You know you live in Africa when... III

As promised...

You know you live in Africa when...

... the lunch vendors at your office are women carrying tubs of corn on their heads.

... as you are checking out at the grocery store, the guy buying cigarettes at the counter is shirtless, wearing only a fur skirt and headpiece.

(this one I stole from Tim)
... as you are driving to a work meeting, someone casually points to the local community, "Oh yeah, they're at war".

... you see hippos and crocodiles on the weekend booze cruise...

... no big deal...
... ok, so maybe it wasn't a booze cruise...
... and maybe it was an educational boat tour offered by the local park service...
... and maybe we were the obnoxious Americans who decided to turn it into our version of a booze cruise...
... the most educational booze cruise you have ever taken, thank you very much.

Heritage Day!

So today was another day of site visits, meaning many hours driving, in car dance parties to Zulu house music, flat tire, lessons on Zulu culture by the all knowing matriarchs, Gugu and Thuli (or at least they thinks so ;)), and breathtaking views of the hilly countryside.  I wish I had the opportunity to take pictures, but we were ON THE MOVE.  It was funny how I was, mouth gaping open, "This is beautiful!", and my co-passengers were just like "Oh, yeah, yeah, very nice.", like this was no big deal cause this is just their norm.  Lucky bastards!  Highlight of the day: everyone in the car being thoroughly impressed with my ability to keep a beat.  "You actually have rhythm!"  What what!  Take that!  Fly like a G6!  And then of course I went and made big promises, "Just wait till you see me dance..."  Should be entertaining when they ask me to deliver. :)

But, as promised: Heritage Day!  Heritage Day has its roots in our part of the country, KwaZulu-Natal.  It was originally called Shaka Day, in commemoration of a Zulu King, Shaka, who was famous for uniting the Zulus into one nation.  Now, to be more inclusive of all the other cultures represented in South Africa, it is known as Heritage Day and encourages everybody to celebrate their own cultural beliefs and traditions and in doing so celebrate the diversity of the country, living up to the title "Rainbow Nation".  Sooooo... what does Mpilonhle do?

Oh yeah... We dress up as Bangladeshis/Indians!  Does this make sense?  I'm not quite sure...  South Africa does have a decent sized Indian population, another piece of history worth delving into later.  But, I don't think any of them work for us... Oh wait, except for that IT guy down in Durban (yes, sadly very stereotypical).  And the clothes are actually from Bangladesh... being as that's where Mike and Christine (Mike's wife) lived for a long time.  Basically, what it came down to was that these were the best thing anybody could come up with.  A+ for effort team!  :)  Thank God for Gugu and a couple of the other ladies for representing the Zulus.  Ah yes and that's Tim!  Eat it up!  The first real picture of Tim the Roommate!  I did get his permission to have this awesome picture be the first one up on my blog creating first impressions.

Ah and that's Thokozani in the bottom picture with Tim and me.  Quick update on TK: I got the chance to show him and his wife the blog, includingthe post about them.  They were very entertained and liked it very much.  This actually was very relieving because I felt a little odd talking about their lives so openly, especially as I consider them friends.  But, they really enjoyed it.  First, Thokozani corrected the spelling of his name (hence the added h), and then they were impressed by my memory of the dialogue, but both agreed it was very accurate.  Now they ask about the blog all the time.  They also said I could continue talking about them at will, so the saga will continue.  I've also gotten the chance to get to know Gugu, his wife, a lot better.  And I've realized she is the perfect Zulu woman: let's her man THINK he's in charge, but she is really the one wearing the pants.  Oh wait, I think that's a perfect woman in any culture...

Amanzi=Water

 Today was a lot of driving!  Ish! (That is the Zulu equivalent of the Yiddish Yeesh! or the classic American Geez!  And I have wholeheartedly adopted it as my own)  We were doing site visits for the OneSite clinics to make sure that the locations the DOH had arranged met the criteria and had the necessities, including space, electricity, water, sanitation, etc.  In classic public health style it was over a two hour drive each way for a ten minute scouting trip around the grounds.  Totally efficient and productive.  Right...  Whatever, though it wasn't riveting or anything, it was nice to get out of the office and see another part of the area.  Gugu, who runs health education and has an incredible, huge smile and personality to match, insisted that on the way back that we stop at the local dam and take a picture, humoring the tourist in me.  Thanks Gugu!  Great photos!

Btw, that's Thuli and our faithful driver Bheki checking out the edge with me.  It was really beautiful and definitely a different part of the country up in the hills compared to our little flat and dry Mtubatuba.  The crazy part is that here we are looking at all this water so close to our home, and our town is in a major water crisis right now.  Some of the villages have been without water for weeks.  Apparently this water though is heading for Zambia, a landlocked country north of us.  Hmmm... there seems to be some failed logic here...

Ok, I know that's a less than exciting post, but I HAD to put these pictures up because the whole team took the time out to pull over and make something that is part of their everyday special for me.  What awesome friends!

