Village Life So Far

Wow. How do I begin to describe this experience? First of all, I would like to apologize for the less than fabulous previous blog entry. I was just at a loss for words as to how to even begin to describe what I have been experiencing here. The Peace Corps’ slogan is “the toughest job you’ll ever love”. This couldn’t be more true. I love my job and it presents me with challenges each day; some small and some enormous, but all significant. I am writing this in the back of a khumbi on my way to town so that when I arrive I have save internet time and just type. For those who don’t know, a khumbi is a van that is supposed to hold 15-16 people but we usually fit 19. I am watching the green mountains and expansive grasslands from a window seat and thinking, “Man, am I lucky to be alive and be here”. It is incredibly difficult to describe this place in a way that can actually paint a picture worthy of this experience. This is the reason I am attempting to upload pictures to my website, see the link on the right hand side titled “Christi’s Photos”. The pictures can help you see Afrika through my eyes but not in a way that really does this place justice and thus is the reason why I am not in many pictures. I am also attempting to find a way to upload videos quickly here so that this will also aid in sharing this experience with those back in the States.

Okay enough of this intro business. This is how my experience has been. I arrive in South Afrika on Jan 31 and stayed at a college in Mokopane in the Limpopo province for ten days. There my group began forming friendships that I am sure are going to last for a very long time. We learned about safety and security measures, received countless injections, studied Afrikaans and Sepedi, and gained a tremendous amount of knowledge on apartheid.

Then, we moved to Bakenburg and the surrounding villages with our new families. My family is fantastic! As mentioned in the previous blog, I have two brothers (one who lives at school), three sisters, one mom, and a gogo (grandmother) living in one house. Actually my gogo lives down the street with my uncle and other gogo who are both very ill. My mom is certifiably insane and I love her for it. She is as crazy as me and it is fantastic! From the very first day I moved in she has treated me like a daughter. She yells at me when my hair looks crazy or when my clothes need to be ironed. She tells me she loves me and calls me fat in the same sentence. Then she tries to feed me because “you too little”. She hands me a broom while telling me to wash the dishes. She doesn’t let me call her Momma Francina, only Momma and won’t talk to me unless I call her Momma. She is awesome and I love her! I also love my gogo who laughs at nearly everything I do, especially when I do laundry, attempt to cook, or try miserably to speak Sepedi. My host sister is a blessing from God. She is my culture and language translator and makes me so happy! She is one of my best friends here and I will be sad to move away from her in less than a month. She is teaching me to dance and trust me, that is hilarious. White people just should not try to mimic African dancing. It just doesn’t work. I would know..I see me.

Ngifunda IsiZulu kodwa ngihlala eLimpopo. I said I am learning Zulu but living in Limpopo, which is a Sepedi speaking area which presents daily communication issues. But if you saw me on the street you would think I am deaf because I gesture so many things in order to communicate now. I spend about 9 hours a day in class learning Zulu and Peace Corps info. I love my group because we are so diverse in our personalities. It is fabulous. Here is how a typical day of mine goes….

6:00 AM Wake up and take put away mosquito net and get ready for school.
7:45 Leave house and walked ten minutes to language
8-10:30 Learn Zulu
11:00 Train at center
1:00 Lunch
2:00-5:00 Train and Zulu
5:00 Get driven to tar road and then walk 25 minutes home
6:00- 7:00 Help make dinner, kill snakes, chase rooster for fun, play with neighborhood kids, and make my family laugh
7-8: Dinner
8:00 Generations…soap opera..yes I know
8:30-9:15 Heat water, pour in bucket, take bath, go outside and dump water
10:00 Get net out and kill all cockroaches in room and go to bed

I killed a snake this week. I was in the kitchen cutting cucumbers in the kitchen when I thought I saw something out of the side of my eye. I looked down and though “Wow that is a big worm”. Then I thought “Wow that worm slithers”. This is when I realized it was not a big worm, but was in fact small snake… not cool. So I yelled for my sister..she bug sprayed is and I flashlighted it and then we killed it with a shoe. Then my host brother runs in and throw water all over the floor. I say “Surprise (brother), why did you do that?” My sister says “It is the water of the church”. Then my mom runs in butt naked from her bath and yells “Tell me Manakedi!” So I tell her what happened and she says “Where is the mother?” So now I am constantly aware that a big mother snake is probably missing her baby. Hopefully she will stay away. Snakes are no good here and so South Afrikans kill them always.

