table.

He hands me two "thin" paperback books with black female characters on the front. The women are tall, shapely in the butt, small thin wastes, long braids, and wear tight clothing. The owner proceeds to tell me that he knows the two black South Africa female authors who wrote the books. They even personally signed his copies. "I figured you might be interested in these books, b/c ....well....you know....", he said. I cut him off with a polite smile so he didn't have to try to finish the sentence.

Since he was so polite, and in all honesty, meant well, I decided to indulge him and read the book summaries on the back. Both books revolved around the "Angry Black Women" themes of baby-daddy-drama, sex issues, and balancing work with it all. Both leading women in the books were single with children. One book used "slutty" to describe the intentions of the main character.

Its good to know that I can spend almost half an hour at a used book stand buying books that will peak my intellectual interests, to then have the owner hand me trashy dime books as a recommendation for "something I might be interested in". I mean seriously people......SERIOUSLY!?!?

Would the black owner of an African book store recommend his personally signed copy of Fabio's "Forbidden Love" (I made that up) to a white patron who is browsing the books in his store for biographies on great African leaders?

In the spirit of forgiveness and tolerance, I guess I should commend the white owner of the used book store for at least making an effort to bridge a gap by even suggesting a book for me....

....Or maybe I should be absolutely and unconditionally insulted by the fact that his attempt to bridge a gap involved belittling my intelligence and suggesting I'd prefer dime books about sex and baby-daddy-drama (maybe b/c the author is black) over a good long read about murder taking place in a kingdom during the Middle Ages of England, or armed forces trying to steal back a symbolically powerful Christian artifact during WWII?

The owner knows nothing about me or my background. I'm a history teacher. I studied Modern European, American, Classical, and Black American history for four years at university and taught United States History, World History, and World Religions for two. By default, that makes me a nerd, which I known and own. I like long boring books and movies that most of my friends would never read or sit through with me. Thats part of the isolation that comes along with being nerd.

But...

I wonder what the white owner saw when he looked at me spending that time at his book stand Sunday morning. Obviously something that lead him to believe I prefer books about raunchy sex, unhealthy relationships, and single-motherhood....

You know how I felt? Its as if I walked in there to buy an encyclopedia, but the owner felt I might like his latest pornographic novel since I had something in common with the characters and authors. You know.....being black an all.....

Pension Day and Taverns

I'm surprised its taken me this long to mention Pension Day and Taverns.

On the third Thursday of every month; women, children, and magogos (way older women) head to a local soccer field in a nearbye village to receive their government "welfare" and/or "social security" checks. Men are present as well, but not in as large of numbers as the women and children. They'll pick up their checks, then buy goods (in bulk and on discount) sold out the back of trucks, or off colorful looking blankets on the ground. Stuff like chickens, fruit, vegetables, clothes

If the lack of students in the classroom or the bum-rush of women, children, and magogos doesn't alert you to Pension Day; then the activities at the Tavern will definitely give it away. By the time I'm walking home from school in the afternoon, I can hear the Tavern music. "Tavern Music" consist of several Akon and Lucky Duby songs (on repeat), or 2-3 house songs (on repeat).

I live on "the main dirt road" that runs through my village, and my house sits about 1/4 miles from the Tavern. A large woman named Alphavia (I'm not kidding) owns the joint. During the day, she sells chips (french fries) with a homemade chili sauce. Me and my host sister will make our way down there often. My sister, swears, Alphavia likes me more b/c she always gives me more chips. Ha!

So, on Pension Thursday, and every single Friday and Saturday night, the Tavern will begin its night of repetitive music and drunken debauchery!

Looking Forward

Once again, I've been MIA for a while. I have a bad habit of keeping up w/ postings, then falling off the face of the Earth for a while. Guess thats my way of keeping people always wanting more.

I was away from my village for about month while I traveled home to see my family and friends in America. Great vacation! By the time I returned home and got over jet lag, I was back on the road headed to work with a group of new trainees for a week.

