Village living

After school we took the tour of the village but this was no ordinary tour. Amy recruited two girls in her class to take us around the village. 

They were the cutest girls too. They would Tell us who lived in each of the houses and showed us where the watering hole was. Where goats and cows are and where the schools are. They showed us where they dig a red clay to paint their house or to mix with cow dung to put as a layer on their floors. We started with two girls and ended up with six kids giving us a tour of the area. All of them were in Amy's fifth grade class.  They were all really fun and excited to show us around. They asked a lot of questions and we asked them questions about their favorite games and their favorite colors. We got to a point where they asked how old I was. They started guessing and started at thirty something and went in the wrong direction from there. They ended on 82 so I am not sure how to feel about it. It was the coolest tour I have ever been on. We walked the train tracks saw the high school and at the end we stopped at the general store and I got my guides a snack. It really was such an incredible day. I get to do it again tomorrow except I think I will sit in on a school lesson and then teach a new group red rover. I am so excited for it. 

So the school teaches a couple different subjects. They learn Zulu and English. They have math and natural science and technology. I think it's cool they teach both Zulu and English. I feel after meeting so many people from other places that the United States is the only place on earth will you won't learn multiple languages easily. 

Corporal punishment has been something we have talked about a lot while I have been here. They don't really shy away from it and the kids are scared of it. Amy is very much against it and it was interesting today because there were some switches that were used by other teachers and she always breaks them and throws them away. The kids have come to notice and like to put the switches on her desk knowing she'll get rid of them. It's pretty engrained in the culture but just another thing you deal with here.  The first time I went to class Amy had two boys in her class writing lines so she has certainly found alternatives. 

We are at the house now and just hanging out. They are having a funeral this weekend. It isn't a Christian funeral, but a Shembe funeral. Nobody is allowed to wear shoes the whole weekend. In the Zulu culture they stay with the body until it is buried so the bad spirits don't take it away. They play a drum and horns and sing. It's really interesting how well they have preserved belief and tradition here. 

They also still practice a dowry system which is quite involved and  can take years to complete. It is called lobola. It involves lots of meetings and presents and negotiations. The big question is, how many cows will the groom to be pay?

The place we stay is right next to the school. And awesomely enough right next to the grade r classroom (kindergarden). So I get to listen to them do their reciting and singing its fun.

The kids here have a hard time understanding my American accent. Amy has gotten really good at talking to the kids but she definitely changes the way she speaks when she does speak to them. Every once in a while she'll talk to me like her students and it's pretty funny. 

I am waiting to go to the school and working on some of the daily tasks like dishes and fetching water. 

They have a handful of dogs on the property. You really cant consider them pets. In fact the idea of a pet is pretty lost on them. Only one of the dogs even has a name and it's "hahaha".

At school now and we are studying long division. The year is almost over. In fact I marked the math final the other day. Most the teachers are done with teaching anything too heavy but Amy will teach through the end of the year. Final grades were due yesterday so I can see how it would be hard to be all that motivated to teach. Amy is a really committed teacher. It's raining and the roof leaks a little. I am sitting in the back of the class and got dripped on. Where's Tim when you need him?

It's kind of cool the classroom is quiet doing their math problems but one of the other grades is singing what I assume is a traditional Zulu song. They are quite rhythmic here. All the kids dance a lot and like to show me their dance moves as I walk by. 

So the kids had some problems they had to solve and once they were done she had the kids become the teachers to show the class the problem. They did a really good job and are respectful. 

I even got to be a teacher for one of the problems. They made fun of how I draw my eights though. 

They have these maturation books in the classroom and one of the girls just asked me what a penis was. It was pretty funny. I guess they don talk a lot about it here but I am not sure if there is any stigma that goes along with it. The volunteers really try to educate their students about safe sex as the rates of HIV are so high in the country. There are also other programs that encourage circumcision as it can reduce your likelihood of contracting HIV significantly. 

We are in a taxi waiting to go to Ixopo. It was a fun day at the school but I didn't get to teach the other group how to play red rover on account of the rain. Ixopo is a cool

Town. They have a bigger market and also lots of smaller stalls. Some of them sell traditional Zulu medicine. It's really different items they use for the medicine. They use things like bird skeletons. We ate at this really great Pakistani restaurant and had chicken and a paratha and some naan. The food was incredible and cheap. It was fun to walk around with Amy and Ted and talk to them about their experience with the peace corp. They are really great people. Really devoted to what they are doing and wanting to make a change. I didn't have much information on the peace corp but I really am impressed with everyone I have met. 

Scrambled eggs and bacon with spinach for breakfast. I have eaten better here than any other time so far on the trip. It's a rainy day so we are just kind of hanging out and Amy is studying for the GRE. 

She takes it in Joburg and then is heading back home to see her family for a couple weeks. It's been a really fun experience not only seeing the village but getting to know her as well. She's from Ohio and it's been fun sharing stories and learning more about her. 

We did laundry today and it isn't easy work washing things by hand. Amy has become quite proficient in it but I still have a ways to go. By the time you have washed a load of clothes you are pretty tired. It's more involved than it seems too. You have to get the water which isn't as easy as turning a knob. Then you have to soak them, wash them, rinse them and hang them to dry.

We had curry for dinner and it was really  good. It's weird posting so much about cooking because I think it's funny that I never cooked at home and it was so easy and here we have cooked at least every night and some mornings. We just hung out and listened to Christmas music and made the food and played cards. It was great. It felt almost Christmassy for the first time. We talked about family traditions and that was cool to. Everyone does things so differently it's cool to hear about. 

It's Sunday and we are just hanging out. I think we may walk around another part of the village but should be a pretty relaxed day. I am helping (not sure I am much help) Amy study vocabulary words for her GRE. It's kind of fun and embarrassing. Half the words I am pretty sure aren't English but it would seem that the test makers seem to disagree. 

People think South Africa is hot and that's not necessarily the case. They get snow in the area I am staying now. Even now going into the summer we have had some pretty cool days. I have wore a sweater about half the time since I got to the village. 

It's funny because in typical Zulu culture you wouldn't see a man doing laundry or dishes or cooking all of which are activities that I have been doing for a good part of the time I have been here. I am not sure what they think. I am sure it is pretty odd.