I can’t believe it has been nearly 2 months since I last wrote. I wish I were more like another volunteer here who manages to write at least 3 or 4 times a month, sometimes more. I know she is just as busy as I am, but she is really dedicated about writing in her blog and letting her friends and family at home what is happening with her. One day, I’ll be more like that or you all will just have to wait for the book.
The school term has flown by. We are in the middle of the winter break here. The school system shut down a couple of weeks early in order to accommodate the World Cup games. The authorities want fewer cars on the road during the games, but I’m not sure how much less traffic this creates in the urban areas. In the rural areas, it doesn’t change anything since we really have few cars anyway. The conflicts on the road come from donkeys, goats, sheep, potholes, and drunks both walking and driving. Nevertheless, school is out. Pics of kids from last day of school.
Our schools competed in an area-wide choir competition at the beginning of May. The primary schools’ competition was held on the Saturday. Our Grade 1-3 choir placed second, but the older Grade 4-6 kids didn’t do as well. I took a
cross-stitch project with me because there was a lot of sitting. The number of people who thought cross-stitch should be taught was huge, but I haven’t been able to find even DMC floss 
or Aida cloth anywhere locally. The middle school competition was held on Sunday. They also placed second for each of the songs they sang. For the middle school, this entitled them to move on to the larger area provincial competition that was held the following weekend. Again, they placed second. They sang 4 songs, but there was another local school that sang so well that I knew they would be hard to beat.An odd thing happens in South Africa. The funding year for the schools is disjointed from the funding year of the government who is in charge of the schools. So for a complete term, nearly, the schools have no funds. This means they cannot buy paper, ink, electricity (they beg to keep the power on from the large power company), salaries are foregone, etc. It is a tense time for the principals who have to manage this problem. Some are better at budgeting than others, but all are affected to some degree by the problem.
Consequently, I convinced my supervisor to take off one Friday afternoon and go to town to see Iron Man 2. We corralled his wife into joining us and just escaped for an afternoon. Going to the movies is not as easy as it once was—it is several hours away, but worth it if you can get there. There are giraffes and rhinos along the way. Any anytime someone goes to town, especially with a car as opposed to a taxi, there are errands to be run and things to be purchased. We had a great time and laughing/losing oneself in a movie is a great way to forget the stress of work occasionally.
Fall here in South Africa has been abrupt…it went from really hot to really cold pretty quickly. During the summer, although I complained about the heat, there were days when it was cold and rainy and I used my light jacket. Now, I wear my jackets, hat, and gloves most of the time. It can be warm if you are outside sitting in the sun with no wind, but that isn’t all that often. I now completely understand about stocking caps, warm socks, flannel pajamas, and a hot water bottle…all that works wonders if you also have two blankets. South Africa continues to be a country of extremes.
The leaves on the trees have turned, the flamingoes in the nearby saltpans have migrated, the sunbirds are less frequent, but the starlings, the canaries, and the crows stick around. I’ve also seen some of the birds of prey around still too. The ants have retreated, but I still see the yellow mongoose families around a lot. It is fun to watch them running around marking their territory.
Oddly, we’ve got baby lambs at this time of year. I thought that babies naturally were born in the spring when food is plentiful. I’m not sure how I thought this happened—I guess I never gave it much thought really. When I asked Kgosi about it, he said it was an accident that mostly occurs because there is no fence. So I guess you can’t keep rams away from ewes when they are determined no matter what season it is.
Speaking of birthdays, a bunch of the kids who hang with me have birthdays in June. They are all turning 12 years old so we had a birthday party.
The boys were talking about it for weeks. I went to Mafikeng and got balloons, and some presents. (Their advice to me was “don’t forget the presents”). I also bought the stuff to make a cake and sandwiches. So in the end, we had tuna 
and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips and soda, and a French vanilla cake with chocolate butter cream frosting—blue candles. I bought a tablet and gel pens, a soccer ball, some ear buds, a key holder and flashlight, and some candy. I also downloaded Tetris and Pacman onto my iPod. 
