I think its high time that rather than go over what I do and my life I would touch on some of the many exotic things about living in South Africa and the people here.

The first question for many people I guess would be: what is the food like?

Personally, I cook for myself and the food that I can buy at the supermarket is not very much different than what I can get in the U.S. just with lower variety. On the other hand “exotic” fruit here is cheap and plentiful: guava, avocado, mangoes, papaya, litchis, marula, prickly pear, kwiwis, as well as plenty of apples, oranges and peaches. The one thing you cannot get is berries, forget blueberries, strawberries, and cherries. But  despite the fact that “American food” is invading, people here do have a different diet and there is definitely a South African cuisine. The different groups all have their own foods, Afrikaaners (white South Africans that speak Afrikaans as a first language) love to braai (what we call barbeque) and a specialty for them is boervors a spicy, fatty sausage that one must cook forever and a day to cook through, another specialty is their dried meat or biltong which is extremely popular here, ostritch biltong is fantastic. Indian South Africans have their own cuisine of curries and other Indian foods like naan unfortunately for my stomach (but fortunately for my wallet) there is no Indian restaurant in my area, but when I travel I almost invariably get Indian if I eat out.

Black South Africans meanwhile, have a diet that I have decidedly mixed feelings about, its largely shaped by the poverty of the area, people often cannot afford to eat healthy food. The big “staple” is mealie cob which is cheap corn that is either grown in the villages or bought ground at the supermarket. It is used to make a hard porridge, called pap in Afrikaans and vuswa in Xitsonga. One eats pap with chicken, stewed greens (not good I am afraid), squash, and/or beans, generally with one's right hand (washed before eating of course) using pieces of the porridge as a sort of edible utensil to absorb gravy or pick up meat. The pap  itself has no real taste, nor nutritional value, it’s pure empty carbs, but it fills the stomach and its cheap or free; corn needs little water and rain is not plentiful. It’s such a big part of people’s diets here that they have a very hard time understanding that I never ate it in America, and when I cook I eat potatoes, rice, or bread. They will eat all those things but cannot imagine a day without eating pap, even for those people who can afford more expensive foods. The lack of nutrients from the pap diet causes many health issues here and diabetes is rampant with older people. Still it is not bad and when you are at someone’s house, an event, or with coworkers it is what will be on the plate. Compensating for that is that a lot of times you’ll get fresh chicken. Chicken that’s just been killed is extremely savory and much better than beef that’s just been killed, or fresh pork, which most people consider treats for special occassions. Also pap mixed with squash is sweet and quite decent, I would make it occasionally if pap didn’t require constant pounding and stirring to prepare. Beans and peanuts are a big part of the diet and are a definite plus. Poaching is illegal here but there is a wink-wink attitude towards it if you don’t kill animals in the nature reserves, there’s no shortage of duikers, just like in America there’s no shortage of deer, rabbit, is gamy but tasty. There are also foods that are alien to an American, grasshoppers and termites are considered food in the villages. I personally rather like mopani worms which are little caterpillars that are found in large numbers around Christmas on Mopani trees. They can be pretty succulent little beasties, good with salt or a decent sauce once one gets past the unavoidable fact that one is eating an insect (thinking about their high protein value can help reassure the faint of heart.) Kind of an acquired taste but I rather like them. Maybe something about music next time I write an entry like this.

Well Longtom is almost here and I am pretty excited. Of course the training is the big part of any big run so I am trying to eat a lot of good food and push myself to run farther and faster. Training can be tricky because sometimes you have to push yourself to do things you really don’t feel like doing. I have found though that eventually your body kind of takes over and your brain can just get out of the way. Good stuff.

 

Also, I said a while back that I would write about my vacation to Cape Town at New Years so I will very briefly. Cape Town is an amazing place. I spent about a week there and aside from the pain my wallet went through it did not feel like it was nearly long enough. The most striking thing about Cape Town is its location. It has a stunning juxtaposition of the ocean and mountains, especially the incredible Table Mountain. It also has a very diverse culture, a different flavor from the other big South African cities. I was there with one other Peace Corps Volunteer and as a result we hooked up with other people at our Backpackers to do things (a surprising number were themselves alone) So, I got to climb Table Mountain twice (second time was better) see the Cape Town Karneval, (a New Years Parade put on by the city’s Couloured majority) visited all different kinds of neat little shops, bars and restaurants, see historic Robben Island, took a very enjoyable wine tour. I tried salsa for the first time. Anyway the place is a blast and a half and it seems like no matter what you do with your time there you will enjoy it. I really want to go back, but like I said, it’s a bit pricey. I am thinking I might take another week there to close out my time here in April 2010.

