Six months left. 19 months in. Apparently there are three stages of peace corps. The first stage, when you see ants on your food, you throw out the food. The second, when you see ants on your food, you get rid of the ants and still eat the food. Third stage, you see ants on your food, you eat the ants and say protein!

The truth is that, at least near the end of pc service, I have stopped sweating the small stuff and starting sweating the big stuff. Taxi takes an hour to fill, people miss meeting, people propose....eh, nothing phases me anymore. However, what is keeping me up at night is the big stuff. Have I really helped the people in Bundu? Have I done the best I can? What am I going to do with my life? How am I going to get a job in this economy?

Ants in my food just can't compare

After  a truly epic vacation with my family (lions! leopards! Victoria Falls) I headed back to the village. And was greeted by the usual horde of children begging me to pick them up and give them candy. I agreed to the first one and not the second (I seriously can't buy candy anymore without them stealing it, so I've stopped buying candy I like, or just hiding it from the kids) And then I came to realization, that even after a vacation with all the wonders of the first world, I missed this more.

You go through stages in Peace Corps. Now I am at the stage where I truly feel at home here (I keep on saying this, but I really feel more at home everyday) and I'm flying. My projects are starting to go go go, I feel decently accomplished. Some days I never want to leave.

Want to help? check out this link! https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-674-004

However, I have around 7.5 months left. That sounds like a long time, but its close enough so I can see it. The class that came before me is starting to leave, people have started asking me what I'm going to do after peace corps (answer is still forming)...and I'm starting to think about the future.

But right now, my eleven month old cousin smiled at me for the first time! and spent the whole morning smiling at me and playing. She used to cry when she saw me.

There is a point in peace corps where it gets hard to blog, because things that used be weird or strange have become normal life. I have a hard time coming up with stories, because there are usually too many that an outsider would find interesting, yet it is just daily life. There are some things that do jolt me out of my daily life (marching in a pride parade, a traditional ceremony happening at my house that I managed to catch because I went to the bathroom at the right time, having to deal with corporal punishment), and I might write about those later.

Right now, I'm looking forward  to my family's visit (about 20 days!) and post peace corps life. Everything else, is just daily life.

I live in an area called kwandebele. The dominant language is Isndeble as well as the dominant tribe of this area. This is considered the Ndebele homeland. About 1.1 million people speak Isndebele in South Africa, the least spoken of all the South African languages. Most of them live here.

Because of several factors, including that kwandebele is about 45 minutes from Pretoria, there is little development there. There are no big malls or big grocery stores. There are no movie theaters and no big stores. There are two or three shopping centers that do not have much and that is about it. A comparison of several PCVs has shown I have the 2nd worst shopping town, the worst one being the other shopping town in kwandebele which doesn't even have our bank there.

However, since Christmas. I have seen some small changes. When I got back from America, my trip to my site took longer because they were building a tar road connecting my village to the next. They have been working on it for at least five months now, and it probably wont be done before I go, but still, progress. In my shopping town, two stores which had been selling low market goods have been replaced with stores selling much higher market goods, a Mr. Price and a Street Sheet. And on my last trip out, I saw a sign for the construction of a regional mall, in the village about 45 minutes away.

These are all small things, but in the life the life of a peace corps volunteer, it feels good to know that my adopted homeland is growing and dveloping.

Here, its all about the little victories. I haven't been writing recently because it seem that even the little victories I have had are few and far between and the failures numerous and great. This seems to be known in Peace Corps as the "Mid Service Slump". Having finished Mid Service Training a couple weeks ago, me and several volunteers in my class were definitely in it.

In Bundu, , I had to go back to the drawing board. I had an incident at the middle school which made me realize that I am not a teacher and that it doesn't make me happy. Luckily, I am not in the education program :).

But somehow coming up with new things to do doesn't seem as daunting as it did a year ago. Maybe its the fact that Bundu feels like home now or just the fact after a really tough learning curve, I've realized how to be a PCV. More importantly, how I want to be as a PCV. I've had a project idea since the beginning of my service that I finally feel like I've gained enough clout to actually do. I have contacts with the other schools in my area and I'll start reaching out to them. I'll keep on doing my old standbys.

