Disclaimer: I have read quite a few books since being in the village. A side effect of reading amazing authors that know just how to manipulate words to make up beautiful sentences is that I think I can do the same and so you are subjected to my futile attempt. Please humor me and continue to read.
Peace Corps as a concept is very alluring; the pictures you see in the brochures and on the website are so vibrantly exotic and tantalizing; the idea of living somewhere in Africa or Latin America or the Pacific Islands is completely intoxicating; the work descriptions are vague but provide just enough information to peak interest and the desire to understand just what they mean when they say PC is a unique experience. This is why I applied, accepted and actually stepped onto the plane. And now I’m here and the reality is RPCV’s (that’s Return Peace Corps Volunteers for those not in the know) were right and you can’t go in with any expectations because the moment you do is when the rug is snatched out from under you. But not in a bad way, just in an eye opening, awe filled way, if you can look at it like that. And I’m beginning to understand why they actually say it’s the hardest job you’ll ever love.
It’s not hard for any of the reasons I thought it would be hard. Living without running water is fine. A human’s adaptability to her surroundings is amazing, you just have to give yourself time to adjust and focus. Like blinking a couple times to get the sleep out of your eyes so you no longer see the world through a fog but actually see it. The electricity goes out with a strong wind and getting bitten by mosquitoes may endure for the night but it always comes back by the morning and the bites eventually go away. Really, don’t sell yourself short and say you could never do something like this. You’re stronger than you think. Besides, I’m not really roughing it like some volunteers – there is one who doesn’t have any electricity period and has to carry her water on her head up a hill from a river. Someone always has it a little bit harder and it all depends on your perspective anyway.
The moments I find myself tested are in the office. As nerdy as I am and as much as I like working on the computer and creating excel reports (yes, you now know my secret shame), being in an office with no air conditioning for an extended period of time is maddening. Despite English being one of the 11 official languages of the country, in a remote village, my friends and colleagues don’t necessarily understand English and my talking fast doesn’t help. This is when I am motivated to learn more Sepedi so I can express myself better instead of getting frustrated. One day at a time. ‘Take a deep breathe and demonstrate, not do for someone’ is a mantra I repeat to myself…a lot. And the work ethic is different so there are plenty of times when I have found myself sitting staring at the wall. Quickly I learned to bring a book with me and have finished quite a few! After awhile I started going to the centers and spending more time with the kids. No matter how rotten I feel, playing with the kids brings me out of the funk every time. So I now find myself splitting my time between the offices and the centers and I am finding this a great arrangement. And it’s part of my job to play so no guilt! There was a moment when I had this adorable girl, Motsatsi on my lap and we were surrounded by 6 or 7 other little kids. They were all conversing and she had just inspected and tried on all of my jewelry and my glasses. The next thing I hear her sister utter is “four eyes” and they are all staring at me. Evidently ‘four eyes’ is an endearing term in Sepedi. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.
In order to swallow the idea of a 2 year commitment to work abroad and be a million miles away from my boyfriend, family and friends, I had to distance myself from the reality of it. In the grand scheme of things, being married for 60 years and living for 100+ years, 2 years is nothing; it’s a short nap. But the days when the heat is unbearable by 8 am, a taxi doesn’t come by for an hour, when I finally get to the office, the person I was supposed to meet with just decided to not show up and not bother to tell me, I forgot my lunch and the only thing to eat is chicken feet and pap, those days make the 2 years seems to stretch out longer than I ever imagined.
Those are the days I come home, relax for a bit and then right as the sun is setting, I go for a run. It’s the favorite part of my day. A little over a month into my village life I decided that I needed to get some more exercise in to counteract the effects of eating a lot of bread and pap. As I am the only white person living in this village, I was a little unsure of exactly what to do; I already stick out just a little bit so the idea of running didn’t really appeal to me. I tried waking up at 5:30 in the morning, when barely anyone is out. That lasted I think a total of 4 days. Finally, I decided to just get over my fear and run at 5:30 pm instead. And the most amazing thing happened. Instead of the ridicule I anticipated, the villagers loved it. And these kids started running with me, first 3 then 5 then 10 and the next thing I know I literally have an entourage of at least 20 kids running alongside me. There are a couple 16 old girls who came along that first day as well. They love exercising and have become my permanent running partners. Now, every day that I round the corner to their house, they are out there waiting and depending on how hot the day is will determine just how many kids are waiting with them to tag along. Their energy is amazing and the fact that they run barefoot and in skirts humbles me. It’s great; I’ve been able to get to know more people in my village and even have been invited over for dinner and dancing!
I could go on. I haven’t even begun to tell you about my Johannesburg experience and getting to see the other side of life here in South Africa. But I’ll save that for another insightful moment. I’m sure I’ll have more of those and this e-mail is already long. But because I’m sure you’re dying to know how my holiday was, I’ll tell you it was 3 weeks long and absolutely amazing. I saw so many areas of the country and got to spend 2 of those weeks with Jason (my boyfriend of 3 years for those of you not up on the gossip) which made it just perfect. Here’s the highlights: I went to Bergeville in KwaZulu Natal Province for Christmas and saw another area of the Drakensburg mountains which is gorgeous, spent a fun night dancing in Durban, visited wineries in Stellenbosch, partied it up for New Year’s in Cape Town, 2 nights in Knysna along the Garden Route and got to be lazy on the beach, saw the Great Karoo, which driving through (twice) without air conditioning in the heat of the day makes me wonder why it’s referred to as being so great, ended up back in Limpopo at my village for a few days so Jason could see where I live and then a couple days in Johannesburg before going back down to Cape Town so J could catch his flight home.
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| Bergeville x-mas 2006 |
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| Cape Town 2006 |
