American Visitors

Last Saturday morning, I made my way to town for a special event – to meet up with a former colleague from Princeton High School, Lisa and her husband, Larry who were on vacation in South Africa. It was truly a special treat. I met them in my shopping town, hopped in their rental car, and then we were off for a few days of exploring South Africa.

The Bird and Butterfly Bed & Breakfast.

We arrived in Mtunzini early enough on Saturday to be able to explore the coast and have a bite to eat not far from the water. I had never been to Mtunzini before, in fact, I had never really heard of it before, but it turned out to be a quaint town with several nice B&Bs, a beautiful beach, and a handful of restaurants and local attractions.

Sunday was our big day out. We started off the day hiking a short trail to see the nearby Raphia Palms. To be honest, I don’t know why these specific palms trees are so special – it may be because they grow very, very tall, or live longer than others, or just because they are here in South Africa. I couldn’t say. But I was happy to be out and about. After our brief journey in the forest, we headed up to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park just outside of St. Lucia for a look at the wildlife and beaches. We ran into warthogs, buffalo, and zebras, as well as a variety of birds along the drive both before and after we stopped at Cape Vidal for a dip in the ocean. We finished up the day with a nice dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in St. Lucia and then returned to Mtunzini for the night.

Lisa and Larry at the Raphia Palms. 

Our last morning in Mtunzini.

Monday I headed back to site while Lisa and Larry carried on to Joburg and then my favorite vacation destination, Namibia. For the first time in many trips, I was a little sad when I arrived back at home. In addition to eating several fantastic meals, it was surprisingly nice to catch up on things from America as well as answer questions about the work that I have done here. In fact, I realized just how much I miss people and am looking forward to going home. Emails and the occasional phone call are nice, don’t get me wrong, but it really will be fun to finally see everyone and talk face to face again. It won’t be much longer before that becomes a reality.

Community Volunteers

Ntombi helps a learner in grade 5 at the computer.

To my surprise, last Friday morning, the day after the big “march,” my principal came to me and asked for the phone numbers of the community members who were interested in volunteering in the library and computer lab. She said she wanted to call them and tell them to start coming on Monday. I was half shocked and half elated – I mean, I have only been waiting two months for these phone calls to be made. Better late than never, I guess. I give much of the credit to one of the grade 6 teachers. She decided that she, too, wanted the learners to keep going to the library after I was gone, and she recognized that was very unlikely to happen unless we brought in some outside help. So she asked the principal nearly every day if the volunteers had been called. Then she started telling a few other teachers to ask the principal if the volunteers had been called. Eventually, the principal realized that even though I was no longer bothering her, the issue was not going away. The principal got the hint and made the calls.

Nobuhle watches as the learners complete their work.

Fundiswa makes certain the grade 5 learners
with signing out a library book.

Of course, it remains to be seen how things work out long term, but the first week seemed to go rather well. On Monday when the volunteers arrived (two came, although the goal is four), they were introduced to the Library Committee, given a tour of the library and computer lab, had a brief computer lesson, and then we took grade 6 to the library. Their only comment when it was over was, “That was easy.” Yes, I agree. It’s just like Staples. On Tuesday, a third volunteer arrived to help, recruited by one of the original two, and things went equally well with grade 7. I was a little nervous about Wednesday, because we would be introducing grade 4 to the library for the first time. Although some of them had come to visit during open library time on Fridays, they had previously never come as a class and never been allowed to checkout a book.  With the Zulu-speaking volunteers at my side, we brought in the first half of the class and things ran smoothly. We gave them a tour of the space, read through the rules, and allowed them 10 minutes to work on a puzzle or play a game. Next week, we will show them how to look for a suitable book and sign it out. When it was the second half of grade 4’s turn to come, one of the volunteers ran the whole class and did an amazing job. Since there was no school on Friday (Human Rights Day), I wasn’t sure about the schedule for Thursday and if we would be in school late enough to take grade 5 to the library, as we usually close school early the day before a holiday. Sure enough, we ended around noon; so unfortunately, we did not take grade 5 to the library as intended. But the whole rest of the week went so well that I wasn’t concerned.

