the sky is purple

It was recently drawn to my attention that I have not posted on this blog for 3 weeks. Every time this happened I am reminded that there actually might be people out there reading this thing...and so I update.

Joburg

Over Easter weekend I went to Johannesburg with another PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) to stay with her coworker. This was the best option to visit Joburg because it's big and scary and we, as PCVs, aren't allowed to go there unless we get specific permission (which we did) from the Peace Corps. So, having a tour guide (and her many nieces and nephews) served us well. Oh, I guess I should mention that we aren't allowed there due to crime, however I am happy to report that I was not a victim of crime the entire weekend. Ha ha! I am reminded though that Durban has the same statistics as Joburg, only it is just smaller. I have yet to have anything happen there either except get my phone stolen (maybe). But, I digress.

How do I describe Joburg? well...hmmm...it is BIG. I am not a frequent visitor to New York City but it reminded of it except that NYC has tall buildings. Joburg has about 4 skyscrapers and a weird thing that looks like the space needle. Other than that there may be about 30 or so apartment buildings that look to be about 20 floors tall. Joburg is flat. Flat flat flat. Its like someone took their giant god hand and pushed down on the buildings, thereby forcing them to spread out in a circle. Joburg's greater area, including informal settlements and where I was staying, is about 11 million people. Imagine how big that 'circular' area is.

Big cities affect me like nothing I have ever experienced in my life before. I live in a rural village. I am not used to such big places, full of McDonalds and advertising and a large shopping center on what feels like every 5th city block. I was standing outside one of the nights looking up at the stars, which is something I try to do at home in my village often (other than that I don't usually leave the house after 6pm). The stars were almost nonexistent. I also noticed that the sky was purple. At home in Bhekuzulu on a clear night there is a virtual blanket of white twinkling stars. Most nights it is so black that you can't see you hand in front of your face. Haha I am exaggerating, but you get my point. I started to think about this. Does Cleveland’s sky have the same purple glow at night? I know that there is light pollution, etc. but I think I would remember the same sickly light night sky that feels that it’s every essence has been invaded and destroyed by the human race. Ehhhh. I know this reflection may seem a little idiotic aand melodramatic, but being so rural has really changed my outlook on things. I am no longer all about cities. Who would have thought?

Anyways, while in Joburg I basically visited with Heather's coworkers family a lot. They were wonderful and welcoming and hilarious. It 1) made me miss my family 2) wish that I had 5+ brothers and sisters. I also visited the Cradle of Humankind where the earliest Australopithecus was found. It was a pretty sweet cave. There really wasn't much to it, except that we discovered that the underground cave system goes from the Joburg area all the way to Mokopane (nearby where I had training for 2 months in 2008 and over 100KM away). Crazy.

Upcoming Elections

I am going to refrain from taking sides on political parties on this blog (this is something my bosses in Washington would not appreciate and I think have forbid us from doing in the public arena) but it is worth mentioning that it is coming up on Wednesday and talking about the current climate around me. The country has been taken over by politics. Of course, this happens in every country where an election is upcoming, but to me South Africa's example is a little different because SA is a true democracy that has a political party that has taken in some cases over 2/3 of the vote since independence/freedom/1994 making all the political fighting seem a bit pointless to me. I guess the opposition can't give up though, right?

However, it is very interesting to see an election from a rural South African's eyes. My village is majority African National Congress, or the ANC, which is the party that routinely gets the 2/3rds and is responsible for the liberation of South Africa and Nelson Mandela and all that. This would not be too surprising except that my Municipality (kind of like a county) is Inkatha Freedom Party, or IFP. The IFP is a Zulu Party that used to take the majority in the KZN Province until the last election. It is really doubtful that they will be able to gain much in this election, considering that Jacob Zuma, who will soon be the president of this fine country as he is the President of the ANC, is a proud Zulu.

This IFP/ANC mix has made my area a hot spot for political maneuvering. The ANC is very scared that they are going to lose ground nationally because about 3 months ago a wing of the ANC split off and formed a new opposition group called Congress of the People, or COPE. So, they must campaign in KZN where Zuma is practically worshiped in some parts. I'm sure that many of you have heard that Zuma was facing corruption charges for the past couple of years. These charges had been lobbed at him with help from former President Thabo Mbeki (they are both ANC) who apparently does not like Zuma. Mbeki's faction of the ANC used to be in power, but Zuma, despite facing rape and corruption charges, has led his faction to head the ANC. The majority of Mbeki's faction have now broken off into COPE. Cynics say that they are just doing this because Zuma's ANC leadership would never give them positions of power within the government. Whatever. Anyways, the point is the ANC now has competition that is polling about 15% nationally and high in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces, so they are nervous. Because of COPE they may lose their majority of the Western Cape to the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is strong there and currently is running their campaign with the slogan: "STOP ZUMA". My big problem with South African politics in general is that there is no actual strong opposition party to the ANC. Opposition is healthy for democracy. Maybe in 10 years this might actually occur and right now the ANC is starting feel the pinch.

So, apparently, my town of Estcourt has turned into one big IFP party. There are cars with IFP flags hanging out of the windows with loud speakers parked in lots on every block attracting crowds. Even in the Municipality building's parking lot. The absolute best part of South African campaigning is the amount of singing and dancing that takes place. This can be witnessed here. This is an example of politicians doing traditional dancing, however, I can assure you that they also dance to popular music. A lot. Haha. Also, I just found an interesting article about Zuma you might read to get some more information about him.

Anyways--back to the point! It is very interesting to see the complete devotion and blind loyalism some of my friends have for Jacob Zuma. They really don't know anything about him. People really do no research about their candidates or political parties whatsoever. Newspapers are really the only realistic way to do this for the average South African, but those cost money and are often difficult to read because of education backgrounds. I know that this happens in America--people vote for a candidate because they are handsome, or white, or Christian, or whatever--but it is extreme in this case. These people are so devoted to him (I can quote my coworker saying that like Julius Malema, Chairman of the ANC Youth League, she will "kill for Jacob Zuma"). Whether or not that is actually true I really don't like hearing that from anyone, even if it is kind of a joke. I am now officially going on the record that I would not kill for Barack Obama. There, I said it.

So, on election day I will be at home. We have work off and I'm not going anywhere. Our instructions are always to avoid anything political, so that is what I will be doing. Please don't worry about me, I will be safe.

Work

Work is coming along. People are still fighting and all that, but there is a solid effort to get people to work together, which is really nice. We had a team building day on Friday where everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Afterwards, I had one of those "I wouldn't trade this for anything moments" where my coworkers were having a dance off and forced me to take part. Yes, that is right I showed off by best Zulu moves. It's great to participate in this kind of stuff--people really appreciate it and you get to laugh at yourself. Also, on the many kilometers walk home I continued to display my Zulu moves to my coworkers and the school children nearby and the passing cars. It is really funny to walk on the main road outside of my village because you get a lot of "ARE YOU CRAZY???" stares from the passing white drivers, which generally crack me up.

The buildings are almost finished, so I am going to start building the computer lab and setting up the club space. I can't wait for the computer lab's building to be finished--I will be starting up computer classes for my coworkers. The playground should be started in the next couple of weeks and then comes training that marks my MID SERVICE--I am finished in less than one year from now--in about 11 months.

This is the longest post I have ever written.

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