11.20.2008

I'm leaving... on a jet plane!

I'm leaving for Cairo in a little over a week. I'm so excited. It's hard to imagine being in one of the largest cities in the world when today I was teaching middle school kids and watching a donkey cart slowly pass the school.
Lately things have been going pretty well here. I'm working on some cool projects at my schools, actually helping my teachers teach, and just rolling with the village rhythum. There have been a few things lately that have made me really happy to be here...

There is a girl who attends the local high school who I have noticed before. She drew my attention becuase she's pretty masculine. I even asked Megan if she was a boy despite my inability to concieve of a boy living as a girl (dressing in a girl's school uniform, using the girl's bathroom, etc) in our rural community. Megan and I talked about it a little and decided she must be a really masculine girl.
Well... the other day I was at the farewell function for the grade 9 students at my middle school who are going to the high school next year. This event, like most South African events, was a bonanza of community speakers, singing, praying, food and traditional dancing. It was the traditional dancing that caught my attention, this time not only because I love it when the kids dance but also because this girl was dancing. The crowd went WILD when she started dancing. Old ladies were uulating. Middle school students were cheering. Some people were looking away in disgust. She danced really well, and when she did a partner dance with a boy people went even more crazy. Mostly happy, supportive crazy.
All of this hubub had me wondering so I asked Megan again and she delicately asked one of our teacher friends at the high school. She is a he. This girl is living as a girl despite physically being a boy. In rural Africa. In a really traditional society. In a patriarchy with incredibly static gender roles. She's doing it, and as far as I can see she's not facing all that much descrimination. I'm blown away in a really good way. I suppose I have a lot to learn about the nature of community and belonging in rural South Africa. This is a lesson I'm so glad to be learning.

A few days later, I was working at my primary school when a group of boys came in and turned in R100. That's about $10 USD, but it's a lot of money around here. To give you perspective, that's almost half of the pay our school's cleaner gets every month. To a bunch of kids in the school yard it must have appeard to be a fortune.
Often people in South Africa talk about the moral decline of the country. The crime rate and widespread corruption seem to speak clearly of some sort of cultural break down. But the thing is, there are really good people out there. These kids did the right thing simply becuase it was right. These kids are just one more little reminder that there are good people leading good lives all over the world in all sorts of circumstances.

I'm excited to strike out into the world and have some new experiences. I'm also excited to be leaving at a time when I'm feeling pretty good about my life here in South Africa becuase I know I'll be coming home to work I really believe in and people I really care about. This is a pretty cool life I'm leading...