And it's a nice change of pace from all that jargon and serious talk of yesterday's post, just pretty things to look at. :)  Tomorrow I will start living up to my promises of things to come.  I think I will start with the awesome hilarity of Heritage Day!  Wooo!  Get excited!

WARNING: Public Health Shop Talk (aka what I'm actually doing)- may be super boring...

So, had a lovely three day weekend for Heritage Day on Friday, which involved dressing up, of course.  Pictures to come.  Promise.  But I must say, I looked damn good... and that alone should be enough incentive to keep you reading this blog. :)  Anyway, this weekend was nice and gave Tim and I some opportunities to explore the area, make a new friend with a local Peace Corps volunteer, and enjoy some quality pool time, many of these experiences leading to some pretty classic "You know you live in Africa when..." experiences, which will for sure be posted in the next couple days.  Another promise of things to come to keep you reading... :)  But, today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little about the specifics about what I am actually doing here, because I realized I haven't really done a whole lot of that; rather more explaining about the organization, the living situation, the culture, telling entertaining stories and anecdotes, etc, etc.  I realized I had actually explained more about what mysterious Tim the Roommate does than what I do (and yet again, another ploy to keep your attention, there is still so much to learn about mysterious Tim!)  Ok, so here goes...

The first week was mainly spent getting a better sense of the organization, how it's grown in the last two years, the directions we are moving in now and, of course, where I fit into all of this.  This involved everything from going out into the field to experience all branches of our efforts, from IT training to soccer camps (which inspired a few stories seen here in the blog), to sitting in on management meetings and reading grants (less riveting, less to blog about, but learning a whole hell of a lot).  This side of things included major preparation for a grant review and fights with PEPFAR yet again on contract technicalities (like exchange rates) that are the difference between being able to pay the staff or not.  And in all honestly, this is the side of things that brought me back to this organization.  Two years ago, I got a small taste of what Mike (more or less my boss who is the head of Mpilonhle and an American trained pediatrician with a fellowship in ID) does day to day, and it's not medicine.  It mainly consisted/consists of him sitting in his office on his computer, on his phone, writing and rewriting grant proposals and reviews, fighting on the phone for purchase approvals and promised money from grant contractors.  And my first instict was "I don't wanna do that.  I am not becoming a doctor to do that."  But, then I realized, "Well, I better at least learn about it.  Cause if I'm not going to be doing it, I am going to be working for someone who is going to be doing it and I should at least understand it.  And who knows?  Maybe some day I will have the balls to start my own organization".  So I decided to learn from the best.  Mike has been doing this type of work since he finished his fellowship, so about thirty years, starting in Bangladesh.  And he does what few NGO's are ever able to accomplish, run an efficient and effective organization that is sustainable.  That is a global health dream.  And the even cooler part is that I had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor (the organization was less than a year old when I first worked here two years ago) and see how you build such a beast.  So, basically, I sit in on these meetings/read this documentation and be like, "I don't think I could ever do this... but, God am I gonna try and soak up as much as possible".  It is truly over my head.  But, I also know it is an essential component to this world that I want to make my life.

Okay, so a lot of background, but the second week, aka last week, I got started on some of the projects that they felt best fit my medical student expertise. :)  Most of this involved taking some of the workload off of Thuli, the head nurse here, aka the lady who runs all the healthcare aspects of the organization.  First and foremost, I love Thuli.  We became fast friends the last time I worked here.  She is crazy smart, on top of her game, and super fun to be around.  She also really respects me and my role here.  We talk medicine, which is always fun, and since day one she has been helping me set up opportunities to broaden my medical experience here.  She always says that while she loves dumping her work on me, she wants me to get the whole healthcare experience here.  "That's why you came, yeah?"  This includes her setting up potential shadowing/volunteering in clinics and/or hospitals and taking me along to things that she thinks would interest me, even if they have nothing to do with an assignment of mine.  Basically, she's the best.

And that was more background, yeesh!  So, things I did last week included:
- writing a standard operating procedure for TB screening of employees, which entailed reading South African DOH, CDC, and WHO guidelines, and putting together a puzzle that meets everybody's criteria and standards to some degree
- starting to develop policies for quality control of our nurses, including a combination of chart review, observed interview and procedural skills (and you best believe I'm gonna be using some POM templates for the interview skills business...  thank you Mintzy!)
- reviewing the existing material for our digital healthcare database and building the team that can hopefully mobilize this thing
- editing the Memorandum of Understanding with the local DOH that agrees upon our role in the community, services we provide, and how they will help support us
Those are some of the smaller projects that were more thrown in my lap because they needed to get done stat for grant review, etc.  I feel like I have a decent grasp on these things now and it felt good to do something quick and productive that was helpful for the organization, some instant gratification to earn my keep.  And then there are two bigger projects I have been brought in on which I am super excited about:

1. OneSight- this is an NGO that provides eye health and glasses to populations in need.  We are setting up all the groundwork on our end and then they come in with their 40 person team and run clinics with us for 2 weeks.  On our end, we get to offer health education, counselling and testing to huge populations that come motivated by the possibility of cool new glasses!  No, we are not above a bribe to convince people to become educated and get tested for HIV.  This involves working closely with not only this other NGO, but also the DOH here.  It is a cool project for me because I've had the opportunity to be on the other end of things, part of the team who gets to waltz in, benefit from all the setup, and do some amazing work.  Now, I am getting to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes and gain a major appreciation for the logistics of an operation like this and the people that make it happen.  So thank you to all my support staff in the past, from Guatemala to Haiti, you were all amazing!

