I'm famous! Okay, not really...

My school decided to write an article/press release about my work in South Africa, and I must say it was well done. It doesn't say much more than my followers here already know, but it's still a nice piece, and I hope it gets some donations to go towards the bookmobile. Here is the link for your reading pleasure.

http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=5567

As always, thanks for reading!

Last-minute work

Monday and Tuesday one of the groups of students was having a computer-literacy class, since many of the people here had never used a computer before in their lives, and they really needed these skills to survive the rest of the semester and to be an asset to their employers. There were nearly 30 students, however, and only one teacher, so Sunel and I both went to act as assistants in the computer class. A few students needed some really basic help and it would be detrimental to the rest of the class to hold them up by waiting for them to get up to speed, so we acted as roving personal tutors in the class. These people smell really bad, particularly the Zambians, and the Gambians, and at times I literally had to leave the room because I just couldn't take it. I don't think they know what soap is, nor deodorant. I understand that they come from a rural area, but that's not an excuse for stinking to high heavens. The people in the village don't have running water, and they still know how to bathe. The smell of this group of students was enough to make me glad that I'm not going to have to be here for the rest of the year.

Tuesday, maybe two hours before quitting time, the mail came, and in it, the first shipment of children's books in Tsonga! I decided to stay late that night, cataloging and processing the books. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment that my work really paid off. The books weren't in the hands of the children yet, but they were here. They existed. Books where there were none before. And hopefully soon my successor will have enough books and the proper organization to distribute them effectively. Wednesday I showed the books to Grace, one of the staff members who lives in the village and speaks Shangaan to come and see what she thought of the books, and she was all kinds of excited when she saw them and heard what they were intended for. So I feel affirmed that my efforts have not been wasted, and that soon, the rural children of Bushbusckridge will no longer be in need of reading materials.

My favorite book was called "Ndzhuti" which means "Shadow" and it's about a boy who is afraid of his shadow until he figures out that it's a part of him. It's such a cute book.

Tuesday night was another huge thunderstorm (there'd been big storms at night for almost a whole two weeks), and this one knocked the server out, thankfully after I'd finished putting the books on the system, but that meant I wasn't able to get online to finish any work or let people know I was coming home. By the time I left on Wednesday, I don't think it had been fixed yet. Wednesday morning, Thokozani saw a lioness walking just outside the fence, and he called Gawie to take me out on a last-minute game drive to try and find it, but we didn't see it. Par for the course. I've been just-missing campus lion sightings the whole time I was here, and both times I went to the Kruger they were nowhere to be found. Were it not for Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, I'd still be denying that they exist at all, but I don't think I was ever meant to see them in the wild. I did, however, have a close encounter with a puff adder two nights in a row this week. The first night, it was near the house, trying to find a way in, and Gawie came to remove it. The second night, I was taking a walk around the fence in the evening and nearly stepped on the thing. I think it might have been the same one, too. This thing was fucking huge. Not the deadliest snake in existence (you've got 24 hours before you die, rather than roughly 2 hours like with a cobra, boomslang, or vine snake, or +/- 20 minutes like with a black mamba), but you still don't want to get bitten by one. It's comforting to think that in about a day's time I'll be home-sweet-home in New England where nothing found in nature can immediately kill you.

My last weekend in Africa

Was such a memorable experience.

On Friday Thabang came over, although I didn't actually get to spend a lot of time with him, because a write-up of my project was due on Saturday and I wanted to go out and have fun on Saturday, so it needed to be done.

Saturday we woke up early and went out. Thabang and I, Vivian, Theo, and Thokozani (other co-workers who are really nice) rented a car and drove out to the Kruger. We spent the day in the park driving around looking for wild animals, and found quite a few, although not all of them did I get great pictures of.

We saw a leopard in a tree with its kill, a cheetah sitting on a termite mound that bounded off after something, a pack of wild dogs lounging around presumably after a kill, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, impala (of course), kudu, waterbuck, steinbok, and a few other kinds of antelope. No lions, though, which did make me sad. No hyenas either. Ah, well. Maybe next time.

My favorite animals were the wild dogs. They were so relaxed, and let us get so close to them. I seriously could have sat there and watched them all day. I think wild dogs are my new favorite African animal. Not sure I had one before, although I'd always liked cheetahs and leopards, but wild dogs are amazing. Such misunderstood predators, as most big hunters are. They're like wolves in that they live in a pack and really look out for one another. They couldn't survive the solitary life, unlike cheetahs and leopards, and they're actually really playful. The problem with playful wild animals is that a friendly paw or nibble to a human companion could kill, since they're so much stronger than we are.

Sunday Thabang and I just hung out around campus, enjoying our last full day together. It was the epitome of "bittersweet".

Anyway, here are some pictures of the outing:

You can just see the outline of the leopard here, and its kill is not visible from this angle, but we saw it hanging as we drove past.

Here's the group of wild dogs I told you about. There were more, and we were actually able to get much closer, but my camera wasn't able to capture the whole experience.

It's rather blurry, but here are some bats hanging on the inside of the roof of this outdoor picnic area.

Again, the picture's not great, but here's the cheetah we saw just sitting on a termite hill, searching for something to stalk.

Here's a group of giraffes just ambling about.

Here's a male white rhino trotting off after a mud bath. White rhinos are now more common in the wild than black ones, which I've only ever seen in captivity.

Hippos in the river.

Group shot: Thabang, myself, Vivian, Theo, and Thokozani.

Thabang looks miserable in all these pictures, probably because he knows I'm leaving soon, although he's normally smiling, and he did have a good time that day.

Me and Vivian, who became like a sister to me in just the short time we were living together.

I had a great time, and I really wish I could have stayed longer. I'll have to go back there on vacation sometime.

Last full week

This week the long-course students arrived. This meant that I gave tours of the library, answered questions, and spent way too much time helping people print. I also cataloged more of the reports, and although I didn't fully complete them, I did manage to get up to 800-something out of maybe a thousand done. I was at a stopping point, and I left it so the remaining sections will be the easy ones for the next person to do.

