Free free free

"Feel Free! Free free free!" 1st Month at Site
October 20 2010

When I arrived one the first things my host family told me was to feel
free. To be free here, that this is my home. They remind me of this
often. I'm amazed at how welcoming and loving this culture is.

Gazini in Zulu means blood. Once long ago (the 1800's) there was a
great battle between the Zulu king and some ruffians. I was told by my
father there was a lot of blood, thus we call this place Gazini. I'm
working on getting more details to this story.

During my first week here I was overwhelmed and bombarded with new
people and places. One of my principals/supervisors, Mrs. Mavundla
(her first name is Brilliant, and it's true, she is absolutely
brilliant) took me into Maguzi to go shopping as my 2 room house only
contained my bags of clothes and books, and a borrowed desk, stove,
bed, candle, and two chairs. She advised me on essentials and helped
me to find the cheapest buckets in town, she's an excellent bargain
shopper. She showed me again the police station, hospital, post
office, library, and educational resource center.

I love my house. It's two small rooms with more than enough space for
all of my things. I have no electricity, which I am enjoying more that
I thought I would. I use candles at night and pay a lot more attention
to the sun, as it's so much easier to do things like wash dishes,
sweep the floor, and study Zulu with sunlight. I charge my cell phone
and computer at the school, which is powered by a solar panel. I cook
on a single burner gas stove. I only have foods that don't need to be
refrigerated, (at least until winter when my house will be a
refrigerator), and I pump water from a boer hole about 50m away and
store it in two 25L buckets in my kitchen area. I refill them about
once a week, twice depending on how many baths I take. I use a pit
latrine complete with cockroaches that usually manage to be on their
backs squirming around. I help escort them outside with a broom kept
in the latrine for that purpose. A plus to a latrine, you don't have
to flush! I don't have a lot of trash, but when I do i take it to a
big hole where we burn it. Sadly I'm unaware of an alternative. I do
plan on helping to build a compost pile both at the schools and
starting one at my house.

My second morning here 4 learners from grade 7 and two teachers came
to my house to build a laundry line for me. They brought the gum tree
wood, tools, and wire and in about an hour I had a magnificent 3 line
laundry line. Back in Lubbock I made my own laundry line in front of
our apartment once, and the land lady made me take it down almost
immediately because she said it looked tacky. Differences. I think
hanging laundry is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.
Seeing colorful cloth blow in the wind stops me. After I take my
laundry off the line I smell it for a good 5 minutes or so, it smells
so good.

There were so many meetings. I had a meeting with my host family, met
the teachers at both the primary and high school, the SGB committees
and the SGB members (School Governing Body- comprised of teachers,
parents, community members, and learners, like a PTO), the local
induna (a traditional leader- he's the headman under the chief of the
area, and you need his approval to do anything in the community), the
learners, parents, and the bakkie (truck) drivers. It was bananas. I
always introduced myself in Zulu, speaking a little about where I'm
from and why I'm here, that later being more difficult to explain. The
parents were particularly shocked at my baby Zulu intro and like to
think I am fluent, or 100% at Zulu. Mostly people are really happy and
patient when I butcher their language, especially the kids.

After the week of meetings and settling in I started attending school
everyday, alternating days at the two and doing half days at each on
Fridays. I began interviewing all the teachers and started observing
classes. The interviews have been very helpful in gaining a better
idea of the needs of the schools, thus directing my work for the next
two years.

Gazini Primary School is easily the cleanest most well taken care of
aesthetically pleasing rural school I've seen in South Africa. Why?
Mrs. Mavundla is a very hard worker, and she has a vision. She is so
inspiring. She's a badass. She says, "I want to excel and grow
everyday, I have the challenge to do more than this!" The school is
part of a government program promoting health so there is no trash on
the grounds. I can't emphasize enough how rare this is, to not see
trash all over a school. All over South Africa woman called hokers
come around lunch time to sell candy, cakes, chips, etc to the kids
and teachers and usually that means plastic all over the place. But
not here! The school has the start of a library, a project I am going
to get involved with. There is a garden where each grade has a plot
taken care of by the learners. Every grade has their own classroom.
The school is landscaped by an employed groundsman with flowers and
trees Mrs. Mavundla has gotten donated. Mrs. Mavundla manages the
school with transparency and constant communication with the teachers
and staff. Everyone is aware of the budget, everyone has a say, there
are many committees, and generally I feel it's a happy place. I feel
very lucky to be working at this school.

