Blogs from Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa

A primer on my host family: In the house or outbuildings live: Martha Simelane (73); her youngest daughter, Zanele, and her youngest son, Samuel (who works in Pretoria and has a girlfriend in KwaMhlanga, so he is not here every night), and Zanele’s daughter Thandeke, who is in Gr 1. Others have stayed here for 1-2 month visits. Another of Martha’s daughters, Ouma, and her husband Edison, live down the street with 3 of their 4 daughters. Their youngest daughter, Queen, is one of my Gr 10 learners, and she has been staying at Martha’s house most of the time for the past month. She helps with housework, and helps Martha, because Zanele just got a job at Shop-Rite, the grocery store in KwaMhlanga. I am finishing up a two week holiday ... read more

Every once in a while I am reminded that I am indeed in a different part of the world. When I am tired and stressing about work, I may not see everything with a good sense of appreciation and humor. At these times I get frustrated.....for example, I couldn’t take pictures of the school (my excuse for no school blogs yet) because I have no batteries. I bought AA’s at KwaMhlanga, but the camera said the batteries were exhausted. One of my learners told me that I had to buy Duracell to work in a camera. The next time I was in the grocery store, I could only find this generic kind (I guess they are only good for clocks and such things). While there, I ran into Laze (Lazarus) Ramolefo, a teacher at Sele who ... read more

I don’t know if I’ve ever written the word tidbits before. (one of those words that after you write it, looks slightly foreign) Anyway, during school terms I doubt that I will be sitting down and writing much, so I thought of three random tidbits...shouldn’t most tidbits be random?...that I can share. And, if I sound a little spacy as I begin this, let me blame it on the heat. I blame everything on the heat. My cellphone not working, my irritation level, (we won’t go into that), the increasing number of insects flying around at night...talk about irritating..., and fatigue. It is amazing how much the heat takes it out on you. I am glad for a rotating period schedule which means I see classes at different periods of the day, because the personality of ... read more

We enjoyed a later start to the morning today with an 8.30am pick-up time for our day tour covering the Soweto township, the Apartheid Museum and Johannesburg/Joburg. The mini-van was full with many newcomers to our travel group joining us. We had a long drive from our campsite in towards Joburg. We saw where they were mining for gold, which when it was discovered in 1886 Joburg suddenly became a very popular place, especially with the British. We stopped in front of the 2010 World Cup Stadium, where the Spanish team defeated the Dutch in the final. The African Cup of Nations final is being played there tonight (10thFeb) between Nigeria and Burkino Faso. We will be watching this with our Kenyan bus driver Josh who loves his football. Our next stop was the Soweto township, ... read more

I’m catching my breath at the end of a crazy week. Today was Sele School’s celebration for the last year’s Gr 12’s who did so well passing their tests and getting to matric (graduate). Because of the preparations for this..how do I say it......a totally African way of preparing for events; YESTERDAY was the “Crazy, Crazy Day”. Sometimes I feel like living at the cabin in Idaho helps me adjust to life here. But yesterday, I felt like working at Holden Village helped me survive. So here I am drinking wine and wishing for a good relaxing game of pinochle!!! I should have known what the day would be like when I saw all these learners dragging dead branches of trees to school in the morning. They had been asked to bring wood for cooking for ... read more

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

Before I describe our transport to and through Lesotho, I have one more piece of trivia for you. The country has the highest incidence of people being struck by lightning (as a percent of population). We waited in Underberg for three hrs for the taxi to fill before it would take us across the border. Our taxi ended up with 17 passengers with bags in their laps, and one row of seats packed to the roof with more shopping bags Taxis are vans custom-made to maximize income. 4 people squeeze into the back row, then three into the row in front of that, then you drop down a seat on a hinge to fill in the space, then three more people in the next row, and another hinged seat to fill in that space. This way ... read more

The highlights of my Lesotho trip remain to be told. Hopefully I can make it shorter than my description of public transport. Those first 3 days impressed upon us (I hope they impressed you!) that we were indeed venturing into the unknown. Hmm... watching Star Trek Next Generation episodes this past week has rubbed off... “venturing into the unknown”... navigating with the help of an old The Lonely Planet guidebook. Perhaps a more apt comparison is this: When I saw a Lesotho man wearing a T-shirt saying “Alaska - The Last Frontier,” I wondered: “Maybe Alaska is “The Second to the Last Frontier” because I’m in the REAL frontier now.” Our first two nights in Lesotho were the most rustic. At Sani Pass, they turned on the generator from 5 pm to 10 pm, and gave ... read more

Do people put Christmas lights up in SA? Bear in mind that I don’t walk anywhere at night, so I only know what I saw in the daytime. Maseru, Lesotho’s small capital city, had decorative lights strung across main street and, in a small park, red and green plastic palm trees stood around a traditional Christmas tree shape out of white lights. I didn’t see lights or decorations in front of houses in residential areas of Maseru or Pretoria. Most homes are surrounded by walls with gates across the driveways, so you can’t see much. At the Bloemfontein mall (where I went to see The Hobbit) there may have been some signs about Christmas in store windows, but I don’t remember much decoration there either. Back in Kameelpoort, I saw one man putting up a short ... read more