Homeless in South Africa

So, yes, I'm currently homeless in South Africa. If I think about it too much I start to get a little anxious, so I just try not to think about it that hard : )

Rather than stay in Pretoria through this site change, our Peace Corps Country Director has me visiting volunteers to help with their work. It's nice to be productive during this transition period. With a change of scenery, I'm already feeling better about moving to a new site, wherever that may be.

Being temporarily homeless, I was thinking about the people in South Africa who are homeless homeless, like squatter-camp homeless, not like my current couch-surfing homelessness. I'm lucky that I'm under the auspices of Peace Corps so that I can still get money for food and transportation, but there are so many others who are without a solid roof - or they're living in a shanty spot.

The South African government has these housing sites called RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) where they build low-cost housing for people who are homeless in South Africa. From what I've heard from South Africans, often times the houses are built first without hooking up water or any electricity, so really it's only like one step up from being actually homeless.

There are lots of opinions on how effective these housing projects actually are - especially considering the corruption that seems to surround these RDP sites. Some people will buy them and then rent the rooms at a spiked cost.

Recently, I was visiting a fellow volunteer friend and near her village is a site of these RDP housing developments. The 'houses' have only two rooms and often times multiple people live in these houses. Most sites have pit toilets (outhouses if you're from the country) and there are normally taps or boreholes nearby where people can get water.

I took a video to show you what it looks like. At the beginning of the video, you can kind of hear the beginning of Higher Love by Steve Winwood (from the late 80s/90s) playing on the radio. I thought it was quite the appropriate song to play as I took the video of these RDP houses since Winwood sings "things look so bad everywhere; in this whole world, what is fair?" (The full lyrics are linked in case you're interested. It's a really great song, especially for soundtracks.)

RDP Housing Site in Rural North West Province, South Africa
(23 seconds)

It's such a different reality to see these types of housing developments and then see the richness of other areas in the country. The gap between the haves and have-nots in South Africa is among the highest in the world, if not the highest.

So, for now I'm couch-surfing. But I have some leads on new sites and will hopefully have an update soon.

Sala sentle,

Casey

I Guess We Were Warned About Times Like These

During the Peace Corps application process, during the 'staging' where volunteers prepare to leave and at the in-country training, they warn volunteers of the big ups and big downs they might encounter. I'm fairly level and try to remain balanced so my experiences so far have been really great (albeit ridiculous at times) and I've laughed a lot. But some days it's just not as easy to find the funny.

Last week was a string of those kind of days.

The big news is that I do not live in Mafikeng anymore. I can't (and won't) say why on this blog except that it's a security matter. I can't say anything because of Peace Corps regulations and I won't just because of my own standards. This site is supposed to be a fun and informative blog about my experiences, not my online journal. But I am safe, so that's good.

Since I have a lot going on in terms of finding a new site and home for the duration of my tenure in South Africa, I'm not in funny-writer mode. But since I still want to be positive, I'm going to leave you with this really amazing video of a group of learners at a middle school in the North West Province performing a Tswana cultural dance. I am so impressed, especially by these boys, and what they can do. Enjoy.

Middle School learners from the North West Province doing a Tswana cultural dance
(1 minute, 34 seconds)

Whey they sing, "ke mang?" is like "it's who?" and as for the rest .... yeah, I don't know. You can make up your own meaning, that's always fun.

Sala sentle,

Casey

Conversations with Ororiseng

So the other day I was doing dishes and Ororiseng, my 9-year-old host sister, came up to me:

O: I have a fur coat.
Me: Oh, that's cool, I had one when I was young too.
O: My grandma has a whole lot of fur coats.
Me: Oh, cool.
O: Do you like fur coats?
Me: I don't believe in fur.
O: (blank look)
Me: When I was young, I thought they made fur coats from the fur when animals passed away. But when I got older, I found out they kill the animals to get their fur and sell it. I don't like the thought of hurting animals, so I don't believe in wearing fur coats.
O: But mine's pink.

Aww...

I realize that maybe the fur conversation may have been a bit too much, but I take every opportunity I can to teach Ororiseng something or show her another point of view since she is always looking for information. I think she really listens to me, and I believe in treating youth like growing people and not "little kids" so I am pretty honest with her. She asks me a lot of questions and I think she's really thirsty to learn.

I also think youth retain tons of stuff so I'm also really careful what I say because I know she'll soak it up like a sponge. She's just so special and she wants to learn, which is a fine quality in any growing (or grown!) person.

