Is Jabulani Dead?

My supervisor has had three volunteers who previously did work at her school all of who early-terminated (ET'd) meaning they chose to end their service short of their contractual obligation.

The first two were involved in the famous Drakensberg Mountains incident which is told at every Pre-Service Training (PST)as a warning to incoming volunteers. The first three months of our service was meant to be "community integration" where we get to know our communities and all volunteers are on "lockdown"; meaning we are not supposed to leave our sites for any reason other than medical or shopping. The two volunteers were a married couple who chose to break this rule by leaving five days early for a hike through the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, another province in South Africa (my village is in Mpumalanga Province). In the middle of the night tsotsis (South African criminals/thiefs) robbed them of everything except for the clothes they had on and the things in their pockets; this included their cell phones and some pocket change.

They panicked and decided to phone the U.S. Embassy who very promptly picked them up in a helicopter and brought them back to the embassy in Pretoria. This kind of activity is frowned upon by the Peace Corps so they were given the choice to either be Administratively Separated or resign from their service. Administrative Separation from the Peace Corps is like being fired and all but nullifies anything good you've done during your service. The couple wisely chose to resign and within 24 hours they were returned to their site, packed their things, and were whisked away to the airport.

Their 2nd attempt at hosting a volunteer was a 24 year-old journalist whose career was also tragically cut short. A few months after arriving at site his father passed on so he chose to ET to go home to support his family.

As the expression goes, the third time is a charm. Now my supervisor has a 26 year-old civil/architectural engineer who is on the verge of getting a badly needed renovation done and building some well-deserved sports fields amongst other things. Given her history with Peace Corps Volunteers leaving early she is extremely protective of me.

The recent health emergency occurred at the other school with the principal who has a reputation for not handling situations such as this too well. My supervisor told me that she received a call from him in a massive panic. The conversation between my supervisor (Ester) and the other principal (Paul) went something like this:

Ester: Hello (answering phone)
Paul: Jabulani (my African name they gave me which means "we are all happy")is gone!
Ester: What?
Paul: Jabulani was here and then he couldn't walk or talk and then a white man, He took Jabulani!
Ester: What?
Paul: A white man took Jabulani!
Ester: What white man?
Paul: I don't know!
Ester: What do you mean you don't know?
Paul: He was meeting with this white man and then he took him away!

Ester rushed over to the other school to find Paul in a panic, educators crying, and a general state of chaos. Knowing Paul and playing this whole series of events out in my head it seems extremely comical but I realize the severity of the situation. I now know that in case of an emergency I should not contact Paul.

They were going to come visit me in the hospital but they were told I was going to be discharged so they shouldn't bother. Two days later I was released from the hospital and they finally got a call from me saying I was fine. When I returned to site I visited my schools to let them all know I was OK and was ready to work.

Some volunteers have very unsupportive educators and supervisors at their schools. Many feel that they are there as a trophy allowing the schools to say "Look at us, we have a volunteer". It is very comforting to know that mine are so concerned about me and makes it seem all that much more worth it to be here doing this work.