It is nearly impossible to me to get to my house without ten little children following me home and insisting that I play with them for at least an hour no matter how exhausted I may be. So, I tried to sneak into the house through the corn field and I was almost home free yesterday, but one of them was waiting behind the toilet and caught me…I give up. So now my fan club has grown from five kids, to seven, and yesterday there were twelve. They touch my skin, play with my hair, and teach me songs, dances, and clapping games…they are awesome and they do not care that I don’t speak their language...they get me and in an odd way I am glad that they constantly harass me and walk me home everyday.

There is so much more I would like to say but I really must get off the computer before I run up to high of a bill…I only make $15 USD here a week. I am in love with South Afrika and I am terribly missing my family and friends. I wish we could all be experiencing this together, but I am learning so much on my own and I am becoming a better person everyday because of this experience. Thank you so much for you continuously support and love. Keep those letters and e-mails coming! I will answer e-mails and such when I get more time.

Uthando (love)…Christi Manakedi Nqobile (there is a click in there) Kekana Gibson

The First of Many

So obviously I am in South Africa now and I have one word...amazing!! This is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been to. The people are the best part of this experience. I love my PCT friends and I love my community. I have a host mom, Francina (38), three host sisters, Miashibe (20), Lizbeth (15), Mailous (8), and two host brothers, Komotcho (15), and Surprise (8)...yes folks...that is his name. They are wonderful. They do not speak much English, well Miashibe speaks a good amount, so verbal communication is not easy.. but we find other ways. I am uploading photos to my picture page so just click on the "Christi's Photos" link on the right hand side of my blog and you will be able to see what I have been up to. I do not have too much time left here at the internet cafe so I am really rushing to write this. I do not even know where to begin because these past thirty days have dramatically changed the way I view life and myself.
In the past 30 days, I have milked a cow, chased a rooster, took 150 photos, talked to kids in a language that I do not understand, took various walks around my community and greeted just about everyone I came into contact with. I am living a Sepedi speaking area but I am learning Zulu so I communicate mostly in greetings and other small phrases with my community. However, next month I will be moving to KZN and will be speaking Zulu and English. I live in a rural village/town called Motong, which is a part of Bakenburg. My fellow PCTs and I are the only white people in the village so we get a ton of stares, excited waves, greetings, and a million kids that follow us home just because they want to play with us. I am having a blast. I am sorry if I can only get a few pics up because this picture uploading is taking ten million years.
I am trying to read all of the e-mails I am receiving and I wish I could respond to them, but this blogging thing is making more sense now because this is only my first internet cafe trip. I promise I will try to write more next week. I just wanted all of you to know that I am alive and well and that is you have any questions please call Nida or my family because they are receiving letters from me that explain my experiences more in depth. I miss and love you all!!!

Until later..

On the Verge

After a largely successful and humorous PC two-day staging extravaganza we are about to get on our way to South Africa. I have found that the stomach is not a relatively stable organ of the body and that it seems to feel the need to change location whenever possible. I do not yet feel nervous, but know that I am, because my stomach has moved from the very bottom of my abdomen to staying in my throat for ten minutes at a time almost every hour. Or maybe it is just the absolutely delicious Indian food my roommate and I ate tonight…amazing! PC provides the volunteers with a relatively large spending allowance during staging. Maybe this is because they love us…or maybe because we might be eating some unfamiliar and perhaps less than delicious delicacies in SA. Who knows? Not me. However, I am feeling more anxious than anything else because I just want to get there and start with training and really begin the SA experience.

