I told the proposal for funding that I worked on last week where to go. Well, Tanya and I sent ours off to Pretoria through a courier service (thanks to her office!). It was stressful. Really. It didn't require many hours of work or anything, but it did insist that I use my brain and actually THINK and well, I haven't done that in a good 9 months. Made me miss school a little bit. After hitting one obstacle after another with phone numbers not working, the office we were sending things to not trusting email (so our electronic versions had to be burned to CD's and sent with our hard copies), and trying to make deadlines... we were through at 10am on a Thursday. What do you do after you finish a proposal and are tired of looking at your office? You congratulate yourself and head over to Tanya's for a viewing of the movie classic "Titanic" (until the electricity goes out and leaves you hanging at the part where the last part of the ship is about to go down) and you stuff yourself silly with nachos, guacamole, and some homemade salsa. Yeah, that's how you do it.
MmaDiapo gave me a stalk of sugarcane from her farm just down the tar road from the village. You're supposed to break a piece off at the joint, tear the bark off with your teeth (that's African style... I used a knife) and the chew the inside pulpy part until you've gotten all the sugary sweet juice out.
This is a sad attempt at trying to show, through digital image, what a chewed on piece of sugarcane might look like... but you get the picture.
A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, MmaDiapo hosted a society meeting in her yard. The night before, the electricity was out for a good few hours and I had to help Margaret bake scones over the fire so they would be ready by morning. This is a classic example of how people may have access to amenities such as electricity here, but don't rely too heavily on them.... always using traditional methods as the most reliable way of getting things done. My job was to hold the torch and shine its beam on the table where Margaret was patting out dough or over the cast iron pot to see if the scones were browning nicely. A few times she asked if I was ok... and if I needed to take a rest. "Oh Mmapula! You must be so tired! Please go and have a rest!" Really, holding the torch was not that exhausting (can you believe it?!). The meeting the next morning was a success...burial society members met (each person pays R25 a month and when there is a death in their family, all the society members show up to help cook food and attend to details of the funeral. MmaDiapo is busy most weekends with society work, we have a lot of funerals around here, at least a couple every weekend), issues were discussed, and after cooking all morning, large amounts of food were consumed. Butternut, cabbage salad (cole slaw), beets, pap, sour porridge, steamed cabbage, chicken, beef, tripe, chicken intestines, bread, and mashed potatoes that were cooked in large three legged pots, with jelly (Jell-o) and custard for dessert. Finish the day off with a glass of Sprite and then go take a nap (or wait, that's what I did).
When you bring out your camera at the drop-in centres kids go wild. I was chased around by packs of kids wanting to see their faces on my LCD screen. Hilarious. It really is funny. Whenever you pull out your camera they move forward and keep moving towards you as you're snapping photos. They just get so excited. I call this one "Up in yo face". Doesn't the kid right in front look like he's very much moved by all that is happening?
Thanks to Tanya for inviting me along to paint at her organization's drop-in centre, Lafata. After all the painting was finished, the kids posed for a picture.This drop-in is the model of what all drop-ins should be.... nice building (which is their's(this is rare), fridges, storage space, many income generating projects (chickens, beads, and biscuits), and the shelter where the kids eat that we painted.
And this is Mmapula posing with her new beaded belt! The woman next to me (who is also wearing one) is the one who made it and everyone else helps out at the drop-in centre. Some work with beads, some work with the chickens, some work with the kids, and some make biscuits (mmmmm, I like me some biscuits).
I love this picture. A couple of weekends ago Tanya and I went to Hoedspruit to run errands and hang out at the cool little coffee shop. We stopped by the new post office and met Sipho and the gang. Sipho told me that he didn't want me to suffer while in his country and if there was anything he could do to help me... I should let him know. I told him I would greatly appreciate a picture of the Hoedspruit Post Office staff.. and yes... because he didn't want me to suffer... that is exactly what I got. I love that they didn't bat an eye when I asked them to hold up my stamps for international mailing and that James, not having any stamps to hold, posed with the calculator. From left to right: James, Sipho, Busi, and Leonard.
Balloon village with Idah and Mogale. A couple of weeks ago Mogale and I went to shadow one of my organization's carers, Idah, in the village of Balloon. In order to get to Balloon we took a taxi down the main tar road and got out at the cross for Moshate (another village right off the main road). We then walked to a circle of trucks parked under a small group of trees just past the shebeen, and it was there that we found our ride into the village. Some people rode in the back, Mogale and I got in the front, and we made our way winding through the red dirt into, yet another, remote village our carers and organization are trying to serve. It's beautiful isn't it? Right next to the mountains. We spent the afternoon climbing up the side of the mountains checking on patients, eating guava right off the tree, talking about how good cold drink would be, dispelling any rumors that we were from Eskom (oh the very famous people in charge of electricity in this country), and talking to (being surrounded by) kids who had just gotten out of school. Oh, and I drooled over all the ripe avocados hanging from the trees.. they're in season now.