Now I'm finally settled back in my village and looking forward to my major goals for my final year here. For starters, it feels REALLY good to say I have only a year of service left. I've made a nice life for myself, and its come to the point where my day's do not drag by. I've found myself very content and comfortable here. Its a good feeling, and I was never really expecting to feel this way after having a rough start (i.e. all of year one).

My Literacy classes at school are going very well. Several teachers have spoken to me about improvements they're seeing in the children. Several have even asked me to do workshops on the teaching styles I use! This truly surprises me, because for a long long long (long long) time, I couldn't get the teachers to approach me about anything. This was one of the main reasons I decided to work closer with the kids.

But now! Ha!

Now I'm planning on putting together a series of 1 hour workshops from a list of ten items or so that I came up with after speaking with the teachers. If they go well, I can present them to other teachers at surrounding schools. For a while now, I've been asked to come help other schools. This will be a good opportunity.

till next time, and hopefully sooner....

Double Funerals

Peace Corps is definitely a time for "firsts". I attended my first double funeral Saturday morning. Two young women in their 20s died last week from the #1 killer (or 2nd next to humans murdering humans) in South Africa: AIDS!

The women died on the same day, and were buried a few feet a away from one another. The crowds at the two services meshed together, sang the same songs, and listened to the same prayers by the preachers. It was a daunting experience. I stood their watching the sun come up over the mountains that highlight my village watching every single person in the crowd. Death is such a common component of life here. How can they stand it? I certainly can't. It breaks my heart. I haven't been to one funeral of a person who died of old age or just "natural causes". ALL have been for young adults in the prime, or pre-prime, of their lives.

One woman left behind three children; a baby under a year old, a young boy in Grade R, and a young girl in Grade 4. I teach the Grade R and Grade 4 children. When I went by their house to drop of plates for the reception after the funeral, the little boy (Thebogo) waved with a smile and said "Tama Tasha"! Ha.

I remember his name from the hundreds of other children because Thebogo was the name of a character in a book I read to the Grade R learners. When I asked the name of the little boy in the book, Thebogo raised his hand, smiled, and said "Thebogo!" His teacher smiled and said that was his name too. Thebogo got a sticker for answering the question right. He was happy to show it off to his friends.

It breaks my heart that these young children are motherless now. What I also think about now is the health of Thebogo and the baby......

I'm flying home Saturday to visit my family in America. Its so weird that I'll be able to step out of this world and my life here for three weeks.

Guess I'll see what happens....

What's a Dictionary!?!?!?

"What is a dictionary?" .....silence

"What do you do with this book?" (teacher points to dictionary).....silence

"What is IN a dictionary?" ......silence

I spent the first 15 minutes of my Grade 6 class yesterday trying to explain what a dictionary is. I wanted to make sure the kids understood the words "mystery and crime" before we jumped into reading "The Mystery of the Broken Window" story that I did with Grade 7 earlier this week. Grade 7 knew what a dictionary was for, and could even find the two words (mystery and crime) very quickly. Grade 6 on the other hand......

I was so surprised that they had NO CLUE how to use the dictionary (Sotho to English), that I become frustrated. I tried not to show it, but their teacher (who, in her defense, is sick w/ the flu) was uninterested and didn't seem to notice I was struggling.......struggling really really bad!

I wish I could yell, scream, and stomp my feet at the teachers and school administration: "How do your students not know what a dictionary is?!?!"

So now I'm putting together a "This is a Dictionary" lesson plan for my grade 6 learners. I'll probably play it safe and do this lesson with Grade 4-7. Might as well....

Kid Detective Sipho Mashile

For a few months now, I've been using Shel Silverstein poems with my grade 5-7 learners. We've worked on reading aloud, comprehension, vocabulary, and rhyming. Things went pretty well, but I could tell the kids still "didn't get" what they were reading. The poems were meant to be fun and imaginative but the kids (and teachers, might I add) were taking them literally. So that sucked all the fun and cuteness out of Silverstein's poems. Ha!

This week I took a different approach with building comprehension skills. I wanted to have an lesson that actively encouraged the kids to "think outside the box", use their imaginations, and build the skills necessary to decipher the English they read into something they actually understand.

This is where Kid Detective Sipho Mashile comes in.

