Today is the first day of summer, a holiday aptly named "Summertime" by the villagers with whom I live. My hair is still wet from running around with buckets on the main street,getting attacked and attacking everyone from little kids to teenagers. I came home and talked for a while with my host mom. My isiNdebele (the language spoken by the Ndebele people) is really coming along -- I can have a basic conversation with only a few moments of confusion. Today my host mom is cooking rice, tomatoes, and canned fish, which is delicious, preferable as far as I'm concerned to chicken feet and liver :)
I love this time of day, looking forward to 8:00 when the whole family watches "Generations" together (super popular soap opera) and eats dinner. Usually we eat pap (boiled cornmeal)and chicken, with maybe some boiled cabbage. We eat with our hands, and the whole experience is comfortable and domestic. It's usually 7 of us: me, my mom, my 17-year old sister and 7-year old little brother (he is so cute), two neighborhood girls, and the ugogo who lives next door. "Ugogo" means grandmother, age here is respected and the word is widely used. The older brother is 19 and rarely eats with us, although we did get to watch his cultural dance group the other day--ayoba! (Cool)
I actually got soaked twice today.The first time was at the Ndebele college, where my fellow PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) attend technical sessions and language lessons all day long. There are 52 of us, and even though we live in 3 separate villages we come together for training because of the strike. We have to meet at this central location because the schools are closed and the teachers are all demanding higher wages and a housing allowance. The strike is teaching us all a lesson in flexibility.It may go on for months, it may end tomorrow. Whatever happens, I'm swearing in soon and I'll be an official PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer)!
Pre-service training is good preparation for being at site, because we have to be flexibile when the schedule changes and patient during sessions. It can be fun though! One of the best sessions was the Diversity Panel. We were visited by 5 South African guests: an Indian man, an upper-class English woman, a Coloured woman, a black ex-freedom fighter, and an Afrikaaner miner (an ex-soldier on the government's side during apartheid). As you can imagine, the conversation between them was fascinating. Past injustices were addressed by the English woman and the Afrikaaner, the identity issue of Coloured people came into contention, and the Afrikaaner and freedom fighter sat side by side chatting about armed conflict. More than anything else, that session gave me a taste of how apartheid still affects South Africans. The times are changing, but it takes a long time for actual people to change.
I'm going to see if this post worked before continuing with September 1st!
