Hello all! Sorry I have not been updating things here for a while. It is getting pretty hard to describe everything that has been going on over here in SA. I wanted to write a little bit about what happened last year and how I see things now a year later.
So, around this time last year I was in Philly and sent back because the Turkmen government did not want PC volunteers. Four months later I left for SA. Those days in Philly were some of the most disappointing days of my life and the subsequent four months were really strange for me. After saying all these goodbyes and closing everything up in the states and then returning only a few days later was just difficult. Then, waiting that week or so for the PC to find me another spot was really stressful because I had no idea where or when I was going to go.
Now, a year later and about 8 months into my service, I can look back upon those times and think about what that experience taught me. Sadly I think I will always be a bit cynical about everything after being disappointed so much in Philly. But I think it really did turn out for the better, as I am now in SA and doing a lot of really cool stuff. Overall, I feel that I have overcome so many difficult obstacles and disappointments to come to where I am now. I do feel that, having gone through all of that, I can really succeed at any goal I set out to accomplish.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Game
How are you all? Sorry for not writing here for a while. I have gotten back from my World Cup trip and am pretty happy to be back at my site. I was able to attend a game on the 10th of July--the one game between Germany and Uruguay.
The game was held in a city called Port Elizabeth and it was really cold there! It was also raining. I have gotten used to the whole opposite season thing here in SA but it is still strange to say that it's cold and raining in July. The country really has prepared for the games and there were many services for people watching the games. First of all, there are designated fan parks where people can go watch the game on a big screen. These are sometimes located at cricket or rugby fields. There are also many buses and taxis that are there for the tourists. My friends and I were able to walk from our backpacker to a point where the bus would pick us up and take us to the stadium.
It is difficult to describe the atmosphere at the game. During this whole WC there has been a huge amount of excitement and pride in SA. While there was no African team playing in this game, there were still many German and Uruguayan fans. We were able to get really good seats for the game and saw all the players and coaches. I'm sure that if you have kept up with WC news that you have heard about the "Hand of the Devil." This is the guy who ruined Ghana's chance of going to the finals by blocking a goal with his hands. Well, this guy was playing at the game I was at and whenever he got the ball the entire crowd (except for the Uruguayan fans) booed. When you sat in your seat the stadium was not too loud. However, if you went back into the outer part of the stadium, the vuvuzelas made a really loud echoing noise! The German fans went berserk whenever Germany scored. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I have seen a lot of SA now and it really reminds me of California. There are parts of the coast that we drove on that remind me of Big Sur and the coastline between San Luis Obispo and San Francisco. I also stayed for a bit in Durban, the capital of the Kwa-Zulu Natal province. It reminded me a lot of San Diego, if you substitute Indian food for Mexican food. If you were a tourist and went to any of these cities, you would go away with the impression that SA is just like any other Western city. The poverty in the villages is not readily visible in these cities.
Well, now that I am back I have to get back to work! The school year has started and I will be going back to Rooikoppies to teach and help out. My organization has applied for many grants and it hoping to hold events and campaigns to raise awareness about human rights. After being on the road and traveling it feels good to come back to Tzaneen.
The game was held in a city called Port Elizabeth and it was really cold there! It was also raining. I have gotten used to the whole opposite season thing here in SA but it is still strange to say that it's cold and raining in July. The country really has prepared for the games and there were many services for people watching the games. First of all, there are designated fan parks where people can go watch the game on a big screen. These are sometimes located at cricket or rugby fields. There are also many buses and taxis that are there for the tourists. My friends and I were able to walk from our backpacker to a point where the bus would pick us up and take us to the stadium.
It is difficult to describe the atmosphere at the game. During this whole WC there has been a huge amount of excitement and pride in SA. While there was no African team playing in this game, there were still many German and Uruguayan fans. We were able to get really good seats for the game and saw all the players and coaches. I'm sure that if you have kept up with WC news that you have heard about the "Hand of the Devil." This is the guy who ruined Ghana's chance of going to the finals by blocking a goal with his hands. Well, this guy was playing at the game I was at and whenever he got the ball the entire crowd (except for the Uruguayan fans) booed. When you sat in your seat the stadium was not too loud. However, if you went back into the outer part of the stadium, the vuvuzelas made a really loud echoing noise! The German fans went berserk whenever Germany scored. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I have seen a lot of SA now and it really reminds me of California. There are parts of the coast that we drove on that remind me of Big Sur and the coastline between San Luis Obispo and San Francisco. I also stayed for a bit in Durban, the capital of the Kwa-Zulu Natal province. It reminded me a lot of San Diego, if you substitute Indian food for Mexican food. If you were a tourist and went to any of these cities, you would go away with the impression that SA is just like any other Western city. The poverty in the villages is not readily visible in these cities.