Ororiseng, my host sister, and me

This situation is also different because of culture. I'm honestly not sure about Ororiseng's culture, Tswana, if they kill animals for purposes other than eating. Another one of the South African tribes, Ndebele, kills animals to wear their hides as a power thing to show that the hunter is fast enough to kill a cheetah, lion, what-what. Makes sense, but I'm still not excited about it.

I think Tswanas are more utilitarian and do things for very practical purposes like eating and surviving. But, if wearing animal hides is part of Ororiseng's culture, I don't want to influence her away from that. I still won't believe in killing animals for domination and sport to wear their fur, but I understand it's a realistic part of many cultures worldwide and I respect that.

It's also very different for someone to uphold their heritage in wearing a pelt of an animal sacred to their culture than some starlet wearing fur at a Hollywood event with no connection to anything other than fashion. Anyway, that was a lot about fur. And fur isn't even on my top ten list of issues I advocate for, so I'll wrap this up : )

Sala sentle (stay well),

Casey

Did I Just Defend Tim McGraw?

No offense if you love country music, but I’ve just never been a fan. However, it does seem to be the music most closely associated with good ole American values and the heartland so some songs like I'm Proud to be an American have popped into my head since living in South Africa.

So the other day I’m watching this South African program called Flash! which is like a classier version of E! (sorry E!, I still love you) and Flash! was doing their weekly top-something list and this list was about surprising pairings in music. They highlighted the Tim McGraw and Nelly team-up for 2005’s Over and Over Again. I remember at the time not really liking either artist, but I enjoyed the song. And I was excited about the bridge between country and hip-hop.

Like a VH1 show, Flash! has barely-known personalities discuss their list of the top-somethings. One of the commentator guys goes “I mean, Nelly, he’s so cool and hip and then what’s he doing singing country music? And who the heck is Tim McGraw?”

Ack! I say to the TV! Tim McGraw is like the number one country music singer and his wife Faith Hill is like an even bigger deal than he is! Go to Nashville, they’ll ask who you are!

Then I realized I just defended Tim McGraw to a C-list personality on a South African TV show I’ve watched twice…

This story illustrates how much of a pro-American I have become. I’ve always been proud to be from America, but living in another country has really shown me how excited I am to be American. (So much so that I defend a music artist I'm not really a fan of!) This is, of course, not to say that America is perfect and without flaws (reading the newspaper will confirm that). But people want things to work. They care about what happens to their communities and there’s a sense of pro-activeness in most Americans that I really enjoy. Things just work more slowly here in South Africa; it’s a different culture and the dynamics are different.

Take for instance, being a woman. A woman in America who wants it all – career, family, personal life – may feel guilty that she can’t spend as much time with her child because she’s working. But she still works to provide for her family. And, most likely, her husband supports her in this as they’ve probably discussed the situation at length as they are partners in their relationship.

Here, the cultural vibe (in general) is that a woman working usurps the man’s authority as man and the woman will not work because of this. (I do know of instances in South Africa where women defy this, so like anything else, this isn’t a 100% rule, but this mentality is alive in many men I have met.) I try to keep my social liberalism and feminism in check while working at a men’s empowerment organization, but some days it’s mentally exhausting to accept that this is how it works here – women are truly second class in so many ways.

The organization I work for has conversations with teen boys about “What is a REAL Man?” That conversation makes me cringe. Because the boys answer things like “not gay” or “doesn’t cry.” These boys are being socialized in a way that alienates those boys (or men) who are gay or who feel like crying to release emotions. It’s systemic, social and cultural and it makes me so sad. Articles ask why men are so angry in South Africa. They ask: Why is it that 1 out of 4 men has raped a woman? Well, maybe they’re trying to prove this uber-manhood they’ve been socialized to grow up to.

I don’t have an answer for this. However, it makes me happy to think that in America, we at least have those conversations about it being okay for men to release emotions. There’s more of a social awareness in America about different ways of viewing and living life that I haven’t found here. Then again, that would be individualism and South Africa is still deeply rooted in Ubuntu community culture. (Interesting volunteer blog post about Ubuntu here.) I’m happy that as Americans, we are generally more accepting of who people are (except maybe in small, rural counties in some of those red states : )

I’m not trying to spread “Americanism” or push Western thought here, but I’m trying to at least spread an open-minded way of thinking during my time in South Africa and question what isn't normally questioned. Will it stick? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I'll keep defending those pieces of American culture that aren't so prevalent in South African media, like country music : )

Sala sentle, (stay well)

Casey

Is It Appropriate To Wear White Face Paint After Labor Day?

