Friday, September 21, 2012

The weird nature of development

When I got home from Permagarden training, my Baba was making a garden in our front yard. The point of the training was to take this knowledge back to our communities...but for some reason, Bundu already had and was taking advantage of this knowledge.

This thing has been happening more and more to me lately. Right before In Service Training, my local HBC started a garden, that is now bearing lots of vegetables. My Gogo's group told me they had started exercising four days a week. When I got to my host family in March, all three host mothers were unemployed. Now they all have full time jobs.

The weird thing is...I really don't think I had very much to do with this. In the beginning of my service, I remember feeling incredibly overwhelmed. I was replacing an amazing volunteer who had done a lot for Bundu. More importantly, she had done a lot of work in behavior change, changing the minds of everyone she had worked with, encouraging them to work harder, that their dreams were doable. I've been here six months and I see the effects of Sbongile's (I'm going to put her South Africa name here because I didn't ask her permission to include her in this posts) work every single day. Her shoes are huge and I'm worried I cannot fill them.

But then I took a step back. Bundu is changing. Bundu is developing. Slowly but surely, I see a changing Bundu, where more people are becoming employed, where more students are going to university, where more girls are starting to believe in themselves and their potential. And it really doesn't matter whether it was mine, Sbongile's or the community itself's effort. It matters the most that Bundu is becoming a better community, not who is responsible for it.

So, I continue to try my best, work my hardest and enjoy myself. I wake up everyday thanking Sbongile and her efforts, because they make my job a lot easier and more fulfilling. I also wake up everyday thanking the weird luck that put me in this wonderful community, where people are committed, care, and most importantly are the kindest people I've ever me

Monday, September 17, 2012

I was talking to one of my friends from America and mentioned I was in a bad mood for no apparent reason. She asked me what had happened that week and after I finished telling her we both realized that my bad mood for no apparent reason...had actually a lot of reasons.

Last week was bad. For many different reasons, some of them I don't feel comfortable talking about on said blog. The main one is that I had to say goodbye to many friends this weekend, the last of my 22 friends finished up their service and left. Two friends of mine in my cohort also left unexpectedly and I wasn't able to say goodbye. I had several bad days at school where I couldn't get the kids to be quiet or pay attention and ended up in tears one day. There was a week long celebration across the street which included very loud music at all hours so I could barely sleep. And other stuff.

But there was good stuff too. Spent a lot of time with my host family, got to see some friends even if they were leaving, took a practice GRE and watched some good tv. And even if it was hard, at least its over.

Peace Corps is hard. Its incredibly hard at times. But there is always good times. Always fun. Even on the toughest weeks I am glad to be here.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Every Sunday, a group of us SA25s would get together by the river. We'd swim, play, chat and relax. Some of my favorite memories of PST include that river. I continued to hang out at that river all throughout the summer

Fast forward six months later. I'm starting to get incredibly sick. I can't keep any food down, my stomach is in lots of pain. I call my helpful PCMOs who tell me to get to Pretoria ASAP. After a couple days of tests in Pretoria, I find out that I have schistosomaisis. http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/schistosomiasis/. Basically, I've got my first parasite.

I'm in some good company, as 200 million people have schisto. However, most schisto takes at least 2 years to turn from active to inactive. I had super schisto, it seems, as it only took six months. Luckily, I caught it soon enough so it won't do any lasting damage. However, Schisto, if untreated, can cause orgtan damage and even death. However, even though I was in a lot of pain, those Sundays by the river were worth it

After surviving schisto, I went directly to Polokwane for Permagarden training. We spent three days learning how to make our own permagardens, which included making our own. It was incredibly fun and educational. My thumb is definitely not green, but with this training, I feel like I can make my own garden. It was also great to see the fellow participants, which included the 25's who live in limpopo and mpumalanga, as well as some 24's. We had a blast.

Now I'm on my way back to Bundu am excited to go back to normal life.