Re-Settling In

Jess writes:

As most of you know, Adam and I have spent the last few weeks in a “semi-homeless” limbo – between sites – but, it did give us a great opportunity to see some of our awesome fellow-PCVs, some incredible local sites, and, of course, the World Cup finals!! Nevertheless, “Site Change” hung over our heads… Where will be go? Where will we work? With whom will we live? Will there be water??? And while we loved our Mpumalanga travels, we were anxious (and antsy!) to get to this new site!

And then the call came…

We bundled our weeks-worn clothes and dirty shoes into the packs and waited by the backpacker road for the white, Peace Corps bakkie to roll in. The bakkie arrived, with driver and APCD in tow, and without much ado, we were off to our new site!! And so, after two months of training, three months of community integration at the first site, a few weeks of chaotic site change plans, and a fortnight of backpacking, we finally arrived in our new, African home…

Welcome to Schoemansdal!

Schoemansdal is a large community of almost 10,000 people – a size that is slightly too large to be considered a Village, but slightly too small to be considered a Township, so some have cleverly dubbed it a “Villageship”. This Villageship is located in the Nkomazi region, nestled between the plains of Kruger National Park (40 kilometers north), the beaches of Mozambique (50 kilometers east), and closest of all, the border mountains of Swaziland (10 kilometers south). Thus, Schoemansdal is a truly beautiful place – with rolling green hills, meandoring rivers, and fields of sugarcane for as far as the eye can see! The people too are uniquely beautiful – culturally Swazi and extremely warm, generous, and welcoming to their white “brothers” and “sisters”! (I should illustrate this point: the second day that we were in community, I was a greeted by a semi-toothless gogo who introduced herself as “The town gogo”. She then proceeded to give me an enormous bear hug and shout excitedly in SiSwati “And now I am your gogo!!” How great!)

And did I mention that we get to speak SiSwati again (our original, target language)!! And… there’s WATER!!! What a luxury!

We will be living on the north side of Schoemansdal, on a family compound consisting of three main buildings – a large family home, a small guest building, and a very clean (so clean!) double latrine. The large family home houses, well, the family!! The Shongwe family has hosted volunteers on two previous occasions and they are well-versed in the PCV lifestyle – including all the ups and downs of the two-year service! And to make us feel at home right away, they visited us after our first night’s sleep and announced that they had decided on our SiSwati names (most volunteers are given local names as a welcome to their new communities). Adam was given the name “Themba”, which means “Hope”, and I was named “Nobuhle”, which means “Pretty” (I wonder if they didn’t call my parents for suggestions, because it is a heartwarming coincidence that my new SiSwati name is my parents’ long-used endearment.)

But to the specifics: our host parents, Mr. Petros Shongwe and his beautiful wife Sithabile, are both SiSwati teachers at local schools (very convenient for our recently re-captured, but floundering SiSwati!) Their four wonderful children (and one adopted nephew) range from age 21 to just 2 and are as follows: Thapelo (first-born son), Lwazi (the adopted nephew), Sethu (second-born son), Lindelwa (the only girl!), and Siyanda (the baby boy!). (As a side note, “Siyanda” literally translates to “The children are enough”, which I think is hysterical!!!) The children are all extremely friendly, very helpful when we are in any need, but are also amazingly considerate of our time and space – that is, unlike most children in South Africa, they will always knock before entering the home, only sit and chat if invited to do so, and will happily take leave if you mention your pending house chores. Most entertaining of all our family interactions is with the youngest, Siyanda, with whom we have very humorous, daily interactions. For example, the little guy is old enough to remember the previous PCV that stayed in the guesthouse – her SiSwati name was Ketiwe – but is still too young to make mental differentiations between non-familial adults. Thus, I often exit the house to a little voice yelling, “Sawubona maKetiwe” (“Hello my Ketiwe”) and short arms reaching up for holding! So my ‘Behavior Change’ strategy has been to pick him up, put him eye to eye, and ask slowly, “Ungubani ligama lami?” (“What is my name?”). He usually tilts his head to the side, ponders a while, and responds “Ummmm, Ketiwe.” To which I smile, and respond, “Cha, ligama lami nguNobuhle.” (“No, my name is Nobuhle.”). We do this for a while until he exclaims “Nobuhle!” and I bounce him up and down while saying “Yebo bhuti! Yebo!” (“Yes brother! Yes!”) Then I set him down and he runs away yelling, “Bye bye Ketiwe!” Ha! Oh well… I still have two years to work on that with him!

