my first live post from SA!

I know it’s been awhile but...hey, I live in Africa now, which means many things, amongst them: I have pretty limited access to the internet and time has ceased to have any meaning to me. I’m working on figuring out my cell phone so I can turn it (magically it seems) into a modem. Until then I’m reliant on my new access to internet cafes in “town” (more on town in a moment). My goal is to be more regular in these posts and to post them myself instead of relying on mailing them to the US and having my WONDERFUL, AMAZING, KIND, INTELLIGENT father post them. We’ll see how it goes, but to those of you still bothering to read this, thanks.

Time really does mean something different here. I was taught to arrive on time (or early) by school bells, a brother who hated being late, and a culture where “time is money”. Living in South Africa is teaching me that it is actually pretty nice to just sit for hours with people whom I only sometimes understand, dinner should take at least an hour to cook, multitasking looses its charm when you have nothing to do for an entire day and even school starts and ends on a flexible schedule. In SA “Your furniture should be delivered two weeks before you move in” translates into at least a week of sleeping on the floor. As an American this has proven to be pretty maddening but I’m getting over it and embracing a more general conception of time.

Since my last post I’ve become an actual Peace Corps Volunteer. Until now I was just a trainee but I’ve moved up in the world. I took my language test and did well (something I’m pretty proud of). I met the American ambassador to SA. I swore to uphold the constitution (!). I listened to inspirational speeches. It was like graduation but multi-lingual and not as long.

I also moved to a village outside of Mafikeng. Mafikeng is in the Northwest Province near the Botswana border. It is the provincial capitol and is a pretty big city (not like Jo’Burg or Pretoria... more like an African Akron). My new host family has made me feel welcome and the two schools I’ll be working in are going to be exciting because the teachers and administrators seem really committed to improvement. My host family has running hot water (this is a true luxury here) but I’m living in a small room across the driveway that has electricity but no water so I’m still getting that “I carried water on my head” Peace Corps experience (I’m not really carrying water on my head... yet). I’m getting settled in and starting to explore my new village. It’s a slow process because I have to figure out what is safe/culturally acceptable but yesterday my host sister took me on a walk around the village and this morning I went for my first run so I’m starting to get a feel for what lies beyond my house and my schools.

Running has become a really important stress relief for me. I run in the morning when there are not too many people out and it is still cool. The visual stereotype of African sunsets and sunrises has proven to be pretty dead on and each morning I see the sun rise over baobab trees. Constantly working to integrate into a culture is hard work, and the time when I’m running has become a really important way for me to take time to be outside of my room but not working so hard to fit in. Greeting is really important in this culture and running also gives me a great excuse to greet lots of people in Setswana without feeling obligated to stop and have extended chats with them. I plan on running a half marathon while I’m here and that plan has left me with a good, attainable, personal goal to attend to every day.

The first waves of loneliness are starting to hit me. It’s harder than I expected to try and relate to people when my language skills are so limited and I’m still trying to figure out how to navigate cultural differences. I’ve had the luxury of fellow trainees to debrief and relate to throughout training but now that we’re full-fledged volunteers we’re all living scattered across three provinces. My first three months of service (from now until right before Christmas) I am on “travel restriction” which means I’m not really supposed to leave my village except to go to town for groceries so I won’t be seeing many of my fellow volunteers but luckily some of my closest volunteer friends share my shopping town so we’ll meet up every once in a while to go grocery shopping and maybe eat lunch together. I’ve also met some volunteers who have been here for a year and I’m encouraged by their optimism and their assurances that they are not isolated hermits. It’s hard to be away from everything that is familiar and the people I love but I’m tough (and spoiled by things like having some internet access) so don’t worry about me.

I’ve become obsessed with Chackalacka which is a popular dish here. I’m so obsessed I’ve sent the recipe to some of you but this is the improved recipe AND I’m trying to start a Chackalacka craze in the US so for those of you who I haven’t shared this wonder food with...

