Ekhaya Lami! (Literally - My Home!)

Whew! Is this cutting it close or what? It's the last day of August around 9pm and I'm just getting around to hashing out this entry. This month has been chaotic to say the least. At the beginning of the month, I flew up to the capital of Zambia to meet my brother - Troy - and one of my good friends - Yashwardhan - both of whom I hadn't seen in over a year. It was so nice to see both of them, familiar faces. We drove West to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls, got liquored up and emptied out at the casinos more times that I care to admit, watched the horrible Captain America: The First Avenger (not recommended, full stop), walked with lions, played with cheetahs and even made a stop at a cotton factory just for the hell of it. Needless to say, Zambia was awesome. And the fun was multiplied by three because I was hanging out with my brother and Yash.

After Zambia happened, Troy and I flew down to South Africa and toured around Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. We made fun of Afrikaaners, met some of my closest Peace Corps Volunteer friends, went deep sea fishing, destroyed a hostel (ask Troy about that one…

Ugezi Uyahlesela! (Literally - Electricity Attacks!)

When I first arrived in South Africa, I was intent on not having electricity. I told my program director at both of my in-country placement interviews that I did not want running water or electricity. As per my request, I was originally told that my site wasn’t going to have electricity or running water [see Ngiyanibingelela (Literally - Greetings!)]. To my chagrin, when I finally arrived at my house in Magaga, my family had installed a single, ungrounded outlet along with an in-line light bulb. As it turns out, my village only had electricity installed a few months before I arrived and Peace Corps was still in the dark about the electrification of my village. Excuse the pun, I couldn’t resist. Now, I’m at peace with my electricity situation. I am only slightly jealous of PCVs without electricity but I’m not bitter. I honestly only use electricity to power a 2-burner hot plate, a light bulb and my computer/phone.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I work in two separate communities pretty far apart from each other (at least to walk between). The community I live in is electrified. This means that everyone in my village, for the most part, has interacted with light bulbs, electric kettles and refrigerators. The school I work in has computers, a photocopying machine and lights in the classrooms. The learners get copied tests, homework assignments and things generally move at a faster pace. My other community, however, has not had electricity since I’ve been here. People purchase candles to light their rondavels at night, they heat water by fire and never slaughter an animal they won’t be able to fully consume within a day or two. It’s a very strenuous life. At school, we use a generator to power the risograph machine (don’t get me started on this electronic printing press contraption), to power the Administrative Clerk’s laptop and we completely rely on the sun to provide enough light to illuminate the classrooms. Learners are constantly copying paragraphs off of the board, tests take much longer and the pace of work is considerably slower because everything takes longer to complete.

Within the past month, Eskom (the electrical supply company)...

Top 10 List: Being White in Black South Africa

Okay so I'm not going to lie, I sorta stole this idea from a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. He updates a hilarious blog called The Cool Side of the Pillow, which I would highly recommend that you check out if you have the time. Anyways, here's my top 10 list of being white in black South Africa:

1. No matter what type of illness you have, you have the flu.
2. You're not hard unless you listen to Rihanna, Fergie and Lady Gaga.
3. As a male who is over the age of 16, you are a social pariah if you do any of the following: wear shorts in any situation, fetch your own water, cook for yourself or wash your own clothes.
4. If you do not spend at least 8 hours per day outside in the blazing hot sun, there is something wrong with you.
5. All white people look alike (see #6).
6. Apparently I look like John Cena (see #7).
7. Despite what you think you know or what you actually know, WWE Wrestling is real.
8. "Can I borrow a pencil?," is always delivered as such: "Can you borrow me a pencil?"
9. You forget common English words at an exponential rate over time and/or you begin to incorporate syntactically incorrect sentences as a part of your own vernacular.
10. You do not know/understand/write in English if you do not spell behaviour with an '-our,' programme with an '-mme,' or centre with an '-re.'

I'm going to be heading to Cape town this weekend so next month's blog entry will have some pretty amazing photos, for sure. Here are some pictures to wet your appetite until next time...