I searched the Internet for short and easy to solve kid mysteries. After "Africanizing" (yep...just coined new word) the character's names and locations, as well as simplifying the language, I came up w/ a cute mystery (The Mystery of the Broken Window) that would engage the kids but also encourage them to understand the story so they can solve the crime.

I set up 6 tables around the library (I call these stations, and use this method often). Each had a copy of the story and two questions. They had five minutes at each station to answer the questions, which lead them in the right direction to solving the crime (i.e. clues). Once every group made it to all stations, we came back together as a class to actually solve the crime. It took ALOT of acting out on my part, but before I almost gave the answer away, a learner figured it out! It was great!

The kids got into it, and I saw several boys who are a part of my "Too Cool for School" crew engaged in the story and trying to figure out the mystery.

Anyway, Kid Detective Sipho Mashile is going to make a recurring appearance during Library Time from now on.

African Winters

**Let me start off by clarifying that I will settle for an "African Winter" over an "African Summer" any day!**

The weather in my region has never been normal. Everything here is exaggerated...

We don't have breezy days, we have monsoon type winds that cause ridiculous dust storms. Its like I'm living in the Dust Bowl in 1920s [history reference :)]

We don't have have light drizzles on a cloudy day, we have torrential rainfall that makes a trip to the pit toilet a physical act only a well trained athlete can survive.

We don't have nice warm days in the summer, we have heat that causes a person to suffocate inside or outside at all times of the day!

And now, I'm getting a taste of what Winter will be like. I say "will be", b/c its not even Winter yet. As I type right now, my fingers are numb. My tin roof has a way of keeping all the coldness inside the house, and any warmth from the sun outside. At night I'm wrapped up like a burrito. I've already decided to invest in a small electric heater when I return from the States.

I never ever ever imagine it could get so cold in South Africa. I didn't come prepared.

oh well, now I know....

Back to "Normal"

Things are getting back to "normal" for me in the village.

Life at home with my host family is awesome, as usual. I've never lived with young kids before (I'm the youngest child my immediate family), so I've never been able to experience the physical and mental growth of young children and babies. Im so intrigued and, more often, annoyed by their actions.

I'll start with the youngest, Thebang, who is 8 months now. She's absolutely amazed by my locks and always gives me the best wide-eyed (no blinking) stare whenever I wear my hair down. When I hold her, she automatically goes for the locks. She likes to try to eat them! She's been doing a lot more baby talk, and we all can't wait for her to actually start talking. I've been joking (but internally being serious) with the family about how I hope Thebang's first word is something in English!

sidenote: I've been speaking ALOT more Sotho on a regular basis. I sometimes find myself unintentionally mixing Sotho and English in my sentences.

Then there are Sizwe (boy) and Mpumi (girl). They are both 7 years old. In "South African terms", they are brother and sisters because their mothers are sisters. They're as close as twins as can get w/o actually being twins. A few months ago, Mpumi could stomp Sizwe in anything physical. Well, now the tables have turned. Also, we hear Mpumi crying alot more now, as opposed to Sizwe over something the other did to each other.

My host sister, Nkele, has still remained my closest confidant. Especially since Diakano died. We talk about him alot, and its comforting. Its culturally rude/disrespectful to talk about the dead openly after they pass. You rarely even hear the person's name said out loud. But me and Nkele talk about Diakano all the time. We're able to laugh about stuff he used to do. We can talk about how much we miss him. Its nice.

Its also cool to see her developing more and more into a mom. I've never seen the development of the bond between a mother and her child before. Thebang recognizes Nkele as her mother, even though she lives with 8 other people and is held by them all on a regular basis. And one day my host mother, Mma Theko, took Thebang to a relatives house and didn't return until the next night. Nkele was going crazy b/c she hadn't been able to hold Thebang for a day. I joked with her about that, but it was a beautiful thing. Mother and child.