Sonja and I saw some fake teeth that were made from gum. I thought they were hideous, but Sonja was dead on when she said the boys would love them. I bought them and she was completely right. The boys morphed into some kind of hunchback character when they wore those teeth. It was funny. Kathy sent along another soccer ball and Sonja provided some more candy. All in all, it was a great party. One of the boys has his birthday in October and another girl in September so I imagine the next party will be then. I’ve already been told that a watch would be a great gift.
Some friends from Austin sent me a great gift box of teas, mouse pads, and chocolate chips. My
friend, Anita, works at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf so she asked me if I could take some pictures of us drinking the teas. She sent me 
Apricot tea and Pomegranate Blueberry tea—these come in fantastic tins. I took the teas to the primary school on the last day of school for a little tea party along with some chocolate chip cookies. Talk about the best tea party in South Africa…first smelling and admiring the most beautiful tea bags in the world. We get a
Consequently, I convinced my supervisor to take off one Friday afternoon and go to town to see Iron Man 2. We corralled his wife into joining us and just escaped for an afternoon. Going to the movies is not as easy as it once was—it is several hours away, but worth it if you can get there. There are giraffes and rhinos along the way. Any anytime someone goes to town, especially with a car as opposed to a taxi, there are errands to be run and things to be purchased. We had a great time and laughing/losing oneself in a movie is a great way to forget the stress of work occasionally.
Fall here in South Africa has been abrupt…it went from really hot to really cold pretty quickly. During the summer, although I complained about the heat, there were days when it was cold and rainy and I used my light jacket. Now, I wear my jackets, hat, and gloves most of the time. It can be warm if you are outside sitting in the sun with no wind, but that isn’t all that often. I now completely understand about stocking caps, warm socks, flannel pajamas, and a hot water bottle…all that works wonders if you also have two blankets. South Africa continues to be a country of extremes.
The leaves on the trees have turned, the flamingoes in the nearby saltpans have migrated, the sunbirds are less frequent, but the starlings, the canaries, and the crows stick around. I’ve also seen some of the birds of prey around still too. The ants have retreated, but I still see the yellow mongoose families around a lot. It is fun to watch them running around marking their territory.
Oddly, we’ve got baby lambs at this time of year. I thought that babies naturally were born in the spring when food is plentiful. I’m not sure how I thought this happened—I guess I never gave it much thought really. When I asked Kgosi about it, he said it was an accident that mostly occurs because there is no fence. So I guess you can’t keep rams away from ewes when they are determined no matter what season it is.
Speaking of birthdays, a bunch of the kids who hang with me have birthdays in June. They are all turning 12 years old so we had a birthday party.
The boys were talking about it for weeks. I went to Mafikeng and got balloons, and some presents. (Their advice to me was “don’t forget the presents”). I also bought the stuff to make a cake and sandwiches. So in the end, we had tuna 
and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips and soda, and a French vanilla cake with chocolate butter cream frosting—blue candles. I bought a tablet and gel pens, a soccer ball, some ear buds, a key holder and flashlight, and some candy. I also downloaded Tetris and Pacman onto my iPod. 
Sonja and I saw some fake teeth that were made from gum. I thought they were hideous, but Sonja was dead on when she said the boys would love them. I bought them and she was completely right. The boys morphed into some kind of hunchback character when they wore those teeth. It was funny. Kathy sent along another soccer ball and Sonja provided some more candy. All in all, it was a great party. One of the boys has his birthday in October and another girl in September so I imagine the next party will be then. I’ve already been told that a watch would be a great gift.Some friends from Austin sent me a great gift box of teas, mouse pads, and chocolate chips. My
friend, Anita, works at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf so she asked me if I could take some pictures of us drinking the teas. She sent me 
Apricot tea and Pomegranate Blueberry tea—these come in fantastic tins. I took the teas to the primary school on the last day of school for a little tea party along with some chocolate chip cookies. Talk about the best tea party in South Africa…first smelling and admiring the most beautiful tea bags in the world. We get a 
generic black tea here so flavored teas are a great treat. Then tasting the teas…they are both so 
wonderful that there is no way to choose just one. Luckily, we all discovered that you might use these tea bags at least 3 times with no problem so there was a lot of tea consumed. And now as I continue to drink tea, I am looking forward to using these beautiful tins to hold all manner of items. We use everything here and something as beautiful as these tins will go a long way. Oddly, other volunteer friends who have been here also prize these tins, even over the tea they contain. I love the tea first, but the tins will come in handy!
