Halala ngosuku lokuzalwa Nelson Mandela!

Today South Africa celebrates Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday. Mandela’s birthday has now become the Madiba (or Mandela) Day. Madiba Day encourages people to take 67 minutes of their day to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. 67 is a significant number because Mandela spent 67 years of his life serving the people of his country and the world. Mandela inspired his people to take action to change the world for the better. He promotes people to “Take Action; Inspire Change: Make Every Day a Mandela Day”. I think that Nelson Mandela is an inspirational person; not only because of the amazing things he did to help put an end to the Apartheid, but for his will and drive to never back down from the things he believed in. I believe he has lessons we can all learn and grow from.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”. Nelson Mandela

I have been excited for Madiba Day; excited to get out into the community to help people in need, but also excited to see people working together towards a better South Africa. To start Madiba Day off, Ron and I went to one of the local schools to collect warm clothes and food that some of the children have collected.

We combined our blankets, food, and warm clothes with that of the school and off we went. We (Ron, Mandla, and I) headed out to the rural areas and a crèche. 37 people received a blanket and a food parcel. After the blankets were gone, we handed out warm clothes that we have been collecting for a few months. Most of the people had no idea that we were coming and that made it really special. They just kept saying “siyabonga uNkulunkulu” (thank you God) and “uNkulunkulu akubusise” God Bless you). I was really happy to be a part of this great day and I look forward to partaking in it next year!

Training, Lion cubs, and Skulls

I can’t believe that in-service training (IST) has come and gone. I can remember sitting in pre-service training (PST) thinking that IST was so far away and wondering if I would make it this far! Well here I am and I am as ready as ever to get some projects started and work with some of the youth. A few days before IST I headed back to Pretoria for some more dental appointments. It is a long story but after several more dental appointments, antibiotics/medicine, and tears, my tooth is still not fixed. I am headed back in a few more weeks to have the rest of it fixed and I am optimistic that it will be the last appointment. IST started the 23rd and my counterpart Jules arrived the night before. Since he arrived early we walked with Dan to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The Union Buildings form the official seat of the South African Government and is home to the President's offices. Below the buildings are beautiful gardens and multiple statues.

During IST each volunteer brings one supervisor and one counterpart. I was excited to have Jules with me and to work closely with him during IST. Some of the information that we learned is rather repetitive for the PCV’s, but several of the counterparts/supervisors have never had proper educational training in program planning, monitoring, and evaluation. Jules seemed really excited about all of the information he was given and looks forward to using it in his community. I feel that this training will really aid in a projects self-sustainment.

We were staying at a very nice conference hotel outside of Pretoria with a river, pool, sauna, wifi, and amazing food (thank you US tax payers). We ate meat like Kudu and Ostrich, and lots of other interesting food. I had to stop going to teatime because there were always samosas and deserts and it was just too tempting! IST is not only great for the awesome accommodations, but also to see my fellow PCV’s that I have not seen since PST. It is great to hear from them and see what they are currently working on at their own site.

We have a lot of great people in our group and I think some amazing things are to come. During IST we were invited to attend a 4th of July barbeque at the US Embassy America Club. It was awesome! The Marines that also attended did an amazing job at killing the PCV’s in the volleyball tournament. I was able to sit down and talk with several other Americans who were living in SA for all kinds of reasons. It was really neat to be able to spend the day with Americans.

As PCVs we also had our own 4th of July braai at the backpackers. We had all of the traditional 4th of July food and we finished the night off with an American Trivia game that the backpacker hosted for us. It turned out to be a great American holiday in South Africa. After the first 3 months in service (lockdown phase) PCV’s are finally allowed to use their vacation time. I took this as an opportunity to go to a few places with some of the other PCV’s. We first went to the Lion Park outside of Pretoria. It was AWESOME! The first part of the tour that we did allowed us to play with some lion cubs for about 5 minutes. I expected little cubs but these were about a year old and they are removed when they are about 18 months. I learned real quick that you have to pet them firmly or they will swat at you. I ended up with several scabs on my hand and was even bitten. The lady had to come over and flick the little bugger in the nose to get him to let go of my finger. I was not the only one who left with a little wound; Flat Mommy suffered a minor puncture wound to her lower leg. I think she will recover quickly!

After we saw the lion cubs we were able to go and feed giraffes. I am still completely amazed by how long and slimy their tongues are. It was really cool to be able to pet and feed them as well.

Next we moved on to the ostrich. Those things freak me out; I kept thinking it was going to peck me in the face. I was too afraid to try and feed it out of my hand but I would totally ride one if I were given the opportunity.