One thing that surprised me was that MST was much less of a brag fest than I expected. People would only tell you about their successes if heavily prodded, most just wanted to relax and have fun. And of my group, SA 25, I am proud. Because the truth is, as a group, we have had a lot of success stories. A lot of growth and a lot of learning. 

So little victories. Right now I'm proud that I have taught my little sister to say please and thank you. Maybe next blog entry I'll have more

One Year

As I sat saturday on the steps of the bank, waiting for Alyssa and Colin to get their money, my only thought was "how the hell am I going to make it through another year?"

Don't worry, this post gets more optimistic. However, my thoughts for the last week have definitely run the gamut.

One year, This time last year I was living in a little rondaval with another trainee, across from a married couple, spending days in long sessions and nights handing out with other trainees. I didn't even know was isndbele was, having no idea about the language that would continue to befuddle me. I remember meeting Sbongile for the first time, not yet knowing I was going to be the one to replace her. She looked impecable in a long flowy skirt and a tanktop while I sweated profusely in my business casual.

It's been a year and I haven't been able to replicate Sbongile's style or sense of calm or ease. However, I have made my own style in bundu, my sweaty, goofy, terrible isndebele, goofing with kids style. Bundu is my home. I teach, I run my gogo's group, I do random projects. I help in the garden. I talk. I have coffee. I play with the kids. I try to find new stuff to do.

Its pleasant and nice and fun and feels like life. I'm not the best or most hardworking peace corps volunteer, but I've done a bit. All but two of the students in my grade 9 english class passed. My gogo's are trying to get their group registered as an NPO. We are working on the IGA stuff. I'm teaching life orientation this term. My boyfriend is coming to visit in 17 days.

I'll make it through this year like I did the last. One day at a time.

After about a month of leave, I am finally home in Bundu. Will describe the leave by all the different types

Administrative- Took the GRE. Did pretty decently. Looking into getting my master's of public affairs/policy or urban planning. Spent my downtime in Pretoria hanging out with friends who were passing through. Saw many of my friends who started PCSA a year ahead of me go through their Close of Service Conference. Some have left already. That's going to be me in a year...eish

Holiday- Met up with my friend Emily and took a 12 hour bus ride to our friend Dan's house outside Richard's Bay. It was wonderful, we went to St. Lucia to see turtles (saw one lay a hundred or so eggs), went to the beach everyday, saw the hobbit, met many of Dan's friends and coworkers and had a ton of really wonderful meals with wonderful company. The last day I boarded the plane and headed home

Annual- America. What can I say. I spent time with my family, friends and boyfriend, ate delicious food, explored wonderful places, enjoyed being with the people I loved.
I felt a little out of sorts in America. I realize that in South Africa I always have a purpose to my life there. In america, I felt somewhat lost. It was a vacation, but I missed knowing what I was there to do. It reaffirmed my decision to stay in Africa...I just wanted to bring some people back with me. Thankfully my family is visiting in June and my boyfriend even sooner so I'll be able to see as many people as I can.

When I got back, I spent some days in Pretoria, getting over jetlag and clearing up some medical issues (Mango Schisto Sunshine...now Acid Reflux?) I still felt a little out of sorts until I got to Bundu on Sunday, when as soon as I saw my village over the hill, I felt like I had come home.

In about ten days I'll hit my year mark, which will be followed in a month by the halfway mark and the less than a year mark. Makes me contemplative, wondering what I have done this last year and what will I do after Peace Corps. Whatever happens, I'll try to enjoy the ride

It's December already?

Time has definitely flown. According to my calendar, I have one week until my vacation starts (the first part involves taking the GRE, so not quite the relaxing experience), a week and a half until I head down south to KZN to the south african part of my vacation (turtles! Beach! Friends!) and a little over two weeks before I head to the USA for my three week sojourn home.

Bundu has been pretty slow these last couple weeks as schools had exams and then closed, a long with most everything else.  I have spent my way too much free time watching lots of tv shows, GRE studying and turning my room into a part time daycare. The kids in my neighborhood love every version of toy story, coloring (both on paper and using microsoft paint) and using the photobooth application on my computer. Surprisingly, they aren't big fans of the lion king.