January 28 2009 marked the anniversary of my arrival in South Africa. This marks it as a time of reflection, it has been a year away from country, friends, family, and a year of new experiences both cultural and professional. To clarify, Peace Corps Volunteers are not sworn in until a little over two months of training is completed so April will be the anniversary and official half-way point of my actual service here (ending April 2010.)

 

Looking back, training was an experience probably necessary to go through but somewhat painful, as I learned about South Africa but was not really a participant. After that I came to my site and to my job at Tinghwazi. There have been successes and failures working with them, a festival that I tried to plan but never got funding for, some papers written, a groundwork for education programs that is still slowly being laid. I have also over the course of the months gotten involved in other village activities, started a small scout group, tutored, etc. but it is still a work in progress finding different ways to help and contributing. I have learned a bit of the home language here, though in the long run I still depend on English for most of my interactions. I have made a lot of great contacts both in my village and professionally, still they are not completely a substitute for the friendships, family, and connections I had back in the States before I left so I do get lonely sometimes. My attitudes towards international development have gained a certain amount of depth I think that I did not have before, I see education of the youth and economic innovation for adults as being the two legs that development must stand on and those are the two areas I have been focusing on lately. I went over with very vague goals, a general desire to do good without really knowing what good things I would be doing, something one cannot get without being here I don't believe. Now I have very specific goals that I want to accomplish before I go and a set of steps to get me there, I have become more pragmatic towards facing my service here. I have went from being somewhat wide eyed towards the country and the culture to getting used to it. It is not exactly home, and I have only been here a year or so but I still kind of have an idea of how things work here and a general comfort. Gone to a certain extent is that wild eyed experience where everything and anything was new and different, which I find opens the door for boredom or ennui if I am not careful. I have become an even more avid reader seperated from the major media and I have been writing a lot. My plans for my life and career, which have always been vague are taking shape. More clearly, I am continuing to define what I believe as an adult human being. My religious faith, my political opinions, what I want from myself and others have been thrown into clarity here and for that I am grateful. It has not been all sunshine and roses, especially lately as homesickness has become a constant, nagging background noise to my thoughts, still I feel I can use even this to grow and develop and come up with a measure of happiness for the present.

 

This is all very broad and reflective I suppose. On a more narrow note, I had a wonderful vacation to Cape Town in January and I may revisit, I certainly recommend it to anyone thinking of a vacation to somewhere exotic. It's got great wine, fantastic views, and a vibrant culture. Wonderful town. I may put a brief blow for blow account of what I did up later but needless to say it was an exciting experience. Aside from that work is going along, I am trying without much success to start a garden, goats being my main enemy. And life without a refridgerator is difficult. Anyway, I hope to write more of these entries in the future as I have been lax, I guess not many people are reading them anyway, but for those who are interested I want to make sure more info is up. Longtom is still coming if you want to donate let me know.

I just got back from a training held in the port city of Durban which is also the place where my camera got lifted in August. In fact the hotel wasn't more than a hundred yards from where my camera got lifted, fortunately the training went without a hitch safety wise. And overall I would say it was our best training. Gone are the jitters and uncertainty about where we are and what we are doing, if the last few months have given us nothing else they have certainly given us perspective on what it's like to be a PCV here. Plus the "all you can eat" spread was awesome.

 

Other than that life is going well. Still doing a miscelleny of things for my organization including starting a website (on myspace for now since I don't think they are computer saavy yet to manage a server) so if you want to see it, I will put it on my Favorite Links list.  I am also trying to help get a donkey cart constructed for them, and help set up a shabeen as part of our initiative to help local businesses become tourist saavy. Its the type of work which is never ever dull, but it can be hard to organize.

 

The First Scout Group of Thomo had its first meeting on 22 November, 2008. I am very happy although only a few kids (all boys) showed up and I had to conduct the whole thing in Xitsonga, which was a challenge for all of us I think. Still I am excited, soon I will be looking for ways to get funding for us and hopefully the Scouts of South Africa will be able to help set up a camp or two to help them (and myself) learn how a Scout Group works. Currently they want to go to the local Nature Reserve and we are going to try to make it happen, so they can visit a really beautiful place only a few miles from where they live that they've probably never been to. One big challenge will be finding some local adult leadership, I have ideas but nothing concrete yet. Next meeting is this Friday so hopefully some more kids (including girls) show up.

