On the occasion of Leap Day or February 29th, we thought a new blog post was appropriate to update our time in ZA the last two months.
When we last wrote, it was just after Christmas. On the 30th of December, we took a vacation trip to the Wild Coast which is a stretch of the South African coastline. The trip began by taking the train to the Johannesburg airport, flying two hours to East London, and riding in a taxi to a backpackers in Chintsa, a small town on the Indian Ocean shore. We stayed in Chintsa for ten days enjoying the beautiful pristine beach and relaxing. One day we went to a nearby game reserve and were able to catch sight of a variety of African wild animals like the lion and giraffe pictured below.. The reserve had a large fenced lion enclosure where we were able to see a pride of lions eating their weekly meal of a slaughtered animal. Other days we enjoyed hiking along kilometers of undeveloped and unoccupied beach. I even took surfing lessons one day. Another day we took a guided hike through the nearby village areas eventually ending up on the beach. Swimming was enjoyable because the ocean current here comes from the equator to the north and is warm. However, we discovered that ten days in one isolated place without a car to explore the area was too much. For our next trip, we have vowed to rent a car so we can get around.
This is a view of sunrise from our cabin ands shots we took of one of the white male lions and a giraffe we saw at the game reserve near East London.
The new school year started January 17th. Merideth was asked to teach Grade 7 English at one of the village primary schools and, because they insisted, she reluctantly agreed - at least for a quarter. So three mornings a week she has two hour-long classes with about 40 learners in each. Since this is an English class and we struggle to pronounce some of the names, the learners agreed to adopt English names. If you are reading this blog, it is a good chance that one of these learners has adopted your name because Merideth used names of people she knew. She tells me that the ‘Gary’ in her class is struggling and for some strange reason I feel responsible. I think Merideth is becoming fond of these students. She comes home many days with new stories to tell.
Four days during the week Merideth is also at the other village school where she is working with the Foundation Level teachers to introduce English as a second language. Foundation is Grade R (kindergarten) to Grade 3. The country decided that English needed to begin early in school because, when English is first used for instruction at Grade 4, the kids struggled. So Merideth wanted to demonstrate to the teachers ways to teach these students how to speak English. She spends time in these classrooms with the Setswana speaking teachers there as interpreters.
On Friday Merideth opens the library at the primary school close to our apartment and has separate class groups visit for story time with English instruction. She has a full schedule.
Morning assembly at Tsogo High School with Mr. Malemane leading 700 students in song and prayer.
When schools opened in January I was not so involved with the teaching part of the schools as I was with helping the schools take care of some problems they were having with their water and wastewater systems. I have a list of projects that I am currently working with at all four schools but so far I am finding progress slow. Part of the problems is lack of money and part of the problem is lack of information or cooperation. The range of projects is from installing new pit toilets at one primary school, compost bins for the school kitchens, better incineration methods for school wastes, wastewater disposal improvements, mission water system operation and management, and village water system fact finding. Recently I attended a couple of meetings regarding payments to the Mmakau tribe by two mining operations located in the village. It seems both of these mines have been in operation for over ten years without having contributed any of the 26% of profits as required. One day I witnessed a “toi-toi” march to protest this problem. There is a lot of unemployment and poverty in this village that could be helped by these companies meeting their obligations. Going to court is apparently not considered a viable solution in South Africa because of conflicts of interest and corruption factors.
We have had some problems here at our apartment. First we lost water pressure and it was found that a main delivery line had become totally blocked inside by deposits of scale. The groundwater supplying the mission is very hard – folks here call it salty. If you set a glass of water out, it will soon show a carbonate precipitate floating in the bottom. Soon after the plugged line was replaced, we lost pressure again. Finally the cause was discovered due to a pipe in an unused room below our flat that had corroded and was leaking the entire supply. After a few days, the broken line was fixed and we were back in business. Two days later electricians installed a prepay meter on the power supply to our houses and left us without power until one of the fathers went to the store the next day and loaded the electrical account with credit. We had just gotten power back when we discovered we had no hot water. We get hot water from an electric heater called a geyser – it’s like the hot water heaters in the US except it is mounted inside up high on the wall. A couple of days and a few cold showers later, the electrician came by and opened the geyser to find the element totally covered with scale. We took about a bushel of scale out of the geyser, replaced the element, and now have hot water again. We cannot complain much about all of this because our situation is the envy of most of the other Peace Corps Volunteers. Most of them do not have piped cold or hot water inside their quarters. Most have access to water from a faucet in the yard and make due by hauling water in a bucket and by heating water with a kettle. Now we are back to normal and enjoying reliable living conditions.
