big shot takes over

First of all—I’m sorry that I haven’t written in such a long time! I have actually been up to my ears in work (a nice first). I have a feeling that it will be like this until December, which is pretty awesome.

So this week was the bike launch. We built about 165 bikes in one day! It was an amazing endeavor. The next day everyone worked on 15 more bikes and then did quality control. We had gotten about 20 older men from the village (grandfathers) to come volunteer. They all seemed to have a pretty good time and were excited to be part of something that everyone was starting to see was becoming a big deal. I made sure to make them certificates for their participation, which everyone treasures here.

It was so fun and I personally put together 10 bikes! Each one took about 45 minutes to get together. I was really impressed with people’s work ethic as well. We got so many done in one day! I can’t wait to see these bikes in action.

The day of the bike handover came and the preparations were in full swing. We had 2 big tents set up to accommodate the crowd that we were expecting (about 300). We had prepared meat the night before to cook . I help seasoning it by pouring about 15 different spices on 1500 rand worth of beef and then mixing it with my hands. Gross. Haha. However, it soon became clear that the provincial minister of the social development department was actually going to come to the event. Me and my host sister nozipho then ran off to the store to buy even more meat (about 1000 rand more chicken and 2000 of snacks and drinks) to accommodate the crowd that he would draw once people heard he was coming.

After returning to the center I ran around trying to get everything ready for the event, and then the minister arrived, officially turning the event into a circus. He brought about 10-15 security guards with him who were sporting huge weapons and those inner ear microphone things, basically making them look like the African secret service. Besides that there were about 10 heavily armed police officers, it was kind of disconcerting.

Anyways, we did the official handover and then it was time for the big speech from the minister. This is where it went really crazy. He was definitely a politician. He got the crowd cheering and screaming like he was a rock star or something. Then he started making promises—like to bring a permanent home affairs center to our center so people can get things like birth certificates and id books in our village instead of traveling all over the province to try to get them. This will be amazing if it actually happens. I tend to doubt politicians as a rule, so I will keep you updated. Anyways, then he started handing out money to this woman we had given a bike ceremonially too. She was in her 60’s and is a grandmother caring for several small children who have been orphaned. He then started pulling out 100 rands and counting them and slapping them into her hand (“100 rand, 200 rand, 300 rand, 400 rand, 500 rand—that is all the money in my wallet!” (in zulu, of course)). She started crying and everyone (at this point, what seemed like half the village—maybe 600 people) started to hoot and cheer. I couldn't help but feel incredibly sorry for this woman and embarrassed that he would make her struggles so public. of course, in essence it was a nice act...but still..Then suddenly (surprise!) two trucks full of food donations pulled up from the Dept. of Social Development. It was great to get food like this, but in my opinion was a little suspect. Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful, but we get so much trouble from government departments and then suddenly! when the minister is there suddenly! there is all this food and money being passed out! courtesy of the minister and his wonderful department! Did I mention that the elections are coming up? This is the same minister who was in our municipality on Monday (our event was the same week on Thursday) where 10,0000 people came to see him (they had hired 30 buses to take people from the villages to see him). My municipality is very heavily Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), while my specific village is ANC. This is very important to explaining this hoopla. I think that the ANC is fearing that they are going to lose a bunch of seats, so they are pulling out all the stops or I am just being too cynical. Really, there has been rallies everywhere for ANC—another pcv recently saw one after 9pm on some random dodgy street in Durban (??!) anyways, it was nuts.

After his speech we attempted to have a ride of the bikes through the village. It started to rain and the minister basically jumped into his car with little notice and left (with his security detail running after the car—which I found quite hilarious. Really, it is a hilarious sight to see when you are in a rural village and there are mud huts in the background. I guess the attitude is that you can never be too careful? Right. Whatever. Anyways, back to the festivities.

The rain continued to pour while the cute kids from our center and village performed dances and traditional dances. They were great! Don’t worry, lots of pictures will be posted ASAP.I will send the disc on Wednesday from Pretoria, so it will get to the US super fast.