I've also been spending most of my weekends with other volunteers. Early in the month, I went to a provincial conference in Nelspruit. While small, it was fun and educational and included a huge game of Simon Says in Siswati that involved the whole backpackers, staff included. Needless to say, I was out pretty quickly. The next weekend we had Thanksgiving.  I went to Polokwane with about 40 other volunteers and we celebrated American Style. PCVs can cook! Everything was absolutely delicious and I came out wishing I had another stomach.

Last Tuesday was my birthday! I celebrated by eating a pizza and watching Top Chef at the local internet cafe and eating the last remnants of my care package. I felt very loved as I received so many calls, emails, facebook posts, BBMs and cards from friends in the US and South Africa. Saturday, my friend Alyssa and I had a belated birthday celebration in Groblersdaal, where we got the restaurant to sing to us and give us free ice cream and balloons! Year 23 was definitely the best year of my life so far and I'm think 24 will be even better.

Right now, I'm just getting really excited for my trip to america. 20 days, five states and hopefully tons of delicious food. I'm probably most excited about celebrating my first christmas. As my family is jewish and observant we always celebrate hanukkah . I never gt the big commercial christmas that I see in movies and commercials. But this year I do! I'm even getting my own stocking!

The Things They Carried

Been Rereading the "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien recently. If you haven't read it, I suggest you stop reading this, go ASAP to your local bookstore/library/amazon.com/e-reader, whatever and read it. Actually I don't suggest, I request. It's a decently short read.

Anyways, the first chapter is about the men in this unit and the things they carried during the vietnam war and how it described them as people. I thought about my own stuff that I carry everyday and thought it would make for a good blog entry.

I'm removing the obvious stuff that I carry (wallet, phone, kindle, keys) because that's pretty darn obvious. And a bit boring. But here are six things I carry with me every day

My Fake Wedding Ring

A week before I went to South Africa, my dad asked me to get a wedding ring. From his research, he figured that it would help keep some of the men away if they thought I was married. I was a little freaked out at the time, as I had just broken up with my then boyfriend and the idea of being married, even fake married, freaked me out. But he kept on insisting and since it was one of the two things he asked during that period* I went out and with the help of my best friend who was visiting at the time, went wedding ring shopping. Going into a jewelry store and asking the salespeople to help me find a fake wedding ring was pretty entertaining. We ended up picking this one out, a simple silver band that I ended up putting on my right hand. However, while in africa, I have never taken it off and put it on my left hand. One reason is that I stayed in my training village. Saying I was married in my training village with 30 plus trainees and lots of gossiping sounded like a bad idea, plus I was always with at least one other trainee, so men hit on us less often. Once I was unmarried I couldn't really be suddenly married. And I guess I was uncomfortable with being married, even fake married. Thus, I needed a fake boyfriend. My friend Wyatt readily agreed, and for the early part of my service, I told everyone who asked he was my boyfriend and showed pictures of him when asked. Wy, thanks for that, I owe you a beer. Around June things started to get complicated...but that's for later in the entry. 

My hair tie

This  is an easy one. It gets pretty darn hot in Bundu, so I tie my hair back in order to get some relief from the heat. Unlike almost every other peace corps girl in my group, my hair is still longer than shoulder length, so this hair tie gets used most everyday. Also my host sister loves tying my hair into knots using this hair tie. She is luckily cute enough to get away with it. 

My Vision Quest Bracelet

When I was finishing up my senior year of high school, half the senior class and I went on a vision quest. I sat in the desert by myself for three days, no food, no communication with anyone save a local coyote (school sponsored. Yes, I went to hippie school). Funnily enough, after three days in the desert starving, I got a lot of insights about myself and how I want to live my life. We all received commemeration bracelets after we came back together as a group. It's been more than five years and I still haven't taken mine off. Ever. Yeah, that was pretty important. Most people mistake it for a hairtie so I very rarely get questions about it. 