2. Grant for sexual reproductive health and rights- SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST!  THIS is my baby, THIS is the thing I am MOST excited about.  It's in its very first stages, which is scary and exciting.  It means I get to be involved from stage one, but also means a lot to do.  At this point, we have the grant, which is awesome, now we just gotta do something with it.   Our basic goal is to create adolescent pregnancy awareness through school based interventions.  This includes:
- health education with a focus on pregnancy, contraceptives, and pregnancy options
- offering and providing contraceptives
- developing a support system for pregnant students and mothers for both physical and mental health, which will involve training and assigning mentors and advocates, including nurses, social workers, school employees, and peers
Through these means we hope to reduce the rate of pregnancy, create a supportive environment to make choices for those who do become pregnant, and provide the resources they need to make a safe choice, including being able to finish high school.  Aka, this project is my dream!  I can't tell you how stoked I am on this!  We are working with a pediatrician from UMass who seems awesome and I'm really excited to work with her.  I'm a little nervous about getting too hyped up and attached to this project (and as you can see from above, that effort has been pretty futile) because you never know how things will go in the global health world, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed believing this could be incredibly awesome.

Anyway, I'm sure I will keep you posted on all of these projects.  If any of them struck a chord or inspired you, I would love to hear some ideas/feedback.  I'm all ears!

Tokozani aka TK

Meet Tokozani, aka TK.  He is kinda like Tim's boss, running the Grassroot Soccer program for Mpilonhle.  Yes, another vague and distant reference to Tim the Roommate, but again, more about him later.  First and foremost, TK is awesome!  He is one of the people I am closest with here.  He is very kind and warm and always makes sure Tim and I feel included, which I cannot tell you how much I appreciate.

Ok, first question:  How old is Tokozani?  Take a wild guess...

Hm?  What is that you say?...  Nope! Thirty freaking five!  They do not age!  They look fantastic!  And their skin... absolutely beautiful.  I'm so jealous.

Anyways, so next, you admire Tokozani's wedding band.  How lovely.  You wonder what his wife's like.

Then TK asks: "So do you have any kids?"
Me: "Well, no.   I probably wouldn't be here if I did, or they would be with me."
TK: "Ah yes, that makes sense.  Interesting." (Aka I should of had kids already)
Me: "And you? Do you have any kids?"
TK: "Yes. Five."
Me: "Oooooh! Damn! That's a lot of little munchkins running around.  How old are they?"
TK: "The youngest is six, and the eldest is thirteen."
Me: "How many boys and how many girls?"
TK: "One girl, four boys."
Me: "Ooooooh damn again!  Four boys?! They must be crazy and running around and causing all sorts of trouble, no?"
TK: "Haha.  Yes.  It is my strong seed.  I brought four boys into the world to carry on the family name.  My family was dying out, only two boys in my generation, so I made four.  You ask and I deliver."
Me: "Hot damn! And where does the girl fit into all of this?"
TK: "She is the eldest, thirteen."
Me: "Ah, okay, so one girl, and then string of boys. So, wait..." (This is where I'm calculating if he's 35, and his oldest is 13, then... and my social faux pas begins) "... when did you get married, how old were you?"
TK: 31.
Me: "31? So..." (Again I'm calculating, realizing this means none of his children have been born since his marriage) "...did you have your children with your wife before you were married?" (Clearly I'm a little confused.  Why this isn't clicking for me, I'm not sure)
TK: "Haha. Nonononono.  The first two with one woman, than two with another woman, and then the last one with another woman."
Me: (Nodding like 'that sounds reasonable') "Ok... So is the last one with your wife?"
TK: "Ha. No. No kids with my wife. Yet." (Grins)
Me: "Are you planning on having more kids? Do you want more kids?"
TK: "Yes, we want one more." (Smiling) "Everyday I wake up and wonder, is this the day? Is this the day that I make it happen, that I deliver?  Only God knows." (Still grinning, and looking at me as if to say, yeah, that's right, I have sex everyday with my wife, and- if I'm translating this right- it's often wake up sex.  We laugh together as if to say- Way to go TK!)
Me: "Ha. Nice! So do they all live with you? That's a lot of people in one house..."
TK: "No. Only the girl.  The boys live in town close to their school."
Me: "So when do you see them?"
TK: "On the weekends mainly."
Me: "Ah, okay. And do they see their moms?"
TK: "Yes, yes.  I think it is importnat for them to know their mothers as their mothers, and not just my wife."
Me: "So your wife, she helps take care of all of them?  Acts kinda of like a mom?"
TK: "Yes, yes, but I want her to have one of her own, you know?  To really be a mother, not just helping, one that is hers."
Me: "Ah, yes, that is nice. I think that is a good idea.  You are a nice husband for considering her like that.  That's very sensitive."
TK: "Well, yes.  Could you do me a favor and tell her that? I think she needs to hear it from a woman."
Me: "Tell her what?"
TK: "That we should have a baby." (Grinning)
Me: "Wait, does SHE want to have a baby?"
TK: "Yeah, yeah, she is unsure, but I think we should have a baby." (Ah, the truth comes out...)
Me: "Haha, well, TK, I love you, but it's her choice to have a baby cause she's the one that has to have it!"
TK: "Meh" (Giving me a face all while smiling)

And scene!