Anyway.....things at school are also going a whole lot smoother!!! I'm finally getting a handle on how to do this literacy thing. The kids have adjusted to me and my routines, and I've found ways to manage my classroom w/o things getting crazy. Also, the teachers can see that I NEVER raise a hand to my learners, and I've still managed to keep them calmer than they [the teachers] do all day.....

sidenote: I reached to pat a learner who was talking on the back the other week, and he flinched b/c he thought I was going to hit him. I immediately stopped the class and for 5 minutes explained how I would NEVER EVER EVER hit them b/c thats not right and thats not the type of teacher I am. Their teacher was present for half the speech, but I didn't care. I'm so tired of seeing these teachers hit the kids. Its out of their frustrations and anger, not with the intention to discipline the child. Its terrible!!

....I'm also doing a better job of differentiating my lessons. I'm trying to do more artsy lessons with the older learners, and introduce phonics with the younger grades. Yesterday, with my grade 4 class, we spent the entire hour making small booklets ("My Word Families Book") from scratch paper I could find, string, and color pencils. Every week I will introduce a new Word Family to my Grade 4 and 5 classes. They know the English alphabet and how each letter sounds. But the majority of them can not read English. So every week we'll learn a series of new words associated with a particular Word Family. For example, they will learn the sound "ack" and how it will sound with a "b" before it (back), or maybe a "bl" (black).

In less than a month I'll be heading home for a three week vacation. I can't %@&*ing wait!!!

till next time (hopefully sooner than last time)......

Untitled

The interesting thing about being a Peace Corps Volunteer is that you, honestly, have NO IDEA what you are getting yourself into! Will your 27 months of service be the most fulfilling and rewarding work of your life, or the most extreme disaster you've ever encountered? For me, it’s been an even mixture of both. So much so, that I've never been more challenged physically, socially, professionally, mentally, and emotionally as I've been since stepping foot in the country last July.

I've seen some of the most beautiful landscapes and sunsets.

I've met some of the funniest, smartest, annoying people.

I've tasted some of the most extreme foods (ex. bugs, chicken intestines, homemade wine, etc).

I've smelled some of the most HORRIFIC body odor.

I think what’s affected me the most is how I've experienced senseless violence against people close to me. Last month I lost my 16 year host brother to an altercation with a 17 year old that ended up with Diakano stabbed in the heart. And today I learned that my 39 year old host father from my training village (I lived with this family for 2 months) was shot and killed yesterday.

Chicco and his wife, Lydia, are small business owners which makes them targets in their small village. Chicco was shot several months ago in his home. The shooter wanted his money. I don't have all the details of this shooting, but Im going to go ahead and guess that it involved robbery.

I haven't had a "normal" week in my village in months!

On a (VERY) positive note: I'm visiting home for three weeks during the June/July school break. I can't wait to see my family and friends.

Who would've thought a Southern girl from the suburbs would be living this surreal life in another country. From one day to the next, I'm experiencing a variety of emotions: anger, elation, pain, frustration, excitement, mistrust, confusion.....

I'm so curious (and somewhat scared) to see what’s next......

Diakano Theko

Its been a long time since my last posting. The past month (and a half, give or take) has been....well..... challenging. I struggled with finding motivation and excitement when teaching my literacy classes with one of my schools for several weeks. I felt as if the village was sucking the life out of me. Teacher apathy and ineffectiveness was driving me mad. And, I was having a difficult time creating lesson plans that kept 30-50 children mentally/physically occupied for 1 hour.

(side note: I had absolutely no idea how to teach kids HOW to read. I'm talking about basics of this is an "A" and it sounds like this ---.Its actually a little harder than I was expecting.)

I then went away for a week of training, which was fun because I was able to spend time with friends that I hadn't seen for a long time. However, on my way home from the training, I received a phone call from my host sister. My 16 year old host brother, Diakano, had been
killed. He was stabbed by a 19 year old boy. They were arguing over a girl. Yep....a girl!

So, the past few weeks (since his passing) have been crazy. I'm actually going to save that information for another posting. I don't want this one to be too long.....

Frustrations

I'm beginning to understand more and more why so many PCVs get frustrated with their service and leave early b/c of the hopelessness they feel. Let me be clear here, I don't feel hopeless about the children I'm working with. I've never felt so optimistic about working with a group of children before. It's the teachers and administration that worries me. How can effective changes be made at a school where the entire staff of adults are apathetic about their work?

