Another unique feature of this “Rainbow Nation” is the 1st world/3rd world divide we witnessed on our trips to Pretoria and Johannesburg. Last Saturday, in Jo’burg, we went to the Apartheid Museum and then to the mall. It’s as developed as an American city. Electricity, faucets that turn on automatically, stores that sell humus or bree cheese, etc. And then we came home to bucket baths (which are actually fine once you get the hang of it) and dirt roads with kids running barefoot everywhere, and tin shacks and cement buildings, and chickens and goats and cows. It’s weird, my family (surname Mahlangu) has a TV and radio but no running water.
This post is long, but I’m trying to sum up a month’s worth of complete newness. It’s stressful to be the center of attention in a new culture. But my fellow PCTs make a great support network! Our village representatives set up a system where we leave little notes in each other’s envelopes, stapled to a wall at the college. Some are anonymous, like the illustrated installments I get of Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky,” and some are sweet messages from individual friends. Our South African teachers nicknamed me “Reebs” after the famous singer Rebecca, Queen of Gospel, and it stuck. And back in the village they know me as Nonhlanhla (or Nhlanhla). It means “lucky”!
That’s it for now! I love you all and I’ll buy a cell phone and Internet phone (or modem stick) very soon. Volunteers also have lots of time to write at their site, which for me will be the village of Gemsbok, only a couple of hours outside of Pretoria. I’ll be living with an ugogo and am teaching at a junior secondary school. I’ll also be continuing a previous volunteer’s Healthy Living Project, teaching about HIV/AIDS. It’ll be hard but I’m really looking forward to seeing my site . . . when the strike ends! That’s Pre-service Training in a nutshell.
Love, Nhlanhla
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