CHACKALACKA

- Carrots (1 bunch)
- 1 Onion (diced)
- Hot peppers (I think they're just called "chilis")
- 1 Green Pepper (diced) – totally optional
- Cooking oil
- Approx. 1 tsp. Curry Powder – also optional but I’m a pretty big fan
- 1 can baked beans (the blandest, most generic you can find)

Peel and grate the carrots. In the bottom of a pot big enough to fit all of the ingredients sauté the onions and hot peppers until the onions are just starting to brown. Add the carrots, curry and green peppers. Continue sautéing until the carrots are cooked (not at all crisp). Add the baked beans and cook for two(ish) minutes. Enjoy on bread or just by itself. Think of me when you’re eating...

Thanks for the letters and the emails (as of yesterday I can check my gmail on my phone but it’s really hard for me to write emails on my phone key pad!). It means a lot to me to be connected to all of you.


As I am about to post this it started raining... the first rain they've had here in almost a year. I feel as excited as if it had been a year for me without rain... just thought I'd share a little, happy moment with all of you...

Blog Entry # 2, from exile

August 26, 2007

Today is my host brother’s birthday. We began the day by singing “happy birthday” to him while he was still in bed. He’s fifteen and very much a teenager who puts a lot of effort into being cool. I really, really like him. During breakfast a song came on the local radio station and my host mom and brother got up and sang and danced together. It was fun and sweet – a great way to start a Sunday! I only have two and a half weeks left with this family. (I’ll be gone for a week visiting my permanent site in a week) and I will really miss them when I’m gone. My host mom blows me away with her independence, her sassy-ness, and her sense of humor. I’ve promised to come back and visit during the next two years and I know it will be a promise I will fulfill.
Today is also special because I’m learning to make “dumpling” which is bread that is steamed on the stove top instead of baked in an oven. Our oven is a wood burning oven that the family rarely uses (it hasn’t been used once in the four weeks I’ve been here). We cook on a hot plate, outside on the fire, or on a paraffin stove. I’m afraid of the paraffin stove (it explodes sometimes and lets off nasty fumes) so all of my cooking is adapted to the hotplate or the fire. Learning to make dumpling is huge for me because it means I can make my own whole grain bread when I’m cooking for myself at site. The dough is rising in the sunshine as I write this.
This afternoon I’ll probably see my friends Megan and Mike. Megan is a passionate “bollo” (soccer) player and she has organized a Sunday afternoon game. Megan and Mike are great company. They are clever and tough minded with a good mix of dark humor. When we get together the conversations are often a bit absurd but always good. It’s nice to have people around to keep my mind sharp! I won’t be playing soccer but I feel an obligation to learn about the game as part of my cultural assimilation. For the record, I’m officially a “Chiefs Supporter” although I’m not totally clear what that entails – I just know everyone in my host family likes the Chiefs so I have become a fan by association.
My language skills are developing slowly. I’m pretty frustrated by my slow progress but I have to remember four weeks ago I couldn’t express ANYTHING n Setswana and now I’m regularly having simple conversations entirely in Setswana. Mostly, I just push myself to us as much Setswana as possible mixed with my English (I’ve mentally dubbed this combo “Swinglish”). Sure, I have the vocabulary of an inarticulate two-year old but at least I know I worked hard to sound like a toddler! I’m getting used to being laughed at for my blundering word (mis)use.
I’m getting really excited to find out where my permanent site will be. We find out Friday. It’s really strange to have so little control over where I will be living for the next two years. Within a week, I’ll know what village I’ll be living in, if I’ll be living in a host family’s main house or outbuilding, what schools I’ll be working with, who my supervisors will be, what town I’ll be closest to ( and how close – some villages are 2+ hours from the shopping town), and what Peace Corps volunteers will be closest to me. There are so many variables that will shape my experience for the next two years! This week promises to be a waiting game filled with questions/demands from some of the other trainees who seem less willing/capable to realize they don’t have control of the site decisions…..
I need to go study Setswana. The adjectives are driving me insane but I suppose someday, under some unforeseeable circumstance, I may need to say “the tall man”.