As for the bookmobile project, I'd like to think that I made some progress, because the volunteer who's replacing me wanted to get in contact with me about the project so that she could continue it. I have since emailed her a summary of what I've done, how, and why, and what the next steps might be. She responded with further questions, and we've had a regular dialogue going. I'm now hopeful about the project and I feel a bit better about leaving it without seeing its completion because I know that it will be continued in my wake.

Predators do exist!

I'd seriously stopped believing in predators actually existing, having not seen anything bigger than a jackal since I got here four months ago. But this weekend I went with Tania, Vivian, and Thabang to Moholoholo, where they rehabilitate and release whenever possible sick and injured wild animals. Unfortunately, there are always going to be those that are unable to return to the wild, and those ones are kept on by the center for educational purposes, and for tourists. Because, really, who doesn't want to feed a vulture and pet a cheetah? I was a little bit sad that we weren't able to get up-close and personal with all the animals they have there, but at least I've seen them. Lions, by the way, are huge. Hyenas too, are much bigger in person than I thought they were. Also, wild dogs are pretty darn big, and I personally think they're adorable. I want one.

I'll update this post with pictures soon, I promise.

*Updated!*

Lame duck

That's how I seriously feel here at the college. Like anything I do doesn't really matter anymore because I'll be gone in two weeks. After them putting it off all week, on Friday I finally had a meeting with the higher-ups about the bookmobile project. We're not doing the Books for Africa thing, but we are going to go ahead with the project in other ways. I'd already gone and ordered some native-language books, but they probably won't arrive until after I leave.

Other things this week have been to re-focus on my standard-operations responsibilities and other projects. So, back to cataloging reports and helping Sunel re-organize the collection to be more standardized in its subject classification. Admittedly, she did most of it, asking me for help only sometimes, because I did have other things to do. We had to ready the library for the incoming long-course students. They're the ones who will be dominating the campus for the rest of the year, and the ones that actually use the library the most. So Sunel and I put together displays for their first two class learning modules, made the shelves neat, organized, and properly labeled, got all their usernames/passwords/printing codes sorted out, and did all other manner of little thing that needed to be done.

The week was not a total bust, however, because I went to town on Wednesday with Tania to pick up some stuff for the library and do some personal banking, and we got to chit-chat the entire ride there and back. Tania's actually really nice, but I hadn't really had the chance to get to know her, since she works on the other side of campus in a department I don't often have cause to deal with. There were game drives all week for the guy making a promotional video of the college, and I got to go on them. Unfortunately we didn't see much, and one of the days we got drenched on, which has made me feel less than stellar all week since then. However, Tania offered to take me to Moholoholo wildlife rehabilitation center with her this weekend, where we'll be guaranteed to see animals, albeit initially sick/injured and subsequently tamed and caged.

Short week, long weekend

Wish they could all be like that. Anyway, the long weekend was fun. Again, didn't really do a Hell of a lot. But that in and of itself was nice.

Friday Thabang and I went again to Dwaarslop (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong) to visit his aunt's family. They were really nice, and actually spoke in English most of the time. Then he came back and slept at the college and the next day we went to Welverdiend. There, I learned how to eat this thing that's like sugar cane but isn't exactly it. Basically it's this stalk that you bite and rip off the outer layer and on the inside it's sweet. We chatted with some more of his family, and later walked around town. In the afternoon we joined some of his friends at the Welverdiend Youth Service who were doing a car-wash to raise money for uniforms for schoolchildren who couldn't afford them. A bunch of Thabang's friends were there, along with some people from the college who live in the village, and there was booze and music to boot, so it was a good time. We also raised a decent amount of money for the kiddies.

Sunday Thabang and I just hung out on campus, avoiding church, and actually had a nice time, just the two of us the whole day. Monday was a day for rest and cleaning. Nothing all that interesting happened.

Approaching deadlines

This week I've found a fourth NGO to apply for assistance to, who supply native-language books, which is nice, and one of the ones I'd applied to who donate books has responded positively(for those of you keeping score at home, that’s one negative response, one positive response, and two responses still outstanding). These books are in English though, second-hand, and are shipped from America, with the organization who's receiving them fundraising to pay shipping/port fees. You get 22,000 books for just under $12,000.00, which is ten times cheaper than trying to buy that many books. The organization that does this is called Books for Africa, and they work with you to fundraise by hosting your project on their website and your job is to direct traffic to it, and get people to donate, and once it reaches enough to cover the costs of shipping, they send the books. My supervisors were excited when I initially told them about this organization, but after I told them that we'd been accepted and that it's time to take the next step, they're thinking maybe they don't want to go that big. That is a LOT of books, more than one bookmobile can handle, but heck, maybe we can actually DONATE the books to the schools nearby so they can have their own libraries like they've always wanted but never had the money for. The point of the library being mobile was because nobody here has anything and it would be unfair to give to one school and not another, plus we're in the middle of nowhere, so kids can't get too many places besides school and home. But now they're thinking of not going through with it, because it would be too many books all at once. I understand that, but it'll take a very long time to fundraise enough to bring the shipment over, and by then a plan can be made to properly deal with it.

The other thing is that before they go about putting the project up on the website, they require a down-payment of $1,000.00 towards the shipping, which is a lot in rand, that the college can't afford out of its own budget, especially since they've realized that they need to hire someone to run the bookmobile, thanks of course to my convincing. Otherwise it'd never get done since the people here at the college offices are already too busy, and you're not going to find a qualified volunteer who knows the area and is good with kids and with books who's here for any length of time. And the other argument is that say we do get enough money to send it over, it's more cost-effective than trying to buy books, but since they're in English not the native languages, aren't they worth less? Well, no, they're not. Because they're books that we won't have paid for, and the kids all learn English in school anyway once they get to like third grade.

Anyway, I have a meeting with Sunel, Kathleen, and Tania (two managers and the fundraising director) next week to figure out what to do. In the end, though, I'm not staying here, so if I don't like what they're going to decide, I'm out of luck.