The excitement and energy I see in the kids is motivation enough for me to continue with my Library Lessons enthusiastically. But its so FRUSTRATING when the teachers don't pump out the same enthusiasm as the kids. I taught six classes this week in which three of the teachers were present. Of those three...

...one asked to leave and only stayed (for half the class) because of my firm reminder that I don't speak fluent enough Sotho to teach my lesson effectively to Grade 3 without her...

...another fell asleep while I read the children a story that THEY were absorbed in, and I only noticed she was asleep behind me when I asked her a question but got no response (she didn't respond to my verbal wake up call so I had to physically nudge her awake!)....

and another (a new teacher) actually paid attention to what I was doing and was genuinely interested.

What's wrong with that picture peoples?!?!?!?

.

This Is A Book....

So far this week has been pretty productive. I've taught two days of effective lessons, and FINALLY have a set agenda for my second primary school.

This week my lessons are focused around "the anatomy of books". I figured I need to start from the very very very basics with the kids since I've seen them (on numerous) occasions hold books upside down. I decided to take baby steps and be as simple as possible.

I took some big white butcher paper and made an over-sized book with a front cover, title page, copyright page, and body. The front cover has (in big pretty letters!) the words "Title", "Author's name", and then a cute picture of a family and their house (p.s. stick figures rock!). I also made cards with an explanation in Sotho of each part.

I have the older grades volunteer to come up to the board and match the Sotho description to the English word. I just walk through the explanation of each to the younger grades, but in Sotho. Once they understand (as much as I can see) what each part means, I pick books randomly off the bookshelf and ask them the title, author's name, and describe the picture. For the older grades I use English books and have them give me all the answers in English. For the lower grades, I use Sotho books and (obviously) have them give me all the answers in Sotho.

Once the older grades get a hang of things; I put them into small groups, give them each a book/piece of paper, and have them identify the title, author, and describe the pictures. As simple as this assignment sounds, many of the kids struggled. Obviously its easy to pretend you know whats going on when the class is all together, but in small groups I was able to get a better idea of who really understood what a title is, and where to look for the author's name.

Having the kids present their "findings" to the class turned out to be the most irritating part. They're either too shy or "too cool for school". No one wanted to present, and some boys kept throwing the books around like Hot Potatoes (you know, the game). I got so tired of watching this that I eventually made everyone in the group go up to the front and present the information simultaneously. Ha!

Ive' also thoroughly enjoyed playing the staring game with these kids. When I ask a question and get 40 pairs of eyes staring at me blankly, I just stare right back. They have NO IDEA how much patience I've obtained through all the years of working with kids. I'll wait all day until the silence gets so awkward you don't know what to do. I'm trying to prove that I'll wait until you have time to think of an answer or get so bored of the silence that you just shout something out.

I'll be teaching literacy lessons at my second school each afternoon from now until....well....until I think of something else productive to do at the school. Me and the principal are currently putting my schedule together. It's been a bit tricky b/c I can't get there before noon, and this school is alot bigger than my main primary school. Its a lot harder to schedule ALL the classes (they have multiple classes in several grades as opposed to my 1st school that has one class of each grade) in one week time frame.

We're actually combining some classes and re-arranging some schedules to squeeze me in :) It feels great to have a supportive enough principal who doesn't mind making changes so I can try to be effective. I call my little 1/2 hour time slots "Literacy Time!" I'll create lessons for Grade 4-6 and read stories to Grades R-3. I'm expecting two challenges:
(1) there are THREE grade R classes that I'll be reading to at one time.....can we say CHAOS!!?!?!? and
(2) I have 45 minutes to leave school 1, drop by house to use bathroom (school bathrooms = icky) and refill water bottle (it's still blue-blazing-hot), and walk to school 2.....umm....let's just say when I showed up today I looked like I just ran a marathon

till next time....

A Good Cause

Well, I've been ghost again for a few weeks. I attended a week of training back in my training village and then attended a few meetings in Pretoria. The past few days I've been fighting an annoying cold which has kept me caged up in the condo. Its good to be home though....

