How I Spent My Weekend

Tusk Mmabatho Hotel & Casino pool and dining area

Seriously.

It started by going to Tusk Mmabatho Hotel & Casino for some drinks with fellow volunteers.

It ended with a complimentary night's stay, breakfast buffet and lounging by the pool the next morning under a large canvas umbrella.

I love my life.

Casey : )

A Few of My Favorite Things

While I'm endlessly glad that I bought a whole bunch of $5 DVDs on a Day-After-Thanksgiving Sale (gosh will I miss those sales for two seasons!), I am pretty excited about some things I've been able to find in South Africa that are truly South African.


1. DOOM!

So my two biggest worries coming to Peace Corps were (1) bugs and (2) hygiene. During training, Peace Corps gave us this stuff called Doom, basically like Raid, but cooler! This stuff smells better (honestly, they have like 'spring fresh' Doom) and it kills fast! I once shot a couple sprays at a mosquito and he fell down immediately. This is totally why I could never be Buddhist, I like killing bugs too much. Oh, and it can kill those 'flat spiders' - it takes lots more than two sprays, but it'll get 'em!

2. Simba Mexican Chili Chips

I'm not even a chip person, but I love these! I think it's because they have very little salt and mostly flavor. Simba brand has all these crazy flavors like Spare Ribs (seriously!), Tomato Sauce (basically ketchup), HSM Balls Chutney, Salt & Vinegar and I think something else meaty. Who would have ever thought to put meat flavor on chips?!

3. Zing Tropical Juice

Umm ... it's delicious. All my favorite fruits made into once juice for my enjoyment. So good.

4. The soapy, 7 de Laan

Soapys here are crazy! There are so many of them, tons of different languages and some crazy stuff happens. 7 de Laan is the Afrikaans soapy and I'm almost afraid to admit how much I like it. I kinda planned on not watching TV here, but my host family put a TV in my room and I got bored one evening ...

I'm not a soap opera person which is why I think I like this one. It's much less 'soapy' than the rest. No one is getting killed, there aren't any crazy accidents or drug addicts like other soapys have. It's more like a sitcom to me.

And it's all in Afrikaans (with a tiny bit of English) so I can understand this one better - oh, and it's subtitled, but I'm picking up a few words. Most other South African soapys have like 6 of the 11 official languages and it gets confusing, even with subtitles. Some of the other soapys stop subtitles when a character speaks English, but b/c of the accent, I sometimes miss that it's English.

Anyway, 7 de Laan, very good.

5. Black Cat natural Peanut Butter

It's just peanut butter. And it's not marred with all the crazy stuff they put in the peanut butter sold in America. This is just natural for natural's sake. I love it!

6. Tag Lines

So there are some pretty funny tag lines for stuff here. This picture is of Sasko bread's tagline: "Since forever." For whatever reason, it strikes me as so funny b/c there are so many products that are like, "Since 1972" "Since 1909" "Since 1890" - and I think that 1890 one is the Wheat Bix I eat for breakfast... This Sasko one just feels like a little kid who's like, "Oh yeah, your bread is from 1972, well ours is since, uh, well, since forever! ha!"

There's a supermarket called Spar and their tagline is "Good for You" and the lady on the commercial says it kind of condescending with undue inflection on the 'you', it's pretty funny. I tried to find a clip of it, but I couldn't. It's like, why not good for me and my family? Why not good for my wallet? Nope, just good for me. haha.

7. Law & Order: SVU

Yes, it's here! And I think they're the new ones! SVU is my favorite among the L&O series and I've pretty much seen every one ever made and the one last week was totally new to me - yay! I've also found 30 Rock (season 1 though...) and some crazy show I've never heard of - Work with Me. Anybody? It's got Nancy Travis, who was in So I Think I Married An Axe Murderer with Mike Myers from the 90s. It's also got that adorable guy from Can't Hardly Wait, the guy who's in love with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Anyway, it looks like it was a sitcom in the 90s but I totally don't remember this.