I told the proposal for funding that I worked on last week where to go. Well, Tanya and I sent ours off to Pretoria through a courier service (thanks to her office!). It was stressful. Really. It didn't require many hours of work or anything, but it did insist that I use my brain and actually THINK and well, I haven't done that in a good 9 months. Made me miss school a little bit. After hitting one obstacle after another with phone numbers not working, the office we were sending things to not trusting email (so our electronic versions had to be burned to CD's and sent with our hard copies), and trying to make deadlines... we were through at 10am on a Thursday. What do you do after you finish a proposal and are tired of looking at your office? You congratulate yourself and head over to Tanya's for a viewing of the movie classic "Titanic" (until the electricity goes out and leaves you hanging at the part where the last part of the ship is about to go down) and you stuff yourself silly with nachos, guacamole, and some homemade salsa. Yeah, that's how you do it.
MmaDiapo gave me a stalk of sugarcane from her farm just down the tar road from the village. You're supposed to break a piece off at the joint, tear the bark off with your teeth (that's African style... I used a knife) and the chew the inside pulpy part until you've gotten all the sugary sweet juice out.
This is a sad attempt at trying to show, through digital image, what a chewed on piece of sugarcane might look like... but you get the picture.
A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, MmaDiapo hosted a society meeting in her yard. The night before, the electricity was out for a good few hours and I had to help Margaret bake scones over the fire so they would be ready by morning. This is a classic example of how people may have access to amenities such as electricity here, but don't rely too heavily on them.... always using traditional methods as the most reliable way of getting things done. My job was to hold the torch and shine its beam on the table where Margaret was patting out dough or over the cast iron pot to see if the scones were browning nicely. A few times she asked if I was ok... and if I needed to take a rest. "Oh Mmapula! You must be so tired! Please go and have a rest!" Really, holding the torch was not that exhausting (can you believe it?!). The meeting the next morning was a success...burial society members met (each person pays R25 a month and when there is a death in their family, all the society members show up to help cook food and attend to details of the funeral. MmaDiapo is busy most weekends with society work, we have a lot of funerals around here, at least a couple every weekend), issues were discussed, and after cooking all morning, large amounts of food were consumed. Butternut, cabbage salad (cole slaw), beets, pap, sour porridge, steamed cabbage, chicken, beef, tripe, chicken intestines, bread, and mashed potatoes that were cooked in large three legged pots, with jelly (Jell-o) and custard for dessert. Finish the day off with a glass of Sprite and then go take a nap (or wait, that's what I did).
When you bring out your camera at the drop-in centres kids go wild. I was chased around by packs of kids wanting to see their faces on my LCD screen. Hilarious. It really is funny. Whenever you pull out your camera they move forward and keep moving towards you as you're snapping photos. They just get so excited. I call this one "Up in yo face". Doesn't the kid right in front look like he's very much moved by all that is happening?
Thanks to Tanya for inviting me along to paint at her organization's drop-in centre, Lafata. After all the painting was finished, the kids posed for a picture.This drop-in is the model of what all drop-ins should be.... nice building (which is their's(this is rare), fridges, storage space, many income generating projects (chickens, beads, and biscuits), and the shelter where the kids eat that we painted.
And this is Mmapula posing with her new beaded belt! The woman next to me (who is also wearing one) is the one who made it and everyone else helps out at the drop-in centre. Some work with beads, some work with the chickens, some work with the kids, and some make biscuits (mmmmm, I like me some biscuits).
I love this picture. A couple of weekends ago Tanya and I went to Hoedspruit to run errands and hang out at the cool little coffee shop. We stopped by the new post office and met Sipho and the gang. Sipho told me that he didn't want me to suffer while in his country and if there was anything he could do to help me... I should let him know. I told him I would greatly appreciate a picture of the Hoedspruit Post Office staff.. and yes... because he didn't want me to suffer... that is exactly what I got. I love that they didn't bat an eye when I asked them to hold up my stamps for international mailing and that James, not having any stamps to hold, posed with the calculator. From left to right: James, Sipho, Busi, and Leonard.
Balloon village with Idah and Mogale. A couple of weeks ago Mogale and I went to shadow one of my organization's carers, Idah, in the village of Balloon. In order to get to Balloon we took a taxi down the main tar road and got out at the cross for Moshate (another village right off the main road). We then walked to a circle of trucks parked under a small group of trees just past the shebeen, and it was there that we found our ride into the village. Some people rode in the back, Mogale and I got in the front, and we made our way winding through the red dirt into, yet another, remote village our carers and organization are trying to serve. It's beautiful isn't it? Right next to the mountains. We spent the afternoon climbing up the side of the mountains checking on patients, eating guava right off the tree, talking about how good cold drink would be, dispelling any rumors that we were from Eskom (oh the very famous people in charge of electricity in this country), and talking to (being surrounded by) kids who had just gotten out of school. Oh, and I drooled over all the ripe avocados hanging from the trees.. they're in season now.
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