Yo, We Gotta Get The Food

At the end of every month Rejoice leaves Metz early in the morning and makes her way to Tzaneen (45 minutes away) on the taxi to buy food for Kodumela's 7 drop-in centers. I was lucky enough to go along for the trip when it was time to get food for March and it was quite an adventure. Nothing like standing in line for an hour at the ATM, eating lunch at Chicken Licken, stopping by Jet Music in the ShopRite mall to get some new music, haggling with drivers so we could hire a bakkie (truck) to deliver all the food to the centers, going to Cash and Carry to get everything in bulk, making a trip to a slaughterhouse (Rejoice told me I should probably finish up my lunch before we went in because I wasn't going to want to eat after we were through there... she was SO right), and riding in the middle "seat" of the bakkie while we wandered down potholed, dirt roads, listening to Peter Tosh (with hits such as "Legalize It" and "I'm an African") and Burning Spear. Yes.
Here's Rejoice, by the taxi rank in town, trying to find a driver to hire. When she told them that we needed a bakkie to take food to all the drop in centers, all of them quoted rates that were way too high for such a trip (sometimes even a couple hundred rand over what she could spend). She said she was pretty sure that they all knew we were connected to Kodumela and were convinced we had a lot of money we could pay out. We eventually found a nice guy, Sele, who quoted us a reasonable price and he drove us to start our shopping.
First stop Cash and Carry! All those HUGE bags are full of mealie meal (for porridge/pap), mabela (sorghum for soft porridge), flour, and sugar.
After purchasing mealie meal, dish soap, tea, soup packets, mabela, palm oil, sugar, and matches, it was time to load up the hired bakkie. Benjamin from Cash and Carry helped us out.
My view out the front window in the bakkie. I think this was taken when we put Burning Spear in the CD player. Maneuvering these roads was quite a task.
All the planning, haggling, and purchasing ends with dropping it all off at the centers. There's Sele (on the left) and one of the carers at Lafata in Madeira Village helping to unload meat, chicken, sugar, and mealie meal.
And here is where all that hard work goes.... kids get a meal. Here are some kids standing in line waiting to be served lunch after school. The bucket of water in the foreground was used for them to wash their hands.

He looks a lot like... Holden

I've really stepped up my picture taking. There was a lull for a few months last year, but now I've hit the point in my service where the end is in sight, I know I've got to capture everything I see and know. I have to laugh and smile at how many things have become routine and blend into the wallpaper of everyday now. Being squished in a taxi with 16 other people? Gotta do it, so it is done. Walking anywhere and having to avoid cows, donkeys, and goats roaming free? Although there have been a few close calls, I've made it through alive and unharmed. Talking on the phone to someone in America and having the sheep and roosters cry in the background wanting to say hello? That's a strange mix of the two worlds I live in. Carrying my water to my room from a barrel? I have learned, after many trips, to bring the bucket top and to only fill it to a certain line... it's easier to carry and every drop makes it into my room. People staring and wondering what I'm doing standing on the side of the tar road or emerging from Metz? I smile and wave. Most people around here know me, but because we're off a big tar road it's easy to see multiple unknown faces.
IIIIIIIIIIt's Holden.....in goat form. Yes, this goat resembles my dear old dog, Holden, the coolest, most stubborn and neurotic Basset Hound, may he rest in peace. I was thinking about getting another dog when I move back to The States, but maybe my sights are now on a goat, instead. I'm willing to try something new.

Stress Relief

The last week and a half has been insanely busy. The majority of my time has been rushing around trying to get things done by a deadline (and succeeding!)or sitting, waiting patiently (and then not so much), for someone to complete some task so I can start on the next step of things I need to do. One day at Kodumela (the NGO down the road), when I was at a loss for what I needed to next, I wandered outside and sat under the big Acacia tree (one of my favorite places in Metz). I sat there for a good half hour crocheting Granny Square after Granny Square for the afghan I'm making. It was nice quiet time. At some point, I looked up and my friend Reginah (Ree-jye-nah), who taught me how to do traditional beading a few months ago and works at Lafata Drop-in Center, was standing next to me looking over my shoulder. Within minutes I had surrendered my hook and had her try out the pattern I had been working. She knew every step, counted every stitch, and did it just right, made a perfect square, just by watching my hands work.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Workshops