I always find that I dread coming back to "village life" after I've been around my American friends or even spent a few days in a urban environment. But once I get home and change into my "lounging" clothes (shorts and t-shirt), kick off my sandals (these days I prefer to be barefoot), and start talking with my family (I like catching up on the latest village gossip); I feel comfortable and settled in.

The rainy season has FINALLY started taking its toll on the dirt roads in my village and the surrounding area. The other day, the taxi I was riding on got stuck in the mud....

[side note: Taxi drivers seem to think they are driving 4 wheel drive hummers as opposed to 3,000 year old mini vans]

....and we had to all get out so the men could push it out. On some days, the taxis won't even come to my village b/c they don't want to take the chance of getting stuck. This means we have to walk a good 30 minutes to the next village where the road is better so we can catch a taxi from there, or we remain stranded until the taxis come our way again. The other day, a big bus got stuck in mud and sat there for a few days until it was set free. Ha! Man, I miss paved roads.

On to something more serious, I feel the need to mention an event I'm participating in at the end of March. To save myself time, I'm just going to paste an email I sent out to friends and family. I hope those of you (all three....hi Ma) who read my blog can contribute or at least pass the information on to someone who is interested....

Hello Family/Friends,

Well...I've now been in South Africa for over 6 months! It is so hard to believe; I hear that the longer I am here the faster the time goes; I hope it doesn't slip away too fast!

Things are going well; I just finished my IST (In Service Training) and am ready to get back to working on my projects! I've been focused on a library at one of my schools, and am happy to say being a librarian this past month has been very intriguing (well....and a bit frustrating....but it comes with the job). I've been working very closely with two elementary schools in my village, and find the work tedious but very rewarding, which means so worth while!

With the holiday season now over, I am looking forward to upcoming events. One of these is the Longtom marathon. It's actually a half- and an ultra-marathon, and I plan to participate in the half (obviously walking), which is 21.1 Km. It's happening on March 29 in Sabie, Mpumalanga Province, not too far from Kruger Park. It starts at the top of the Longtom Pass and goes downhill most of the way 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/walk in this beautiful part of the country. I visited this area during my Christmas vacation, and it's amazing.

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. I won't go into all the details of what they do since you can read that on the site, but I'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 hook up with the Longtom Marathon as a fundraiser; they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent secondary school in
Mpumalanga - Uplands College. That's why I am 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 process of elimination.

The four children who have been chosen so far are excelling in all respects. I hope after reading about KLM you will find yourself as supportive as I am of their work. There may be other projects I encounter along my way here, but this is very worthy indeed, and one for which I am asking your support. My goal is to get a gold medal (in fundraising even if I can't in the run!) and your donation will help me reach that goal. Please give what you can; any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $10 or $20, it is much needed. (Of course, we would love larger donations!) And it is tax-deductible.

So please go to the KLM website (www.klm-foundation.org) to make a donation, just click on the 'donate' photo. MAKE SURE TO PUT MY NAME in the white box where it asks for the Longtom person 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

And make sure to include a note that your donation is in my behalf.

Thanks so much for your supporting me, and especially for supporting the child who is chosen next year to attend Uplands. I'll let you know how the weekend goes, and how many funds we Peace Corps Volunteers collected. Also, please feel free to mention this event to other friends or colleagues who you feel would be interested in supporting a good cause.

Ok then...till next time....

Inauguration of an Icon

My ten year old host brother came up to me the other day as I was sitting outside on my "stoop" reading a book. This wasn't unusual, b/c lately my three younger host brothers/sister have become more at ease around me, and often come sit with me as I read outside. Anywho....that day my ten year old brother sat down and said (in Sotho of course) "Barack Obama, Tuesday". After my usual 30 second look-of-confusion-pause, I realized what he was saying and I just started grinning. I said (in my broken but quickly improving Sotho), "WHAT!?!?" He said it again, and I knew I heard right the first time. I asked him how he knew, and he said he saw an "advert" (what they call commercials or any advertisement) on TV.

The fact that this ten year old village boy who barely speaks a work of English knew Tuesday was a big day for Barack Obama blew my mind away; but, more so, spoke to the magnitude of this icon and this mounmental moment in America's (as well as the world's) history!