I’m not a fan of putting lengthy journal-type entries on my blog because, honestly, I feel like if it’s too long people won’t read it. But, I like this story and wanted to share : )

So, like the title says, I try to make my first response funny to everything I encounter. It’s so easy to find the funny when you just look for it.

This weekend I was at Spar, a local supermarket, and they just opened this particular location. I have to admit, I was pretty bummed because the café I typically visit was closed, so I had to go to Spar to get some lunch (they have a really great buffet!). I also don’t really buy or cook meat since I’ve lived in South Africa (too expensive) so I eat meat on the weekends when I can go out and have someone else make it for me. (Haha, I hope that doesn’t sound too stereotypical-American.)

Since this is the Spar Superstore grand opening weekend, it’s crazy! There are tons of kids, the local radio station is blasting music and there are these guys on stilts who remind me of, gulp, clowns. (They even have their faces painted white!) And for those of you who know me, I am like deathly afraid of clowns (thanks mom, dad and Stephen King).

So I’m standing in line at the buffet figuring out what I want when I see – out of the corner of my eye – the stilt guy is walking towards me! Yikes! I think. What does he want? I’m not a kid; I don’t want to talk to a skinny clown on stilts. But, then, as I’m about to have a panic attack because he’s getting ever-closer to me, he says in a thick Afrikaaner accent, “It smells like burning.”

I try to bite my lip to keep from laughing (since said clown who smells burning is still right behind me), but I can’t. I just bust-out laughing. In my head, I keep hearing him say “It smells like buuuurning.” In his accent, the ‘u’ in burning is really drawn out and the ‘g’ goes up at the end – like it’s burning but it ends on a happy note. He’s not trying to be funny, it’s just the accent. Afrikaans is the language created by the old Dutch settlers and it's sort of Dutch/German/Swedish sounding. (Say it out loud, you’ll hear it - or in case you need the audio, here's a clip of my re-enactment:)

Casey's janky re-enactment

I have a flashback to when my cousin Patrick and I were kids and used to watch the Simpsons. We’d quote everything Ralph said, like on his Valentine’s Day card to Lisa: “I cho-cho-choose you!” And I swear one episode he says “It tastes like burning” in that dumb sweet kid voice of his.

Now a conversation ensues of where the burning is coming from and the stilt-guy is insistent that the chef go check it out. By this point, I’ve had enough, I’ve got to go, I don’t want to look too crazy laughing to myself!

I eat my food at the food court area and then leave. Thank God. Oh – and while I’m eating, the radio station plays “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club*/Boy George and “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” by Shania Twain. Where am I?

Ahhh, so anyway.

This is why I love the balance of life. Just when there’s a bad day (café closed) something good or funny will happen (skinny stilt-clown smells burning).

I really do love my life. I never know what’s going to happen!

Sala sentle,

Casey

* I was part of starting the Culture Club at my high school. We went to plays and art museums. I thought it was awesome! But I think it folded the year I graduated. Heck, I went to a high school out towards the sticks. Football and confederate flags were much more popular than the Culture Club that the art teacher started. This side note has nothing to do with anything, other than the band Culture Club reminded me of this fun memory of those three or four outings we took before the whole club fell apart. Maybe if we only had a hit song, the club could have made it… : )

Interesting Tidbits About South Africa

Disclaimer: The following facts were taken from Peace Corps, South African news sources (SABC) and talking to South Africans. Should someone who knows more than me about South Africa see an error, please let me know. None of these facts were blatently made up.*

• South Africa's nickname is The Rainbow Nation due to the mixture of people from various world cultures and religions.
  
  
• South Africa's unemployment rate is 23.5%.
  
  
• South Africa's population is 48 million.
  
  
• There are roughly 5.7 milion cases of HIV in South Africa (approximatly 12%, +/- depending on the study). This compares to the US's population of 400 million with an average of 1.5 million cases of HIV.
  
  
• Same-sex marriage is legal (although not entirely welcomed and de-stigmatized culturally).
  
  
• If a political party gets 2/3 of the public vote in the presidential election, the party has the power to legally change the constitution without going through any other political channel.
  
  
• During Apartheid, black South Africans had to carry passes (like passports/IDs) with them whenever they left their village/town/city to show proof of who they were. They could also be forcibly removed from an area if they were there more than the allotted time (like 2-3 days).
  
  
• Only 35% of South Africa's new entrant workforce (who have passed metric - like a high school diploma) will enter the workforce. Of those, 10% will drop out and 55% will never work. (Courtesy of SABC News)
  
  
• Afrikaans, the language created by European settlers in the 1600s, is the newest world language and is only spoken in South Africa.
  
