Different Reality

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Here is a collection of some events with an animal theme and a snapshot of a day, 24/01. (the 24^thof Jan)

First day of school: I was talking with Gr 12 Pure Maths (advanced track), and we heard excitement outside the open classroom door. My girl learners started to scream when they saw a snake slither into our room. Not having any fear of snakes myself, I grabbed my broom to brush him back out. A Gr 12 boy, named Innocent, took the broom from me and I watched dumbfounded as he beat the snake about 4 times, until the bleeding snake left us. I said I was sorry for the snake, but I knew people here felt otherwise. When the girls left class, they screamed again when they saw the dead snake lying 2 ft from the door. They held up their notebooks as blinders so they could walk by him without seeing him. I, ever the intrepid teacher, took a stick and pushed him a little further away. The next day, another teacher saw the snake and said we must get rid of it, because it would attract other snakes. She got somebody to take it away within an hour. I was talking to my isiNdebele language tutor about this fear of snakes that I did not understand. (I have been scolded by Zanele, my host sister, for moving the doorstop. You know those heavy stuffed tubes that people set on the floor against the door to prevent cold air from entering? A more important purpose for using them here is to discourage snakes from coming in your open door.) Peace Corps had played down the danger of snakes in SA, because snakes generally avoid people, etc. But Zanele, my language tutor is also named Zanele, explained to me that people in the village have become very sick or died after a snake bite. So, I’m going to be more respectful of the danger of snakes from now on.

Of course, there are goats here, along with the ever-present roosters! Goats find their way into the school grounds after most of the learners are gone. One day I left a stack of books I had ready to carry home, on the porch, while I stepped inside my classroom to get something. In five minutes goats had hopped on the porch, and one was already nuzzling a paper out of a file folder! I chased them away.

The pests I can’t chase away, and which drive me crazy some nights are bugs. I have encountered more insects in SA than anywhere else. I burn a coil to drive them away, I have a mosquito net over my bed (which has little graveyards of dead bugs in the drooping sections), and I am collecting them in a plastic bag for art club to draw sometime. Oh, and I spray “Doom”* in the latrine when necessary. When I am working at night, the insects are all over the lamp and around me. Some become ensnared in my French braids....and Linda, another PCV, called me “Buggy Braid” when I was complaining about how bad that is! One night I was outside brushing my teeth (one of my favorite times, fresh cool air and a beautiful sky) and I heard a thud on the ground. It was a black bug the size of a ping-pong ball. (slightly flattened, but mostly roundish with vicious looking horned legs) I was able to scrape him into a plastic bag, and clipped the bag to the burglar bars on my window. He made a lot of noise trying to scramble out of the bag, but he couldn’t get a grip to get out. The next morning he was gone, leaving a big hole in the plastic bag. I must have slept too hard to hear him fall to the ground when he escaped, and I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of him next to a paper clip to confirm his size!

* other products are cookies called “Eat-Sum-Mor” and “Die-Rat”, which you can guess what it is used for.

Now let’s set the stage for 24/01.

The days have been hot lately. My classroom has windows facing east-west which is a killer. There are ceiling fans and small windows, but my room is the worst of all for heat. Serious! (this is what they say here...Serious!) The heat truly saps energy.

The village has been out of water for over a week now. (This doesn’t affect the school which has its own water source and some families have large green storage tanks called JoJo’s which they pump water into for these times) My host family has some large containers which they keep full, and we have never run out before (3 or 4 day water outages). We’re all conserving where we can. I am good at reusing my bath water to rinse off my dishes before I wash them, etc.

My host family has been very busy cleaning up the yard since Christmas. Martha was often out at 6 am pulling and chopping weeds and a neighbor lady came over to help rake and clean out the area next to my room. This is all in preparation for a traditional function for “lobola” when the groom’s family gives blankets, cows, money, whatever; to the bride’s family. (More on this in a blog on isiNdebele traditions with photos!)

When I arrive home from school this day, four women are in back of the house, cooking African beer over a fire. (remember we are in the upper 90 degrees here!) I go lay down on my bed and let the fan blow on me while I wonder if I will have the energy to get up and fix something to eat! Then a Gr 12 learner comes by for homework help. We sit in the shade out on the stoop in front of my room. After she leaves I notice a commotion at the back of the house (about 40 ft from me). Zanele comes to me to ask for a torch (flashlight). Queen (Martha’s grandaughter, who lives 3 houses down the street and is a Gr 10 Math learner) was cooking supper inside while the older women were out with the beer-making. She screamed when she saw a snake!!!!! Yes, a snake..and it went along the outside wall to the water storage area. Everybody is determined to find and kill him. I am sitting back on my stoop watching them, and Queen joins me..because she is too afraid of snakes to be part of this. We had a nice conversation about many things sitting there for maybe two hours. The women moved everything they could, they looked under the large water tank that they couldn’t move, they threw burning newspaper in the corner, they dropped the kitten over the fence into the area to kill the snake. Queen’s father came along and helped search, but after a while he must have felt it was a lost cause, because he sat down and watched too. By now it is quite dark, and I forgot to mention, the electricity went out about an hour into this, so now I had another excuse not to work on my class lessons. Remember the snake searchers have my headlamp (from Roseann) and I only have a candle and small flashlight (from Corine) in my room now. Now the women have brought over a tire and lit it on fire, Ouma is carrying a burning tire scrap like a torch, and they have a paraffin (oil) lamp nearby. I could see they were still not going to give up. So I got ready for bed at 8:30 and read my Kindle (which has a light in the case). Zanele returned my headlamp later when they gave up the search, and I never heard whether they tracked the snake down the next day.

The next day was even hotter, and the electricity was still out. School knocked off early (quit for the day) because without electricity there was no water at the school and it was 38 C (100 F)

I hope you have enjoyed this picture of life here...it’s quite hilarious sometimes, and to learn the different words used here. I wrote a word problem for a quiz about the %!o(MISSING)f a car’s gas tank which was full. I remembered that gas is sold in liters, but I didn’t remember that gas is for heating and petrol is for fueling a car. A teacher read my quiz and caught this for me, so I could correct it. I also read a notice from the Dept. of Ed Circuit about scheduling a meeting about something... “to chat the way forward regarding the matter” . Totally cute, isn’t it?

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