One of the challenges common to virtually all Peace Corps Volunteers all over the world is learning to communicate effectively with the people of one's host community. I say 'host community' and not 'host country' because, as is the case for PCVs throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and many other areas of the world, even if you attain fluency in the language of your host community, it's possible that you could walk to a neighboring village and struggle to even inquire about the location of the nearest toilet. In The Gambia, for instance, where I would find myself today if not for a rare bout of bronchitis, one could leave for a morning bike ride from one's Serahule-speaking village and return before dinner having ridden through nearby villages each speaking a different language, such as Jola, Wolof, or Mandinka--some as dissimilar from one another as Polish and Italian.
In comparison, I am rather linguistically fortunate here in South Africa. While the country may have eleven official languages, many of them are closely related and fall into a patchwork pattern across the country roughly following the lines of the nine provinces. For instance, my host province of Limpopo is home to a vast majority of South Africa's Sepedi-speaking people. In the far-northern areas of Limpopo, one will find the majority of the country's Venda-speaking people, and in the far eastern area, near the border with Mozambique, is the home of the majority of the Tsonga-speakers.
For a visual representation, see Wikipedia's entry on South African languages here. As there are no cities on the maps, the best I can do to give you an idea of where I am is to link you to this map of my district, Capricorn, and say that I'm in the little 'arm' in the southeastern part of the district--in the heart of the Sepedi (aka Northern Sotho)-speaking area, represented in pink in the language map. The big 'take-away' from the language map is that with the exception of Gauteng province (aka Johannesburg and Pretoria) and, to a lesser extent, Mpumalanga province most languages are confined to distinct, continguous areas. Thus, I don't have to worry about riding my (non-existent, at this point) bike to a village that does not speak Sepedi.
One might have noticed that only one of South Africa's eleven official languages is not part of the map--English. (The unlisted brown spot just south of the southern tip of the Sepedi-speaking area is the adopted home of the Ndebele-speaking people). That's because, despite more than 3.5m people reporting speaking English at home (roughly tied for fifth with Setswana/Western-Sotho), in none of the municipalities of South Africa is English the majority or even plurality language spoken at home. In most of the cities and large towns (the term city being reserved for municipalities with populations well over 1m), English is the unofficial language of business and commerce. Even in rural villages such as mine, many educated persons and young adults/adolescents have at least a conversational grasp of English. Thus, on a daily basis, I find that I end up using English in most of my daily interactions (even if I start many conversations attempting to speak Sepedi).
While being able to interact with some of my neighbors and co-workers in English has enabled me to learn much more about my organization than would have been possible if I had to rely exclusively on Sepedi, even enabling me to get started working on a few projects, I know that doing so has several major drawbacks. Obviously, I will not learn to speak Sepedi well unless I practice it on a regular basis, and each conversation that lapses into English is another opportunity I've missed to practice. It's not been four weeks since the end of my Peace Corps language training, and I admit to being rather disappointed with my learning progress since that time.
Despite scoring very well on my language exam, I discovered upon arriving in Ga-Mathabatha that I somehow understood less of the Sepedi conversations around me than I had while among my Setswana-speaking host family during training! Needless to say, I was in for a rather rude awakening. And although I have progressed to the point where I can often pick out key words (admittedly, often cognates with English or Afrikaans) to understand the context of the conversations occurring around me, I'm still limited to very simple exchanges when attempting to converse with others in Sepedi. I have certainly disabused of the notion that I would magically absorb a foreign language simply by eavesdropping on conversations.
In general, the biggest challenge for me with communicating in Sepedi is understanding what others are saying to me. Although I try to be conscious of the fact that English is often the second, third, or seventh language of the person with whom I'm speaking, and therefore speak slowly, enunciate, and rephrase when not understood, rarely am I afforded the same treatment. While many here are rather shocked when I, a lekgowa (white person), greet them in their own language, the expectation is that someone who is capable of the simple tasks of greeting and commenting on the weather must be fluent. That I am incapable of understanding someone's rapid-fire response is a constant source of disappointment both to the person with whom I'm speaking and to me.
