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Published: October 3rd 2012
The Goat Story is the last story I have to tell that took place during PST (pre-service training). 6 out of the first 7 weeks I stayed at Lina Kgomo’s house in Watervaal, Mpumalanga. (This was the shortest training SA has done..in response to big budget cuts last year...OK, I don’t need to go into THAT any further.. You are reading to learn about South Africa,...... and what would Africa be without a goat story?)
With weekend trips to museums, site visits, etc., getting a full day at my homestay was rare. So, finding time to wash clothes was difficult. Some PCT’s host families did their laundry for them, but Lina is 2 years older than me and caring for her baby granddaughter for the winter months, and there was no way I would let her think of it. Besides I liked being outside in the sun (still winter, pleasantly warm, and not too hot yet) with my 3 big basins of cold water, one to wash and two to rinse. I’ve always liked hanging clothes out on the line to dry. (Though I can’t count the years I packed all the dirty clothes down the hill from our Teakean Butte home and drove an hour to a laundromat--but that was for a family of four and I was trying to heat water on the cookstove too!)
My first free Sunday, Lina had shown me how to do laundry, then there had been church (at her house--about 15 people), and then I cooked cabbage rolls for her. The next Sunday I had the opportunity to go on a hike to a waterfall (which was running low since winter is the dry season). Photos are posted in the blog earlier. So, I wanted to get out to do something besides sitting through training sessions. Lina went to church at another member’s home that day. I returned from the hike at 4:00 and Lina wasn’t home yet (maybe they kept last week’s church service short at an hour and a half just for me, I don’t know)...but I was sure I could do the laundry without Lina’s help anyway.
Seeing only 2 basins outside, I went into one of the sheds and pulled another one down from a pile of stuff. When everything was washed and nicely hung out, I was quite pleased with myself. Waste water is just thrown out over the packed dirt; these basins are so big I just tip them over so that the water runs out. When I went to the shed to return the basin, I saw chickens and goats in there. I was horrified to see grain on the floor and chickens pecking at it, and one goat was standing on top of the stack of stuff, eye-level with me, peacefully munching on another bag of grain, or mealie-meal (used to cook pap, a staple food here) I hollered at the animals and they scampered away, and I didn’t know how I was going to explain this to Lina. I dragged an old door I found laying on its side, so that I could block the animals coming back...foolish me....(Now I don’t believe the goats are Lina’s, she has chickens and some very loud roosters, and also pigs in a pen way at the far end of the yard, that I didn’t even know were there for 2 weeks. But the goats belong to the family whose backyard butts (is this a pun on goats?) against Lina’s backyard and they come in and get chased out routinely. But they never get into her sheds, because she keeps things safely out of their reach!
Then I walked back through the yard, and the clothesline was knocked down, I’m sure by the goats I had just chased away. This clothesline was rigged up very unsatisfactorily as far as I was concerned; the pole holding the midpoint up was not permanently stuck in the ground, just jammed in the dirt and leaning precariously. So you were always adjusting it as you hung the clothes up. Before retrieving my clothes, I decided to fix this middle pole. Nearby was a stack of concrete blocks, always to be found in everybody’s yards... I set one on the ground to brace the pole against; the ideal simple solution for the problem. (Remember this story when I discuss SA schools and teaching critical thinking to learners who have never been asked to think about what causes something to happen, and to ask, “what if I try this?”) Then I inspected the clothes that had dropped to the ground, and found the bottoms of the pants and sleeves were coated with red gritty dirt. I started taking these down to bring over to the outside spigot and spray them off. That’s when Lina got home, so cheery and relaxed from her day at church; glad to see me so busy with my laundry...I told her I had “mutata” which is not the isiNdebele word for “problem” but it’s some other language that I had heard in a song the learners sing at morning assembly. It means “There are no problems when God is with us” and is a great song. And, of course, there’s The Lion King song “Akuna mutata” about having no worries (and please excuse the spelling, because I have no idea). I showed Lina my clothes that fell in the dirt when the post fell, and told her I’d rinse them off and hang them back up. I showed her my nice invention to keep the post in place, too. Then I said “More mutata!” and took her to the shed. But the goats were back, the ringleader was on top of the stack looking at me as if to say, “You didn’t think that door could stop us, did you?” Chickens were pecking at even more grain on the floor. I yelled at them in a mix of English and isiNdebele and exasperation. Lina basically shrugged her shoulders and helped shoo the goats back across the fence. It was getting dark..about 6:00 and all the animals were settling in for the night, and so were we. And I imagine Lina cleaned up the grain the next day when I was gone, because I never saw any more goats getting into the grains in her sheds again!
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Molly Archer
non-member comment
Wonderful story
Dear Carolyn! I love your stories! The goat story really made me laugh, while also appreciating the challenges of daily life for you and your host families. For a minute I feared you were going to tell us that they told you that the third tub you found was usually used for some unpleasant business. So the appearance of the goat was a great relief. And the pictures from Heritage day are great! They remind me of Sun over Buckskin. Both are relatively at the same time of year (adjusted for our hemispheres) and very festive. What fun for you - and the people you are with all seem so happy. So, we have now traded seasons with the recent Equinox. Hope the warming weather is not too hot for you. I know that I am yearning for a little more heat right now. Blessings and love to you, Molly