cat and mouse...er, rat

The room next to mine is currently serving as storage for the buckets and buckets of dried mealie (corn) that my family harvested this fall. Unfortunately, along with buckets and buckets of mealie, come hungry rats. I have heard them chewing away at the bucket lids. I have seen them up in the rafters of the next room (there is a wall in between my room and the next room but it doesn’t go all the way to the roof). I have jumped over a rat on my way from the pit latrine to my room one early morning. And now, the rats have invaded. After months, they have found my room. I first noticed that a couple of my apples had been nibbled. I complained, “Ugh, why do they have to ruin all my apples. Why can’t they just eat one?” As if in response, the next day the whole apple was gone. The next day, I came home to my first encounter. The rat wasn’t expecting me home so early and upon seeing me, ran to take refuge in my wardrobe. Uh-huh. I don’t want rat piss all over my clothes. I kicked the wardrobe until he dashed out and over the wall to the next room. The battle had begun. The next day, I was sitting outside reading and came in as it was getting dark. Again taking the rat by surprise, he tried to hide behind my pots. I tried the kicking method again but this time the rat took refuge under my bed. How would I sleep at night knowing a rat was right under me? Time to call in the troops. Time for drastic actions. I then borrowed a cat and sat on my bed in the dark for at least 30 minutes, trying to lure the rat into my room so that the cat could pounce. To no avail. Unfortunately, the battle wages on. I plan to buy traps this weekend, although I’m not sure what I will do if I come home to a rat nailed to a trap on top of my fruit. This may be the first time in my life that I ever wanted to own a cat.

what i've been up to

I wrote this about a month ago and for some reason forgot to post it. Oops!

As you know, I’m back at site and trying to get projects started. The funny thing about South Africa is that things I think will be difficult turn out to be easy and things I think I can start in 10 minutes turn out to take a lot more work. (Maybe that’s true for all of development work.) In addition to helping with funding and with random things at my organization, here are some things I’m doing/trying to do.

OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) After-School Activities: 30 kids come to our centre before and after school to receive a free hot meal.  Usually, after school they hang out a little, sometimes organize a game, eat and leave.  I am beginning to plan activities (some educational and some fun) for them to do after-school.  I have two amazing ladies that help me and speak English, translating into isiZulu. The challenge: How do you explain what tag is? How do you explain what a puzzle is? How do you make your instructions clear enough so that they can then be translated into a different language? Needless to say, it has been an interesting experience dealing with language and cultural barriers. So far, we have played tag, a version of musical chairs, attempted to play the human knot game (huge fail), and made puzzles.  During our puzzle making session, about 5 out of 30 children successfully made puzzles. When it came to drawing and cutting out puzzle pieces, most of them couldn’t grasp the concept and instead drew squiggly lines and cut along them. Oops. If you have ideas for games, activities, arts/crafts for any age group-send them my way!

After-School Math Help Sessions: After school on Mondays, I go to the local high school to help the students with math (or maths, as it is called in South Africa).  After talking to the teachers, they told me the lowest pass rates are in maths so I figured I could lend a helping hand! So far, I am focusing on grade 11 and 12 students.  I help with their homework and have asked for topics that they need additional help on. In a pre-calculus class, some students understand everything with amazing wit while some stare at me, completely glazed over because they don’t know how to solve for x.  In my first session, a grade 12 punk decided to be the class clown at my expense. I was reviewing what sine is and everyone was giggly so I asked, “what’s funny?”  I put a problem on the board and asked if someone could do it for the class. The punk came to the front and started trying to mimic my actions and when the class laughed she asked, “what’s funny?” Even though I’m not a teacher, I had the “what type of teacher am I going to be” moment. The cool teacher? The mean teacher?  I told her to explain what she put on the board to the class, knowing she took someone else’s work. When she couldn’t explain, she sat down and I won. I survived the 12^th graders to teach another day.

Girls Club and Camp: I applied for a grant to start a girls club and hold a leadership camp and I should get my funding and be able to get the ball rolling soon.  My plan is to hold 3 consecutive girls groups that will be 12 weeks long.  The first group is going be called Zenzele (we do it our self) Girls Group and will be girls in grades 8-10.  I plan to cover topics such as peer pressure, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, healthy relationships, what’s in a boy’s mind, women empowerment, etc. The first hour will be a lesson and discussion and the second hour will be a fun activity. Most of the activities I’m planning are arts & crafts like tie-dye, making dream catchers, and friendship bracelets. I also want to get influential women to come and speak one day. Then, next June I’ll have a leadership camp that will build on everything in the clubs. Hopefully I’ll be starting my first club in September-wish me luck!

Gardens: We have 2 gardens-one at each soup kitchen for OVC. I am going to a training this week on permagardening and then, with the help of my South African counterparts, will take on the task of making these gardens successful.  All of the food is used in our soup kitchens, providing the kids with more nutritious food.

Support Groups: This is still in the thinking phase. I hope to start a group for Gogos (grandmothers) caring for HIV positive children. It is the norm here for Gogos to care for their grandchildren-because the parents died from AIDS, the parents are working in the cities, or the parents just left.  My organization feels strongly that these people need support in order for them to support the children.  The group will focus on good nutrition, ART support, and the importance of disclosing the child’s status to the child.  It will also serve as a place for the women to get together and feel lifted up. I’m still working on gaging interest, finding an English-speaking Zulu woman to help me, and plan the details. More to come!

Down and dirty

Let me first start by saying this: South Africans have a skill…a talent…a gift.  Somehow, no matter what they are doing, they stay perfectly clean. Last week, I attended a perma-gardening training. The majority of South African women were wearing nice dresses- some even wore heels.  The Americans were wearing jeans, sweats…what one would think to wear when gardening.  After a day full of digging around in the dirt, the Americans left covered in mud and in need of a shower. The South Africans left spotless.  They worked just as hard as the rest of us; but, like I said, they have a gift.  Their whites stay pristine white and their shoes stay polished.  On the contrary, my whites are slowly fading into a brownish red, the color of the Drakensburg dirt. My socks may never be the same.

 

South Africa has four seasons: cold season, windy season, rainy season, and harvest season.  As we transition from cold to windy season (winter to spring), the trees are starting to bud and I have hope that soon I won’t be able to see my breath in my house.  The past couple days; however, have brought a taste of rainy season. I kid you not; it has rained for three days straight.  To walk from my house to work, I have to navigate down a fairly large, steep hill that has now turned into a slip-in-slide.  On my way to work this morning, despite my attempt at careful steps, I slipped and fell to my hands and knees. Covered in mud, I walked to work where I could clean myself up.  I hope that by the time rainy season actually arrives I have learned the South African gift of staying clean.  If not, let’s just say-it’s going to be a long and treacherous rainy season.