For the first time in a year and a half, I feel like there is a chance the door to the library will stay open even after I leave. Which would be nice for everyone.

Electricity March

This past Wednesday, the talk of the village was the big march (or protest or strike or demonstration or whatever you want to call it) scheduled for Thursday in my shopping town. My host sister briefly mentioned the possibility of this to me few weeks ago, but it sounded a bit ambitious for the people in my village, so I dismissed it as a non-event. Turns out I was quite wrong and plans were underway to show the elected officials of the area that the people here and in a few other nearby villages are frustrated by and dissatisfied with their lack of access to electricity. I was informed there would be no school on Thursday because taxis would not be transporting teachers from town to the village. The drivers agreed only to provide transport to those wishing to participate in the march.  I was also informed that many of the smaller shops in town would be closed for the day to show support for the villages. Lastly, the teachers and principal at my school said that the best thing for me was to stay at home with my family that day – I was not to go to school or go to town. That was slightly disappointing to hear, because this seemed like a pretty big event to witness in person, but in the end, I knew they were right and it was not worth the risk. If something bad happened, I would only have myself to blame.

In any event, early on Thursday morning, taxis drove through my village to pick up the people that planned to participate in the rally. Neither my host mom nor any of my host sisters were interested in attending, but the “other mother” (a.k.a. the second wife of my deceased host father) was eager to play her part in the event when I saw her headed to the road around 6:30am. Transport was provided at no cost, but was strictly limited to those going to the march – there was no sneaking into town for free to buy a few groceries and then returning later in the day. The rest of the day in the village was quiet. We didn’t hear anything until around 5pm when the marchers began to return home. For the most part, I was told that there was a lot of singing and chanting as the group marched through town and ended in front of the municipal building but not much else. One of the teachers at school told me on Friday that the participants also threw a lot of garbage at the municipal building and made quite a mess. Otherwise, I did not get a lot of details.

An old picture of my family's house with their electricity
account number. Today, it is no longer visible.

Regardless, I truthfully and unfortunately, don’t see things changing any time soon. For starters, the municipality is claiming that the 2015 budget includes supplying electricity to villages like mine, but that has been said for two past budgets. In fact, it has been said for the past six years. Sometime in 2008 or 2009, six-digit numbers were painted on the fronts of many of the houses in the village in order to “prepare” for electricity to be installed. At this point, there are almost no houses that have the number any more – nearly everyone has painted over them at some point. It didn’t take long to realize it was more or less useless. The municipality always seems to run out of money before the project ever gets started.  Secondly, Eskom, the company that supplies all of the electricity in South Africa, has serious infrastructure problems. When I was in Pretoria last week, they were “load-shedding,” which is basically a rolling blackout to various parts of the city. When I asked one of my South Africans friends how the company could not even provide electricity to the capital full time, he gave what I can only describe as the best answer ever. Twenty years ago, he explained, Eskom only had to provide electricity to 5 million people (think Apartheid). Then one day, they woke up and were expected to provide electricity to 50 million people. Their response was to build exactly zero new power stations. The system has been stumbling along ever since. In the mean time, the people in the village make due with paraffin lamps to light their houses, wood burning stoves for cooking, paraffin stoves to heat items like water or irons, gas cylinders to heat small areas of the house, and small solar panel set-ups to charge cell phones and radios. 

Homework by paraffin light. The only way to see.

A small paraffin stove is used to heat up
an iron for ironing clothes and blankets.

A solar panel on the roof charges and old car battery
which is converted to electricity for charging cell phones.

Sadly, I have a feeling my 5 year old host sister is going to be doing her secondary school homework by candlelight.

Last Trip to Pretoria

The lounge and work spaces in the cleaned-up IRC.

I left site this past Thursday morning and headed to Pretoria for what I hope is the last time before I leave for good in June. I will be the first to admit that I saw more of Pretoria than I expected to during my service. Some of my trips, like this one, were for committee meetings or PC conferences, some were for medical visits, and some were for travel. Between June and November of last year, I think I was there once a month. By contrast, there are volunteers that manage to avoid the place except for the mandatory mid-service training conference, close of service training conference, and then when they leave to return home. I was clearly over-involved.

