The Economy

The days are getting shorter here, the evenings just a little bit cooler, you can tell that fall is on the way. For the past couple of nights I've watched the moon (a sliver of it) rise up above the mountains while I washed my dishes, cooked my lentils, read my book,and wrote a couple letters. Pretty cool backdrop to such everyday activities, if you ask me. It's the little things...
Falling asleep at 7:30 because the electricity is out. Waking up hours later to my fan coming back on, attempting to dry up the pool of sweat I've managed to find myself in. Visiting a creche, having the teachers teach the kids that I am "Sesi Mmapula", and then hearing my name screamed from every corner of the school the whole time I was there. Gettin' on a taxi with Esther and playing Pee-pie (uh, thank you Liz Kelley for teaching me)with the little boy in the front seat. At the beginning of our ride he wouldn't even look at me, by the end he was hiding himself and jumping out from behind the seat to surprise me. Having the big bricklayer work truck rollin' by a nearby road, Asbagh honking and waving to me. New tiles cover the floor of my room now, they may not cover the whole floor (they ran out), but they are quite the addition to my interior decorating. I ate a locust. Or a grasshopper or a cricket... locust seems to be the catch all name. Boiled in salt water and then fried in oil and salt.. a locust tastes very similar to a Mopani worm (found in Mopani trees, which are to the east of my village a couple of hours, considered somewhat of a delicacy in my office because you have to travel so far to get them. They are.... caterpillars... boiled and then fried). I finally was able to put a name to the guy who makes the best chips in town (er..village). If you are craving hot, fried potatoes, with chili sauce and vinegar, I'll pass along the name William and you can visit him in his little wooden "shop"... his address is the little wooden shack between Taposa Bakery and R36, right by the Metz Taxi Rank. He sometimes sells hard boiled eggs, too, although he may have abandoned that venture because chips sales do well enough. I read an amazing book. So good, it probably deserves it's own blog entry. It's a true story, although sometimes that's hard to believe. It was part of a package I received here.. with a return address that was IN COUNTRY. Who could have sent me a package in country? Abby. A package that contained a nice note, a bar of good chocolate, and the book... "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It explained so much... and also shows that it is possible for one person to take on the task of bringing about change, bringing about peace, and following through. You should read it. (For all you Austin people... looks like it's checked out at the library). I helped my host brother/cousin Kori with his homework the other weekend and if there is anything that would show the difficulties of language barriers, it is that hour of homework help. The assignment was to find food labels and learn how to read them. Kori showed me the list of questions he was supposed to answer and then showed me a handful of (my) trash from the trash pile. Tuna , tomato,basil, and onion mix, instant noodle soup, welcome to supper at Mmapula's room. How do you explain what the word "ingredient" means in English? How do you explain it to someone who speaks limited English? You try one explanation and then another. You use hand gestures. You rephrase. You grab Sofia, your other host cousin who is 24 and on holiday from her school in Pretoria, discuss it all with her in English so she can translate it into Sotho. Sustainability, my friends. Sustainability. After a couple of hours of sitting, talking, and doing homework, we all broke up for the night.... Kori's homework? The final product? Beautiful. Some of the answers weren't in order, but they were there. Tuna, tomato, and noodle labels were all glued down for visual aids (and, yes, the noodle label was in Korean. One of the noodle bowls my aunt in California sent in my Christmas package. Bet no other kid in the class has such international trash). And it was the work of three heads thinking together.
Yesterday, in my office, after a pretty intense conversation with my coworkers about devising some sort of plan to have our office run more efficiently (oh! office politics, how you make me so frustrated!), we had a visitor. The Program Manager from an NGO down the road had driven up (blaring his African beats), his hands full of stewed chicken and pap for all of us. Afternoon tea time! They all discussed annual reports in Sotho, I opened up my book and picked up where I had left off. After a few minutes, David hit his hand on the table and said ,"Megan (he always calls me Megan, he's one of the first people I met, you know, back in the days before Mmapula), I have an idea. I think the Americans, your Americans, can help us with our country's economy. I have a list of good American people who I know can help us out." "Really, David? Who's on the list?" "Number one, Michael Jackson. (Megan is attempting to stifle laughter)." Esther:"No, no... he's not right. It's his head or something, but he isn't right. And I think he has no money now. Oprah! I've seen her school, she would be good." David: "Ok, not Michael. Scratch him. Ok, number two, Beyonce." Megan: "Uh, huh.... I can't wait to hear who's next." David:"And, Bill Gates. And Tom Cruise. And that man who has all the casinos and hotels... I can't think of his name, but he would be good. And that man who has the Playboy mansion." Megan:"Um, Hugh Hefner? You'd like Hugh Hefner to help with South Africa's economy? Do you know what Playboy is?" David: "No, what is Playboy?" Brief period where Megan describes Playboy and the description is met with "Allllllllright's" and "OOOOOk's" David:"Ok, well he has money. Hugh has money. And Oprah." Esther: "And throw in a Kennedy. They are good." David:"Yes, if we could get that list of people, and anyone you think would be good, to come over here, this country would be in top shape." I tried to explain a lot of things after that... but the conversation was quickly over... I noticed that as I began to speak, eyes quickly glazed. Gotta love the office. Hours may go by with nothing happenin', but then your whole day was worth it when you get to be part of such a jewel.
I'm off to town today... meeting up with some other volunteers to see the Tzaneen library and a museum! I am excited! Soon, I hope, Blogger will have the picture option back up again and I'll post some pictures I've been taking.