So here is what a typical day looks like for me:
My alarm goes off around 6:30. I look at it for a bit and curse my wristwatch (what I use as an alarm) because it doesn’t have a snooze. Depending on what time class starts, I roll out of bed between 6:40 and 7 AM.
I fetch a bucket of water and wash JUST my hair by dunking it into the bucket soaping up, and dunking it back in to rinse it.
After I get dressed, I go make myself a lunch. 99.9% of the time this consists of peanut butter slathered on some bread. If I’m lucky I cut up a banana and throw that on the sandwich. For a side I will bring some cucumber, a whole raw carrot, a few apples, or generally whatever else I can find. When I was in Bela Bela last week I bought some raisins, which is shaping up to be the best purchase ever.
After I make lunch I figure out what breakfast will be. Sometimes its oatmeal, to which I add some sugar and cinnamon (the first day I confused my curry and cinnamon for the first few shakes…that was rough). I will make eggs, or eat fruit. Sometimes I eat the cornflakes, but generally just let my sisi (sister) eat them. Sometimes I eat peanut butter and bread for breakfast too. (can anyone say protein deficient?)
Eventually…by about 8…i meander out to Zulu class, which is held in my garage. I really like and respect my teacher. Technically he isn’t Zulu, but Ndbele, yet he is still very knowledgeable. Generally, I am pretty good at Zulu on paper…I can read and write it well, but speaking (the most important part) I generally suck at. Those clicks! I’m telling you!
After two hours of zulu, my class and I meander out to the road and wait for peace corps to pick us up. We are driven to Marapyane Educational College.
Throughout the day I sit through classes, the topics of which vary greatly. Examples include HIV and opportunistic infections, internalized oppression, capacity building, assessment tools , and other such topics.
Around 3:30 I go to Zulu class again, then head home at 5 or 5:30
At home I do my zulu homework, and try and be helpful around the house. Sometimes I help make dinner, but most of the time its mostly made by the time I am home. Around 8 we eat, and I help do the dishes. Unlike Uganda, we do have a sink, a stove, an oven, even a microwave! Typically we eat in front of the TV (Oh! What America exports!), and watch locally produced soap operas (called soapies).
About 9pm I fetch another bucket of water and wash just my face and body.
By about 10/10:30 I go to sleep!
Here are some questions that I have been pondering lately; maybe they will make me seem crazy, maybe they will make me seem less so.
1.Does my involvement in PC put me into the neocolonialist category?
2. At what point do I stop being an aid work, and start being a facilitator?
3.What do I want to get out of this experience?
4.What will success as a PCV look like to me?
I think all of these questions are difficult, and to be completely honest, I don’t have answers for all of them. I feel like I am still in the “dark continent” phase, and therefore don’t know anything. Is it bad that I don’t have answers to all of these questions? Does it mean that I shouldn’t be here if I cannot articulate why I am here?
I feel like I am not intending to be a neocolonist. I am going into this with an open mind, and am not intending on changing anyone or saving anyone. BUT (and this is a big but), I have to always be aware that I am facilitating rather than teaching. I must give and receive in terms of knowledge.
I also think that certain questions (i.e. what I hope to accomplish) must wait until I actually know what I will be doing here.
Speaking of culture:
I have often heard from our cultural diversity sessions regarding loss of culture. Many older people in SA feel that it is the loss of traditional culture and the adaptation to western ways that is contributing to things such as premarital sex, teen pregnancy, HIV, and other social problems. I see it somewhat differently; I think there is as much a problem with loss of culture as there is with culture itself. How can western ways be blamed for teen pregnancy rates when women/ girls are not allowed to demand the use of a condom? How are girls and boys supposed to know about sex and STIs if it is considered culturally inappropriate to talk to your parent about sex, masturbation, etc?
I am not blaming anything on culture, but I also believe that people must look critically at the issues surrounding them, and rather than place blame, focus on positive change.
The Pervasiveness of HIV and AIDs:
This week we finally got to the meaty issues: HIV. (AKA why I am here). I am just going to throw around some numbers for you.
1 in 4 people is infected here.
TB, an opportunistic infection which typically ends up killing HIV+ people, is found in 940 per 100,000 people in SA. Not all of these are HIV+ people, but many are. The WHO declares TB an epidemic when TB infection rates reach 200 per 100000 people.
Roughly 44% of new TB cases annually are HIV+
In the early 1990′s the recorded number of HIV infections grew 60% in two years
In SA there are an estimated 5.7 million people living with HIV out of a population of 45.7 million (2005 statistics, WHO 2008)
This is scary: 29.1% of pregnant women were living with HIV in 2006 (SA Department of Health 2007)
62% of deaths in SA are attributed to HIV/ AIDs (WHO Fact Sheet 2006)
So…there it is. Numbers on a page that perhaps mean something to you, perhaps not. But they are my world for the next two years.
I know that many of you are thinking Ummm, how? Why? Do they just not know? I thought that to! But no. I wish it were that simple. If I could go around posting flyer’s on peoples doors for the next two years that simply stated: “AIDS!! Watch out!!” My service would be simple. Unfortunately, everyone knows. There are commercials between every prime time program talking about AIDs, condoms, abstinence, what have you. There are entire TV shows, funded by USAID, that talk about womens rights, condoms, testing, on and on amen. I feel inundated. They still just don’t think it can happen to THEM. Their boyfriend/ girlfriend love them! They would never cheat! Or: “everyone else watches these commercials, so everyone is practicing safe sex, so why should I?” It’s enough to make me run for the border…Leastwise it would if the border weren’t Zimbabwe (how about that power sharing deal, huh?!? Good ol’ Mugabe!!). I must honestly admit that it’s hard for me to wrap my head around this issue.
Flora and Fauna
No, I haven’t been on Safari yet (soon my friends, soon!). But I thought I would share with you the other creatures that inhabit my room! There are some gigantic spiders here. Some simply look evil, and others I am pretty sure actually ARE evil. There is a species that I hate. (I am going to turn this into an analogy for apartheid…watch out!) There is just something about them. How they look (roughly 3 inches across, flat, dark, fangy, GROSS). How they move (verry quickly). The fact that they dont have webs so I can’t keep track of them. Or just their overabundance. So I oppressed them! I killed a few, I stomped around and generally terrorized the rest. I threw a few shoes, stood on my bed to throw things at the ones on the ceiling, etc. But I have since decided that, although I have never actually seen one eat anything, that they just must eat bugs. Hopefully mosquitoes. So, I have stopped killing them. I TOLERATE them. And, I like to think that there are fewer bugs in my room because of it. We have established a mutually beneficial society in the confines of my room. ::sigh::
Here is what I know of my site so far:
I will be staying in Mpumalanga Province, not KZN
I will be working at a home based care project
I will be outside Kruger NP!!!
My shopping town will be either Barberton or Malelane if you want to google map that!!
The area I will be in will be mountainous
I don’t have a specific town name etc, but I will know more Friday!
I hope all is well!!
Sharon/ Jabulile
SA 19