My community doll

My sister got me this doll for my birthday right before I left. It's the mascot of greendale community college, based in Colorado...which is the setting for one of our favorite tv shows, Community. I hold on to it because its tiny, reminds me of my family, makes me laugh and reminds me that I'm at least doing better than all of the characters on that show. Except for the people in the Air Conditioning Repair School, but hey they have a guaranteed job for life. You can't beat that. 

My Picture

This is a decently bad picture of my boyfriend. We met in May, started dating in June, he left the country in August...and we decided to keep on dating. Long distance relationships are well acknowledged as idiotic ideas, but we are both confessed idiots. He left this picture along with several other items in my house before he moved back to america (I still can't quite figure out the compression bag and the coffee maker), and I've been carrying around ever since. 

As you can see, I've been collecting many bug bites during my time. Most came during the time I went to see some friends to watch the election results. I'm now calling them obama love bites. 

*the other I didn't do and thus I'm apologizing for here, Dad, I should have been pack 24 hours before like you asked. As usual, you were right. I'm sorry 

Typical Day

Sorry readers (aka mom, dad and uncle gordon) there hasn't been a post in awhile. I actually wrote one October 24 but didn't post it until today. Still relevant

I've been having somewhat of a writer's block in blog posts. Which would explain my lack of updating and amazement at the volunteer in South Africa that I know who posts on her blog every single day. But then I realized yesterday was a pretty normal day and I hadn't talked about my normal day very often, so I'm going to write about that.

I wake up around sunrise. Usually that is anywhere between 515 and 6. My curtains have no protections against the sun, so if the sun is up, than so I am I. If its before 630, I let myself try to go back to sleep. Usually I fail.

Around 630 to 7, I get up, start making breakfastt (and by making I mean grabbing an apple or yogurt or bread) and make coffee. Whoever lovely person sends me a care package, can you please include some of those starbucks via instant coffee? The kind they have here isn't really cutting it anymore.

 I check facebook and the news by my blackberry. Found out the giants are going to the world series!  I usually don't have to go to work until 10, so I sometimes watch an episode of something. Yesterday was different as I had a skype date with a friend of mine. Using a modem, I can actually get on the internet in my little village. Unfortunately the connection is not that great. I think it cut out about 4 times during our hour long conversation, but it was really nice to chat with a friend.

After that, I polish up my lesson plan and start the ten minute walk to school. Two english classes to grade nines, with a lunch in between. My first class is typical. Incredibly rowdy and loud, so much of my teaching is done by walking over to the groups that are somewhat paying attention. The learners got their report cards back yesterday, I see five of them, and all of then have doubled their english scores since I've started teaching. The four who were failing are now passing.

That puts a smile on my face. However, while I'm basking in that, a fight breaks out. Although these learners can get rowdy, this does not look like a play fight. And the learners that are fighting are each at least five inches taller than me and outweigh me by at least 20 pounds. However, some of the larger learners break up the fight. I try to send the learners. That were fighting to the principal's office. But they won't go. I end up running to the principals office myself and getting him to break up the fight. Apparently those two learners are suspendeed.
.

Class remains in chaos for the rest of the period. Even some of my best students found some money somewhere (seriously I have no idea where it came from and it wasn't mine) and started dancing around the classroom. I leave class five minutes are, rattled by the fight and their behavior.  Class is sometimes like getting pounded by a sumo wrestler. I go back home and lay on my bed and collect myself.


Leave for class and get there just as the principal is closing the gate. My second class is smaller, has more girls and is usually just better behaved. This time is no different. The lesson goes very well and I finish early, and give the class an impromtu talk about halloween, as its one of my favorite holidays and one that is not celebrated here. A couple of the girls ask about yoga classes and girls club and I tell them we can start again next week.  Finish class and head home.
 Nap time. I take a nap and wakeup around the time the kids get home from school. Play with them for about an hour and talk to my hhost family. Exchanged bbms with friends about upcoming vacation plans. And how everyones day went.