Well, now that I am back I have to get back to work! The school year has started and I will be going back to Rooikoppies to teach and help out. My organization has applied for many grants and it hoping to hold events and campaigns to raise awareness about human rights. After being on the road and traveling it feels good to come back to Tzaneen.
Time of the WC
How are you all? I hope that you have watched at least one World Cup game and heard the constant blaring of the vuvuzelas. People in South Africa are now obsessed with the games, and, since the national team has been eliminated, are rooting for Ghana to win the cup. It was pretty sad when the US lost but Ghana really did play well.
On the 16th I was able to participate in a really fun concert put on by a non-profit group run by classical musicians! A woman named Sally is the director of an organization that runs music programs in rural schools. She and her husband both play piano very well, and Sally can also play many of the wind instruments. I was fortunate enough to play with her and her friends one day and it was just like being back at school in a chamber ensemble. This concert was scheduled for the 16th of June, which is a national holiday in South Africa.
That day I arrived at the school where the concert was going to be held as was amazed to see so many people, especially children. There must have been at least 100 students in the choir; these children had been provided special transportation from the villages to come and perform. The program was extremely varied—it included choir pieces, instrumental pieces, drumming, and monologues. It was really amazing that an organization could put on such a program. And, it was all about music! The children had a great time and it was all due to the efforts of this musical organization. I got some pretty strange looks when I pulled out my clarinet but I have gotten used to being stared at here in South Africa.
I do have a ticket for a World Cup game and will be able to see everything live. I must admit that I have watched more soccer over these last two weeks than I have ever watched in my lifetime and it has slowly grown on me. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures and write about my experiences when I return!
On the 16th I was able to participate in a really fun concert put on by a non-profit group run by classical musicians! A woman named Sally is the director of an organization that runs music programs in rural schools. She and her husband both play piano very well, and Sally can also play many of the wind instruments. I was fortunate enough to play with her and her friends one day and it was just like being back at school in a chamber ensemble. This concert was scheduled for the 16th of June, which is a national holiday in South Africa.
That day I arrived at the school where the concert was going to be held as was amazed to see so many people, especially children. There must have been at least 100 students in the choir; these children had been provided special transportation from the villages to come and perform. The program was extremely varied—it included choir pieces, instrumental pieces, drumming, and monologues. It was really amazing that an organization could put on such a program. And, it was all about music! The children had a great time and it was all due to the efforts of this musical organization. I got some pretty strange looks when I pulled out my clarinet but I have gotten used to being stared at here in South Africa.
I do have a ticket for a World Cup game and will be able to see everything live. I must admit that I have watched more soccer over these last two weeks than I have ever watched in my lifetime and it has slowly grown on me. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures and write about my experiences when I return!
Friday, June 11, 2010
The World Cup!
The World Cup is starting here in South Africa and people are running around in the streets in excitement. It really is infectious! Every page in the paper is about soccer and every commercial on T.V. is about the Cup. Yesterday there was a concert in Johannesburg to open the WC and it seems that everybody in SA was watching it.
Today SA will play Mexico at Soccer Stadium and everybody, including me, will be watching the game. South Africans really like blowing the vuvuzela, a plastic horn-looking thing. You can hear them blowing them from 5 AM to 9 PM and tonight they will probably be going for a very long time. Although I love Mexico and especially Mexican food, I really hope that SA beats them. If SA wins tonight is going to be really crazy; the following games will be crazier. I am going to a friend's house to watch the USA v. England game and cheer on my home country (everyone thinks that the USA will lose). Whatever. This is a very exciting time to be here in SA and I'm really happy that I was placed here. Take that Turkmenistan!
Today SA will play Mexico at Soccer Stadium and everybody, including me, will be watching the game. South Africans really like blowing the vuvuzela, a plastic horn-looking thing. You can hear them blowing them from 5 AM to 9 PM and tonight they will probably be going for a very long time. Although I love Mexico and especially Mexican food, I really hope that SA beats them. If SA wins tonight is going to be really crazy; the following games will be crazier. I am going to a friend's house to watch the USA v. England game and cheer on my home country (everyone thinks that the USA will lose). Whatever. This is a very exciting time to be here in SA and I'm really happy that I was placed here. Take that Turkmenistan!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Ek Praat Afrikaans
(I speak Afrikaans)
It is May and it's cold! I am not used to the opposite season thing here in SA yet but I'm sure that will change. When I arrived in late January, it was really hot and I never imagined that I would ever be needing a jacket.
