First of all, ngiyaxoliza kakhulu (I am very sorry)(and also, there is a click on the “x” in case you wanted to know). I am terribly sorry about not writing for over twenty days now. There are many reasons for this; ranging from the intense schedule that I have been keeping to the fact that I was just in a place where I did not have any desire to share my thoughts. Now, I am feeling a bit more optimistic and am back to writing. In fact, I am writing a lot this week because I am working on my VAST Grant proposal for my school and also working on seeing how I can get the Dell Foundation involved. I would also like to create a website for Inkanyiso and the projects that we are doing. I am currently editing/ re-creating the Inkululeko Babies Home website, which was difficult in the beginning but is promising now. When I left the states I had no idea how to create or edit websites. It is amazing what you can teach yourself with two free hours and the internet at your finger tips. Thank God for Google!
The past twenty days have been incredibly challenging in so many ways. The novelty of being in a new place is starting to wear off. The newness of South Africa never wears off for me, but the novelty of discovering Vryheid for myself has. Everyday I wake up at six in the morning. I get ready for school and am out the door by seven. I work from 7:30-2:00 and then try to get a ride into town from one of my co-workers. I walk from town to my home which takes about 15 minutes and I start working with the orphans at my home at 3:00. On most days I stay until about 5:30, but sometimes we are just having too much fun or someone is sick and I stay until 7:30 when they go to bed. I work one 11 hour day on the weekends and I usually have half of Fridays and Sundays off. At first, being this busy was what I needed. I needed to stay busy to avoid being lonely or homesick. This has worked so far, but now I am exhausted. So I am working on creating a new schedule so that I get some more time for myself while still getting the work completed that I want to do.
Working so much has made a drastic difference in how I feel about the working world and has helped me to narrow down some of the options of careers that I might want to try in the future. Working with the Inkanyiso special students is rewarding but it just takes so much longer to see what difference my work is making. This is because we are working on skill transfer with these students and behavior modification in order to give them more of a chance out in the real world and to help them make positive choices that will prevent them from becoming infected with HIV. The developmental work that I am doing with the children at Inkululeko is probably a bit more gratifying because I can see the results almost immediately. The babies who didn’t talk before are now shouting and mumbling in tongues that only they can understand. However, they have started to put together sentences that we can understand. Yesterday, one of our babies said “Asihambeni” (let’s go) in Zulu and then “Aunti Christi, come to bathroom” within the same minute. My mouth dropped open and I asked him what he said and he said it again. I now understand why new parents want to tell you all about what their kids just said or did without realizing how boring it is to hear story after story about how little Johnny or Suzie went to the toilet for the first time or said a coherent sentence. I have become that person. I brag about “my” kids all of the time and people give me that “will-she-please-shut-up” look. I am just so amazed by them and how quickly these children are growing. One of the four year old boys who lives at the house where I live pointed to his cheek and said “Aunti Christi, put one right here”. Obviously there was immense cuteness and I had to plant a big old kiss on his dimply little cheek. Look, I did it again. I am that proud parent. Oh well, it can’t be helped.
In other news, I saw seven elephants on the way home from Pongola the other day. I was just riding in the khumbi when all of a sudden someone yelled “stop” and we pulled over. There stood seven elephants standing behind this measly excuse for an elephant fence. It seems that only in Africa do you stop to check out elephants near the freeway and then resume driving about five minutes later as if it was no big deal. I also went to Hluhluwe Game Reserve last week and saw rhinos about three feet from the truck. No joke. Rhino + only three feet = wet your pants scary. I saw vultures everywhere so I know that there had been a few kills recently but I was not fortunate enough so see any lions or cheetahs. Speaking of cheetahs, I went to use the restroom and on foot had to pass by four warthogs (also dangerous) and three zebras to get there. What I did not know at the time was that a man had been mauled by a cheetah in the same area where the restroom is only 16 hours before I was there. Next time, I will read the newspaper before I go to the park and assume that there is fence as there should be. Silly me, I thought there would be fences to keep dangerous man-eating animals like lions and cheetahs out of the camps where humans sleep and walk around…then again, what do I know? Nevertheless, it was still an awesome day.
I also went on a township tour with my friend Xolile and some people from the Netherlands. In case you don’t know what a township is, a township is large ghetto, but much scarier than any ghetto in America. Not that ghettos in America aren’t scary, because they can be scary as well, but trust me, the Bhekuzulu township has got the meanest ghettos of New York beat by miles. The people are very friendly in the township and look bewildered to see a white person in their community but are still very hospitable. However, I would not recommend visiting said township at night because there is a whole different atmosphere. Xolile was our tour guide and took us all around. She took us to a sheebian (local tavern) at ten in the morning in which she and I had to kneel on the floor (customary thing to do when asking for something from an elder) and beg the owner to let us show the Netherlands people what a sheebian looks like before it opens. The owner, his wife, and their baby live in the one room house/hut that is attached to the sheebian and only separated by a small wall with an open window. The smoke from the cigarettes/joints fills the room in which their baby shares with them and undoubtedly causes havoc on the developing infants respiratory and nervous system. It is sad to see, but they are working to support themselves and probably many other family members and it is difficult to fault people for that when so many other people aren’t trying to work. But this is life here for so many and what can you do to make it better? If you know, please tell me, because I am greatly lacking plausible ideas.
Well folks, I must get going because school is almost over and I have to get home in order to run in circles around the kitchen table with my ten favorite South African children while singing gospel children’s songs and jumping up down to innumerable belly giggles from some of the cutest kids on Earth. Don’t you wish your job was as amusing as mine?