Two weeks ago I worked at the nearby high school substituting for a math teacher who was called away to Zimbabwe by a family emergency. Last week and for the next two weeks I will be substituting for a teacher at the village primary school who is having an operation. She teaches Grade 4 and Grade 7 English. I am thinking that long term substituting might become my school role here since none of the schools will hire a replacement teacher when one is absent. In fact, seeing classrooms full of students with no teacher present for part or all of the day has been one of the challenges we faced here. At least I might be able to teach the learners something instead of having them idle. Otherwise I was thinking about tutoring small groups of math(s) students that need help.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Merideth and I went to Pretoria by taxi on the 19th and visited a mall for some fun time away from the village. I bought a basketball and a Frisbee. This is a neglected basketball court at the nearby high school that I am rehabilitating. We took in a movie (“The Descendents” which cost us $4 each) and had a nice dinner at a restaurant. There are no restaurants in our village so eating out is a treat. And we finally bought a smart phone! It’s a Blackberry. Most of the other Peace Corps Volunteers use Blackberries so we can message each other for free. So far we have been surprised by the Blackberry with its unlimited email and internet access for just $8 per month.
The other news we received last week is that our son Devon has bought his ticket to come to South Africa this summer. He is leaving Missoula once classes are over in May and staying in Africa until just before classes start again in August. We understand he is trying to arrange with a professor to do some independent study while here as well as spend some time with us in our village. He intends to tour South Africa and other countries. We have a three week winter school break in June-July during which we might travel with Devon to Kruger National Park, the Drakensburg Mountains, the Indian Ocean shore, and Cape Town. Devon has an affinity for Africa and is excited as we are about this adventure. Rowan is also planning to visit perhaps next Christmas. We are thrilled that both of them are coming here to visit.
At the end of March, we get ten days of holiday (vacation) during which we plan to rent a car, do a half marathon in Sabie in Mpumalanga, visit some of the nearby attractions for hiking, and end the week driving through Kruger National Park. The Longtom marathon is part of a fund raiser sponsored by former Peace Corps Volunteers to pay for the education of a worthy student at a prestigious school here in South Africa. (To see more and possibly contribute, go to www.klm-foundation.org). This time we plan to have a car so we can move around freely.
The weather here has been warm but not what we would call unbearably hot or humid. Most days get up to over 30 degrees Celsius so Merideth has become used to walking with an umbrella for shade. At night it cools down. We have two fans in our apartment that we use to keep cooled. Summer is the wet time of year so we have experienced some good rainstorms. The mountainsides are green and the baboons do not come around now very often since they can find food in the veld. A few weeks ago I spotted a large snake but it quickly slithered away. Monkeys have also been spotted recently. The mosquitoes are around but we have sealed all of our windows and sleep some nights under a mosquito net. This is not a malaria area but when we go to Kruger we will take medication for malaria.
This time of year the schools take a select number of learners to local track competitions called Sports Day. One Saturday we went to the nearby town of Brits to a primary school that had amazing track facilities. Under Apartheid this school was generously funded and was able to build great sporting facilities while the African schools got next to nothing. Since Apartheid was eliminated in 1993, schools can select the language of instruction. Since this school chose Afrikaans, no blacks are able to attend because they cannot speak Afrikaans. The school is a white dominated public school. This struck us as so unfair to see the disparity between the village schools that have no sports facilities to this school that had facilities that are better than most US high schools. Needless to say, the athletes from the village did poorly against those able to train on decent facilities. However, the village kids had a blast and enjoyed the outing tremendously.
Four friends enjoying Sports Day. Isaac, Merideth(within the tree), Alfred, and another Isaac on Sports Day.
We want to end this entry with two snapshot stories of our experiences here.
One day when Merideth was at school going to get on her bike to ride to her other school. A crowd of learners were at her bike and when she approached she discovered they were trying to stomp on something on the ground. It was a frog. They had already killed one poor frog. Merideth scolded the children about hurting an innocent creature and scooped the frog up into her hands. This freaked out the kids and scattered them away in fear. As she delivered the frog to the safety of nearby bushes, another student came to her with a second rescued frog. What is amazing about this story is that these village kids don’t behave like country kids who like to deal with bugs and such – they are more like city kids afraid of dogs, snakes, and spiders. This brief encounter was the highlight of Merideth’s day.
The other story: When I was helping the electrician fix our geyser, we took the element to the local hardware and building material store. The element was stuck to the collar that attaches it to the geyser. Everything we had done to separate it was fruitless. Without much pleading, the guys at the store took the part into the backroom and started to work on separating the collar from the busted element. We followed but stood back to watch as the men tried their best to separate the collar. After working on it for about an hour, they managed to drill the element out and cleanly remove it from the collar. We bought a new element for $25 and they charged us nothing for their efforts. What struck me about this situation was that the black and Afrikaner employees at this store were working side by side on this problem as equals with no attention to who they were - just what they were doing. They were companions with a common goal. It’s my belief this is a picture of where South Africa is going in the future. A country where people work side by side with only the task at hand foremost.
And that’s the way it was.