I thought that today I would write a bit about my learning Afrikaans. Back during my training we had learned a couple lines of Afrikaans to introduce ourselves. Our main focuses were on Zulu, Siswati, Ndebele, and Tsonga; not many people in PC SA speak Afrikaans. There are many reasons for this, but a big one is that most volunteers live in villages where there are no Afrikaans-speaking people.
The history of Afrikaans is really complicated but interesting. The language is a descendant of German and Dutch and was originally brought by the European settlers who came to SA. Forgive me if any information here is not the most accurate; I'm kind of writing this off of the bits of information I've seen and read over here. The language was influenced by many immigrants, including Asians, English, French, and German speakers. Afrikaans, therefore, has many borrowed words and sounds from eveywhere in the world.
Things get complicated with the Anglo-Boer War in the beginning of the 20th century and the subsequent rise of the Afrikaaner-controlled government. Much of the prevailing attitude was that Afrikaans should be spoken to Afrikaaners, not English. Blacks had to learn or at least understand Afrikaans; many people still say "thank you" to me in Afrikaans, even though they know I speak English.
Now, in the new SA, the Afrikaans language is in a strange place. It is seen as the language of apartheid and many people I've talked to do not like the language at all; they prefer English as a second language (after Zulu or Sepedi). However, many schools, especially ones with a large number of white children, still teach Afrikaans. Afrikaans is still widely spoken in the Cape province.
I am starting to learn Afrikaans for several reasons: many people I know speak it, my supervisor speaks it, and I might be moving to a school where they teach in Afrikaans. I think that this experience will give me a better understanding of the Afrikaaner perspective of SA; I've already talked to many of them who feel their culture, language, and lifestyle is under attack by the new government. That will be a whole different entry altogether.
As for now I'm listening to an Afrikaans radio station, reading children's books, and studying from language books. The sounds in Afrikaans are similar to German and it sounds so cool when you yell! I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon.
It is May and it's cold! I am not used to the opposite season thing here in SA yet but I'm sure that will change. When I arrived in late January, it was really hot and I never imagined that I would ever be needing a jacket.
I thought that today I would write a bit about my learning Afrikaans. Back during my training we had learned a couple lines of Afrikaans to introduce ourselves. Our main focuses were on Zulu, Siswati, Ndebele, and Tsonga; not many people in PC SA speak Afrikaans. There are many reasons for this, but a big one is that most volunteers live in villages where there are no Afrikaans-speaking people.
The history of Afrikaans is really complicated but interesting. The language is a descendant of German and Dutch and was originally brought by the European settlers who came to SA. Forgive me if any information here is not the most accurate; I'm kind of writing this off of the bits of information I've seen and read over here. The language was influenced by many immigrants, including Asians, English, French, and German speakers. Afrikaans, therefore, has many borrowed words and sounds from eveywhere in the world.
Things get complicated with the Anglo-Boer War in the beginning of the 20th century and the subsequent rise of the Afrikaaner-controlled government. Much of the prevailing attitude was that Afrikaans should be spoken to Afrikaaners, not English. Blacks had to learn or at least understand Afrikaans; many people still say "thank you" to me in Afrikaans, even though they know I speak English.
Now, in the new SA, the Afrikaans language is in a strange place. It is seen as the language of apartheid and many people I've talked to do not like the language at all; they prefer English as a second language (after Zulu or Sepedi). However, many schools, especially ones with a large number of white children, still teach Afrikaans. Afrikaans is still widely spoken in the Cape province.
I am starting to learn Afrikaans for several reasons: many people I know speak it, my supervisor speaks it, and I might be moving to a school where they teach in Afrikaans. I think that this experience will give me a better understanding of the Afrikaaner perspective of SA; I've already talked to many of them who feel their culture, language, and lifestyle is under attack by the new government. That will be a whole different entry altogether.
As for now I'm listening to an Afrikaans radio station, reading children's books, and studying from language books. The sounds in Afrikaans are similar to German and it sounds so cool when you yell! I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon.
Monday, May 3, 2010
English and Mats
Hello to you all! How are you doing? I am seeing reports on CNN about a bad oil spill in the Gulf Coast. Is there anything exciting going on in the US?
As you may or may not have guessed from the title, I thought I would write about education here in South Africa. While the word "math" is spelled the same here, people pronounce the word as "mats." When many African languages are written using English letters, the "th" is often pronounced as a "t."