Start making dinner early while watching friday nightt lights. End up spending the rest of the day doing that, while also planning tomorrows lesson. The enduring conundrum of how to improve the learners reading abilities without books keepson coming, but everyday brings a new solution

Progress Report

As of a week or so ago, I finished my 8th month in country and my 6th month at site. Crazy, huh? At least I think it is. I had to fill out my first VRF or volunteer report form, which is to convince the dudes in Washington that it makes sense to have us here (I had a dream last night that everyone was removed from south africa due to violence and given interrupted service...thank god I have never had a prophetic dream in my life) Anyways, I decide it is high time to give some sort of progress report

School: school is out for this week and I wasn't teaching recently due to exams. However, next week, I shall return to teaching grade 9 english and maybe some life orientation classes. I'm a bit nervous, my adventures in the classroom have definitely been rocky. But I've learned some good techniques through trial and error.

Library: My goal this term is to get people to actually use the library, as because of its resources and worry people will misuse them, a lot of the time it sits dormant. So I hope to start some type of afterschool library gatherings a couple times a week

Girls Club: Because of the awesomeness of Sbongile, the Girl's club basically runs itself. My goal is to get it to flap its wings and fly. Its been dormant this term as the leaders have been distracted as have I by teaching. But I hope to revive it and let the caterpillar grow into a beautiful butterfly

Gogo's Group: the gogo's group is its own little butterfly. Right now we have all the materials and even a seller for the vaseline...we just haven't actually made it yet. Every week something comes up. But once we start making it, it will hopefully be a success. The gogo's have also decided to continue the bead work, this time using more traditional ndebele beadwork. The results so far are stunning. We will definitely have customers. My goal will be selling and marketing. The Gog's themselves have picked up exercising like teenagers with Justin Bieber and are now playing soccer and doing other exercises about four times a week. This is all thanks to my awesome counterpart and friend, mama tlou, who if she were born in the states, probably would be the head of a fortune five hundred company. She is that awesome.

I have some other ideas for projects in the works, but I'll see how those go before I post them on the internet. Suffice to say I have broken out of my slump that I was having a couple weeks ago and am now all sunshiney and happy. Teaching the neighborhood kids gymnastics and baseball. Enjoying my time with my host family. Planning fantastic trips for the rest of the year (drakensberg mountains! polokwane thanksgiving! provincial conference in Nelspruit! Turtles in St. Lucia! Beach in Durban!....THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA!) Yeah, not like I'm excited to go home...whatsoever.

I'm almost a third of the way done with my service. Keep on keeping on.

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

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.

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.

Teacher?

When I was applying to the peace corps, I remember telling my father " If they assign me to do English teaching, I'm out". The last thing I wanted was to go to another country and teach English. However, as of last monday, I am the newest grade 9 english teacher at Nyambela Senior Primary School.

How did this happen? Partially motivated by boredom. I can do ten or twenty projects between the hours of 2 and 5 p.m. However, because I have no hosting organization, the hours of 8 to 2 have always been...well, empty, except on Wednesdays when I have my gogo's group. I needed something to do during that time. so I went over to the middle school, where I have a good relationship with the staff, and asked if they needed my help. They said they needed a teacher. Specifically 9th grade english. The principal was teaching that class, but many times he couldn't be there because of his principal duties. So they learners suffered. 9th grade english at the school had one of the lowest pass rates; only 37% of the learners passed the class last quarter. And passing is only 30% in this country. So I decided, eh, Why not?

It's been two classes, and already I can tell this is going to be a challenge. How do you help kids read when they have no books? How do you control a classroom of 40 to 60 kids at a time? This is a lot different from my ninth grade english days at Marin Academy (15 motivated kids. A great teacher. Resources abound). I've also never taught before.

But I'm giving it my best shot, and so far its been going okay. I have started the learners doing daily free writing, taught them hangman and ran a debate whether boys are better than girls. The last volunteer started a library which has some textbooks, specifically devoted to english, so I'm going to be combing through them to see if there is anything useful. The bar is pretty low, so if I can increase the number passing to 50%, I'll consider myself a great success. I also probably had the worst that could happen to a teacher happen...my skirt fell down in the middle of class (wrap skirts can be a doozy). But after the laughter died down, I kept on teaching and the kids still paid attention. So, I've already hit rock bottom. Nowhere to go but up.

I've also learned during my seven months that development work is egoless. My job is to help the community the best I can. And if it means teaching English...call me a teacher.