That's the short list and I'm sure I'll have more as I continue to live here.

Sala Sentle (stay well)

Casey

Overheard in Mafikeng

My little 5-year-old host brother, Realeboga, talking to his 9-year-old sister, Ororiseng, in the car. The radio show was talking about the election results and mentioned ANC president Jacob Zuma.

R: "Zuma presidente ka eng?" Zuma is the president of what? (huge grin on his face)
O: (blank look)
R: "Presidente thaltswa dikoloi!" President of washing cars! (huge belly laughs while he makes a 'wax-on-wax-off' motion)
O: (rolls her eyes)

Haha, kids.

My New P.O. Box

I decided it's easier for me to have my own P.O. Box so I can check when I need to (and the key at work kept disappearing...).

My new P.O. Box is 1973. That's the only part different, the rest is all the same. It's updated under Coorespondence too.

Best,
Casey

Editor's Note: Layout Change

I began to realize that lots of people had the same layout I previously had (surprise, when I picked it from a group of templates ...). So I decided to switch it up.

I also really love green : )

Best,
Casey

Election Fever

This Wednesday marks the third election of post-apartheid, democratic South Africa. There has been quite a bit of buzz!

I will mention upfront that I am certainly no expert on politics in South Africa. I just wanted to talk a little bit about the way politics work in South Africa, from what I've heard and understand.

And, honestly, since I'm still bouncing back from election fatigue and campaigning in the US, I've mostly avoided any election news or debates. We had almost two years of that in America, so I'm finished for awhile!

Anyway ... : )

Since 1994, the ANC (African National Congress) has been leading the country. It's the party Nelson Mandela was part of that elected him the first black president of South Africa. There is quite a bit of history with the ANC, which I won't go into, but for more info: http://www.anc.org.za/.

There are multiple visible political parties in South Africa that represent each racial or geographic demographic and some that are for unity, etc. (Unlike the major two-party system I'm used to in the US.) Due to the racial skewing during apartheid, when the country became democratic, the government made sure each racial group had representation.

Also, in South Africa, citizens vote for the party and then the party elects the president. That was also something quite new to me.

There are posters everywhere and so when I was walking to town I took pictures of the ones I saw (since some parties are more geographical in nature, not all parties are represented with signage in Mafikeng).

And the ID sign, I just love their hutspah!

On some signs, since they appeal to racial and geographic areas, they'll write in English and the mother tongue. The dominant language in Mafikeng is Setswana and you can see some Setswana on the SAPP and STEM signs. Pretty interesting.

The elections take place on Wednesday and it's a public holiday, so people have the whole day to go and vote - isn't that nice?! So I'll have that day off too. I'll probably just handwash some laundry : )

South African citizens internationally had an opportunity to vote last week and I watched some coverage about that. The majority of South Africans living abroad are located in England. They also showed polls in DC, New York and LA. But I think they said only about 1,000 South Africans had voted in the US. They said about 7,000 votes were placed by South Africans living abroad.

From what I've heard, results should be announced on Thursday or Friday. There has been a lot surrounding this election, so it will be interesting to see in which direction the country will go.

That's all from my news desk. Good night and good luck : )

Casey

Welcome to Mafikeng, South Africa

Dumelang!

I thought it would be fun to post a video of the shopping complex closest to me. It's about a 10-minute drive or 40 minutes walking. There's a grocery store, Wimpy restaurant, Clicks (like CVS), FNB (my bank), a Fruit & Veg shop, Internet cafe and an eating cafe. It's pretty nice.

I feel pretty lucky b/c in the village we stayed in, Seabe, there were like three identical shops that sold basics like rice, drinks, canned food, bread and such. And, seriously, that's it. No banks, no fresh fruit/vegetables, no restaurants, etc.

Video of a Mafikeng Shopping Complex

During training, Peace Corps just gave us food boxes w/ staple items. Luckily, I got to take some of those items with me to Mafikeng. (Mostly so I could save money and not buy new stuff for awhile!) So I've been trying to come up with new food dishes, especially things I can put curry into : )

I've come to the realization I can't make restaurant-quality Indian food, so I've given up on that and pretty much just try to put curry into other stuff!

