January 16, 2011

January 16, 2011
A Weekday (written on a Sunday).

*6-7 am – My alarm clock rings. I boil about 3 liters water and add cold water for my bucket bath. Buckets and water: necessary for any domestic operation. Heat water for oatmeal, etc etc. Time for school!
*7-7:05 am – The walk to school begins with a clear wide vista, the fields as seen from the front yard, a neat dirt road stretching towards the far blue horizon and a solitary gentle hill. I turn the corner, greet neighbors. Little boys in horse-drawn wagons, old man on bicycles, women hanging up washing and children in school uniform. The air is fresh and cool and the sun is out, at that time.
*7:05 am - 3 pm – Gonna hold off on description of teaching because I’ve only taught three days’ worth of English classes. The school is small, two long buildings chained off by two kinds of barbed wire, with an unused basketball court in front. Up close the front is pleasing to the eye, the handyman guy who works here has planted flowers along the bricks and around the flagpole, and there’s a well-kept vegetable garden at the side. But the surrounding grasses are unweeded, and classroom windows at the back have been smashed, electric wires stick out of vandalized wall sockets, the ceilings have holes and there is no janitor so the floors are as clean as the learners leave them. Those are the back classrooms, the others are not vandalized.
Like I said, the school is small and there are 8 educators in all, counting myself. They’re easy to talk to and friendly, very interested in me, like everyone, but they have a clearer perspective of my situation than some less educated South Africans. We eat the same food the kids do, pap and beans, rice and canned fish, yams and cabbage. But my colleagues bring left-overs from the night before, chicken and stuff, and sometimes little cakes which we drink with sweet tea. They’re so generous!
I’ll talk more about teaching as I do more of it.
*3 pm – 5:30 – Don’t really know what I’ll be doing now I’m a teacher, but resting will be part of it because the work is TIRING. I read a lot. My room is great, especially in the late afternoon when sun slants through the window and catches my hanging prisms. Large windows afford me a lightly curtained view of the aforementioned scenery! Gogo has a spacious house surrounded by a white fence, lots of grass for the cows in the wintertime, a couple of fruit trees and corn growing in a back corner.
*5:30 – 6:15 – I go running in the afternoons, along the dirt roads. I also visit the immediate neighbors, and on weekends too. Poke my head in, sit down a spell. It puts me in a good mood. Sometimes I sit on the steps of a building outside the dairy farm and look out over the fields. Native birds chirp or wheel above the grass. I walked out into the fields before and I know there are aspens, a lake, some ruined houses, some marshy ground, wet places and long grass (mostly just long grass).
*6:15 – 6:30 – The gorgeous sunset finds me passing villagers, exchanging greetings to the same people I met that morning, watching cows and goats herded in from pasture. The children are always around, somehow, to greet me and hang out and play.
*6:30-9:00 – I recently bought a hot plate stove and, while I’ve thus far stuck to soup and pasta and the like, I’ll cook other stuff once I get into the swing of things. Of course, preparing for school and work or whatever happens. But I also have neat movies. I watched Forrest Gump last night. But that was a Saturday. During the week I don’t watch a whole movie, I have to go to bed early. 9:30, for example, is way past the bedtime of a Peace Corps Volunteer! Others PCVs and I have laughed at ourselves for this but, well, that’s how it is. And that’s a day in my life.

December 27, 2010

December 27, 2010 – Boxing Day 
I’m sitting on a couch in a hostel overlooking the choppy Indian Ocean. The Karate Kid is on TV – what is it with South Africans and The Karate Kid? People down on the beach are “swimming” in the waves – in other words, frothing about in the foam. There is relatively little color in the sky but the water retains a pale green darkening to the horizon.
Christmas was spent by East London in the Buccaneer Backpacker’s. It was great because I got to talk to lots of Germans. I made friends with a Swiss guy named Raffi, along with Peace Corps volunteers from previous groups who I hope to see again in Durban. The highlight for me was the Booze Cruise we went on because horseback riding got cancelled. Still, it was worth it. Wayne, this guy from Botswana, took a crew of us on a ride around a beautiful lagoon ringed by hills that really do remind me of northern California. We passed around boxed white wine and everyone was very silly, getting out and swimming in the comfortable water. Luckily no one was stung by a jellyfish! On the way back we all sang Christmas carols. Christmas Eve dinner was very crowded and VERY good, a candelit venue with wooden benches and crackers with little toys and plastic crowns. There was shrimp, tomatoes, ham, apple sauce, sweet potatoes with cinnamon, potatoes, chicken, gravy, mint sauce, cheese sauce, salad, green beans, celery, also chocolate pudding, strawberries and cream, yellow custard, and some crumble with vanilla ice cream. If I’ve remembered it all. There was white and pink wine and champagne. The champagne breakfast the next morning was great even though I overdid it on the Kaiser rolls and jam, there were hardboiled eggs, plums, pineapple . . . I’ll stop.
My friend Meg and I took a beautiful Christmas walk along the shore. Oh my gosh the shells were so awesome! I found lots of them to send to people if I don’t crush them before I get back to site! And some transparent little slugs with one green antenna were feasting on the washed-up jellyfish. The water had created very cool little tadpoles!
(It’s weird to be inside here watching Modern Family while more and more people run about near the water. Especially since everyone here is white and looking down on the beach from above, and everyone on the other side of the fence is black. I walked down there for a bit, might do so again.)
Today we watched Due Date, with Robert Downey Junior and Zach Galafanotgonnatrytospellhisname! Red-eye bus to Port Shepstone and I’ll get back to you!