Since I was just there to take the Foreign Service Officer Test in early February, I had mixed feelings about going only a month later. On the one hand, it was likely to be the last time I would have the opportunity to see a few friends on my committee as well as anyone else that was passing through town. Not to mention that the committee had big plans to reorganize the resource center at the PC office – something I had been keen to do since I first saw the place in August of 2012 when we visited the office for the first time.  On the other hand, there was a lot I was trying to get done at school, and with my departure date rapidly approaching, leaving for a few days felt like a waste of precious time. But there were also a lot of little, personal things that I wanted to get done – most of which are far easier to do in a place with good internet: my taxes, for example, or updating my blog! So even though it was not my first choice for timing, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to travel.

Books for pleasure reading and reference.
Hopefully now much easier to find!

It ended up being really nice to see everyone, both planned and unplanned. It was weird to start to say goodbye to people permanently, as it is highly unlikely I will see most of them again before I return to the U.S., but I did think it was important to start that process. I managed to get almost everything done that I was on my list. The meeting and reorganization of the resource center went well. We threw so much stuff away it was insane: nearly two pick-up trucks full of out-dated materials that no one was ever going to look at. And what we did not throw away, we tried to organize in such a way that volunteers would actually find what they were looking for when they stopped by for a visit. I also had a chance to write a few essays for the next step in the Foreign Service Officer application process (since I actually passed the initial test.) New music was purchased and downloaded. Taxes were filed. Updates were emailed. Doctor appointments were made. Overall, I was just a busy little bee. It’s amazing how motivating electricity and fast internet can be! A good sign, I think, for my return to the US – hopefully I will be motivated to find a job and a place to live rather quickly.

Bracelet Making Birthday Party

My host sisters and friend choose their
favorite colors for a bracelet.

I have had a large Ziploc bag full of embroidery thread for ages. I think my mom sent it to me shortly after I arrived in September of 2012. Needless to say, its been hanging around my hut for a while. Over the course of the last 12 months, I have had a variety of intentions and plans for its use. At first I thought I would save it so that when kids stopped by I could make bracelets with them, but then I remembered that I really didn’t want to encourage kids to stop by, they already did plenty of that on their own. Then I thought I would use it for a few library projects, but none of them ever happened. Just a few weeks ago I told a volunteer friend that I would give it all to her since I know that she makes bracelets with her Girls’ Club, but I couldn’t seem to part with it when the time came.

Well, I’m glad I am too selfish to share, because earlier today I finally put some of this thread to good use! It was my host sister’s 20^th birthday, and instead of just sitting around and doing nothing, I thought it would be fun if we all made friendship bracelets. Before I told them the plan, I picked out a few colors and practiced to see if I could still remember how to do it. Good news, thirty years later, I can still remember a few things from my childhood. I settled on the easier of the two methods that I could recall, and then walked out to the front yard to let them know that when they were finished with their laundry and other cleaning, that they should come by my house for a surprise birthday activity!

The finished products!

Later in the afternoon, all four of my host sisters that were home (two are off at school), came to the house to see what I had devised. I had all the thread laid out on my desk as well as a few sample bracelets. After showing them the finished product, I told them that they could pick five or six different colors to make their own. They were excited to choose their own schemes, and before long we cut the thread, I showed them the basic method, and they were off. Turns out I am really bad at estimating how much thread is needed, so they ended up with way too much, but no matter. They took the extra and just make more bracelets. This is a culture of no waste. Later that night, when we cut the cake to celebrate Philile’s birthday, each girl was wearing their design on their wrist; even my youngest host sister, Andile, who is only 5 years old had a small bracelet (it was made by one of the older girls.) We all agreed that making a bracelet would be a new birthday tradition in the family and they were looking forward to the next birthday at the end of March. I’m happy I resisted the temptation to toss that thread.