Weekend update

This weekend I didn't actually do a Hell of a lot. Thabang came over on Friday, at which point he tried to teach me some Sotho songs. It was fun, but I've already forgotten how most of them go. I mean, I remember parts of them, but not the whole thing. Saturday we went to Welverdiend and just walked around, visited his family (who loves me) and some of his friends. I tried chips and fat kook for the first time together, and they were good. Saturday evening we went back to campus for the Earth Hour event (darkness, speech, toasting marshmallows), which I helped plan and also had to be there to document. It was actually a rather nice time, despite my complete freak-out over ants crawling on me in the dark and biting me. Thabang slept over again and on Sunday he helped me take out my braids. This was nearly as big a project as getting them put in. My hair was quite poofy afterwards, but that didn't last long (and no, there aren't any pictures).

Monday was back to work again, and I more or less just did the same things so far that I did last week, although in varying stages of progress.

The FGASA (Field Guide Association of South Africa) students had their big, final test today and only 2 out of 9 passed the written portion and can go on to their practical portion tomorrow. Either way, they'll all be gone by the end of the week, which makes me sad. I really liked that group. They were different than all the other short-course students in that they were nice, mature enough, fun, and easy-going. They weren't clique-ish or creepy or annoying, which was really refreshing.

This upcoming weekend is Easter weekend, which is a 4-day weekend here in South Africa (we get both Friday and Monday off). I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do, although there are vague plans to go someplace with Thabang's family and drink home-made marula beer. In any case, I'll keep you posted.

Renegades of Funk

So the title has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all. I just wanted to use the word "funk" in my title. I bet they'd spell it with an "e" at the end of it down here, just to be British. Anyway.

I actually have been in a funk this week, though, so my title isn't completely off-beat. I think it's some combination of job stress and leaving soon.

I'll be home in just over three weeks. I'm just beginning to get used to it here, and now I'll be leaving. I might just have to come back and visit someday soon.

Even if I wasn't dating someone down here, I'd have reason to stay. This bookmobile project is not quite finished yet, and I'm worried nobody will take the reins when I leave. I mean, I've laid the ground-work, but it hasn't been executed yet.

I got the idea and ran with it. I secured book and monetary donations. I came up with a cataloging scheme. I came up with a distribution plan. I convinced the management to undertake a job search for a manager for the mobile library - someone who's local so they know the languages, has a teaching background so they'll be good with the kids, and who doesn't have a job already so that they'll be able to fully concentrate on the library. We haven't found anyone yet, but convincing them that we need to be looking was actually a big step. I developed a list of books with which to build the core collection (once the finance department gives the word that the money has been successfully converted to rand and deposited into the project's account, allowing me to actually buy things). I found suppliers for these books (which you wouldn't believe to be so challenging, but it is when you're dealing in non-English language publications for Africa). I've identified and applied for assistance from several charitable organizations to continue growing the mobile library's holdings after I leave.

Why, then, do I feel so useless? Like I haven't done a damned thing with my time here?

I'll tell you why. It's because my pipe dream is not yet a reality, and I have this fear that it never will become so if I leave before it gets off the ground. I really should set more attainable goals.

This actually started off as just a way to get free regular adult fiction books for the library for staff to use for entertainment. I did that. Our fiction section is double what it was when I got here, and we didn't spend a dime. That's all because of me. But then I got the idea to get books for people who actually really need them. That's where the trouble started. I dreamed too big and got ahead of myself. And now I won't be happy until I've accomplished the impossible. Native-language books for the children of Welverdiend. I want it to happen. But I fear it never will.

******************************

Anyway, beyond this, I've been busy with other things at the library here. Some of them are boring duties, like chasing down students with overdue books...or cataloging those god-awful reports. I'm so sick of them. Nearly 700 now that I've done. My progress on this front has been less than stellar in recent weeks, partly because I got wrapped up in my other, more interesting and worthwhile, project: the mobile library. Also, my lesser responsibilities have been eating up a considerable amount of time lately as well. Planning an Earth Hour event for the campus, researching book prices, processing new materials, and *gasp* even helping students! I've also been going through the collection with Sunel to re-arrange it and re-classify many of the books so that the subject areas are more consistent. On top of this, I'm starting to put together materials about my PFE for my "poster session" which is one of the criteria on which I'm graded for this class. It's all so crazy.

Earth Hour

Negative Progress

I'm back to being depressed about this whole library project. I get the feeling that the people above me in the library management don't really understand what a huge undertaking this is, and despite them saying that they're fully on board, they completely expect me to do everything on my own. I realize that it is my project, but it requires things that I can't do without more power in the organization, more time here at the college, more managerial support, more planning, and about a gazillion more dollars/rand. Sometimes I just want to give up and go home. Finish my degree, and be a librarian in some quiet little town somewhere in New England. This whole "making a difference in the world" thing is a load of shit, and I can't do it.

As usual, I think I may have over-reacted in my last post

Although, sometimes I don't know what to believe.

My boss actually said something to me today about Thabang. She said she'd gotten complaints from people about how I'd been acting with him, particularly the "incident" over the weekend. She specifically said that no one had anything against us being together, but that I need to act "professional" at all times. I told her that I never do anything more in public that what she and her husband do, and that I wouldn't be ashamed to act the same way in front of my own parents that I act when I'm walking around campus with Thabang on the weekends. Apparently whoever complained to Sunel made it sound like we were on top of each other or something when really all we did was kiss. And not even like full-tongue-kissing either. And she, not being witness to any events and having my word versus someone else's, we're kind of at a stalemate. I said that I'd try to be more conscientious about my public displays of affection towards my boyfriend on the weekends, but that I didn't believe I did anything wrong. It pretty much ended there.

That part of it, anyway. Apparently also some of the male staff are uncomfortable with how revealing some of my clothing is. This is laughable. Before I got here, I specifically asked if there was any formal dress code, and I was told that there wasn't, but that most people dress "neat casual" bearing in mind that most buildings aren't air-conditioned and it's freaking hot down here. 85% of my skirts/dresses end above my knee, but I don't wear anything incredibly short into the office. Shit, there are men here who wear shorter shorts than I do on a daily basis. My response to this was that I don't wear anything too revealing to the office and that how I dress on weekends is my own business. I told her that I asked about a dress code before I came here, and given what I was told about the weather and the office environment, I packed what I thought was appropriate. I told her straight up that I'm not going to do anything about how I dress, because the clothes that I brought with me are the clothes that I am going to wear. I'm not going out to buy more clothing and I'm not going to wear the same three outfits all the time.