The smaller guesthouse – a two room outbuilding constructed entirely of concrete and topped with a tin roof – will house ourselves. (PS – We had our first experience with “rain on a tin roof” last week and while the sentiment may be romantic, I would describe it as more “deafening” than any other descriptor!) Needless to say, this house is a bit of a change from our very large, three bedroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and garage at the first site. But, unsurprising to us, we are actually far happier in our bedroom-that-is-also-a-bathroom-and-office and kitchen-that-is-also-our-dining-room-and-living-room!! It’s quite cozy and, while we have had some difficulty finding storage space for all of our newly-purchased home items, we have gotten quite creative with utilizing chairs that double as bookshelves and plushy blankets that double as beanbag seats! And though we miss our roommate, Leonard, and his friendly visitors, there is certainly something to be said for having a home that is entirely ours – no sharing, no extraneous cleaning – just the pure, selfish, exotic concept of “our space”. Ahhh…

The family compound is conveniently located only a half kilometer from the Schoemansdal taxi rank, which, if you’re feeling lazy, you can get a free ride to by any of the passerby coombies (a nice service they offer to the local community members)! Across from the taxi rank is “The Plaza”, a compact shopping center with a Boxer (for bulk or long-life groceries), a Vodacom shop (for all our cellular mishaps), several “China Shops” (random home-goods stores), a large Total Gas Station (for snacks and, for those with a car, of course gas!), and most important – a KFC!! But, since The Plaza might not meet all of our food-ly needs, we can also take a R15 coombie ride to Melalane, our largest shopping town, just 45 minutes away at the edge of Kruger National Park. There we have an enormous selection of shopping complexes, including a SuperSpar... Now, before I go on, I must take a moment to illuminate the amazing-ness of this SuperSpar – with its unbelievable selection of fresh meats, cheeses, bakery goods, fruits and veg, and even a small international food section (with black beans!!!)! Our first venture to SuperSpar could be described as not only overwhelming, but also other-wordly, as we walked around, open-mouthed, at the sheer enormity of diversity and selection! It may be possible to spend our entire monthly stipend in just a few aisles of that one store… dangerous!

But not everything about this new site is beautiful and contented… if it were, we probably would not be needed there. In fact, the Nkomazi region is riddled with issues related to poverty and illness, with one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in all of South Africa. Due to its proximity to Swaziland and Mozambique, the area experiences extensive, illegal immigration, which strains employment opportunities, financial resources, and most dangerously – medical services. In fact, local hospital statistics suggest that the regional HIV+ rate might be nearing forty percent, with ninety percent of all hospital beds being used by HIV+ patients suffering from opportunistic infections. Worse still, in the sugarcane fields, where many of the undocumented immigrants find their paid work, the HIV+ rate is nearly fifty percent (Yes, 50%!!!), the highest anywhere in the entire southern African region! These overarching issues of undocumented status, unemployment, and illnesses-of-pandemic-proportions cause a trickle-down effect that stagnates development with other, very serious issues: human trafficking, cultural/racial violence, gender-based violence (Nkomazi has one of the highest rates of sexual assault and rape in all of South Africa), an increasing population of OVCs (Orphans & Vulnerable Children), a decreasing number of matriculating students, and growing concerns about food security and access to potable water. So have no fears, there is plenty of work to be done!

And work we will…

(Adam’s jumping in here to tell you about his future work):

The organization that I have been assigned to is called Jeppe’s Reef Home Based Care and is located in Jeppe’s Reef, the town directly south of Schoemensdal. The organization is roughly six kilometers from our house so I will be getting a bicycle to use for the commute. The organization is a small home based care boasting three administrators and seventeen care workers. They have been in operation since 1999. The care workers are wonderful ladies and are very friendly. They don’t speak a lot of English so I will get plenty of work on my SiSwati! My supervisor is named Margaret and she too is wonderful. I am the second Peace Corps Volunteer at the organization and I will start by picking up where she left off. She helped to secure some funding and computers in her time with the organization. So I will start with computer skills training and helping with their monthly reporting. Due to both the distance and the size of the organization, I will be splitting my time between my organization and Jess’ organization.

(Okay, I’m back now, to tell you about my/our future work):