Although often frustrating, I'm doing my best to treat the situation as a lesson in humility and patience. I know that the first three months at site are among the most difficult of one's more than two years of Peace Corps service. So as long as I keep my spirits up and persist in trying to learn as much as possible, I know that I still have a lot of time to learn the skills I'll need to my community in the 23 months I have left here in Ga-Mathabatha.
Go lokile! (All's well!)
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Election Day
Today is Election Day here in South Africa, and, unlike in the US, the day is declared a national holiday. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is keeping one's opinions of host country politics to oneself. Thus, in lieu of writing any sort of political analysis (as much as I would love to), I'll leave it to the NY Times, which has an excellent article towards the top of today's edition of the website.
South Africans Vote, Expecting Few Big Changes by Barry Bearak
The author's observations and conclusions are consistent with what I've seen here in my community, but one item he does not note is that the newest contender to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of the People (COPE), seems to be drawing votes away principally away from the ANC, not the other major ANC rival, the Democratic Alliance. Granted my sample is rather limited, but those of you watching from the US should take note of whether the entry of COPE into national politics simply reshuffles the pool of non-ANC votes or whether COPE draws its support primarily from former ANC supporters.
That's all I'll say for now, lest I get myself into trouble ;-)
South Africans Vote, Expecting Few Big Changes by Barry Bearak
The author's observations and conclusions are consistent with what I've seen here in my community, but one item he does not note is that the newest contender to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of the People (COPE), seems to be drawing votes away principally away from the ANC, not the other major ANC rival, the Democratic Alliance. Granted my sample is rather limited, but those of you watching from the US should take note of whether the entry of COPE into national politics simply reshuffles the pool of non-ANC votes or whether COPE draws its support primarily from former ANC supporters.
That's all I'll say for now, lest I get myself into trouble ;-)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
North Canada?!? O tswa Canada? (You are from Canada?)
Making a Difference
It's only been two and a half weeks since I arrived here in Ga-Mathabatha, and already I've started working in partnership with my host community to create positive change. This afternoon, my host sisters and I began trying to alter the sleeping habits of the household's chickens, which like to roost in the overgrown grape vines adjacent to the house. This presents a major problem, as the grape vines are immediately adjacent to the windows of the room shared by my host sisters. And contrary to popular belief, roosters do not wait until sunrise to greet the day--more like every hour, on the hour, between 2am and 6am.
To rectify this troubling issue, my host sisters and I decided to gently encourage the chickens to roost elsewhere. As chickens tend not to respond well to subtlety, this gentle encouragement took the form of throwing stones of various sizes at the chickens roosting in the grape vines. After about twenty minutes, we had chased the chickens out of the grape vines and successfully repelled those brave enough to return. I hope this proves to be the first of many fruitful partnerships for me here in South Africa.
Fanang Diatla
When I'm not pelting chickens with rocks or sleeping, I spend most of my time here in Ga-Mathabatha at Fanang Diatla Selp-Help Project, which I neglected to introduce in my last post. A group of five women here in Ga-Mathabatha together founded Fanang Diatla in 1984 to address the near-complete absence of health services in their community. Fanang Diatla continued as a small group of women volunteering to provide basic health care to their community until the late 1990s. It's at that time, when HIV/AIDS was beginning to devastate communities across southern Africa, that Agnes Qwabe, Fanang Diatla co-founder and CEO, began to dramatically expand the scale and scope of her organization's role in Ga-Mathabatha.
Today, Fanang Diatla, working closely with the Ga-Mathabatha Clinic, sends out dozens of volunteer carers into the community to visit ill patients in their homes each day. Fanang Diatla's services have expanded to include many other services to address community health needs, care for AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), and combat poverty. In addition to its home-based care services, Fanang Diatla
Where do I fit in?
With all of these good things going on, one might wonder why Fanang Diatla requested a second Peace Corps Volunteer to whom the current Volunteer, Nathan, could pass the torch. There have been days in the past two weeks when I've asked myself that question many times, but Fanang Diatla does have areas where the organization could improve. At this point, it seems most likely that the work I'll be doing for Fanang Diatla will focus on improving the organization's use of technology, monitoring and evaluation capacity, and (despite Peace Corps' assertion that PCVs are not fundraisers) fundraising/income generation activities.
