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!

20

Today I caught a lift to Phokwane with my host Uncle, Kwapeng and, after finishing up reporting the M&E data from our Retreat, went and bought a big bin for the children’s books I will be leaving with Mmeshi Primary School so that they can continue the ‘BIGs and littles’ Peer Mentorship Program in my absence. Either that or use them as the teachers see fit. Which, preferably will include them being read by learners. Here’s to hoping!

Good news as well: It’s looking like Mohlarekoma Home Based Care will be getting another PCV in March! This is very exciting, and I hope that whichever lucky SA29 who is placed here will do the best they can to help make the organization stronger, and will love and cherish their site as much as I’ve grown to.  Though I have no idea who this replacement will be, I hope to get in touch with them when I am smartphone-enabled back in the States so that I can help them out however I can and keep up with happenings in my host family. I also hope that they enjoy the copious glow in the dark stars that adorn the walls of their new home :)

Life keeps on moving forward!

21

Another boiling day on the ranch! I went out for a jog this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to see groups of small kids from Mmeshi Primary out there running my loop before school as well.  I think the principal is trying again to implement a phys ed. program this school year, and I hope that the kids keep it up as there was just an article published recently on how South African teens are becoming more and more sedentary.  

 One of the many things this experience has allowed me to think on and realize, is how grateful I am for the adults in my life who taught me how to take care of myself through physical activity. From my parents who supported me, signed me up for sports, paid for equipment, drove me to practices, tournaments, and games, and tolerated the sweaty, usually mud-covered, creature that would fling itself into the vehicles that they tried to keep clean.  Also for my teachers and coaches, who tolerated too much of my energy and taught me to direct it with a regimented skill set of drills and stretches that have aided me every day since.  Having always been active, I’ve taken my knowledge of physical health for granted, I am so happy to have been able to impart some of what was taught to me on to members of my community so that they can at least continue to keep themselves healthy, if they so choose.

23/22

Lesego started school this week! He looks so smart in his backpack, and has already gotten into the habit of putting it on and heading for the door as soon as he wakes up.  Let’s slow down, take a bath, and eat breakfast first little buddy.  It’s been so much fun watching him grow into a little person these past two years, when I look at pictures of him now he looks more and more like a boy and less like the baby I’m sure I’ll always see him as.  Leaving him is going to be terrible.

In other news, I stopped by the Garden Project on Wednesday, and harvesting is in full swing. There were bags of tomatoes, kale, and swiss chard for sale, and for the first time ever, I saw that there was uneaten beetroot, cabbage, butternut, rice, and soup leftover from our OVC. Not only are we able to adhere to our feeding scheme, but there actually appears to be too much! We’ll have to figure out how to deal with waste management, but it made me so happy to see that our IGP is paying off.

Success!