But anyway, the school that I help teach at two days a week is a small farm school with about 25 students. My village was built by a timber company to house the workers; the company also built a school so that the workers' children could go to school. Because the school is so small, it would not be cost-effective to send many teachers there. There aren't enough teachers, it seems. So, the two teachers at the school split the children up into groups. There are kids from grade R to grade 7 (about 13 years old).
As many people here in SA will tell you, the education system is in very bad condition. I was really amazed by this fact: the level of passing for every subject except one is 40%. Anything above that and the child will pass the course. In English, the passing threshold is 30%. So, the standards here are extremely low and yet many children do not pass their classes.
One big reason for this, as I have seen and heard, is that education from 4-7 is done in English. For a students this presents a very big problem: if you are not very good at English, you would have no chance at the other subjects, especially math. Many of the children can hold basic conversations in English--this is easy to practice. But conversations and vocabulary about math? Who does that? So, math comprehension is not what it could be. The same goes for many of the other subjects.
While the language barriers are very tough, I think that the greatest barrier to education (at least in my village) is an economic one. I have seen several schools here and many of them have ample resources for their students. My school, on the other hand, does not have much money or resources.
So what does one do at a school like this? At this point I am still thinking about what I can do or achieve here. While I can teach the students here and help them pass their tests, the goal of a PC volunteer should be to implement sustainable change. At this small school, finding a sustainable project will be very difficult. I'm sure I will write more about teaching here, but for the time being, I'm trying to get the students to khrema (memorize) their times-tables. It is a good review for me as well!
As you may or may not have guessed from the title, I thought I would write about education here in South Africa. While the word "math" is spelled the same here, people pronounce the word as "mats." When many African languages are written using English letters, the "th" is often pronounced as a "t."
But anyway, the school that I help teach at two days a week is a small farm school with about 25 students. My village was built by a timber company to house the workers; the company also built a school so that the workers' children could go to school. Because the school is so small, it would not be cost-effective to send many teachers there. There aren't enough teachers, it seems. So, the two teachers at the school split the children up into groups. There are kids from grade R to grade 7 (about 13 years old).
As many people here in SA will tell you, the education system is in very bad condition. I was really amazed by this fact: the level of passing for every subject except one is 40%. Anything above that and the child will pass the course. In English, the passing threshold is 30%. So, the standards here are extremely low and yet many children do not pass their classes.
One big reason for this, as I have seen and heard, is that education from 4-7 is done in English. For a students this presents a very big problem: if you are not very good at English, you would have no chance at the other subjects, especially math. Many of the children can hold basic conversations in English--this is easy to practice. But conversations and vocabulary about math? Who does that? So, math comprehension is not what it could be. The same goes for many of the other subjects.
While the language barriers are very tough, I think that the greatest barrier to education (at least in my village) is an economic one. I have seen several schools here and many of them have ample resources for their students. My school, on the other hand, does not have much money or resources.
So what does one do at a school like this? At this point I am still thinking about what I can do or achieve here. While I can teach the students here and help them pass their tests, the goal of a PC volunteer should be to implement sustainable change. At this small school, finding a sustainable project will be very difficult. I'm sure I will write more about teaching here, but for the time being, I'm trying to get the students to khrema (memorize) their times-tables. It is a good review for me as well!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Birthday Weekend
Thank you to all of you who wished me a Happy Birthday! This weekend was really fun with the highlight being a HOT SHOWER. I went and visited a friend who let me use her shower.
I guess I should provide some background on why I loved this shower so much. I do have a shower but have no hot water. It is getting into winter now and so it's pretty cold at my house. The water is even colder. So, when I take a shower at night, I get in, start shivering, get out of the water, put on soap, quickly rinse off, and then quickly dry off before I lose feeling in my fingers. So when I was able to take a hot shower I was really in awe. It was a luxury beyond description. It really was heaven on earth. I was speechless.
When I look back upon this past year I can see how so much has happened and changed. Yesterday I remembered that, for my birthday last year, I went to Disneyland with my roommates from Poly. I miss them a lot! The following year I was in South Africa in the Peace Corps, having graduated from Cal Poly and having been rejected from Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. These past 3 months have been especially crazy and eventful, with every day holding new possibilities. I wonder what things will happen tomorrow...
I guess I should provide some background on why I loved this shower so much. I do have a shower but have no hot water. It is getting into winter now and so it's pretty cold at my house. The water is even colder. So, when I take a shower at night, I get in, start shivering, get out of the water, put on soap, quickly rinse off, and then quickly dry off before I lose feeling in my fingers. So when I was able to take a hot shower I was really in awe. It was a luxury beyond description. It really was heaven on earth. I was speechless.