I know it sounds like I'm being cheeky here, but I didn't do anything wrong. There are no formal rules against anything that people personally dislike about how I act. As a person, I try not to piss people off, so I can't imagine why anyone would have anything against me and just make things up/over-react to get me in trouble. A few of my friends down here that I've talked to tell me that the only plausible answer is racism, but I really hesitate to accuse people of that outside the heat of the confrontation. My position here is temporary anyway. It's not like how I act for the next month will really make a Hell of a lot of difference in the overall scheme of things. I'm still working my ass off at the library, and doing a damn good job there too. So it's not like someone's got a problem with my work ethic and are just trying to find other faults with me. I just don't know anymore what to think.

Fuck it. Whatever. I'm not going to let it bother me. People will always talk and over-react and get upset over nothing. I'm just going to ignore the whole thing and keep doing what I'm doing, because I'm not doing anything wrong, and if people have a problem with it, then they can shove it. I know for a fact that I put my all and then some into my work here, and that's what matters. Anything outside of that isn't important. People can't find faults with my job performance, so they have to complain about something else.

A bit of African culture

This weekend was fun. It was a long weekend too, which was nice. The whole weekend wasn't ayoba though, and I'm warning you now that I'm going to get into some pretty offensive stuff in this post.

Just in case you missed that...

****THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO OFFEND YOU! STOP READING NOW IF YOU HAVE DELICATE SENSIBILITIES!****

The weekend didn't start out so nice, though, since Saturday morning Vivian and I went to a funeral. Theo's uncle died, and unlike most places around here, the college didn't really tell anyone or make any kind of plans to attend services. Apparently in many workplaces, the company will arrange transport for staff to go to anybody's funeral who's remotely related to the company. Also, I've been told it reflects poorly on family members who are employed if nobody from their work shows up. Plus, I like Theo, she's nice, and I figured she wouldn't mind the extra company. So, Vivian and I went to the funeral. The burial itself was too early in the morning for us to find transport for, but we showed up at the house afterwards to just greet the family and give our condolences. There were a ton of people there, and also a ton of food. Vivian and I didn't eat much and we didn't stay long. We waited until Theo showed up with the rest of the family and we greeted her and met her aunt and some of her cousins, said our condolences, spent a bit of time chatting with Theo, and left. One thing that they do here that I was surprised by is collect money. Family/friends who show up are expected to contribute something to the deceased, presumably to help pay for the funeral and what-have-you, and some unlucky family member has to spend the funeral gathering money and writing down who gave what in a ledger. I guess it makes sense, but it's just something I'd never seen before. The only thing that bothered me about the whole funeral was how the people who didn't know me acted around me. Specifically, the drunk guy (drunk before noon) hitting on me (a complete stranger), at a flippin' funeral, who had to be told by a family member of the deceased that he was acting like an ass before he left me the fuck alone.

As usual, whenever I go anywhere outside the college, I'm the only white person, and people stare at me. I've gotten used to it at this point. I don't really mind it when the little kids do it, because they don't really know any better, but when adults don't even try to be discreet about it, I get kind of annoyed. The other thing I've gotten used to is black guys hitting on me. It seems every black guy here wants to score a white chick and because I'm actually showing up someplace that's predominantly black instead of hiding myself away in a fenced and guarded community, it must mean that's automatically what I'm looking for. And of course, these guys don't take "no" for an answer the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Or even the fourth or fifth sometimes. I can't politely decline, I can't decline and tell them I have a boyfriend, I can't even just ignore them. No. I have to be rude and tell them to piss off and then glare at them, or physically get up and walk away for them to get the hint. I've even slapped a guy's arm away when he tried to reach out and touch me. This is going to make me sound like a racist, but I completely understand why 90% of the white population is afraid of, or at the very least, uncomfortable with, 90% of the black population here. If this is how you treat someone whose skin is a different color, like some kind of commodity and/or a freak-show, you can't very well blame them for disliking you. And this was not an isolated incident. Any time I've gone somewhere, even just to the super-market, I get stares and comments and whistles and cat-calls. Even in the places I go where there are mixed races, the black guys are the ones being rude to me. It doesn't help matters that even in the middle of the day, half the black guys I encounter on the street or wherever are drunk or well on their way.

Now, clearly not all black people are like this. And also, clearly, there are white people and Asians and Indians and Latinos and whoever-elses who also behave badly. I also realize that there are a number of historical and socio-economic factors that contribute to a culture of people who find it acceptable to behave in such a manner. But, shit, man, just stop. If you want white people to stop treating you like dogs, stop freaking acting like them.

I know that I sound like a racist right now. And I really don't care. Because I know I'm not a racist. I don't judge people by their skin color. But when the vast majority of people who do things to piss me off happen to be of the same skin color, it's hard not to notice.

Now, clearly this is not the entirety of the black population down here, nor anywhere in the world for that matter, but when the vast majority of my experiences involving black people that I don't personally know have been negative in this country, I completely understand why racism still exists. I completely understand why most white people wouldn't go to a black person's funeral, or to a super-market where mostly black people shop, or out to a black-dominated bar or restaurant or wherever, or live in a black neighborhood.

What's actually rather funny is that I've made these types of observations to some of my friends here, who are also black, and they completely agree with me! They're just as annoyed at this type of behavior as I am. And they haven't failed to notice that there seems to be a trend. Shit, even my boyfriend tells me that most black African men are dogs, and he is a black African man! The difference, though, is that he treats me like a human being, not a status symbol. Not a freak. Not an object. I'm not a trophy or a toy to him. I'm a person. I've got a brain and feelings and desires and dreams. And when a woman is clearly not interested in him, he knows enough to respect her wishes. Is it any coincidence that he's also educated? That he's got ambitions in life? That he's got better things to do with his time and money than to get drunk and hit on women who clearly want nothing to do with him? I think not.