I will go more into all the Zulu culture and dynamics that puts this into perspective as the year continues.  And honestly, I'm still in the process of learning/trying to understand a lot of it.  But the general gist is that this is pretty much the norm.  Men with multiple children with multiple women.  And it's not like "don't hate the playa', hate the game..", it's everybody.  Like TK is an up and coming guy in his community, very well respected, and him having all these kids with all these women doesn't affect how people perceive him, it's just plain normal.  Doesn't matter who you are.  Aka it doesn't make you a pimp or a player or a mac daddy or a sleaze ball or a whore or any other spin you want to put on it.  It's just no big deal.  I do have to say that it doesn't work quite the same for women.  They lose some of their "value" after having a child, but it's also considered very normal for them to have multiple children with multiple men out of wedlock.  Like most of our female staff have children, and most of them are not married, but, on the other side, to counter TK, his wife has no children, with or without him.

Tokozani is considered an anomaly because he did eventually get married.  A major barrier to getting married is the bride price or the lobolo, which is honestly unaffordable for many men.  So this leads to them having many partners throughout their lives.  And there it is, a very norm part of their culture is a very major risk factor for HIV.  These sort of associations are not uncommon here and the challenges  we face fighting this disease become clearer as I understand the culture more.

Again, I am still learning all of this stuff myself and am just trying to get a grasp on it, but this is the sense I get thus far.  I will definitely talk more about the lobolo.  I have already started a recon mission about it involving talking to the ladies to get their side of things.  I have to send Tim in to get more of the guys side of the story.

And as for TK, I did meet his lovely wife, Gugu.  Seriously, I adore her.  She is the sweetest woman alive and I want her to adopt me.  And we did a little marriage counselling in their living room.  TK informed her that I had something to tell her, to which  I told her "TK had wanted me to tell you that he wants a baby.  One more.  With you."  And then we talked it out, for like 20 seconds, with me being like "But YOU are the one having the baby, so it's YOUR choice" and she being like "Ooooooh!" and giving me this look like, 'Oh girl, you must be crazy if you think that's how things work around here...'.  And then she said "Ah yes, I think a baby could be very nice."  And all I could do was smile and tell her I would be around for the delivery if she got pregnant in the next month or so.  I have no idea what goes on behind closed doors or her true feelings about having a baby, but it gave me a taste, a sense of how things worked.  And I will be sure to let you know if and when Gugu is expecting. 

Rules of night driving

This was my evening.  Post work Tim and the boys from work went to practice/play soccer and I tagged along and decided to run laps, in part because Tim is my personal chauffeur, so wherever he goes, I go.  And yes, you think, running laps?  That sounds awful!  But when you are in the middle of Africa, with the sweet, burnt aroma of the sugar factory next door, a gorgeous sunset, and the sounds of happy Zulus playing soccer in the background, laps aren't so bad.

After running, I got a chance to take a few action shots:

Another pretty shot of the boys playing soccer as the sun sets

I know they are not spectacular, but they were taken with my iphone at dusk.  Though I did learn how to zoom on my iphone camera by the end of the evening.  Woo!  Oh!  And there's Tim!  In the bottom picture, a little left to middle, running, in the gray shirt drenched with sweat.  Hard to tell, but he's the only white guy out there.  And that's all you get of Tim.  Just a little taste to keep you guessing.  I like how I've created this mystery surrounding him.  Soon enough you will get to meet the man, the myth, the marvel, my roommate, Tim. :)

Being as the sun was set by the time they were done playing (those boys could of played forever! hence why I had time to take pics post run), I got to teach Tim the rules of driving at night in South Africa.
Rule 1. Windows up, doors locked
Rule 2. Never stop.  That means, do not abide by stop signs or stop lights (not that we have any of those in our town).  A good rolling stop is always appreciated, but always keep moving.  Carjackers hang out at stop signs and stop lights knowing these locations make drivers vulnerable, more or less like sitting ducks, and therefore the perfect opportunity to pounce.

It was a very "You know you live in Africa when..." moment. And so we made the ride home, with dim headlights and a new stick driver, down a bumpy dirt road, never coming to a complete stop.  Go team!

Asani!

I'm despicably exhausted and quite sore from my run yesterday, so I'm gonna make this quick.  Thought I would continue with some of the Zulu lessons with some of the critical phrases I've learned:

Asani!- Let's go! -> I asked for this one cause I kept finding myself calling out "Vamanos!" and then realized Spanish wasn't really so applicable here.  Oops...