It's looking quite likely that I'll also be spending a fair amount of time working with some of the local schools, where there are some acute teacher shortages, especially in math, the sciences, and technology. Although several schools have expressed interest in my teaching classes, I'm a bit wary of becoming a near full-time teacher. One of the main reasons I wanted to join Peace Corps was to promote sustainable capacity-building. While it's tempting to see a dire need and want to step in to fill it, I need to recognize that I'm only here for two years and that I should focus my efforts towards projects that will endure beyond my departure.
Memorable Moments
During the past ten weeks here in South Africa, I've had some rather noteworthy interactions, and it would be a shame not to share some of my favorites which here.
North Canada?
So one of the most common interactions I have with native South Africans involves explaining where I'm from. While virtually all South Africans are familiar with the US, the perceptions are often limited to the television shows we export to South Africa, namely Beyonce, 50 Cent, and Chris Brown music videos, Wayans brothers shows, and, my personal favorite and most unexpected, World Wrestling Entertainment.
Thus, many people who learn that I'm from the US or 'America' ask me which part or which state. When I reply that I'm from North Carolina, the typical response that I get is a blank stare (alas, this is even the case since my beloved Tar Heels won their second men's NCAA basketball championship in five years). Usually people are satisfied when I tell them it's near the Atlantic Ocean, about a 4.5 hour drive south of where President Obama lives.
At least three times, however, my thick American accent has resulted in my being interpreted as having said that I'm from North Canada. Each time, I've then had to explain that not only am I not from Canada or North Canada, but that Canada is not part of the US. Neither is the UK.
I write this not to poke fun at South Africans but to illustrate that even in a country where people are inundated with American culture on a daily basis, knowledge about the geography, demographics, politics, cultural practices, etc. is often very limited, especially in rural areas. I still am baffled by how I often find myself conversing with someone who knows intimate details of the lives of many African-American celebrities but is shocked that there are black people in the US. My favorite statistic to use in these cases is that there are roughly as many black Americans as there are black South Africans. Many are as incredulous of this statistic as they are of my assertion that there are both poor people and rural areas in the US. Thus, I've got my work cut out for me to fulfill one of Peace Corps' three principal goals: "Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."
On that note, I think I'll sign off for the night. I think I hear the chickens returning to the grape vines.
It's only been two and a half weeks since I arrived here in Ga-Mathabatha, and already I've started working in partnership with my host community to create positive change. This afternoon, my host sisters and I began trying to alter the sleeping habits of the household's chickens, which like to roost in the overgrown grape vines adjacent to the house. This presents a major problem, as the grape vines are immediately adjacent to the windows of the room shared by my host sisters. And contrary to popular belief, roosters do not wait until sunrise to greet the day--more like every hour, on the hour, between 2am and 6am.
To rectify this troubling issue, my host sisters and I decided to gently encourage the chickens to roost elsewhere. As chickens tend not to respond well to subtlety, this gentle encouragement took the form of throwing stones of various sizes at the chickens roosting in the grape vines. After about twenty minutes, we had chased the chickens out of the grape vines and successfully repelled those brave enough to return. I hope this proves to be the first of many fruitful partnerships for me here in South Africa.
Fanang Diatla
When I'm not pelting chickens with rocks or sleeping, I spend most of my time here in Ga-Mathabatha at Fanang Diatla Selp-Help Project, which I neglected to introduce in my last post. A group of five women here in Ga-Mathabatha together founded Fanang Diatla in 1984 to address the near-complete absence of health services in their community. Fanang Diatla continued as a small group of women volunteering to provide basic health care to their community until the late 1990s. It's at that time, when HIV/AIDS was beginning to devastate communities across southern Africa, that Agnes Qwabe, Fanang Diatla co-founder and CEO, began to dramatically expand the scale and scope of her organization's role in Ga-Mathabatha.