We then got in the van and drove through the park. This part was my least favorite because I felt like I was in a really big zoo. I liked the first safari that I went on awhile back because you have to go searching for the animals. Here they were everywhere and were not hard to spot. However it was cool to see all of the different types of lions and the leopards. The next day Dan, Cindy, Susan and I decided to rent a car and drive to the Sterkfontein Caves. I was nervous to drive that far but once I started going it was fine. It is just hard to get use to shifting with my left hand. The Sterkfontein Caves are a World Heritage Site located about 70k outside of Pretoria in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Sterkfontein is one of the most productive palaeo-anthropological sites in the world. In the early 1800’s some limestone miners noticed several fossils located in these caves. One of the major fossils was one called Mrs Ples, a 2.1 million year old Australopithecus Africanus skull. There was also an almost complete skeleton that is more than 3 million years old that is called Little Foot. I didn’t know if I would enjoy the caves, but I was totally into it and was really glad that I went. After the caves we drove about 10k to a place called Maropeng. To me it seemed more like a children’s museum and I was not so into this part. They solicited this “boat tour” and I could not figure out where it would be because there was no water. We went it and it was like a Disneyland boat ride. We had to just laugh about it and take lots of pictures. On the way back to site we stopped in Durban and stayed with my host sister Sophia and her family. The next morning we headed to the beach and it was awesome! I can’t believe that it is winter and there were people surfing and laying on the beach. I definitely think that a long weekend trip to Durban is going to be necessary. Well after a long few weeks I am finally back to site and back to ECFC. It feels good to be back and I am ready to get back into my routine.

Teeth, Music, and Food!

I knew the time would come when I would have to travel to the main Peace Corps office in Pretoria for medical reasons. Unfortunately that time came only 4 months into service. Luckily though it was only for a silly root canal! I tried to have it taken care of in Empangeni but after two dentist appointments and worse pain then I started, the Peace Corps made me go to their dentist. So I took a 10-hour bus ride to Pretoria. Luckily this dentist was pretty legit and there is even a picture of him and Bono in his office because he did Bono’s root canal. It turned out my tooth was pretty infected and a root canal was definitely needed. After 3 appointments and 6 days I was finally able to go back to site. I have two more appointments at the end of the month but luckily I am going to Pretoria anyways for In Service Training (IST) so I wont have to go that far just for my tooth. While I was in Pretoria I wanted to use the time to try and site see a little bit, the only thing is there is not a lot to see there! I walked to the Pretoria Art Museum, hung out with some other volunteers, and went to a few movies. There are always other volunteers there because Pretoria is the Med-evac center for all of Africa’s PCVs. It was cool to meet PCV’s from all over Africa and get to know their stories and what they are working on. Friday was the day that our community needs assessments were due. It felt so good to be done with it and I was actually pretty happy with mine. I am excited to get to IST next week and learn about implementing these project ideas that we have come up with. When I get back I have lots of work to do! Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to Empangeni on Friday and Dan and his housemates were going so they invited me to join them. I invited an acquaintance Bennie and we all had a blast! It was an amazing concert and the music was fantabulous! I really enjoyed the music but I enjoyed the dancing even more. I guess Ladysmith Black Mambazo has played in America several times. If you ever get a chance to go and see them I highly recommend it! Saturday the local Rotary and one of the banks planned a food collection for the welfare at one of the local shopping markets. We paired up with them and just asked people to help support the local families who are struggling during the winter. I was amazed by the amount of food that was donated! We were there from 7:30 to 3:30 and filled the back of two bakkies (trucks) with food. It is amazing to see a community pull together to help families in need. The Rotary and Nedbank also donated R15,000 to the welfare and they want us to use it to buy blankets and food. I don’t think we will need food anytime soon so we can help keep people warm with some blankets! Today is Fathers day and it was a pretty good day. I would have loved to be at home with my Daddy though. Luckily he is enjoying the company of good friends and the sun in Lake Powell! I sure do miss him! Dan and I decided that we would make Grandpere and Grandmere breakfast for Fathers Day. So we made French toast and bacon. It turned out great and they seemed to like it. After breakfast we went to visit another family that Dan met at church. We had a big cooked lunch and enjoyed the lovely company. After that we came back to my place and had another home cooked meal that Grandpere cooked. It’s easy to see why I am packing on the pounds! All in all it turned out to be a great weekend!

