Settling In

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07/09/12-- that would be the 7^th day of the 9^th month. After two years here I will be Anglicized (is that the word for adopting English customs?) Yesterday I walked to the right side of the car to get in, but that was the driver’s side. The principal of the school I’ll be working at, was picking me up after a day of shopping for items I need to set up house in Kameeleport. I couldn’t find a small fridge, and the storeowners said they’d order one...but we’ll see. One of the teachers at the school offered to pick one up in Pretoria, if it would fit in the boot of her car. (other British things-- I use the lift not an elevator, and spell words like colour, honour, and tyre.)

The SA school system has remnants of the British, one of them being corporal punishment, which I have yet to witness. The math teacher at the primary school had a stick (tree branch) on his desk in the staff room that I suspect he uses in class. I haven’t seen him teach; there weren’t many classes being taught today. Some teachers are quite cavalier about getting to classes on time, or being prepared for lessons. They have plenty to do, there are assessments to give students for the standards, paperwork of all kinds to do, etc. And educators (teachers) are monitored by the circuit (district). My job this first 3 months, to acquaint myself with co-workers might scare a few of them off, if they think I’m here to “write them up” for something. A teacher will just wander out of the staff room to class anytime, learners (students) hang out and wait, often there is no class at all. (no substitute teachers, just unsupervised learners so ......)

The buildings here are in good shape compared to what I’ve seen at other schools. Some of the buildings are new, others maybe 5 years old. Today was cloudy and rainy, and I found that some roofs leak and one building has had no electricity for quite a while and it’s quite dark for learners to work on a day like today. My observations about SA:

1) Things are cheaply made or constructed here, and people are accustomed to it. The clothespegs are cheap plastic, you have to use them gently to get more than one day out of them. 2) The sun, wind, and gritty dirt take their toll on everything. I try to keep my stuff covered up because the dirt penetrates so easily. That’s why there’s so much sweeping going on here! It reminds me of a book I read, about the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, called The Worst Hard Time, I believe.

Here in Kameeleport there are about 200 learners in Grade 7-12. It’s a small village about 30 mins. (how many km?) from the shopping town, Kwamhlanga, and 2 hours from the capital city Pretoria. I stay with Martha Simelane (73-yr old u-gogo) and 3 of her 6 children-- Samuel, Dora, and Zanele; they are in their 30’s and 20’s. Dora is married, I don’t know where her husband is working right now; she has a 3 yr. old and 10 month old. Dora gets on the bus at 5 am to work in Pretoria, and returns between 6 and 7 each night. Zanele takes care of Dora’s children as well as her own 5 year old daughter (Zanele is not married) Marta has an older daughter and grandchildren who live down the street, and 2 others I haven’t met yet.

Zanele works so hard all day taking care of the kids, cooking and cleaning. When I arrived here 4 days ago, they moved me into a small bedroom in the house. After one evening I realized this was not going to work...the children are TOO noisy, I wouldn’t be able to cook my own meals, and the room was too small. I had the support of Shilpa, a PCV here, who extended her close of service from Sept. to Dec. 7 so that she could complete the school year with the Gr. 12 math class. We found the PC policy, that volunteers were to be housed outside of the house to give us our own space. Zanele showed me the outside room, full of old TV’s and all kinds of stuff. So over the next 3 days she cleaned it out, AND caught the flu from her daughter. Last night I moved all my stuff into the room. I have an electric kettle, a “stoven” 2 burner hotplate and small stove, buckets for bathing, washing dishes, and storing water that I get from the outside tap, etc. It was a wild night; strong winds, rain which is so loud on a metal roof (nothing under the metal to insulate it), thunder and lightning, and the wind drove the rain in a stream under the door. Luckily, I had bought a mop and stopped the water from doing damage. The wind stopped, but the rain kept up all night and today. Not much went on at school as I previously mentioned. Around 1:00 I got 2 male learners to carry a school desk to my house (about a block away) It was quite a picture; two tall boys in school uniform carrying umbrellas and the desk between the them with this old white lady in a yellow Gore-tex trying to keep up. (Yes, I will be attempting to post pictures soon) There’s no way a photo can capture the humor of these kids, they are always laughing at something, and it’s not just laughing at me trying to pronounce the “hl’s”, “dl’s” and “rh’s” which don’t come naturally to “abamhlope” -- white people.

I spent the rest of today in my new home, seasoning the cast iron pot in my new stove, playing solitaire while listening to blues and bluegrass music on my computer. I went to the “tuck shop” with Queenie (Marta’s grandaughter who lives down the street), and since Jakeera (Pakistani man I met yesterday on the taxi to my shopping town) had sold all the bread today, he sold me a half loaf he had. After I finish this, I am going to clean the pit latrine....I’ve been avoiding it all day....but it’s got to be done!!!! There is a real flushing toilet in the main house, but I’m not going to go in there each time; besides we were out of water for the past 3 days, and needed to use the outside one anyway...How’s that for a way to end this post?....I hope this answers many questions for you all.

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