When I look back upon this past year I can see how so much has happened and changed. Yesterday I remembered that, for my birthday last year, I went to Disneyland with my roommates from Poly. I miss them a lot! The following year I was in South Africa in the Peace Corps, having graduated from Cal Poly and having been rejected from Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. These past 3 months have been especially crazy and eventful, with every day holding new possibilities. I wonder what things will happen tomorrow...
Friday, April 23, 2010
When You Really Want a Washing Machine
So I thought I would write about what I was doing all of last Saturday: washing my clothes. Washing everything by hand can get very annoying, time-consuming, and just downright unpleasant.
When I was still in the US we had many recommendations from Peace Corps Volunteers not to bring white clothing. Sadly, I chose to bring a few articles of white clothing, including two shirts and my socks. These, as you may expect, get very dirty very, very quickly. Of course, my other clothes get dirty but you can't notice it as you can on white cloth. One primary reason for all the dirt is the lack of paved roads and the prevalence of dust and mud. There is also a dog who lives with my neighbor which has taken a liking to me. Whenever he sees me he runs over and tries to jump on me--something I would normally welcome but now try to avoid. Am I a dog hater? No, no, no. It's just that I don't want to have to wash my clothes every single day!
Washing clothes usually takes place on Saturday or Sunday, preferably early in the morning (like 6 AM). There is actually a cool little washing sink outside of my house on the side with a faucet and bumpy surface to scrape your clothes against. Washing things like blankets and sheets is pretty difficult because they are so bug and heavy.
The bad part about washing clothes, at least for me, comes not in the washing but in the process of drying. This process can take a day to several days, depending on the weather. Back in March I was able to dry my clothes pretty quickly, as it was summertime. Now that winter is upon us (southern hemisphere) the air is cold and it can pour down rain in a frighteningly unpredictable manner. Once, I had my clothes out and there was a shower. Additionally, Tzaneen is very humid and even the absence of rain will not guarantee that your clothes will dry that day.
The frightening part of drying your clothes, which I have not experienced yet, is the possibility that a mango fly will lay eggs in your clothing. Don't read the rest of this post if you are going to eat something soon. The previous volunteer here in Tzaneen had one once and it was pretty freaky. These flies come out during the summer months and lay their eggs in the wet clothing. When your warm skin comes in contact with the cloth, the egg will hatch and a small worm will burrow into your skin. Something that looks like a black-headed pimple will emerge at that spot and if you pinch it or try to pop it, the little worm will pop out! It will then try to wiggle away while you scream your head off in horror. The way to solve this problem is to put something like vaseline on the pimple, which will suffocate and kill the worm. To prevent this, people have to iron all their clothing, including their sheets. I'm willing to do this, once I get an iron and place to iron my clothes.
On a completely different note, last weekend I stayed with a farmer who owns several acres of land outside of Tzaneen, growing macadamia nuts and avocados. Her hospitality was extraordinary and I was treated to great meals and drinks. Their family and friends are great rugby fans, and so I watched several games with them. South Africa is a country of great hospitality and I am always amazed at how generous people can be to people they just met.
When I was still in the US we had many recommendations from Peace Corps Volunteers not to bring white clothing. Sadly, I chose to bring a few articles of white clothing, including two shirts and my socks. These, as you may expect, get very dirty very, very quickly. Of course, my other clothes get dirty but you can't notice it as you can on white cloth. One primary reason for all the dirt is the lack of paved roads and the prevalence of dust and mud. There is also a dog who lives with my neighbor which has taken a liking to me. Whenever he sees me he runs over and tries to jump on me--something I would normally welcome but now try to avoid. Am I a dog hater? No, no, no. It's just that I don't want to have to wash my clothes every single day!
Washing clothes usually takes place on Saturday or Sunday, preferably early in the morning (like 6 AM). There is actually a cool little washing sink outside of my house on the side with a faucet and bumpy surface to scrape your clothes against. Washing things like blankets and sheets is pretty difficult because they are so bug and heavy.
The bad part about washing clothes, at least for me, comes not in the washing but in the process of drying. This process can take a day to several days, depending on the weather. Back in March I was able to dry my clothes pretty quickly, as it was summertime. Now that winter is upon us (southern hemisphere) the air is cold and it can pour down rain in a frighteningly unpredictable manner. Once, I had my clothes out and there was a shower. Additionally, Tzaneen is very humid and even the absence of rain will not guarantee that your clothes will dry that day.