Tonight I'll watch the Inaguration with another PCV and her South African family. The pride felt here, by Blacks, for Obama is amazing. It almost makes up for me missing all the festivites back home. I think alot PCVs are more homesick now than we were around Christmas b/c so many of our friends and family are participating in activites and events in celebration of the Inaguration. Its difficult b/c we're missing out on something so big; but then again, I get the opportunity to experience the reactions of this event in a completely unique environment.

Today is a GREAT day! Its raining, and I'll probably get all muddy and wet on the 20 minute walk to my main primary school, where I'll give a library orientation to Grade 7 learners. And I'll more thank likely struggle through the entire lesson like yesterday b/c of the language barrier/ shyness of the students/students' having difficulty expressing their opinions and/or thoughts. But none of that matters....

I'm walking on @$%# clouds today!

Energetic Start!

Today was the most productive I've been since being in my village! I've been at my site since September. Is it sad that I'm finally having a productive day? Oh well.... regardless, it's a GREAT feeling.

The library is actually starting to look like a library. I can also see where the PCV before me left her mark. She put curtains on the windows and a lot of books were already organized on the bookshelves. But since she's been gone, no one has done anything to the library, so it took on the characteristics of a storage room. But once I got the 50kg bags of maize meal/massive bags of onions/sacks of sugar moved to a corner, box after box of student school supplies bunched together, and pile upon pile of textbooks (outdated and donated from the states) onto bookshelves; the room started looking very "library-esque".

It was a good feeling.

To keep my good energetic mood going, I decided to do some Spring Cleaning in the "condo" and give it a small makeover. After trying to figure out what to do with approximately 30 TIME and Newsweek magazines my friends/family have sent me ; a great thought came to my head. What's the best thing to do w/ a bunch of old magazines with GREAT pictures? Yep...use them as wall decorations. My goal is to see as little white-wall as possible in my "condo" by the time my service is up. I think plastering the walls w/ magazine pictures is a good start.

later....

New Title

The new school year is finally here, and I'm honoring this fresh term with a new title: Librarian! For the next few months, I'm focusing on getting one of my school's library up and running. The PCV who lived in my village before me worked with another PCV to get several hundred books donated to one of my schools.

It's now my job to turn her project into a actually functioning library. I spent the past few days putting together a schedule, which was more time consuming than I thought. I went through the School's time table (school-wide schedule) to see what time the English classes, also known as First Additional Language classes, were taught for each grade at my school.

(side note: my primary schools are grades "K"-7)

I then created a weekly schedule where each grade spends one hour in the library each week. In order to fit all eight grades into one week, I created two library sessions for each day, one the hour before lunch and one the hour after. For the most part, I'll be working with two classes a day, and on some days only one class. The scheduling worked out perfectly b/c now I'll also be able to go to my second-assigned school in the afternoons.

(side note: not sure what I'm going to do there yet...)

I'm happy to start this year off working in the library. I noticed a MASSIVE lack of reading skills with the children, even though the Dept of Education (of Mpumalanga) requires schools to set aside 30 minutes everyday for reading. Not to be Negative Nancy, but I rarely (very very very rarely) saw children reading in the classes I observed for three months. I did, however, notice a child looking intently at a book upside down.

So I figure being a librarian for a few months is a great start! And once the teachers, students, and principal get used to the weekly schedule, I'm hoping the library can function on its own so that I can move onto another project. Then again, that's wishful thinking....

Onto a more interesting part of my weekend. I attended a traditional (VERY traditional) baby ceremony called Phasa ("h" is silent) on Sunday in honor of my host sister's 4 month old baby girl. The ceremony is a time for family and friends to come together and honor the baby, as well as to ask the ancestors to bless the baby with good health. The ceremony marked the baby's 4 month birthday which means her mom (my sister) can carry her outside of the yard. Before this time, she never left the yard. A month before that she never left the house. And then a month before that she never left her room (one of the reasons I didn't know there was a baby in the main house until I was at site for three days).

