The Poor Volunteers

Hi everyone,

I completed my first week of computer training this week. I think things went pretty well. I have 17 dedicated students, 9 in the morning, 8 in the afternoon. Last week we were learning how to type. Things were going pretty well, by Thursday almost all of them had learned the home row + T, I, E, and N if they were really cruising. Good time for a weekend though because everyone was getting pretty frustrated trying to reach the goals by the end of the week. There wasn't really much I could do and my main teaching method became sending people on 5 minute walks when I thought their patience had run out.

We had the sisters (6 of them) over for dinner last week. We were telling them a story about how we could not decide to buy these 1/2 priced mushrooms or not because they were really cheap, but they would put us even more over our budget and we had already bought mushrooms for the week. The sisters interpreted this as us not having enough money/food because it was such a silly decision that we were playing up a bit. What did this get us? A big delivery of food that normally goes to the orphans and vulnerable children in the area. We have a ton of rice, oil, and thick vegetable soup now. I feel really bad about it because we were just kidding and I feel like we unintentionally stole from the poor, the opposite of the purpose of us being here.

Yesterday the sisters brought us to see the white lions that live fairly close to us. I was really excited because I thought it would be like a safari. Nope, not at all. I accidentally went to a zoo. The lions were cool and everything, but I was super uncomfortable and did not want to be there, as many of you can imagine. The lions were kept in about 1 sq. hectare of land, about 2 per plot. There were some 3 day old cubs that were hiding under a tree. Then there were 2 cubs that were 5-6 months old that were taken away from their mother and we went in the enclosure with them so we could play with them. I did not want to touch either of them, but of course I was the first person one of them came up to and latched its teeth around my ankle. That required me to smack it across the head to get it off. It was fun to go and I am grateful that the sisters took us, but it was not a cool setup for these lions. So, mixed feelings on the little adventure.

We bought World Cup tickets this weekend! We are going to the 3rd and 4th place championship game in Port Elizabeth. The tickets were a little pricey, and most of the games were sold out. It was either going to this game or going to a random game where none of us really cared about either of the teams. After much deliberation, this is what we decided on. I really want to see Brazil play, so hopefully they will make it to that game. Whoever it ends up being, I am sure it will be really fun.

That's all from my end.

Kelly

Takin' Care of Business

Hello hello.

Figured it was about time for another post. I will try to do one a week, depending on how many stories I have that week it could be a little more or less frequent.

Last week was my first week of work. I would say things went pretty well. My boss, Zunelle, is cool and quite funny. She was often stressed or nervous so I felt like I needed to do damage control to lighten her load, but then 2 seconds later she would be perfectly fine. It is so weird, I never know what to expect when I run into her. Starting tomorrow I will be teaching a computer class to about 17 youth (youth is my age over here) for the next month or so. I have one class in the morning and another in the afternoon. The class is actually a tutorial on the computer, I am just there as a bonus feature. Two other classes are also starting next week, sewing and marimbas. I will not be in the rooms during those classes, but I will check up on them every once and awhile. Hopefully I can learn a little marimbas in my spare time. And I might actually learn some real sewing techniques from the sewing instructor too, instead of my current strategy of just getting things together in whatever way works.

My boss also wants to get a secondary school on the property opened by January. I am helping her a little bit, mainly by sitting there and listening to her talk about what needs to be done, and then agreeing with her when she is done. Top notch worker ;) When she was going over my job description with me she said she wanted me to work with her because I was an environmental studies major. I asked her why and she said she wanted me to help start a community garden eventually (which I am completely unqualified to do). One of her follow up questions was, "you do like the earth, don't you?" The simple answer of "yes" is why I currently have the job I do.

In case anyone is interested, here is a short list of the creatures I have seen thus far: a bunny, a dead bat, parrots, a snake and mouse (unfortunately for the mouse, found together), spinghare (maybe, I have no confirmation of this sighting yet), small lizards, peacocks, and I have also met a variety of chickens and cows. Pretty cool, however, maybe not quite the safari people think I am on. There are more birds and insects on that list, but I will spare you the uninteresting details.

