I'm Thankful For...

In the last ten to fifteen years, I have not spent that many Thanksgivings with my family in Ohio. Every couple of years I did the drive home; otherwise, I celebrated with friends in New Jersey. This, however, was the first time in my life that I was out of the country for Turkey Day. It was also the first time in my life that I went to work! While I only stayed at school for half the day, it certainly made me appreciate people that regularly work on Thanksgiving year after year.

By mid-afternoon, I met up with four other volunteers in the area, headed to a nearby guesthouse, and for the first time, I helped to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, I got lots of recipes and suggestions from friends and family back in the USA, as even the most basic items I (or any of the others) had never cooked before last Thursday. We spent several hours in the kitchen stuffing the turkey, mashing potatoes, boiling corn, and preparing a host of additional side dishes and desserts that are found at a typical Thanksgiving feast. The food was great…well, the food was edible, but the real joy of the afternoon and evening was sharing a great time with the other volunteers and sharing our American traditions with some new South African friends.

During the day, I also had a chance to think about what I am most thankful for in my life right now…as most people do on Thanksgiving. My list is the same as most years, but this year it seems to mean a little more. I am certainly thankful to be here in South Africa serving with the Peace Corps. But I am also very thankful that all my friends and family back in the US are happy and healthy and able to keep in touch with me on a regular basis. It is strange to think that if all goes according to plan, at this time next year, I will still be here, perhaps even celebrating in a similar way.

How Much Sleep Do I Really Need?

It has come to my attention that one thing I do a lot more here than in the US is sleep. Not sure if it is a good thing, a bad thing, an adjustment thing, or just the new way of life. In the US I would try (and usually fail) to get seven and a half to eight hours of sleep each night. The goal was always to be in bed by about 10pm or 10:30pm and then get up around 6am. It was hard to do this in the winter when it was dark for longer and I would want to stay in bed in the morning. It was hard to do this in the summer when there was no school and no real reason to pop out of bed at 6am. I think in reality I got about six hours of sleep a night. I don’t specifically remember feeling tired all the time, but I certainly remember having bags under my eyes. Here, it is almost impossible for me to get less than eight hours of sleep, most nights I get nine, and I can recall a few ten to twelve hour nights as well. Without electricity, when it gets dark there is really not enough light to keep me fully awake, and by about 8:30pm I’m truly exhausted. I actually try to keep myself awake until 9pm most nights, but there are days when that is simply more effort than it is worth. My wake up time is consistently 5:30am and it has gotten to the point where the sun is up so early that I don’t even need an alarm. And most importantly, I have this routine every day – not just Monday through Friday when there is school, Saturdays and Sundays run the same way. There are occasionally still days that I feel tired, but I can say with confidence that there are no more bags under my eyes. I can’t even imagine being able to sleep this much when I return to the US. The lifestyle almost doesn’t allow for it. So I’m going to enjoy it while I can, and see what happens 21 months from now.

Election Coverage

I know that the election has been over for almost a week now, but I think it is worth noting a few things from this side of the world. First off, I am so glad that I missed the ads. The constant stream of negative campaign ads, robo-calls, tweets, updates, etc, that I am sure were littering the airways day and night was never pleasant. Second, in my rural village (the one without electricity) nearly everyone was aware of the fact that November 6^th was Election Day in the United States. I spent the day visiting people in the community, and I was astonished at the number of people that asked me about the election. Many asked how I was supposed to vote if I was here in South Africa. A few asked whom I would be voting for. One or two asked how I would find out who won. I explained that many, many months ago I started the process of applying for an overseas absentee ballot so I could exercise my right to vote and that I would use my phone to keep me updated on the status of the election.

The most incredible part, though, happened the next morning. When I woke up, I checked a few news websites to get the latest on the election. At that point, Obama had been declared the winner. When I got to school, almost every teacher asked my how I felt about Obama being re-elected. Good thing I checked! Despite the news being only hours, perhaps even minutes old, it had been announced via a few standard media outlets (TV but most especially radio) that Obama would serve another 4 years as president. Even with all of the technology that I had, I did not have any more knowledge on this particular subject than anyone that I worked with or lived near. I realized that when the news is deemed valuable or important, people will find a way to get the info, with or without all the latest and greatest gadgets.

Climate Change

It is still cold here. I guess cold is slight exaggeration, but according to everyone I work with, it is certainly colder than normal. Whenever I ask any of the teachers or anyone in my family when it is going to warm up, they simply say that it is usually warm by November, so any day now. I’ll believe it when I feel it. In the mean time, though, most of the Zulus love to use the phrase “climate change.” I hear it all the time. Everything about the weather is because of climate change. The terrible lightning that we have all the time – climate change. The hail storms that comes out of nowhere – climate change. The amount of rain in the past two months – climate change. The fact that it was one of the coldest Octobers on record – climate change. Definitely all climate change. I can’t help but laugh at the fact that this particular phrase has become such a constant in the Zulu language; although they do really like to talk about the weather. I certainly don’t want to argue the point – I am sure that climate change has something to do with the crazy weather that I am living with here. But when I ask anyone to go a little deeper and explain what climate change means or what may be the cause, I do get a lot of blank stares. I’m thinking of a few activities that I can do with the learners next year in Natural Science class to try to bridge this knowledge gap. With my luck, by then the weather will probably be back to normal.