Once I seemed to get that down, they felt the next logical phrase for me was:

Balega!- Run! Run away! -> Thanks guys.  Always looking out for my safety!  I love how I'm like teach me how to say "Come on everybody! Let's go have some fun!" more or less and they are like ok, but then you have to learn how to say/understand "Danger!  Run for your life!".  Way to be positive.

But that's kind of been the trend here.  I feel more than safe, like a lot safer than a lot of other countries I've worked in, but apparently it is far from that.  I am basically not allowed to go anywhere by myself and people are constantly concerned about where I'm going, what I'm doing, and how I'm going about it.  Like the whole staff was so concerned about me sleeping in the guest house alone for the first week, even though we live behind a locked gate, have a guard patrolling at night, and a guard dog that sleeps outside my door.  I feel incredibly loved and cared for, but I can't help but look around and am unclear exactly where this danger lies.  But, I know it's real.  South Africa is the rape and murder capital of the world.  There is no questioning these statistics.  It's real, it happens.

I remember feeling this way the last time I was here as well.  A little perplexed about the almost paranoia about the safety here, but not willing to challenge the standard due to the severity of the potential consequences.  Like it's hard to believe it's that dangerous, but you end up being like, well, if you say so...  because it's not something you mess around with, in all honesty.  The risk is not worth it.  And as I said, it is real.  It's just not obvious in any sense, like I have felt/seen it in other countries.  I imagine it will become more real as I spend more time here, becoming a part of the community, and these statistics will literally be closer to home and touch me more personally.

For now, I have my own personal bodygaurd Tim, aka the roommate/car deliverer/soccer player/running partner. :) And we have Shrek, our loyal gaurd dog, and our bad ass ride to get us around safely and securely.  On that note, I think we have to name the car.  Thoughts?

Our ride...

So the roomie is here!  More on him later...  The REALLY exciting part is: he brought a car!

What what!  This is our ride for the next year!  And we've already had some adventures in it, believe you me...  And I'm sure more to come.  Tim, oh yeah, that's my roommate, aka car deliverer, has a hard time getting the car to start.  We are unsure if this is because of the anti car jacking system (cause yeah they have that on all the cars here, gnarly... and not really sure how helpful it is) or the actual car itself.  Hmmm...  Only time will tell.  Oh and Tim learned how to drive stick about four days ago, about 48 hours before he had to drive across the entire country of South Africa alone.  Go Tim!  So always an adventure.  Oh and we also can't figure out how to open the  trunk.  No Tim!

So after grocery shopping, one of our first adventures was going to a camp Mpilonhle was running on Saturday.  A big part of the camp was our Grassroot Soccer arm of the organization, which is who Tim works for.  It's a cool concept that involves a lot of activity, combining sports and soccer concepts with HIV/AIDS education, which really draws the kids in.  We were also doing health education courses, health counseling and HIV testing.

This is where we do the health education, counselling, and testing.   We haul these units to the schools and set up usually in a field right behind.  The little rooms you can see the door open to is where we do the counseling and testing.  And then those placards you see opened up with the photos on them?  Well on the other side is white board material.  So when you open up all four between two units next to each other they create a nice little enclosed space that we use as a classroom for health education so we don't require any space from the school.   The units are amazing, totally custom done.  It's a pretty sweet set up.

And by the way, I'm using "we" in the sense of this organization I'm part of, cause I definitely don't do all the hard work mentioned above.  Yeah, like they let me drive those bad ass Land Rovers to haul the trailers down gnarly dirt roads.  Cause I'm that hardcore.  Nah, that is done by the awesome staff at Mpilonhle (like Bheki!) who I will continue to introduce you to and you will get to know.

But, the most memorable part of the day had to do with the Grassroot Soccer.  So part of the program involves what we in the US would call "icebreakers".  But, icebreakers are a little different here.  They involve clapping out rhythms, chanting beats and awesome dancing!  I mean it was awesome, for many reasons.  First, there is NO way you could of gotten a group of high schoolers in the US to participate in this stuff.  They would of been way too self conscious.  But for these kids, it's part of their culture.  And on that note, it is so natural for them!  They way they follow and pick up the beats and the chants and the moves!  Damn!  They got rhythm!  I mean honestly, it would take a group of white people two hours to get what they picked up in ten seconds.  And they are amazing!  Their dance moves are awesome, and their voices, wow.  Their voices are beautiful!