May...A Little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Well my computer charger has been broken and I have not been able to blog in quite some time. I am working on getting caught up but a lot has happened in the last month! So here it goes! Dan and I went to visit another volunteer in her village. She lives only about 20 minutes (walk) from the beach. We were in heaven and we were the only ones there. We had some local boys walk us there and it was great to get to meet them as well. Dan and I ended up staying the night and tried to fetch a taxi the next day. We waited for an hour for a taxi and one never came. Kelley’s host uBaba (father) took us to the taxi rank and we were able to get back from there. I swear you can wait all day for a taxi and it is not like ours where you just pick up the phone and call one. Things to get use to! I have been working on my community needs assessment and I wanted to do some community surveys. I had Julius pick some families for me to go out and survey. I asked them questions about their community involvement, youth, nutrition/health, education, and recreation. I learned that there is an extremely high stigma about HIV/AIDS within their village and I hope to get some education out there. There is also not a clinic in their village so they have to travel rather far to get tested or treatment. Throughout this survey, I was able to meet some community members and get their personal interpretations about their community. I was really glad that I was able to go and I can’t wait to work with this village more often. I was also asked to go and meet with the iNkosi again. I met this guy and had a pretty good conversation with him. I did my best to use my very broken isiZulu and he used his broken English, between that it seemed to work. I had Julius translate what Flat Mommy was and he thought it was hilarious! So the PC will allow us bike allowance if they feel we need a bike. I did not originally apply for a bike, but my APCD told the PC that I should get one because I live so far from work. I finally decided to get one and Dan got one the same day. I am pretty sure we look awesome rockin the Huffy’s! We had quite the experience assembling them and would have returned them if it had not been for Grandmere and Grandpere. It shows that us Americans automatically assume that it was packaged wrong when really we just put the handlebars on backwards! Woops, after taking it back apart, it works like a champ! Sugar cane here is a huge industry. Cane fields surround Empangeni and I have wanted to try to eat it. I asked for someone to bring me a piece to try and Mandla finally did. It is pretty much impossible to eat! He made it look so easy and I could not figure out how to do it. Here he peeled a giant piece and I have a sliver! So you bite the side of it and pull with your teeth. This takes the hard side of it off. Underneath it is like fibrous plant like crap (hard to explain) but it is just saturated with sugar juice. You bite it and get all the juice out and then spit out the fibrous stuff. Very interesting, I thought it was just far too much work but I am glad I tried it. Well here you have a few minor tidbits from May. I hope to get started on my Trip to Pretoria this last weekend! We will see how that goes. Sorry this format is so funky today! I miss and love you all!

Fishy-Fishy, Food, and Floats!

May 12, 2012- A local organization in Empangeni was celebrating its 40th birthday. They invited the welfare to partake in the celebration by having a float and a boot sale. Two of our committee members took a lot of time getting the decorations ready for the float ready.

Ron and I went and helped them the night before to put it all together. I thought that it turned out really cute! Boot sales here are kind of like a group garage sale. Along with the bricker-brack we sold food, cold drinks, painted faces, and did fishy-fishy. This was one of the most successful boot sales that we as an organization have ever had.

While everyone was busy with selling stuff and cooking, Dan and I were entertaining kids with the Fishy-Fishy game. It was a great part of the fundraiser and all of the prizes had been donated. Although it was a long day in the sun, we had a great time and I look forward to more boot sales in the future!

Got Flour?

May 11, 2012- A local store in town gives the welfare bags of flour, food, and toiletries that have been damaged. Today we received a lot of flour and we had just the place for it! It turns out to be a big mess for us but we are willing to distribute it because there are people who need it and they are willing to use it even if it is open.

We were unloading it and Nana was having a splendid time! The flour that fell out of the bags will be used to make play-dough for the Crèche. I am glad that the local store can give this to people in need instead of throwing it out.

Ballito!!!!

May 7, 2012 This weekend a group of KwaZulu Natal Peace Corps Volunteers gathered in Ballito for the first ever provincial conference. It was put on by PCV’s for PCV’s. My mother would have had a heart attack when the khumbi dropped Dan and I off on the side of the freeway. There is no khumbi to Ballito so we had to take the khumbi to Durban. Then they just dropped us of and we walked into town. I will be completely honest; I was a bit more excited to go to Ballito then to have a conference. Needless to say, we learned some great things from the other PCV’s and it was great to meet PCV’s from other classes. We stayed at a local backpackers and then had the conference in a hotel. For those of you who are not familiar with a backpacker, it is very similar to a hostel. It is a room with multiple bunk beds and one bathroom. They are made for people who travel and don’t want to spend a lot of money on a hotel room. The people who run them are always super chill and excited to have Americans. This particular backpacker had an African Shower.

I for some reason thought it was the coolest thing ever and would not shut up about it. It was outside and covered by grass and plants. The town of Ballito was amazing! It was right on the beach and it had a really cool boardwalk. One night after dinner a bunch of PCV’s and I went for a walk on the boardwalk. We walked down on the beach and looked in the rocks for sea anemones and octopi. We were able to see both and the sea anemones were cool when you touched them, they would wrap around your finger. Luckily we had a marine biologist in our group and he was able to show us everything.The last day we were there I wanted to get up early and walk the boardwalk before the sun rose. Gary (another PCV) joined me and it was great, we even saw dolphins. It turned out to be a great weekend.