Being at staging is surreal. It is a sentiment that has been passed around a lot these few days. We have been waiting so long to finally get going and now the moment is finally here. It is a triumphant beginning. We waited months, some of us years, in the application process to finally step foot here…triumph. We passed the very intrusive and exhausting barrage of medical, dental, and eye tests…triumph. We wrestled with our luggage and packed and re-packed until we simply could not do it anymore….triumph. We said our tearful see-ya-laters to the friends and family that supported us enough to get us here and still managed to tear ourselves away to get on the plane…triumph. We navigated the murky waters of breaking the ice and getting to know other PC Trainees while undergoing almost 15 hours of training sessions…..triumph. We have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time and will soon conquer many more feats as the days progress.

This is it. I have waited for this and I am ready. Yesterday was tough and today was better….no, make that wonderful. I am by far the luckiest person I know to have this opportunity to serve but I am also going to miss my friends and family more than I can express. So any letters or packages would be greatly appreciated. You could be my best friend for life…well until the next letter comes from the next person and then they are my new best friend, but you can regain the BFF status by sending more packages or writing Nida and requesting such a status…you see the pattern…let’s make it happen folks. Don’t be offended when I do not respond or write back for the first few weeks. Communication back to the States is going to be difficult…at best…so I can only do so much. But I promise to keep in contact as much as I can.

On a heavier note though, if you are reading this please pray for my friend Elena and her family. They have suffered a great loss this week with the sudden death of her mother. Any and all prays will help.

Until next time…

Uhambo

Uhambo means "journey" in Zulu, and that is exactly what I am about to embark on in 3 days, 21 hours, and 48 minutes. I leave for Philly on Sunday at 9:25 a.m. and arrive around 10:30. Hopefully, I will be able to get a quick shuttle to the hotel so that I can have a few hours to myself to see the city before PC registration starts at two. After that it will be a day and a half of training before we get our vaccinations and are off to SA from NYC. We get to stop over in Frankfurt for twelve hours so hopefully I will get the chance to see some of Germany with my soon-to-be Peace Corps friends. 

Many of my friends and family members have been asking me how I have been feeling since the date is so close. My honest answer is that I really have no one word or sentence to describe exactly how it feels to be leaving everything that feels safe and everyone that I know and love to pursue a dream for two years and some change. I feel excited, anxious, happy, sad, impatient, calm, at peace, tormented, but mostly just hopeful. I have been waiting for almost a year now to actually be able to step foot on a plane and step out of my present life and into other circumstances. I am thankful for this opportunity because I know I am so blessed to be able to do this. However, that does not make it much easier to leave those that I love the most.  I have been saying a lot of "see you laters" to people these past few weeks and will continue that for a few more days before actually leaving. As hard as it will be to be away from my family and close friends, I am welcoming the challenges that I will face soon. There is much to do before I go, so I should cut this short.  

I better get back to wrestling with my suitcases. I am about to have to throw down WWF style on my bags to make all my junk fit. Hopefully I will come out on top, but I don't underestimate my suitcase...it is a worthy adversary.If you have the time, send a prayer up to the big man for me for a miracle to happen that my bags will magically expand to fit all of my stuff...no worries...que sera, sera. 

"Not all who wander are lost."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Future

So I was reading some Peace Corps blogs today, as I do everyday, when I realized this blog reading has become a dirty little secret. Whenever my roommate/best friend/soul mate/sister, Nida, leaves to go run errands or buy groceries, I stealthily tiptoe to my laptop and commence reading as many blogs as I can before she returns. As I hear her fumble for her keys in front of our apartment, I close the laptop and resume doing what I was doing before she left. She is fooled and once again I get to read to the blogs without her calling me obsessed or a dork, both of which I am. But all of that is besides the point…what I was trying to say was that I have more questions after reading the blogs than answers.

