Wendy's Journal
April 2003
 

The following is excerpted from my April journal writing and I bulleted the highlights so you can scan for a quick view or get into more detail according to your time & interest.
April…
• Language test
  Passed – WHEW – end of training period!  
• Shopping trip
  We were given a “settling in allowance” and taken to a big shopping center about an hour away. We had spent 10 days at our new site so had a chance to figure out what we wanted/needed. Purchases included pots & pans, dishes, utensils, stoves, wash tubs, bikes... My big splurge was a 5x8 Picasso rug for the concrete floor of my bedroom for R700 (that’s 700 rands - divide by 8 for US $). We tried to get any big item we’d need as a truck would be delivering to our sites. After this we’ll mostly have to ride in public transport holding purchases on our laps. Got back to the college where bags we had stored in Pretoria were delivered. (We had been limited to one suitcase or bkpk for the 10 wks of training).  
• Dislocated shoulder
  Had to try out Bill’s new bike…but the fitting wasn’t tight between the ft tire & handlebars, so when I turned the bars, the wheel didn’t turn and I fell hard off to one side, caught myself with my left hand on a low brick wall… and dislocated my shoulder. Interesting feeling. By the time I got taken to Dr back in the big town, shoulder was back in place – got xray to confirm and ck for any prob… all is well. Got a nice sling to wear so get a lot of sympathy. Supposed to keep shoulder pretty immobile for 3 wks.  
• “Traditional dress”
  When got home, my mother had made me a “traditional dress” to wear the next day for swearing in ceremony! Really a nice surprise and she used a pattern and material I’ll be comfortable wearing to special events here… funerals probably mostly. By the way, the big deal made about having to wear dresses/skirts to school has not borne out – most teachers wear pants & blouses…sometimes even Levis. So I’ll be shopping soon for a couple of alternatives to the things I brought. I have worn only my Chaco sandals on my feet so far – that makes me happy!  
• Swearing in ceremony
  April 3 - at College of the Northwest where we trained. US Ambassador to SA here to do the honors – first solemnly in English in a room with only us & the SA Country Director, then in the auditorium in Setswana in front of our host families and trainers. Speeches & food – you know the drill.  
• Move to permanent site
  Pack trucks with all our stuff, goodbye to parents & 10 of our group of 34 who are heading in a different direction, then bodies in vehicles – most in Toyota Ventures but I got to travel in a Mercedes with leather interior & air conditioning with Ric & Terri (a great couple that will be quite near me), and the ed director for the NW Province & her assistant. Probably the nicest ride I’ll have in 2 years! Very interesting people – good info session on cultural issues & SA education issues. Couple of hrs to a lodge near city of Mafikeng where Dept. of Ed paid for our lodging, dinner, brkfst, box lunch! Most of the kids stayed up into the night partying/drinking – I’m old. I had to have help getting out of my traditional dress as L arm bites me if I ask it to do certain things…so a SHOWER and loose T shirt and bed were enough party for me.
April 4 – After brkfst walked around grounds. Would like to have had time to find out history of lodge. Sefuba… means chest – don’t know why that name. Obviously quite old, semi attached to old race track – gocarts now – large area with permanent pens was a petting zoo – only a couple of dogs there now and they weren’t the petting type. Dry fountains, lawns kept up nicely but place felt unused. Quick shopping trip in Mafikeng.
 
