When I first found out I was going to Africa with the Peace Corps I pictured I would be living in the bush and had mentally prepared myself for no electricity (occasionally true) and no water (also occasionally true), cooking over a fire, and washing my clothes in a river; a lot of South Africans live like this as do a few of the volunteers I trained with. Much to my surprise, my training home stay had electricity, water, and did most of their cooking in a modern-looking kitchen. When I moved to my permanent site it was pretty much the same thing only I don’t live inside the same house as my host family.
I have a lovely home with an office, kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom; all contained in a quaint 10’x15’ room attached to a garage separated from the adjacent house. My office consists of a table, a chair, my books, and my laptop. In my kitchen I have a free-standing top/bottom cabinet with a kitchen countertop, a mid-sized refrigerator/freezer, two hot plates, a toaster, full pot and pan set, 4 place settings, and most of the kitchen tools that you would usually find in a regular kitchen, I also have a Weber-style grill; the biggest difference is that I get my water from a large barrel next to the counter. My bedroom consists of a bed and a wardrobe. The bathroom is much more modest and contains a movable bath bucket. Sometimes I feel like I am cheating the “Peace Corps Experience” by having all of these things. However, they say you should live as your family lives and this is how my family lives so this is how I am going to live.
My room was supposed to be ready, fully furnished with a bed, wardrobe, table, and two chairs when I arrived at my site on September 12th. For the first 3 weeks I was staying in a room with a wardrobe I couldn’t use and a bed that was loaned to me by my principal. The branch of the Department of Education that was responsible for delivering them told me on 5 different days that my furniture would be coming so I stayed home those days and the furniture never came. They never called me to tell me it wasn’t coming that day so I wasted that time waiting that could have been put to much better use. They finally delivered the furniture 2 weeks ago while I wasn’t here. I returned home and they had only delivered a bed and a broken wardrobe. I called them about the missing chairs and table and they said they “forgot” to order them and they “were working on it”. I also mentioned that the wardrobe leg was broken. I realized they would never come to fix the broken leg so on Saturday I flipped the wardrobe over and fixed it myself. I went to pick up my wardrobe key on Monday to ask them about the table and chairs they were supposed to provide for me. They told me, “oh, yeah, the schools are supposed to provide those to you. So since the school is part of the Department of Education, by extension, the Department of Education is providing you with a table and two chairs”. Then they called my supervisor at my village and the table and chairs were delivered to me the next day.
I learned a few things from this experience that will be helpful for succeeding in South Africa. Patience isn’t a virtue, it’s a requirement. If you want something to get done you need to go talk to the person because things that are said on the phone are often just lip service. If you want to get something done, do it yourself. And government really is a bureaucracy.
Dear Dave
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience with us. I have some questions. I would like to know what children do after school in South Africa. What do local people eat? What type of math do the children learn in School? Take care,
Teddy from VCS 7th grade
Dear Teddy,
ReplyDeleteThere are many things that the abantwana(children) do after school. The woman who lives next to my primary school just built a pool so when I'm leaving the school I see them doing cannonballs into it. They also play soccer and they have these neat tops that they wrap a string around then throw it on the ground. After it hits the ground and starts spinning they pick it up and hold it in their hand while it is still spinning; They laughed at me as even after a half hour of trying I was still unable to do it.
As for the food, for an average meal their diet seems very bland with few if any green vegetables. They eat a lot of chicken with brown gravy and beans; their favorite part is chicken feet, not my favorite. They also eat something called umratha or pap that tastes kind of like a combination of grits and mashed potatoes. Since I haven't taken to chicken feet and haven't quite figured out how to cook pap, I survive mostly on grilled cheese, tunafish, and pb&j sandwiches.
Math (called "maths" here) is just the same as in America. Math is written in a universal language which is one thing that is so cool about it and makes it easy for mathematicians to work together. I don't know what they are studying in 7th grade but in 5th grade they were studying rates (hrs/day, $/hr, etc.).
One thing I have noticed is that the students here seem to be having a lot of difficulty with math. The children haven't been taught critical thinking skills which are very helpful for solving math problems. Part of my job is to help the teachers incorporate critical thinking into their lessons for all subject areas. Even though you probably don't realize it, you think critically everyday at school. Anytime you answer a "why?" or "how?" question you are thinking critically. Here is a good critical thinking question: "Why don't they teach critical thinking skills in rural South African schools?". Maybe you could think about this question and do a little research. I will write about this in a future post so you can compare it with what you find out.
Thanks for your questions!
-Jabu
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteThank you for answering the questions. I will research the question as soon as I can. Right now in Victor the weather is starting to get colder. What is the weather like in South Africa? Do you need to wear special types of clothing to adapt to the heat?
Teddy
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteThank you for answering the questions. I will research the question as soon as I can. Right now in Victor the weather is starting to get colder. What is the weather like in South Africa? Do you need to wear special types of clothing to adapt to the heat?
Teddy
Dear Dave
ReplyDeleteMy bother Teddy told me about your assignment in the Peace Corp in South Africa.
That is so cool.
Is South Africa around 8000 miles from Victor ?
Could you tell me what do you miss most ?
Is your weather similar to here ?
There are so many questions that I would like to ask you, but I do not want to disturb you.
