interview

Still in Pretoria for medical, so here is another post!

One of my friends suggested that I interview South Africans and share their stories with people back home (thanks Sean!) so here is my first instalment.

On my way back from a medical procedure, I asked one of the men who drives the volunteers to appointments what he thought was the most important/best aspect of South Africa that I should share with others. Here is an excerpt (please keep in mind that I tried my best to accurately reflect our conversation but I had been sedated for the appointment and I had not eaten for 30+ hours :)):

What is one of the best aspects of South Africa?

"I would have to say that the best thing about South Africa (you know that we speak 11 languages here?), well the best things is that we all work hard to come together. It is important to learn the languages of each other. Where I grew up, if you wanted to play with the other kids and understand each other you had to learn their language.
The other thing that is good about South Africa is that we fought against an unfair government. We won. All of the Afrikaners thought that there would be a civil war, but that did not happen. Its like if you did something wrong against me yesterday, I should just say 'Jennie, yesterday when you did X, this happened to me' and then we move on. Together. That is the other wonderful thing about South Africa. We are not holding grudges, we are moving forward."


I asked a 15 year old youth in our village what was one thing that Americans should know about South Africa and she said that Americans should know that if you live in a rural area, you have to make your own outside light if you want to see at night. I was thinking about this after our conversation and I don't think either of us realized at the time how profound her statement was. There is a perception of South Africa as the land of shopping malls, cities and crime. But the villages are very different. The villages have a beauty about them, but they are also lacking greatly in resources. It is truly 1st world, 3rd world in South Africa (and it is very clear who is given the opportunities to live in each world). In the villages, if you want to see through the night, you better start constructing your own light.

Lots of love,
Jennie

tears welling
she lifts my bags
no questions asked


for her
a life

for me
an adventure

no questions asked
i'm stumbling
she lifts.

perfection

I have not done a lot of posting on our blog, mainly because I do not have the patience to type an entry on our cell phone. I am in Pretoria right now for some medical tests and I am able to use the computer at the Peace Corps office. I thought I would share one of the most important lessons that I have learned thus far in our Peace Corps experience.

I think one of the biggest lessons that I have learned from my time in the Peace Corps is to let loose the reins of perfection.
For much of my life I have had a drive/a need to be perfect. I felt inadequate if I was not exactly what or who the receiver wanted. Since perfection has no finish line, I never had to sit with the other person's (or my own) disapointment because I could hop right up and say "oh, wait! You thought I was finished. Don't worry, I am not even tired yet." I was always trying to be what others wanted me to be, all the while denying my true interests and talents.

But sometimes the beauty of being a person is to sit down with out make up in mis-matched pajamas and say "here I am," to which the other says "well you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." For once in my life I am not discounting the statement of appreciation, but actually allowing to let words surround me like the rain, blanket and blackberry tea.

Love to you all!
~Jennie

a poem

Not being able to understand
what is being said
gives
the unique
opportunity

to let the words
slide

ice cubes
on a hot summers day

the unique
opportunity
to decide
if
the orange of the African
sun
clashes
with the unfinished
teal
walls

The Phokwane Youth Sports League, Part II

Just this month we received generous donations from two local stores. We now have balls, water bottles, whistles and more of the same promised plus a duffel bag to carry everything.

Adults and children don't often play together in this culture. Our goal is to boost the kids' self esteem and to provide an activity that reduces behavior that increases the risk of exposure to HIV and AIDS.

The Phokwane Youth Sports League, Part I

One of the projects we feel has been most meaningful and successful to us thus far has been playing soccer and netball with the children in our village every Saturday.

Jennie came up with the idea when her Sepedi tutor, Mahlatse, commented on the lack of activities for youth to do - on the weekends, on school breaks, in general. So after the lesson, we played soccer and ultimate frisbee with about 15 kids and Mahlatse.

This continued for about three weeks when we decided the soccer field didn't have much water. So I asked my principal if we could move the Saturday games to the school, which has water, a netball court and a full size soccer ground.

Three weeks more down the line, and over 50 kids were showing up. If you've never tried to play one soccer game with 50 kids, don't. It doesn't work. Everyone kind of swarms the ball. So now we've started playing netball in addition.

First Thanksgiving in South Africa, Part II

Pictures from our first Thanksgiving:

First Thanksgiving in South Africa, Part I

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving in South Africa with two fellow volunteers, Margurite and Gregor, and our host family on Saturday the 24th. We were all working on that Thursday, as Peace Corps Volunteers don't get United States holidays off, only South African holidays.

We did manage to find most of the fixings - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casarole, and a fabulous fruit salad brought by our friends. We attempted, we think successfully, to explain Thanksgiving to Sholden, Madintsi, Lea, and Lebogan, our host siblings. After we stuffed ourselves, we had just enough time to rest before running the weekly sports activities up at the school (the topic of our next pair of posts).

Slide show to follow in the next post, or click here to go to the album.

Wildlife

We were telling someone in the United States that we go on a run every morning and they were quite concerned. "Is that safe with all the wild animals?"

It's time we came clean. There are no giraffes or impalas grazing outside our window. I know, we thought there would be too. At least five per week. But sadly, no. Apparently, they don't freely roam rural Africa. Our older host brother thought it was pretty funny we expected that.

In fact, we have yet to see one giraffe, impala, kudu, lion, zebra . . . here's a slide show of the "wildlife" we've seen thus far.

South African Schools, Part II

One of my schools has relatively new classrooms and a computer lab with nine computers. Another lost part of its roof four years ago and they are still waiting for repairs. Class sizes range between 35 and 60 students.

The South African government has introduced sweeping reforms since 1996, aimed at moving the education system towards more outcomes/standards based assessment with a greater emphasis on fostering the critical thinking process. Unfortunetly, these reforms take time and require extensive training for the teachers to learn the new methodology. So it's difficult for all parties involved.

Working at the schools has really helped me reaffirm my convictions regarding pedagogy and good practices. I've had to think about why I believe a certain type of teaching is preferrable. I've also continued to develop my classroom management skills, which were always a little weak during student teaching and have additional dynamics in a different culture.