Last month, I spent a week working with Hazel from Phedisang (a local organization that runs drop-in centers in several villages all along the main tar road) helping to plan, and then observe, some teen pregnancy prevention workshops. It was a great experience to work with her and be around to see positive outcomes.
Each workshop was about 2 hours long and we tried to divide the time up in such a way that we would make sure to emphasize certain topics. The outline and what we covered went a little something like this:
*What do you know about pregnancy? (the answers ranged from knowing that getting pregnant comes from having sex to a woman having shiny palms and a glowing body when she's expecting)
*An exercise in labeling the parts of the male and female reproductive systems
*Information on HIV/AIDS, STI's, and locations in the local area where you can get tested, be treated, and receive options for protecting yourself.
*The Bridge Activity. Given magazines, paper, pencils and pens, the girls thought about their futures and were asked to draw a "bridge". What are some goals you have for yourself? What must you do now or in the near future to help yourself to achieve those goals? (Many talked of getting a good education and wanting to be nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, and one mentioned a passion for becoming a pilot.)
Close to 100 girls attended the workshops.
Enable Village, one of the villages set off the tar road. I took a taxi from Metz to the cross (where the main tar road and Enable dirt road meet), then took a Maxi Taxi that was waiting under a nearby tree (cars owned and driven by local men who drive you closer to the village since there is no regular running public transport), and then walked about half an hour to the drop-in center.
One of the girls from the center in Butswana Village presenting her Bridge.
Hazel and Olga posing with all their facilitating materials.
Olga presenting information about STI's with a carer at the Worcester Center.
Here's the group of girls from the Enable Center with Mmapula, Olga, and Jeaneth (a carer).

Tea Time is... THE BEST TIME!

South Africans do tea time very well and, man, are there many different ways to do tea time. There's Fanta Grape and a loaf of bread. There's Joko tea with four heaping spoonfuls of Cremora and sugar. There's a half loaf of bread, some chips, and a Powerade. There are finger sandwiches with poloney (bologna), Rama (margarine), and cheese with Coke. And then there's hot chocolate with scones. It doesn't matter what is eaten, but, in my experience, in Metz Village, tea time always happens. Around 10am every morning in whatever office I'm working in, there will be a rustling of bread bags and a clinking of mugs.
Rejoice, Davina, and Lorraine. Tea time at Kodumela.

And just for kicks...if Keri and I were in charge of an office, this is what tea time would look like. (This was taken a day she was visiting and we were "watching" my office). Skip-Bo, Long life milk, Nalgene water bottles, and laughing.

Where We Are Treated Like Royalty

I think every volunteer needs some safe, clean, comfortable, and relaxing place they can go when they need to get away from site for a day or two. Yeah, there are backpackers (hostels) and if you're in the mood, you can spring for something a little more fancy.... but I'm thinkin' something a little more like home. A home away from home.
In the beginning months because my housing situation was so.... interesting... and I was still reeling from the idea that I was in AFRICA... I spent a ton of time in town. Now that I've settled and have my own routine in the village, I don't head there as often. When I do get a chance to go it's an adventure. I usually will run some errands, then grab a cup of coffee at Woolie's (Woolworth's), and people watch until it's time to meet up with other volunteers.
Two of my very favorite people in South Africa live in Tzaneen and I'm very lucky to know them. John and Mary host movie nights, braais, have helped with some funding ideas and funding, can relate to what it's like to be a volunteer because they were once volunteers themselves, and have really opened up their hearts and lives to all of us.
Has it really been a year and a half since I first met them?

March 2008, Back row:Nancy, Jim, Megan, and Erin. Front row: Mary, Virginia, Jaceson, and John.

And things have changed a little...March 2009. Back row: Rachel (friend and Oliver's girlfriend), Oliver (SA-17), Steve (friend of John and Mary's who is visiting from the UK and volunteering his time), and Megan. Front row: Mary, Virginia, Jaceson, and John.

The Seasons

Taken at the end of Winter 2008 (photo compliments of Richard Owen)

Taken at the height of Summer 2009