The frightening part of drying your clothes, which I have not experienced yet, is the possibility that a mango fly will lay eggs in your clothing. Don't read the rest of this post if you are going to eat something soon. The previous volunteer here in Tzaneen had one once and it was pretty freaky. These flies come out during the summer months and lay their eggs in the wet clothing. When your warm skin comes in contact with the cloth, the egg will hatch and a small worm will burrow into your skin. Something that looks like a black-headed pimple will emerge at that spot and if you pinch it or try to pop it, the little worm will pop out! It will then try to wiggle away while you scream your head off in horror. The way to solve this problem is to put something like vaseline on the pimple, which will suffocate and kill the worm. To prevent this, people have to iron all their clothing, including their sheets. I'm willing to do this, once I get an iron and place to iron my clothes.
On a completely different note, last weekend I stayed with a farmer who owns several acres of land outside of Tzaneen, growing macadamia nuts and avocados. Her hospitality was extraordinary and I was treated to great meals and drinks. Their family and friends are great rugby fans, and so I watched several games with them. South Africa is a country of great hospitality and I am always amazed at how generous people can be to people they just met.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The ProGroup Foundation
Hello everyone how are you doing? I am currently at my organization's office in Tzaneen and decided to write about what we do.
The organization was created to provide human right's information at no cost to the people of Tzaneen and the surrounding area. People can come to our organization for gender-based violence counselling and can also get PEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). There are also volunteers here who can help clients obtain birth certificates and other important legal documents. Other people can go to court with clients and help them solve cases--the most common cases are maintenance conflicts. In these situations, a woman has had a child and is suing the father of the child for money to raise the baby. These cases are quite common, as many men father children and then leave the mother with the baby.
Like every NGO in South Africa (and all others, come to think about it) the foundation has many funding problems. There just is not enough government money to go around, and, as a result, NGO's must rely on funding from international organizations and foundations.
So what is my role here in this organization? It's hard to say, since I just got here! I definitely cannot provide counseling, since most of the clients are women who have been abused. They will not talk to a man, especially one who cannot even speak their native tongue. I do believe that I will be able to help with funding proposals, since they all must be in English. I'm sure that there will be other opportunities for me to help at ProGroup.
I was thinking about how to describe this Peace Corps experience in words and I remembered an exercise we did during training. Our facilitator, a current PCV, told us to take ten slips of paper and write on each piece something that identifies us. Most people wrote down words like "friend," "son," and "father." Then, the PCV asked us to take away one, then another, and another, until we were left with 5 left. This, she told us, is what it is like to be a PCV--since you are away from your home and everything you have known for your whole life, your sense of identity and of who you are is really changed. Now that I am beginning my service I can see that this was a good example (at least in my case). The lack of Asian-American and Chinese things here in SA means that it is so hard to identify with that part of myself. But, I think that once my kitchen is fully stocked I will be able to cook quasi-Chinese food. PCV's do struggle with their identity, along with many other lifestyle changes.
I don't think I saved those last five pieces of paper but I can be pretty sure of what they were. They were: son, brother, friend, Asian-American, and family member. One sure thing about being in the Peace Corps is that, in the absence of your friends and family, you really realize how important they all are to you.
The organization was created to provide human right's information at no cost to the people of Tzaneen and the surrounding area. People can come to our organization for gender-based violence counselling and can also get PEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). There are also volunteers here who can help clients obtain birth certificates and other important legal documents. Other people can go to court with clients and help them solve cases--the most common cases are maintenance conflicts. In these situations, a woman has had a child and is suing the father of the child for money to raise the baby. These cases are quite common, as many men father children and then leave the mother with the baby.
Like every NGO in South Africa (and all others, come to think about it) the foundation has many funding problems. There just is not enough government money to go around, and, as a result, NGO's must rely on funding from international organizations and foundations.
So what is my role here in this organization? It's hard to say, since I just got here! I definitely cannot provide counseling, since most of the clients are women who have been abused. They will not talk to a man, especially one who cannot even speak their native tongue. I do believe that I will be able to help with funding proposals, since they all must be in English. I'm sure that there will be other opportunities for me to help at ProGroup.
I was thinking about how to describe this Peace Corps experience in words and I remembered an exercise we did during training. Our facilitator, a current PCV, told us to take ten slips of paper and write on each piece something that identifies us. Most people wrote down words like "friend," "son," and "father." Then, the PCV asked us to take away one, then another, and another, until we were left with 5 left. This, she told us, is what it is like to be a PCV--since you are away from your home and everything you have known for your whole life, your sense of identity and of who you are is really changed. Now that I am beginning my service I can see that this was a good example (at least in my case). The lack of Asian-American and Chinese things here in SA means that it is so hard to identify with that part of myself. But, I think that once my kitchen is fully stocked I will be able to cook quasi-Chinese food. PCV's do struggle with their identity, along with many other lifestyle changes.