 

Finally, in March I have signed myself up to run in the Longtom Marathon. (http://www.longtominfo.co.za/) It is in March and a lot of Peace Corps volunteers are doing it. The proceeds go to a scholarship program for village kids to go to a private school (which is quite good) rather than to one of the local public schools (which throughout south africa are struggling mightily.) Its really the "big annual event" for Peace Corps South Africa so if anyone is interested in sponsoring me (to be in the race I need at least $100 USD) please let me know and I will pass on the information. I will be running the half-marathon I think because I have never run a marathon before and there is other stuff I want to do with life aside from train. Still my hat is off to those PCVs who will be going the full distance and even those who opt to walk it (13 miles can be quite a long walk in the african sun and 26 can be brutal.)

Yesterday I went to the launch of a "biogas digestor" in a village not far from my own. The project is run by a Dutch grad student Jotte van Ierland who, like us Peace Corps volunteers, has integrated into village life here as part of community development. Unlike us though he is doing everything under his own initiative without a clear mandate or umbrella organization so I think it is pretty incredible what he has accomplised. What he has started to do is to build "bio gas digestors" which produce cooking fuel for stoves from cow and human waste mixed with water.  The waste and water goes thru pipes into a dome underground where the cool temperatures and oxygen free environment allow bacteria to produce gases which are clean and can be used for cooking fuel. It is good for the environment in that people in this area often go into the bush to cut down trees for fuel, and it produces a clean burn without CO2, unlike coal for instance. It is good for the people employed by the project to provide and prepare the dung and the digestors. It is good for the women who don't have to spend all their time cutting wood and all their money on electricity. And it is incredible what he has actually accomplished at the grass roots level, explaining it to and enlisting the help of the local community who had never heard of anything like this. I post this story as something that is inspiring to myself as to the potential of getting these grass roots efforts off the ground and in the belief that local problems call for local solutions as one of my friends says. Pictures coming soon.

Wow it does warm up a bit during the summers here. When i am not sprawled out in the shade guzzling water, I am out in the hot hot sun covered in a constant layer of sweat that never leaves. Still I prefer it to being cold at nights during the winter. It is also tough when one is in a minibus taxi. They never have air conditioning and the women never let you open the windows because of their hair or the (mistaken) belief that wind makes babies sick. Plus you are pretty crammed in. I don't mind the taxis too much for short distances, (they can be pretty entertaining, and the drivers are almost always the coolest guys you will meet) but for long distances they are a pain. Work is going well now I have about a dozen projects that I am working on so I am always busy even though each of them is going pretty slowly. I am a pretty happy dude in general, though my home situation has me going a bit crazy, as there is this woman living at the house (not the owner but a care-taker) who has been incredibly rude to me in the seven months i have been living there. I have just about had it, so i am in talks with my organization for them to either provide for the woman and send her on her way or for me to live in another place in the village. It is a nice house, but I have discovered I can't live with someone who strongly dislikes and disrespects me. Aside from that, life is good.  I am looking forward to thanksgiving at fellow volunteers Dan and Pam's. There should be at least four volunteers there, maybe more, it will be a good time. I had a great time for my birthday, which consisted of hanging out with John, Dan and Pam and watching soccer and professional wrestling (which, God help me, can be pretty entertaining.) Also upcoming right after thanksgiving is Life Skills Training. I have no idea what the training will be about but it will be a chance to go down to durban and see all those volunteers I have not seen since july.

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.

well. the last few weeks were fun but tiring. by the time I got back to my room back in the village I just collapsed into my bed. It started with the scout camp where I got training for helping to start and lead a group. after that came two weeks of training which mostly went well and it was great to see the other volunteers, but the constant eating and the late nights kind of took a toll on me. after that came fourth of july at the ambassador's which was pretty fun and had fresh corn dogs. pretoria is a pretty nice city, though its architecture, culture and affluence seem far removed from the south africa that I am more familiar with.

 

now i am back at the village working on my programs again. they are going a bit slower than I'd like right now but ever since I've come here things have tended to go in fits and starts. in my spare time I have started training for a marathon (long way to go) and reading the stories of Flannerly O'Connor, a terrific writer in all respects. I find her use of Catholic religious symbolism to be fascinating, as well as the racial themes and the themes of cultures in transition, which I think are especially relevant towards the current state of affairs here in south africa. it is a country in the midst of a lot of change and people have to discover how to cope with it.