OK!
So, I am finally in South Africa! In fact, I have been here about three weeks. The first several days we stayed in dorms on a campus facility in Mpumalanga province. I often refer to Mpumalanga as oompa loompa in my head, but that’s an entirely different story. On sunday the 8th I moved in with my homestay family. It is myself, my mother (55), my brother Ebba (37), and my niece Kabathandi (16).
I have been renamed Jabulile (Cha boo lee lay), which means “happiness” in isi Zulu. When renaming me my host mom said that I must now always be happy! This made me a little scared, but she later clarified and said that everyone was very happy that I have come. I have a large room to myself, electricity, a TV and although it is not currently working, running water is usually available. There is a toilet in the house, but again the water is not working, so I am using a pit latrine in the back of the house. I also fill up a bucket to bathe. I haven’t gotten any comments about how much I smell, nor have I looked greasy in the mornings, so I think I am doing ok.
My group consists of 25 people; 2 couples, 7 boys, 3 people aged 30+, 2 african americans, and 2 people of hispanic descent. Although we all have one commonality (to serve), we are all very different people, with different experiences and backgrounds. We were split up into 4 language groups; Zulu, Siswati/ Swazi, Sepedi and Tswana. Myself and three others are learning Zulu. Honestly, I think it is the best language to learn of the four, because a huge portion of the population knows zulu, and many of the TV shows, radio shows and common phrases are in zulu. This essentially means that I will be near Swaziland, in either Mpumalanga province or Kwazulu Natal. I have heard tale of volunteers working IN Kruger National Park (aka the holy grail in terms of safaris), and am crossing my fingers!!! What is interesting about Zulu is that it is characterized by three distinct clicking noises. I am somehow supposed to tell these clicks apart, but as of now just blankly stare. It’s only week 2, right??
Healthwise: I am not taking a Malaria prophylaxis. We are not in a malaria endemic area, and in fact Malaria is almost non existent in SA. If I do end up working in Kruger NP however, I will have to take pills everyday for my whole service. :(
I haven’t even been sick. The heat has made me moody in the late afternoons, but that is the worst I have had it. For the first several nights I was defiant (due to the heat) and opened my windows hoping for a breeze. However, windows dont have screens here, and I woke up with some pretty intense mosquito bites all over my body (think chicken pox). But compared to some of the other kids rashes and spider bites, I am OK with it.
Food: Much like Uganda, SA has a staple filler food that is eaten at almost every meal. In Uganda it was amatoke; mashed unsweetened bananas. In SA it is mealie meal/ pap. It is ground corn/ corn meal boiled until it is a thick, gelatinous texture. It is white in color and lacks any taste or nutritional value. Luckily my homestay family does not eat much of it! We often have rice instead of pap (iphalishi in Zulu). For breakfast I cook myself eggs, eat Kellogg’s cornflakes, or have some bread. I also make myself a lunch daily (I make it to be sure I don’t end up with pap like many of the other kids) which usually consists of a peanut butter sandwich, and a piece of fruit or veg. I like to take an apple, a banana, pomegranates, carrots or cucumbers. I have made dinner once here; I cooked up some pasta and threw on some vegetables…My family kept saying “Oh! Delicious!” but I am not 100% convinced. Other common foods are corn, beans, meats, fish, and potatoes.
Here are some things which I find fascinating about SA so far:
Despite how modern my homestay is, I am constantly surprised at some of the remnants of premodernity. I.e. we have running water, but out behind the house we keep a fire going to heat water for bathing, dishes etc.
I knew this was going to happen, as did many of you, but I was a little “disappointed” about my placement in SA. I felt it was not my ideal placement/ not bad ass enough for me. However being here has changed my mind. Volunteers in other countries deal with water issues, lack of electricity, etc. But in SA race is really an issue. Its not simple (as in black vs. white colonisers), but Boers vs. English vs. Khoisan vs. Nguni speakers, and the list goes on. I think the mis perceptions that any race will have about me really changes the game here. In many PC countries the volunteer, especially the Caucasian volunteer is perceived to be a blessing. But here we must first prove that we are not of the same mindset of the whites of history.