Different things about South Africa, or things about south africa that used to make me pause (part 1)

- When I'm walking or anywhere in the village, I have to greet everyone. Whether I know them or not. It's a pretty defined script "Hello, Hello, how are you, I am fine and you, I am fine" or "lochani, yebo, ninjani, si kona, ninjani si kona",. but skip it and you will be incredibly rude. Greetings also go by age. Younger people greet older first. However since I am the Kuwa (ndebele word for white person), It all goes weird and sometimes I greet younger people (usually because they are too freaked to greet me) and am greeted by older people (because I either forget or am up in the clouds). This doesn't happen outside of my village, but I do greet some people in my shopping town and occasionally accidentally in Pretoria. Also, before you ask a question, like "where is the time?" "where is the bathroom?" or buy something, actually before you have any interaction with people, you must do this.

-The next question after the greeting is usually "uyaphi?" or "where are you going?" This only happens when I'm walking. But yes, everyone wants to know where I'm going. Anywhere. Always. This has to do with pre phone days, so if you were going somewhere, someone knew where you were. Mostly I reply "ekhaya (home)" "eskolweni (school)" "hbc home" "kwagga (shopping town)" "pretoria"  or "emphuleni (river)"

-Khumbis/taxi. Big white 16 to 22 passenger miniwans that will take you everywhere in South Africa. Even my tiny village. When going from the village to kwagga, the taxi just drives around in a circle and picks people up. I usually have to wait anywhere from .5 seconds to ten minutes to get picked up. The annoying part is that when leaving the shopping town or going anywhere else, you usually have to wait until the taxi fills up. This can take anywhere from .5 seconds to....my current record is 4 hours. Many friends of mine have beaten that. Its incredibly annoying, especially when I just miss a full taxi and have to wait forever for the next one to fill up. I always come prepared with a book and if I know its going to take a long time, I usually get out and get a soda or some food or make a phone call..

-Soundtrack. In America, usually, except for a party or something, people play their music with headphones. Music, even in restaurants or stores is usually ambient. Not  in South Africa. In South Africa, everyone broadcasts their own personal soundtrack on their cellphones. Incredibly loudly. Or in their homes. At club level. Or on the khumbis. So I am inundated with loud house/ndebele christian music/70's power ballads (this country loves lionel richie. And Peter Gabriel. And Dolly Parton. as well as many others) at all times. Its...well...annoying is definitely the right word. But I can sometimes use this to my advantage. When I'm walking to different places, you can bet I'm blasting sublime/ratatat/bon iver... a lot of other fun pump up music as my own personal soundtrack. And it is kind of awesome.

Saying Goodbye

Peace Corps is like high school, in many unfortunate and fortunate ways, but I'm just going to talk about one right now. There are anywhere from four to five classes at a time in South Africa, classes meaning the group with you came to Africa with, mine being SA25. The oldest class, the one who has been in South Africa the longest is considered the senior group, while the one that just got out of training is considered the freshman, the two other classes being the sophomore and junior class Right now, the 26's are in training while the 22's are leaving or COSing, which means us SA 25s to make the step up into the sophomore class. Scary eh, to think we have been here more than six months and have done about a quarter of our service.

When I was a young warthog...sorry, when I was a newly minted volunteer, I was placed in area with very few SA25's, but a lot of SA22's. They reached out to me and soon I was part of their family. Which included apple pie bakeoffs, girly movie watching nights, meetups for pizza and grocery shopping in our shopping town, movie trips to Pretoria to see the latest volunteer. They helped me get settled in Kwandebele and became some of my closest friends. They also introduced me to their SA22 friends, and soon I had tons of SA22 friends in several provinces. They became some of my closest friends as well and we spent a lot of time having both heart to hearts and adventures.

Unfortunately for me, out of the original group of four who helped me out, three have finished their service and are back in America. The rest of my 22 friends are soon to leave the country as well. As my closest friend leaves the country on Wednesday, I'm incredibly sad.

However, it's just part of the peace corps process. People come, people bond, people leave, people meet new people and the cycle repeats. Apparently there will be some 26's moving to my area. I'm excited to meet them and hopefully they will help fill the hole in my heart that the 22's have vacated. They just have a lot to live up to.

