Changing

Sanibonani! I am writing this from the home of my school principal, Mrs. Logan. She has a fabulous house and a fabulous family, and obviously internet. As training is winding down and I am prepare to swear in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (whoot whoot) I am reflecting a lot more on this experience than I normally do. I cannot really do justice in explaining how much I have learned, especially about myself, since I have been here. I have learned that as an American it is entirely impossible to bathe in a less than two liters of water, including washing one’s hair, and not be dirty. I have learned that chicken feet and chicken face really taste just a disgusting as they look. It has occurred to me that Americans work entirely too hard and for entirely too long. Time is of almost no consequence here and there is something terribly frustrating and yet freeing about it. Before this experience, I had never: killed a snake, been forced to speak a language with clicks to be understood, ate pap with every meal, chased and captured an escaping chicken, seen myself as a white person and having that mean something significant, carried an umbrella when it is not raining to protect my skin from the sun, had skirts comprise over 60% of my bottom attire, used a pre-paid cell phone, worried about being mugged, had to explain why I dislike President Bush, and spent six hours at church for one service among so many other things.

I have learned that life in a developed country is something to be appreciated and question. As Americans, we should stop complaining when the bus is late or when the doctor only sees us for ten minutes when we are sick with a cold. Here, the bus might never come and sometimes people being tested and/or treated for HIV/AIDS see no doctor at all because there is not one available. At the same time, we must question what living in a developed country means. Take your sweater off for a minute and look at the label. Where was it made? Cambodia, China, United Arab Emirates, Honduras? Do you ever wonder how much those people are being paid and in what conditions are the working? Did they have to walk 5 miles to get to the factory and leave their young children to fend for themselves while they go off to make the only money that is to be made in their area? Do they face dangerous road conditions or crime on their way to work? These are issues that we simply do not really deal with in America. Yes, millions of people have it incredibly rough and are really struggling to make ends meet and to provide for their families in America. But take a look at developing countries like South Africa. The unemployment rate is 41% now and in the area in which I am living, over 38% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Kwa-Zulu Natal is the area with more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other place on Earth. As Americans we cannot imagine what these statistics look like, but let me tell you how I see it.

In Limpopo, I hang out regularly with 8 teenage girls who come to practice English with me and learn about America. Not one of them has both parents still living. Most of them have neither living. One of my close family members here in SA is has to use crutches to walk to my house which is only four houses from his because he is simply too weak from TB which he has contracted after being diagnosed with AIDS. This weekend in Mondlo (my township) in KZN, my sister says there were between 12 and 15 funerals. One of the boys who comes to my new family’s house every night to hang out with us comes over at night because he is lonely at home since his parents both died last year. He is 18. He lives alone in their home. The numbers are startling and it seems that there is no natural limit to the virus. However, the numbers are not a profound as the personal stories and the lives that have been infected and affected by this virus. So please, feel not guilty when you lay you head down to sleep in your comfy bed in your nice home with heat, AC, electricity, running water, and other standard amenities because you have worked to have these things and you deserve to have them if you want them. However, please remember that life is not as easy in other parts of the world and millions with be going to sleep cold, hungry, and sick tonight. So, if you can do something to help, then do it. People are waiting.

I am not trying to sound bitter because I am happy to be here and I do miss my life in the States. However, I am dealing with so many different things here, both significant and not so, that it is difficult trying to manage them all at once. Sir Oliver Wendell Holmes put it best, “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”. My mind is changing constantly and I am learning how to reconcile that daily. And I firmly believe that ALL Americans should have this experience. It really changes the way you see the world and see yourself. I am a far more grateful individual than I ever could have been before. Peace Corps has taught me not to see the glass as half empty, rather it has taught me to wonder “hey, I could bathe in that”.