Tom's Function

I always look forward to school vacations- maybe here in South Africa more so than I did in the US. On school break I don’t have to worry about my schools’ development, and can really just relax or travel. This vacation I decided to stay in the village, but other than being completely bored as I expected to be, the first week I was extremely busy- so much that I was relieved when the second week rolled around and I really did not have anything to do. The vacation started off with a bang as the first day I went to a function giving by my friend and fellow PCV Tom. Tom is my second closest volunteer, living about 15 km away from me in a semi-neighboring village. For the past term he has been working with a youth group he helps with to organize a function promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. In rural South Africa- well, I should just say South Africa, as a whole- HIV/AIDS is devastating. Anywhere between 30-40% of the adult population is infected with the virus, and due to poor education, poor diet and lack of consistent health care in the rural areas the results are catastrophic. My village of Buffelshoek has maybe 7,000 people. If anyone really wanted to see how HIV is affecting my village I would suggest them to walk the perimeter of the village on any given Saturday. Saturday is funeral day, and in walking the perimeter you might see anywhere between one to four funerals. That is every week without fail. So many people are dying, but no one wants to admit why. Everyone says instead that people are dying of “illness.” HIV/AIDS is terrifying to the people living here, mainly due to so many stigmas that are going around. Too few people are educated properly about the virus and how to protect themselves, which only makes things work. That is why I am so impressed with Tom’s function. He put in a lot of work to organize a day that not only educated the people in the community, but also provided support group discussions and VCT (volunteering counselling and testing).

The day of the function I arrived before it began with a group of other PCVs to help set up or do whatever was needed to help Tom out. That turned out to include hanging up posters, organizing trash bins, judging a beauty pageant and passing out condoms. A lot of condoms. The first potential disaster of the day happened when the Department of Health did not show up. They had promised Tom they would send a tent and several nurses to perform the VCT. Yep- never came. If it was I, I would have panicked, but Tom just took it in stride and kept going. Eventually nurses did show up, but I think that they were from surrounding clinics, not the DOH. Other small problems cropped up- the function started later, some of the speakers did not show, and some people did not get food, but at the end of the day the function was a huge success. More than 1,200 people showed up to listen to the speeches, watch the skits and view the entertainment. Dozens of people attended the support groups and education sessions, about 60 people were tested (that is huge-it is incredibly difficult to encourage people to get tested) and thousands of condoms were passed out. By the end of the day, I was tired, and I had not even organized it- I can only imagine how exhausted Tom was. But, the function was a major success…. I am still incredibly impressed with what Tom did to teach his community.

Power Lines

If anyone really wanted to know what life is like living here in South Africa, I would suggest that you read Power Lines by Jason Carter. Jason (grandson of ex-president Jimmy Carter) was one of the very first PCVs to come to South Africa to work in the education system and served from 1998 to 2000. His site is not 300 km south of mine. I just finished the book during the holiday of nothingness that I was on, and I recognize now in hindsight that I should not have read it. Now, I am not saying it is a bad book. On the contrary, it was a very good book. Jason really captured what life in rural South Africa is like. But maybe he did it a little too well. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I use reading and books as an escape from the monotony and frustrations of life in the village. I really do enjoy being here, but sometimes it gets to be a little too much. When I read, I can go anywhere else. Except when I read Power Lines… then I was right smack dab where I did not want to be: the village.

In his memoirs, Jason describes what life is like as a PCV in detail and while I was reading it, I discovered how much I could relate to his life. Almost everything that has happened to him has happened to me in some way or another (minus getting robbed of absolutely everything I own and meeting Nelson Mandela- I’m still working on the last one). And everything he has experienced, the racism, the leftover fear from apartheid, the race relations, the poverty, the schools, the community, the damn mosquitoes and heat, the taxis… it is all still here and I am experiencing it almost ten years later. Yet, while his writing reminded me of all the things that I want to escape from this life, it also reminded me of the things that I love here- especially the people and the acceptance as a part of the community. So, if anyone really wants to know what life is like here, I suggest that you pick up his book. I try my hardest, but I feel like this blog does not do life here justice. Maybe in a few years I will read it again; perhaps it will give me a new perspective on everything that I remember here.

Computer Woes

It has come to my attention that I have not updated this blog in quite some time. I really do apologize for that. Lately it seems that I have nothing really interesting to write about. Of course, that is just my opinion… life right now is a bit boring. There is also another reason why I have not updated in a bit… technological woes. I have just come back from our fall break- two and a half weeks where surprisingly enough, I did things. I opted not to go anywhere this vacation to save my money and vacation days. Instead I stayed around the village and worked with the school children. More on that in another entry. Anyway, back to technological woes. Last year I saved up my money and bought a laptop to help me with my work. I had my doubts at the time, but it turned out to be a truly worthwhile purchase. Not only could I type reports and proposals, but it also kept me quite entertained on the days where I was going out of my mind with boredom. I loved that laptop. ‘Loved’ being the key word-you might know where this is going.

Three weeks ago was busy one evening on the laptop, actually typing out blog entries I was planning on updating the very next day. Then, it happened. The computer screen went completely dead, and the entire computer died on me. Really, I had no idea what was going on. I turned it off and on a few times, only to realize the computer was working fine, but the screen was still completely blank. I recognized that this was out of my hands to fix. I spent the next hour or so searching my room for my warranty information that I had put in a very safe place when I bought my computer so that I would not lose it. Of course, I forgot where that place was. When I found it, the second major blow of the night came: my warranty had run out not two weeks previously. I am pretty sure I spent the next several minutes swearing profusely. I decided anyway to try my luck with a computer repair shop… how expensive could fixing a computer be? Yeah, famous last words. The computer guy basically told me not to waste my time. It would actually be cheaper to buy a new computer than to repair the old one. Another few minutes spent swearing. It was the absolute worst timing and rotten luck. My poor dead computer is now sitting in my closet, and I have no idea what to do with it… especially since the people at HP are ignoring my calls about extending my warranty so I figure that there is no chance of it getting fixed. Extremely horrible and rotten luck. So with this new computer woe I am afraid that my blogging will be limited. I know it was limited before, but now it is extremely so. I will do my best!