Comparison is Futile

I spent last weekend with a group of my fellow volunteers on a weekend getaway. We went to a hot springs that was close to another volunteer's site. The fun times included a mexican feast, lots of bathing in the hotsprings, mini golf and hot showers, all for relatively cheap.

What I was struck by the most is how there were ten of us, all peace corps south africa volunteers...yet all having incredibly different experiences. Two volunteers live together in a suburb of a city. They have running (hot!) Water and easy access to a supermarket and good food. Both of them work at ngos doing capacity building and have offices and computers. Compare that to me. My office is my house. No ngo or supervisors. No running water and a thirty minute taxi ride to a supermarket. And yet we are all peace corps volunteers. However, I'm not making any value judgments on whether their experiences are harder or easier (truth be told, I actually think I'm having an easier time) because its very hard to compare.

Another volunteer I was with last weekend lives on her organization's compound and thus doesn't have a host family. Very different. One volunteer is on her third year and spends half the time working for peace corps south africa and half her time working for a private christian school in a large city. Two volunteers I was with were education volunteers.

Although comparing our experiences isn't quite like comparing apples to oranges (we are all peace corps volunteer in south africa after all) it is not one to be easily done.

Community Integration

Dear Readers, sorry to be so inconsistent with these blog posts. I will not promise to be more consistent...because I doubt it's one I can keep, but I will try!

The beginning of IST marked the end of the so called 3 month community integration period, affectionately known to PCVs as lockdown. And at the end of this period, I took some stock and realized that I have integrated. I wouldn't be able to tell you why or how or when, but somehow Bundu became my home and the people there accept me as their own.

I didn't realize how much I had integrated until I had the good fortune to have a couple of visitors. Four of my fellow SA 25's came to visit their old host families who live in my village. I went with three of them to visit one of their host families. While that family greeted their hos daughter and the other americans with hugs and exclamations, I was greeted with a "oh hey Lilly". Other americans visiting them was a huge deal. My visit was nothing out of the ordinary.

I had another friend who was not part of my training class and had never been to Bundu, visit. When he visited, he was struck by how busy and crowded my shopping town was and how he was constantly being gawked at. My response was "oh, I didn't notice". And it was true. My shopping town is busy and crowded and I probably get gawked at a decent amount...but I truly barely even notice it anymore.

On Thursday SA 25 hits its 6th month in country. It has definitely been a crazy roller coaster ride. But now, I truly feel like I belong

IST!

For the last...tenish days, I and my fellow members of SA 25 have been at In Service Training. At the behest of the U.S. taxpayers (thanks mom, dad and others), we have been staying an amazing resort. Delicious food, hot showers, wifi, swimming pool, sauna...the works. Apparently PCSA likes to spoil us twice during service, at IST to reward us for making it through the first three months and Close of Service to reward us for actually making it through the whole service.

Besides lounging around at the resort, we have been attending sessions from about 8 to 5. These sessions have been everything from completely useless to incredibly informative. My favorites have been when outside organizations have come in and presented possible programs that we can use at site. I came away with a lot of new ideas and projects to do in Bundu.

It's also been really fun hanging out with my fellow SA 25's. I've had a great time hanging out with my friends, especially the ones who live in the far reaches of KZN and Limpopo and who I won't be able to see a ton of during my service, unless I am willing to travel 6 to 14 hours. A bunch of us are going to stay in Pretoria for a few days to celebrate 4th of July. My plans for next week include a lion park, a spa day, a trivia contest and lots of good food.

Highlights of IST include a trip to the America Club to celebrate fourth of July. The party included the ambassador, many other ex pats, a cotton candy machine, several bouncy houses, a volleyball tournament, and a clown. Another highlight was meeting everyone's supervisors/counterparts and having some fun cultural exchanges, which included teaching south africans to make s'mores.

Right now, I'm feeling a little stir crazy from being cooped up in the resort for ten days. The sessions are pretty draining and I'm excited to have a little down time. Then I will go back to Bundu, all fired up with all these new projects (not mentioning what projects I'm thinking of doing in order not to jinx them).