Thank you
Willie VCS 6th grade
Teddy,
ReplyDeleteI am impressed that you realize the weather down here is opposite of that in Victor. Being in South Africa the temperatures are more mild and right now the current maximum temperature is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the seasons down here are opposite those in the north, the weather here is about the same as it would be on April 27 in Victor.
I don't wear anything special, just shorts, a t-shirt, and a cowboy hat. I also make sure to apply sunscreen when I go outside. Whenever you are out in the sun, you should always wear sunscreen.
-Jabu
Willie,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that you've chosen to follow my blog. I am not sure how far away from Victor South Africa but I'm sure you can figure it out using various internet sites. I flew from Victor to Washington D.C. to Dakkar, Senegal to Pretoria, South Africa. It took me about 24 hours to fly here, 27 if you include the Rochester to D.C. flight.
I would be interested to find out. So let me know once you have come up with an estimate.
I miss my family and the readily available movies and shows in Rochester. I also miss my mom's cooking; which is why I've lost about 20 lbs since I've come here. Two other foods I miss and plan on eating soon after I get home are a garbage plate from anywhere and a chicken wing bomber from Leonardo's.
I appreciate the fact that you are interested in my South African journey. Maybe you can share my blog with the students in your class and you can have a discussion with them about something you read. Who is your teacher?
-Jabu
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteMy teachers in 7th grade are Mrs. Digristina for english, Mrs. Linehan for math, Mrs. Clark for S.S., Mr. Bauerlein for Tech-ed, and Mrs. Dix for Spanish.
Willie's teacher is Mrs. Mckee.
Teddy
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteMy teacher this year is Mrs. McKee. Last year my teacher was mrs. Boyd who was teamed up in a doulble-class with Mr. Brewer. My fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Geno. I was in her last class because she retired the following year. I will ask Mrs. McKee to help me find a website to estimate the distance from Victor to Pretoria?
What type of drinks do you drink there. I could not survive without soda. Do you have access to clean water and ice?
Do families around where you are staying have as many pets as here? If so, what type of pets do they have?
I want to know what type of building materials are the houses made of.
Willie
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteMy teacher this year is Mrs. McKee. Last year my teacher was mrs. Boyd who was teamed up in a doulble-class with Mr. Brewer. My fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Geno. I was in her last class because she retired the following year. I will ask Mrs. McKee to help me find a website to estimate the distance from Victor to Pretoria?
What type of drinks do you drink there. I could not survive without soda. Do you have access to clean water and ice?
Do families around where you are staying have as many pets as here? If so, what type of pets do they have?
I want to know what type of building materials are the houses made of.
Willie
Willie,
ReplyDeleteI believe I ran cross country with Mrs. McKee in High School and I had Mr. Brewer for 2nd grade.
Where I live we have fresh water that has been treated and flows from a water tower so most South Africans drink it straight from the tap. Since water in America is so pure the Peace Corps gives us Brita filters to filter our water anyway to prevent us from getting sick. A couple of volunteers live in areas where the water is brown and even filtering won't make it clear and clean. Since I do have a refrigerator ice is readily available; I just pour water into an ice tray and after about a half hour, presto! I have ice.
Good news, soda is readily available except here they call it cold drink. Coke, Fanta, Sprite, and Tab are the most popular with a local Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic) following close behind. I actually don't drink too much cold drink because I tend to gain weight when I do. A kind of interesting historical tid bit regarding Coca-Cola. In 1986, Coca-Cola, IBM, GM,and Kodak pulled out of South Africa to place stress on the South African economy in an attempt to convince them to stop Apartheid; this is called divestment. You just made me notice something. I have traveled both in Turkey and in South Africa and Coca-cola seems to own the soft drink market in both even though Pepsi is a popular brand in America; I wonder why.
People who live in really rural areas don't usually keep too many pets; they usually keep animals for utilitarian purposes. For example, cats to catch mice and lizards and dogs to ward off intruders.
I live in a semi-rural area and quite a few people have dogs and cats. I have never seen anyone with a caged bird, rat, or reptile yet. There are roosters and chickens everywhere including my front lawn and I don't know who they belong to. They also behave like dogs because they start cockadoodling(I think that is what roosters do) when you get near their yard.
The house that I live in, as with most houses is one story and the walls are made of bricks that are stacked then covered with plaster so that they are stronger, more water repellent, and smoother. Sometimes the bricks are bought from a supplier (like Home Depot or Lowe's) but they are often homemade similar to the way the Adobe Indians made bricks to build their houses.
The roof is usually made of criss-crossed wooden beams (sometimes just trees and occasionally treated lumber) which is then covered with corrugated tin roofing material. Some houses have ceilings most don't and my doesn't. I don't know if you've ever been in a building with a tin roof when it was raining but it is LOUD; it also isn't a very good insulator.
The floors are made of concrete (aggregate, cement, sand, water) that is polished because it is durable and easy to maintain. Wooden floors and carpet need to be replaced or treated every few years but as long as the concrete doesn't crack then it should last for a long time. Cracked concrete is more common in areas where the temperature often drops below freezing causing what is called the freeze-thaw cycle. The moisture inside the concrete expands when it freezes and then shrinks again when it thaws; this expansion places strain on the concrete which will eventually cause cracking. Sorry, that got a little technical.
-Jabu