9

Today I stayed in Mohlarekoma to attend a meeting I had scheduled with Mmeshi Primary to hand over the books we've been using for our B&L Program. Upon arrival though, I found that there was only one teacher present in the entire school, and that everyone else had "emergency" situations that had arisen, were "not feeling well", or "attending a memorial service". Naturally. For those of you who do not live in SA, know that this is not an uncommon scenario.  Children are often left unattended in their classrooms when their teachers fail to show up for "very valid and excusable reasons". This happens often. In Machipe, my host brother has no Social Sciences teacher at his Primary School, so the children sit unsupervised in their classrooms and read their SS books. When they can find a copy. It's a damn shame.

Passing on some clothing to the family!

Needless to say, the meeting was postponed.

I spent my unanticipated day off doing laundry and purging my room, dislodging cockroaches and brown recluse spiders from the nooks and crannies so that they do not make a surprise appearance when I unpack my life back home.  Fingers crossed!

10

Wrapped up a very rough website for MHBC today with Fency. It looks pretty good for all it’s simplicity, and will be easy enough to update on the virus-riddled laptops that occupy the office.  One more thing to check off the list!

Tastes like lawnmower. Looove these!

Walked into the kitchen and found a severed cow head in a bag laying in a bowl on the floor again.  Mopane worm snacks today.  I’m not being sarcastic in the least when I say that I will miss this A LOT.

Oh hey cow..

11

Today, as I was preparing my phone to give to my supervisor next week, I stumbled across a little blurb that I was inspired to write as was on the bus from Mossel Bay to Cape Town at the end of December.  It's still a pretty accurate description of how I'm feeling these days, so I thought I'd share it to mark 11 days until departure:

"I'm riding a bus now across Western Cape from Mossel Bay to Cape Town. This truly is a beautiful country. Maybe I'm feeling sentimental as I listen to my iPod and look out the window at towering, ancient mountains and the rolling hills that surround them. Maybe the light is too perfect on this blue sky day. Maybe I'm beginning to realize that my time here is coming to an end. But I think that for all it's troubles, South Africa may be the most beautiful country I've ever seen.  I think I may, in fact, love it here, and I know that this 'goodbye for now' will be heart wrenching."

16/15/14/13/12

Apologies for the radio silence these past few days! On Friday I traveled down to Machipe to spend one final visit with my host family from PST.  It was glorious.  Everyone is doing well, and I’m amazed every time at how fast the kids are growing up! I’ve decided it is not allowed, but alas, my divine powers are not yet honed enough to keep them small forever. 

 Sello assisted me in killing my first chicken, and giggled along with my squeals as I timidly slashed the poor bird’s head off.  I’d have made a horrid executioner.

Monday morning rolled around and I was forced to leave the humid heat of my favorite village (sorry Mohlarekoma!) and come home where, thankfully, it was cool and breezy, which was a welcome relief. 

I’d talk about the goodbyes, but I’m not sure I can handle thinking about it yet. Not about the fact that I hope that everyone stays well, or about the fact that I’ll never see Gogo again. Nor about how much I hope that all of my little loves grow up big and strong and grounded enough to realize what’s important and make it out of the village and into adult lives that truly make them happy.  Nor about the fact that our communication will inevitably slow to a trickle as our worlds separate and the memories of the time we spent together become more and more distant.  I do hope I see them again: Ashma, Sello, Tebogo, Nthathile, Angie, and Jami, but I know it won’t be for a long, long time.

     And so the world spins on...

17

  On my walk to work today, I got caught in a sudden downpour and was forced to sprint down the road to a vacant tin shack to take refuge until the storm subsided. This shack in particular is where one of my favorite vendors does business, and is almost a daily pit stop for me to pick up a banana and baggie of roasted peanuts that is my usual breakfast.  

 

After the rain stopped, I spent a soggy afternoon at the office and then walked back to Mohlarekoma (abt 4k) where I was met by the usual gaggle of kids waiting to draw. All in all, a pretty great day!

18

Some of you are privy to the fact that today began for me at roughly 02h45 this morning when I woke up for no particular reason and found myself unable to go back to sleep. Again. Given that the Land of Nod was nowhere on the horizon, I used the early morning hours to catch up on some emails and have a very exclusive dance party in my hut. So exclusive, in fact, that even writing about said dance party is a severe breach of my self-implemented confidentiality policy here in the village. Although I could probably walk around in a neon green spandex unitard here and nobody would think me any more out of the ordinary than usual.

Given my 4hrs of sleep between 2 days, I drifted through my day in a bit of a daze, which is a shame seeing as my days are numbered.  I’m feeling a little frantic and split these days. Like a dog who is having a hundred tennis balls chucked in every direction and is so excited by this rarity that he doesn’t know which one to go after.  With the end drawing near, I don’t want to waste one moment. I want to be everywhere at once and spend each second soaking up every aspect of life here, from the people, to the places, to the heat, to the stray dogs, and yes, even to the chickens I’ve been cursing for their cock-fighting antics since day one.  Needless to say I’m finding sleep difficult these days.  Sleep depravity is a currency I’m willing to deal in though, if it buys me more time to be conscious of where I am, and where I will be leaving indefinitely in the coming days.

Speaking of payoff, or something of the sort, I drifted home from the office today and found that a certain someone has recently revealed that he knows my name!  As I was in my room preparing drawing material for the kids who come by after school, I hear his usual rapping on the door, this time accompanied by something new: “Pebeh!” he calls. “Pebeh!”. Oh my god, I almost died. Little nugget is adorable, and far too smart for his own good. Look out world, boy genius is on his way!

19

So it turns out I've been a little overconfident in my steady counting abilities. BUT, problem rectified and today is truly day number 19 until I leave the village. It's official: the teens have begun! Hopefully I'll be able to handle the stress better than teen king Justin Bieber, who, I've been told, has recently taken a nosedive into the choppy waters of mug-shots, drugs, and DUIs. Because we're shocked every time this happens to a prodigal child who grows up being told they can wipe their ass with blank checks. Thankfully I've left my Lamborghini in Portland, but who knows! Perhaps I'll have one too many cups of sorghum beer at my farewell braai and drag-race a donkey cart down the road.

                                             (Miami vs. Mohlarekoma: Start your engines!)


In other news...

This weekend was hot and sunny, and I took advantage of the break in what has otherwise been a rainy few days to do my laundry.  On Saturday I went into town to meet up with a friend for coffee and girl time in the comfort of her lavishly air conditioned flat.  Even two years later and first world comforts are just as sweet every time. Ahhhh. All of the kids were back in the village as well for some family time (namely Ali, Tshitsadi, and Pebetse).  It was great as always to see them and we were able to touch base a little bit about my farewell shindig coming up next weekend. 

Lesego was having NONE of Ali's tomfoolery that day.

That's all for now, I'm off to the main house for Generations and tea!