I don't think I saved those last five pieces of paper but I can be pretty sure of what they were. They were: son, brother, friend, Asian-American, and family member. One sure thing about being in the Peace Corps is that, in the absence of your friends and family, you really realize how important they all are to you.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Toilet Situation
The toilet was, and still is, a big concern for us Peace Corps Volunteers here in South Africa. Now that I am somewhat settled into my new home in Tzaneen and at my organization, I can write a bit about the can situation.
South Africa's economic diversity is really evident in the kind of toilets people have! There are bad pit latrines, nicer pit latrines, flush toilets, and really really nice flush toilets. I had a pit latrine back with my host-family and it was...tolerable. There were chickens all around it and a goat pen right next to the structure. It was very important not to look into the toilet! As you may expect you had to bring out the toilet paper every time you needed it, thereby letting everybody know that you were going to use the toilet. Fortunately, people here don't really care that much about toilet use, which is a big difference between Americans and South Africans. I feel that, as an American, going to the bathroom is something done in the background. I was sort of embarrassed the first time I walked out with a roll of toilet paper and passed by my entire family sitting on the lawn. The neighbors also see you going into the pit latrine. Well, it just takes some getting used to!
The toilet at my house around Tzaneen is a flush toilet and inside a room--big improvements! Sadly, the person who lived there before me did not take very good care of it and it is in need of some serious cleaning and repair. I never payed much attention to the price of toilet seats in the U.S., but now they are of a big concern to me. It's certainly a luxury item that not many PCV's will be able to have. I consider myself very lucky! Hope you are all doing well.
South Africa's economic diversity is really evident in the kind of toilets people have! There are bad pit latrines, nicer pit latrines, flush toilets, and really really nice flush toilets. I had a pit latrine back with my host-family and it was...tolerable. There were chickens all around it and a goat pen right next to the structure. It was very important not to look into the toilet! As you may expect you had to bring out the toilet paper every time you needed it, thereby letting everybody know that you were going to use the toilet. Fortunately, people here don't really care that much about toilet use, which is a big difference between Americans and South Africans. I feel that, as an American, going to the bathroom is something done in the background. I was sort of embarrassed the first time I walked out with a roll of toilet paper and passed by my entire family sitting on the lawn. The neighbors also see you going into the pit latrine. Well, it just takes some getting used to!
The toilet at my house around Tzaneen is a flush toilet and inside a room--big improvements! Sadly, the person who lived there before me did not take very good care of it and it is in need of some serious cleaning and repair. I never payed much attention to the price of toilet seats in the U.S., but now they are of a big concern to me. It's certainly a luxury item that not many PCV's will be able to have. I consider myself very lucky! Hope you are all doing well.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Food in South Africa
Ok, so one thing I have really come to appreciate in the U.S. is the food. When we first arrived in South Africa we stayed at a dormitory in a college and ate lots of good South African food. The staple of almost every meal is pap, which is like a white cornmeal. It is boiled and served in great heaps onto plates with meat, vegetables, and sauce. The South Africans can eat extraordinary amounts of this food and I had to ask my host-family to give me less than they ate. At the college we had a full cooking staff working for us, and they also prepared rice, coleslaw, boiled beets, cabbage, chicken, and beef.
Food at my homestay was not so varied. My family would usually have pap and meat. The Peace Corps would supply my family with food once every two weeks, and among these supplies were two jars of peanut butter. Oh boy the Peace Corps Trainees (PCT's) really ate a lot of that stuff. I liked it for many reasons, but the main reason was because it was something I had in America and it reminded me of home. It was hard to make sure you got enough fruits and vegetables every day so many people looked forward to cooking for themselves. I cooked for my family several times, but every time left something more to be desired. A good example: I tried to make a pasta sauce for them and bought tomato sauce. Unfortunately, the tomato sauce was really ketchup and very sweet. Hey, the food was still edible.
Cleanliness was a really big concern of mine in the beginning and it took a lot of time for me to get used to it. There are many bugs flying around here and there were also mice in the house. Also, many people do not wash their hands after using the bathroom. Again, this was just one of those things.
There are many different kinds of drinks here in SA. People call soda "cold drink" here and often do not specify what kind of soda they are buying or want. There is a really nice kind of ginger ale here that is stronger than the one in America. In many respects, drinks are just like the ones in the U.S.
I now have a house and can cook for myself. You can get pretty much any kind of food here in SA that you would in the U.S. except for ethnic specialty things. You will not find jalapeno peppers in adobo sauce here. I really miss eating Chinese food and if I do come home during my service I'm going to go on a Chinese-food-eating rampage. Hope all of you are doing well and please enjoy your food in the U.S. for me!
