8.27.2007

ON BEING REFILWE

August 11, 2007. As of today I’ve been in my training village for two weeks - in South Africa for three. I feel like I am finally beginning to get over my initial culture shock. By this I suppose I mean I’m no longer overwhelmed by daily tasks like going to the bathroom, bathing, cooking, and drinking water. [for those of you who are interested…I go to the bathroom in a pit toilet in my host family’s yard.] (don’t get wild ideas – it’s just an outhouse.) I take bucket baths & I’m still working on perfecting my hair washing technique. I cook with my “Mma” almost every evening (more on cooking and food later). I boil water before I drink it to be careful but the water here tastes great [is very clean]. It’s beginning to set in that South Africa is my (temporary) home. That idea stills blows me away a little!

I am living in a small village outside of Zeerust in the Northwest Province near the Botswana border. I will be here for six more weeks of training and then I will move to my permanent site where I will live and serve for two years. The people who live here are Motswana. They speak Setswana – a language that is spoken in Northern South Africa, Botswana, and parts of Namibia. I am trying desperately to learn Setswana and so far, I’m doing pretty well (meaning I understand about 5% of the conversations around me). The people here are so friendly and kind! I never go anywhere without being greeted.

The village itself is really beautiful. It is in the mountains so the views of the hilly village are impressive. The soil here is red & sandy with lots of rocks. Everything is coated in a thin coat of red dust. Here are small, scrubby trees and little thorny bushes. The houses are concrete or brick, single story with tin roofs. Almost everyone in the village (including my host family) has electricity. The “rich” people (everything is relative) in the village (excluding my host family) have running water. We get our water from the community tap & store it in huge barrels in the kitchen & in the yard. Rural South Africa is pretty segregated and our village is no exception. I’m pretty sure Peace Corps trainees are the first white/Asian/not black African people to be here.

My host family is a HUGE part of why I am so happy here. I live with my host mom & my 14 year-old host brother. I call my host mom “Mma” (the Setswana word for mother). She is a super kind, funny little woman who speaks a little English and who I really love spending time with. My host brother is like most fourteen year-olds – he spends most of his time trying to be cool – but he’s also great fun to be around and he’s teaching me to dance! Like many rural South African families, the rest of my host family (my host dad, host sister, and four other brothers) live and work four hours away in Johannesburg (Jo’Burg to every South African) because there is very little work in the villages. My host family is loving and a lot of fun. They have been helping me learn Setswana & avoid embarrassing myself in the village. I feel so lucky to live with my “African family”. Sure, often we can’t really talk because of my pitiful Setswana an my Mma’s broken English but still I love living here with this wonderful family.

One of my favorite parts of every day is cooking dinner. I usually get gome from training around five and I’ll study for awhile & then cook dinner with Mma. Almost every meal involves pap – the staple food here. Pap is kind of hard to equate to anything in America – it is made of maize meal and it’s a little like very thick, stiff grits. Many trainees fail to recognize the culinary genius of this starchy, tasteless blob-food but I have a corner of my heart (and at least ¾ of my stomach) reserved for it. I cook on of the three vegetables cooked n Motswana homes: “pumpkin” (butternut squash), cabbage, or beetroot. I was never overly fond of any of these before I came here but considering they are my only options, I have decided to embrace them whole heartedly. South Africans LOVE meat and my vegetarianism has become a curiosity that is accepted in a “crazy American” sort of way. Often I’m introduced (in Setswana) with the qualifier “she only eats vegetables! NO MEAT!” All of you reading this should ready yourselves – I’ve promised Mma I would “cook African” for everyone when I get back to the US.

I’ve also learned to “clean African”. Tomorrow I will do laundry which is a three hour ordeal involving hauling bucket after bucket of water from the community tap, scrubbing every inch of each article of clothing while trying to avoid rubbing my knuckles raw, rinsing each article of clothes in a basin of clean water, hanging everything inside out (to protect it from the sun), and lastly ironing each item (including undies!) because: a. South Africans really care about wrinkly clothes and b. it kills a burrowing parasite that sometimes lays eggs on drying clothes (How’s that for motivation to iron?!) Tomorrow we’ll also sweep and shine the concrete floors with a homemade broom, a dry scrub brush and a rag. If I’m feeling really wild/vain, Ill even take a bucket bath and actually wash my hair! Keep in mind all of our water is heated on a fire or in an electric kettle (our “stove” is a pitifully slow hotplate) so even bathing becomes a chore. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not complaining – these choices are part of my new life and learning to do them has helped me to better understand what it means to live in rural South Africa.

Another new part of my new life is my new name. I have been given an African name – Refilwe – it translates (loosely) to “we have been given” – an appropriate name if you ask me. So this is my new life – where I give myself freely to an adventure, to the work ahead of me and to the people I meet.

P.S.: To all of you who have written me: THANK YOU! It has been great to get mail and to remember that although I am on the other side of the world, under the stars of the Southern Hemisphere, six hours ahead of most of you (nine hours ahead of some of you), and a long time from seeing you again, I am still a part of your life and you are part of mine.