wonderful that there is no way to choose just one. Luckily, we all discovered that you might use these tea bags at least 3 times with no problem so there was a lot of tea consumed. And now as I continue to drink tea, I am looking forward to using these beautiful tins to hold all manner of items. We use everything here and something as beautiful as these tins will go a long way. Oddly, other volunteer friends who have been here also prize these tins, even over the tea they contain. I love the tea first, but the tins will come in handy! One funny thing from the tea party, when I was asked how many cookies they each could take, I replied, “you may take as many as you like”. This created a huge uproar…”NO”, everyone cried. I was told that I “must say how many each could have otherwise people wouldn’t leave any for others.” The thing that is ironic here is that everyone shares everything. If someone is eating an orange and I walk by, I will be given half. If there is one computer and 5 kids, they take turns and find a game that 4 of them can play at once. If there is a shirt that you admire, you might find it in your closet. So if you had a handful of cookies and someone wanted some, you’d hand them over and never even complain. You’d think three-dozen cookies would easily cover 13 people, but they go fast. As far as I know, everyone got some.
I’m now getting ready to leave for two weeks in Madagascar. I’ll take the camera, but more importantly Katherine is meeting me there so she’ll take all the good pictures. I told Dennis when I was coming picking dates where my leave corresponded to his leave and then called Katherine and Mary, his wife, and told them to meet me there. We will have a great time although Dennis is expressing grumpiness about not having a say in the matter. (He did, he told me his leave dates.) We plan to visit the lemurs, of course, and the national parks where the stone formations have been listed as one of the World Historic sites. It seems hard to get around there, but that has never stopped us before so I’m looking forward to the break and seeing longtime friends.
In the meantime, the World Cup goes on. The vuvuzelas have turned into the national instrument—I like them, but there are definitely two schools of thought on the matter. USA will likely go on to round 2, but I think our SA Bafana Bafana might be planning to disappoint us all. There have been great articles in the New York Times though showing more about South Africa and the distance they’ve come in 15 short years since the end of Apartheid. It is great to be here this month, but I’m also pretty happy to be meeting friends in less than a week.
I’ll send a trip review when I get back in the middle of July…until then, Happy Father’s Day!
I’m now getting ready to leave for two weeks in Madagascar. I’ll take the camera, but more importantly Katherine is meeting me there so she’ll take all the good pictures. I told Dennis when I was coming picking dates where my leave corresponded to his leave and then called Katherine and Mary, his wife, and told them to meet me there. We will have a great time although Dennis is expressing grumpiness about not having a say in the matter. (He did, he told me his leave dates.) We plan to visit the lemurs, of course, and the national parks where the stone formations have been listed as one of the World Historic sites. It seems hard to get around there, but that has never stopped us before so I’m looking forward to the break and seeing longtime friends.
In the meantime, the World Cup goes on. The vuvuzelas have turned into the national instrument—I like them, but there are definitely two schools of thought on the matter. USA will likely go on to round 2, but I think our SA Bafana Bafana might be planning to disappoint us all. There have been great articles in the New York Times though showing more about South Africa and the distance they’ve come in 15 short years since the end of Apartheid. It is great to be here this month, but I’m also pretty happy to be meeting friends in less than a week.
I’ll send a trip review when I get back in the middle of July…until then, Happy Father’s Day!
Karen,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear about your adventures, the end of school term, birthday parties, etc.
I hope you have (or had) a great trip.
I think of you often and hope all is well.
Tracy