I have been assigned to a very large and extremely developed, international organization, called Thembalethu (which means “Our Hope”… think Adam’s SiSwati name!). Thembalethu has had three “officially assigned” PCVs and several other “unofficially assigned” PCVs (just because they found great projects to work with there), so they too are accustomed to the Peace Corps deal. And as for the organization itself, there is so much I could tell!! But I will summarize and simply recommend that everyone visit them online at www.thembalethu.org to get a real feel for the big picture. The basics go something like this: Thembalethu was started in 1999 by three women who wanted to combat the growing problem of HIV/AIDS (and TB) in their communities. Today, Thembalethu’s home based care program has assisted more than 250,000 patients, in over twenty villages, located in three countries (South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland), with the help of hundreds of home based care workers! Additionally, over the last decade, Thembalethu has expanded its focus to a variety of programs addressing their communities’ needs, including: Drop In Centers and OVC Assistance programs in all three countries that help over 5,000 orphans, vulnerable children, and orphan-headed households; an on-site Pre-School and Crèche program; a small, on-site Clinic & Med-room that can also perform HIV rapid-testing and supply nutritional supplements; a Mobile VCT Program that travels to the most rural areas (commonly the sugarcane farms) to do HIV testing and counseling; on and off-site bursary, tertiary education programs for matriculated OVCs; the “GOLD Program” that works with peer-leaders in local high-schools to raise awareness about teen health issues and educational opportunities; the “Youth in Action Program”, which encourages HIV/AIDS awareness in age-appropriate youth and provides skills-transfer trainings and employment opportunities for 18-30 year old artisans and entrepreneurs from all three countries; the on-site “Wildly African Treeshop” (currently not operational) which serves as an income-generation program for the on-site artisans and other Thembalethu programs; an on-site Drama Team that performs dramas at local clinics and schools focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and treatment; an off-site partnership with the African Children’s Choir to encourage musical advancement on the African continent; an on-site, Sustainable Gardening Program that encourages a focus on local food security projects; an onsite, community newsletter called “The Nkomazi Voice”, which utilizes local writers to report on both the good and bad of the Nkomazi region; as well as on and off-site partnerships to execute issue-specific campaigns and programs. Eish! Told you it was huge… and developed!!

And what might I (and Adam) decide to take on as a primary project, you ask? Well, based on some of our common interests and some of our similar, previous work experiences, we have elected to combine our passions and take on the huge, currently non-operational, “Wildly African Project”! Oh boy. The project (as mentioned briefly above) incorporates a store, employment of the on-site artisans, a partnership with the Youth in Action program, and a focus on income-generation. The project is hoping to receive some funding in the near future, with the intent of expanding the program to include a greater inclusion of Thembalethu program participants and an even broader incorporation into the local tourism industry. The vision is this: A wood-oven-pizza restaurant (with an African twist, of course… think “Biltong Pizza”) and an artisan-run curio shop united in the “Wildly African Café & Curios Shop” (the building already exists, luckily, but just needs quite a bit of work). The appeal of such an IGA-branch is the significant amount of tourism groups operating in the area – between Mozambique, Swaziland and the Kruger National Park sites. With a functioning “one stop” spot, tour groups would be able bring visitors to eat, shop, enjoy some local entertainment, and engage in a grassroots, community development endeavor. Thus, the project plan is as follows: the retail side, which has been operational in the past, will be reopened with new crafts and wares supplied by our on-site artisans and run by our senior craftsmen; and the café, which is an entirely new concept, will utilize the on-site Thembalethu kitchen staff, with the assistance of local cooks. Adam and I will split some of the supervisory obligations in order to get the place up-and-going, with me taking on the bulk of the retail supervision and Adam taking on the bulk of the café supervision. We will also bring in local, community members to train in managerial and administrative affairs for the entire program, so that the project maintains strong ties to its host community. In addition, we will increase our partnership with the Youth in Action Program and seek ways in which the participants can be employed as front-of-the-house servers in the café or as sales associates in the retail shop. Finally, we hope to utilize the on-site Drama Team for entertainment during meal service and, possibly, as impromptu tour guides of the Thembalethu compound. Ultimately, the goal of the “Wildly African Café & Curios Shop” will be to develop a diversified artisan program, with employment opportunities for community members and other Thembalethu program participants, in order to create sustainable income generation for not only the artists and “staff”, but also for underfunded Thembalethu programs and organizational administration. Even though the Thembalethu organization already functions at such a high capacity, they still have a great need for self-generating funds (especially in today’s economy) in order to continue their invaluable service to Nkomazi’s needy communities. We hope the Wildly African Project can meet (and one day exceed) that need!

To keep track of our progress, be sure to check out our “Wildly African” photo album on Facebook and, once the Thembalethu site has been updated, we will be sure to highlight the rebirth of the Wildly African Project! Of course, I have a million-and-one other ideas that I would love to help implement with the café and shop itself, so there should be plenty of exciting things to follow as our efforts continue! PS – we also have new Facebook photos up of our new home in Schoemansdal, the area, and (soon) our host family, so be sure to check those out as well! It’s beautiful!!

Whew! Did I cover it all?? What a long post…

Adam and I are currently at IST (In Service Training) with the rest of our SA21 PCVs and we will be visiting our PST Homestays at the end of the weekend to see MamaChristine & Johannas!! We will be sure to post again with details of the week when we are back to site and have had some time to recuperate from our “social” evenings! He he!

As always, we miss and love you all tons! And to our friends and family that have helped us get through the last couple months of Site Change drama, thank you very much. While our resilience for such things seems to grow on an almost daily basis, we could never have done any of this without your support!

Salani kahle!!