• Cell phone purchased
  An essential here as few homes have “land lines. Without one I had to walk 15 min to a public phone that’s really public… inside a tuck shop (neighborhood “store” with just a few basics), or take a taxi into town… hard to get incoming calls! Text messaging is big here as it’s way cheaper than talking. Folks get very fast at “typing” on the phones.  
• Travel in “backie”
  Now riding in back of one of the Ventures. [What US uses as the “trunk”, jeep type vehicles here have set up for 4 passengers – 2 bench seats facing ea other. I marvel at the old &/or large people who get up into these and ride for hours often on bumpy roads with an infant on back or lap & bags of groceries or things between feet or on lap.]. A couple of hrs to Vryburg – all luggage out & shifted into vehicles from our villages. 2 hrs later in Taung – shift stuff again into family or rep vehicles to make the final lap.  
• “Home”
  April 5 - first day at my home for the next two years. I have a house with electricity but have to carry water about 50 yds from a “bore hole” (well) next door & use little tin outhouse & bathe standing over or in a plastic wash tub. I arrived yesterday about 5 and have been settling ever since. Most of the family is at a funeral in Kimberley. Tato is a 16 year old girl (looks 12) who has been here for the 2 wk school break from her home in Mafikeng. Her mother is one of “my mother’s” 13 children and a teacher. Tato prefers the country and was very helpful with my putting away of things. I’m sure part of the inspiration was curiosity about all my things, and part was boredom with everyone else gone. The Dept of Ed provided me with a bed & sheets & pillow & a wardrobe. Am supposed to get a table/desk & chair also.  
• Town travel
  Went to get some groceries & supplies & PO box. Trip involves standing out on the “tar road” (paved vs dirt) by my house & pointing down to the ground when a coombie comes by, which means I just want to travel locally. A coombie (spelled various ways) is a taxi – usually Toyota van set up to take 18 passengers - & one can hire one for a special trip though mostly you just stand beside the road until one comes by, or if in town, go to the taxi rank where they’re lined up by destination & you get in & wait until enough people come to fill it. Cost is R4 for the 20 minute ride from my house to town. Return trip is always way more fun as I have too many pkgs as do others, so it’s squish city!  
• Sunday
  Decadently spent several hrs. completing a book I started last night (Never Change by Elizabeth Berg – very good). Washed hair, cooked chicken & rice to last 3 days, watched the donkey carts & goats go by, a few family members dropped in to visit, started organizing all the materials we “earned” in training, & watched the sky change colors. Some lightening far away. Pretty flat for a long way here & nothing to pollute or change the skyline above 10 ft. tree heights, so one can see a fur piece! Tomorrow to school – they’ve been on holiday for 2 wks  
• Start school assignment
  I have 2 schools to work with so will trade off by weeks. One principal is very authoritarian & many teachers operate with sticks (a 2’ stripped branch) to threaten and sometimes beat the “naughty” children with. Children spend an inordinate amt of time cleaning, sweeping, waxing floors & tchers are out of their classrms a lot. Antithesis: the other principal really runs a democratic ship & believes kids should have fun so they enjoy learning – and I haven’t seen a suggestion of beating kids, no sticks, tchers teaching all day, minimal cleaning. No schools have custodial or clerical staff and all admin. teach classes also – usually a period or two of an upper grade subject. There is no money for substitute tchers so if a tchr is out for wkshop, illness, meeting, the kids just stay alone in the room. One school has no operational toilet facilities for students – not even pit toilets, and only one pit for 18 educators to share…working on that!  
• Easter weekend to Kimberley
  Stayed 3 nights at a hostel with 15 other SA10’s (we are the 10th group of volunteers to be assigned to South Africa). Cost R45/nite. Great to take a real shower every day! Went to Big Hole diamond mine museum area, a movie, shopped, parks, bars, restaurants, and Jazz fest Sunday nite. Very nice grounds – I spent lots of time down by the Vaal River enjoying the shade & breeze & reading a bk…until all the beer drinkers started peeing openly all around me. Some good music and some mediocre that we would not even call jazz. Was a fun getaway day anyway. Monday went to taxi rank at 8…didn’t fill up until 10 but did get ride straight to Taung – 1.5 hrs for R35.  
• Start Physical therapy
  3 wks of sling are over. Found PT in Taung that seems good so the arm is starting to be a functioning part of the old bod again.  
• Friday night in Hartswater with Terri & Ric & Jeannie
  South about 45 min – larger than Taung but still small. No movie theater & no real restaurant choices. Do have a pizza option. Stayed in very nice place that had good food and fell asleep in bathtub. Ran into other PCV’s at email place

  
Well sounds like I’m playing a lot… but that’s the positive stuff to write you about. I haven’t found my niche yet in the schools and feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of info, so will save additional commentary on that subject for another time. Have given a couple of workshops to introduce myself, share Peace Corps info, clarify my role (I don’t bring $$$, I don’t teach classes when there is no teacher there…) and try to find out specific ways they want help. Have been trying to organize book storage areas partly to find out what they have.

Home / family situation is fine. I’ve stayed kind of separate but do play Frisbee etc with the kids. I can only sit so long in an adult group where all are speaking another language & there is no attempt to clue me in on subject. I am working with a tutor a couple of days a week and maybe sometime it’ll click in for me. My “mother” is Maggie – 74 – brings 2 or 3 kids in sleep in the bedrm next to mine each night and I’ve started reading children’s books in Setswana to them which they really enjoy. I borrow grade 2 books from school and do pretty well reading that level. Comprehension is another matter but the pictures are helpful!

That’s all for now. Best wishes to all and thank you for all the support – I get a lot of brain wave messages so I know I’m not forgotten!

Love, Wendy