Today, Fanang Diatla, working closely with the Ga-Mathabatha Clinic, sends out dozens of volunteer carers into the community to visit ill patients in their homes each day. Fanang Diatla's services have expanded to include many other services to address community health needs, care for AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), and combat poverty. In addition to its home-based care services, Fanang Diatla
- Runs a network of thirteen drop-in centers for OVCs, who otherwise might go hungry or have no place to go after school;
- Operates a multitude of income-generating projects, including a sophisticated bakery, a vegetable garden, fence-making, upholstery, and juice-making businesses, a small poultry project, and a village bank (which serve to both generate income for other Fanang Diatla services and to provide jobs to members of a community suffering from severe unemployment, including members of the community with disabilities);
- Hosts a chapter of the national youth HIV/AIDS education and empowerment group called Love Life;
- Links very poor children (usually orphans) with international sponsors through a program called Children of the Dawn (let me know if you would be interested in sponsoring or co-sponsoring a child at 160 Rand per month, a little less than $18 at current exchange rates); and
- Sponsors a soccer team of local male youth (the term youth is broadly inclusive here in South Africa, sometimes even including adults in their early 30s).
Where do I fit in?
With all of these good things going on, one might wonder why Fanang Diatla requested a second Peace Corps Volunteer to whom the current Volunteer, Nathan, could pass the torch. There have been days in the past two weeks when I've asked myself that question many times, but Fanang Diatla does have areas where the organization could improve. At this point, it seems most likely that the work I'll be doing for Fanang Diatla will focus on improving the organization's use of technology, monitoring and evaluation capacity, and (despite Peace Corps' assertion that PCVs are not fundraisers) fundraising/income generation activities.
It's looking quite likely that I'll also be spending a fair amount of time working with some of the local schools, where there are some acute teacher shortages, especially in math, the sciences, and technology. Although several schools have expressed interest in my teaching classes, I'm a bit wary of becoming a near full-time teacher. One of the main reasons I wanted to join Peace Corps was to promote sustainable capacity-building. While it's tempting to see a dire need and want to step in to fill it, I need to recognize that I'm only here for two years and that I should focus my efforts towards projects that will endure beyond my departure.
Memorable Moments
During the past ten weeks here in South Africa, I've had some rather noteworthy interactions, and it would be a shame not to share some of my favorites which here.
North Canada?
So one of the most common interactions I have with native South Africans involves explaining where I'm from. While virtually all South Africans are familiar with the US, the perceptions are often limited to the television shows we export to South Africa, namely Beyonce, 50 Cent, and Chris Brown music videos, Wayans brothers shows, and, my personal favorite and most unexpected, World Wrestling Entertainment.
Thus, many people who learn that I'm from the US or 'America' ask me which part or which state. When I reply that I'm from North Carolina, the typical response that I get is a blank stare (alas, this is even the case since my beloved Tar Heels won their second men's NCAA basketball championship in five years). Usually people are satisfied when I tell them it's near the Atlantic Ocean, about a 4.5 hour drive south of where President Obama lives.
At least three times, however, my thick American accent has resulted in my being interpreted as having said that I'm from North Canada. Each time, I've then had to explain that not only am I not from Canada or North Canada, but that Canada is not part of the US. Neither is the UK.
I write this not to poke fun at South Africans but to illustrate that even in a country where people are inundated with American culture on a daily basis, knowledge about the geography, demographics, politics, cultural practices, etc. is often very limited, especially in rural areas. I still am baffled by how I often find myself conversing with someone who knows intimate details of the lives of many African-American celebrities but is shocked that there are black people in the US. My favorite statistic to use in these cases is that there are roughly as many black Americans as there are black South Africans. Many are as incredulous of this statistic as they are of my assertion that there are both poor people and rural areas in the US. Thus, I've got my work cut out for me to fulfill one of Peace Corps' three principal goals: "Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."
On that note, I think I'll sign off for the night. I think I hear the chickens returning to the grape vines.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Re a lotšha, bagwera baka!
(Translation, from Sepedi: We greet [you], friends of mine)
Alas, I do not have the energy for an extended post after an exhausting first four days at site, but I wanted to let everyone know that I survived training and have made it safely back to Ga-Mathabatha to begin my two-year stint as a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. My posts through the next few weeks are likely to be rather haphazard chronologically as I attempt to catch you all up on my Pre-Service Training (PST) 'adventures' while simultaneously posting on my current experiences here at site. Please just bear with me for now.