It was awesome when we had them playing soccer and the kids who were not on the field were cheering for their respective teams, which involves all of the above again, singing, dancing, and chanting, and they would just naturally harmonize.  It was unbelievable.  They would just pick up singing a song, no direction, and everybody knew their part, in perfect harmony.  And it wasn't like just one particular group of kids, like the dorky choir kids or whatever, it was all of them! And this is just their goofing around doing soccer cheers!  I literally was stuck there, mesmerized by the music, looking around, being like "Is anyone else hearing this? "  But, this is just their everyday, their norm.  Tim and my presence was the interesting and intriguing part of their day.  Geez, I wish I had made a video!  The whole time I was thinking of how I could share this experience with everybody else.  But, even with a video... I'm not sure it would translate.  There is something about standing in a soccer field at a high school in a Zulu village listening to these kids come together and make this beautiful music to cheer on their team.  I know it sounds corny, but it was a little surreal, like I felt like I was in a movie.  It was such a testament to how deep and rich their culture is.  Despite the parts I don't understand and find frustrating (more on that later...), it is a beautiful thing to be valued and respected.  There was definitely a moment of "I wish I had that".  I mean, the Jews are cool and all, but we def don't have that kind of rhythm.

It was an awesome but exhausting day, so having the day off today was nice.  Tim and I went for a run, which was... let's say... interesting.  It's hot here, and I'm out of shape in American terms, and I'm def out of shape in African terms.  But, I'm sure Tim will whip me into shape in no time.  Again, more on car deliverer-soccer player-runner boy later.  He's a nice guy, I promise. :)

You know you live in Africa when... II

So sleepy.  So gonna make this short.

You know you live in Africa when...

... a lizard falls into the sink while you are washing the dishes and scares the bejeezus out of you!  seriously!  out of nowhere!  for reals.

You know you are an American princess when...

... you run out of the kitchen when the above occurs and refuse to return until morning.

And with that, good night.

The ladies...

New roomie's here, finally got water back (shower was sooooo good!) and early morning tomorrow, so think I'm just gonna make this quick.  Can't believe this will round out my first week of posts!

I want to introduce you to two of the most important characters in my life here.  I wanted their pictures to be some of the first in this blog, but the opportunity hadn't presented itself until the other morning.

This is Sibongele on the left and Nhlanhla (pronounced "Nshlanshla") on the right.  They are the ladies who work at the farm and always bring a smile to my face.  I apologize for the quality of the picture of Sibongele, but she refused to smile for the picture even though she is smiling all the time, so I had to take an action shot, catching her in the act, hence the blurriness.  They are awesome for many reasons:
1. They clean my house
2. They do my laundry
3. They do both of the above EVERYDAY, even when I tell them to stop
4. They let me steal stuff from the pantry of the big house
5. They are my Zulu tutors
6. They laugh at my jokes
7. They are ALWAYS smiling
8. They bring me water when there is none
9. They remind me to feed the dog
10. They are always watching out for me, making sure I'm safe
11. They are always excited to see me
So more or less they are like my moms, minus the whole teaching me Zulu part, unless you want to think about this as a rebirth thing and they are teaching me my new tongue.  Whoa, see, I need to get to bed stat.  Not enough sleep and too much wine. 

You know you live in Africa when...

So I think this might need to be an ongoing segment of this blog.  Here's a couple tidbits:

You know you live in Africa when...

...you wave hello to the armed guard on his nightly rounds while watching your evening television...

...you drink 2-5 glasses of tea a day...

...people are shocked you don't have a child at the ripe age of 24...

...you are introduced as "the Good Sister Jessica"...

...you come home to find your water is off, which continues for over 24 hours, and this is a regular occurrence.  For reals.

Sanibona!

That's Zulu for hello!  Today was a little on the quieter side, which was nice.  And also means I have the chance to talk about the amazing Zulu people.

So, first and foremest, they are the most friendly people on earth!  No.  Seriously.  Friendliest people ever.  They are constantly smiling and laugh about anything and everything. (Reference the picture of Bheki from the last post)  They make me think I'm so funny!  I love it!  The positive energy is infectious and an awesome motivating factor.  I think one of the best examples of this is their driving etiquette.  Most roads in this area are one lane each way, which can obviously cause major congestion issues, especially with the major trucking industry.  But, the drivers try to be conscientious of each other and move to the shoulder when they are slower.  And here's the best part... when the car passes, they flash their hazard lights to thank the other car for pulling to the shoulder.  I don't know why, but I kinda love that.  It's just so friendly.  It reminds me of something my friend used to say:  The courtesy wave is the key to world peace.

Ok, observation two about the Zulus: they work on Africa time.  This means they tell you they'll be there at quarter to 8, and show up at 830.  It definitely fits their laid back, smiley demeanors, I will give them that.  I see two options for myself.  I could easily get frustrated and annoyed, but this doesn't really help anything.  And then the other side is the temptation to adopt these habits.   Thus far I've been avoiding this temptation in the belief that it could be a major detriment when I move back to the States, especially when I have to start being back at work before sunrise.  So at this point my strategy is to be ready when they tell me and then try to find halfway productive things to do while I wait.  This is harder than you think when I don't have my better half, aka my iphone.

One of said distractions is trying to pick up some Zulu.  So, here's a little Zulu lesson.

Sanibona!- hello for a group
Sawubona!- hello for an indvidual

Response:
Yebo, ninjani?- how are you? for a group
Yebo, unjani?- how are you? for an individual

Your response: (this is my favorite part)
Sisaphila- we are still healthy
Ngiyaphila- I'm fine
       - I like this part because -phila is pronounced -PEElah, which is super fun to say.