The day ended and everything was quickly cleaned up, leaving my center like nothing had happened…what a strange strange day.

My next big event is Monday—the youth club I’ve started has finally started!! I will definitely be posting weekly directly on that. The final preparations are in place and I have been working my ass off. Last Monday my coworkers and I went shopping for supplies in Pietermaritzburg (my old stomping grounds). We bought sewing machines and fabric and lots of other craft goodies. It’s great to spend money that isn’t yours! Haha.

Next week, not only am I starting this program, but I am off to Pretoria to go to the Peace Corps office for a training on being a safety person in the peace corps that helps keep tabs on where all the volunteers so no one disappears. Haha. It’s kind of a bummer because I am going to miss the second day of the youth program’s first week, as well as the wrap up meeting—which is really important so we can document everything that is going on within the club. I will be organized, god help me!

This past week:
On Sunday of this week I attended the annual celebration of the AmaHlubi people. That takes place in my village. This celebrates the proud AmaHlubi people and King Langalibalele’s triumphant fight against the British invaders. People come from all over South Africa for this event. After the british eventually beat the King and took their land they dispersed all over ZA, so many of their ancestors return every year. It was full of lots of traditional dances (I will definitely upload pictures and video soon). It was a great day, even though the weather was about 110 degrees and I thought there was a chance that I might actually catch fire. It was great to see where the chief lived and meet a lot of my coworkers good friends and see the kids from our center having a great time. Check out more information about the AmaHlubi people to get more of a background in the history of my area: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2004-10-08-british-finally-make-their-peace-with-the-amahlubi
http://routesandroots.blogspot.com/2005/04/king-langalibalele-of-amahlubi.html


A thing that was difficult for me was that there was only about 5 white people there (the ratio of white to black was about 10:5,000). Of course this expected and I have gotten used to it. Except in my village everyone knows my name and greets me and knows why I am there. So this festival was full of “what the hell are you doing here” looks especially when I opened my mouth. I have recently realized that South Africans have a really hard time understanding my accent. My coworkers have gotten used to it, but nobody else understands a word that I am saying, even in Zulu. Anyways, I didn’t feel unsafe or anything, I am just really tired of having to think about my race every second of my life and how ridiculous I must look and what people must be thinking when they see me for the first time. I would say without exaggeration every new person I meet is so shocked that I live in a village or have black friends or am trying to learn Zulu (even if they are black South Africans themselves). For many people it is difficult to understand that a white person would ever live in a village (due to history this is totally reasonable and almost expected) and aren’t very trusting of me as a result. This happens a lot when I take a taxi (which is how I get anywhere) because for the most part everyone on the taxi has never seen a white person on a taxi before (except if they have seen me or a PCV or live in certain parts of big cities like Durban).I have to remind myself that people who don’t know me immediately think I am white South African or (British or Afrikaner) until I open my mouth and so that many times I am representing what people in this area think of white people. This can be very negative. Sigh. To an American this discussion may seem a little racist or not politically correct, but it totally is PC here. South Africa is definitely having a race crisis (still) and I am just plunked down directly into it. Sometimes it is nice to be showing people that Americans or white people in general can be nice. I have introduced myself to people and told them where I was from and gotten the response: “Oh, so you aren’t racist”. Ummmmm. Nope. It’s pretty strange. However, sometimes, all I want to do is just blend in for one minute and not have someone staring at me every single place I go. give


In other news:
-it is getting pretty fun to watch the election from afar. I have started suffering from blissful ignorance. Don’t get me wrong, I am paying attention, it’s just that I get to tune it out whenever I get tired of hearing the lies, etc. that all politicians are so good at spewing. This allows me to stay relatively calm, as well as not go crazy when ridiculous and RACIST things are said. I hear enough racist stuff here, thanks—I don’t need my country contributing to it in the media, thanks.
-One of my dearest high school friends is engaged. Nuts. I can’t believe how old I am sometimes. It’s kind of scary. I think that I will stay 23 for another year, thanks.

OK, I can’t really think of anything else to write about.

Sizokhuluma masinyane (we will speak soon!)

<3
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