Mel's kombie ride...

Just got this picture from Melissa. Haha know the rules of the road when you get into the kombie taxi :)


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Visit to the northern Northern Cape

The other weekend I went up via a 3 hour kombie taxi ride to visit my friend Melissa at her site nearing the Botswana border. She is located in a area I would call "deep rural."

I was picked up by her village's daily taxi from Kuruman which passed through my town just as the sunset, and the taxi driver showed up 2 hours later than they said they would come. The picked me up in one of these large white taxivans and as soon as I jumped in then pulled over again about 500 meters down the road at my local supermarket to run into the liquor store to buy "cold drink.". I looked around the taxi to see who I'd be making the ride and saw 1 woman and that gave me comfort.

At that moment a guy spotted me and jumped into the taxi and tried to talk me up for the location of where I lived and what were my digits. These guys here have really sly tricks to get out the information they need. He kept on prodding and prodding and occasionally tapped me with the newspaper he held in his hand and each time he touch me with the paper ot attempted to touch me hair I'd yell at him to not touch me and the women sitting in the row behind me would curse him out in Setswana. He managed to get out of me where I worked since I figured he was heading up to my friend's village and seemed to know the past Peace Corps volunteer.

Once the taxi tank was filled to capacity (which always involves a few guys rocking the taxi back and forth - apparently this gets in those last drops of petrol) we finally got on our way and it was dark. We sped off out of my town and we had driven maybe 20 minutes out and surrounded by nothing but bush, this dude that was talking me up finally asked to get off, apparently he had just joyrided with us out and once realizing he wasn't going to get my number jumped ship.

We continued through the night up north getting closer and closer toward Melissa. The tar road also soon turned to an unpaved dirt sandy and pebbly road. I had been on this road before with my host family to go up to a small little town to visit for a family funeral. I remember how when we hit the unpaved part of the road how slowly my host brother had driven, but this taxi driver named Sko was something else. As the unpaved road began to resemble something more like the Kalahari Desert we glided over the top of it as if we were Aladdin on his magic carpet in a very rhythmic melodic way - though horribly terrifying and scary.

I looked out the window and saw those heavenly sparkling of the Northern Cape sky and found myself comforted. The taxi driver who quickly learned my Tswana name kept on checking in on me with periodically saying: "O sharp Fifi?"

I finally made it to Melissa's house just in time to miss Generations, my favorite soapie here.

We snuggled in for bed and then woke early the next morning to go visit her school and see the caves.

Melissa is great and she went to university to be a teacher and it instantly shows when you walk into her classroom. She had posters that name the class rules and the consequences for breaking those rules. Give Me Five - I think is my favorite since it was such a simple class room management tool and it was in English and Setswana.

1. Be quiet = Didmala
2. Put everything down= Baya sengwe le sengwe month fatshe
3. Listen = Reetsa
4. Be still = Se tselinyege
5. Look at me = Ntabelele

She also had one wall dedicated to "Work that makes us proud.". As I instantly saw it I knew I'd have to do that for one of my classes next term.

It made me happy to say what a great space she had made for herself in a primary school of 160 students. It's interesting to see where they placed us based on our skills and I think this town was a perfect fit for Mel :)

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"I'm going to cut that f#*@kin' hair!"

Haha quote of the day from Masego.

Apparently some curse words are okay to say in professional settings. The F-word being one of them here.

She then brought the girls over to get 2nd helpings of food. For most that will be their last meal of the day.
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Get out and move!

My kids at school have a tendency to get really restless especially when you're doing a lesson on how to "throw," "kick," and "strike" during the Target Games unit. Like schools in the United States not enough time is devoted to physical education here and when periods are only 25 minutes the idea of bringing 40 kids outside for a lessons gives you just about 5 minutes of actual class time once you've gotten all your kids outside.

Today I managed to fit in 25 minutes of no frill soccer. I got 2 volunteers to be captains and then we choose team and flipped a coin and ran with it. Just getting them out and running was just what they needed.

The day I can successfully do this with my 47 6th grade I'll be happy. That day however has yet to come.
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That's one friggin' HUGE Dumpling!!!

Masego today made dumpling to feed 4 teachers...wow! That's a lot of food - Shoooo!
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The BEST infants choir

So my choir practiced and all the early morning practices for the last few months paid off since the infants choir at my school won #1 in the regional competition last week.

I came into the school the morning of the competition and found one classroom of 60+ kids throwing off clothing in every different direction and running around in their underwear. Some were polishing their shoes and others were having their hair combed. We pinned on the ribbons we had made the day before and they all looked precious (or as they would say here "sharp").