Many people I know suggest reading up on other’s experiences to prepare for mine in South Africa. And I, being a woman of a curious nature, take the advice and read up on how everyone is doing in PC SA. I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to do this, not only by the PC, but also by my circumstances. Let me elaborate. I was talking with a co-worker a few days ago who is one of my favorite co-workers and who I think is very insightful. She said that even if she wanted to do the PC, she could not. I replied that of course she could do it, she has so much of what the PC is looking for already. Then, she explained that even if she got accepted, who would pay her bills. Sure rent, food, insurance, and other expenses needed to live in Richmond would be taken care because she could not be living here and student loans can be deferred, but what about credit cards? She is not in debt because of her love for fancy appliances or because she has a fetish for expensive clothes or chocolates, because that is not the case. Instead, she has had to use the cards to pay for school, food, rent, and just daily living. She also works full time and is very frugal. However, entirely supporting oneself through school without a scholarship or help from parents has put her in a position where she cannot just up and leave like I can. Not to say that I have never had bills, I have bought a car, insurance, and the money from my parents helps a tremendous amount, but food and living expenses still cost more than I am willing to ask for.

I guess I thought that everyone who was single and without an extravagant lifestyle could follow any dream as easily as I am able to leave my home in pursuit of another. I was ignorant and now I am even more grateful for what I have been given. I have not had everything handed to me on a silver platter; I work hard, very hard. However, I have been given so much opportunity to make decisions that make me happy and allow me to pursue living the life I choose to. My parents are the ones that I am the most grateful to for this and they have inspired me do work hard to be able to do the same for my kids, if I ever have them, in the future.

With that said, I would like to address one simple question that I am getting asked a lot. When people ask me about Africa, they generally ask me what I am going to do afterwards. The question is fairly clear, but the answer is much more ambiguous. The answer is, I have no idea. I have not idea what I am going to do when I come back. Sure, I can go back to school and get a masters or go to nursing school or go to law school or get a job in psychology or work in the pharmacy or join the foreign service or do Teach for American or become a bum or get married or win the lottery or do a million other things. However, I have a general feeling that my Peace Corps service is not just a stop on the road to getting where I want to be, because I do not even know where that is yet. PC South Africa is not just “two-years off” or a vacation. I am not running away and I am not going to find myself. I know where I am, so why would I need to go looking for me? I know who I am and I know that this is not exactly who I want to be, but I am a work in progress that will not be finished until I die. I am here for now and will be some where else soon, all the time consciously aware that I am not lost. J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that “not all who wander are lost”. Maybe PC will be two years of my life that I will extend to make a career out of. Or maybe I will return home in 27 months and join Teach for America for another 24 months and then do something different for another two years. As you can see, there is a lot of “ORs” in there. There is no need to settle.

It seems rational enough to believe that I will “settle down” eventually. Maybe I will come back to the US in 27 months and get a job and go to school and get married and have kids. Maybe I will, or maybe I won’t. The PC South Africa experience is not just two years, it will propel me to the next phase in my life rather than means I am in one place for years at a time or just months. This “lack of stability” is exactly what I need to have the courage to take risks in order to make great things happen. When good people accept the stability of their lives, they become comfortable many times to just stay there. After a while, life gets boring and repetitive. People can become disillusioned with the stability and yet they remain too comfortable to make a move. I just don’t want that and so the answer to the question is that I have no clue what I am doing when/if I return in 27 months, but I know it will be great.

Forgiveness and power

"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted." (Isaiah 43:25-26)

Something to think about...

Distracted...

Ahh! How in the world am I supposed to get any work done with this picture on my desktop!?! Apparently, this is Mokopane. For what I understand, this is where I will be in less than two months and the suspense is killing me. I am at the library and it is 5:59am. I have been here since 5 working on my Urban Sociology final paper. Graduation is on Saturday and a ton of family is coming down to celebrate the holidays and graduation. It should be fun. Well back to work...this paper is due in less than 12 hours. Could this exam week be any more stressful?