Manhlenga Highschool, located 100m from Gazini PS, is a different
story. For reasons I am still discovering this school is severely
under resourced and has a slew of other issues. There is obvious
tension in management, there are not enough classrooms for the school
to offer needed/additional courses, there is no garden, library,
computer lab, or science lab. The toilets have seen and smelled better
days. Teachers and students seem to be tired, over worked, and
demotivated. There is no electricity or running water. Through
interviews I have been getting to know the staff and there are many
intelligent hopeful teachers willing to do work to make their school a
better place. I'm still not sure where to start, but I hope to have a
better idea in the coming weeks.

The beauty of PC (Peace Corps) is that we as volunteers are here to
build capacity, not to provide resources. We are here to work
sustainably, together with people, to transfer our skills, and to act
as a guide and facilitator to help make and encourage the changes that
are needed. Maybe the schools need more resources (which they do), so
our role is to help them find ways to get these resources, to aid in
organizing a strategy, to guide the various application processes,
etc, not to do it for them. To some teachers this is a strange
concept, one I have to reiterate a lot because many of them excepted
me to just be a full time teacher or to be someone that would make a
computer lab pop up.

We are in what PC calls the observation phase, a 3 month period ending
with a training. We aren't supposed to begin any projects, rather we
are supposed to inquire and gather information. I've got a ton so far,
and I've found lots of eager smiling faces. I'm very excited for
January when we get to really begin.

Some random surprising/hilarious/maybe frustrating experiences:

Everyone knows who Chuck Norris is.

In the bakkie driving to and from town, we listen to random music like
Hero, by Enrique Iglesias, Kenny G, Mariah Carey, Evanescence techno
remixes,and Rihanna to name a few.

I met my first South African vegetarian (so rare, I think South
Africans might love meat more than Americans)- Dumisani, a brilliant
22 year old male teacher, he's vegetarian for health reasons and his
church encourages it.

My host mom taught me how to crack peanuts correctly!

I am given fresh veggies/fruit a few times a week- lettuce, cabbage,
sweet potatoes, spinach, beet root, tomatoes, onions, butternut
squash, apples, and best of all bananas. The most delicious bananas
I've ever tasted. I feel so lucky to live here.

One Saturday the ward manager (the boss of the principals in the area)
came by my house, along with two other volunteers, and we collected
about 20 South Africans and 3 other volunteers and headed to the
beach. (All in one bakkie!) Why? I'm not really sure, but hey, it was
an incredible day! The beach we went to was a nature reserve on the
Indian Ocean. Breathtaking. Pure white sand, no people but us, no
stores, no trash, warm gentle blue waves, mountains of green, monkeys
in the brush.

When the moon is not out I think I can see all of the stars. Zero
light/air pollution. Being in the southern hemisphere the stars are
new to me. In the morning I can see a familiar face in Orion, and
Venus shines brightly.

I run in the afternoons and sometimes kids trail behind or take
shortcuts through the brush to get ahead. They love to sprint far up
the path and the collapse on the sand. The first time this happen I
was slightly worried, but then I realized they are just having fun. We
sing silly songs in Zulu and English like, "Siyagijima! We are
running!" It's a good way to teach each other, and we all love it. I
hope to add more interesting lyrics as my Zulu progresses.

I haven't had too many frustrating experiences so far. I think the
most frustrating thing is a lack of communication back home and
unreliable internet access. It's just a matter of time though,
adjusting to using a cell phone for internet, not being able to see
pictures online, and only sending emails once a week is something I'll
have to embrace. Which is because I know I'm really lucky to have
these opportunities.

My dad has 40 goats, and I think I'm developing an affection to them.
They hang out around my house at night, rubbing up against the walls
scratching themselves and carrying on conversations in yet another
language foreign to me. I think they want to come in my house and hang
out, but right now they are too timid. Maybe one day we'll all have
some coffee together.

My 25 year old host sister Thandeka and I get along very well. She
speaks some english and helps me a lot with my Zulu. She is really
beautiful, has tons of energy, and is a teacher of Grade R at the
primary school. Grade R is like kindergarden. She tells me she loves
to play with the kids. Truth! One afternoon I watched her manage 53
kids holding hands outside in a circle playing a game learning
vocabulary words and running around chasing each other. It was
incredible, and we laughed so much at these adorable kids. She
realized both out names start with T and so now she refers to and
introduces us as 'T squared.' T^2.

That's all for now. I hope to make blogging a habit at least once a
month, maybe more. I hope that you are all well in good health and
happiness. I miss you very much and send lots of love through the
wind!