In general it's a super fun language with all the vowels and such, and I haven't even gotten to the clicks yet!  Can't wait!  Ok I think that's all for now, I will keep you posted with more stories, cultural observations, and language lessons. :)

my first white girl moment

So I have so much to talk about and don't know where to start!  I definitely want to talk about the amazing Zulu people, but think I have to talk about my crazy day today, and save the Zulu lesson for later.

I went out into the field today to observe an IT class.  Computer education is an important part of Mpilonhle.  It helps avoid the stigma of being labeled as solely an AIDS organization in the community, it draws people in by providing an opportunity to use computers for the first time (what person doesn't want to try a new gadget?), and it provides job skills, which is incredibly valuable in a country plagued by unemployment, which has been linked to the vicious cycle that makes HIV so prevalent here.  They are currently trying to incorporate health education into the IT curriculum in order to protect the PEPFAR funding, which is potentially where I may come in.  Just a little background.  Realized I hadn't filled in everyone reading this blog completely, so I'm going to try and explain a little more about what we are doing exactly.

Anyway, today we were doing a computer class for out of school youth, trying something a little different.  We held the class at an elementary school.  First, we pull up in this bad boy

Yeah, we roll deep in our military edition Land Rovers.
And to continue introducing you to the cast of characters...

This is one of our awesome drivers Bheki (pronounced like "Becky") who was such a sport with us today.
Anyway, so we show up at this school, and the power is out, pretty standard Africa.  Only problem, we didn't have any of the generators that we normally carry with us when using the computer units.  So, poor Bheki had to drive all the way out to get one of the generators and then drive it all the way back, an hour to an hour and a half each way.  Poor Bheki!  It also meant that we were just chilling at this school until he got back.  All was find and dandy, until the chillins got let out for recess...
It started with just one kid doing a walk by, stealing a glance, and then they started walking by in groups.  I waved and smiled at a few.  They were so adorable!  And then they started to post-up.  At first, they kept their distance, smiling and giggling with each other.  I wanted to take a picture so badly!  They were so beautiful with amazing smiles (and yes, I did threaten to steal one... or two), but I knew from prior experience that if I made a point about taking a picture I could truly start a scene.  Slowly but surely, they started creeping closer.  And they multiplied.  And soon enough I couldn't help myself, I had to take a picture, they were right in front of me.

I mean, come on!  How cute!  And I was being so sly... using my iphone instead of my digital.  But, I couldn't just take it and keep it to myself.  That felt wrong.  I had to show them the picture, to get their approval, obvi.  Slash to see those awesome little smiles light up when they see themselves.

Anyway, the second I truly acknowledged them by showing them the picture, letting them know I was safe, they began to gather to indulge their curiosity.  As I became surrounded, I tried to take pictures to document the onslaught, all while hilariously laughing to myself out loud.  At some point as the crowd grew, my buddies from work, Sifiso and Mpi, had moved inside, and I had become an open target.  They didn't want anything in particular, but were just truly fascinated by me, mainly being white and blonde.  Literally anything I did or said they started laughing hysterically.  I took a page out of the book of Peter Leimena and started just having a convo with them, knowing full well they spoke little to no English.  It was hilariously awesome.  I was just laughing out loud the whole time.  Soon enough, in classic mob mentality, they started closing in, pushing each other to get closer, getting as close as possible to me without touching me.  It was around this point that I opted to stop taking pictures to try and plot my escape.  This is the last one I got:

Now imagine that on all sides... closing in.  I just kept laughing, having no idea what else to do.  Some of the people who had been waiting for the computer class to start were witnessing this all with pure entertainment.  Eventually some of them tried to shoo them off, and others were definitely encouraging them from what I gathered from their Zulu, probably compeletly entertained watching the white girl squirm.  Finally, as the crowd became more mob like, the comp students stepped in and really shooed them off.  This involved a few of them taking off their belts and threatening a good whipping.  One woman even picked up a chair in her other hand, resembling a lion tamer.  As they dispersed I jetted inside, with one lady very poignantly stating "I think it's better if you stay inside".

Once I got inside, the madness continued, the kids rushing the building:

Freaking ridiculous.  Our comp students continued to chat with them through the windows for continued entertainment while waiting for the generator.  If I had to guess, again being as all of this was in Zulu, I'm pretty sure they were telling tall tales about the white girl, who she was, and why she was there.  The kids were thoroughly entertained, cracking up at every statement.  Eventually, recess time was over.  Thank god.