  
• South Africa provides for 10% of the whole of Africa's GDP. A good portion of that is revenue from the mines of diamonds, gold and platinum. (Side note: I live 200K from a platinum mine).
  
  
• A Google search and leafing of NationalGeographic.com reveal that lion deaths are not very common in South Africa and, in fact, lions outside of game preserves are actually more in danger of being killed by poachers. Lions also do not kill friendly, dark-haired women from America, it goes against The African Lion Code.
  

*Except the last sentence of the last bullet, that's for my dad : )

My Life

• 5:45 a.m. - Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast
• 6 a.m. - Do those morning breathing exercises that Dr. Oz on Oprah said to do.
• 7 a.m. - Leave for work with my host family (6 of us squeezed into a Kia Picanto, which is like a clown car - je deteste clowns) and my host mother drops her kids at three different schools, me at work and then goes to work herself

Kia Picanto (very smalll!)

• 7:15 to 4 (ish) - Work - which includes all or none of the following (depending on the day): trying to understand what or who my coworkers are gossiping about (in a mix of Zulu, Xholsa and Tswana), writing reports, reviewing documents, editing grants, going to meetings, doing stuff for Peace Corps, etc.
  
  Work Side Note: It's especially funny at work when I hear my coworkers gossiping and then I'll hear 'Kess-ee', which is how they pronounce my name, or 'lekgoa' which means white person. 'Lekgoa' it's usually followed by screaming or really loud laughing. I know some lekgoas, and we can be funny, but I'm not sure that's why they're laughing...)
• 1 to 2 p.m. - Work lunch break which I use to go get groceries or do other shopping. There's a mall two blocks behind where I work and the Post Office is about 5 blocks. There's a grocery store and my bank about 3 blocks away.
• 4:30 p.m. - Get picked up from work by my host mother
• 5 p.m. - Go for a walk/jog, sometimes with my host sister and host brother
• 6 p.m. - Make dinner (I've upgraded to peri-peri mac-n-cheese, yum : ) My host sister asks me if I can actually make anything other than mac-n-cheese, potatoes & onions or pasta with red sauce. I tell her yes, but I'm a lazy cook. Which isn't really true, I love to cook, I just wish I had my own kitchen space to cook. Sharing a kitchen with a family of 7 makes it hard to move around much.
• 6:30 p.m. - Watch 7 de Laan : ) "dit lekker" (it's nice)
• 7 to 9 (ish) - Write, do work, watch DVDs, plan for vacations, balance my checkbook, watch TV, clean, etc. Sometimes I make short phonecalls to the US since the rates drop drastically at 8:30 p.m. Before 8:30 p.m., it's the equivalent of like $1/minute! Yikes!
• 9 (ish) - Plot out how to kill the next flat spider and do one last spider/bug check of my space before sleep.
• 9 (ish) - Do those evening breathing exercises that Dr. Oz on Oprah said to do.
• 9 or 10 p.m. - Go to bed and most nights include listening to the neighbor's dogfighting at night. There's like a huge doghouse (taller than me!) and who knows how many dogs, but at night, they fight pretty rough. Naive me, the first time I heard it, I thought "good dogs, I bet they are scaring off an intruder," yeah right. It's every night. I'm thinking it's a suburban dogfighting cell.

Weekends

• Hand-wash my laundry - which I'm hoping may change soon b/c I found a laundromat in town and it seems clean and safe enough. It's actually a split Landromat/Tattoo Parlor. Fun combination : )
  
  

  Some of my laundry on the line
  

• Walk to town - it takes me about 45 minutes to walk to town and generally very pretty. There's this cute cafe that one of the volunteers showed me and I love the atmosphere! I sit, read, write letters and drink bottomless tea. I usually also go grocery shopping, go to the bank, etc. in town on the weekend. This weekend I actually ran into people I know! It's weird and exciting to actually recognize people now. But that means I always have to wear make-up when I go to town. Well, win some, lose some : )
  
  
• Hang out with other volunteers - there are a few volunteers arond Mafikeng who are actually leaving between June and September. All the other volunteers from my group are clustered in other provinces, but the closest volunteer to me from our group is maybe 2-3 hours driving. Haha, so since I can't drive, that's like a half-day on a public taxi-bus.
  

That's pretty much my life right now. But I'm continuing to meet people and get the guts to ask for rides (I feel like such a mooch doing that!). This weekend I'm going to take the pilgramage to the laundromat and then check out a pizza place (!!) that I found the other day.

Sala sentle,

Casey

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