So there are many people here who are Afrikaans, which means they are most likely white and of Dutch descent. The easiest way to spot one, though, is by the fashion. Men wear high-waisted shorts that show off a lot of leg, shirts usually tucked in, high socks, and big boots. That is what's in. It is so funny because sometimes it is easy to forget that I am not in America, especially at the grocery stores, and then I look around and usually this funny sight is what puts me back in South Africa. Although they dress really funny, Afrikaaners can dance. Sarah's boss introduced us to some people our age. The boys who were out with us showed us how to dance, and it is crazy. It is super structured, the guy does all the leading, there is spinning and dipping and all of this is done to pop music. I am pretty awful at it and the person I was dancing with told me only to watch his feet...because I kept stepping on his toes, oops. It is fun, but definitely easy to make a fool out of oneself.

More next week,

Kelly

Give me the Creeps

Sarah and I moved into the house earlier this week. We were there for no longer than an hour before we were sure someone was trying to break in. We were watching a movie when all of a sudden we heard someone coughing and then we heard talking right outside of our living room window. No one told us anyone was going to be on the property so naturally we assumed we were about to be robbed. I ran into my room to call the sisters and they said they did not know of anyone who should be there. We waited about 15 minutes to hear back from them and just continued to watch the movie in the meantime because we figured running and hiding wasn't going to do any good. After a series of phone calls, we were informed that there were security people on the premises during the night, so no need to worry. We still here them all the time and it is just a little creepy, but sometimes we see them out the window and they wave to us, which was nice but we decided to start shutting the curtains earlier because it still was a bit odd.

So the building I will be working in is completely haunted. It is also on the same property as my house, so I am not completely convinced the house isn't haunted. We didn't actually start work this week because the nuns decided we needed another week to rest up, but we did get a tour of the building. It used to be a building where the sisters would stay, and I think go to school. Then it was taken over by the military and was basically destroyed. After that, satanic worshipers moved in. Half of the building is renovated and looks really good, the other half is still in rough shape and the reminants of its history are still there. First, when we were walking from the new part to the old part we came into a stairwell and there was a pigeon trapped inbetween stair levels. Then, just chillin' on the window, there was a spider big enough to eat pigeons. Seriously, straight out of a horror movie! After letting the bird out, we continued on our way. It was a long hallway with many rooms on both sides of the hall. All the windows had been broken and a lot of the walls were damaged from people stealing the copper pipes. Then we walked into a room at the end of the hallway, there were old burn marks all over the floor and grafitti saying things like "Satanists were here" written all over the walls. The wind blows straight through the building and makes the eeriest sound. It was super creepy. The upside to all of this was that we went back to the new part and discovered that we have wild peakocks that live on our property. I saw a mom and 3 babies walking in and out of the old rooms. They seemed fine with it which eased my nerves a little bit. Sarah and I did get a little spooked later that night and Sarah was awake until the sun came up the next day. I slept fine, as usual, sleep is sleep and worrying isn't going to get in the way.

Katie (the third volunteer) just landed in Johannesburg a couple hours ago, so I am excited to see her in a couple of days. I will put up pictures as soon as I get a working computer that I can upload them to, which will probably take a couple of weeks at best. I am going out on the town tonight, first night out and about. Sarah and I are getting a little ansy sitting alone in our house, only talking to each other and people who are either significantly older or younger than us during our days.

I have also given up all of my eating restrictions. Within the first day I had to refuse food twice because it was made out of pork. I decided it wasn't worth the hastle and gave in on a piece of sausage. I know many of you have been waiting for this for a long time. No longer will ordering pizza be a headache. I am still not able to buy any pig/non-fish water animal products, but I am able to eat them when they are put in front of me, which is a good first step.

Hope everyone is well!

Kelly