PCV in south africa

The festival and scout group got put on hold a little bit this week, meetings get pushed back and back and back, but I am optimistic that the scout group will start soon (about the festival, at this point I really cannot say.) Development work can be frustrating. I think I will become involved in tutoring at one of the local schools or maybe volunteering at the church I go to in town. meanwhile mangoes are slowly ripening in my yard... In a couple of months I will be hoarding my favorite fruit and chasing out adorable but pesky village children trying to pilfer my precious crop. Something to look forward to. Reading a lot of books lately. Finally read Catch-22 which was amazing. Also read this book by an Afrikanner journalist which provides a very interesting perspective on the apartheid struggle. cannot recall the name, but i'll recommend it. The comedians by Graham Greene was good, but I didn't find it as funny as perhaps it was intended to be (sort of a comedy within the tragedy of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's most troubled nation.) Neveryona, this fantasy novel a friend loaned me I found just about unreadable. Finally, cannot recommend Empire Falls enough, well worth a read and a re-read, of course it won a pulitzer so it doesn't need my recommendation. Writing a bit in my spare time. Think I may put a short story online at some point, as i doubt it will be worth hoarding, and stories are meant to be read I feel.

Well I am going to Tzaneen this weekend. It always feels like going on an adventure, exploring new parts and places of South Africa. My mission is to visit the Tzaneen Scouts and see how they run Scout groups for low income kids. I will take this back to my village and help them to start a group in Thomo. Anything else going on? Nothing really exceptionally exciting. The goats in the village continue to invade my yard, I want to start a garden but it will need good planning. New Peace Corps volunteers are coming to my area in about a week. In the program I am in we work with South African NGOs (normally, it gets confusing.) This next group SA18 will be working with the schools in South Africa, which were very poorly managed with oppressive teaching methods during the apartheid area. This program is helping these schools to embrace new methods which is a noble goal I feel. Right now it is me, John (works with a home-based care organization), and Jade (working with an organization that passes technical skills on to various institutions.) Soon there will be five more Americans with their own experiences and perspectives, it will be a good thing.

Just got back from vacation with some friends from Peace Corps and a fun time was had by all. I am now back at site trying to get this festival going (december maybe?) and a scout group started (hoping for October.) Here's what I did for my vacation:

 

Friday: left via minibus for pretoria. Arrived in pretoria and saw batman with fellow PCV Jesse. We both enjoyed it immensely I especially appreciated the maniacal unrestrained genius of the Joker, but the movie was complicated and left me with a bit of a headache. Also went to a rugby game with some peace corps people, "where has this sport been all my life?" wondered fellow volunteer, Nick Redding, and it was immensely entertaining, very dynamic and hard hitting. I can see why rugby fans look down on our version of it, American football.

 

Saturday: LONG trip down  to St. Lucia Estuary on Elephant Coast in Kwa Zulu Natal. Mostly comfortable but some truly awful movies were shown, including "Daddy Day Camp,"  and "Stomp the Yard," one of the dumbest movies on record. It was a blessing to arrive just as some movie with Cedric the Entertainer was starting, dodged a bullet there. For dinner, seafood and fish for the first time in months, expensive but worth it.

 

Sunday: Drove through Hluhluwe National Park (Brandon did the driving with a rental car all trip and we are all very grateful), but it had just rained and very few animals showed themselves, even though the park is supposed to be packed with rhinos and elephants. So we appreciated the incredible beauty of the park, and made fun of the fact that we weren't seeing any animals and the disappointed looks of the other people driving through the park.

 

Monday: went down to the beach at st. lucia estuary (which is just like a beach town in the states), too windy to contemplate swimming, but the forest was cool on the walk, and we saw a bunch of hippos then and later on a boat ride. My first time to the Indian Ocean. Fun time, first day we started obsessively playing cards in the evening. Also for some reason St. Lucia's was overrun with French tourists, no idea why. For lunch we ate at a restraunt called St. Pizza. It had a cat that sat in my lap expecting to be stroked and given a healthy portion of my seafood pizza.

 

Tuesday: Drove through to Cape Vidal, which has an incredible beach and we had a good game drive too, finally saw some rhinos.

 

Wednesday: spent the day driving to pick up Milenka, a volunteer whose work schedule didn't let her take the full week, and then driving to Kosi Bay, further up the coast near Mozambique. Also saw Becky's organization, which is doing good work introducing testing and computer literacy to poor communities.

 

Thursday: went to a raffia palm jungle in the morning. in the afternoon went to the beach. Some cool snorkeling there, and got to see the fish traps local fishermen use.

 

Friday: Beach again, and Becky's birthday, which I think went pretty well as birthdays go.

 

Saturday: the trip back went through durban where I sat down with another pcv and my bookbag (along with camera, souvenirs, and swim suit) was stolen from right next to me when I wasn't paying attention. Lesson learned: there is a lot of crime in south africa. Long trip back... definately a worthwhile time, but now I am back at work and have to save for my next trip!

Hello everyone! I am writing a real quick blog entry on the eve of my vacation. I am going with three other volunteers to the Elephant Coast in KZN, my first time to the indian ocean. There will be snorkeling, turtle spotting, and boating, a fun time will be had by all and i promise pictures are coming up. This friday I am going to see rugby and batman in pretoria, hoping both will live up to expectations. Festival planning is proceeding apace, the festival will include tours of the park and village, traditional food, poem reading, dancing, and singing. Will also serve as a "kick off" for Tinghwazi workign with schools and youth. It will be October 24, I am looking forward to it. Aside from that life is good, looking forward to posting pictures of monkeys, vacation activities, and life in general. Look for them!

Felt I should get on the ball and write something even though there is nothing in particular that I am planning to write about as I sit here typing, so this should be fun. Things are still moving slow here on my goals to bring a festival and a scout group to my village. they're moving but they are slow, but that's the way things are here. The festival should be great, it will feature traditional ceremonies, dancing, food, and presentations on what the Heritage Park will be about. It should be in October but we will see.

 

Planning on going on vacation in August to the east coast of the country, with a program that includes snorkeling, cultural festivals and hiking. There will be a bunch of other volunteers from my group going so it should be a blast.

 

Cannot wait to see Batman... hope its good. Also on the arts and culture front, I saw speed racer a little while ago, thought it was quite a show. Breaking Up With Sarah Marshall was very funny, still haven't seen Narnia or Iron Man. Just finished reading Flannerly O'Connor's short stories which were fantastic.

 

Zimbabwe is a mess, not many of the refugees come to this side of South Africa (though there are a fair number of people from mozambique here.) Hopefully, there's a way to end this whole mess, but its not looking good.