We then waited another 2 hours or so for the buses to show up to take the kids to the coloured township just outside my shopping town. The buses never came so we took taxis. As soon as we arrived we lined up the kids in their formation and raced them on stage. I conducted them in "Deck the Halls" in front of a crowd of about 300 people.

I went home after the performances and heard that the kids were at the town hall till 7 PM waiting for the results. I was just getting out of my bucket bath before going to watch Generations when I heard the honking of a car horn. Over and over it honked outside getting closer and closer. And then I heard the "traditional" hooting and hollering Tswana women do to welcome someone important, at say, a retiring ceremony or wedding or at church. I hear also "Fifi o kae??!!" And then my door bursts open and it's Masego and Ma Chabaemang yelling that our infant choir won #1!! They picked me up and yelled over and over "God bless America!!"

It was very funny! And exciting for me and the kids who had never won this title of best choir in our district. I know this is just small in the long run of my service here in South Africa but it's events like this that build empowerment and pride. It demonstrates that with work and commitment as a group we can achieve and we all can move forward and win. But you must believe in yourself. I gave these children and the teachers hope and that is such a blessing and an accomplishment and warms my heart.

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Making ribbons

Today I made ribbons with Tialetso and a bunch of other girls after school. We made then for tomorrow's singing competition in the coloured township outside my shopping town. The kids will be singing "Deck the Halls," "In my ma se tuin" (in my mother's garden in Afrikaans) and then "Rabanyana" (a Setswana song).

I have been "directing" the infants' choir which are the grade 3-5 singers in Deck the Halls (even though we're clearly not even near Christmas, it being May). I go to the room where they practice and help them enunciate their English. They've improved sooo much since we first started a month ago. And all the kids come up to my waist or even smaller, they're sooo adorable!

Crossing my finger tomorrow goes well :) my kids better win!! We practiced today for hours and hours.

A veces solo nescesitas un abrazo muy fuerte :)

Look what I saw on my through The SA Bush...a baby donkey and its mom hugging :)

Things you see ON and OFF the train...going back to site

More memory space clearing...

Here is a To-be-NOT-identified PCV who warmed himself up in one of those marathon heating blankets. All in all a great idea! Since the temperature of the train will plummet as the sun falls and you're stuck a car with screaming babies and people hacking up mysterious-TB-esque coughs...so some windows are open, thus the cold. But haha watching the expression of the other local South Africans as they passed by and stared at this whiped-out-tired PCV hah was hilarious. All expressions read: "What the....?!"

Picture of the house is a PCV's house, yes this full house is his and it's HUGE. Did someone say Posh Corp?! Rumor is he even has a shower with HOT water. Yeah he lucked out...while the rest of us will trudge back to site and jump into our bucket bathes with full PCV glory. I've actually taken to enjoying my time with my bucket bathe. That and the lack of door to door taxi service I'd say are really the only things I feel like are "roughin' it" for me here. Can't complain at all.

And to answer all those questions about how am I adapting back after going home over the break...umm good. I had no culture shock on either end. Here I have electricity all day, water, food from a supermarket which rivals Jhonny's Food Mastah in Charlestown, a phone which keeps me over-connected to what's going on in the world (so connected I often forget to reply to emails), job which I love, smiles from the cutest kids in the world, and sunsets that take your breath away.

Yup, I'd say I'm back home and "sharp!" (Pronounced "shoooppp")

Things you see from the train...coming back to site

Had these on my phone (craming up space) and wanted to get them up for people to see...

These were pics I took when I was traveling back to site from the long March/Easter school break while passing through Western Cape. It just amazes me how beautiful every province is here and how different too. I felt like I was in Europe, definitely NOT Afrika Borwa.

See the winery fields? And the sheep off in the distance in the other pic?

Winter Pudding Day!!

Masego has the biggest heart in the world <3 today she made for all the teaching and admin staff her homemade Malva Pudding a very typical South African dish!! Here's her recipe but I would also Google it to get a another version of it since didn't get a lot of the cooking specifics.

Malva Pudding: (serves 1)
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon margarine
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 teaspoon apricot jam

(Sauce) boil milk and then add following:
250 ml cream
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon margarine
1 cup water

(Custard) boil milk add ingredients and then cool:
500 ml milk
5 tablespoons custard powder
4 tablespoons sugar

www.food.com/recipe/malva-pudding-south-african-baked-dessert-118545