The turkeys and chickens were holding me hostage in my house!
Too much rain was not so good for the newly planted trees…
…or my herb garden!
The school locked the parents into the school grounds so they would vote on the SGB members.
They sent my learners out of class to fetch their parents for the vote. effective use of school time
These chickens know who normally feeds them! Stalking my host mom!
My hair is getting long!
Grade 6 making Valentine’s
I go to class and this is what I find. another teacher took the learners for a test or something.
This is why I keep my burglar/screen door shut. Otherwise these critters walk in my room.
Many people think that being a PCV is a crazy-brave-exciting-rewarding-energetic life, and while many days contain bits of each of those characteristics, life is really a lot more normal here than most of y’all realize. Here’s a normal day in my PCV life.
At the cruel hour of 3:30 in the morning, I am usually woken up briefly (hopefully) by a loud COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO right outside my window. Mr. Rooster has risen. He crows for a bit, then seems to go back to bed. This continues for the next hour and a half, until about 5am when he manages to get me wide awake. I grumble out of bed, hoping no scorpions are scuttling across the floor because I am too lazy to find a light or my shoes. I shuffle to my light switch and my day begins with a trip to the latrine then over to the yard tap to fetch my bathing water.
I start my coffee and figure out what breakfast will be, usually a PB&J, and settle down for my daily Bible reading. A bit before six I take my bucket bath. Depending on which school I am going to, I either leave by 6:15 for an hour-long, 5km walk, or leave at 7ish with my host brother and sister for a 10 minute walk to school.
I am usually home by 3pm or so, as schools let out around 2:15pm. Now, teachers often do not attend classes during the day, or come in super late, so they often hold the kids after. However, when I’m at MPS (10 min walk), I pretty much leave by 14:30, partially because I have nothing to do and partially because I think it’s ridiculous that teachers hold learners late because the teacher didn’t do their job during the day. At KPS (5 km away), I still usually leave by 3pm, and someone always gives me a ride home. PC’s policy is that PCVs always walk home/do not require a ride home from principals, etc. However, I feel like PC’s Medical Policy is against me walking 5km during the hottest part of the day.
Once home I usually make some instant coffee, munch on something because my school lunch was at 10am, and crash a bit while reading. Teaching is hard work! I wait until after 5 or so to make dinner, but I am sure to make it before dark, or else the demand from me and my family will zap the electricity. I try never to turn my kettle on after dark for the same reason. If it is super windy or rainy, then the electricity will likely as not be out for the night, and I hope I have some bread to make a PB&J with.
Bedtime is often shortly after 8pm (remember, Mr. Rooster starts his morning around 3:30am). I often have a slightly scary trip to the latrine after dark-trust me, never take a light. You don’t want to see the critters that take refuge in there. Then it’s lights out and off to dreamland beneath my mosquito net.
See, normal. Ok, too be honest I realize nothing in this post is really normal. I really did begin writing thinking my life was pretty normal by US standards. Then as I went on, I realized how not-true that was. I guess it has just become normal. Cool!
-Jen
As I was picking peaches, a whole swarm of turkeys and chickens decided to chase me around.
Another shot of Sports Day at KPS
Due to it actually raining, the bush I walk through to school is actually green and lush!
From this I understand that Ben + Pat the Elf are friends, and the Arabic man lives in a sand castle
A chicken observes the setting sun from his coop (right outside my window).
More photos!
A cow wanders along a cattle path on my way to school.
A chicken herds her chicks away from me-the big, scary human.
My phone only displays temps up to 99 on the homescreen. notice the 99+…ugh.
I come home to find a bug chilling in my bowl…such is the PCV life.
Living in SA means I am constantly faced with rivaling realities. SA is a pretty well developed country-on paper. If you have been here, you have probably traveled to Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Jo’burg, or another area of the country that seems much like America-well-built buildings, paved roads, drinkable tap water, electricity, wireless internet, bright lights, shiny cars, and endless shopping malls. So why is PC here?
That is far from my reality, where I live. My village is a tiny little village, literally on the edge of the Kalahari, secluded from a glamorous life. The nearest tarred road is 30+km away, and besides a few tiny shops selling essentials (flour, bread, canned beans, soap…no butter though), 3 schools, some churches and a clinic, there is nothing else to attract people to my town. Cows and goats command the dirt/sand roads, rather than cars. Heck, I could probably count the number of cars driving through my village on my fingers. On weekends I could do it on one hand.
I am constantly faced with a mental battle-trying to justify the contradictions and stereotypes I see each day with what I have been taught-at home and at training. Here are some of the stereotypes of African life that I experience in my village. And some of the ways my life contradicts my expectations.
Numerous orphan (and likely child-headed households) due to the HIV/AIDS problem in this country.
Women walking through the bush, gathering wood for outdoor fires, even though their homes have electricity.
Children walking 10km to school one way because there is no high school in my town-and no transport for them, or else they cannot afford it.
Children dropping out at Grade 9 or 10 because getting to school is so hard.
BMWs and other extremely nice cars driving down tarred roads in my shopping town…passing by families who are emaciated and haven’t eaten that day.
Greeting people in Setswana and being responded to in Afrikaans, because I am white.
Children coming to school barefoot, in ripped and dirty uniforms, likely without having eaten breakfast.
Families living in tin shacks, next to large, beautiful houses.
Darling fluffy little dogs running along the fences, barking at me as I walk along. Or just following me.
Getting woken up each day by a mixture of chickens, turkeys, and donkeys.
A beautiful, clean school with a 19 unit computer lab and enthusiastic educators. With 16 year olds in Grade 5 (equivalent to fifth grade in the USA).
Women gathering water in plastic jugs and carrying them home on their heads, with a baby tied to their backs.
A dried up watering hole next to my house, awaiting the rainy season and a short rest from the ever-present dust and grit blowing around.
Villagers traveling 80km to eat at KFC. Yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Some of what I see each day is heartbreaking, and I am stuck because I cannot hand money over to the hungry, protect a child from an angry parent, or wave my hands in the air and make everything ok and right. Being a PCV here means I cannot fix many of the huge problems. Yet at the same time being the only white person to live in this village (I assume…and a fair assumption), attempting to learn the language and living with a black family has a lot of power in this country that is still recovering from Apartheid. By living here, working in the schools, and educating children, I am not only giving them knowledge, I am also helping to battle the racial legacy of this country. This will have an impact that I will never see. And I am confident that my two years here will have an effect of the next generation. Most of my work will not produce immediate results. However, as the children I work with grow, finish high school, and ponder what opportunities they have after secondary school, I hope my time here will provide them with hope of a brighter future, and the perseverance to achieve it.
High hopes? Yes. Impossible? Not at all. For now I will keep working to provide my learners with important tools: hope, resilience, a vision, and leadership, at the very least.
-Jen
Jen's Peace Corps Experience in South Africa 