Last Thursday was our swearing-in ceremony, where we took the same oath our new president uttered a mere 2.5 months ago (unlike our Chief Justice, however, our Country Director did not opt to exercise creative license). I was fortunate to have been selected as one of two Volunteers to deliver a speech in our target language, which in my case is Sepedi (my colleague, Sharon, gave an impressive speech in Zulu). After substantial editing the night before by our Language and Cross-Cultural Coordinator, Mogobe, I was able to read my speech well enough to elicit laughter from the non-American portion of the audience.
After the ceremony and a delicious lunch, we rushed to our makeshift pick-up point to load our luggage and recent 'settling-in' purchases into bakkies (pickup trucks), khombies, and trailers. Following a few tearful goodbyes, I set off in a bakkie with a fellow Volunteer and a driver from her organisation. Despite waiting nearly an hour for a vehicle swap at the nicest KFC I've ever seen, I made it to my new home well before dark.
As much as I have to say about the last four days here at site, let me close for the night by introducing y'all to my host family, of whom you're likely to read quite a lot during the next two years. The head of my host family is Paulina, a 53-year-old widow who is incredibly sweet but happens to speak even less English than I speak Sepedi. She also is one of the five founding members of my host organisation, Fanang Diatla Self-Help Project, where she still works today. Paulina has seven children, four of whom currently live with her.
The eldest of the children still living at home is Vynand, my 28-year-old host brother. Vynand works as a machinist in one of the areas largest platinum mines, but many of the mines have suspended operations due to the decline in global demand for platinum. The next eldest of Paulina's children is Leah. She is 24 years old and works in many different administrative capacities at Fanang Diatla. Leah has a two-year-old daughter named Jessica, who is a strong contender for the title of World's Most Adorable Child. Next eldest is Kedibone, who is 22 and currently stays home to take care of Jessica and help run the household, a task which is much more demanding than in the States. The youngest of Paulina's daughters is Tumelo, who is currently on a three-week break from school between terms.
That's all for now, but expect more soon.
Alas, I do not have the energy for an extended post after an exhausting first four days at site, but I wanted to let everyone know that I survived training and have made it safely back to Ga-Mathabatha to begin my two-year stint as a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. My posts through the next few weeks are likely to be rather haphazard chronologically as I attempt to catch you all up on my Pre-Service Training (PST) 'adventures' while simultaneously posting on my current experiences here at site. Please just bear with me for now.
Last Thursday was our swearing-in ceremony, where we took the same oath our new president uttered a mere 2.5 months ago (unlike our Chief Justice, however, our Country Director did not opt to exercise creative license). I was fortunate to have been selected as one of two Volunteers to deliver a speech in our target language, which in my case is Sepedi (my colleague, Sharon, gave an impressive speech in Zulu). After substantial editing the night before by our Language and Cross-Cultural Coordinator, Mogobe, I was able to read my speech well enough to elicit laughter from the non-American portion of the audience.
After the ceremony and a delicious lunch, we rushed to our makeshift pick-up point to load our luggage and recent 'settling-in' purchases into bakkies (pickup trucks), khombies, and trailers. Following a few tearful goodbyes, I set off in a bakkie with a fellow Volunteer and a driver from her organisation. Despite waiting nearly an hour for a vehicle swap at the nicest KFC I've ever seen, I made it to my new home well before dark.
As much as I have to say about the last four days here at site, let me close for the night by introducing y'all to my host family, of whom you're likely to read quite a lot during the next two years. The head of my host family is Paulina, a 53-year-old widow who is incredibly sweet but happens to speak even less English than I speak Sepedi. She also is one of the five founding members of my host organisation, Fanang Diatla Self-Help Project, where she still works today. Paulina has seven children, four of whom currently live with her.
The eldest of the children still living at home is Vynand, my 28-year-old host brother. Vynand works as a machinist in one of the areas largest platinum mines, but many of the mines have suspended operations due to the decline in global demand for platinum. The next eldest of Paulina's children is Leah. She is 24 years old and works in many different administrative capacities at Fanang Diatla. Leah has a two-year-old daughter named Jessica, who is a strong contender for the title of World's Most Adorable Child. Next eldest is Kedibone, who is 22 and currently stays home to take care of Jessica and help run the household, a task which is much more demanding than in the States. The youngest of Paulina's daughters is Tumelo, who is currently on a three-week break from school between terms.
That's all for now, but expect more soon.
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