Imagine that; the person who treats me like a real person and doesn't try to force himself on me is the one who actually gets my attention. What a concept!

Anyway, enough about evil black people for now. Here's the rest of my weekend.

After the funeral, I went to the store with Vivian to pick up a few things, where there were also ill-mannered black folk, but I'm not talking about that right now. After that, we came home, and since we'd both gotten up at 6 AM on a Saturday, we decided a nap was in order. When I woke up from my nap, I felt worse than when I went to sleep. I had planned on going to the village to hang out with Thabang and his family later that day, but I just felt sick to my stomach and had a huge headache, and so I just went back to bed.

I was fine in the morning, and I spent almost all of Sunday in Welverdiend. Vivian was going there anyway to visit some friends that day, and I was hanging out with Thabang's family that day, so we walked together to the village. We managed to hitch a ride to the bus stop, where we split off. She went off and did her thing, and I waited for Thabang to come pick me up there, because I didn't remember exactly how to get to his house. While I was waiting, these two kids, a boy and a girl, somewhere between 7 and 10 years old, were sitting, playing some kind of game in the dirt. They asked me to come play with them, so I did. I don't know the name of the game, but it was very similar to this board game I used to play back home called Mancala. They dug holes in the ground in two rows per player, and in each hole there were four small stones. We each picked a hole to draw a circle around, and I'm pretty sure the object of the game was to get all our stones into the circle first. You play by picking a hole and taking the stones out of it and placing them one in each hole consecutively counter-clockwise along the board. If your last stone falls in a hole that has stones in it, you pick them up and re-distribute them the same way, and if it lands in an empty hole, your turn is over. After that we played this other game, I think it was called Marababa, involving drawing a square with a plus sign in the middle in the dirt and putting stones at the intersections, taking turns, trying to get three in a row, which allows you to capture one of your opponent's pieces. Whoever takes all the other person's pieces first wins. After that Thabang showed up and we went and visited his family.

I met a few more of his cousins and siblings and aunts and uncles, who all live in the same big family complex in Welverdiend. I also met his grandparents. His grandmother taught me how to make marula beer, which was quite fun.

Later, his aunt braided my hair. Having such long hair, this took the better part of an afternoon. His cousins came over at this time as well and it was fun watching the little ones play this game involving string and patterns of jumping. One of his cousins helped with my hair for a bit, and she and his aunt were chattering back and forth in Sotho the whole time.

My Sotho isn't great, so Thabang did a little bit of translating and I did a lot of zoning out. It's really hard not knowing the languages here. At work, everyone speaks English to me, and either Afrikaans or Shangaan to each other, depending on their skin color. I can greet everyone in their native languages here, but I haven't gotten far beyond that. I started learning Shangaan, and then I started dating a Sotho guy, so then I had to start learning Sotho to try and greet his family properly, and a lot of times they mix languages here and throw in some other ones too, so even if I did know one language fluently, it'd be hard to follow them. But I'm so far from fluent that it all sounds like gibberish to me. Most of the time I just zone out when people start having conversations around me, because I don't know what they're saying anyway, and then when they do talk to me again, they have to repeat themselves to get me to respond, because I'm not actually listening; I'm somewhere else. It's getting really frustrating going anywhere or talking to anyone outside of work, because if I'm with more than one person, the other two people will start talking to each other in Sotho or Shangaan or Afrikaans, and I can't understand it. The people here must think I'm really boring, because I don't talk much when there's a group. Ah, language barriers.

Anyway, I like how my hair came out, and later, back at the college, Vivian taught me how to care for braids. First rule: keep them the fuck away from water. Second rule: wrap/tie them up when you sleep at night. Third rule: use spray-in shampoo on a daily basis. Fourth rule: Re-braid as necessary. Here are a few pictures:

So, after that, Thabang came back to the college with me and slept over until Monday. That day he actually spent helping me clean house, which was a pleasant surprise. However, there was an event leading to an unpleasant interaction at work on Tuesday.

Let's get back to race, shall we? On the other side of things, I work with some pretty two-faced bigoted white people. Case in point:

This weekend, Monday, Thabang and I were waiting for transport to take him back to the gate, and we were sitting on the steps outside of reception together. Monday was a holiday, so nobody had to be at work. However, somebody was. This person, who shall remain nameless, happened to see Thabang and I together, and *gasp* saw us kissing!

That day we got nothing more than a dirty look, but the next day at tea-time, before anyone else got there, this person pulled me aside and felt the need to tell me that my "interactions with [my] comrade there were unbecoming" and against the school's code of conduct. Now, this is complete and utter bullshit. Firstly, I was never given any kind of rule-book when I signed on here. I was made to sign a waiver and an affirmation that I'd read the grievance procedure (which I had to seek out on the server by myself, I might add). Secondly, back when we first started dating, Thabang was still working here, and I'd see him at lunch-time still for my Tsonga lessons, at which I may or may not have kissed him once or twice in public, I looked up whether we even had a code of conduct (which we don't) and whether anything I was doing was against it (which it can't be). Somewhere on the server I found a document detailing all the things a person could be disciplined for, and what actions merited what disciplinary measures and so on. And guess what? There is absolutely NOTHING against public displays of affection ANYWHERE in that document, nor in any document anywhere on the server.

So, beyond there being no actual rules in place, and even if there were, me not being properly made aware of any such rules, if I'm to go by example, I'm still not doing anything wrong. Half the people who work in the offices here are married couples, and as such, there is a certain amount of kissing and nuzzling that go on in the offices, during work hours, on a regular basis. Now, nobody says anything at all whatsoever about that. However, I kiss my boyfriend on my own time, not even in the office, and an administrator who's not even in my department feels the need to suddenly inform me that there are rules against that. What's the freaking difference!? I do realize that dating and married are two different things, but seriously, when it comes to simple kissing, I wasn't doing anything I'd be ashamed of doing in front of my own parents, but somehow it's "unbecoming" and against the rules? But it's okay for other office couples to smooch and cuddle and whatever so much so that it has actually nauseated me, and nobody says anything?