So ....... I made curry mac-n-cheese! I have to say I felt like a Zingerman doing crazy new things with mac-n-chz! (Although this mac-n-chz was quite a bit cheaper than the stuff in Ann Arbor!) Sometimes I even put diced tomatoes into it - yum! : )

Yum - curry mac-n-chz!
(sorry it's blurry!)

When I was walking around town this weekend, I thought I'd take a picture of the SAMAG office. It's a relatively small office, 7 staff plus me. And, oh yeah, everything has barbed wire on it, so you can see that on the door.

SAMAG office

Best to you for a fabulous week!

Casey : )

Winter is Coming

It's kind of funny; people keep telling us that "winter is coming" but it's hard to believe when the sun shines bright everyday and the temperature is 28 C (around 82 F). At night it gets kind of cold, like low 50s and will apparently get into the 40s by July. Generally my theory is that winter only comes at night and then goes away.

In any case, I'm very excited for winter! It sounds like it's just about perfect - beautiful and warm during the day and cool for sleeping at night.

I thought I'd put up some pictures since I haven't had good connections before to post photos.

Mandela sign at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg (Joburg)

Scenery in Marapyane, Mpumalanga Province

(Just down the road from the training college)

Our Setswana language group at swearing-in: Amy, Glenn, Magdeline (teacher) and me

(not pictured from our small group: Jackie)

Anne and Casey at Swearing-In

Some of the ladies at the Family Farewell function

Back row: Laura, Casey and Amy

Front Row: Nadine, Nisah and Sharleen

The whole group at Swearing-In

As goes the curse of being tall when pictures are taken, I'm in the back, you can kind of see my face near the middle...

(The country director, McGrath, is on the far left of front row and the associate director of training, Lisa, on the far right standing.)

Sharp Sharp

South Africa is a very interesting place to be with some first world areas, some third world areas and lots of Western influence (mostly from the U.K. and America). I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of these similarities.

• Soapys! These are like soap operas only much more intense! (And they move faster than American soaps.) I think a better comparison is that South African "soapys" are like Tele Novella in Mexico. Very dramatic! Here's a clip to one called Generations on YouTube. There are several others like Soul City, Isidingo and 7 de Laan (Afrikaans soapy).
• English phrases. Like the bathroom is called the 'loo' and apartments are called 'flats.' (I haven't seen an elevator yet, but I have it on good report that it would be called a lift!)
• Cricket, rugby and soccer is actually called soccer. So silly me, I thought that outside the US they called soccer football, but in South Africa, I haven't heard anyone yet call it football. And I thought cricket was played with mallets, but it looks more like a cross between hockey and baseball .... (what are the shin guards for?!)
  

Setswana Words and Phrases (Just for fun!)

• Sharp, Sharp (or just Sharp) - meaning: it's all good, cool, etc.
• Le kae "luh-kai" - meaning literally: where are you?; taken as: how are you?
• Ke teng "kay-tang" - meaning literally: I am here; taken as: good
• Ke a leboga "kay-ah-lay-boh-hah" - meaning: thank you
• Gape "hah-pay"- meaning literally: again; taken as: repeat (I used this a lot!)
• Ema "ay-mah" - meaning: stop
• Ga ke itse "hah-kay-eat-see" - meaning: I don't know
• Ga go na matatha "hah-hoh-nah-muh-tat-hah" - no worries, no problem (think Lion King, Setswana is close to Swahili, where they have the phrase "hakuna mathatha"
  
• Short left or short right - meaning: asking the taxi driver to make a short stop (yeah, I know it's in English, but I still think it's funny)

On a happy note, I passed my language exam (yay!) and I'm officially in Mafikeng at my new site! We swore-in on Thursday and I arrived about 9:30 that night. Now I'm just unpacking and getting into the local culture.

Much love,

Casey