Food at my homestay was not so varied. My family would usually have pap and meat. The Peace Corps would supply my family with food once every two weeks, and among these supplies were two jars of peanut butter. Oh boy the Peace Corps Trainees (PCT's) really ate a lot of that stuff. I liked it for many reasons, but the main reason was because it was something I had in America and it reminded me of home. It was hard to make sure you got enough fruits and vegetables every day so many people looked forward to cooking for themselves. I cooked for my family several times, but every time left something more to be desired. A good example: I tried to make a pasta sauce for them and bought tomato sauce. Unfortunately, the tomato sauce was really ketchup and very sweet. Hey, the food was still edible.
Cleanliness was a really big concern of mine in the beginning and it took a lot of time for me to get used to it. There are many bugs flying around here and there were also mice in the house. Also, many people do not wash their hands after using the bathroom. Again, this was just one of those things.
There are many different kinds of drinks here in SA. People call soda "cold drink" here and often do not specify what kind of soda they are buying or want. There is a really nice kind of ginger ale here that is stronger than the one in America. In many respects, drinks are just like the ones in the U.S.
I now have a house and can cook for myself. You can get pretty much any kind of food here in SA that you would in the U.S. except for ethnic specialty things. You will not find jalapeno peppers in adobo sauce here. I really miss eating Chinese food and if I do come home during my service I'm going to go on a Chinese-food-eating rampage. Hope all of you are doing well and please enjoy your food in the U.S. for me!
Things So Far
Hi everybody! I really hope that this blog works.
The last blog entry I wrote was right before I went to staging for Turkmenistan. Then, after getting to South Africa, I wrote a note on Facebook because at the time I didn't have the opportunity to set up a blog. But, now I'm settled in my permanent site in South Africa and I'll have regular internet access.
I think I'll start with a summary of what has happened so far, and please excuse me if this blog is a bit random and disorganized. The details will follow in another post. We arrived in SA in the end of January and drove to a small college northeast of Pretoria called Ndebele College. There we started training and were assigned to language groups. There are 11 official languages here and I began learning Siswati, which is in the same language group as Zulu.
After a week at the college we were transferred to our home-stay families, with whom we would reside with for the next 7 weeks. I and three other people had language sessions every week in the morning and afternoon. Over the next several weeks we had facilitators come and have sessions on NGO development, AIDS, and South African culture. We were also able to go to Johannesburg and Pretoria to go to museums and to go shopping. During this time we had extremely limited internet and phone access.
During the 6th week (I think) we learned our permanent site placement. Mine is in a village outside of Tzaneen, which is in the Limpopo Province. It was surprising to find that the language they speak in the village is not Siswati--it is Sepedi (different language family). So, I was going to have to learn a different language. But, you know, that is exactly the kind of thing that happens here. Nothing is really for certain, and you can't take yourself too seriously.
Over the next several weeks I visited my site, returned to my home-stay, had a home-stay goodbye party, and left for my permanent site.
I must go now and do some work. More details to follow!
The last blog entry I wrote was right before I went to staging for Turkmenistan. Then, after getting to South Africa, I wrote a note on Facebook because at the time I didn't have the opportunity to set up a blog. But, now I'm settled in my permanent site in South Africa and I'll have regular internet access.
I think I'll start with a summary of what has happened so far, and please excuse me if this blog is a bit random and disorganized. The details will follow in another post. We arrived in SA in the end of January and drove to a small college northeast of Pretoria called Ndebele College. There we started training and were assigned to language groups. There are 11 official languages here and I began learning Siswati, which is in the same language group as Zulu.
After a week at the college we were transferred to our home-stay families, with whom we would reside with for the next 7 weeks. I and three other people had language sessions every week in the morning and afternoon. Over the next several weeks we had facilitators come and have sessions on NGO development, AIDS, and South African culture. We were also able to go to Johannesburg and Pretoria to go to museums and to go shopping. During this time we had extremely limited internet and phone access.
During the 6th week (I think) we learned our permanent site placement. Mine is in a village outside of Tzaneen, which is in the Limpopo Province. It was surprising to find that the language they speak in the village is not Siswati--it is Sepedi (different language family). So, I was going to have to learn a different language. But, you know, that is exactly the kind of thing that happens here. Nothing is really for certain, and you can't take yourself too seriously.
Over the next several weeks I visited my site, returned to my home-stay, had a home-stay goodbye party, and left for my permanent site.
I must go now and do some work. More details to follow!
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