Can anybody tell me why the double standard? What's that boys and girls? Oh, yes, my boyfriend is black. And me kissing my BLACK boyfriend personally offends some people who work here, so people make things up about me breaking some rule that doesn't even exist. I'm willing to bet that if I'd been seen kissing a white guy, nobody would give a damn. Am I jumping to conclusions? Possibly. However, I think it's more likely that racism is still strong in South Africa and the mixing of races is still considered "immoral" to some people. Race is just a color. It doesn't mean anything. It's the person underneath the skin that matters. Good people, and bad people, come in every color, shape, and size. And as soon as people everywhere realize that and stop acting like skin color makes a damn bit of difference, the world will be a better place. At least they had the balls to say it to my face, though. For that I must give them credit. I'm sure more people are talking about me than to me. And it's stupid to think like that anyway, but at least someone finally said something to my face.

Excitement in the world of the library

So, I'd more or less given up hope on this whole "mobile library" project. I'd called and written to every library in Limpopo and Mpumalanga (the two provinces we sit between), and none of them were of any use. Neither was the department of education. Neither was anyone else. So, I cut my losses, decided I'd bit off more than I could chew, and figured I ought to be happy with what I got, which was adult fiction books for the entertainment of the people who actually use the library (servicing user's needs), and then just carry on with my other library duties.

Then, after handing in my mid-term journal, my faculty supervisor for this internship back at URI contacted me about making a personal donation to the cause, and possibly getting other library students on board as well. This of course was amazing news. You have no idea how elated I felt after reading that email.

The rest of the week went by in a happy flurry of passion-driven library work. After feeling hopelessly rejected in all my attempts to get book donations, here comes a promise of cash to buy new books. There was so much to do!

I spoke with Sunel and our department's supervisor, Kathleen, as well as the finance department head, Sharmain, to figure out how to handle it. We set up an internal project fund for the mobile library, I forwarded donation instructions/banking details to my professor. After that, I did some research and came up with a wish-list of 50 titles in Shangaan to serve as a base collection. It's so hard to find native-language books in South Africa, but I did manage it. Also, with renewed enthusiasm to search, I found some charitable NGOs to solicit for either book or money donations, and began writing up proposals. I've identified three major charities and solicited two of them already. One of them has already turned me down, but I'm not despairing. The third one is pending approval of my supervisor before I send it out, and the second one has not responded yet, but that's okay. There's still hope.

Gosh, I'm so excited about this project now! I feel like now that I've finally gotten the ball rolling on this thing, it's getting close to the time that I have to leave this place, and I fear I won't complete anything meaningful before I go, and Lord knows if the person after me will be able to pick up where I left off. I kind of want to stay longer, or come back later, or something. But I know I can't.

Summary of LAST weekend.

Friday at about 2:00 (normal library hours are M-F 8-5) students from one of the field guide courses came in and said that they had a huge project due Monday and could the library stay open late that evening and/or on the weekend. This wasn't just one or two, but the whole class. So, because we're here to serve the students, my boss said yes, and “asked” if I could come back after supper, around 7 o'clock, to open the library for these students, and then work an additional 8 hours over the weekend. I mean, I did have plans, but duty calls. We've done this before, and the students were always really grateful. It worked out that I'm working Saturday morning for 4 hours and Sunel is working on Sunday morning for 4 hours and we're both taking half-days on Monday.

So, I get to the library after supper and open it up. I decided not to do anything library-related because this was after-hours and I'd been at work all day. Instead I put together this first draft of my library journal for my PFE instructor. Nobody showed up. This made me so mad, and I'm contemplating not coming in on Saturday for them. They asked if we could open the library for them tonight, we did, and then they didn't use it. They shouldn't be allowed back at all, nevermind after-hours. I had every intention of sleeping until ten tomorrow and then have company over for brunch. But I changed my plans to late-afternoon and I have to get up at 6 AM on a Saturday, and if they don't show up...well, let's just say that I'm not going to be pleased. I'm sure in the final draft I'll report on the outcome of this situation and reflect on “user services” or something of the like.

What happened on Saturday morning was that I found some of the students at breakfast, hung over from partying on Friday night, and lectured them. The whole crew came in to the library and worked diligently all morning. Some of the students had never used a computer before in their lives, and their teacher expected them to use the internet to research some basic ecology questions, which they could've gotten the answers for from books, but their teacher wanted them to go online, so I got to give a crash course in using the google.

After I got out of work, Thabang came over. We just hung out on campus most of the day, he slept over, and in the morning we went to the village. Tukiso, Thabang's brother, coaches a ladies' soccer team, and he really wanted me to come watch them play. Well, last weekend, they were playing on their home turf, so I came and watched the game. It was the last game of the regular season, and because they won (3-2), they get to go to play-offs. I went and hung out with the team afterwards for a bit, and they were all really excited to have me talk to them, but they were shy about responding, even though they do all know English. They liked me because I was a foreigner and I came to watch them play. Of course they wanted to have their picture taken with me, and they even gave me jersey to wear, making me an honorary member of their team. It was all rather strange, but fun at any rate.

After that I got to finally see where Thabang lives and meet some other members of his family. After that, we met up with Thabang's friend, Thabiso, and just walked around and chatted a bit. Then we got chips (fries) and bread, because they make sandwiches out of them down here, and their fries all have chili on them in the villages. These ones were too hot for me, so I didn't eat much. On the way back to the college the sky just opened up and we got soaked. I somehow had to find dry clothes to fit Thabang and Thabiso, which was really rather amusing. We just hung out and chatted while we waited out the rain storm and by then it was time for the boys to go home. The two of them tried to teach me Sotho, but I'm terrible at it. At least I'm trying.

Nobody tell Thabang that I put this picture up of him and Thabiso drying off in my kitchen. He'll be mad at me. It was just too funny to me at the time how soaked everybody got.

I can save your life...theoretically

The library here is one of the first aid stations on campus, and when they offered staff the option to attend a first-aid course, I jumped at the chance. I might as well know how to use it, ne? Besides, being so far away from any kind of hospital facility, knowing basic first aid might just make the difference between life and death in an emergency out here. I hope I never have to use it, but it's good to know just in case. It was all day for two days, combining theory and practice, and I feel better knowing at least something.

