I'm an idiot and life is wonderful

6 Sept 2007

I can't believe I'm finally at site and that I'm so bloody happy to be here! It just goes to show you that you don't always know what's good for you and letting go of expectations is good. Mpumalanga is beautiful, my organization is doing interesting work, and I've got comfortable digs. Yay!

My office is in Bushbuckridge, which, I've been told, does not have any bushbucks. My supervisor, Rita, is an Afrikaans social worker with 30 years experience working with the African population. This means she was working with black communities at the height of apartheid. She's given me some of the history as she has experienced it, but I have a feeling that there's more stories to come. She's doing community development work and is encouraging me to have at it with my own projects. When we talk, ideas just fly back and forth, and I think she'll be a phenomenal mentor.

My other co-worker is a Xhosa social worker, Lulu, just out of school. We're having a fabulous time hanging out, and we're both fairly new here, so we'll be learning a lot together, although she'll be doing the child welfare kind of work. It really looks like I'll be able to do the types of projects I've been dreaming of, and being surrounded by social workers is an added bonus. It's like meeting anyone with a shared and similar passion; you can skip the getting to know you chit-chat and dive into the meaningful stuff. So I have a great living situation, great work, and smart interesting co-workers...

A bit more about Bbr (as I'm abbreviating Bushbuckridge). It's on top of a small mountain from Shatale, where I'll be living. I'm staying at the office, and I've had three hot showers in three days. Let me tell you, this is now the height of luxury! And although there are no bushbucks in Bbr, guess what we do have... Monkeys! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, a whole herd of 'em, dancing and playing for my amusement. They come right up to my window to check me out checking them out, and they look around my room like they're casing the joint. I have heard that they like to play with cell phones, so they probably were looking to see where I stash my goodies.

As I was inside my room, taking pictures so that I could prove to everyone that, yes indeed, cute curious monkeys are right outside my window, I suddenly felt like I was in a zoo. I have burglar bars on my window, so it does kind of look like a cage. Maybe I'll put an informative sign outside my window. "Homo sapiens in her natural environment."

One other thing about my area: there are about five different languages spoken in the area. Sepedi, the language I've been learning, is quite minor. Although I'll try to learn a little of all of them, and English is spoken with regular ease, don't be surprised if I come back speaking like a first-grader. It seems like every word I learn pushes something else out!



10 Sept 2007

I'm typing this up at a backpacker's hostel. I'm on my way back to training for a week and a half, and then back to site. That will mean more regular communication/internet. Yay! Pretoria's great, and I finally saw the Simpson's movie! God bless South Africa! We'll, my time's up, and there's a line for the computer. So love to everyone! More soon.