Anyway, I saw my firs goat slaughter at the ceremony. I was really intrigued/disgusted by the whole process. It took about 45 minutes for two men to kill, skin, gut, and chop the goat's meat(btw...a female goat cost about R600, about $50). The family used the ENTIRE goat during the ceremony. They ate the meat and internal organs, hung some of the intestines out to dry for later use as mhuti (medicine), and used the goat's skin to wrap the baby in for some type of ritualistic act.

(side note: No, I didn't try the goat meat or intestines. I'll try anything once, but this wasn't the time for me to try that meat, it didn't smell appealing AT ALL.....so I chowed down on the fried chicken instead!)

Just to be clear. This was a very very traditional ceremony that is uncommon in most South African homes today. My sister's mother-in-law is a Sangoma (traditional healer) who still practices old customs/beliefs from ancestor worship to animal veneration. It was definitely not your average "Baptize-ish" ceremony; never the less, I was honored to be invited to the ceremony!

till next time....

Mail

I received an AMAZING care package from my folks back home today! Even though I'm baking like a cake inside my "condo" today from the heat, it felt like Christmas morning as I opened the package. There was chocolate, gummy worms, fruit snacks, slippers, BABY WIPES!, hand sanitizer, TIME and JET magazines, and kool-aid packets!

There's not one thing in this package that won't go un-used.

All the chocolate was melted, but of course that didn't stop me from devouring a Reese's Cup on the spot :)

Back to Reality

It's been over a month since I've written my last post. There are two reasons for my absence: (1) I was on vacation and (2) I broke my internet phone.

I'm going to start with the explanation of how I broke my phone b/c, interestingly enough, it's more entertaining. Let me give a little background information first. Some of you may or may not know this, but South Africa has a bit of a crime problem. As a tourist or resident of SA, it’s important to always stay in a constant state of awareness. What I like to do is hide all my valuables (cell phone, money, and chapstick) on me so that if someone does grab my shoulder bag, they'll get nothing that I really care about. And yes....chapstick is VERY important to me.

I keep all my valuables in my bra! Clever but not uncommon. I never ever ever ever thought I would be the cause of damaging my cell phone. I keep very good care of my valuable b/c I know I'm WAY to cheap to purchase a replacement. Well...I should have thought about this, but just because a cell phone looks undamaged doesn't necessarily mean it isn't damaged....on the inside. Did you know that if you hide electronics for long periods of time in places where they could get wet, they will actually begin to erode on the inside and you (the owner) will have no idea until (one day) the item just STOPS WORKING?!?!?!?!?!

Needless to say, my cell phone experienced irreparable damage. I sent it to the village phone repair man (aka the Pakistani man who owns the local mini grocery store and sells days old bread that begins to mold after 2-3 days), but he was unable to fix it. Instead of sending it to another repair man and possibly being w/o internet for another 3 weeks, I broke down and bought another phone.

As for the second reason I've been unable to update my blog: VACATION. Most people are excited and ready for vacation because they've been working so hard and need to time relax. I was excited and ready for vacation b/c I hadn't been working hard and needed something to do! With 7 of my closest friends, I traveled around South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland for three weeks. It was, by far, one of the longest and adventurous trips I've ever been on. I had a GREAT time!

This part of the world is beautiful and so diverse. While in Mozambique; I swam in the Indian Ocean, ate crab legs the size of bananas, purchased fresh prawns at a seafood market then immediately had them prepared in a restaurant, and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sites/sounds of Mozambican men and women. While in Swaziland; I camped out near a lion's fenced-in area, listened to this lion roar throughout the night, and pet the same lion the next morning. While traveling around South Africa; I danced the night away to house music, experienced breathtaking views of nature, saw hippos lounging around, and ate amazing food.

Being a tourist for three weeks was great, but now I'm back to reality. School starts in a few weeks, and my goals and ambitions for the new school year must now become a reality.

And to make things more difficult, I’ve been dealing with a serious bought of homesickness. It was fueled by my vacation because I became accustomed to “living a life of luxury” (ex. flushing toilets, showers, restaurants, etc) for three weeks. Those amenities are not a part of my everyday life here, and thinking about them only increases my homesickness.

Till next time or at least sooner than the last time……