This week I went to Welverdiend with Jeremiah, our community outreach director, to take photos and to assess the current state of several local schools we work with, and to meet with the people in charge of those schools and with a non-profit to discuss the possibilities of partnering to improve the infrastructure of these local schools. I really feel like I need more time here to actually get anything done on these major projects.

I've also been cataloging books and reports like nobody's business, to the point where I may run out of labels and book covers soon (we've already ordered more, but Lord knows when they'll arrive).

Can I just say, I hate office politics? Because I do. I'm not really going to get into it here, but sometimes people are really childish in the workplace.

Completely unrelated, but because everyone's been asking, here's a picture of me and Thabang (although it's not a very good one):

I seriously don't have enough time here to do all of this...

This week at the library, I:

cataloged reports (approaching 600 completed since I got here)

cataloged & covered all the remaining children's books

re-arranged the shelves to fit the new books

cataloged, covered, & shelved a steady stream of new books

went through the "Environmental Education" section and re-classified most of them as either regular non-fiction, reports, or children's books, because that section was just a mish-mash of titles that didn't necessarily fit elsewhere

created a children's non-fiction section in addition to the story-books we've got, mostly out of the EE section

solicited department of education for help with village-library project

ordered office supplies

received, checked, and returned unsatisfactory library materials

ordered new library materials

came up with cataloging/labeling scheme for children's books (differentiating fiction of different age groups, non-fiction, and in a way that children would be able to find things)

finished writing the community-outreach report and submitted it/edited it/got it approved by the necessary higher-ups

All of this in between helping a regular stream of students find books and figure out the computers (some of them have never used them before and needed to have things typed or what-have-you).

Eish, that's a lot of work!

I feel like I need an assistant sometimes. Seriously.

In other news, I've got a boyfriend. His name is Thabang, which if you've been keeping up with my blog you might recognize the name from earlier posts, as I met him when he was doing thatching here and he started teaching me Tsonga. He makes me happy, although we both know I'm leaving in two months and neither of us really wants to think about it.

Thabang came over this weekend, and took me out to experience a bit more of the "real" South Africa, as he put it, which included walking through an open market, walking on unpaved roads, waiting hours for a taxi, riding in a taxi (an experience I will elaborate on later...suffice it to say that it's an experience like no other), drinking home-made marula-beer from a stand on the side of the road (that shit is STRONG), being the only white person for miles, getting stares for being the only white person for miles, eliciting giggles and surprised looks when I (a white person) greet people in their language, going to a "nice" black neighborhood (considered that way only because all the houses have running water and the cows don't out-number the people), and meeting some of Thabang's family. And after Thabang went home, I did my laundry the South African way, or at least partially (because I've got indoor plumbing), meaning by hand in a tiny sink and then hanging it out to dry, running out to take it down when it starts to rain, and putting it up again, down again, up again, according to the weather, and in between I cleaned house, which due to the squirrels and bugs, is constantly in need of a good sweep-and-mop job.

And now it's bed-time because I've got work tomorrow. U etlela kahle.

Oops

Totally hit the "reject" instead of "accept" button for the last batch of comments. So, in response:

Rin, I can't say as I need anything in particular. Plus, it costs a lot to send stuff here, so if you really want to you can, but Daddy opted to send money instead. And I know how poor you are. So I won't cry about it if you decide to just wait until I get back Stateside to give me a super-belated birthday present.

Daddy, nobody should ever let you near a computer. How many beers did you have when you decided saying hi to my South African friends was a good idea? :P

Thapelo, I apologize if my dad was a bit of a weirdo. Now you can tell where I get it from.

Steve, Thanks! Will do. :)

God, I've been so freaking busy!

Last week I did a bunch of cataloging, covering, labeling, and shelving of children's books and environmental reports. We also got in a bunch of new nature DVDs and some books and magazines that it's my job to process completely. Add to that some more price comparison shopping for potential future books, helping students find what they need, and checking for/deleting missing books, and you have yourself a very busy week at the library.

And on top of that, I've got my community outreach projects.

I helped Jeremiah, the community outreach director, plan, execute, document, and later analyze a community clean-up project. A youth group in Welverdiend wanted to clean up trash on the road leading from the town past the college gate into the park, but they needed resources (transport, trash bags, protection from wild animals, water, food). We, the college, helped, and also brought in other local organizations to back the project. As a librarian, I went along on the actual clean-up day with the library's camera and took pictures and notes. I'm currently in the middle of drafting a report on the whole process for use in future community outreach endeavors, but I had to stop due to the inability to concentrate this afternoon because of the dead squirrel mentioned in the previous post.

I'm also still trying to secure funding and/or books for a mobile library for the village, but I feel like that's not actually going to happen. I keep getting no-responses or “I'm sorry...” responses, and I'm running out of time to set something like this in motion before I return to the States. I finally figured out what I wanted to do here, and I'm not here long enough to actually do it. Ugh. It was stupid of me to even hope that I could make any kind of lasting difference down here.

Anyway, at least the weekend was fun, for the most part. Thabang came over on Friday night. On Saturday I went out with Vivian and few of her friends from the village. We had a braai at a game lodge nearby. There was food, music, drinks, and general silliness. Good times. Sunday Thabang came over again, and gave me a belated birthday present of really pretty beaded necklace, made locally.

I'm so not looking forward to the rest of the week. I need an extra day just to catch up on sleep.

Nothing like the smell of rotting flesh in the morning

Over the weekend, something crawled under a cabinet behind my desk in the library and died. It smells so nasty in here right now, and there's nothing they can do about it. The cabinets are screwed into the wall, and the hole the thing crawled into is far too small to just reach in and take it out, which is probably why it died there; it just got stuck. I bet it's a squirrel. Serves the bastard right. I hate the squirrels here. They're everywhere and they're such pests. I don't care about the fact that it died, but I do care about the fact that the smell of its rotting body is making me sick.