It was a hilarious experience, and a good reminder of my place in all of this.  Though it's situations like this that sometimes make me want to be invisible for a bit and see how it works when I'm not there causing a distraction.  Also I feel like I cause trouble for the poor instructors, and I hate feeling like a bother.  Though I did realize some of my value when one of our students sought me out to ask me an HIV question about viral load.  I felt like "Oh! Yes! I can do this!  I can actually answer this! I have a purpose!", which definitely felt good.  He then proceeded to tell me his story about how he is traveling an hour and a half each way to come to these computer classes that are about two hours long because he believes that it will truly help him get a better job.  He told me how his job now is watching security cameras in a grocery store and so kind of uses computers, but doesn't really know what he's doing, and he really wants to learn how.  He had heard that if you learn about "this program, Excel" that you can get a really good job.  This is why he opted to wait with us for the generator for over three hours, along with 20 of his classmates.  His story, and the way he told it, I felt like I was watching one of those commercials where they try to get you to sponser a family for just 5.99 a month or whatever, but he was there, in front of me, telling me his story.  No matter how many times I've heard these stories, everytime it still manages to touch me and remind me why I find myself doing this.

After our shortened class due to limited generator power, we had some more hang out time waiting for our ride to come pick us up, which of course coincided with school letting out, and yet another mob scene.  This time my buddies stuck it out with me, and explained in Zulu to the kids that it's rude to stare.  It was a this point that they decided to tell me that these kids rarely see white people.  Really?!  Thanks guys... Haha.  Nah, they are my new best buddies after hanging out with them for many hours in the heat waitng for generators and rides.

Sorry for the long post, but felt it was a worthwhile story.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

so much to say... so jetlagged...

Wow.  I feel like I have loads to talk about, it's been an eventful first day in the office/field.  But today is also the first day I have managed to stay up the entire day, and then I had dinner at the big house, and am now on the verge of passing out, so I will just leave you all with some pictures:

My house, my pool, and my dog.  Yeah, be jealous, and slash fear for my incoming roommate when I realize I have to share

View 1 from pool

View 2 from pool: unreal, beautiful, beautiful Africa

Me, with my house, my pool, and my view, after my lovely afternoon dip post work aka helping the world

 

 

So all that stuff about me never coming back... yeah... I'm just saying...

Shrek in the Mtuba

So I'm here!  In Mtubatuba! 

Now that I have had a second to regroup, I've had a chance to reflect on how I had forgotten how overwhleming the first couple hours in any foreign place can be.  My whole airport experience went so much smoother today since I had a chance to have a better grip on my surroundings and what needed to get done and the best way to go about that.  Some things I remembered about Africa today: 1. they do things on the left, including escalators 2. personal space issues.  It's good to be back!  Other cool realization of the day: I'm managing to skip winter for a year!  What what!  I'm a freaking genius!  I arrived to beautiful warm weather in Mtuba today, marking the beginning of Spring and will be leaving here just as Winter comes again to return to US summer.  This may be one of my best feats of all time.

I met some very nice Afrikaners on my way, as always.  And, as always, they were very kind and concerned about my safety.  A fun little tidbit: one man's son is studying in the US and apparently has a lovely American nurse girlfirend who is training to be a "theater sister" aka an OR scrub nurse.  I kinda loved that translation.

Ok and the situation here.  So I'm living at La Colline, the beautiful plantation that my boss rents out, in their guest house. It is pretty awesome digs and includes our own pool.  I will be sharing the place with other volunteers working here.  There are a couple up in the air, but one guy who works with Grassroots Soccer is definitely arriving on Wed to stay the year, aka my new best friend if he likes it or not.  We are responsible for feeding ourselves which should be an adventure.

BUT, the best ammenity in the house has to be Shrek, our own personal house dog!  Shrek was here last time I was here, and we were besties, and now apparently a new dog at the main house has been snippy with him so he has opted to start living with the cool kids.  He is a sweetheart and just wants some loving.  He is also a giant German Shephard farm dog/guard dog so could kick some ass and makes me feel very nice and safe.  It's also super nice to have some company in this big house before the other roomies get here.


Ok, I think that's it for now.  I will continue to introduce you to all to the characters in my life here through pictures and tales, but I thought Shrek was a good start. :)

And I'm off!

Officially in the Republic of South Africa!  Woot woot!  In Jo'burg for the night before heading out to Richards Bay in the morning.  Already got a nice taste of living in the Southern Hemisphere when it got super dark super early as they are just celebrating the end of Winter and beginning of Spring.

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind.  LAX to Heathrow, some hours in Heathrow, then another 10 hour flight to Jo'burg.  End result: met some very lovely British people, saw some crap movies on my list, caught up on British celebrity gossip, and an awesome case of pitting edema :)  Currently you could tell me it's any hour of the day and I would believe you.  I do have to say the whole experience went by a lot quicker than expected thanks to my awesome travel pillow! ;)  Oh and I think the highlight would be hanging out behind the World's Strongest Man contestants in the immigration line.  Very nice, but wouldn't want to mess with them.

Anywho, that's all I got for now.  Just wanted to introduce everybody to the blog.  I am not set on the name, though my mother is very proud of thinking of it herself.  Would love to hear any suggestions, as to the name or what you want to hear about, etc.  I'll start to add pictures soon enough (didn't really feel like the first picture needed to be of my swollen feet).  I also wanted to thank all my amazing hosts and hostesses over the last six weeks.  I had such an amazing time, such an amazing vacation, and it all made me realize how ready I was for this adventure!  Thank you all!  Ok, I will keep you posted.  Hope all is well and I miss you all already!