Internalised oppression (I am going to take on the British spellings of most things. Get used to it.) in the sense that many people will “defer” to me due to my skin color. Even if their idea is better than mine, due to historical (as well as ongoing) inequalities, many will not listen to their own opinions/ ideas because they have been brought low so many times before.
The number of funeral parlors around. The affects that the HIV epidemic are having are visible in almost every aspect of life, especially those sectors dealing with death.
Here are some things I am looking forward to:
Week 4: a trip to the Apartheid museum in Jo’burg
Week 5!! March 13th to be exact; we are given our site assignments
Week 6: I travel to my site and see where I will be spending my 2 years!
General updates:
I dont have a phone yet. I have made a few calls from a pay phone, but please dont be mad if I havent called you. It’s not that I dont want to call you, its a lack of time. If I have called you…you should feel lucky!! And know that I am mad that you didn’t answer. :) When I do get a phone (week 7 or so), I will be sure and tell you!!
I managed to wrangle some internet time for our group. PC wasnt going to give us any…suffice it to say I am addicted, and managed to convince our group leader that a half hour each week was more than enough. And realistically, it is.
February:
The 14th (Valentines day) My homestay sister and her cousins were just sitting around looking miserable in the heat, and I asked them what they were doing for the big day (the v-day commercials are comparable, if fewer than the ones seen in the US), and they joked that they were sad because they didn’t have a boyfriend to go and buy them a cold drink from the shop next to my house. So I pulled out R10 (about $1) and they went and bought a liter of sprite. Now my homestay ma jokes that I am their American boyfriend. Oh dear.
Thursday the 19th was an interesting day. Planned PC activities for the day fell through and we got to go home early. Three of the four members of my Zulu language group (who live in a different village from the other languages) walked to the next village over, Troya Trust. If one is walking with an “American” walk, its about 15 minutes. With an African…shuffle, it’s about 20-25 minutes. We found a “shaben” (read: sketchy local bar) bought a few beers and walked down the road back to my homestay. It was my first SA beer, and it was pretty good. It was a milk stout, so a little darker than I usually prefer but it was a beer so I wasn’t too upset. Thursday night I could hear all the animals in Troya Trust going crazy. I finally asked what was going on, and apparently jackals were out lurking, and causing a commotion throughout the villages. Even the animals in my village (Troya Farm) were freaking out. So I finally fell asleep (despite the cows lowing), only to be woken up an 1AM by ants crawling allll over my pillow. Gross! I had to get up and shake out my pillow (a sweatshirt in a pillowcase…classy) and put it away. For the rest of the night I slept awkwardly at the foot of the bed.
Saturday my language group and the Siswati group all took a khumbi (public bus) to Bela-Bela (or Warm Bad in Afrikaans). I wish I could say that it felt like New York City, but really it was a mediocre town with a few real live grocery stores that carried more than yogurt and soda. I did a little research about phones, bought some raisins and granola bars, and generally pigged out on food that I wasn’t even hungry for. Peace Corps is only giving us R100 (about $10) a week, so I pretty much burned through that. Luckily I changed some money at JFK!
On Sunday the 22nd I went to meet the Ndbele King! I didn’t actually meet him, as we arrived too late; he was leaving as we were heading into the royal compound. My host mom came with our group, and apparently she is a big deal in the royal family (She told me verbatim: Jabulile, don’t you know i’m very important person to the king? I’m VIP!). All twenty five of us had to go up to the microphone and introduce ourselves in the language we are learning in front of several hundred people (gulp!). As I approached the microphone she started undulating (making a loud whooping noise), and throughout the rest of the time at the compound people kept talking about me. In general it was a very long day sitting and patiently listening to a language that I am not familiar with. But it’s not every day that I get to hang around royalty!
Class: I am learning a lot in my 8 hours a day that I spend in class. This week starts the real hard core HIV stuff, and I think it will be interesting. The only hard part is that because we dont have any idea about what environment we will be spending our next two years (rural/ urban, clinic/ home based care, government/ NGO etc), it is hard to imagine how to use some of the tools we are currently being given. We don’t even have a framework right now! Oh well, I will have a lot of downtime very soon!
SO! That’s all for a bit!
I heart you and miss you all, but know that (at least for today), I am happy on my adventures!
Sharon/ Jabulile
PC SA 19