*UPDATE* Ten minutes before it's time to close, my boss finally starts smelling the dead squirrel that I've been telling her about all day, which she was able to avoid by being around the corner and more than a couple feet away. Sunel calls Gawie to come and do something about it, and he pulls out the baseboard and removes the thing, and then cleaning staff comes in and mops/sprays/washes the Hell out of that corner. Fucking finally. Well, health & safety inspectors are coming tomorrow for a regularly-scheduled audit, and if they came in and found dead squirrel fouling up the place, there'd be an issue.

Ah, what a busy week!

Sunel was gone Monday and Tuesday, so I was running the show at the library. It was relatively quiet on the staff-side because everyone knew she was gone until Wednesday so the phone wasn't constantly ringing with people looking for her. I actually got to take my lunch break on time and not plough through my food like a heathen in order to make it to my Tsonga lesson with more than 15 minutes left. I'm sure if Sunel has figured out what I do with my extra lunch time, she'd resent me having more interest in Tsonga than Afrikaans. No offense, but Afrikaans is just too difficult. It's related to English slightly, so you'd think it'd be easier, but it's not. It is easier when I'm reading it, though, because I can see how the word looks similar to an English one, and I can usually figure out the gist of something (which is helpful when I'm cataloging Afrikaans titles). And with Shangaan, it's pure memorization, but the words in Shangaan/Tsonga are so much easier for me to pronounce. If I can't figure out how to say a word, I won't remember it, and the spelling of Afrikaans words compared to how it's said is something I can never figure out.

While Sunel was gone, I basically got a bunch of cataloging done and helped students find/use library materials. Almost like I'm a librarian or something, ne? I was glad when she came back, though, because she brought with her a donation of about 200 books from Middleburg library. There were a lot fewer children's books than I'd hoped for, and of them, more were in Afrikaans than English, which members of the community would appreciate less. The village schools the books are intended for are entirely black schools, and if reading material isn't in their native language (good luck finding free books in Tsonga), English is preferred as it is a common language in South Africa that everyone knows, and it's becoming more and more a world language that will get you more opportunities if you can speak/read/write it fluently. Plus, some black people actually resent Afrikaans because they consider it a relic from Apartheid, and if a kid comes home from school with an Afrikaans book and not also an English one, then some parents might feel that they're being forced to learn it rather than English or their home language.

So, after unloading, unpacking, and sorting the books, I had to assess their content and quality in relation to needs of the intended patrons. In non-library jargon, it means I had to figure out what to keep and what to chuck. For instance, some of the books were in pretty poor shape, but if they were in English and a children's book, I'd keep it anyway. However, if it was in Afrikaans and an adult fiction book, it's also more likely to be kept, because there are a lot more Afrikaaners on staff who come looking for reading material at the library than Shangaanis. After figuring out what we have and what we need, I had to develop a strategy for addressing the gaps in the collection. Which in English means I had to figure out how to get more books. Keep in mind that I have absolutely no money to order things. So, I've expanded my search geographically to include libraries slightly farther away who might be looking to get rid of some discards, and to follow up more directly with the libraries which didn't respond to a written request. Also this week I've drafted a letter to the department of education requesting assistance, and I'm researching community demographics and such to put into my proposal before I send it out.

I didn't actually realize until today that it wasn't just the schools which didn't have books. There's no library whatsoever anywhere near the villages. I mean, the closest public library is in a small town three hours' drive from here, and not many people who live in the villages even own cars. I knew the place was poor, and even after visiting there last week, I realized how poor, but it just never occurred to me that there wouldn't be even an inkling of a library anywhere. Maybe that's just the librarian in me being shocked, but I think even just as a person it's a bit of a culture shock. There we have it, folks, my second real dose of culture shock from South Africa (the first being when I realized that nobody here believes in evolution). I've decided that if I ever win the lottery, I'm coming back here to build a library in Welverdiend. I know nothing's going to happen in the remainder of my semester here, but I feel like eventually I want to have as a professional goal to build a library in rural Africa somewhere. But first I need to finish library school. Some days I feel like that's never going to happen. I've started more classes than I've finished, and anytime it looks like I'm going to get my shit together for a decent semester, I've got some personal crisis to deal with and school sits on the back burner. I was such a good student as an undergrad. In high school, too, and junior high, elementary, even in kindergarten I was ahead of the class. But somehow graduate school has combined forces with the Universe at large to kick my ass. But whatever. I'm going to stop whining about it now.

Looking up pictures of puppies and kittens on the internet was part of my job this week. And that just wins. The 23rd is International Spay Day, and it's my job to create postings to put up on the notice boards, so I got to search for pictures of adorable animals to decorate my informational posters. I like having something creative or fun to do when I get sick of cataloging. I also printed, colored, and cut out little pocket guides to safe and eco-friendly fish choices for people to take away on my biodiversity display (which I actually spied people stopping to look at!). Other things, other things...I'm constantly doing little things for Sunel, whether it's running an invoice down to accounting or faxing something, but I don't mind because it gets me out of my chair. I also researched prices for books that patrons particularly recommended we get, and helped decide which ones were feasible to obtain. I started cataloging the donations we got, and had to figure out a cataloging/labeling scheme for the children's books. That project is ongoing, and I think I'm going to wait until we get more donations before I finalize how it's all going to be.

I'm kind of annoyed that my knee still friggin' hurts. The doctor was supposed to call me today with some test results and a plan of action, but he didn't, and when I called, the receptionist kept insisting that he would get back to me today. I'll be pissed if he doesn't call me tomorrow. In fact, if I don't hear from him by lunch time, I'm going to call the office again and get obnoxious until I get to talk to the doctor.

*Update* Doctor finally got back to me, and sent my prescription to the pharmacy, which I couldn't get to. However, my boss's husband's brother's wife was coming through this weekend, so she went and picked it up for me, and I'll pay her back whenever I next get to the bank for some South African cash. Someone I've never met is picking up drugs for me and taking it on faith that I'll pay her back. Ah, the kindness of strangers. I mean, it's not totally random, but it's kind of out there. I'll be happy when I'm healthy enough to exercise and not need to sleep all weekend.